If you’re testing ES and finding it weak or difficult, please try building your own character. Maxroll has a planner which has an export feature so that you can drop that character into your single player game.
http s://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner
Make sure to give yourself a dual leech ring, insight weapon, and reach the 125FCR breakpoint.
For ES, I think the new meta is ditching demons and using curses instead. Max Hex Bane, and then dump points to Purge until maxed or you run out of points depending on level.
Hex Bane removes 50% enemy defence, and adds more than 300% to your attack rating, and then insight adds another 250% attack rating. The hit check is basically nothing now.
Hex Bane also adds 3000-3500 magic damage per blade, which deals with immunities for you.
Hex Bane also removes 25% enemy attack rating, making you harder to hit.
I used Maras and an Um rune in the book to improve my resists. I put 50-70 points into energy, but this was overkill.
Reapers Toll Might merc is probably the best. Almost everything died before he could reach them, but he was useful with Lyster, Bosses, and Heralds.
TLDR: Echoing Strike Warlock is still S Tier. You just need to change a couple of things around.
Yeah, I think most of the people having difficulty with it is the build on the test server. A slight change out in gear and skills makes it so much smoother.
Self insight also provides FCR, decent damage, attack rating, critical strike, and mana after kill. I think it’s pretty close to best in slot, until the super min-max guys get into the numbers.
I played ES for my ladder start. The only thing that the build needs to feel good is life and mana leech. I was doing around 14k with very bad gear and just outclassing my friends blizzard sorc every step of the way. I think by the time I quit at lvl88 still using an Insight I was around 17k damage.
I’m seeing people still reach the same amount of damage in this PTR , so I’m not seeing what everyone else is seeing when thy say ES is unusable now.
Yep, found the same thing. Just don’t forget to use sigils as well which speeds up aoe farming, Mirrored Blade is very good single target DPS as well and even 1 point in eldritch blast helps with sustain immensely if stuff gets on top of you.
my non-PTR ES does 17-45k + amp, (and not using a merc), because i dont optimize for damage. He performs comfortably at this level, and does not outperform other classes. Its very balanced at that damage, both in PVE and PVP. Without Amp it becomes a small struggle. There can be reduction, but reducing to 7-14k and reducing survivbility from demon is terrible.
If max damage optimization was providing 150k damage, a 65-70% reduction (not counting for loss os eth base) would be doable. That would allow around 45-50K max damage optimization and still a functional damage if opting to use magic find specific mainhand vs damage weapon.
If loss of eth base remains, it would be around a 55% reduction instead
yeah the ptr build is indeed pretty trash
no resists, no merc
and our only weapon is a non-indestructible ethereal…
but somehow we have like 6 eldrich life gc’s??? ROFL
it was slapped together by someone who clearly has no idea how to play the game
stil not quite on the level of last ptr when they “made” infinity with ber mal ber ith
but its good enough to find a couple items use a reset token, and breeze through even with no idea how to play warlock
skill its obviously still good and viable.
the crybabies are just sad they cant 1 shot p8 monsters with a wirts leg anymore
echoing strike actually balanced compared to other classes now
mirror blades is probably a bit too strong still but we’ll see. id have to see it optimized with attack speed and damage before i can make a decision if mirrored needs a nerf
Being able to reach 150K damage in this game is just stupid. If it was originally released in this state, people would have thought it was strong. It’s still S Tier. It may not be able to one-shot everything with garbage gear now, but with average gear it can still easily kill everything but heralds in 2-3 casts.
If your cast rate is 125 and you have decent leech, then it’s still a powerhouse. I’m not even playing it optimised. I’m playing it how I would for convenience, with self-wielded Insight and points into energy etc.
At 125 FCR, three casts takes 1.08 seconds. The longest wait for anything other than heralds is 1.08 seconds. If you go play a Barb, Necro, or Druid, let me know if you can get under 5 seconds for what the new Warlock still does in that 1.08 seconds.
That is why I said there can be reduction, along with explaining how reducing it to 45-50k range with optimized max damage (top gear, and merc, without amp included) would be a fair change, based on my experience with that level of damage performance.
Took your advice. Tried server combinations of gear and skill. Still found it lacking. By far did better than the PTR crap they gave us but was still underperforming. This is the first character class in well over 2 decades. It should be strong. I would even say the strongest. Right now I would settled with on par with the strongest. Is it playable. yes. But not as OP as some would believe. Just fixing the bugs from the live servers would bring it down to where it needs to be.
Outside absolute top end lightning builds no builds come close to that damage, you realize that right? Hammerdin hammers cap at 18k and they already anihilate the entire game. Oh and these build have been considered overpowered for decades.
Saying a spammable aoe skill should “just” cap at 50k is utterly insane and shows you never played D2 before RoTW.
I mean ubers have 6-800k health. You’re supposed to just kill them in 10 hits?
They may not come close to that paper damage, but they perform the same.
my current non PTR 17-45k PLUS amp ( no merc ) plays comfortably, does not 1 shot in p8, and is entirely comparable, but often below, the other player classes in the game.
And as ill keep repeating soloing P8 is irrelevant to game balance. If you’re cruising through content balanced for 8 distinct players your build is beyond overpowered.
And the best build I can manage with the warlock on the PTR was capped at 11k. Hammerdin has an AOE zone completely around him. Lock has a front cone leaving sides and back open. So 7k less damage and more venerable.
It is how Blizzard works. Example: Death Knight.
And actually it is exactly how RPG games work. Many other RPGs out there do the same thing with new characters. As for the purpose of the other classes, They all have different play styles or purposes.
If people want to keep playing the warlock sure, why not. Let them play the way they want to play. But if you want to talk about baseline forever, lets go back to the Hammerdin. Still the base line. And people still play other classes. Warlocks are new. Everyone wants to check them out. I bet there will be a bunch more warlocks next season as people play them to figure out what changes were made.
no it wasn’t.
no person who has even the slightest idea how to play the game could both afford that gear but have a character designed THAT badly.
those skill GC’s plus small charms were worth an utterly insane amount,
even with 20 years of FG i could probably not afford all that gear
but yet he cant even give himself max resists?
he doesn’t have a merc… of ANY kind? not even one that can be resurrected?
but somehow has completed quests that would give him a merc?
its obviously not a real character
I play optimized.. down to the t.. its is not a powerhouse….
and frankly.. it is squishy too… since all the demon nerfs…
Saving grace is they cannot patch all the monsters ingame with stupidity… so if you try hard enough.. its hard but you can get your hands on much needed damage AMP…
abeit not as good as before…
Echoing strike needs amp… without amp its doodoo…
with amp.. its A tier.. cause all the pokamans are weak as hell now.. hp.. cap lol…
EXCEPT for TAINTEDLOCK lol.. tainted is godly…its a pokegod…
I would argue.. its as good as the hammerdin… as long as no fire resist lol…