Warlock Codex — Codex of Sanctuary

DIABLO IV · FIELD MANUAL

THE COMPLETE BUILD GUIDE

SEASON 14 · DEATH AWAKENING◆PATCH 3.1.3◆LAST VERIFIED AUG 16, 2026

Four genuinely different Warlocks, every skill point from level 2 to 70, and a plain-English answer to “am I doing the damage, or are my demons?” The Warlock arrived with the Lord of Hatred expansion, so nothing here is carried over from a preview, a PTR build or an older season.

HOME WARLOCK CODEX

◄ WARLOCK COVER

▶ PART I Understanding the Warlock 12 MIN · THE PART OTHER GUIDES SKIP

THE CLASS IN FIVE IDEAS

1 · TWO RESOURCES

Wrath behaves like mana: Basic Skills make it, Core Skills spend it. Dominance is separate, arrives slowly, and pays for your Greater Demons and your defensive skills. Two bars is the first thing that makes the class feel unfamiliar.

2 · SOUL SHARDS

The class mechanic. You slot a shard, and its fragments add effects on top of your skills. Read it as a sixth skill slot: it is where a large slice of your damage and your Dominance income lives.

3 · THREE DAMAGE FAMILIES

Hellfire (fire, brimstone, explosions) · Abyss (chains, claws, shadow, stealth) · Archfiend (the big demons and your own transformation). Your gear multiplies families, not skill names — which is why re-tagging a skill matters so much.

4 · DEMONS ARE NOT PETS

Nothing you summon is permanent and nothing takes orders. Lesser Demons are disposable fuel; Greater Demons are big, temporary, and several can be recast to re-aim them. Half the class kills its own demons on purpose.

5 · YOU CAN BECOME THE DEMON

Demonform replaces your skills with melee demonic versions for up to five seconds at a time. It is a real build (Build IV), not a cosmetic ultimate — and it is why “Warlock is a back-line pet class” is wrong.

WARLOCK OR NECROMANCER?

TL;DR

Both are dark summoners; they are not the same fantasy. The Necromancer keeps a standing army you configure once and then largely ignore. The Warlock rents demons a few seconds at a time, spends them, curses things, and can step into melee as a demon itself. If you want a stable army, play Necromancer. If you want a volatile ritual you are constantly feeding, play Warlock.

WARLOCK

NECROMANCER

THEME

Demons, Hell, forbidden bargains

Undead, death, the grave

SUMMON TYPE

Temporary. Cast, spend, resummon. Some are recast to re-aim.

Persistent army, configured through the Book of the Dead.

PLAYER DAMAGE

Three of the four builds here are carried by you, not your demons.

Strong player builds exist, but the minion identity is the default.

SUMMON RELIANCE

Your choice, per build: one build is fully demon-driven, one has no demons at all.

Structural — the army is part of the class chassis.

RESOURCE

Two: Wrath and Dominance, with separate income.

One: Essence.

CURSES

Hex: a mark that makes enemies take more Abyss damage as they weaken, and spreads on kill.

Curses are a skill category, largely support and Essence economy.

TRANSFORMATIONS

Yes — Demonform, and an entire build built on chaining it.

No.

CONTROL STYLE

Active. Summon, recast, sacrifice, transform, ritual.

Set-and-forget, with a Command-style skill on top.

BEGINNER DIFFICULTY

Moderate. Build I is genuinely easy; Build IV is the hardest thing in this codex.

Easy. One resource, one army, fewer live decisions.

THE CLASS MECHANIC — SOUL SHARDS

Arsenal is the Barbarian's. Book of the Dead is the Necromancer's. Oaths are the Paladin's. The Warlock's is the Soul Shard: a shard you slot which layers its own fragments on top of the skills you already have. It is not a cosmetic choice and it is not a small one — one shard turns your dying demons into explosions, the other pays you resource on a timer.

{{f.n}} — {{f.t}}

USED BY · {{s.who}}

When do I get one? Level 15, alongside the rest of the class's real machinery. Every build in this codex names its shard at that level.

Is it permanent? No. Swap freely, like a skill respec — and do swap it when you change build, because a shard that fits the wrong bar does close to nothing.

How do I choose? One question: does my bar make Lesser Demons? If yes, Legion (their deaths become 150% explosions). If no, Mastermind (2 Dominance per second).

What does it change about my character? Legion makes demon deaths a damage source, so you spend demons on purpose. Mastermind funds Dominance skills, so you press expensive buttons more often. Damage versus tempo.

ADVANCED · Season 14 buffed both shards: the Legion Shard's Spawn Fragment explosion went from 75% to 150% base damage and its Sacrificial Fragment from 15% to 20%, while the Mastermind Shard's Subjugation Fragment now generates 2 Dominance per second. That second change is what makes Build IV's cooldown-free Fiend of Abaddon viable at all — a 30-Dominance ultimate needs a flat income, not a conditional one. Note also that these two shards are the pair this codex's research verified; if your game shows more, the reading method above still holds: match the fragment to what your bar actually produces.

WRATH AND DOMINANCE

WRATH · THE ORDINARY ONE

Generated by Basic Skills — 10 per cast, more with their side upgrades.

Spent by Core Skills, 30–35 a cast.

Normal state: hovering, not full. If your bar is permanently full you are under-casting.

When empty: press your Basic Skill twice. Nothing is broken.

The real fix is not generation but cost reduction and refunds — Wrath Refund on Umbral Chains, Cost Reduction on Hell Fracture or Dread Claws. They scale with how fast you already cast, which generation cannot.

DOMINANCE · THE ONE THAT GATES YOU

Spent by Archfiend skills (your Greater Demons), Defensive skills and Rituals.

Generated by the Mastermind Shard (2/second) or Command Fallen's Dominance upgrade (1 per 15 demon hits). It does not simply trickle back — you must own an income.

How much should I have? Enough to cover your two most expensive presses. Banking more than that is wasted time.

When empty: your Greater Demons and your walls are gone. This is the failure state that actually kills Warlocks.

Rule: count the Dominance skills on your bar. Three is comfortable on one income. Four needs two.

ADVANCED · Some upgrades move a skill from one bar to the other, and the Fiend of Abaddon's Dominance upgrade is the extreme case: it deletes the cooldown and charges 30 Dominance instead. That single point converts an ultimate into a spender and makes your income the ceiling on your damage — which is why Build IV takes it last, after two income sources are already in place. Taking it early is the most common way to break that build.

CURSES — WHAT A HEX ACTUALLY DOES

What is it? A mark. Hexed enemies take more Abyss damage as their health drops, so the curse pays out most in the second half of a fight.

How do I apply it? Doom on a target, or Sigil of Subversion to Hex an area for 10 seconds.

Does it deal damage itself? Barely. It is a multiplier, not a damage source — you will never see a number labelled “Hex”.

Does it spread? With Contagion, yes: the Hex jumps to a nearby enemy whenever a Hexed one dies. That changes how you fight — you want enemies dying in sequence, not all at once.

Does it grow? Doom's Damage upgrade adds 1% per second the enemy has been Hexed. Curse early, then commit.

Do demons benefit? Yes, indirectly — any Abyss damage against a Hexed enemy is bigger, whoever deals it.

Which builds care? Build III is written around it. Some Abyss bars take Doom for nothing but the Abyss multiplier.

The trap: Doomfire Ritual gives maximum stacks instantly for 15 seconds but limits you to one Hexed enemy — and re-tags into Hellfire. Excellent on a boss, ruinous in a dungeon.

DEMONIC TRANSFORMATIONS

Blizzard's own material describes Warlock play as including aggressive demonic forms and close-range options, and the live class delivers exactly that. Demonform replaces your skills with melee demonic versions for up to five seconds. It is not an ultimate cutscene — it is a state you chain.

How does it start? Metamorphosis grants every Archfiend Demonform variant at once, on a 5-second cooldown. Separately, Demonic Smash (Rampage), Demonic Grasp (Tyrant's Grasp), Demonic Glare (Infernal Breath) and Demonic Swipe each turn that cast into a transformation.

How long? Up to five seconds per trigger. You extend it by triggering again, not by making one window longer.

What happens to my skills? They are replaced, and the replacements inherit at least Metamorphosis's Rank — so ranks in one skill raise your entire form.

What happens to my demons? They keep doing what they were doing. Transforming does not dismiss anything.

Which variant should I take? Sin Demon banks stacks and refunds resource when the form ends. Destruction Demon layers Volatility and self-burn for Hellfire. Terror Demon adds Ranks to Abyss skills and keeps you Stealthed — but pushes the cooldown to 30 seconds, which stops it being a chainable state.

Which build depends on it? Build IV, entirely.

NORMAL WARLOCK

▼

CAST AN ARCHFIEND SKILL
(or Metamorphosis, 5s cooldown)

▼

DEMONFORM · UP TO 5 SECONDS

▼

MELEE SKILLS · INHERIT YOUR RANK

▼

SIN DEMON REFUNDS RESOURCE

▼

TRIGGER AGAIN BEFORE IT LAPSES

WEAPONS AND THE OFFHAND ODDITY

The unusual bit: the Warlock keeps an offhand even when wielding a two-handed weapon. Most classes trade the offhand away for the bigger stick; you do not.

What that means in practice: weapon type barely constrains your build. Take the better roll, one-handed or two, and treat the offhand as a nearly free slot of stats and an aspect.

What comes from where: the weapon carries your damage stat line; the offhand is where Cooldown Reduction, resource cost reduction and Dominance generation belong.

Which skills care about weapon damage? Very few — almost all of your damage is skill damage scaled by Intelligence and your family multipliers, not by swing damage. Do not chase a base type.

Build preferences: I and III lean one-handed for aspect density; II and IV happily take a two-hander for the bigger roll.

If a future patch removes the two-hand-plus-offhand rule, this is the first paragraph in the codex to go stale — check your character sheet before rebuilding around it.

READING THE SKILL TREE

The budget. 69 points from levelling (one per level, 2 through 70) plus 14 bonus points — Season Rank on a seasonal character, Renown on Eternal. Total 83. Every build chapter here accounts for all 83, and none ends with “spend the rest wherever”.

Three upgrade slots per skill. Each active skill holds 1 Major Upgrade and 2 Minor Upgrades. Majors often rewrite what the skill is — several turn a summon into your own transformation, or re-tag a skill into a different damage family. This codex marks the ones each build takes with a filled diamond.

The categories are Basic, Core, Hellfire, Abyss, Archfiend, Occult, Ritual, Defensive and Ultimate. Only one Ultimate may be equipped. Clusters unlock in stages, so you cannot spend into a trap early.

Re-tagging is the class's trap. Your gear multiplies damage families, not skill names. Chain Whips moves Umbral Chains into Hellfire; Doomfire Ritual moves Doom; Sigil of Lava re-shapes a ritual. Re-tagging into your family is a large gain and out of it is a hidden loss — it is the most common way people quietly brick a Warlock.

WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS WORD MEAN?

The terms this codex leans on. The same definitions appear as hover tooltips everywhere else in the page — on mobile, tap them.

WHY IT MATTERS · {{g.why}}

ADVANCED · {{g.adv}}

▶ PART II Understanding Your Demons TWELVE CARDS · WHAT EACH ONE ACTUALLY IS

BEGINNER TL;DR

Nothing is permanent. Nothing takes orders. You cast a demon, it attacks by itself, and it leaves. Your only real controls are where you cast, pressing the button a second time to re-aim the big ones, and — in several builds — killing your own demons on purpose for damage or Fortify. If you came from Necromancer: forget minion management. This is closer to ammunition than to an army.

ROLE · {{d.role}} FROM · {{d.from}}

USED BY · {{d.used}} ▶

Permanent? {{d.life}}

Can I command it? {{d.control}}

What decides its damage? {{d.scaling}}

Cost / cooldown? {{d.cost}}

Utility? {{d.utility}}

HOW IT ACTUALLY WORKS · {{d.deep}}

DEMON SCALING — WHAT THEY INHERIT FROM YOU

Do not carry Necromancer minion rules over here. These are the answers for Warlock demons specifically, and the labels say who each one affects.

{{s.q}} AFFECTS {{s.flag}}

PART III

CHOOSE YOUR PACT

Four different characters, not four flavours of one list. One is a demon field, one is pure fire and no demons at all, one is curses and shadow, one turns you into the monster.

BUILD I · EASY

THE LEGION

Hold one button, fill the screen with small demons, let them do the killing. Start here.

DEMONS DO THE DAMAGE

BUILD II · MODERATE

The Conflagration

Light the ground, stand in it, throw bombs. No pets, biggest explosions.

YOU DO THE DAMAGE

BUILD III · MODERATE

The Affliction

Curse everything, cut it apart from the shadows, watch the Hex spread on every kill.

HEX · SHADOWFORM

BUILD IV · ADVANCED

The Archfiend

Become the demon. Melee windows, guaranteed Eviscerates, best bossing here.

YOU BECOME THE DEMON

▶ BUILD {{bd.num}} {{bd.title}} · {{bd.sub}} {{bd.badge}}

ONE-SCREEN VERSION EVERYTHING BELOW IS OPTIONAL DETAIL

YOUR JOB

PRESS

YOUR MAIN DAMAGE

MOST IMPORTANT STAT · {{bd.osStat}}

MOST IMPORTANT DEMON · {{bd.osDemon}}

WHEN YOU'RE IN TROUBLE · {{bd.osTrouble}}

DON'T WORRY ABOUT YET · {{bd.osLater}}

BUILD {{bd.num}} · {{bd.family}}

DIFFICULTY · {{bd.difficulty}}

This build is for you if: {{bd.tagline}}

WHO IS ACTUALLY DOING THE DAMAGE?

YOU{{bd.youLabel}}

DEMONS{{bd.demonLabel}}

The bars are shape, not measurement — no reliable per-source damage numbers exist for a class this new, so treat them as “which half of the build to fix when your damage is low”.

YOUR SOUL SHARD

{{bd.shardName}} — {{bd.shardWhy}}

YOUR JOB, MOMENT TO MOMENT

RATINGS

STRENGTHS

· {{s}}

WEAKNESSES

· {{w}}

BEST FOR

THE SIX BUTTONS — WHAT EACH ONE IS FOR

WHEN · {{k.when}}

WHY IT'S ON THE BAR · {{k.why}}

BEFORE YOU UNLOCK IT · {{k.before}}

EVERY POINT, LEVEL BY LEVEL

One point per level-up, 2 → 70, plus 14 bonus points at the end. Set your level to see exactly what you should own at that moment — and what to buy next.

LEVEL

LVL {{bd.lvl}} · {{bd.spentPts}} PTS

SPEND YOUR NEXT POINT HERE ➤ {{bd.nextName}}

◆ {{bd.nextNote}}

{{n.name}} {{n.cur}}/{{n.max}}

+14 BONUS POINTS (SEASON RANK · OR RENOWN ON ETERNAL) — SPEND AS THEY ARRIVE

· +{{br.n}} {{br.name}} — {{br.why}}

YOUR BAR AT LEVEL {{bd.lvl}}

SHARD · TALISMAN · ITEM PLAN BY LEVEL {{bd.lvl}}

L{{p.at}} · {{p.pick}} — {{p.why}}

▶THE LEVELLING STORY, 1 → 70 (READ ONCE BEFORE YOU START)

YOUR RESOURCE ENGINE

Two bars, and this build feeds them differently from the other three. If your rotation feels broken, it is almost always one of these two lines.

WRATH

DOMINANCE

▼

GEAR — AND WHAT TO DO UNTIL IT DROPS

Every slot has a best answer and an honest “until then” answer. No build in this codex requires a unique item to reach level 70.

UNTIL THEN · {{g.until}}

Legendary Aspects

WITHOUT IT · {{a.missing}}

Uniques — With & Without

WITH · {{u.with_}}

WITHOUT · {{u.without}}

SEASON 14 · Almost any unique can be upgraded to Mythic at the Horadric Cube for 4 Pandemonium Fragments, and every dropped unique now carries guaranteed affixes. Upgrade this build's engine item first: {{bd.mythicFirst}}.

“I don't have that”

{{f.q}} → {{f.a}}

WHAT DO I ACTUALLY PRESS?

NORMAL ENEMIES

ELITES

BOSSES

IF THINGS GO WRONG

WHY IS THIS BUILD GOOD?

The engine, start to finish. Break any link and the damage sags — that is how the troubleshooting below diagnoses it.

▼

TROUBLESHOOTING

▶“{{t.q}}”

PARAGON, AFTER 70

Board order: {{b.t}}

Glyphs: {{g.t}}

▶RESEARCH & SOURCES FOR THIS BUILD

Verified against the project research pass: {{bd.srcVerified}}

Synthesized (my ordering and framing): {{bd.srcSynth}}

Flagged as uncertain: {{bd.srcUncertain}}

▶ DECIDE Which Warlock Is Mine? SIDE BY SIDE · 1 MIN

I · LEGION

II · CONFLAGRATION

III · AFFLICTION

IV · ARCHFIEND

◆ I want demons to do everything → Build I · The Legion

◆ I want to cast huge spells and have no pets → Build II · The Conflagration

◆ I want curses, damage over time and shadows → Build III · The Affliction

◆ I want to turn into something horrible and run into melee → Build IV · The Archfiend

None of the four are weak. Build I clears fastest with the least thinking, Build IV kills bosses hardest, Build II hits hardest per cast, Build III has the best sustained single-target of the non-transformation builds. Season 14 note: Overpower stacking was halved (four stacks to two), which is why the old Overpower-Rampage lists you may find elsewhere have slipped — Build IV is written around Eviscerate instead.

▶ PART IV Unlocks, Paragon & The Endgame Map TORMENT · PARAGON · TALISMANS

CLASS UNLOCKS — DO NOT MISS THESE

LEVEL 2

First skill point. Both resources exist from the start, but only Wrath does anything yet.

LEVEL 15 · SOUL SHARD

The class mechanic unlocks. Slot a shard immediately — an empty shard socket is the single most common thing new Warlocks overlook, and nothing in the skill tree will tell you.

LEVEL 15–25 · RITUALS & ARCHFIEND

Rituals and Greater Demons come into reach, and Dominance starts to matter. This is where each build's identity appears.

LEVEL 30–40 · TRANSFORMATION

Demonform triggers land in this band. Build IV comes online here; the other three barely notice.

LEVEL 60 · TALISMAN SEAL

A Legendary Seal with +1 Charm Slot is the target: five set charms plus one Unique Charm.

LEVEL 70 · THE PIT

Paragon, glyph levelling and Torment climbing all start here. Your build does not change; your items do.

THE LADDER

Difficulty runs Normal → Hard → Expert → Penitent, then Torment 1–12. Torment is where endgame loot lives.

The Pit (unlocks at 70) is the gate: clear around tier 10 to open Torment 1, then keep climbing.

Each Torment tier taxes your defences — keep Armor capped (1,000) and all Resistances 70%+ before chasing damage. Warlock builds die to being surrounded far more often than to a boss mechanic.

PARAGON — BEGINNER VERSION

Past 70, XP becomes Paragon points, shared across your realm's characters. You may attach up to five boards; each exists to reach a Legendary node and socket a Glyph.

First board: Starter. First path: straight at the Legendary node, ignoring everything else. First glyph: whichever one reads your build's damage family.

Ignore stray Intelligence nodes and “+3% damage” filler until the Legendary node and glyph are in. Fill those walking back.

Attach requirements rise the further a board sits from the Starter — so place the board you care most about early. For most Warlocks that is the Dominance board.

ADVANCED PARAGON & GLYPHS

Season 14 strengthened Dominance scaling on the Warlock board, so nodes and glyphs that read Dominance are worth more than last season's sheets suggest. Re-read your own board before copying an older guide's order.

Level Glyphs by clearing The Pit; upgrade attempts can fail, so bring a tier you clear comfortably. Radius grows with rank and a Legendary Bonus unlocks near the top.

Order of operations per board: Legendary node → glyph socket → rare nodes in glyph radius → filler. A board with no glyph in it is worth roughly half of one with.

Each build chapter lists its own board and glyph priorities, because a demon-count build and a Demonform build want genuinely different nodes.

TALISMAN · TEMPER · MASTERWORK

Talisman: two Warlock sets define the class. Chains of Horazon pairs with Cage of Madness (treat them as one decision) and carries the demon-count builds; Flesh of Abaddon was fully reworked this season and is what makes Tyrant's Grasp the best single-target build in the class.

Tempering: the two manuals worth hunting are Dominance generation and your family's damage (Hellfire, Abyss or Archfiend Finesse). Temper cheaply while levelling; bricking items is normal.

Masterworking: +ranks to everything, with a large bonus hit every fourth step. Chase that bonus onto the affix your build's gear card lists first, and only on pieces you intend to keep.

SEASON 14 NOTES — WHAT CHANGED FOR WARLOCK

Legion Shard · Spawn Fragment 75% → 150%

Legion Shard · Sacrificial Fragment 15% → 20%

Mastermind · Subjugation Fragment now 2 Dominance / second

Ceh rune lost its automatic Vulnerable application

Overpower stacking 4 stacks → 2

Flesh of Abaddon fully reworked

Warlock Paragon Dominance scaling strengthened

Mythic upgrade cost 5 → 4 Pandemonium Fragments

This codex is dated patch 3.1.3 and says so out loud. When the next season lands, re-check the shard fragment numbers and the Overpower ruling first — those moved most this time.

▶ PART V Research & Sources WHAT'S VERIFIED, WHAT ISN'T

Everything here targets Season 14 · patch 3.1.3, last verified August 16, 2026. The Warlock shipped with the Lord of Hatred era, so any guide written before then — and every preview, PTR note and reveal-stream summary — describes a class that no longer exists.

PREVIEW vs LIVE · Nothing in this codex is taken from pre-release material. Where a preview mechanic and the live mechanic disagree, the live patch wins; where sources disagree with each other, the disagreement is printed rather than smoothed over. Each build chapter carries its own “flagged as uncertain” note at the end.

VERIFIED IN THIS PROJECT · The mechanics layer — two resources and their income, Soul Shards and their fragments, Hex, Volatility, Shadowform, Demonform and its three variants, Eviscerate, Lesser and Greater Demon behaviour, recast variants, rituals and Blood Ritual, Lucky Hit chances per skill, Vulnerable and Fortify sources, tempering, Masterworking, Mythic crafting, talisman sets, and the Season 14 change list — comes from this project's Warlock research pass, which sits alongside this page as warlock/glossary.js and warlock/demons.js. Every number quoted in the chapters above traces back to it.

SOURCE TYPES BEHIND THAT PASS · Official — Blizzard patch notes for the current patch, used for the season and patch baseline and for every “Season 14 changed X” line. Current build sources — the major build sites' live Warlock skill and build pages, used for skill text, upgrade text and bar composition. Community testing — used only where it agrees with a build source. Theorycrafting — never used for a number, only to sanity-check that a build archetype exists in the current meta.

MINE, NOT TRANSCRIBED · The level-by-level point orders, the priority labels, the star ratings, the damage-split bars, the engine diagrams, the troubleshooting trees and the “until then” fallbacks are synthesis. No published guide gives a per-level order; each of the four here totals 69 levelling points plus 14 bonus points and lands on the same final tree.

UNCERTAIN · FIVE HONEST GAPS · (1) Most aspect names are described by effect rather than named — the research pass verified what they do, not a stable name for each. (2) Passive and key-passive nodes are not allocated in these trees; every point lands on a skill or an upgrade whose text was verified. (3) Per-skill rank ceilings are read as 15, consistent with the shared tree structure. (4) The shard roster is verified for two shards; if your game shows more, the selection logic still holds. (5) Whether Demonform skills inherit more than Rank is unconfirmed, so no chapter claims more than Rank inheritance.

{{tipWhyLabel}} · {{tipWhy}}

ADVANCED · {{tipAdv}}