Impressions from a newbie Warlock

So far my new Warlock is level 20. I play Single Player and I have played some other characters too, so haven't got him that high yet, but so far I'm impressed. At the moment I am going into the Demon tree, as I do enjoy summoners. My thoughts so far!

Pro:

• Death Mark. There is no comparison. Any drawback about playing a summoner before has been eliminated with this skill. So far I am using it as a one-point wonder, not for the damage. The ability to relocate your summons with no CD and basically no mana cost, is a breath of fresh air. No more weird maneuvering, recasting, or being forced to have
  Teleport yourself, to get your summons where you want them. Places like Maggot Lair are a nightmare with a Skelliemancer or Zookeeper. Not to mention sniping Shamans, Unravelers, and other casters. This skill single handedly, in my opinion, makes this character stand out as a summoner.
• Awesome visuals. I really like the spell effects, and having a
  Dagger floating around while carrying a book in your offhand just looks slick for a caster, compared to Sorceresses just wacking away with their staff.
• Death Mark. Yeah.
• As far as I can see, there looks to be quite some variation in builds. As this is a new class, at the moment I am assuming every sort of build is viable enough. For instance: fire spells with an innate -% fire res is just awesome. Magic damage with still the least amount of resistance against that in the game? Yes, please.
• EDIT: OMG, I just discovered you can equip any two-hander AND a book/shield?
• Did I mention
  Death Mark?

Con:

• It almost is TOO good. The other classes are now basically screaming for a much needed modernization. For instance, on first sight, Warlock trumps Necromancer in all aspects.
• Speaking of which, the look and feel is a bit too close. It looks like an updated Necromancer model with different clothes. Even the voice is practically the same.
• Some of the floaty weapons are not suited for floatyness and look just weird.
• Needs more tooltip information. For instance, the summons have hidden abilities (
  Frenzy for Goatmen, the fire res from the
  Tainted is actually an aura, ...). Small gripe, as I'm sure this will be public information soon.
• Lack of special dialogue, a special introduction from an NPC, makes it look like an afterthought. Especially
  Natalya in Act III is a missed opportunity.

I might edit this if I'm forgetting stuff. So far, any other thoughts, maybe from someone who already invested a bit more time in the class?

Yo imagine if

Death Mark was an oskill on some item and we could tele our necrohordes or druidzoos around LOL

I'm really digging the Warlock. I am also running a summon build, primarily

Summon Goatman, and

Blood Boil. I have enough bonus points now into

Demonic Mastery that I can have two Goatbros, so I get double

Blood Boil damage. I bound

Engorge to M4, so I can alternate easily to keep them up, and

Death Mark is insanely good.

I've heard you can

Bind Demon ANY demon, so I'm going to hit 30 tonight and try it out on

Infector of Souls, but I've heard you can bind

Mephisto and the like. Not sure how valid that is, but that would be disgusting.

Mikosovich wrote: 4 hours ago

I'm really digging the Warlock. I am also running a summon build, primarily

Summon Goatman, and

Blood Boil. I have enough bonus points now into

Demonic Mastery that I can have two Goatbros, so I get double

Blood Boil damage. I bound

Engorge to M4, so I can alternate easily to keep them up, and

Death Mark is insanely good.

So far going with goatmen as well, as it suits my HC summoner build better -

Tainted being a caster, I find it works a bit awkwardly with

Death Mark. Sending your melee Goatmen into the fray is more fun.

Blood Boil is nice, and I imagine it works pretty well with

Engorge to regain their health (aside from the synergy, of course).

I've heard you can

Bind Demon ANY demon, so I'm going to hit 30 tonight and try it out on

Infector of Souls, but I've heard you can bind

Mephisto and the like. Not sure how valid that is, but that would be disgusting.

I've heard from people running around with a

Fanaticism and Cursed

Hephasto the Armorer, that would be a pretty OP addition to a Goatmen build.
That, or I've also read that bound Shamans resurrect up to 5

Fallen who also fight for you (not enough sources to be sure about this). Not as good as the above mentioned, but hella fun. Make sure to test that

Might actually have to dual-lock it...

I was gonna wait until ladder hit to start a proper warlock and just play around a bit until then.
And somehow, that turned into now having a chaos warlock good to go who is 1 measly item away from essentially full BIS (anyone got a 5 OS

War Spike for me? I knew I should've kept one for emergencies...lol...same old crap).
Well, not counting the missing charms and a jewel that is as noone is trading those yet it seems. But the core gear is set.

Even without those charms though (and that

War Spike...argh!), I will say: warlocks are OP. With more than one build for that matter. It's actually kinda silly.

Given the surprising amount of valid build options though and how quickly this one got hard locked into chaos, I might just have to run a ladder lock on top, just to give the demon and eldritch builds a proper go.


Side note:
Turns out the "BIS collection" actually looks pretty solid on a lock.
(at least the one for my build)

Schnorki wrote: 3 hours ago

Might actually have to dual-lock it...

I was gonna wait until ladder hit to start a proper warlock and just play around a bit until then.
And somehow, that turned into now having a chaos warlock good to go who is 1 measly item away from essentially full BIS (anyone got a 5 OS

War Spike for me? I knew I should've kept one for emergencies...lol...same old crap).
Well, not counting the missing charms and a jewel that is as noone is trading those yet it seems. But the core gear is set.

Even without those charms though (and that

War Spike...argh!), I will say: warlocks are OP. With more than one build for that matter. It's actually kinda silly.

Given the surprising amount of valid build options though and how quickly this one got hard locked into chaos, I might just have to run a ladder lock on top, just to give the demon and eldritch builds a proper go.


Side note:
Turns out the "BIS collection" actually looks pretty solid on a lock.
(at least the one for my build)
image.png

Can you show how he looks in a rattle cage or

Tal Rasha armor?

Schnorki wrote: 3 hours ago

(anyone got a 5 OS

War Spike for me? I knew I should've kept one for emergencies...lol...same old crap).

Here is your

War Spike
trade/war-spike-t1667965.html

On topic: I have not yet played the Char but I am not very excited about the animation and general representation of the class. Those floating weapons look odd to me. It also seems somewhat awkward/stiff in combat. But I think I will give him a try. Cannot let my sons play alone (and I have one

Mang Song's Lesson left in my mules)

Schnorki wrote: 3 hours ago

Even without those charms though (and that

War Spike...argh!), I will say: warlocks are OP. With more than one build for that matter. It's actually kinda silly.

I know, right? It's a new Diablo II class, in a time where the ARPG scene is a lot more developed, which makes the other classes almost painfully fall behind. I feel that there isn't a single "useless" skill in the tree, and synergies are a lot more established.

A bit of a conundrum, as the legacy status of the game makes it iffy to give these other classes an update. I can hear the purists cry from here, and I would totally understand them this time.

I'm going full summon, with goats all the way.

Hoping to get three goats with 25% crushing blow each, hitting everything fast and heavy, with 5k life and some bad attitude.

I won't try

Bind Demon yet... but got some ideas already lol

Snowieken wrote: 2 hours ago

A bit of a conundrum, as the legacy status of the game makes it iffy to give these other classes an update. I can hear the purists cry from here, and I would totally understand them this time

I've been playing a long, long time, but I can't remember; did players cry about synergies when those popped up? Games have to grow to survive, and D2R scratches an itch we all had.

I would welcome some sweeping changes that shake up the meta and breathe new life into builds and classes that fall to the side.

Mikosovich wrote: 1 hour ago

I've been playing a long, long time, but I can't remember; did players cry about synergies when those popped up? Games have to grow to survive, and D2R scratches an itch we all had.

I would welcome some sweeping changes that shake up the meta and breathe new life into builds and classes that fall to the side.

Yeaaaahh... When you put it like that, I agree with you. There has to be a way to make the original classes still feel the same, but with some big updates to certain skills and synergies so that some of them don't feel entirely useless. I mean, when did you ever see a good guide about a

Stun barb?

One of the best examples that springs to mind that has been done quite recently (as in, post Resurrected), is simply making it possible for a Druid to have all summons out at the same time. That made a pure summoner Druid viable all of a sudden. Until

Death Mark comes along, but that's another matter...

Oh my, seems like you can equip any two-hander together with a book/shield. That is getting a bit ridiculous.