Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Warlock Engineer

This is a discussion of skills for a hero unit in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos v1.72. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.

Warlock Engineer Skills

• You get every skill at rank 0 as long as you fulfill the prerequisites.
• Any skill with no skill prerequisite deserves special attention because you can bank your points and get 5 ranks of it immediately when you reach the necessary level, instead of spending your points on low-level skills you may not want.
• Look for passive skills that require no mana, because one or two really good skills on a hero will monopolize use of the mana pool anyway.

Combat Skills

Gun Master (Level 0)

• Increases ranged attack chance to hit by 5% per level.
• Unless attached to a ranged combat unit, a Warlock Engineer does not have a ranged attack.

Warpbombs (Level 0)

• The hero places an invisible trap on the ground that is triggered by nearby enemies. When activated it damages enemies in the area for 1 HP with 10% chance to hit, +2% chance per rank.
• You can drop it while engaged by melee enemies and it will detonate immediately because the enemy is close enough.
• It can be detonated by enemy buildings.
• If you are moving when you drop it, you do not stop, unlike most of the other spells where there is a spell-casting animation which stops movement for you and the regiment you are attached to.
• This is a useful feature because if you are fleeing or drawing the enemy away, you will not pause and therefore not let the enemy close the gap with you.
• Friendly fire -- will hurt your own units.
• If you are using the Army Creep god mode cheat, the friendly fire explosion from Warpbombs CAN kill your own units.
• Whether it damages the enemy or not, all normal sized enemies (except heroes) are flung into the air and must pick themselves up off the ground.
• Bombs that are not detonated will eventually detonate after a couple of minutes (friendly fire possible), so you cannot plant a large minefield.

Warpbombs > Warpmines (Level 5)

• The Warpbombs spell reduces the movement speed of units in the explosion area for 10 seconds. -10% move speed per level.
• The description of this ability for Kasqit of Clan Skryre is incorrect. Presumably it still works fine.

(no prerequisites) > Quickstrike (Level 5)

• Increases attack speed by 3% per level.

Quickstrike > Swift of Foot (Level 15)

• Increases move speed by 2% per level.

(no prerequisites) > Spell Focus (Level 15)

• Reduces the cooldown time of all spells by 6% per level.

Warpbombs, Spell Focus > Warpstone Shower (Level 25)

• The hero conjures a Warpstone Shower that damages units in the area for 1 HP with 15% +3% per rank chance to hit.
• The cooldown on this seems to be quite fast.
• The shower has about a 1-second setup time, so you need to lead your targeting zone against moving regiments.
• The shower occurs over several seconds, and it is not clear how many times a regiment is damaged, or when that damage is calculated, but clearly it appears that regiments can move out of the region during the shower. You could try casting it shortly before an enemy regiment steps on a Warpbomb because the explosion knocks models to the ground whether they are damaged or not.
• If there are multiple regiments moving through a chokepoint, it is possible that they could all be hit by the same casting of Warpstone Shower.
• Unlike the Chaos Undivided Sorcerer's Wind of Death, it only inflicts 1 HP of damage so you can expect nothing noticeable to happen to the regiment size if the models have 2 HP.

Duel Skills

These skills are only available during a duel. All other skills that need to be activated are disabled. Therefore, any points put here may be unavailable most of the time, and specializes your hero into an anti-hero build. Even so, it is hard to say whether you will get enough mileage out of a duelist hero because after a bout, he may have low health and no be able to handle a second bout. Damage is typically done by attrition unless you have invested a lot of points.

Warplock Pistol (Level 0)

• The hero uses his Warpstone Pistol for the next attack causing 2 HP damage. This attack uses the melee Chance to Hit of the hero but ignores the armour of the enemy. The chance to hit of the hero is increased by 10% per rank.

Warplock Pistol > Warpstone Armour (Level 5)

• A warpstone armour appears around the hero for 10 seconds. It has 15% chance to reflect attacks against the hero back at the caster. +3% chance per level.
• The description for Kasqit does not indicate a time limit but presumably it would be the same 10 seconds.

Warplock Pistol > Warpstone Armour > Brief Respite (Level 15)

• After leaving the duel, the hero gains +1 HP per level.

Warplock Pistol > Warp Dissipator (Level 15)

• Interrupts casting and silences the opponent for 5 seconds, +1 second silence per rank.

Warplock Pistol > Warp Dissipator > Warp Spite (Level 25)

• 8 seconds casting time.
• The hero lets loose a huge explosion that instantly damages both the opponent for 10 HP (+2 HP per level) and the caster for 5 HP (+1 HP per level).
• Steep prerequisites for a suicide attack. Skip duelling altogether and have your regiments kill the enemy hero for you.

Supernatural Resilience (Level 0)

• Decreases the attacker's chance to hit by 5% per level.
• The description for Kasqit of Clan Skryre shows 10% per level.

(no prerequisites) > Deadly Strike (Level 5)

• Gives 5% chance to do 1 extra damage with melee attacks per level.

Command Skills

Command skills work on the hero if they are not attached to a regiment.

Pathfinder (Level 0)

• The hero and the attached regiment suffer 15% less penalty per level when moving on hard terrain.

Pathfinder > Battle-Cry (Level 5)

• Increases the hero and the attached regiment's chance to hit while charging by 5% per level.

Pathfinder > Battle-Cry > Cowardly Shield (Level 15)

• When Charged, the unit has +10% chance per level to avoid damage caused by the charge.

Warpstone Shield (Level 0)

• The hero and the attached regiment is immune to all non-melee attacks for 10 seconds, +2 seconds per rank.
• Superb ability, but you might want to leave it at just rank 1 unless you regularly attach this hero to a regiment that takes point and therefore draws missile fire.
• Takes about 1 second to activate, during which time if you issue another command, it will abort. You need to wait for the animation and the cooldown to appear on your skill panel.

Warpstone Shield > Skitterleap (Level 25)

• Teleports targeted friendly unit to the hero. Power cost reduced by 5 per rank.

(no prerequisites) > Eagle Eye (Level 5)

• Increases the hero's and the attached regiment's chance to hit with ranged attacks by 5% per level.

Eagle Eye > Pestilent Shield (Level 15)

• The hero's and the attached regiment's defence against ranged attacks are increased by 5% per level.