Lord of Hatred Warlock Build is Basically a Demon Meat Grinder

With Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred finally released, fans can now get their hands on the brand-new Warlock class. The Warlock is already shaping up to be one of the strongest classes in all of Diablo 4, with access to demon summons, Hellfire skills, and mystical sigils to support its gameplay. Based on what has been achieved so far, there is one Warlock archetype that is emerging as the class’s most powerful, and it relies on summoning demons and immediately sending them to be slaughtered.

Building a Warlock in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred looks a lot different from what players are used to with past seasons of Diablo 4, since the game has seen a massive Skill Tree overhaul that removes passives and adds more nodes for each skill. This change allows players to customize their particular build even more than was previously possible, while opening the door for a more diverse build meta. Without a previous frame of reference, it might be hard to know just how well this new Skill Tree will impact the Warlock, but all signs initially point towards the summoner archetype that uses the Legion Shard and Demonology Skills as the class’s most broken.

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred’s Skill Tree Update Has a Clear Winner

Diablo 4’s reworked Skill Tree is a key part of the Lord of Hatred update, and one class benefits from these changes more than any other.

Summoner Warlock Builds Are Overpowered in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

A pure summoner build in Diablo 4 can be difficult to make usable deep into the endgame, and the Summoner Necromancer and Druid builds have never really excelled in a given season. The Warlock seems like the first chance Diablo 4 players will have to build a true summon-focused build with endgame clearing potential. With an entire playstyle dedicated to summoning demons to use as weapons, most Diablo 4 Warlock builds will likely revolve around making the most out of these summons with the Warlock’s Skill Tree modifiers and new Uniques.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

The Best Warlock Skills to Use on Summoner Warlocks

Command Fallen
Bombardment
Rampage
Sigil of Summons

Command Fallen is one of the Warlock’s Basic Skills, but could play a pivotal role in making this build successful in the Diablo 4 Season 13 meta. With this skill, Warlocks can send forth summoned Fallen Lunatics that run at enemies and explode for 80% damage. With the Damage Per Demon modifier, Command Fallen deals 1% increased damage for each active demon the Warlock has up to x20%, and the Meat Shields modifier summons a Fallen Lunatic per second based on the Warlock’s attack speed. The goal here is to constantly cycle through Demons by spamming Command Fallen as much as possible.

The Core Skill of choice on for this build is Bombardment, which essentially uses demons as projectiles, slamming four of them into the ground for 40% damage each. With the Additional Demon upgrade, Bombardment’s total demon count increases to 5, giving the Warlock more fodder for the slaughter as they move throughout the region of Skovos. Between Command Fallen and Bombardment, players should be able to keep summoning and killing demons constantly, which will ultimately aid in powering up their build.

Rampage is an incredibly powerful skill for Warlocks to run on nearly any build, but is especially strong for Legion Shard summoner Warlocks. This skill calls forth a rampaging brute that deals massive damage over 10 seconds, and with the Demon Masher upgrade, it also smashes the Warlock’s own lesser demons to grant them Fortify.

Sigil of Summons is the final required skill for this build, which extends the duration of the Warlock’s Demonology summons while active, and summons an additional demon if 8 enemies or demons are killed during the ritual. Not only does this skill provide even more demons for the Warlock to utilize with the Feeding Frenzy upgrade allowing Sigil of Summons to summon a total of 5 demons from the ritual, but extending the time that a Rampage demon is active can increase its utility and bonus effects.

Aspect of Scorn
Remorseless Aspect
The Fecund Seal
Cage of Madness
The Blade of Sight Aflame

The two Legendary Aspects that Diablo 4 Warlocks will want to ensure are included on this build are the Aspect of Scorn and the Remorseless Aspect. Aspect of Scorn kills lesser demons for 6-10% of the Warlock’s Maximum Life in damage whenever the player loses at least 10% of their Maximum Life, making it a great way to keep the demon meat grinder constantly active. More importantly for this build is the Remorseless Aspect, which boosts the Warlock’s damage by 40-60% for 10 seconds whenever they kill 30 or more demons within 10 seconds. The key here is the fact that this effect is also triggered by the Warlock’s own summoned demons being killed, making it crucial that Command Fallen and Bombardment are constantly killing these summons in order to keep this damage buff active.

There are also three fantastic Diablo 4 Uniques for the Warlock that synergize well with this build: The Fecund Seal and the Cage of Madness. The Fecund Seal boosts the utility of Sigil of Summons even more by increasing the damage it deals and allowing up to three additional demons to spawn from the ritual. Cage of Madness has the wild ability to transform the Warlock into a Lunatic for 15 before exploding and dealing Command Fallen’s damage whenever they evade. This Unique also spawns Mini Lunatics to seek out enemies while the Warlock is transformed and increases Command Fallen’s damage by 340%.

The final piece of this puzzle is The Blade of Sight Alfame Unique One-Handed Sword, which has the effect of exploding Lesser Demons and dealing 400% of a Bombardment impact if the demon has less then 3 seconds duration left on it. It also increases the base damage of Bombardment by 100-120%. This Unique pairs perfectly with Sigil of Summons, but players will need to time it just right to kill their Lesser Demons with 3 seconds left to fully take advantage of the 400% damage burst it can deal. While this build can be effective for leveling a Warlock in Lord of Hatred, it’s even better for tackling War Plans in Diablo 4‘s endgame.