The Complete Guide to Eldritch Blast Builds | UPDATED FOR PATCH 8

Hey internet, it's your friendly neighborhood Sorlock addict! Here's all the best builds and items for (ab)using the best cantrip in the game, and some humor to make reading about them all less boring. Your patron will be so proud!

Core Build

As a full-time Sorlock addict, here's my professional opinion:

You'll need at least 3 levels in Shadow Magic Sorcerer[bg3.wiki] and 2 in Hexblade Warlock[bg3.wiki]. After that, put all your levels into Sorcerer[bg3.wiki]. Take your first level in Sorcerer[bg3.wiki] for proficiency in Constitution saves, because not loosing concentration is nice. Pick Quickened Spell[bg3.wiki], Twinned Spell[bg3.wiki], Agonizing Blast[bg3.wiki], and Devil's Sight[bg3.wiki]. (Twinned Spell[bg3.wiki] is for abusing Haste[bg3.wiki] in a couple levels, and Devil's Sight[bg3.wiki] is for abusing Darkness[bg3.wiki].) I'd choose 17 CHA, 16 CON, 15 DEX, and 8 for everything else so I can have +4 CHA and +3 DEX/CON at level 6. An ASI, Birthright, the Mirror of Loss[bg3.wiki], and Hag's Hair[bg3.wiki] + Patriar's Memory[bg3.wiki] will all make our Cha 2 higher, up to 24. Make sure you know Hex[bg3.wiki], Darkness[bg3.wiki], and (obviously) Eldritch Blast[bg3.wiki]. You're other spells, race, and last Metamagic Option don't matter, but Shield[bg3.wiki] and Hellish Rebuke[bg3.wiki] are nice. Take Dual Wielder[bg3.wiki], and dual wield Markoheshkir[bg3.wiki], and Rhapsody[bg3.wiki].

Here's your ideal magic item loadout:

• Potent Robe[bg3.wiki] for a bunch of abilities we love almost as much as Shadowheart. (Make sure you cast Mage Armor[bg3.wiki]!)
  
• Markoheshkir[bg3.wiki], and Rhapsody[bg3.wiki] for the bonuses to attack and damage rolls.
  
• Spineshudder Amulet[bg3.wiki] for Reverberation.
  
• Coruscation Ring[bg3.wiki] to make people hit less than white dudes at the NBA (I can say that because I'm white (I hope))
  
• Callous Glow Ring[bg3.wiki] because you can never do enough damage, but only if you already have the Coruscation Ring.
  
• Luminous Gloves[bg3.wiki]. You'll probably kill everything before they get a turn anyway, but if you don't, you might as well give them -10 to their attack rolls. You can also wear Quickspell Gloves[bg3.wiki] and Gemini Gloves[bg3.wiki], use their once/short rest abilities, then take them off after one fight. (Use Spellmight Gloves[bg3.wiki] instead if you often have a 95% chance to hit without advantage, as that means you need a nat 1 to miss anyway, and the -5 penalty to attack rolls therefore won't matter as much.)
  
• Birthright[bg3.wiki] for higher attack rolls & damage.
  
• Use The Watersparkers[bg3.wiki] if you can get in some water. Other than that, the Boots of Stormy Clamour[bg3.wiki] and Bonespike Boots[bg3.wiki] are nice.
  
• You can also take your last 4 levels in Assassin[bg3.wiki] or Thief[bg3.wiki] and use the Boots of Arcane Bolstering[bg3.wiki], which deal extra damage to threatened creatures even though the tooltip says you need to be threatened. (Source: BG3 Wiki).[bg3.wiki] (Assassinate works on any attack, even Eldritch Blast. This works well with Craterflesh Gloves[bg3.wiki], as their extra damage is something called a DRS[bg3.wiki], which makes other sources of extra damage, called DRs, apply an extra time. This is mostly fixed on Honor Mode, however.)
  
• The Dead Shot[bg3.wiki] for Improved Critical.
  
• Your fanciest cloak. There aren't really any synergistic options :^(

What's that? You want to abuse crits more than my girlfriend abused me? Well, here's how you're gonna do that

(Just kidding, I can’t get a girlfriend.)

Crit Build #1

• Pick the Great Old One (GOO) patron[bg3.wiki]
  
• Replace Devil's Sight[bg3.wiki] with Repelling Blast[bg3.wiki] and get the Displace[bg3.wiki] Illithid Power. Now Repelling Blast[bg3.wiki] makes everyone we hit get a condition called Displace[bg3.wiki], which makes the Boots of Stormy Clamour[bg3.wiki] give them 2 turns of Reverberation[bg3.wiki]. (Reverberation[bg3.wiki]is more important now that we have Mortal Reminder[bg3.wiki]. This is because it inflicts Fear[bg3.wiki] on crits, which makes your target's movement speed 0, which prevents them from getting back up if Reverberation[bg3.wiki] knocks them prone.)
  
• Dual wield the Knife of the Undermountain King[bg3.wiki], Bloodthirst[bg3.wiki], and/or Rhapsody[bg3.wiki]
  
• Get the Spellsniper[bg3.wiki] feat instead of Dual Wielder[bg3.wiki], as we're only using light weapons.
  
• Replace your Callous Glow Ring[bg3.wiki], Luminous Gloves[bg3.wiki], and whatever cloak you were using with the Risky Ring[bg3.wiki], Craterflesh Gloves[bg3.wiki], and the Shade-Slayer Cloak[bg3.wiki]. (In case you forgot, the Craterflesh Gloves[bg3.wiki] make stuff like Agonizing Blast[bg3.wiki] take affect twice on a crit. If/when this is patched, switch to Spellmight Gloves[bg3.wiki])
  
• Replace 4 levels in Sorcerer[bg3.wiki] with 4 levels in Champion Fighter[bg3.wiki]
  
• Get a bunch of red text/crit sound dopamine while you watch everyone fall prone, then skip their turn because they can't get up.

Crit Build #2

• Replace 4 levels in Sorcerer[bg3.wiki] with Thief Rogue[bg3.wiki]. This does a lot for us:
  
  • Cunning Action[bg3.wiki] lets us use the well-named Speedy Lightfeet[bg3.wiki] to get Lightning Charges[bg3.wiki] as a bonus action.
    
  • It lets us use another bonus action each turn to cast Hex[bg3.wiki], use Quickened Spell[bg3.wiki] on Eldritch Blast[bg3.wiki], or use Cunning Action[bg3.wiki] to get Lightning Charges[bg3.wiki] from The Speedy Lightfeet[bg3.wiki].
• Now that we're using The Speedy Lightfeet[bg3.wiki], which are Medium Armor, we can't use Mage Armor[bg3.wiki] to make our base AC 13. Because of this, we might as well get some more Medium Armor: Sarevok's Horned Helmet[bg3.wiki] for an even higher chance to crit, and Luminous Armour[bg3.wiki] to make sure everybody gets -10 from Radiating Orb, whether we hit them or not.
  
• Replace your Luminous Gloves[bg3.wiki] and whatever cloak you were using with Craterflesh Gloves[bg3.wiki] and the Shade-Slayer Cloak[bg3.wiki].
  
• Dual wield the Knife of the Undermountain King[bg3.wiki], Bloodthirst[bg3.wiki], and/or Rhapsody[bg3.wiki].
  
• Get the Spellsniper[bg3.wiki] feat instead of Dual Wielder[bg3.wiki], as we're only using light weapons.
  
• Pick the Great Old One (GOO) patron[bg3.wiki], and be a Githyanki[bg3.wiki] so you still get medium armor proficiency.

Notes on Patch 8

You may have notices that these builds aren't very powerful until level 5, when Eldritch Blast starts shooting multiple projectiles at once. Luckily, Patch 8 adds Death Domain[bg3.wiki]—a new Cleric subclass that lets us play a similar build right off the Nautiloid. All you need to do is take your first level in Death Cleric[bg3.wiki], learning Bless[bg3.wiki], Guidance[bg3.wiki], Thaumaturgy[bg3.wiki], and Blade Ward[bg3.wiki], then take your second level in Hexblade Warlock[bg3.wiki], learning Toll the Dead[bg3.wiki], Hex[bg3.wiki], and Armor of Agathys[bg3.wiki]. For abilities, go 16 Cha, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Wis, 8 Str, and 8 Int. Now you deal 20 average damage per round at level 2 with Hex[bg3.wiki] and Toll the Dead[bg3.wiki].

Notes on Alternative Gear (These are for the original build, not the crit-focused versions)

• I've heard a lot of people suggest gear that does more damage instead of our Coruscation Ring[bg3.wiki], Callous Glow Ring[bg3.wiki], and Luminous Gloves[bg3.wiki] because you'll kill most of your enemies in one round anyway. However, if that happens then you didn't need more damage either, and the other rings/gloves that you could be using don't make turn-one kills much more likely.
  
• The Risky Ring[bg3.wiki] and Daredevil Gloves[bg3.wiki] are good, but I think the Callous Glow Ring[bg3.wiki] and Luminous Gloves[bg3.wiki] are better.
  
• According to the notes section of the BG3 Wiki's page on Thunderous Conversion[bg3.wiki], the Gloves of Belligerent Skies[bg3.wiki] can only apply 2 turns of Reverberations per bolt, even with AoE or multiple types of damage. (2 turns of Reverberations does an average of 1 damage.)
  
• I'm happy to be proven wrong, if you're willing to run the numbers ;-^)

[Riley]

Markoheshkir can also give you 2 Lightning Charges per hit [bg3.wiki]

[chabotj1]

Hex damage triggers Boots of Stormy Clamour unless they changed this in Patch 8. This means you can proc reverb at lvl 5. Full reverb gear means you proc on every bolt.
- Also, reverb gears triggers off the thunder damage from reverb which immediately stacks the target back up to 4 reverb (which is a massive debuff).
- Also, Spellsparkler is significantly better than Markoheshkir. Reverb gear triggers off the stacked lightning proc. Which means you trigger a second reverb proc on that bolt, which stacks the target back up to 4 reverb.
- Also, callous glow ring and spellsparkler damage adders apply to reverb and lightning procs. In other words you go from 3 * (1 + 2) damage riders to that plus an additional 4d4 + 1d8 + 5 * (1 + 2)
- Also, the good Hand Crossbows synergize perfectly with this build.
- Also, Initiative from Sentinel Shield [plus a feat, plus adv on Perception] is reliably higher value than Rhapsody.

[Riley]

Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Masteriño]

The Potent Robes link dont work

[Riley]

I made that post.

[fuuka friday]

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1btbgy5/the_best_eldritch_blast_build_imo/
At least credit the og post if u also copy paste the jokes

[NibhShurah]

for the dark urge question, you can still get the potent robes on durge, if you save before every long rest and when you get the visit, reload, knock her the hell out and continue to rest. you get another bards visit and the one with the robes still gives them to you in act 2.

[Riley]

Yep! I'd use the Luminous Armour [bg3.wiki] instead.

[CTHOMP]

Is this build/guide viable with Dark Urge since you can't get potent robes?

[NatuSery]

inconvenient guide.
wouldn't it be more correct to put the classes as a list, and below the explanation.
the same about the items?