Melee Warlock In Depth Build & Class Guide - Dark and Darker

Melee Warlock In Depth Build & Class Guide - Dark and Darker
I've been running pretty much strictly melee warlock for the last few game wipes. I've had a lot of fun and success with the melee warlock and wanted to put this dark and darker build and class guide video together to help all of you! I hope you guys enjoy the video and find it helpful, please like and subscribe if you did, and thank you so much for the support!
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
0:47 - Pros of Melee Warlock
1:42 - Cons of Melee Warlock
4:13 - Skills to Choose
5:20 - Perk Explanation and Perk Choices
9:31 - Tips and Tricks
11:57 - Normal Lobby Gear
12:29 - High Roller Gear (What to look for)
17:10 - Damage Test
17:44 - Matchups Ranked Easiest to Hardest
25:23 - Conclusion

[@SirShmoopyofAwesometon]

This is an incredibly well-done and in-depth video. I've played melee warlock for a while now so I already knew most of this, but it's still a great refresher on a few things.

[@LuminousZeal]

Hey really great to hear, thank you so much!! Glad you like the melee warlock too, good luck in the dungeons!!

[@SirShmoopyofAwesometon]

@@LuminousZeal the new update seems as if it's going to give us the ability to wear plate armor as a Warlock. New video on that at some point maybe?

[@Seeyeay]

thank you for this, ive been running it and having a lot of fun

[@LuminousZeal]

Yeah no problem, glad you're having fun with it!!

[@bingbinggaga]

Great video! Really perfect guide on melee Warlock

[@LuminousZeal]

Hey thank you so much, glad you liked it!!

[@yea323]

really well made video! some usefull tips and ty for the timestamps!

[@LuminousZeal]

Hey thank you so much!!! Hope it helps you out and good luck in the dungeon!

[@Euthafro]

hey brother, we had a righteous warlock duel yesterday. there was a really interesting phantomize trade melee vs caster that helped me figure out how I need to play the matchup. really cool to randomly find your channel the next day!

[@LuminousZeal]

OH haha wait I think I remember you too, if you're the caster who killed me then good job man it was a fun fight! It helped me learn too. I needed to wait out your BoC, I didn't take my own advice haha. Good luck in the dungeon and solid fight!

[@itsjenks]

AWESOME vid as always man glad to see your vids doing well you deserve it. Making me wanna play meleelock again 😂

[@LuminousZeal]

Eyyy thanks Jenks! I'm working on branching out a bit especially with these new updates. Honestly your rogue gameplay looked like a lot of fun

[@itsjenks]

@@LuminousZeal appreciate that dude! and yeah I’m excited to check out this new matchmaking system they’ve got

[@Zydiius]

Loved the last melee warlock vid. I’m new to your vids but Keep em coming.

[@LuminousZeal]

Good to have you here man, glad you liked the vid!!!

[@frogonomics]

Super in depth thanks so much, im playin this ASAP

[@LuminousZeal]

Heck yeah, thanks so much, glad you liked it!! Have fun and good luck with the build!

[@CountOtta]

Super helpful guide mate, thanks!

[@LuminousZeal]

Thank you so much glad it was helpful!

[@CountOtta]

@@LuminousZeal I've been fiddling with the lock for about two weeks and never really found a build that was just right. I tried the "blade runner" one popular by Kazaren but felt I couldn't get the gear going. So having such a well formulated and bookmarked video was very welcome. You made the transition from normal to bossy tangible and plannable! Wish you the best of luck in your delving.

[@Joemama_36]

Great video I needed this

[@LuminousZeal]

Awesome thank you!! Glad it could help, good luck in the dungeon!

[@mosese1172]

Amazing breakdown my man

[@LuminousZeal]

Appreciate it! Glad you found it helpful

[@user-qp9rp7tf5s]

very genuine nice dude! killed me last night and gave my kit back and a key on top! I lost the kit u gave back again and decided to try out melee warlock. I killed a juiced fighter the exact same way u killed that golden cloak fighter, jump to get over the shield block and a headshot with BoC. very fun playstyle.

[@LuminousZeal]

Oh dude hell yeah, thank you so much!!! We had a good fight, you inspired me to try the caster warlock and I died my first game haha... For now, I'll stick with the melee warlock but glad to hear you had fun with it! Good luck in the dungeon man!

[@mellowdarkness3344]

Gotta try this! It seems pretty fun

[@LuminousZeal]

Hey! Yeah I have a lot of fun with it, you should give it a try!! good luck out there in the dungeons man!

[@gasoline9456]

I've just been running falchion or longsword but staff looks interesting for extra burst on budget kits without that much additional magic damage for crystal sword, gonna give it a shot

[@trauumatized._.5262]

Power of Sacrifice + Bloodstained Blade + Eldritch Shield + Phantomized is a fun alternative to melee warlock you can also run ranged spells too like bolt of darkness. Also great vid extremely informative 👍

[@LuminousZeal]

Thanks so much!! Ohhh true, does eldritch shield consume the dame from power of sacrifice and bloodstained blade? I assume it would otherwise you'd die quick I imaging

[@trauumatized._.5262]

@@LuminousZeal i'm pretty sure it does, even if it didn't you'd still hit for 75 with the starter gray fal. So i would say it's a fair trade. Also make sure to use Bloodstained Blade Eldritch Shield then Power of Sacrifice because of the cooldown differences. But one thing I don't know is that if curse mastery extends the duration of these abilities.

[@connerclements1664]

@@trauumatized._.5262 it does and higher will increases curse duration as well

[@LuminousZeal]

DANGGGG good to know, thanks guys!!!

[@flowstatemeta1559]

this is a viable buff build, put eldrich shield, pos, and bs blade on a barb with rage and beer and watch him 1 hit everything lol.

[@SalvationThroughFaith777]

Ive been using longsword with this build since the buffed it, it works very well, gives you at least a chance if defense and its 10 less move speed penalty than crystal sword

[@LuminousZeal]

Oh nice! Yeah I can see that being a fun way to play, I might have to give it a try!

[@asharedo]

Longsword is -30 movement speed. Crystal sword is also -30 movement speed, so they should be the same. Not sure about the different move speed penalties while attacking with each weapon tho

[@SalvationThroughFaith777]

@@asharedo youre right, i have no clue why i thought crystal sword was -40

[@NearFaII]

bruh no way i just see your video on my recomended ( I was the fighter in the templar with pavise chasing you around pre game lobby cuz it seemed like you didnt want me to see your stuff )

[@LuminousZeal]

DANG THATS WILD HAHA!!! Yeah you almost caught up to me right at the end lol

[@Wasylek1337]

subbed

[@LuminousZeal]

EYYY appreciate it!!!

[@stephencarr196]

@LuminousZeal Great guide! One questions: At what point in gearing up do you switch to the crystal sword? Are crystal swords at Grey or White rarity worth using over a falchion? My warlock doesn't have access to the trading post yet, still leveling, and trying to figure out when I should ditch the Falchion!

[@LuminousZeal]

Thank you so much! And really great question, I probably should have mentioned that more in detail so sorry about that! When you're leveling up use a falchion, you'll do more damage overall even if you struggle more against PDR. The grey/white crystal swords aren't worth running. Once you have a few pieces of + additional magical damage gear and at least a blue crystal sword then I would switch otherwise stick to a physical damage weapon as you get more of the gear.

[@MonzterDEV]

Do protection potions take all damage before the damage affect's the player's HP bar? The clip you showed around 3:50 seemed like the Barb ate your entire BoC hit before the shield wore off. So did he take 0 damage from that? Sorry this is a long question, but it stemmed from you saying that you lost the fight because of your Phantomize timing. If he ate that entire BoC hit for free, then I cannot imagine you would've won that fight even with full HP.

[@LuminousZeal]

Good question! Protection potions only absorb physical damage before affecting the player's HP but since we do mostly magical damage it doesn't really matter. So, it'll absorb the physical damage the crystal sword does but not all the magic damage from the sword + BoC. I usually kill people even with their protection pot still up. You can think of it as magic damage counters protection pots. Sorry for the long explanation but hope that makes sense!

[@MonzterDEV]

@@LuminousZeal Oh wow, I never would've considered they worked like that haha. That was a great explanation, thanks a ton!

[@emanduenas5423]

I’m the cleric that helped you with the smite haha

[@LuminousZeal]

OH HEY WHATS UP!!! Thanks for your help with that, I couldn't find a cleric for that demo for like a week so thanks again!

[@zzzenx]

hey what do you think about the new Demon Armor perk? is it good to run instead of the existing perks?

[@LuminousZeal]

I haven't had much time to play so haven't done a ton of testing but honestly I can't find a use for it haha. Especially in solo's but again I've seen some creators make it work so I can't give a definite answer.

[@bumpkin8009]

i'm pretty sure +aditional magic damage doesn't scale with the magic power bonus %, it's like aditional phys damage not like aditional weapon dmg if that makes sense

[@LuminousZeal]

I don't think it does either, sorry if I made it sound like it does. I only meant to say I'm not sure how magic power bonus scales the damage of dark reflection.

[@arvinsa4768]

Additional magic dmg does scale but true magic dmg does not

[@aasdaa3736]

@@arvinsa4768they both dont scale i thought?

[@CColetrainn]

I know add dmg doesn't scale with magic power, but maybe it scales with soul collector? I'm not sure. If it did that would actually be insane.

[@karnage98800]

Hey mate Just subbed to you, very nice content. I tried your warlock melee build, and to be honnest i dont understand. Most of the time, even full life, when i trade with almost every class, they just win. Even with 6 stacks. Maybe this build need some gear to work?

[@LuminousZeal]

Thank you so much! Yeah this build is pretty gear dependent... You can watch my snowball video to see how I did it with less gear but work your way up to additional magic damage (+11 all together). You shouldn't have a hard time except against barbs and casters. Once you have some decent gear just phantomize to get close (avoiding hp loss) and then BoC and attack them. Most classes die in two hits.

[@karnage98800]

You're welcome, you deserve it nice content, wish you the best ! Yes i tried with better gear and it's much better. Your snowball video helped me with starter kit, even if i struggle to not get hit by specific monster (like archer or 2h sword skull) Only issue is barbarian, can't trade with this HP Pool and 2H damage. Maybe i need to delay with phantomize to get another BoC? Also, i need to be sure, we only need magical DAMAGE and % magical damage bonus, not magical POWER right?@@LuminousZeal

[@Demorted604]

I’m like 90% sure I’m that barbarian you used as an example around 11:20 lol

[@LuminousZeal]

Oh shoot that's kind of cool!! Hey man good fight, you almost got me and you played pretty well. If I didn't use a blue pot at the start I was a goner!

[@angelking1989]

now with the kris dagger for warlock, is kris crystal ball combo better than crystal sword? or just alternatives for not using falchion now until getting a purple crystal sword?

[@LuminousZeal]

I think it's just a meme build honestly until you get a falchion for purp crys sword

[@angelking1989]

​@@LuminousZeal i tried it for 2 weeks now, i like it more than a falchion overall, even falchion hit harder, kris movement spd penality is way less still, falchion is -25 ms, kris + shield also -25 ms, i rather take kris at this point with shield/crystal ball depend on my setup these days ((atk recovery using kris is also way faster, same for switching weapon

[@AdoringAdmirer]

Liked and Subbed. Is this playstyle still "viable"?

[@FlamingBuckler]

Not really, they nerfed things in such a way that makes cheesing the crystal sword impossible. You can still run it, but you're not going to be getting any one shots. Melee lock as a whole is still somewhat viable as a fun pick rather than a competitive one. I run one sometimes with a 2h build.

[@nathanwieland6777]

What if I prioritized physical damage. Would the build be as effective?

[@LuminousZeal]

Good question! And actually you might end up doing even more damage especially if you use a two handed weapon. But it'll be physical damage so you'll struggle against PDR a bit more. You can also try running spells like bloodstained blade -> eldritch shield -> power of sacrifice to do some insane damage. Good luck out there man!

[@Nikobaeus]

I have a question for normal runs, cos i want to learn build. Would it make sense to use the Magic staff, specifically to crank up magic damage, instead of using the falchion?

[@angelo3981]

the falchion has much better reach but the magic staff is more of a nuke. so you sacrifice damage for reach with falchion

[@Nikobaeus]

I see, thanks. I guess he covers it in the video as well. Thanks nonetheless

[@LuminousZeal]

Agreed! Plus in normals people obviously aren't as geared so not as much PDR. I find the falcion works better but feel free to test out the staff!

[@XaviousPrime]

have you thought about trying out void blade as the weapon? sounds like bis for this build and iv wanted to use it lol

[@LuminousZeal]

No, I actually never gave it much thought but you're right that would be a really cool build... Thanks, I'll have to give that a try actually

[@user-wh2zi9ww9e]

How should i utilize the bardiche? use it against barbs since they have magic damage reduction? or for pve

[@LuminousZeal]

Yeah bardiche is still good against barbs! You can use it for pve but I like crys sword for a bit more move speed

[@CountOtta]

Had a question about the transition from normal -> HR. Lets say your trying to put a kit together for 500-1000g. How much +mag damage do you need before its actually worth HR? (I tried some budget kits yesterday but felt my clear was WAY slow) Im guessing you want to get a purple sword and a couple jewlery + hood?

[@LuminousZeal]

Yeah exactly, good question! I'm actually working on a zero to hero (snowballing) video right now so look out for that. But yeah you need a few +mag dmg pieces before it gets going. I would say stick to a falchion or other phy dmg weapon until you have a purple crystal sword and a few of those pieces. But I would just jump straight into HR and avoid PvP the first few games as you'll see.

[@CountOtta]

Makes good sense, cheers mate!@@LuminousZeal

[@nickschaefer7243]

for the math section of dark reflection, it’s hard to say how it’s calculated at times. like we started with 10 in the calculation but as you mentioned there’s the magic power bonus. BoC is listed as 15 damage and you hit for +30 as naked warlock. How the bonus % is applied is also ambiguous, like does it apply the percentage bonus one after another or add them, 60% and then 10% of that or 70%. This was NOT to say you’re wrong, i think it’s just hard to know how it’s coded. Awesome video man ily

[@LuminousZeal]

Thank you so much!!! Right, good point I guess I was just assuming but it's hard to know for sure. I wish there was some kind of training area you could load into and test damage and all that much easier.

[@grovsmed4347]

it does apply after all additional. (your math+50% magical power is just 50% more dmg

[@alexandrosk2871]

It still bugs me to no end that we have the "BoC Timeout" but Barbs can have Achilles charged essentialy forever

[@Demorted604]

Pretty sure I’m the second barb too at the end lmao

[@LuminousZeal]

HAHA you just like to make your cameo lol

[@akaThav]

Thoughts on BoC longsword?

[@LuminousZeal]

That's another fun build, if you're a parry god then go for it otherwise it's just not as good. You'd probably build strength/physical dmg instead of magic dmg I imaging.

[@b00shy68]

i never noticed dark reflection didn’t say it was dark magic. kinda just guessed it was because its name is literally “dark reflection”.

[@LuminousZeal]

Haha yeah I didn't catch on that fast I guess. And I had no idea evil magic was even a thing... Maybe they'll add more evil magic damage bonuses when the class is considered "finished".

[@HouseOfJacobWAKEUP]

I have 42 will on this set I just made. Is that enough?

[@LuminousZeal]

Hey! Yeah that's pretty high! I focus on the additonal magic damage (+11 on all gear) first but if you have that and are still at 42 will then you'll do crazy damage! Problem is you might get kited out if you dont have high move speed!

[@HouseOfJacobWAKEUP]

im too poor for that@@LuminousZeal

[@t0rven]

does magical damage work or just true magical damage?

[@LuminousZeal]

Both will work! Good luck out there!

[@Spr1gs]

would explosive bottles get past the range weakness on this build?

[@LuminousZeal]

Good question! I don't think so and never run them. The reason being is that we need to get right on top of people, if we throw the bottle at their feet for one it wont slow them and they just run away. Then we chase through the fire and take damage and if we phantomize on top of it we take double damage. The biggest weakness to this playstyle is being kited, if we could use throwing knives or throwing axes then it would help (or crossbow). Either way, thanks for your support, and good luck in the dungeons!

[@michaelklog]

to math it right it's 54,94 dmg each reflect. (10+10)*(1+(0.497+0.7))+11=54,94

[@LuminousZeal]

Sorry, for whatever reason this was "held for review" so I didn't see it but thank you so much I knew someone would be clutch and figure it out!

[@snaztw7]

Your math on the scalings with bonus additional magic damage is off, but still good job.

[@LuminousZeal]

Whoops haha I figured, thank you!!

[@aasdaa3736]

Soul collector only gives 1 damage per stack on dark reflection. Yes. So 6 dmg on 6 stacks. Idk if its worth it compared to 10percent will perc.. last time i tried it didnt work like you wrote 52damage blabla. It just adds 1 damage per 10percent magical power.

[@LuminousZeal]

I don't think so... Its 60% bonus on max stats so maybe by default only 1 damage per stack but once you get some gear like the +additional or true additional magic damage that increases the dark reflect damage. From my testing once you're fully geared it's around that 52 damage with the magic staff or a bit less because of magic resist.

[@aasdaa3736]

@@LuminousZealprolly cuz the staff has 10dmg so 20 + base magical power 40percent + 6stacks it will 40dmg + u got magic dmg stacked so 51dmg makes sense. But with crystal sword 10dmg so u do about 31dmg actually not bad

[@isindule621]

what about say a Falc with a lantern since u can stack 2 stats?

[@LuminousZeal]

Good question, might not be a bad idea to run as a secondary to catch rogues/rangers! But the crystal sword seems better overall because it scales with our magic damage and melts pdr builds.

[@isindule621]

what about longsword?@@LuminousZeal

[@M3Toasty]

range weapons would make warlock op. just think about it. throwing knives with BOC and a magic dmg build.

[@LuminousZeal]

haha yeahhh true that would be wild! I'm just saying if they nerf this playstyle into the ground hopefully they give something (but hopefully they dont nerf it lol)

[@jonhowell6380]

I don't think dark enhancement works with reflection... ur not casting anything which is why you don't lose soul collector because it not casting a spell

[@LuminousZeal]

Totally agree that it's either worded wrong or a bug but I tested and it does work for now.

[@ThrustinTheseHips]

Nice channel name lol

[@LuminousZeal]

HAHA same to you! You have good taste I see lol

[@ouzimm]

the souls do go away now. sadly i was trying it in duos. but it still got me a kill. more situational i guess

[@silaskierstein4411]

Awersome video really well explained im gonna go fuckup some pdr nerds

[@LuminousZeal]

EYYY thank you so much! Hell yeah, like taking candy from a baby haha! Good luck

[@themanwiththeplane3371]

Is this patched yet?