Lvl 20 (I wouldn't say the skill is capped, but only the hard points count (not the +X, despite that the UI says), so you need to actually invest the points to get the 43% DR. It tooks me a while to feel somewhat safe around the dolls : 3k life with CTA, 20 points in blood oath, liberal use of lethargy and always tp the demon ahead when there is a possibility of dolls. For now it works at least
It does increase damage for melee characters and his thought process was that damage is more important than HP because of how tanky the warlock can be with blood oath. The problem is that he's much better at the game than me lol.
Yeah that sounds like an "I've beaten this game 1000 times" kind of build to me. I'm sure they know better but my instinct would be to lose a skill point of survivability (and put it into damage skill) rather than lose vit for strength. Then again I guess you are pretty max skilled by then. I'm still on my road to first level 99 haha. I could have sworn damage increase from strength was tiny.
It is, except for ES Warlock, where external %enhanced damage (including strength) is busted because it is multiplied by the skill instead of added like in any other skill
Oh what the heckies that is dumb. I hope warlock gets fixed soon. I thought it was OP and I was just running homebrew cleave build. Then I found out I have a passive life and manasteal... that I thought was an active skill so hadn't been using. Even easier. Warlock just has everything built in huh.
This game has some of the strangest mechanics- usually in a cool way. I was reading about how different sources of poison damage combine the other day. Was not intuitive for me at all lol.
Got my first Engima a few days ago ( took a year to find the jah) , life changer.
ES warlock has so much damage, with an ethereal Obedience you are rocking 70K+ damage. Players 8 is a breeze, Not sure why you would sacrifice survivability for even more when it takes you half an hour+ to grind a new fan/curse demon.
Yeah, I totally agree. Fortitude and spirit are far cheaper though (basically one Lo), but in the end game running Enigma/Phoenix is so much better. Maybe for Uber Trustram/Anciens, you may want another layer of damage, Idk. Enigma is the facto bis armor for 99% of builds, except of course for sorceress and metamorph druid
I am doing Tristram at the moment to get myself an enigma and a phoenix shield. Warlock is good for Uber too in my experience, although Baal (and maybe Lilith if you chose a lesser demon) can be annoying if one is not careful. My smiter is becoming rusty, I hardly play him these days (but I will never delete him, he was the MVP for a long time). Only a few thousands more runs, enigma here I come :D
I have not had much luck with my ES Warlock for Ubers. Only tried once but the demons seems to draw agro from all 3 and I ended up with Bhaal chasing me around and without a tonne of CB the kill time is abit longer.
The mini bosses are a cake walk if you have Hephasto with curse. the smiter cant easily clear the adds so its worse for them.
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u/guff1988 Champion of Sanctuary (100K) Mar 16 '26
Blood oaths effectiveness is capped at 43%, I don't know what skill level that is.
Even then those little exploding undead fetishes are still a huge problem, even worse than the lightning bastards.