How the engine works
Umbral Chains with the Chain Whips variant becomes a Hellfire skill that lashes around its target every second. Every Hellfire hit adds a stack to Apocalypse: Annihilation. It needs at least 20 stacks to fire and holds up to 100, and each stack makes the blast 40% bigger and stronger. Pressing Apocalypse spends the stacks on a Hellfire blast, which sidesteps the skill's 67-second cooldown. The Ritualist Shard and Scorching Fragment keep every Occult Hellfire skill permanently empowered at a Life cost and multiply damage per stack of Overpower, and Command Valloch supplies the Overpower, the Wrath and the cover for that Life cost.
Who it's for
Players who want the biggest area damage on the class and don't mind farming specific uniques first. It handles everything in the game, and it has a dedicated setup for pushing Tower tiers past 120.
- Rating
- S to A-Tier
- Difficulty
- Easy — one combo
- Key stat
- Overpower stacks
- Must have
- Hands of the Worldbreaker (gloves)
The bar
This is the bar once you wear the five-piece Rite of the Nameless talisman, which lays your Sigils for you. Before that, Sigil of Chaos sits on the bar and you cast it by hand.
Rank 15 with Chain Whips, Wrath Refund and Long Range Slow. This is the stack builder. Chain Whips needs level 32 and turns it into a Hellfire skill.
Hold — constantlyRank 15 with Annihilation and Double Blast. When empowered by Volatility the final hit always strikes twice. Fire it when the counter is high.
Press — when stackedFree from the Ritualist Shard. Valloch adds 2 Maximum Overpower and 40 Maximum Wrath. Commanding him overfills Overpower, boosts Resource Generation (your Wrath), Fortifies you and makes him pay your Life costs.
Every 10–20 secondsOne point, with Endless Barrage. Demons rain around you for 10 seconds, stacking five times. It builds Apocalypse stacks while you move and keeps Fathomless fed.
While movingRank 15 with Fortify, Weaken and Chain Aura. 45% less damage from outside the aura. Its Fortify also switches on Tidal Aspect.
Press — on cooldownOne point, with Demonic Smash and Lesser Demon Wrath. A Hellfire leap between packs, for as long as you have the Dominance.
MovementRank 15 but only on the bar before the talisman set. Hands of the Worldbreaker only scales Apocalypse cast inside this Sigil, so stand in it.
Early — on cooldownPassives
No Key Passive and no passive nodes. All 83 points go into active skills and upgrades, and 14 of them come from the Season Rank system. There are two ways to take Apocalypse's third upgrade. Shared Damage splits an extra 50% of the blast among everything in the area, which is better for packs. Survivor Damage makes anything that lives take 25% more from you for 3 seconds, longer if Hexed, which is better for bosses and pushing.
Soul Shards
A Warlock binds exactly one Soul Shard and one Fragment. This build uses the Ritualist Shard with the Scorching Fragment and nothing else. Almost every skill on the bar is an Occult skill, so the shard's per-Overpower bonus applies to all of them. Scorching makes every Occult Hellfire skill permanently empowered, but each cast then consumes 4% of your Maximum Life, more as Volatility stacks. The answer is Command Valloch, not merely having Valloch summoned: while you have siphoned his power, Valloch pays 100% of those Life costs for you. That is why you re-press it every 10 to 20 seconds.
| Pick | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Ritualist Shard | Grants Summon Valloch. Occult skills deal 3.5% more damage per stack of Overpower and gain 10% size per 2 stacks. At 4 or more stacks, Occult Hellfire skills have a 30% chance to grant Volatility for 4 seconds when cast. |
| Scorching Fragment | Occult Hellfire skills are always empowered and consume 4% of your Maximum Life. Volatility stacks up to 3 times, each adding 10% damage and 1% Life cost. Command Valloch also Fortifies you for 8% of Maximum Life and makes Valloch pay all Life costs while siphoned. |
| Valloch | Passive: +2 Maximum Overpower and +40 Maximum Wrath. Commanded: overfills Overpower by 1 and raises Resource Generation. The Hemat Stone triples all of this. |
What to wear
One pair of gloves makes the build work and three more uniques make it strong. The talisman set matters as much as any of them.
Uniques
| Item | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Hands of the Worldbreaker | Gloves. Apocalypse deals up to 290–350% more damage when cast inside Sigil of Chaos, based on the kills the Sigil has stored, and Apocalypse becomes a Sigil skill. Get these first. | Mandatory |
| Fleshwrit Carapace | Chest. Sigil skills deal 70–90% more damage, active Sigils gain a kill every second, and unused kills are saved when they expire. It works on Apocalypse because the gloves make it a Sigil skill. | Core |
| Scepter of the Three | Two-handed mace. Hitting with non-Ultimate skills builds up Ultimate damage, up to 100 times, and it resets after the Ultimate ends. Umbral Chains stacks it while it stacks Annihilation. | Core |
| Moloch's Beating Flame | Amulet. Hellfire skills deal 13–20% more damage for every skill empowered by Volatility, and you have up to five. Drops from The Butcher. First choice for your crafted Mythic, then the gloves, then the Scepter. | Core |
| The Hemat Stone | Unique charm. Bonuses from Command Valloch, the Ritualist Shard and its Fragment have 200% increased Potency, which triples them, and Occult skills deal more damage on top. | Charm |
| Helm | Helm. There are two ways to run it. Crown of Lucion gives 5–7.5% damage per Wrath-costing cast, up to six stacks, but raises costs by 30% each, so pair it with Ring of Starless Skies. Leoric's Crown boosts its socketed gems by 35–50% and holds two Soul Splinters. Take Lucion if you have the ring, Leoric's if you don't. | Recommended |
| Footfalls of the Waning World | Boots. Your Evade becomes Nether Step, with its 60% Damage Reduction upgrade, which frees a bar slot. They need either Attacks Reduce Evade Cooldown or Maximum Evade Charges to be worth wearing. The alternative is legendary boots with Rallying Reversal. | Variant |
| Anathema of the Primes | Unique charm. Replaces The Hemat Stone for speed farming. Rampage becomes a Core skill that costs Wrath, so you can leap far more often, and Core skill hits make enemies take 15–20% more from you. | Variant |
Before they drop
With no uniques, run Doom, Umbral Chains, Command Valloch, Sigil of Chaos with Hellfire Aura, Nether Step and Apocalypse. Cast the Sigil on cooldown and fight inside it. Wear a Stealth chest crafted from Tal and Eth, an Overwhelming two-hander, Ignition gloves, an Undying helm, Misanthropic pants, Accursed Touch boots, Cremator's and Vehement Brawler's rings and a Scorching Heat amulet, with Slaughter charms and two Nameless charms in the talisman. One or two Sigil Duration tempers keep Sigil of Chaos up permanently.
Legendary aspects
| Aspect | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Tidal Aspect | Amulet by transfiguration, boots until then. Raises your Maximum Overpower while Fortified. More stacks means more Ritualist damage on everything. |
| Overwhelming Aspect | Ring, or the weapon before the Scepter. Occult skills deal more damage to Elites per stack of Overpower, doubled against Hexed enemies. |
| Misanthropic Aspect | Pants, at every stage. With no more than one demon alive for over 2 seconds you gain 45% Damage Reduction, and damage you take refills Dominance. |
| Aspect of Rallying Reversal | Boots, midgame on. Crowd controlling an enemy or staggering a boss gives 15% Damage Reduction for 4 seconds. |
| Undying Aspect | Helm, early. Each cast heals 2–3% of Maximum Life. The stopgap against Scorching's Life cost until you have Life on Hit on the weapon. |
| Aspect of Ignition | Gloves, until Hands of the Worldbreaker. Volatility-empowered skills deal 60% more and Volatility has a 40% chance to persist. |
| Aspect of Scorching Heat | Amulet early, ring midgame. Hellfire skills gain damage equal to 80–120% of your Fire Resistance damage reduction. The reason to stack Fire Resistance. |
| Cremator's Aspect | Ring. With 4 or more Overpower, Fire skill casts deal 65% more damage. |
Vulnerable is not automatic
Nothing on the finished bar applies Vulnerable by itself. There are two ways to get it. Early on wear Aspect of Accursed Touch, then take Sigil of Chaos: Sigil of Smoke once the talisman lays Sigils for you. Or temper the weapon with the Lucky Hit chance to make enemies Vulnerable. Pick one and check it is working, because Vulnerable Damage is one of your main multipliers.
Stats, gems and paragon
Roll and masterwork toward these, in this order.
| # | Stat | Where you roll it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vulnerable Damage | Gloves, rings and amulet |
| 2 | Critical Strike Damage | Weapon, gloves, rings and amulet |
| 3 | Critical Strike Chance | Gloves, rings, amulet and the weapon temper. Leave it until the talisman set is complete. |
| 4 | Fire and All Damage multipliers | Transfigurations. A Fire multiplier is the best result in any slot. |
| 5 | Attack Speed | Rings and helm transfigurations. Not on gloves or amulet. |
| 6 | Willpower | Helm, chest, weapon and pants |
| 7 | Maximum Life | Everywhere it can roll, and tempered on the helm |
| 8 | Armour and resistances | Chest, pants and boots. Fire, Lightning and Poison are the dangerous ones. |
Hard targets
100% Critical Strike Chance, counting the 20% from the Abyssal Splinter of Anguish. Get at least one of each resistance across gear, gems and charms. Farm Paragon to 250, ideally closer to 280.
Tempering & masterworking
Damage per Overpower Stack on gloves and both rings. Critical Strike Chance on the weapon. Maximum Life on the helm, Armour on the chest, a single resistance on the pants, Movement Speed on boots and amulet. Masterwork Maximum Life on helm and chest, Critical Strike Damage on gloves and amulet, All Resistance on pants, Movement Speed on boots, and All Damage or Vulnerable Damage on rings. You also need healing: roll Life on Hit on the weapon.
Gems, runewords & Splinters
- Two Rubies in the weapon for the Fire damage multiplier, and two Sapphires in the helm for Willpower.
- Igni + Que in the chest. Igni banks Offering every 0.3 seconds and Que spends it on a Barrier. Before that, Zan + Que, because Zan gains Offering whenever you cast an Ultimate.
- Cir + Lac in the pants for Lac's Damage Reduction shout. If you are still dying, swap the second rune for Mot.
- Soul Splinters, in this order: Anguish for 20% Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance, then Pain for 25% Damage Reduction, then the Black Soulstone for stacking damage on kills.
- Talisman: five-piece Rite of the Nameless plus The Hemat Stone. Two pieces start a 60-second Ritual worth 100% rising to 200% damage. Three add 20% to 40% Damage Reduction. Five make any Sigil skill create every base Sigil at once, and you deal 200% more to enemies inside them. Apocalypse counts as a Sigil skill, so every blast lays the lot.
- Charm stats: ranks to Hellfire or Occult skills, All Stats, and resistances. There is no useful Mythic seal for this build.
Paragon
Start board, then Ritualism, Chaos, Greater Hex and Fathomless. Ritualism gives 90% damage for 20 seconds after a Sigil cast. Chaos gives Occult skills 100% more while you hold Overpower. Greater Hex makes Hexed, Vulnerable or Weakened enemies take 75% more and deal 25% less. Fathomless adds 15% per demon summoned in the last 20 seconds, up to 105%, which Bombardment keeps full. There is a choice on the last board: Pyrosis gives Hellfire skills 450% more against Healthy enemies, which is strong while you one-shot packs and nearly worthless on a long boss fight. Take Fathomless. Under 200 Paragon points, go Pyrosis, Chaos, Greater Hex, then Ritualism to reach the legendary nodes quickly, and rebuild later. Glyphs go to 50 first, then 100, then 150.
| Glyph | Where and why |
|---|---|
| Superiority | Start board. For Tower pushing, swap it for Hellforge to squeeze out more Hellfire damage. |
| Unbound | Ritualism. Boosts Magic nodes in its radius. |
| Wrath | Chaos. Critical Strike Damage from Willpower. |
| Occultist | Greater Hex. Occult skill damage. |
| Empowered | Fathomless. Overpower damage per stack. |
Mercenary
Hire Raheir for survivability and Inspiration, with Ground Slam, Bastion and Raheir's Aegis. Reinforce with Aldkin using Field of Languish, triggered when you cast any skill in combat. Early on, hire Varyana instead for healing and more Vulnerable uptime.
From fresh 70 to finished
This is a respec, not a continuation. Keep playing Blazing Scream until the gloves drop if you prefer.
Doom, Umbral Chains, Command Valloch, Sigil of Chaos, Nether Step and Apocalypse, in legendaries. Ritualist Shard and Scorching Fragment from the start. Wear Undying until your weapon has Life on Hit. This assumes Torment 1 is unlocked.
Go for these straight away. Apocalypse now scales with the kills stored in your Sigil of Chaos and counts as a Sigil skill.
Five-piece Rite of the Nameless and The Hemat Stone, plus Fleshwrit Carapace, Scepter of the Three and Moloch's Beating Flame. The set now lays your Sigils, so the bar changes to Bombardment, Dark Prison and Rampage in place of Doom, Sigil of Chaos and Nether Step.
Crown of Lucion with Ring of Starless Skies, Overwhelming on the second ring, and 100% Critical Strike Chance with the Splinter of Anguish.
Craft one Mythic, Moloch's Beating Flame first. Take glyphs to 150 and chase Fire multiplier transfigurations in every slot. For Tower pushing, swap Superiority for Hellforge.
The rotation
At the start of every run, then every 10 to 20 seconds. It is your Overpower, your Wrath and the thing paying your Life costs.
Chain Whips hits everything around the target each second, and every hit is a stack.
It can be cast on the move. Keep at least one stack running so Fathomless stays full.
There are two ways to time it. Waiting for 100 stacks gives the biggest blast. Firing from about 50 keeps the pace up and the area is still large. Go to 100 in open rooms and on tough packs, and fire sooner in tight corridors. Under 20 it won't fire at all.
Weaken, Fortify and 45% Damage Reduction, and the Fortify keeps Tidal Aspect on.
As long as Dominance allows. With Footfalls, Evade is Nether Step instead and brings its Damage Reduction.
On bosses
The loop doesn't change: chains, Valloch, blast at high stacks. Take Survivor Damage on Apocalypse if bosses are your focus. If you run Anathema of the Primes, hit the boss once with Rampage to apply its damage-taken bonus before you start building.
Strengths, weaknesses, mistakes
What it's good at
- The largest area damage on the class. A full blast clears the screen.
- Simple to play once it is geared: build, press Valloch, fire.
- Comes online quickly after a single unique.
- Enormous burst, and a proven pusher in the Tower's highest tiers.
Where it struggles
- A combo build. Damage has to ramp before every blast.
- Mediocre mobility, and hard to make tanky.
- Needs specific uniques and a complete talisman set to perform properly.
- The mechanics are confusing at first, and nothing about it carries over from levelling.
Mistakes that ruin it
- Forgetting Command Valloch. Scorching Fragment drains your Life on every cast. Valloch only pays for it while his power is siphoned, so having him out is not enough.
- No healing on the build. Roll Life on Hit on the weapon, and wear Undying until you have it.
- Letting Sigil of Chaos drop before you own the talisman set. Hands of the Worldbreaker gives nothing to an Apocalypse cast outside it.
- Firing Apocalypse too early. Each stack is 40% size and damage. A 20-stack blast is small and weak.
- Thinking you bind many shards. You bind one Soul Shard and one Fragment. There are four shards and twelve fragments to choose from, and you equip one of each.
- Assuming Vulnerable is handled. Choose Accursed Touch, Sigil of Smoke or the weapon temper, and check it.
Not for you? The other Warlock builds: Blazing Scream · Ae'grom Summoner.