Alright so..following today's TZ rotation and my own curiosity, I went ahead and did some lancer testing.
Spoiler alert:
The damage really is nuts. But...
Managed to snatch her out of lvl-capped frigid just now. Cursed, fana, the whole (offensive) package. And higher level than what you'd get in Matron's Den.
Simply put, anything she touches just blows up.
I definitely get the appeal for a defiler build as she'd absolutely shine in that. Link 10, she touches one, all 10 go poof.
However, for other builds, there is a very significant downside to lancers. Two in fact. And one I fear is unavoidable. The other can be eliminated or at least mitigated but will need some serious RNG luck (or dedicated speccing so...back to demon/defilers).
First and foremost, coming from Heph and the like, these things are fragile AF. Heph can literally facetank dclone and take 0 dmg. She on the other hand gets wrecked even by normal diablo. As is, they definitely require a fair bit of babysitting and healing. For the most part, against normal packs, that doesn't matter much as they all die instantly anyways and hence don't hurt her. But against bosses, she's a pain to keep alive.
This could be mitigated by e.g. rolling Stone skin and such but you'll really need some RNG luck on your unique spawns to ever get that alongside cursed and then the right aura.
What's far worse though and what I fear cannot be countered is the lancer AI. They hesitate. A lot. And take little breaks. A lot. Like..A LOT!
Again for a defiler build, that doesn't matter much as you only need that first quick hit each time. But beyond that, looking at different builds where she jumps at multiple targets or looking at boss fights, the hesitation and pauses really stand out. Heph is worlds ahead of lancers in that regard.
Thanks to Jab, the lancer does have higher dmg output when she does hit but overall, thanks to the constant hesitation, it actually probably just about evens out. And she's just an infinitely worse tank, both due to the fragility and due to the constant hesitation before engaging a new target.
I did also try this with the Dark Wood lancers earlier. Again a 99 perfect affix roll. The general downside to them is that they don't have Jab but even so, they still also suffer from the same constant hesitation and pausing. Seems to be a general lancer thing.
Fun side experience with those though is that the Dark Wood one was so "good" that she literally broke the game. After snatching her up, the other lancers left in the zone simply couldn't hurt her anymore. Or me. Or my merc. They kept attacking all 3 of us but never landed a single hit. Meanwhile, both her and my merc just stood idle and didn't bother engaging them and her aura still affected the other lancers. T'was..interesting. Was limited to that game and zone though so no general "lancer protection" by having one.
Long story short:
Insane dmg.
Would recommend for defiler builds.
For other builds...well, I went back to Heph.
_____ Please don't add me without reaching out here first. Random friend requests will be declined.
I had a non tz heph with cursed and Conviction. I'm running Blood Boil so this combo makes the most sense. Barracks was terrorized and I hit lvl 91, so I thought it's time to get a lvl 12 Conviction aura. I created and left games until the tz zone affix was cursed. Bound The Smith only to find out the cursed affix didn't carry over. So super uniques don't get the tz affix? What a painful way to find out.
I had a non tz heph with cursed and Conviction. I'm running Blood Boil so this combo makes the most sense. Barracks was terrorized and I hit lvl 91, so I thought it's time to get a lvl 12 Conviction aura. I created and left games until the tz zone affix was cursed. Bound The Smith only to find out the cursed affix didn't carry over. So super uniques don't get the tz affix? What a painful way to find out.
Champions, uniques and super-uniques don't get the terrorized affix and you can see none have it even before binding. Only applies to normal enemies. For most intents and purposes you should be fine binding a random cursed demon and rolling the aura on it from lvl 20 Bind Demon. Just don't go ubering with him.
I had a non tz heph with cursed and Conviction. I'm running Blood Boil so this combo makes the most sense. Barracks was terrorized and I hit lvl 91, so I thought it's time to get a lvl 12 Conviction aura. I created and left games until the tz zone affix was cursed. Bound The Smith only to find out the cursed affix didn't carry over. So super uniques don't get the tz affix? What a painful way to find out.
Champions, uniques and super-uniques don't get the terrorized affix and you can see none have it even before binding. Only applies to normal enemies. For most intents and purposes you should be fine binding a random cursed demon and rolling the aura on it from lvl 20 Bind Demon. Just don't go ubering with him.
I believe minions don't get the TZ affix either.
HCL nintendo switch 6276-3649-1595 Bnet: CoralViper#114373
Is it possible to bind the Herald? I have tried twice now, with the Herald being a fart away from Death but it just wont capture. Compared to hephasto; one attempt while its at full hp and its always caught which is weird as it should be like 23% or something chance to even capture.
Having watched this thread and trying some of the recommended demons, i have to emphasize that guest monster A5 Blunderbore unique remains my favourite for the Abyss/Miasma Chain warlock build.
Having him with cursed and fanatism aura is useful, but not that necessary on magic warlock, so getting one is usualy a matter of 4-5 games looking in Frigid Highlands and Pit of Acheron.
Although his elemental resists are not that great, 75% phys res helps a lot and i've never seen one dying from monsters, yet.
Only drawback is telelock (minion not able to move after tele if you stand still), which can be mittigated by moving a bit.
Abyss warlock's overall damage pales compared with Echoing Blade build, but is usualy more than enough for casual monsters. Boss- and Heralds-fights are a bit tedious, tho, and this is where crushing blow from the Blunderbore realy shines, as i stated earlier. He also eats those annoying magical immune Greater Mummy
Are there more friends of the Blunderbore for abysslock? I'm pondering what attributes the ideal base monster should have.
Post ur offer before adding me. No PM. Only add me if u offer bin/lf. No reply after 3 days=offer rejected
No socketing service. If u get item otherwise, retract ur pending offer. Edit ur post or post "retracted" to do so.
Magic Resistant; (+40 more resistance to Fire/Lightning/Cold only if it is below 100%) Cold/Lightning/Fire Enchanted; (+66-100% elemental damage of the demon's physical damage)
Mana Burn; (useless against enemies) Multi-Shot; (only for monsters who have a ranged attack) Teleporting (an annoying skill that teleports a monster to a random spot, like The Oculus)
With this build, you just need to find a lvl99 TZ-demon with Cursed and Stone Skin and try to get the desired aura (Fanaticism for Echoing Strike or Conviction for Apocalypse etc). After that, you can change your gear and go back to your main build without respec.
It's also worth checking whether the demon retains the amount of health it has at 8ppl.
Put a skill that could target the bound Demon (like Consume, Unsummon or Enchant - from a weapon with charges) on you right mouse button and hover over the demon.
I tried the ones with Holy Shock/fire, it amps the whole screen. But for ES, I can't really hit the full screen at once, it's just directional.
The Lightning Enchant is the trick- Lister doesn't need to hit any mob (or wait for him to hit a mob) to proc amp. Just use Death Mark to send him into the middle of a pack, once he got hit by any mob, he releases a bunch of lightning Bolts around him & amps the entire screen.
Finally found a cursed Hephasto with Fanaticism aura. SCNL but now I'm playing like it's HC. Staying away from stygian dolls and scary ghosts.
Hephman.png
Nice one
From my experience, not dying isn't the hardest part, but consuming him by mistake.
I've seen my bound demon getting consumed when he wasn't even near me while trying to make sure the goat was both far from me and from the demon - bad idea, it seems to glitch. I've even seen both demon and goat getting consumed at same time.
I've changed strategy:
1 - NEVER Consume at town
2 - Create shortcuts for summon goat and Consume, so you sequence them quickly
3 - Consume quickly with the goat at your feet and far enough from demon, while he's busy with a mob that is not too squishy or there are more than one.
4 - Don't waste time farming the perfect demon, or get too attached to it, you will eventually make a mistake.
At level 20 of Bind Demon, the following skills are added:
Aura Enchanted;
Spectral Hit;
Extra Strong;
Extra Fast
And this is why usually only 1 hard point into Bind Demon is really all that necessary (especially if you're using Heph), because he already comes with Aura Enchanted and Spectral Hit, and it's not hard at all to hit 10 soft points to get the Extra Strong + Extra Fast. Even if you're not using Heph, if you're using any random unique or super unique on Hell difficulty the chance of overlap between the existing affixes and these granted ones is high, which is essentially wasted skill points that you could've put elsewhere (especially Blood Oath for similar use cases).
HCL nintendo switch 6276-3649-1595 Bnet: CoralViper#114373
List trades and earn trust
Level up as you post
Give and Receive Likes
Discreet Notifications
Avatar & Profile customisation
Private Messaging
Bookmark Pages & Posts
Use Drafts & Revisions
Attach Images
Squelches this trader, making their offers on your trades invisible to anyone except themselves. Their trade listings will also be hidden from your marketplace.
Your squelch list can be managed and edited from Top right dropdown > Account Prefs > Squelches.
PinacaTheGreat
Deleted User 91444
Hide ads
Aielke, 
BigD, 
Bing [Bot], 
chucktaylur, 
DKBam, 
Gorgol, 
Napalm54, 
raptorj1003, 
Skaijuice, 
songoffilth, 
tadkarcz, 
Thorwalg, 
BigD
428