Three Paths for a Warlock

[Rebonack]

No, not Patrons. No, not Boons, either.

We just hit level 7 in the game I'm in, and I'm waffling pretty hard on the route I'm wanting to take with my Chain/GOO Warlock. The party consists of me, a Bard mostly focused on AoE lockedown (he managed to Hypnotic Pattern a whole end-dungeon encounter. The dangers of not spreading out!), a pretty angry GWF Bearbarian, and a Revised Beastmaster Ranger.

At present I've got three build routes that I'm having trouble deciding between and I was hoping to get some feedback from all the nice people here.

Route the First: Focus on Hex and blasting. Save spell-slots for Counterspell to protect the party. I've already gotten the okay to use the Prodigy feat to gain proficiency in 'casting ability checks', so that would make the Warlock a pretty amazing Counterspell/Dispell source come level 8. This is a really passive playstyle, but the ability to NOPE enemy spells is quite potent defensively.

Route the Second: Fighter/Warlock Multiclass. Shield and focus with the Close Quarters Shooter Fighting Style because lightsabers. The goal here is to eventually tap into Warcaster/Polearm Master/Repelling Blast shenanigans (yes, I'm aware of the Sage Advice on it. Ruling is that it works just fine RAW) to serve as a pushy roadblock to keep things off the Ranger and Bard. Hex/EB/Action Surge really hurts.

Route the Third: Focus on AoE doom spells like Black Tentacles and Hunger of Hadar. Use Repelling Blast to shove priority targets back into the zone while the party stomps all over whoever escapes. This one is really powerful, but I'm worried it might be too combat centralizing. And we've got the Bard for lockdown already.

So, opinions? Given the party composition, what sounds like it would be the most beneficial?

[rbstr]

Well you went GOOLock so you've got a lot of good control stuff...If you use the Dominate spells you'll overlap less with the bard probably?

Otherwise I don't think options 1&2 are mutually exclusive. You can't fight so many spellcasters that you're going to burn all your slots on Counterspell all the time?

If you need another body on the front though, option 2 could be ok. Armor up and eldritch blast in melee range.
For the PAM/Warcaster thing: You're going to hold a polearm (quarterstaff?) to take an opportunity attack with EB?
I guess that's an interesting niche.

[Tanarii]

IMO Warlocks aren't the best at AoE. They can do it, but just not the best.
Arms of Hadar is point blank range.
Shatter is a rather small AoE.
Hunger of Hadar doesn't upcast.
E. Black Tentacles doesn't upcast.

One thing to keep in mind about the Warlock: they're all about options. In any given short rest, you've got more spells known than you can cast. As you go up, this just becomes more the case. Contract this with a Sorcerer, who is still casting low level spells in low level slots, but limited higher level ones in higher level slots.

The way warlocks upcast does encourage you to swap out your combat spells to upcast able spells to get more bang for the buck. But you can take more utility spells that can be recharged on a short rest. And take a variety of spells for different combat situations.

For example, there's no reason you can't have Hex & Counterspell for when you're feeling blasts in combat, and all 4 spells above, and still have room for 3 other spells. That's a little AoE heavy obviously. Probably better to pick 2 and spread your other spells around other options for when you want or need to do something different. Detect Thoughts and Clairvoyance for OoC options. Charm and (later on) dominates. Etc.

[Specter]

First route. There are already many people in the front line, and you won't have enough slots to AoE constantly.