How the engine works
The Legion Shard's Ae'grom spawns a Vile Child every half second with the Spawn Fragment. When the counter on the skill reaches 10 Lesser Demons, you press Command Ae'grom and they all explode. Bombardment, Command Fallen and Sigil of Summons make and kill more demons, and every 200 Lesser Demon deaths make your next Greater Demon cast free. You spend those free casts on Tortured Wretch: Punching Bag, which takes your damage for you while you stand in its area. Metamorphosis: Destruction Demon runs underneath for Demonform and Volatility.
Who it's for
New players, hardcore characters and anyone who wants a summoner that works with no uniques at all. It is the lowest rated of the three Warlock builds: safe general farming, not a Pit pusher and not a fast clearer.
- Rating
- A to C-Tier
- Difficulty
- Easy — but busy hands
- Key stat
- Maximum Life
- Must have
- Nothing — works without uniques
The bar
This is the finished bar. A fresh 70 runs Nether Step in Bombardment's slot, and the speed-farm version does the same.
Free from the Legion Shard. Ae'grom cleaves and breeds on his own. Press the command when the icon shows 10 Lesser Demons to explode them all.
Press — at 10 demonsRank 15 with Punching Bag, Duration and Cost Reduction. Lasts 12 seconds, absorbs up to 30% of your Maximum Life in damage while you stand in its area, then explodes and Fortifies you.
Keep it upRank 15 with Summon Hellwyrm, Cooldown and Damage. After 16 kills it calls a Hellwyrm that copies your Lesser Demon casts. Lesser Demons deal 25% more inside it.
Each new packRank 15 with Mega Lunatic, Wrath and Dominance. A Basic skill that builds 10 Wrath, and every 15 hits returns a point of Dominance.
Spam — between skillsRank 15 with Endless Barrage, Damage and Focused Target. Recast every few seconds to keep the barrage at full stacks.
Every few secondsOne point, with Destruction Demon, Damage Scaling and Dominance. Cast once for Demonform and Volatility. A second press cancels it.
Keep it upPassives
No Key Passive and no passive nodes. All 83 points go into active skills, 14 of them from the Season Rank system. Nether Step takes 4 points with Extra Charge, Movement Speed and Shadow Recall for when it is on the bar.
Soul Shards
You bind one Soul Shard and one Fragment: the Legion Shard with the Spawn Fragment. The shard rewards you for cycling demons. Casting a Greater Demon skill speeds up your Lesser Demon skills for 20 seconds, and every 200 Lesser Demon deaths makes the next Greater Demon cast cost no Dominance. Spawn turns Ae'grom into a factory and changes his command from spewing Vile Children to detonating every Lesser Demon you own. The more demons you make and kill, the more free Wretches you get.
| Pick | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Legion Shard | Grants Summon Ae'grom. Casting a Greater Demon skill gives Lesser Demon skills 25% Cast Speed and 20% Cooldown Rate for 20 seconds. After 200 Lesser Demon deaths, your next Greater Demon skill has no Dominance cost. |
| Spawn Fragment | Ae'grom spawns a Vile Child every 0.5 seconds and his cleave deals 90% more damage. Command Ae'grom explodes all your Lesser Demons instead of spewing Vile Children. |
What to wear
Nothing here is required. The finished version does wear uniques, and the chest is the one that changes how it plays.
Uniques
| Item | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Ae'grom's Schism | Chest. Ae'grom and his summons deal 120–150% more damage, you summon his other half, and Command Ae'grom gains a second charge. This is the big jump in power, the reason Cooldown Reduction matters, and the first choice for a crafted Mythic. | Core |
| Eye of Baal | Focus. Soul Shard skills and their demons deal 60–80% more damage, and each Soul Shard skill cast adds 10% to all your damage for 15 seconds, up to 50%. Second Mythic choice. | Core |
| Seed of Horazon | Amulet. Demonology skills deal 0.4–0.5% more damage per point of Wrath you hold, and you take less damage per point of Dominance. It pays you for keeping both bars full. | Core |
| Temerity | Pants. Overhealing becomes Barrier worth 80–100% of the excess for 8 seconds. Your own demons dying count as kills, so Sadistic's Life on Kill overheals you constantly. | Core |
| Leoric's Crown | Helm. Counts as jewellery and boosts its socketed gems by 35–50%. It holds the Black Soulstone and the Splinter of Anguish. | Recommended |
| Wendigo Brand | Ring. Every 15 kills in the last 50–60 seconds adds 2% damage and 1% Attack Speed. Your demons dying keep the count high. | Recommended |
| The Fecund Seal | Ring. Sigil of Summons deals 100–140% more damage and can summon up to 2 extra Lesser Demons. An option if you lean harder on the Sigil. | Variant |
| Seal of the Diamond Mind | Mythic seal. Lowers the number of charms needed for every set bonus by one, which is what lets you run four of one set and two of another. | Mythic |
Before they drop
Play the full build from level 70 in legendaries. Craft a Stealth chest and an Ancient's Pledge focus in the Cube, and put Cir + Prid in the helm: Prid casts Dark Prison for you, so put a single point in Dark Prison. Wear Might on the helm, Juggernaut's on pants, Accursed Touch on gloves, Malicious on the weapon, Fiendish Oppression on boots, Aggressive and Remorseless on rings and Demonic on the amulet. Run Slaughter and Survival charms. Survival gives +1000 Armour and +100 All Resistance at two pieces.
Legendary aspects
| Aspect | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Sadistic Aspect | Amulet by transfiguration, boots until then. Killing your own demons has a 50–75% chance to count double, toward kills and toward the 200-death free cast, and Life on Kill rises by 1% of Maximum Life. |
| Malicious Aspect | Weapon. In Demonform you deal more damage for every demon or enemy Close to you, and you are always surrounded. |
| Aspect of Fiendish Oppression | Boots. Summoning a Greater Demon knocks down enemies around it for 5 seconds, and Lesser Demon skills deal 20% more to crowd controlled enemies. Every Wretch triggers it. |
| Duelist's Aspect | Gloves, finished build. Stacking damage for one-handed weapons. It replaces Accursed Touch once the talisman handles Vulnerable. |
| Crushing Aspect | Ring. More damage while Fortified, which exploding Wretches keep up. |
| Aspect of Accursed Touch | Gloves, early. Lucky Hit chance to apply Vampiric Curse, which makes enemies Vulnerable. |
Heavenly Strength needs a two-hander
Aspect of Heavenly Strength only gives its Damage Reduction while you wield a two-handed weapon. The finished build uses a one-hander and the Eye of Baal focus, so the aspect does nothing there. Only use it if you are deliberately playing a two-handed version.
Stats, gems and paragon
Roll and masterwork toward these, in this order.
| # | Stat | Where you roll it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maximum Life | Nearly every piece, and tempered on armour and amulet |
| 2 | Critical Strike Chance | Wherever it rolls, plus a Gar rune early |
| 3 | Attack Speed | Wherever it rolls, then the talisman's two-piece bonus |
| 4 | Cooldown Reduction | Wherever it rolls. It matters once Ae'grom's Schism gives Command Ae'grom a second charge. |
| 5 | Demonology damage and ranks | Tempered on gloves, weapon and focus, and ranks on charms |
| 6 | Movement Speed | Boots, inherent and tempered |
Hard targets
Early on: over 30% Attack Speed, over 40% Critical Strike Chance and Maximum Life on nearly every piece. Finished: 100% Attack Speed, counting the two-piece Chains of Horazon bonus, 100% Critical Strike Chance, and as much Cooldown Reduction as you can fit for Command Ae'grom.
Tempering & masterworking
Maximum Life on every armour piece and the amulet. Demonology damage on gloves, weapon, focus and, early on, both rings. Movement Speed on boots. On charms look for ranks to Demonology skills, Maximum Resource and All Stats.
Gems, runewords & Splinters
- Skulls in the weapon and focus. Sapphires in the pants while gearing up.
- Bac + Jah in the chest. Jah gives the build the mobility it otherwise lacks. Early on, use Gar for Critical Strike Chance.
- Nagu + Que in the pants for a Barrier fed by your summons.
- Soul Splinters: the Black Soulstone, because it counts every Lesser Demon you kill. The Mother for Unhindered and Vulnerable on touch. Anguish for Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance, or Hellfire in its place if costs get too high. Add Pain later for Damage Reduction.
- Talisman: Chains of Horazon. Two pieces give a bonus per active Soul Shard demon, three give 8.5% Damage Reduction per demon, and five grant all four Soul Shard demons and 200% damage for 20 seconds after a Soul Shard skill. The finished setup is four Horazon and two Rite of the Nameless under the Seal of the Diamond Mind. The set's Laalish handles Vulnerable, and every Greater Demon out, Wretches included, raises the two-piece damage bonus.
Paragon
Start board, then Dominion, Demonic Spicules, Dynamism and Fathomless. Dominion is the key: spending Dominance to summon a demon halves the Wrath cost of Demonology skills and adds 80% to all your damage for 20 seconds, and every Wretch triggers it. Fathomless adds 15% per demon summoned in the last 20 seconds, up to 105%, which this build holds permanently. Level Unbound, Eliminator and Demonologist first. Take every glyph to 50 for the radius, then to 100, then 150.
| Glyph | Where and why |
|---|---|
| Eliminator | Start board. |
| Eldritch Sight | Dominion. Vulnerable damage. Level it last. |
| Demonologist | Demonic Spicules. |
| Unbound | Dynamism. Level it first. |
| Vanguard | Fathomless. |
Mercenary
While gearing up, hire Varyana and reinforce with Raheir for his Bastion. Finished, hire Raheir and reinforce with Aldkin. On hardcore, use Raheir as your main and Aldkin with Field of Languish from the start.
From fresh 70 to finished
Nothing is gated. You play the same build from level 70 and each drop makes it a little stronger.
Legion Shard and Spawn Fragment. Tortured Wretch, Sigil of Summons, Nether Step, Metamorphosis, Command Ae'grom and Command Fallen. Stealth chest, Ancient's Pledge focus, and Prid in the helm to cast Dark Prison for you.
With both, every demon that dies heals you past full and the excess becomes Barrier. Destruction Demon's Burn stops being a worry. Swap Nether Step for Bombardment.
Two Ae'groms and two charges of the command. Start stacking Cooldown Reduction now.
A one-hander with the Eye of Baal focus, the Seed on your neck, and the Black Soulstone with Anguish in the crown.
Four Chains of Horazon and two Rite of the Nameless under the Seal of the Diamond Mind, Sadistic transfigured onto the amulet, glyphs to 150. Craft Ae'grom's Schism as your one Mythic.
The rotation
Don't touch the button again unless the buff wears off.
He starts breeding straight away. Watch the counter on the icon.
Drop it where the next pack is, so the fight happens inside it.
Drop as many as you need to survive and stand inside their area. Use every free cast on one, and try to keep more than 80% of your Dominance in hand.
Spam Command Fallen between everything else. Recast Bombardment every few seconds to hold its stacks, no more often than that.
Explode the lot, then let them rebuild.
On bosses
The rotation doesn't change. Keep Wretches under you, keep Bombardment at full stacks and detonate at 10. Save Raheir's Bastion for the boss's big mechanics. Expect long fights: this build has less single-target damage than Blazing Scream or Apocalypse.
Strengths, weaknesses, mistakes
What it's good at
- Works with no uniques, and nothing in it is required.
- Very hard to kill. Punching Bag Wretches take your damage for you.
- One build from level 70 to the end, with no respec halfway.
- A good fit for hardcore, beginners and controller play.
Where it struggles
- The weakest of the three Warlock builds. It rates anywhere from A down to C, and it is not a top pusher.
- Minimal area damage and low mobility, so clears are slow.
- Constant button pressing despite the simple idea.
- Two pools to manage, Wrath and Dominance, plus Destruction Demon's self-Burn.
Mistakes that ruin it
- Spamming Bombardment. Every cast under Destruction Demon Burns you. Recast it every few seconds to hold the stacks, not constantly.
- Spending Dominance down to nothing on Wretches. Keep more than 80% in hand and let free casts do the work.
- Not standing in the Punching Bag's area. It only redirects damage while you are inside it.
- Pressing Command Ae'grom before 10 demons. You waste the cooldown on a small explosion.
- Pressing Metamorphosis twice. The second press cancels it.
Not for you? The other Warlock builds: Blazing Scream · Apocalypse.