I want to play a mono-class warlock so bad but i have seen all pact of the tome oriented builds in every game I've played fall flat on their face at or around level 6-7. The game we are about to start is an "isekai" style campaign and I've always wanted to play a tome-lock. The power drop that ive seen has be on the fence between a tome-lock and a draconic or spellfire sorcerer just because they've always seemed more powerful and usable. My character will be a "striker" first and a controller/utility caster second. Can anyone give me idea's and/or pointers to make a mono-class pact of the tome oriented warlock and have them keep up and be useful in the party in mid and late game in comparison to a draconic or spellfire sorcerer?
If you get some short rests during the adventuring day, you're at least as powerful as any "normal" caster. It's when you get a couple of encounters a day with no chance to recharge that you fall behind. (And 2024 warlocks have a built-in recharge ability that'll help some.) Most fights only last a few rounds, so your lack of spell slots only really stings when 2-3 fights in.
EB with some rider abilities can help a lot. I'm personally a fan of the knockback one, as it improves any area-control abilities you use.
Hex is a trap. You eat one of your precious spell slots, plus your concentration, for a little extra damage. You're better off with spells with more meaningful effects, like Hunger of Hadar and Banishment.
Invocations are really valuable, especially the ongoing or unlimited-spell ones. They can help define your character at leas as much as the spells you use.
I want to play a mono-class warlock so bad but i have seen all pact of the tome oriented builds in every game I've played fall flat on their face at or around level 6-7. The game we are about to start is an "isekai" style campaign and I've always wanted to play a tome-lock. The power drop that ive seen has be on the fence between a tome-lock and a draconic or spellfire sorcerer just because they've always seemed more powerful and usable. My character will be a "striker" first and a controller/utility caster second. Can anyone give me idea's and/or pointers to make a mono-class pact of the tome oriented warlock and have them keep up and be useful in the party in mid and late game in comparison to a draconic or spellfire sorcerer?
Where these 2014 or 2024 warlocks? No idea what a spellfire sorcerer is because I am only familiar with the 2024 PHB version. Because of the 2024 bias, I have not seen any power drop in warlock. However, the 2 spell slots up through level 10 is a big limiter. However, the invocations can sort of make up for it. Also, the fact that the spells all level up keeps the "2" you use pretty potent.
Eldritch Blast is better then sorcerer burst as you get more attacks with it. At 6 level you can use it twice. You can get some nice things via the familiar as well.
The 2024 warlock power drop might have more to do with the player vice the actual class.
I do not think the class will work great for your stated goals. Even in 2014 they were a pretty low/mid striker at a table with any optimization in 2024 they are bottom rung strikers. And full casters will blow them away in control. An evoker is not far behind them as cantrip strikers and are orders of magnitude more effective at control. That being said if you build to their strengths they can at least add enough to the group to be solid contributors.
For example go GOO with pact of the chain and focus on remote casting and scouting. You can even add in pact of the tome to broaden the spells you can cast remotely, if you have access to 2014 tome invocations that is a lot of rituals you can cast remotely. Sure fairly short range remotely, but remotely. Why I suggest goo is while you stick to illusion/enchant spells you can more easily remain hidden.
Archfey or fiend with pact of the blade can be a decent skirmishers. Archfey through mobility and misty steps, fiend with armor of agathys and temp hit point recycling.
Celestial can cover all the bases of a caster, some striking, some crowd control, healing, utility.
I play a (currently level 10 - 2024 edition) Warlock with Tome pact and have no "flat on my face" issues at all. Sounds like you are using the 2014 version?
In party is a rogue/fighter, pure fighter, and cleric. I have some serious control over the battlefield in most battles and also significant damage as well.
To be an effective Tome Warlock, the best strategy for you damage-wise is to drop an area of effect spell like Hunger of Hadar or Sickening Radiance, then use Eldritch Blast with the Repelling Blast invocation to keep knocking enemies back into the area of effect. It's pretty effective.
Sequilonis has it right. Literally just had a rant about this in another thread in this forum, but warlocks are built around taking advantage of continuous effects. So you can Hex somebody and then Eldritch Blast the hell out of them for a bunch of damage, or you can put down a Hunger of Hadar and take advantage of Devil's Sight to keep poking enemies back into the sphere, or you can call up summons to keep enemies at arm's-length while you hammer away at them. Comparing a warlock to a sorcerer is like comparing an apple to a can of shaving cream. They serve completely different functions.
Build your character around concentration-based effects rather than instantaneous spells. Feel free to pick up something with some pow on it in a pinch, but recognize that every other game you've played, warlocks are damage-over-time classes, and treating them like they're suddenly supposed to do big, instantaneous damage will cost you in the long run.
Build your character around concentration-based effects rather than instantaneous spells. Feel free to pick up something with some pow on it in a pinch, but recognize that every other game you've played, warlocks are damage-over-time classes, and treating them like they're suddenly supposed to do big, instantaneous damage will cost you in the long run.
But isn't doing Concentration a huge risk as it is easy to lose concentration, isn't it? Also, if you are concentrating what else can you do?
As I don't know what you are talking about, What spells fit: "something with some pow on it in a pinch"
Build your character around concentration-based effects rather than instantaneous spells. Feel free to pick up something with some pow on it in a pinch, but recognize that every other game you've played, warlocks are damage-over-time classes, and treating them like they're suddenly supposed to do big, instantaneous damage will cost you in the long run.
But isn't doing Concentration a huge risk as it is easy to lose concentration, isn't it? Also, if you are concentrating what else can you do?
In practice, unless you're mixing it up in melee, concentration spells aren't that hard to keep up.
And, if you're concentrating, the only thing you can't do is cast another concentration spell. (Well, you can, it just ends the first one.) This also includes casting a spell with a casting time of longer than one action, and using the Ready action to hold a spell.
So you can Hex somebody and then Eldritch Blast the hell out of them for a bunch of damage, or you can put down a Hunger of Hadar and take advantage of Devil's Sight to keep poking enemies back into the sphere, or you can call up summons to keep enemies at arm's-length while you hammer away at them.
If you're a bladelock, you do all of those things, but with sword. This is pretty simple stuff.
As I don't know what you are talking about, What spells fit: "something with some pow on it in a pinch"
If, in a pinch, you need to do a big, dramatic thing, pick up one of the spells that does that. Fiendlocks get Fireball, celestials get Wall of Fire, GOOlocks get Confusion. And all warlocks can grab Synaptic Static, which is a million times better than Fireball, as well as a number of single-target spells. But the warlock isn't built for blasting, and I honestly consider picking up those spells to be wasting the slots.
So you can Hex somebody and then Eldritch Blast the hell out of them for a bunch of damage, or you can put down a Hunger of Hadar and take advantage of Devil's Sight to keep poking enemies back into the sphere, or you can call up summons to keep enemies at arm's-length while you hammer away at them.
If you're a bladelock, you do all of those things, but with sword. This is pretty simple stuff.
As I don't know what you are talking about, What spells fit: "something with some pow on it in a pinch"
If, in a pinch, you need to do a big, dramatic thing, pick up one of the spells that does that. Fiendlocks get Fireball, celestials get Wall of Fire, GOOlocks get Confusion. And all warlocks can grab Synaptic Static, which is a million times better than Fireball, as well as a number of single-target spells. But the warlock isn't built for blasting, and I honestly consider picking up those spells to be wasting the slots.
I am still confused, as it seems like you can't pick all of them (like all of the multiple invocations you mentioned.) If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back in? How do I poke them back in? Use another invocation that can push them? That is 3 invocations to do one thing. You get the hunger spell at 5th level.
If I have a concentration spell, I can use a eldritch blast, but then that is all I am doing? Just blast and concentrate?
As for your "something with some pow on it in a pinch", those are 4th/5th level spells, that does not help if you are below 9th.
I am still confused, as it seems like you can't pick all of them (like all of the multiple invocations you mentioned.)
This is true. They were just tossing out examples of things you can do as a warlock. If you were building one, you'd have to pick and choose, decide what you want to focus on, and make your choices to do that. Just like any other character, really, it's just this is (one of) the paradigms that works well for playing warlocks, and it's a different mindset from the other full casters.
Okay. Assume you're fifth level, and you're playing a blastlock. You have five invocations to choose from. Obviously, you pick up Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast - they're too good to pass up. Then you grab Devil's Sight and Eldritch Mind. Okay, cool. Now you have one free invocation, and you do whatever you want with it. Now, you castHunger of Hadar, which not only damages your enemies, but traps them in a sphere of Difficult Terrain which they cannot see out of. Now, they're in one of three places in the sphere when the spell is cast:
On the edge of the sphere farthest from you.
On the edge of the sphere closest to you.
Near the center of the sphere.
Now first off, since it's magical darkness, they have no idea where they are in the sphere. Even a warlock with devil's sight doesn't know where they are in the sphere, because they are not just in magical darkness, they are blinded while they are in the sphere. So they have to walk in some direction. Assume they're going after you, so they just walk to where they last remember you are. #1 spends their entire turn, including a Dash action, and manages to walk 30 feet, moving them from the far edge of the sphere to about ten feet from the near edge of the sphere, wasting their whole turn and remaining trapped in a globe of blinding, maddeningly-cold darkness. #3 spends their entire turn, including a Dash action, and they manage to escape the sphere, with 20ft of movement remaining to get clear. #2 escapes the sphere with 10ft of movement and, assuming you want to stay within Eldritch Blast radius of the entire sphere, manages to spend their dash moving 50ft closer to you. They remain 30ft away from you, but at least you can't knock them back into the sphere.
So, in the case of #1, you use your devil's sight and hit them with two Eldritch Blasts. You have advantage, so you're pretty capable of hitting them twice. You knock them twenty feet straight back, putting them 30 feet from the barrier of the spell. They spend their whole next turn walking towards you - they have no reason to know what this spell is or what the radius of the sphere is, so there's no reason for them to do anything but continue to go after you - at which point, you blast them again. By the end of their third turn, they've escaped the sphere, and are 20ft from it, so you blast them two more times, hopefully knocking them back inside. By the end of three rounds of combat, wherein you are the only person who has taken any offensive action, you have dealt 12d6 damage with Hunger of Hadar, plus the six Eldritch Blasts, and your opponent still needs another full turn to enter melee range. #3 follows the same strategy as #1, with considerably less effect, and with #2... well, it largely sucks, but you wouldn't cast Hunger of Hadar on a single target and make it that easy to escape, so I'm assuming you've cast it on a group of people, and one or two are gonna slip through the cracks.
If you have a concentration spell, is all you're doing just blasting and concentrating? I mean... yes? It feels like you're describing how every spellcasting class works, though? Like, a Ranger casts Hunter's Mark and shoots their bow. A wizard casts, I dunno... Wall of Fire and [Tooltip Not Found]. A Cleric casts Spirit Guardians and then just hits things with a club. Again, if you're looking for a big blasting spell to cast while concentrating, there are a number of options available to you, depending on your subclass. Yes, one of them requires you be ninth level, but a fiendlock gets Fireball. You can cast Hunger of Hadar, trap all your enemies in a sphere of difficult terrain, then hit them with a Fireball next turn if you want to.
All this, of course, assumes you're some kind of weird solo warlock. If you're in a party (which you should be), there are a billion ways to take advantage of the battlefield control afforded by Hunger of Hadar alone, much less the many other concentration-based spells the warlock has.
I am still confused, as it seems like you can't pick all of them (like all of the multiple invocations you mentioned.)
This is true. They were just tossing out examples of things you can do as a warlock. If you were building one, you'd have to pick and choose, decide what you want to focus on, and make your choices to do that. Just like any other character, really, it's just this is (one of) the paradigms that works well for playing warlocks, and it's a different mindset from the other full casters.
I thought RWinnie was giving a single example to build a higher level warlock above starter. Not combine multiple potential builds as a single example. It sounded like a good idea until I tried to follow the "directions"
I still don't understand If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell? How do I poke them back in, as he says no blaster spells?
If I have a concentration spell, I can use a eldritch blast, but then that is all I am doing? What else can you do if concentrating? Concentration seems like a recipe for disaster, as I can't get hit, but I have to be close enough to stay in range and there is a lot of things that break my concertation isn't there because I assume if I have to roll, I lose it
I thought RWinnie was giving a single example to build a higher level warlock above starter. Not combine multiple potential builds as a single example. It sounded like a good idea until I tried to follow the "directions"
If you want somebody to hand you a "build", there's plenty of people out there on the internet. I don't recommend it; it's far more fun to look at your available abilities and ask yourself "what do I want my character to do?" (And yes, you may choose something that doesn't work great, but 5e, especially 5e24, give you a lot of ability to change your choices up on the fly as you figure things out.)
(Also, a character that lacks synergy can still be fun, and also be effective enough to contribute.)
I still don't understand If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell? How do I poke them back in, as he says no blaster spells?
Take a look at the set of warlock abilities. What is there that would let you "poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell"?
If I have a concentration spell, I can use a eldritch blast, but then that is all I am doing? What else can you do if concentrating? Concentration seems like a recipe for disaster, as I can't get hit, but I have to be close enough to stay in range and there is a lot of things that break my concertation isn't there because I assume if I have to roll, I lose it
And, if you're concentrating, the only thing you can't do is cast another concentration spell. (Well, you can, it just ends the first one.) This also includes casting a spell with a casting time of longer than one action, and using the Ready action to hold a spell.
If you look at the actual concentration rules, you will discover that you don't need to stay in range. You don't lose it when you make a roll. You lose it when you concentrate on something else, you blow the save when you take damage, or you die. That's it.
I thought RWinnie was giving a single example to build a higher level warlock above starter. Not combine multiple potential builds as a single example. It sounded like a good idea until I tried to follow the "directions"
If you want somebody to hand you a "build", there's plenty of people out there on the internet. I don't recommend it; it's far more fun to look at your available abilities and ask yourself "what do I want my character to do?" (And yes, you may choose something that doesn't work great, but 5e, especially 5e24, give you a lot of ability to change your choices up on the fly as you figure things out.)
(Also, a character that lacks synergy can still be fun, and also be effective enough to contribute.)
I still don't understand If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell? How do I poke them back in, as he says no blaster spells?
Take a look at the set of warlock abilities. What is there that would let you "poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell"?
There is a difference between wanting someone to build something, and understanding what and how they built it. I am trying to figure out how he built the character he is describing and his description can not be replicated from my ignorant POV. If I can replicate it, then I can understand how to change it.
As for poking, you have repelling blast that only goes for 10 feet not 20 as he states and if the angle is off you will not push them back in. So that is not a solution, I can't figure out how else to do that?
yes you are right about repelling blast here. If the target gets far enough out they need to hit with multiple eldritch blasts to poke them back in, they needed to come out basically right at you so you can shove them back in, if they went left you'd need to circle around to get the right angle to shove them back in.
every table/dm will run encounters differently. But in my experience hunger of hadar is a big miss a 20 foot radius with difficult terrain means most if not all targets leave with their normal movement, those near the center may want to move and dash to get far enough away, and now you are holding onto a low damaging blob of darkness that isn't hurting anyone. it works on paper, but not in practice in my experience. Sometimes the stars will align when the size of the room, enemy composition etc make it sing, but normally it ends up doing less than a fireball. There are great concentration spells though, and they don't need you to shove people into the area, like fear for example. All casters generally want a concertation spell up and then to hit them with non concentration attacks, cantrips, fireballs, weapon attacks whatever fits the build.
If there are enough encounters/short rests in the day warlocks can look solid. if not, they can look pretty bad.
yes you are right about repelling blast here. If the target gets far enough out they need to hit with multiple eldritch blasts to poke them back in, they needed to come out basically right at you so you can shove them back in, if they went left you'd need to circle around to get the right angle to shove them back in.
How far you need to move depends in part on how your DM treats grid movement, but it's lot likely that far.
every table/dm will run encounters differently. But in my experience hunger of hadar is a big miss a 20 foot radius with difficult terrain means most if not all targets leave with their normal movement, those near the center may want to move and dash to get far enough away, and now you are holding onto a low damaging blob of darkness that isn't hurting anyone. it works on paper, but not in practice in my experience. Sometimes the stars will align when the size of the room, enemy composition etc make it sing, but normally it ends up doing less than a fireball.
If it hasn't worked for you, I'm not going to say you're wrong, but it's definitely paid off for me. And yes, repelling blast is a good part of it, but it's far from the only way, especially in 5e24, for the party to push enemies in. My elements monk would definitely make good use of it if we had a warlock. (I might even go for more grappling than I do, just to drag more enemies to the damage zone and kick them in.)
But area control spells, even if they don't do as much damage as the boom spells, unless you're usually fighting in wide-open spaces, give you significant power over the battlefield. You can cut off lines of approach, forcing the enemy to engage the front line. You can make the artillery relocate to a more vulnerable position. (With HoH in particular, you may be able to cut off their line of sight.) Etc.
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I want to play a mono-class warlock so bad but i have seen all pact of the tome oriented builds in every game I've played fall flat on their face at or around level 6-7. The game we are about to start is an "isekai" style campaign and I've always wanted to play a tome-lock. The power drop that ive seen has be on the fence between a tome-lock and a draconic or spellfire sorcerer just because they've always seemed more powerful and usable. My character will be a "striker" first and a controller/utility caster second. Can anyone give me idea's and/or pointers to make a mono-class pact of the tome oriented warlock and have them keep up and be useful in the party in mid and late game in comparison to a draconic or spellfire sorcerer?
If you get some short rests during the adventuring day, you're at least as powerful as any "normal" caster. It's when you get a couple of encounters a day with no chance to recharge that you fall behind. (And 2024 warlocks have a built-in recharge ability that'll help some.) Most fights only last a few rounds, so your lack of spell slots only really stings when 2-3 fights in.
EB with some rider abilities can help a lot. I'm personally a fan of the knockback one, as it improves any area-control abilities you use.
Hex is a trap. You eat one of your precious spell slots, plus your concentration, for a little extra damage. You're better off with spells with more meaningful effects, like Hunger of Hadar and Banishment.
Invocations are really valuable, especially the ongoing or unlimited-spell ones. They can help define your character at leas as much as the spells you use.
Where these 2014 or 2024 warlocks? No idea what a spellfire sorcerer is because I am only familiar with the 2024 PHB version. Because of the 2024 bias, I have not seen any power drop in warlock. However, the 2 spell slots up through level 10 is a big limiter. However, the invocations can sort of make up for it. Also, the fact that the spells all level up keeps the "2" you use pretty potent.
Eldritch Blast is better then sorcerer burst as you get more attacks with it. At 6 level you can use it twice. You can get some nice things via the familiar as well.
The 2024 warlock power drop might have more to do with the player vice the actual class.
I do not think the class will work great for your stated goals. Even in 2014 they were a pretty low/mid striker at a table with any optimization in 2024 they are bottom rung strikers. And full casters will blow them away in control. An evoker is not far behind them as cantrip strikers and are orders of magnitude more effective at control. That being said if you build to their strengths they can at least add enough to the group to be solid contributors.
For example go GOO with pact of the chain and focus on remote casting and scouting. You can even add in pact of the tome to broaden the spells you can cast remotely, if you have access to 2014 tome invocations that is a lot of rituals you can cast remotely. Sure fairly short range remotely, but remotely. Why I suggest goo is while you stick to illusion/enchant spells you can more easily remain hidden.
Archfey or fiend with pact of the blade can be a decent skirmishers. Archfey through mobility and misty steps, fiend with armor of agathys and temp hit point recycling.
Celestial can cover all the bases of a caster, some striking, some crowd control, healing, utility.
I’m warlock too and I got blue dragon magic too
Merlin the wise
I play a (currently level 10 - 2024 edition) Warlock with Tome pact and have no "flat on my face" issues at all. Sounds like you are using the 2014 version?
In party is a rogue/fighter, pure fighter, and cleric. I have some serious control over the battlefield in most battles and also significant damage as well.
To be an effective Tome Warlock, the best strategy for you damage-wise is to drop an area of effect spell like Hunger of Hadar or Sickening Radiance, then use Eldritch Blast with the Repelling Blast invocation to keep knocking enemies back into the area of effect. It's pretty effective.
Sequilonis has it right. Literally just had a rant about this in another thread in this forum, but warlocks are built around taking advantage of continuous effects. So you can Hex somebody and then Eldritch Blast the hell out of them for a bunch of damage, or you can put down a Hunger of Hadar and take advantage of Devil's Sight to keep poking enemies back into the sphere, or you can call up summons to keep enemies at arm's-length while you hammer away at them. Comparing a warlock to a sorcerer is like comparing an apple to a can of shaving cream. They serve completely different functions.
Build your character around concentration-based effects rather than instantaneous spells. Feel free to pick up something with some pow on it in a pinch, but recognize that every other game you've played, warlocks are damage-over-time classes, and treating them like they're suddenly supposed to do big, instantaneous damage will cost you in the long run.
But isn't doing Concentration a huge risk as it is easy to lose concentration, isn't it? Also, if you are concentrating what else can you do?
As I don't know what you are talking about, What spells fit: "something with some pow on it in a pinch"
In practice, unless you're mixing it up in melee, concentration spells aren't that hard to keep up.
And, if you're concentrating, the only thing you can't do is cast another concentration spell. (Well, you can, it just ends the first one.) This also includes casting a spell with a casting time of longer than one action, and using the Ready action to hold a spell.
Warlocks have Eldritch Mind. And... I literally just said in my post what else you can do while concentrating:
If you're a bladelock, you do all of those things, but with sword. This is pretty simple stuff.
If, in a pinch, you need to do a big, dramatic thing, pick up one of the spells that does that. Fiendlocks get Fireball, celestials get Wall of Fire, GOOlocks get Confusion. And all warlocks can grab Synaptic Static, which is a million times better than Fireball, as well as a number of single-target spells. But the warlock isn't built for blasting, and I honestly consider picking up those spells to be wasting the slots.
I am still confused, as it seems like you can't pick all of them (like all of the multiple invocations you mentioned.) If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back in? How do I poke them back in? Use another invocation that can push them? That is 3 invocations to do one thing. You get the hunger spell at 5th level.
If I have a concentration spell, I can use a eldritch blast, but then that is all I am doing? Just blast and concentrate?
As for your "something with some pow on it in a pinch", those are 4th/5th level spells, that does not help if you are below 9th.
This is true. They were just tossing out examples of things you can do as a warlock. If you were building one, you'd have to pick and choose, decide what you want to focus on, and make your choices to do that. Just like any other character, really, it's just this is (one of) the paradigms that works well for playing warlocks, and it's a different mindset from the other full casters.
Okay. Assume you're fifth level, and you're playing a blastlock. You have five invocations to choose from. Obviously, you pick up Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast - they're too good to pass up. Then you grab Devil's Sight and Eldritch Mind. Okay, cool. Now you have one free invocation, and you do whatever you want with it. Now, you cast Hunger of Hadar, which not only damages your enemies, but traps them in a sphere of Difficult Terrain which they cannot see out of. Now, they're in one of three places in the sphere when the spell is cast:
Now first off, since it's magical darkness, they have no idea where they are in the sphere. Even a warlock with devil's sight doesn't know where they are in the sphere, because they are not just in magical darkness, they are blinded while they are in the sphere. So they have to walk in some direction. Assume they're going after you, so they just walk to where they last remember you are. #1 spends their entire turn, including a Dash action, and manages to walk 30 feet, moving them from the far edge of the sphere to about ten feet from the near edge of the sphere, wasting their whole turn and remaining trapped in a globe of blinding, maddeningly-cold darkness. #3 spends their entire turn, including a Dash action, and they manage to escape the sphere, with 20ft of movement remaining to get clear. #2 escapes the sphere with 10ft of movement and, assuming you want to stay within Eldritch Blast radius of the entire sphere, manages to spend their dash moving 50ft closer to you. They remain 30ft away from you, but at least you can't knock them back into the sphere.
So, in the case of #1, you use your devil's sight and hit them with two Eldritch Blasts. You have advantage, so you're pretty capable of hitting them twice. You knock them twenty feet straight back, putting them 30 feet from the barrier of the spell. They spend their whole next turn walking towards you - they have no reason to know what this spell is or what the radius of the sphere is, so there's no reason for them to do anything but continue to go after you - at which point, you blast them again. By the end of their third turn, they've escaped the sphere, and are 20ft from it, so you blast them two more times, hopefully knocking them back inside. By the end of three rounds of combat, wherein you are the only person who has taken any offensive action, you have dealt 12d6 damage with Hunger of Hadar, plus the six Eldritch Blasts, and your opponent still needs another full turn to enter melee range. #3 follows the same strategy as #1, with considerably less effect, and with #2... well, it largely sucks, but you wouldn't cast Hunger of Hadar on a single target and make it that easy to escape, so I'm assuming you've cast it on a group of people, and one or two are gonna slip through the cracks.
If you have a concentration spell, is all you're doing just blasting and concentrating? I mean... yes? It feels like you're describing how every spellcasting class works, though? Like, a Ranger casts Hunter's Mark and shoots their bow. A wizard casts, I dunno... Wall of Fire and [Tooltip Not Found]. A Cleric casts Spirit Guardians and then just hits things with a club. Again, if you're looking for a big blasting spell to cast while concentrating, there are a number of options available to you, depending on your subclass. Yes, one of them requires you be ninth level, but a fiendlock gets Fireball. You can cast Hunger of Hadar, trap all your enemies in a sphere of difficult terrain, then hit them with a Fireball next turn if you want to.
All this, of course, assumes you're some kind of weird solo warlock. If you're in a party (which you should be), there are a billion ways to take advantage of the battlefield control afforded by Hunger of Hadar alone, much less the many other concentration-based spells the warlock has.
I thought RWinnie was giving a single example to build a higher level warlock above starter. Not combine multiple potential builds as a single example. It sounded like a good idea until I tried to follow the "directions"
I still don't understand If I can see in magical darkness, how does that help to poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell? How do I poke them back in, as he says no blaster spells?
If I have a concentration spell, I can use a eldritch blast, but then that is all I am doing? What else can you do if concentrating? Concentration seems like a recipe for disaster, as I can't get hit, but I have to be close enough to stay in range and there is a lot of things that break my concertation isn't there because I assume if I have to roll, I lose it
If you want somebody to hand you a "build", there's plenty of people out there on the internet. I don't recommend it; it's far more fun to look at your available abilities and ask yourself "what do I want my character to do?" (And yes, you may choose something that doesn't work great, but 5e, especially 5e24, give you a lot of ability to change your choices up on the fly as you figure things out.)
(Also, a character that lacks synergy can still be fun, and also be effective enough to contribute.)
Take a look at the set of warlock abilities. What is there that would let you "poke enemies back into Hadar hunger spell"?
If you look at the actual concentration rules, you will discover that you don't need to stay in range. You don't lose it when you make a roll. You lose it when you concentrate on something else, you blow the save when you take damage, or you die. That's it.
There is a difference between wanting someone to build something, and understanding what and how they built it. I am trying to figure out how he built the character he is describing and his description can not be replicated from my ignorant POV. If I can replicate it, then I can understand how to change it.
As for poking, you have repelling blast that only goes for 10 feet not 20 as he states and if the angle is off you will not push them back in. So that is not a solution, I can't figure out how else to do that?
yes you are right about repelling blast here. If the target gets far enough out they need to hit with multiple eldritch blasts to poke them back in, they needed to come out basically right at you so you can shove them back in, if they went left you'd need to circle around to get the right angle to shove them back in.
every table/dm will run encounters differently. But in my experience hunger of hadar is a big miss a 20 foot radius with difficult terrain means most if not all targets leave with their normal movement, those near the center may want to move and dash to get far enough away, and now you are holding onto a low damaging blob of darkness that isn't hurting anyone. it works on paper, but not in practice in my experience. Sometimes the stars will align when the size of the room, enemy composition etc make it sing, but normally it ends up doing less than a fireball. There are great concentration spells though, and they don't need you to shove people into the area, like fear for example. All casters generally want a concertation spell up and then to hit them with non concentration attacks, cantrips, fireballs, weapon attacks whatever fits the build.
If there are enough encounters/short rests in the day warlocks can look solid. if not, they can look pretty bad.
How far you need to move depends in part on how your DM treats grid movement, but it's lot likely that far.
If it hasn't worked for you, I'm not going to say you're wrong, but it's definitely paid off for me. And yes, repelling blast is a good part of it, but it's far from the only way, especially in 5e24, for the party to push enemies in. My elements monk would definitely make good use of it if we had a warlock. (I might even go for more grappling than I do, just to drag more enemies to the damage zone and kick them in.)
But area control spells, even if they don't do as much damage as the boom spells, unless you're usually fighting in wide-open spaces, give you significant power over the battlefield. You can cut off lines of approach, forcing the enemy to engage the front line. You can make the artillery relocate to a more vulnerable position. (With HoH in particular, you may be able to cut off their line of sight.) Etc.