Warlock Pure Summoner - 5th Skill to Max: Summon Defiler? Summon Goatman? Blood Oath? Other?

Hi

I'm at L78, playing Warlock "Pure Summoner"
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I mainly only use buffs/debuffs ( Sigil Lethargy, Death Mark and Engorge), while my Act 2 Merc and Minions ( Summon Goatman, Summon Defiler and Bind Demon) do all the killing.
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I like the playstyle, and I have no serious offensive or defensive issues
(I haven't died yet and only get closer to die once - mostly because of slow down... - and can clear areas and kill bosses satisfactorily )

That said, I've already maxed:
- Bind Demon
- Demonic Mastery
- Death Mark
- Sigil Lethargy

And I'm thinking about the next skill to max.

I want to maintain my current playstyle/build, so I don't want to invest in a direct attack spell ( Blood Boil, Echoing Strike, Apocalypse, etc...), not to mention they wouldn't be very effective without the points in their synergies...

I don't think it's worth spending points on:

- Engorge
Current L22 (35 ias) is already the max ias possible

So I think my options are:

- Summon Defiler
Shared damage is 54% (L23) and it increases up to 58% (L38) which represents a 7.4% increase in all my AoE damage

- Summon Goatman
When maxed I will have a 35.5% increase in damage
-- Current damage (L23)

Damage: 2585–3008
Attack Rate: 28 frames (0.89 hits per second)
Damage per Second: 2491

-- Maxed damage (L42)

Damage: 3537–4045
Attack Rate: 28 frames (0.89 hits per second)
Damage per Second: 3376

- Blood Oath
Since people are saying that the tooltip is wrong and only hard points affect the redirect % bonus, I can go from 5% redirect to 43% redirect !!!

- Another skill?
(At some point I thought about Hex Bane/ Hex Purge/ Hex Siphon. but they don't help my Minions damage ...)

OBS: numbers from https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner

Personally would go for Blood Oath max (or as high as possible).
It boosts your demons and buffs yourself aswell in the process.

Consume?

@ lvl 20 lasts 440 sec, and (apparently) you gain the attributes of the consumed demon.

can the defiler or Goatman spawn with an aura?

1 - As a "Pure Summoner" I don't attack
so I keep the 3 demons alive.
as Consume bonus only apply to myself not to my minions...
(ex: Consume my Summon Goatman will not increase my other minions' physical damage and Consume my Summon Tainted or Summon Defiler will not increase my other minions' fire/magic damage)

2 - Summon Defiler or Summon Goatman cannot spawn with auras (and neither have any random properties/abilities, they always spawn with the same properties/abilities)

krathkor wrote: 5 months ago

Consume?

@ lvl 20 lasts 440 sec, and (apparently) you gain the attributes of the consumed demon.

can the defiler or Goatman spawn with an aura?

What did you end up choosing?

Blood Oath

Afura wrote: 3 months ago

What did you end up choosing?

For pure warlock summon build, i recommend bow as a backup weapon with max in mirror blades, it works wonder and u actually deal pretty good damage as well.

fredkid wrote: 3 months ago

Blood Oath

Good choice

d2rppa69 wrote: 3 months ago

For pure warlock summon build, i recommend bow as a backup weapon with max in mirror blades, it works wonder and u actually deal pretty good damage as well.

Nice. I didn't think about that.

Hi, i want to respec my level 98 WL into summoner this weekend to check it out. Here some questions that came up.

Im not sure what to max out. Mastery, Bind Demon for damage are safe. I guess deathmark too. Is Engorge better than bloodoath, like some guides suggest?

I would like to test the bow combo build as well but im not sure where to take the points from. Should i just split the points evenly or are there some breakpoints i need to reach on skills like Engorge, deathmark, bloodoath or defiler?

Is faster cast rate important for the build besides faster teleporting?
Thx

Sigil Lethargy do not has - physical resistance after last patch , so no much reason to max it...
And without Sigil Lethargy I think maximizing Death Mark is not a good idea either...

- Before patch my skill are
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Death Mark 20
Sigil Lethargy 20
Blood Oath (the rest)
(Pure Summoner Warlock)

- After the patch
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Sigil Death 1
Sigil Lethargy 1 (just against bosses and Herald after all minions are killed...)
Blood Boil 20
Blood Oath 20
Engorge (the rest)
( Blood Boil warlock)

fredkid wrote: 3 weeks ago

Sigil Lethargy do not has - physical resistance after last patch , so no much reason to max it...
And without Sigil Lethargy I think maximizing Death Mark is not a good idea either...

- Before patch my skill are
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Death Mark 20
Sigil Lethargy 20
Blood Oath (the rest)
(Pure Summoner Warlock)

- After the patch
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Sigil Death 1
Sigil Lethargy 1 (just against bosses and Herald after all minions are killed...)
Blood Boil 20
Blood Oath 20
Engorge (the rest)
( Blood Boil warlock)

That sounds good to me.
And for bowlock combo build i would ignore Blood Boil completly and take the rest of Oath and Engorge.

Edit: but whats with deathmark. I thought its important to lower the defense of bosses?

Death Mark. I thought its important to lower the defense of bosses?

...and to position the minions (I think this is even more important than the defense debuff)
I have 1 point in it, I don't include in the list, because it is pre-requisite from the others
I Included Sigil Lethargy just to make clear that I still use it even using Sigil Death as main Sigil

Bertram The Cursed wrote: 3 weeks ago

fredkid wrote: 3 weeks ago

Sigil Lethargy do not has - physical resistance after last patch , so no much reason to max it...
And without Sigil Lethargy I think maximizing Death Mark is not a good idea either...

- Before patch my skill are
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Death Mark 20
Sigil Lethargy 20
Blood Oath (the rest)
(Pure Summoner Warlock)

- After the patch
Bind Demon 20
Demonic Mastery 20
Sigil Death 1
Sigil Lethargy 1 (just against bosses and Herald after all minions are killed...)
Blood Boil 20
Blood Oath 20
Engorge (the rest)
( Blood Boil warlock)

That sounds good to me.
And for bowlock combo build i would ignore Blood Boil completly and take the rest of Oath and Engorge.

Edit: but whats with deathmark. I thought its important to lower the defense of bosses?

Ive tested a bit and the super strong demon is very nice with Sigil Death and defiler. But the switch from Cleave to pure summoner was a bit too much. The bloodboiling- Engorge rotation isnt mine and in moments with bigger mobs i often felt bad not being able to attack.

In the end i ve chosen a light variant of pure Hex Purge Echoing Strike, so i can try out bowlock later too. It works well and its definitly a bit different and more fun to play with a max damage demon than with those you just use for the curse proc. However i was unlucky in demon rolling.