My experience with ES Warlock after Patch 3.2

Since we hear left and right how horribly nerfed the Warlock was and Echoing Strike Builds are absolute trash now, i wanted to share my own experience with how my Build holds up now.

Now i wanna make clear i didn't spent a lot of time min maxing anything and my gear is decent sure, but far from the best you can get. Here is my current Build: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/rbqfcc03

I have bound a Stygian Fury as my Demon since they have Amplified Damage built into their Skilltree. Meaning in need only 1 Hardpoint in Bind Demon and still can profit from the "cursed" affect. The curse procs fairly often and even if not, with the consumed Goatman and the CTA Buff i got enough damage output to easily manage P8. Does everything melt like Ice cream in the sun like before? No surely not. But from my experience we are far far away from the build being trash!
I did some Herald hunting already and T5 Heralds are a bit more of a challenge and depending on the combination of Monster and Buffs can be a bit of a pain. But definitely manageable. I have not tried Ubers or Uber Ancients until now.

I think its fair to say, that the ES Build is much more balanced than before. As fun as it was to obliterate everything in the beginning, as boring it became since there was no more challenge at all.

PS: If anyone has some tips for my Build, be my guest to enlighten me =)

imo, bosses and Stone skin, phys inmune are too much of a pain in the ass now, even with purge build. the % in curse chance was the biggest nerf

As I said when the nerfs were announced, I didn't expect to need to change anything about my build to continue to be effective, and that has proven to be true.

I think the complaints are overstated and just a case of comparing the current state to the insanely busted state.

I was rocking some mediocre items (I really wanted to have Horazon's Splendor), but now I have to step up. I invested 20 points into Bind Demon, so now I think it's wise to respec. Gotta rebuild the whole character and try to find endgame gear, I guess it was working because Echoing Strike was busted, but now my character is absolute dogsh*t without my Conviction / cursed demon proccing nonstop

I also play ES, the only thing I had to change was my weapon. Now I run with an ethereal Axe with the Death runeword.My mercenary has an Infiniti Bone breaker in his backpack and I must say it's going quite well. The whole thing is completed by the Raven Ice Phoenix shield and the Gore Rider Boots a protector Stone inserted into the helmet. What do you think?

varangium wrote: 2 months ago

dopfer wrote: 2 months ago

Since we hear left and right how horribly nerfed the Warlock was and Echoing Strike Builds are absolute trash now, i wanted to share my own experience with how my Build holds up now.

Now i wanna make clear i didn't spent a lot of time min maxing anything and my gear is decent sure, but far from the best you can get. Here is my current Build: https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/rbqfcc03

I have bound a Stygian Fury as my Demon since they have Amplified Damage built into their Skilltree. Meaning in need only 1 Hardpoint in Bind Demon and still can profit from the "cursed" affect. The curse procs fairly often and even if not, with the consumed Goatman and the CTA Buff i got enough damage output to easily manage P8. Does everything melt like Ice cream in the sun like before? No surely not. But from my experience we are far far away from the build being trash!
I did some Herald hunting already and T5 Heralds are a bit more of a challenge and depending on the combination of Monster and Buffs can be a bit of a pain. But definitely manageable. I have not tried Ubers or Uber Ancients until now.

I think its fair to say, that the ES Build is much more balanced than before. As fun as it was to obliterate everything in the beginning, as boring it became since there was no more challenge at all.

PS: If anyone has some tips for my Build, be my guest to enlighten me =)

This is pretty interesting that the build still holds up well, considering the build is far from GG gear. Only 1 eldtritch skiller, arioc's is regular not ethereal and only +3 skills, no opalveins, no Protector's Stone, no 2/20 Circlet.

That is what i was trying to say. I am doing well, not great but realy well, at this state. This concludes in my eyes, that with GG gear ES Warlocks still is one of the best builds.

It also is an example why i love this game so much. Even if you do not use the best of the best gear, min max everything or prefer one playstyle over another; with a little bit of try and error and endurance you'll manage just fine.

varangium wrote: 2 months ago

dopfer wrote: 2 months ago

...

This is pretty interesting that the build still holds up well, considering the build is far from GG gear. Only 1 eldtritch skiller, arioc's is regular not ethereal and only +3 skills, no opalveins, no Protector's Stone, no 2/20 Circlet.

especially since he is running a dru torch, so thats another 3 skillpoints you can get. The only expensive item is the nigma which is mainly QoL (yeah and clear speed since lower travel times). Any other class in classic LoD would hardly be hell capable with equal good gear. The Warlock was just that overpowered that even after the nerf its extremely strong (especially on low gear comparison) but ppl still complain. They want zero effort into build and one click vaporize everything.

Thanks for sharing. I saw Maxroll's guide for ES was updated to use Void. Would you say it's worth keeping Arioc's Needle? I was fortunate with an ethereal 4+ drop and was wondering if I should socket it with a Lo.

Prysmos wrote: 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing. I saw Maxroll's guide for ES was updated to use Void. Would you say it's worth keeping Arioc's Needle? I was fortunate with an ethereal 4+ drop and was wondering if I should socket it with a Lo.

I would say at least for me it works with Arioc's Needle. If you wanna socket a Lo i can't tell you and you need know for your self. I honestly dont know the Numbers enough to give well-founded advise here.

Also i noticed the build on Maxroll uses Hex Purge for Magic Dmg and with that Void absolutely makes more sense!

so any consensus on skill distribution post patch 3.2 on es warlock?

weegee wrote: 2 months ago

so any consensus on skill distribution post patch 3.2 on es warlock?

I guess a pure physical build is not the way to go anymore and you need to finde some sort of combination with Hex Purge

weegee wrote: 2 months ago

so any consensus on skill distribution post patch 3.2 on es warlock?

Go max Hex Purge and focus on magical damage for fast AoE clearing, 1 point in Echoing Strike and 20 in Mirrored Blades is sufficient for this. Go for the old physical ES build for better boss kills, and find a demon that curses monsters reliably for you like a hell witch, a multishot Venom lord, or a Holy Freeze demon (better against groups but not great vs single target).

Both builds work fine, one is simply better for TZ farming while the other is better is for boss killing (including ubers).

I tried Colossal Ancients with my build https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/i253pa0w .
Disaster it doesn't work, there is no damage, physical ES is over. Demon cursed