Warlock

Equipment

Warlocks can use almost all of the same equipment as wizards, minus some staff-type weapons. Warlocks have access to dagger-type weapons like a Cleric, excepting class-specific weapons such as the Malevolent Crucifix.

Skill Trees

Skill trees are the basis of leveling and customizing your character in NEStalgia. The skill tree menu unlocks at level 5 and at that point the player will be able to customize their character with the five points available. There are three ways to gain additional points:

• Gain an experience level, which grants one point.
• Progress through the plot of the game, which grants one point after completing the main quest connected to Verity's lighthouse and an additional point after completing the main quest connected to the Arctic's ice palace.
• Spend 100,000 gold on a Greater Moon Blessing, which grants four points all at once.

As of v1.62 this allows for a maximum of 38 points to spend.

Agony Tree
Branch	Level	Description	Image
Ruination	5	+1 to the round duration of a curse per point, up to a maximum of +4. This branch includes the spell Curse.
Bad Luck	8	+7% to all randomized spell success rates on cursed foes per point, up to a maximum of +28%. This branch includes the spell Scare.
Torment	12	+4% to damage to foes afflicted by curse per point, up to a maximum of +16%. This branch includes the spell Shadows.
Flame Pledge	15	3% chance for FireTap to proc Weaken on the target per point, up to a maximum of 9%. This branch includes the spell FireTap.
Cold Pledge	15	3% chance for IceTap to proc Slow on the target per point, up to a maximum of 9%. This branch includes the spell IceTap.
Storm Pledge	15	3% chance for StormTap to proc Confuse on the target per point, up to a maximum of 9%. This branch includes the spell StormTap.
Dark Gift	5	+1% to both agility and intelligence per point, up to a maximum of +5%. This branch includes the spell Nightmare.
Parasite	12	+4% to multi-target leech damage and chance to cause curse per point, up to a maximum of +20%. This branch includes the spell Toxify.
Painful Rebound	25	+15 to the maximum amount of damage that Reflect can inflict per point, up to a maximum of +45.

Agony Tree Overview

• Ruination: This branch is the first step towards building a damage-based warlock, providing access to Curse as well as ways to make it last long enough to be a serious thorn in the side of enemy healers.
  • Bad Luck: The next step in the process, which greatly increases the success rate of status ailments such as sleep (Sleep), stun (Scare), poison (Toxify) and blindness (Shadows). This can help a warlock influence how a battle unfolds as, for example, giving Sleep a success rate in the high 70s can do wonders in letting an overtaxed party catch a breather.
    • Torment: The last step in the process, allowing all warlocks with points invested in the branch to deal additional damage to a cursed target. With the help of Bad Luck, Shadows has a much greater chance of making incoming accuracy-based attacks falter, which is also a good thing.
• Flame Pledge: The first of three branches that grants access to an elemental version of Tap, allowing a warlock to take advantage of an elemental weakness or to deal (and heal) more damage than normal when properly geared and seeded. Spent points beyond the first allow FireTap to occasionally weaken a target's physical power, which while not essential does nonetheless have its uses.
• Cold Pledge: The second of the three branches, adding IceTap and optionally the ability to slow down a target.
• Storm Pledge: The third of the three branches, adding StormTap and optionally the ability to confuse a target.
• Dark Gift: Warlocks already gain quite a bit of intelligence from levelling, but additional intelligence never hurts. The extra agility is a minor boost, but access to Nightmare might be what makes this branch shine. After all, when combined with Bad Luck it can prove easy to leave a target in position to have a horrible dream.
• Parasite: This branch is primarily for making Leech worth the HP spent casting it, although granting access to Toxify is nothing to gloss over.
  • Painful Rebound: Any warlock that suspects they'll be on the receiving end of a big beating on a consistent basis may want to invest in this branch. To say the least, increasing the cap on Reflect's damage by 45 points can be quite the momentum changer.

Occultist Tree
Branch	Level	Description	Image
Shifty	3	+3% to the amount of HP healed by shift spells per point, up to a maximum of +21%.
Refund:	18	2% chance for shift spells to refund their HP cost in battle per point, up to a maximum of 8%. This branch includes the spell Shiftwave.
Martyr	25	+15% to the amount of HP restored by Sacrifice per point, up to a maximum of +45%. This branch includes the spell Sacrifice.
Curse Breaker	?	-25% to Curse's penalty when healing an cursed ally per point, up to a maximum of -75%. This branch includes the spell Shiftmore.
Tolerance	5	+1% to defense, fire resist, ice resist and storm resist per point, up to a maximum of +5%. This branch includes the spell Vivify.
Spry	8	+1% to bonus dodge.
Energy Burn	5	+6% to total MP, Will and Credit stolen by Absorb per point, up to a maximum of +18%. This branch includes the spell Absorb.

Occultist Tree Overview

• Shifty: Shifty is a very important branch for any warlock aiming to act as a healer, as it increases the amount restored without increasing the cost to the warlock themselves.
  • Curse Breaker: The appeal of this branch comes down to two factors. One, it allows any source of healing used by a warlock to largely negate the healing penalty on a cursed target. Two, it adds the Shiftmore ability which follows the same healing ratio as other Shift abilities while healing a greater amount per use.
  • Refund: For many warlock builds, one point in this branch is enough, as that one point adds a way to heal more than one target. For dedicated healing builds, further investment allows for an occasional 'free' heal, which is always good when the cost is a chunk of the warlock's life force.
    • Martyr: Sacrifice is a tricky skill; it can just as easily delay the inevitable party wipe as it can turn the tables on the enemy forces. Improving the restoration provided by Sacrifice can help make the latter case more common than the former.
• Tolerance: This branch is a good way to add some durability, adding defense against any form of attack aside from non-elemental magic damage. Access to Vivify is a good thing too, as the ability to dispel sleep and confusion from all allies makes for a good fit in any warlock build.
  • Spry: If you've already invested in all of Tolerance and have a point to spare, +1% dodge rate isn't a bad thing to spend it on.
  • Energy Burn: Absorb can be a very powerful tool, instantly preventing most non-PC/companion enemy casters from being able to cast another spell for the entire fight. That Absorb restores HP on top of disabling a spellcaster adds a benefit to the warlock themselves.

Foundation Tree
Branch	Level	Description	Image
Stamina	5	+2% to max HP per point, up to a maximum of +10%.
Darkness	5	-5% HP cost of all abilities except shift spells per point, up to a maximum of -25%.
Luck	5	+3% chance to resist all attacks that have a randomized success rate per point, up to a maximum of +15%.
Fire/Ice/Storm Enchant	12	(Can only choose one branch to go into) +4% Fire/Ice/Strom damage added to physical attacks and 4% converted to Fire/Ice/Storm per point, up to a maximum of +20% to each.

Abilities

Abilities are skills that the player can use both inside and outside of battle. These abilities will either be bought on the skill tree using skill points or will be learned automatically once the player hits a certain level.

Note: Listed HP costs are the default. Points in the Darkness branch of the Foundation tree will reduce the HP cost of all spells other than Shift spells. Points in Shifty and +HEAL increase the healing of Shift, Shiftmore and Shiftwave.