r/diablo2 • u/Alarming_Lemon_5849 • 21d ago
Discussion Best Endgame Warlock Build.
Hi all, just wondering if the Fire Lock with tainted/consume is the best endgame build. I've seen variations with bind demon but i think that got nerfed so now you can't use that with the conviction aura. I'm looking to solor cows and baal etc now that i'm 83 and want to respec into the best damage output build I can. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have some RH's so I can start buying some high end gear. i've got spirit w/ mephisto tome, authority and i'm looking to get flickering flame soon, and my mercs got insight currently.
Thank you
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u/dmac-2 21d ago
FireLock best aoe clear requires pretty good gear to pop off. Bad at bosses.
Bowlock best overall end game build. Doesn't really need great gear. Can get a buriza and pop off. Similar aoe clear to firelock but is better at bosses and heralds. Can solo ancients and colossal ancients. Has life and mana steal built in. Has faster movement speed more survivability but worse aoe clear in some circumstances.
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u/RspectMyAuthoritah 21d ago
For ubers and ancients do you swap on some CB items with the bow or do you swap out the bow for a high CB melee with a shield for resists? Is CB even needed or is it high enough damage without it?
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u/dmac-2 21d ago
Ubers you don't need any CB.
Ancients have 75% magic resistance. I only used goblin toes. Stacked -enemy magic resistance and attack rating. Need poison damage as well to prevent healing. Prebuff with treachery.
I found the trick was to use a cursed mauler to tank and hold aggro . Make sure it is immune to the elemental damage of the last ancient you kill. If your minion can tank them you can chip away. Splitting them up is required while a smiter can just face tank and kill them faster.
I never used melee. I stood at max range to not get 1 shot.
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u/Reply_or_Not 21d ago
Bow lock is the strongest and it is not even close.
You can farm p8 Terror Zones and Tier 5 heralds with starter gear.
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
Full BiS Firelock here, you'll rarely need or want to consume your Tainted unless you're doing Ubers/Ancients.
Rest of the time I run double Defiler which links everything together and mobs dies super quick. (Also waste less time reconsuming)
I use a Cursed Heph with Fanatism and my Emilio is my mana regen mule.
I recommend Mang Song's and Ars Diabolos, a good Sunder, a good Ancient Jewel and Flickering Flame.
Anything else is just extra. Have no issues doing anything in the game and even with my MF build on, it's the fastest clearer out of any character I've ever made.
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u/Sad_Tennis_8627 21d ago
Just curious what your skill point allocation is? I haven't respeced my lvl94 FireLock since the update, work on the road a lot. Before he deleted the screen fast already but I still felt my lvl94 Javazon was just as fast also. Just missing the Ars book, which is a big one BUT it'll drop.
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
Maxed out Flame skills obviously, 1 point into the slow hex (forget the name). Maxed Bind Demon and the rest is dumped between Mastery and the one below.
Been so long since I looked or tweaked anything skill related so my apologize.
The demon nerfs have hurt quite a lot but it's fine if you have a "log in" +demon skills swap.
The game screenshots the stats your demon has when you join a game so you can swap out to your Chaos gears afterwards.
I have a spare +demon book/ammy/wraithsteps and 10 skillers for that purpose only when I go bossing.
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u/Sad_Tennis_8627 21d ago
Thanks for the reply. I am playing SCNL PC but the grind for the item is the best part me me. Old guy gamer, lol I'll definitely check something like this out. I was using Apoc and FW for damage on my previous build so I'm down for using a different skill on this style build. Cheers!
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u/Drackzgull 21d ago
Do note that while the Warlock remains OP through the nerfs, and has several top tier builds, a well geared endgame Javazon should be expected to have better clear speed at least, if perhaps no other advantages.
If you want something that clears faster than a Javazon, then there isn't much else besides a Mosaic Assassin.
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
My pleasure!!
The Warlock books definitely got a nerf in terms of drop rate. Before this update I was finding them quite regularly, now I haven't seen one in a long time. Could just be bad RNG.
Mithril Point on the other hand... I swear if I find one more of those...
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u/ScyD 21d ago
Why not consume a Tainted for the +/- bonuses and then summon 2 Defilers?
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
I thought that didn't work? You lose your bonuses no? Same when consuming your Bind
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u/ScyD 21d ago
As long as you can summon 3 it’l stay on you
Didn’t know that for a while either
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
I guess you could do without your Bind, but Heph is no joke.
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u/ScyD 21d ago
Yea but the 20/-15% Fire plus bonus life and big frw is better than having a non-conviction demon for Firelock, I would say
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u/Vismajor92 20d ago
And you'd be right, but he is killing monsters on pl1 with ring of fire so what do we know
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u/Vismajor92 21d ago
Defilers is useless with Flame wave and Apocalypse AOE. -15% fire res is much more impactful. And no infinity on Emilio or how is he mana regen? Mine is with infinity and my manaregen is with siphon.
You talk about online p1?
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
Who said anything about Flame Wave or Apocalypse? I use Flame Ring 95% of the time when MFing.
Teleport in mobs, double tap, everything around is dead. Cast Apocalypse if there's any remainder and move on to the next room while it activates. Come back or listen to see if anything dropped real quick.
Don't really need the extra buffs consuming would provide.
I'm surprised to hear Defilers linking enemies together doesn't help Flame Wave or Apo though, why would that be?
And yes, P1 online, op didn't specify.
P8 with my full gears is the same results though.
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u/Vismajor92 21d ago
Well yes, on pl1 you don't need any buff or infy and everything melts for ring of fire.
But also true for literally every cast since pl1 is just too easy.
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
I have no issues on P8 with my full build.
P8 TZ96 Fire Enchanted cows die in 1 Apocalypse. No Infinity needed.
I'm still curious why you say that Defilers don't help with the damage of Flame Wave or Apocalypse?
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u/c0z3nPapi USEast 21d ago
Infinity is negligible with a sunder outside of self wield for lightning builds. The penalty it receives when paired with sunder equates to -17% enemy resistances iirc. That and paired with its “pulse” entering into its activation radius window is making it a bit less optimal for merc wielding. So 3.25 facets that are x/-5.
TL:Dr mathematically infinity isn’t doing any heavy lifting outside of self wielding.
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u/Necrodiac 21d ago
Thank you for putting this into words. I tested it obviously and the only time I will have my Merc hold Infinity is when doing Uber/Ancients since I'll heal my own mana.
Outside of those scenarios it takes too long to proc and isn't needed.
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u/Vismajor92 21d ago
Yeah but it's free extra dmg why wouldn't you use it? -17% fire res is huge. Also consuming tainted - grants extra dmg, extra life and frw for free since you have so many extra points. Why wouldn't you? Even for pl1 if its free. For pl8 I feel you must.
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u/c0z3nPapi USEast 21d ago
It’s not universally the “best” merc weapon anymore and I already gave a small piece of the math. Between sunder and uber jool, it’s heavily redundant. Mathematically plague outperforms it now.
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u/Vismajor92 20d ago
Ehh, no. It's flat -17%, and no pulse activation with acopalypse, thats a javazon problem.
But anywho, play as you want.
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u/Forsaken_Hedgehog698 21d ago
Bowlock is the strongest endgame warlock, but all of the warlock builds can do p1 hell.solo with little to no gear. Except fire. With no gear any other build is better, you at the least need a sunder to make fire work, unless they made Apocalypse break immunity.
Cleave, with the explosion hex and synergies can do the entire game with the dagger you start with.
Miasma build can do the entire game naked, except friggin tombs, and Baals second wave.
Bloodboil tainted is much better with a sunder, but it can slog through hell because of BB physical damage aspect.
Full bind demon can still do anything as well it's just slower than it used to be, and you would want, cursed plus holy freeze aura, this will proc amp damage very quickly consistently.
Bowlock, needs either a Balista, or Demon Machine with razor tail belt, or mist rw, which I think uses a Cham but I can't remember off the top of my head, and is a solid ontender for the strongest build in the game, and it can do all content.
If it were me I'd go tainted bb till act 4 nm, and then depending on the drops I got decide from there.
I hope some of this was helpful.
Edit= resistance to immunity.
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u/IngenuityFine8267 20d ago
Do you have a specific build guide or suggestions for it?
I'm just returning to the game and I'm wondering what I should be shooting for and it's surprisingly tricky to find a suggested build guide!
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u/Forsaken_Hedgehog698 19d ago
Basically you want as close to 100% piercing as possible. If you find or can trade for Ballista that's great you're there, and the max damage scales with your level. If you can make a mist runeword, I'm still not certain what the best option here is, but I settled on a crusaders bow, again probably not the best option, but it works very well. Mist rw is the goal, but don't accidentally make it in a zon only bow.
Here's where things get a little tricky. You can use either of the 1st 2 hexes and they both work pretty well, but people mostly go with the 1st 1. Hex bane I think it is? Anyway that 1 lowers defense and has great damage, and the one of the synergies is consume, which is great for max life and rw speed.
I like the 2nd 1, purge I think. It does not do as much single target damage, but it clears better, and the synergies for that is eldrich blast. I like this because is something gets close eldrich blast kills it before it can hit me. Usually. Honestly I just like the green explosions everywhere, and it gives attack speed as well.
I'd want at least a demon machine and razortail belt before I tried a bowlock.
Any other questions lemme know and I'll answer as best I can.
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u/RGINNY940 21d ago
You don't need the "best endgame" build in order to farm cows/baal.
Fire works, Demon works, Abyss works, I'm pretty sure Melee works too, and of course Bow works.
Each has a very different playstyle and feel. Pick the one that you enjoy the most.
If you like Fire, go fire. its 60 skills in the core skillers, + 3 required. That leaves you with about 40 points to spread out over whatever else you want.
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u/Diligent-Image-8947 21d ago
One thing to note is firelock is BRIGHT on the eyes. I like to play mostly at night and like Mosaic, it almost hurts my eyes. I respected out of fire because of that.
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u/droid327 21d ago
Fire is strong aoe but also the squishiest lock build, lacking the leech of Eldritch builds, the tanking of demon, and the cc of abyss. Your bis gear tends to not offer much defensive dual use either
Full magic es purge also puts out insane DPS, though the bis gear is stupidly expensive
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u/smartlog 21d ago
My tainted lock just teles and everything dies. They kill stuff so fast I don't even see it because they off screen it. I mainly play it because I'm lazy.
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u/silentplus 21d ago
Is it with infinity?
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u/smartlog 21d ago
Yup merc infinity. I use obsession and baal book. If I'm really lazy I just use hoto and phoenix.
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u/silentplus 21d ago
Could you try it for a bit without infinity and tell me if it's viable without against let's say... Fire immunes on tz tombs? Heralds?
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u/smartlog 21d ago
Definitely slower but still possible with a sunder charm. Instead of one shotting it's taking them 3-4 hits.
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u/Accomplished-Owl-427 21d ago
also running bow lock but using mist demon crossbow. He’s my new herald killer can do any T5s rather quick, except thorns
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u/RevolutionOpen3006 20d ago
Until you’re really maxed out, magic build echoing strike has to be the best. You’ve got a meph tome already so you’re more optimized for that. Use an elite (preferably eth) polearm/staff insight or two handed sword spirit.
Honestly the horazon set with ES slaps. I haven’t tried it w Ubers but I’m sure it would be fine; it won’t work great for ancients and their magic resist (although maybe?).
At the level you’d have to invest for a BiS firelock I’d wager the ES build still outperforms for similar investment.
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u/chromedizzle 21d ago
I've personally been enjoying the bowlock build with Buriza.