Unholy Caster Paladin (Warlock)

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Lynderika
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Basics : Overview - Gear - Skills
Showcase : Videos
F.A.Q





Introduction

Unholy caster is fun, and to me the perfect representation of a well balanced class. Not op, yet play just right through the whole game in good hands, and never encounter any technical issues or places it is weak. SSF can go very far, and yet the build also scale well with investment. As for tankyness, it start off average, become really good after getting Blessed Life passive at lvl 115, then is top tier in end game.
Anyway, If you could ask me to set in stone one build, not change it forever and take it as exemple of well done balance and mechanic, I'd for sure pick this one. It's just nice all around.

I decided to keep this a Miniguide because Cube's old one (I played it !) is still mostly relevent in many part, very complete and well written. It cover many question a new player might have, such as details on how to craft tiered uniques/honorific/Shrine craft. So my goal here only will be to give an up to date general direction and put some videos, without going into the details of game mechanics or anything.







Overwiew


Image


  • Skill priority : Mind Flay > Tainted Blood > Slayer > Elemental Wisdom > Blessed Life > Stormlord > Endurance. This here show a lvl 142 tree.
    Take the others as they are available, Spark of Hope can start with 5 points at first. If mindflay mana cost get too overwhelming at some point, put some in slayers.
  • "Enough for gear" details : 88 str & 90 dex will be enough to equip the core T3 uniques. 180 str and 187 dex will be enough to get theses to T4, and get a T3 belt and armor. In general, do not invest too much in thoses, if possible not at all, equipping better gear isn't always worth losing too much energy/vit points. Let +str/dex mystics orbs on honorifics, Stormlord, Charms, and -requirements jewels / orbs do the job. After getting 110 charm is the good moment to equip low requirement sacred, and anything afterward should be possible to equip with 0 str or dex invested.
  • Energy increase the base damage of spells but has diminushing returns, here you can see some breakpoints
    ► Show Spoiler

    Going for only 1580 energy for more vitality or the usual 2100 for more offense are both good choice, it depends on your needs. I recommend 1580 more. Less than 1500 can come with the malus of being a bit low on mana sometime.
  • 105 hit recovery is fine too depending on your gear but do try to aim for 194


Alternative skillplans (lvl 140+)


One possibility is to remove stormlord points to get specialization and increase warlock skills but I don't like at all sacrifying 200 all attributes. what I recommend more is to use specialization only if you can afford to remove points from elsewhere after getting well geared, like Elemental wisdom and Blessed life. For example :

  • Farming with Specialization
Image
Here is what I recommend for Scosglen or farming in general, doesn't put much into defenses or pierce, and all in damage. All we want.

  • "I'm doing a boss so I don't need points in Slayer right?" version
Image
This is weird looking alright, but it's what I used for Samael. Got Elemental Wisdom and spark of hope to my needs, Blessed life until 50 phy res, and leftover points in slayer (even if Slayer damage against bosses isn't too relevent, points in the tree are still more spell damage from superbeast). Note that the point in divine apparition was a waste, since we can use teleport at this point.





Gear

Leveling (lvl 1-135)

► Show Spoiler



End

► Show Spoiler







skills


The build is overall pretty complete, Slayer and Mind Flay are the 2 main skills and can do anything. Slayer is both a buff for more mindflay beams when close to it and good for clearing by itself, so always keep one around. Either defensively to protect and buff yourself while sniping with Mind Flay, or agressiely, close to enemies.

As oskills goes, Superbeast gives Lightning and Physical/magic spell damage, which whole oskills spell list isn't especially impressive. Still, 2 skills stand out and are nice to use in some situations.

Chaotic Spark From crafted Paladin Helms
Good Farming skill with that deal less damage than Mind Flay, but pierce through enemies and has a better coverage, making it pretty good in dense places. Fauzt and Viz Jun typically are way more comfortable with it. Another good point of Cspark is that it stuns enemies, making farming pretty safe. Melee heavy rifts such as Duncraig for example are made comfier due to that stun. During leveling, both Mflay and spark will clear dunc at about the same speed, but spark should end up feeling a bit better because of that stun.
Anyway this skill is especially good as long as you outdamage the zone. It shine the most in low level rifts due to that, but if you have high enough damage you would be able to use chaotic in scosglen or even high labs without issues. Sadly I didn't showcase it, but do try if you like the feeling of the spell or want the optimal farmer.

Singularity From
Treachery
Treachery
Belts

'ArcPhul'
Runeword Level: 110
+1 to All Skills
+(5 to 10)% Bonus to Spell Focus
10% Hit Recovery
+(15 to 20)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
+(12 to 15) to Singularity
(15 to 20)% to Energy
+(150 to 250) to Mana
Physical Resist 5%
+(100 to 200) Life when Struck by an Enemy
,
Relic (Singularity)
Relic
(Random class Only)
Required Level: 75
+(14 to 21) to Singularity
Magic Absorb (1 to 3)%
+(16 to 30) Life after each Kill

A bit gimmicky and not needed, but singularity is just generic strong against non moving, non teleporting targets. Scosglen's Sapling gards, Riftwalker III, Giuya's nest, sniping Lab Harpies from afar... Singularity is in a nice spot where it feel good to drop it sometime, without becoming the main skill either, just a nice support. It's not exactly worth to aim for the belt or the relic, but it's fun to use and Uhc gear have plenty of generic spell damage so it end up good enough. t. I don't recommend it, but it's usable.

Nova Charge From
Relic (Nova Charge)
Relic
(Random class Only)
Required Level: 75
+(12 to 21) to Nova Charge
+20 to Energy
+10 to Frozen Heart while Carrying Periodic Relics
(Hive - Nova Charge - Path of Flames)
,
Stormchaser
Stormchaser
Pike (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: (144 - 159) to (225 - 249)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength:
712 to 950
Required Dexterity: 786 to 1048
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
50% Movement Speed
50% Hit Recovery
Adds 1000-2000 Lightning Damage
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Nova Charge
+(6 to 16) to Great Hunt
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
Cannot Be Frozen
Requirements +(50 to 100)%
Socketed (6)
,
Elemental Band
Elemental Band
Ring

Required Level: 100
Item Level: 120
+10% to Spell Damage
+1 to Path of Flames
+1 to Nova Charge
+1 to Lightning Arena
+1 to Hive

Optional buff (I personally didn't get the opportunity to try it in 2.4), that will launch linghtning novas periodically and help doing damage around.
Stormchaser
Stormchaser
Pike (Sacred)

Two-Hand Damage: (144 - 159) to (225 - 249)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength:
712 to 950
Required Dexterity: 786 to 1048
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.15 per Dexterity)%
50% Movement Speed
50% Hit Recovery
Adds 1000-2000 Lightning Damage
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Nova Charge
+(6 to 16) to Great Hunt
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
Cannot Be Frozen
Requirements +(50 to 100)%
Socketed (6)
is not usable alone, but is good to keep because you can prebuff nova charge with it, and get it with 50 more levels. But the buff will disappear when switching out without the relic or elemental bond equipped, that's the thing. So the best is to have the relic, and the relic alone will do fine.





Showcase

Here's clips from my 2.4 season, where I played uhc from level 50 to the end (I could have played from lvl 1 but wanted some variety), excluding Laz, that I did with a respec to unholy melee since it's pretty much the easiest way to do laz of the game.

(lvl 105) Sunless sea
(lvl 115) 115 ubers Yes idk which ubers are interesting so I'll just say "hey they're all there". Note : Do
Truce
Truce
Belts

'Jah'
Runeword Level: 80
5% Combat Speeds
Stun Attack
Slows Attacker by 5%
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Physical Resist 10%
for safe TA farming, don't be like me.
(lvl 121) 120s
(lvl 123) Tran Athulua & Duncraig farm
(lvl 126) 125s part 1
(lvl 126) 125s part 2 ; Belial & Baal
(lvl 128) Fauzt farm is going well
(lvl 131) Uldy (do it a bit later and with a bit more def to be safe)
(lvl 131) Void
(lvl 135) Giyua
(lvl 136) Riftwalker III
(lvl 136) Atanna Khan Note : This is the moment I quit ssf, as I bought a Black Sun Spear
(lvl 139) First time in Scosglen
(lvl 144) First Samael clear . That video make the fight look easy but it was a very lucky run, but since I had exactly 0 umos at this point a lucky or at least decently normal fight was needed. Anyway on this scuffy set up the fight was pretty inconsistent, but later on with better gear it ended much better.
(lvl 144) Scosglen on a decent set up
(lvl 147) Dimentionnal Labyrinth Tier 6 7 8 & 9
(lvl 148) Dimentionnal Labyrinth Tier 10
(lvl 148) Deimoss
(lvl 148) Scosglen on big boi set up





F.A.Q

Any question I get asked ever will goes there and fill up this section. Since this guide isn't exhaustive at all there likely will be some things.
► Show Spoiler


Have fun !
Edited by Lynderika 8 months.
paolo12
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Finally! I was afraid I would have to figure it all out myself.
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thanhluan115
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Great as always !
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magz_
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Big and good :flip:
What was your tooltip like for mindflay? And what was your final pierce % for sam?
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Lynderika
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magz_ wrote:Big and good :flip:
What was your tooltip like for mindflay? And what was your final pierce % for sam?


I wouldn't even have tried sam without 199 pierce, and the tooltip barely got above 11k min light damage.
Currently, without Vanquisher but Vortex I have 10 106 - 12 088 light and that's what I do low labs with, but I'll have to sacrifice some damage later probably.
If you want more tooltips, I have a note saying that 5k mindflay 100 pierce is enough to try Uldy, and I remember that in this part of the game I had about 4.7k but more pierce so I tried anyway. My current gear only has twice that tooltip, but I can easily do 2 min uldys now though so time sure have changed.

thanhluan115 wrote:Great as always !


ty~

paolo12 wrote:Finally! I was afraid I would have to figure it all out myself.


TUs actually aren't easy to figure out at all, I'm sure many did the misstake of going 1h + shield instead of the 2h axe, as well as many details I figured on the way. Have fun if you end up trying !
intex
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love the guide. looking forward to seeing the lab footage. did you ever try Imperius' Edict paladin warlock set? How did you like it if so? Do you think that set could farm dunc / fauzt easily with this build?
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magz_
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I just noticed; how come you don't take griffon's for big spell dmg? Do you lose too much defensiveness?
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Lynderika
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intex wrote:love the guide. looking forward to seeing the lab footage. did you ever try Imperius' Edict paladin warlock set? How did you like it if so? Do you think that set could farm dunc / fauzt easily with this build?


Imperius' Edict is a really good option as well. Packed with defensive stats and perfectly good enough offense. I personally don't search for it, but it's really good and can carry midgame quite nicely, and make fauzt extremely comfy for example if that's your aim. It's only issue is that it lacks pierce, make sure to equip a Gloves, Belt, Helm and if possible jewelry with some pierce as well or it will not perform as expected.


tldr yes it's good for fauzt, you can easily do fast and safe clears. A little bit faster and safer that you can see in my fauzt farm video, it should.


magz_ wrote:I just noticed; how come you don't take griffon's for big spell dmg? Do you lose too much defensiveness?


Yes it's a question of trading 2 mr for -1. So for scos or labs it's no, and for lower content use Cspark helm now. So I know both Blessed Wrath and Griffons can be good but I never needed it. It's probably real good if they drop early of course, but idk.
Another question could be why I recommand Ilmatar and not Indigo, and the reply is defense, the tad bit of sd Ilmatar have, and that hr is more important than cast speed. And it's easy to get and reroll.
Oh and also my current gear gives naturally +8 max light res, so I actually have no space for light res gems, which make the sd not that big.

So yeah there's many good choices but I just didn't find any use for it.
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Lynderika
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Updated with labs videos for anyone interested, from T6 to 10.
Does not include deimoss yet, since it was my first time ever against him it ended pretty badly. I'll try again when I get more T10s

Edit : Deimoss added, second attempt was the good one
Edited by Lynderika 1 year.
Ruubel
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Ilmatar vs Indigo: Ilmatar is much cheaper, UN rune for indigo is one of most sought runes.