u/smellyunderpantsman

I keep hearing of wild variance in heralds spawning in TZ...I've run whole TZ acts without seeing a single one. I thought there were supposed to be some guaranteed ones that spawn, no?

Hi All,

I read the upcoming patch notes, but I'm not sure I understood the relevance of the changes...I know Bind Demon is getting realigned. I'm mostly concerned with how goat men will function. In Season 13, investing in Summon Goat Man and Demon Mastery and then Blood Oath (with a point in Death Mark), was enough to carry a warlock through at least to the end of Nightmare. I think around there I switched to maxing Bind Demon for the amp damage, which felt necessary in Hell. To be clear, it was not absolutely necessary, but things slowed WAY down without it for a pure summon build.

For reference, I am mostly playing HC ladder.

Question 1: Do you think Summon Goat Man (with Demon Mastery and Blood Oath) will continue to be a viable leveling strategy through Nightmare? Even pre-nerfs, goat men were noticeably relatively weak (healthwise) in Hell.

My strategy was to get Summon up to 10 and then raise Mastery to 10 and then alternate by 5 points up to 20. I ignored the 1 point wonders until later.

Question 2: I've heard that Pit Lord with or without Holy Freeze and with Curse will be a reasonable alternative to exploit amp damage (although I'm sure he's more likely to die than before). Has anyone experimented with an Act 4 Merc dual wielding runeword swords? I was thinking Lawbringer in one hand and Crescent Moon in the other. Would alternating between their decrepify and static field be a decent addition? Do they even proc enough to matter? Would he even stay alive enough in Hell to matter. I imagine he'd need a decent runeword armor.

Any thoughts on strategies for pure summons builds would be great. I haven't used defilers in the past but I heard they are likely to be good with their synergies and +fire skills working.