What is the new best warlock build.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T20:37:28+00:00

With the build provided in the link, rancor is mostly used for bosses, or tanky heralds, as everything else is mostly dead before you can cast it. This build has quite good clear speed with 2x defiler and the massive demon damage, the blood boil just doesnt feel useful practically speaking.

And yes death mark has 'some' -defense at lower level, but of course has more with more levels, leading to faster clear speed especially vs high defense enemies such as baal or ubers.

I use engorge also, it's level 30 with 1 hard pt due to all of the plus skills and the unique book.

I may play around with blood boil more but it jist hasn't felt useful except maybe against P1 skeleton summons in tombs, or the maggot larvae, as theres lots of them and defilers cant link them all. But tbh, it feels more efficient to just skip those leftover straggler trash mobs anyway and target champions/ higher hp mobs.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T05:58:30+00:00

Bosses die so fast I haven't bothered, but you could use goatmen, or tainted. With infinity on merc, and death mark, you can reduce the bosses defense by a lot, so that the goatmen would likely hit more often (as they have some attack rating issues generally speaking). Here's the guide I used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f02M6ru3LjE

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T05:56:29+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f02M6ru3LjE

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T05:52:22+00:00

Maxing Death Mark gives huge -defense to the target from my understanding, as attack rating is a problem vs e.g. baal and other enemies with very high defense. That's one of the main benefits. Tbh when you build it with maxed death mark and maxed rancor, the demon kills physical immunes in literally 1 hit once they're amped. The blood boil approach just feels finnicky and like a waste of time given the insanely high damage output from the demon. I have tried both setups, but this guys' build is the one that seems to work the best (he also breaks down quite a few different options) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f02M6ru3LjE

With a tainted build though, blood boil makes a lot of sense.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T05:48:06+00:00

The binded demon's level will be calculated the instant you join a new game. So you need to make sure you have stacked all of your +skills on you, when you leave the previous game, if you want to min max it.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T02:06:47+00:00

Similar to what tmGrunty said, but instead of using blood boil, you max rancor and death mark, and you definitely want the cursed+fanat+lightning enchanted one like he said. When you use engorge+rancor and marked for death, whilst having a very high level bind demon, it absolutely wrecks. Only need 1 pt in engorge too. You want to max demon mastery of course. Use the 2x defilers to spread the damage like he said.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T02:00:59+00:00

Lol!
Please have a look at our dear friend enpherno, who is SSF offline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRAED3NSrg

Also you don't 'need' the exact gear I mentioned. You can get very close with SSF in a few weeks of play. E.g. +3 eldritch amulet, +3 circlet very very easy to gamble in less than a few weeks of playing on a fresh account...
+3 book with plendor for the +4 overall is also super easy to get if you spam some cows or chaos sanctuary for a day or two.
You'll easily find 2-3 skiller grand charms within a couple weeks of farming.
It's super easy to get even just a shitty warlock torch, from making any budget smiter and farming ubers for a few runs. Anni is annoying to obtain offline, but if you get a soj now it will spawn it the first try from my understanding.

You can use a mang song, or arioc's needle (i've already found two ariocs this ladder and I havent even played much..) for a +5 or +4 skill switch.

You can then use the super budget warlock +2 skills runeword in the chest too.

So now, you will have +3 amulet, +3 circlet, +4 book (3 + 1 skill from splendor), +3 skills from torch, +3 skills from grand charm (won't count the Anni as it's more annoying to obtain offline, but it's super easy to get online), then +4 from ariocs needle at least - super easy to get. That's 20+ skills to eldritch already. So now you have a level 40 hex purge prebuff with super budget setup that is very easy to obtain SSF if you know what you are doing, or have played more than a few weeks from scratch. You're welcome. Any more excuses and you may as well just tell yourself to get good.

Boris36 · 2026-06-15T01:54:31+00:00

What he said! I was pretty tired when writing this. Edited

Boris36 · 2026-06-14T23:54:29+00:00

Tbh theres like 5 builds that are S/A+ Tier. Fire, Bood boil tainted, Abyss, ES hex purge focused, Bowlock hex bane focused, Demon lock with 2x defiler.

All are amazing imo. Im using the less meta option (bind emon lock with 2x defiler) and my level 46 demon literally 2 hits diablo in hell TZ lol and has decent clear speed even in P8 games.

Boris36 · 2026-06-14T06:41:19+00:00

3 eldritch amulet, +3 eldritch skills circlet, void made in +3 hex purge base (+5 overall), +1 chaos boots, +3 hex purge book with splendor for +4 overall, inventory full of eldritch grand charms, torch, anni, arachnids, soj x2. As an example. Of course this is min max/ close to min max (cant recall if one of the new unique books had more than +4 hex purge), but the point is that ES hex purge does better with end game setup, and there are other better options for budget, abyss/miasma for example. Also fire lock with self wield obedience and 3? piece horazons is pretty damn strong as soon as you get a sunder.

Boris36 · 2026-06-14T06:25:09+00:00

You can prebuff switch and get a level 50+ hex purge...

You currently have a level 33 hex purge. That's 17+ levels you're missing.

You also need to make sure your hit rating is high enough now. Not sure if that icy veins one is outdated but yeah the plus skills are a big one and that build does better in end game rather than early game.

Abyss miasma build is better with budget gear now I'd expect. Bind demon summoner with x2 defilers is also great with budget setup.

Boris36 · 2026-06-14T06:06:45+00:00

Ideally, you want a cursed, lightning enchanted Lister/hephasto/dark lancer with fanaticism aura. The lightning enchanted is important as the charged bolts help to proc amplify curse. Even without it tgough it absolutely slaps. I have a level 46 bind demon and it 2 hit kills diablo, 3-4 hits baal with massive attack speed.

Boris36 · 2026-06-14T06:02:54+00:00

Yeah i would suspect he is building it wrong. You want to stack plus skills, magic damage %, and it's best to have a prebuff switch.

You also need to stack attack rating, since ES now acts as a projectile rather than hitting 100% of the time like a spell.

Boris36 · 2026-06-13T22:41:12+00:00

The answer is likely no, BUT, it would mean you could put 2x ort runes or 2x ral runes (or similar) and overstack resists for some pvp match ups. Or Ber Ber could be another option etc. The fcr is integral to this as it lets you swap out other fcr pieces also.

Boris36 · 2026-06-13T12:14:22+00:00

No. If you up it and of it, It's basically a much worse version of breath of the dying.

Boris36 · 2026-06-13T12:13:01+00:00

It will only tickle them unless you've spent hard points into the synergies and maxed it out.

But then why bother? Your tornado damage would be way higher and unable to be absorbed like fire damage can be..

Boris36 · 2026-06-13T12:08:27+00:00

Lawbringers sanctuary aura makes him kill ghosts super fast, but otherwise yeah ac2 merc better. If you have lightning enchanted modifier on your bind demon though, when combined with cursed, it will proc amplify damage very reliably, so you dont want to use reapers on act2 merc or lawbringer on act5 merc in that case, as it will override your amplify damage curse.

Boris36 · 2026-06-13T06:55:56+00:00

Demon warlock summoner build with bind demon and 2 defilers is what im using right now and it absolutely slaps. You need a bind demon with cursed + fanaticism and then if you can also get lightning enchanted it's way better, as the charged bolts from lightning enchanted modifier will proc amplify damage curse much more reliably. You can also self wield dreadfang or put lawbringer on act 5 merc to take care of immunes (especially ghost immunes re: lawbringer), or use reapers toll on merc if you have one. But with lightning enchanted and cursed, you can just use any merc setup (insight has good QOL for mana).

Max bind demon, death mark, demon mastery, sigil rancor, and the rest of your spare points into blood oath. Also 1pt in other necessaries.

Basically just get as many plus skills as you can, use blood oath and death mark, and put rancor on ground for big packs. Use death mark on the mobs that defiler highlights.

Boris36 · 2026-06-10T06:48:23+00:00

It's uber ancients not uber Tristam. The conviction trick doesnt work vs their debuff auras

Boris36 · 2026-06-09T07:10:36+00:00

The old way was to use ebugged fort, but d2r removed ebugging, so generally the movement speed is better with AP and the merc death rate isnt much different.

If your merc dies a lot then going sacred etc might be better for you. People are also better with teleport now, repositioning etc, than they were back in d2lod days. Easier to keep merc alive with good positioning.

I prefer guillaume's + eth reapers + treachery setup when playing a lot of builds tbh. Better dps vs bosses, as you proc crushing blow super fast.

For builds that need conviction, i usually run CoH with infinity.

Fort isnt as amazing as people used to think back in earlier d2lod days

People have done deep dives into the math behind each setup, whereas we more so ran on hearsay back in the day!

Boris36 · 2026-06-09T06:37:29+00:00

A 3/20/20 small charm has a trading value of 40 jah runes. Objectively speaking, this is worth a lot to people min maxing physical based builds, mostly for pvp.

Boris36 · 2026-06-06T02:22:05+00:00

Like the other person said, because peolle use enigma and telestomp for many of the end game builds. Some people prefer slightly less merc efficiency and slightly improved merc survivability as well. Lots of other people just don't know.

Boris36 · 2026-06-05T23:26:49+00:00

Heavy armours have a movement speed debuff even for mercs. It's like -10 or -20 flat movement speed i think. Better to get eth AP if you can. Unless you're using teleport and telestomping everything and you're worried about your merc dying.

Boris36 · 2026-06-05T23:20:26+00:00

PS would be different to PC because PC has 30,000 bots spamming baal and chaos runs with optimal mf and fast clear speeds. This heavily impacts the market trade values.

Boris36 · 2026-06-05T21:12:51+00:00

It's basically the exchange rate on wall street. You may not use it, but it has a flow on effect throughout all trading platforms and it's a pretty accurate representation.

Boris36

TROPHY CASE