D2R Ladder Season 13 - Reign of the Warlock Review and Echoing Strike Build

D2R Ladder 13 is in full swing now and with it came some huge changes to the game that haven't been seen in 15 years. We got a new class, new ways to farm the end game, new items, and a fresh ladder. 

Credit: Activision/Blizzard

Let's start with the review of the paid DLC. RotW was shadow dropped out of nowhere. Several leaks predicted it, but nobody believed them (myself included). RotW was $25 USD/EUR. For this price you would expect substantial amount of content, akin to an expansion. Instead it was a new class, some much needed stash quality of life, and a re-work of the terror zone end game system. Overall it is not worth the full price, unless you have the time and money to spend on it. Personally I'd recommend waiting for a sale, but my hope is Blizzard uses the money to continue to update the game because they introduced a lot that needs fixing. 

1. The new class - warlock: 

Overall the warlock class feels out of place in D2. It feels more like a D3 and D4 class. It has very colorful spells, mostly purple, which conflict with the darker and more grim tones of D2. People complained that D3 was too colorful like WoW, so it's odd seeing Blizzard go so heavily into a purple themed class. 

As usual, Blizzard released the new class in a very over tuned state. This is common for them to do because they want to drive sales of the new content because everyone wants to play the most powerful class. That may work in modern ARPGs but in a game like D2, which is mostly played by older generations, this tactic backfired a bit. People are upset at how powerful it is and how easy the game is using this class. The class has no obvious flaws, every skill is good and powerful, and certain builds can clear the game without any good gear. This makes warlock feel pay to win because of how powerful it is. You can watch videos from Llama and Cooley to see just how over powered this class is currently. 

2. The Stash QoL

The quality of life to the stash is something players have wanted for a decade now. The game was so limited in what loot you could carry and forced people to create alternate characters to simply be mules. The stackable currencies and gems means people can horde to their heart's content and this alone makes the game much more approachable. It also comes with 5 shared stash tabs instead of 3 which further adds to the quality. 

3. The end game rework

With RotW we got a new end game system tied to terror zones. TZ's were introduced in an earlier D2R update and were very widely loved by the community. They increased the difficulty and loot for a specific area for an hour and could drop a new item called a Sunder Charm. These charms helped break the immunity of a specific element at the cost of a large negative for that same element. Unfortunately the new terror zones are now only 30 minutes instead of an hour, and sunder charm drop rates were nerfed into non-existence. 

The new system relies on a player to stay in the same game for hours (4-8 hours) without leaving. This is because there's a new end game monster that randomly spawns called a herald. The more unique/champ packs killed, the higher the odds are of a herald spawning, and the herald is the one who can drop the new sunder charm. Additionally, unique/champs/heralds can drop worldstone shards which can terrorize an entire Act at a time. 

Act bosses also drop an item called a statue and when all 5 statues are collected a new uber version of the ancients can be unlocked. Killing them drops a new jewel which is very powerful (more powerful than facets). 

Overall Blizzard needs to up the spawn rate of heralds because nobody has time to farm hours straight, and they need to increase the drop rates of sunders. Sunders were a balanced way of introducing more build variety to ladder start. Without them builds like fire and lightning require super expensive gear to work in hell difficulty, especially in terror zones which often have dual immune enemies.

4. Overall review of RotW

RotW isn't worth the $25 cost, the addition of warlock was weird and too overpowered, the new end game system needs a lot of work to be worthwhile, and the stash QoL was a huge win to the game. This puts the paid DLC as a mediocre rating to me. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone at this time, but maybe in a few months it'll be on sale and things will be better balanced.

ECHOING STRIKE BUILD

Now let's get into my warlock build for the season, the echoing strike build. I chose this build because initially I wanted to do a trapsin but with the changes to sunders I knew ladder start would be impossible on that build. My friend was going to do a fire warlock so I decided to go melee and chose echoing strike because it reminded me of spectral throw from path of exile. 

Let's be frank, echoing strike is beyond busted at this point. There are videos of people running around with no gear and clearing the hell difficulty. My experience has been similar once I got my points fully invested in it and got the demon I wanted. However, I think with the correct tuning this build can still be good but not completely busted so let's get into it. 

Leveling: You can level using echoing strike but you will be chugging mana potions non-stop, even with an insight. 

Your best bet for leveling is using ring of fire for normal and first half of NM, and demonic summons for nightmare, and swapping to echoing strike + demonic in hell. 

Demonic summons are extremely powerful and the ability to bind a demon can make the game much easier with a good demon (such as lister from baal's minions, hephaestus from the hell forge, or basically any unique monster who has an aura and is cursed). 

You can be creative with your bound demon, for instance fallen shamans also come with their fallen army, and vile mothers from act 4 also come with their spawn which work as great distractions for enemies.

Just note that demonic mastery affects how many demons you can have including your bound demon. It takes 10 points here to have 2 summons and 20+ points for 3 summons. Ensure you do not accidentally unsummon your bound demon by summoning another demon. 

Echoing Strike - Skill Points: 

Ok once you swap to echoing strike here are the skills to spec into... 

1 point - Sigil Lethargy 

This slows enemies and breaks their physical immunity when inside it so always have it down on your demon/merc to keep them alive. 

1 point into all Demon skills. 

Use Bind Demon, bound demons will be better than your summons with only 1 point into them. 

Use Engorge on corpses to heal your bound demon. 

Use Death Mark to teleport your bound demon into and out of battle. 

1 point into Hex Bane 

Hex: Bane will be something you occassionally cast to imbue your weapon which adds a little damage and survivability to fights and helps with physical immunes on top of the sigil. 

Max points in this order - Echoing Strike, Blade Warp, Mirrored Blades, Levitation Mastery

1 point into all skills to get to Mirrored Blades. You won't use any of the pre-cursor skills but you want the synergy from mirrored blades. 

Echoing Strike will be your main attack skill. 

Blade Warp will be your teleport. Use Blade Warp to get out of trouble or to traverse annoying terrain. It won't go through walls like teleport but it can jump gaps and holes in walls. It also brings your demons and merc with you so that helps with keeping them alive. 

Remaining Points you can experiment with but I prefer up to 10 points in Demonic Mastery (with + skills from gear) and then Hex Bane.

At 10 Demonic Mastery you can summon a 2nd demon and Consume it for a buff. Goatman is the best to do this with.

Note: Echoing Strike changes the spread of the weapons you're throwing out based on where your cursor is when you cast it. The closer the cursor is to you, then bigger the spread. The further your cursor is from you then tighter the spread. In large packs it helps spreading the attack out because it shotguns an entire pack really well.

Typical game play cycle: 

• Cast Psychic Ward and Hex Bane to refresh them occasionally. 
• Use Blade Warp to teleport the battlefield. 
• Use Death Mark to get your bound demon in and out of fights. 
• Use Sigil Lethargy under enemies that are surrounding your demon and merc to slow them. 
• Use Engorge to heal your demon(s). 
• Cast Echoing Strike near you in front of packs to shotgun the pack, and cast it far from you on single targets so all blades hit the boss. 

This is an action packed high APM build but most fights you can skip most of these steps to one shot everything with echoing strike since it's so powerful. 

Note: mana leech and mana on kill are huge for this build. You can self equip insight until you get those affixes on gear. 

Attribute Points: 

You will need plenty of dexterity and strength to equip your gear. Personally would recommend ~120-130 in each but ensure you keep some unallocated points handy in case you swap off an item that has attributes on it and you need to add some points to strength or dex. 

Rest of points into vitality. 

Note: warlock will get a passive that lowers requirements on gear which is super helpful and allows more points freed up for vitality. 

Leveling/Budget Gear: 

• Helmet: any rare or unique you can get your hands on, then any +1 or +2 skills helm you can get, or Rockstopper or Tal rasha's crest or Bulwark runeword or Peasant's Crown or Lore runeword. 

• Gloves: any rare, set or unique you can get then Magefists or Trang-Oul's Claws, or crafted Blood gloves (with leech and crushing blow). 

• Boots: any rare, set, or unique you can get then, Waterwalks or Infernostrides or Goblin Toes or Aldur's Advance or Wraithstep or Horazon's Legacy

• Belt: any rare, set, or unique you can get or crafted caster or blood belt. 

• Body Armor: any rare or unique you can get your hands on, then Stealth runeword, then Authority runeword. Spirit Shroud and Que-Hagans are also very good chest items to carry you to end game. 

• Weapon: warlocks can hold a 2H in one hand so target those for higher damage. 
• Insight runeword in a polearm will be best in slot for a while due to its meditation aura. Black runeword in a 3 socket mace will also work well until you get a 4 socket polearm. Even IK Maul, Tomb Reaver, Dreadfang Sword, or Arioc's Needle works.

• Offhand: Any rare or unique shield or book will do here. The rescue Anya quests for each difficulty will usually yield the best item you'll find for this slot while leveling. Other good options are runewords for Rhyme, Spirit, and Ancient's Pledge made in a socketed book. 

• Rings: Any rare or unique you find will suffice. A Ravenfrost could be helpful to prevent from being frozen if you don't have that affix on another gear item. Rings for this build aren't mandatory so they're a good spot to get life, resists, magic find, strength, and dexterity. Crafted Blood, Caster, Safety, and Hitpower rings will also do. 

• Amulets: Any magic, rare, or unique you find, especially with +skills. Amulet isn't mandatory so it's also a good slot to pickup +skills, resists, MF, and attributes. Crafted Blood, Caster, Safety, and Hitpower amulets will also do. 

End Game Gear: 

Gear Option 1: multiple great options in each slot

• Helmet: Guillaume's Face, Crown of Ages, Kira's Guardian, Harlequin Crest Shako, Hellwarden's Will, Horazon's Countenance, Coven runeword, or a well rolled 2/20 diadem. (well rolled 2/20 diadem or CoA will be best in slot here)

• Gloves: Steelrend, Magefists, Trang-Oul's Claws, dual leech crafted Blood gloves. (well crafted blood gloves will be best in slot because the dual leech and crushing blow will feel great in this build). 

• Boots: Sandstork Treks, War Travelers, Gore Riders (gore riders are bis for damage, treks for survival, war travs for mf). 

• Belt: Arachnid Mesh, String of Ears, Verdungo's Hearty Cord. (Arachnid is bis as always)

• Body Armor: Enigma, Fortitude (enigma is bis always but any of the budget chest pieces will work in this build, fortitude is best for damage)

• Weapon: Insight in elite polearm, breath of the dying, death, reaper's toll, last wish, fortitude (all are viable but BotD and Death should be bis). CTA and Spirit on swap.

• Offhand: Phoenix, Stormshield, Spirit, Ars Dul'Mephistos (mephistos is bis here)

• Rings: Stone of Jordan, well crafted dual leech ring, Bul-Kathos Wedding Band, Raven Frost, Sling ring, Opalvein (ravenfrost is mandatory if cannot be frozen is missing in your build)

• Amulets: Highlord's Wrath, well crafted +2 skills amulet (highlord's is bis)

Gear Option 2: full Horazon's set (Not as optimal as option 1 but option 2 looks cooler and is still end game viable). 

Merc: 

You can use an A2 (might) or A5 (frenzy) merc. Generally want to use A2 merc for leveling and swap to A5 merc around level 85 when he's high enough level to have the dex to equip phase blades. 

Ethereal items are always best for mercs because they can't lose durability and will come with higher stats. However, you can utilize non-eth until you find or afford better. Always itemize yourself first over your merc. 

A2 Merc: Holy Freeze (good survivability) or Might (good damage) are best mercenaries to use. 

A5 Merc: Frenzy is decent here, very fast, very survivable when geared, shouts taunt

A2 Merc Weapon - You want your merc to use insight (ral tir tal sol) but if you're self wielding insight then A2 merc can carry reaper's toll, breath of the dying, obedience, pride. 

A5 Merc Weapons - lightsabre (budget), lawbringer (in PB), last wish (in PB), grief (in PB)

A2 Merc Helm - start with Nadir (Nef Tir) or Bulwark (Shael Io Sol). 

Best uniques are Stealskull, Vampire Gaze, Crown of Thieves, and Andariel's Visage (andariel's is bis). 

A5 Merc Helm - Arreat's Face or Guillaume's Face

A2/A5 Merc Chest: use anything with good defensive stats until you find a good base to make Smoke (Nef Lum) or Hustle (Shael Ko Eld) or Lionheart (Hel Lum Fal). 

Duriel's shell or Shaftstop or Gladiator's Bane or Skin of the Flayed One are good budget unique options for mercs. 

Then use any of those until you find an elite ethereal base to make Treachery (Shael Thul Lem). 

Finally switch to a Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) or Chains of Honor (Dol Um Ber Ist). 

Note that once you get Fortitude you should still equip Treachery until fade procs then swap it out (only necessary for harder content like ubers). 

A2 Might Merc is bis but needs good gear to survive. Keeping your mercenary alive is key so use your teleport to get him away if he's about to get surrounded or is dying. Shift + belt slot will feed him potions.

Generic D2R Playthrough Guides: 

For playthrough, magic finding, and trading guides please look at my past blog posts. They are largely unchanged but I suggest you fine tune a few things that go with this build and this ladder theme. 

Overall this is an S-tier build with how broken it is and leveling with fire and transitioning to echoing strike is a very smooth and easy experience.