Build Introduction
The Demon Summoner Warlock leveling build puts a high focus on getting as many minions summoned as possible making it feel like a true summoner build. Our main spender damage ability comes in the form of Dread claws to consume our minions and increase our damage. If you’re looking for this type of playstyle this is the guide for you!
Recommended World Tier to start in: Hard
Quantity over quality is the road to success in leveling. Stay at difficulty level where Elites and Seasonal content pose little threat and can be killed quickly – this nets the most experience. Move up through World Tiers only when you no longer struggle in Helltides and Seasonal content in the next tier.
Check the Leveling Guide Overview for a comparison of Warlock starter builds on Icy Veins.
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Quick Navigation
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Command Fallen
Dread Claws
Fiend of Abaddon
Nether Step
Sigil of SubversionTo prepare for what happens after level 70, head over to our Warlock Builds page to choose your weapon! If you don’t yet meet the requirements, follow this post-70 progression strategy to push up to Torment II/III while farming gear for your endgame build of choice.
Class Mechanic – Soul Shards
Soul Shards is the Warlocks unique class mechanic, allowing you to bind yourself to a Soul Shard Greater Demon that will fight beside you. They come with a variety of different effects as well as on-use-abilities to help you on the battlefield.
Below you’ll find the recommended Soul Shard Demon to bind for this build:
- Legion Shard – Grants the Summon Ae’grom skill who will fight beside you. His on-use-ability allows you to blow lesser demons up for a big surge of damage.
- Spawn Fragment – This will make Ae’grom spawn lesser demons consistently for you.
Gear, Stats, Gems and Runes
Always prioritize the highest base damage possible when upgrading your weapon. Attack Speed and Movement Speed are highly valued for this builds progression.
Make sure you keep an eye for the Legendary Aspects to research through salvaging. An Amulet is recommended for early imprinting important Aspects, since it provides a +50% bonus effect and is replaced less often than weapons. Check dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide for more information.
For this build particulary we’re mostly looking for either 
Aspect of Reanimation or Aspect of Hellbent Commander as they scale the damage the best early on.
Imprinting aspects costs 
Veiled Crystal, which are easily acquired in Helltides or from salvaging Rare gear and above. Prioritize salvaging gear for materials and aspects over selling it during leveling.
The table below lists the Legendary Aspects you should be looking for:
| Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power | Source |
 Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant [20 – 30%] Damage Reduction for 4 seconds. | Dry Steppes (Campaign) |
| Heavenly Strength | By wielding a 2h weapon you gain #% damage reduction. | ?? |
| Calamity | Hex increases your critical strike chance. | ?? |
| Aspect of Reanimation | Your Summons gain increased damage while alive, up to x [60 – 90%] after 10 seconds. | Aldurwood Scosglen |
| Aspect of Hellbent Commander | Increases the damage dealt by your summons. | ?? |
| Blood Boiling Aspect | When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn 3 Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing [X] Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. | Random Drop |
Priority order for Offensive Legendary Aspects on your 2-handed weapon (200% effect) and amulet (150% effect) is listed below:
- Aspect of Hellbent Commander
- Aspect of Reanimation
A general rule of thumb would be to put any sort of movement speed increasing aspect on your amulet to further enhance your progression speed.
Stats Priority and Tempering Affixes
Keep in mind that Tempering Affixes are unlocked by Tempering Manuals you find as you progress. Be sure to check our Tempering guide for more details about this topic.
One of the regular affixes on gear piece can be re-rolled repeatedly until desired outcome. This is covered in our Occultist guide for more details.
There are not many modifiers worth bothering with during the leveling stage, but for this particular build, always apply whenever possible:
Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life- ?? – Increased Attack Speed temper on your weapons
- Natural Motion – Movement Speed
Generally, you will be looking for the following stats in descending order of priority:
| Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
| 2H Weapon (Sword) | 1. Weapon Damage 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Willpower | ?? – Attack Speed Temper |
| Helm | 1. Maximum Life 2. Total Armor 3. + Wrath Generation | Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Chest | 1. Maximum Life 2. Total Armor 3. + Wrath Generation | Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Willpower | ?? – Demonology Damage |
| Pants | 1. Maximum Life 2. Total Armor 3. + Wrath Generation | Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Willpower 3. Maximum Life | Natural Motion – Movement Speed |
| Amulet | 1. Movement Speed 2. Attack Speed 3. Willpower | Natural Motion – Movement Speed |
| Rings | 1. Attack Speed 2. Vulnerable Damage or All Damage 3. Any resistances | Worldly Stability – Resource Generation |
Aegrom’s Schism – Is a great unique item you can look out for giving you a 2nd Ae’grom minion on the field!
Scepter of the Three – When you don’t have an ultimate active you get a stacking damage buff that resets once you’ve used an ultimate skill. This is a great addition to the build as well.
Gems and Runewords
Generally, we don’t recommend socketing items until level 45+ due to material cost and the fact that you’ll be replacing your gear too frequently, especially weapon.
| Weapon | Armor | Jewelry |
 Skull for increased physical damage. |  Runeword and  Sapphire for increased Willpower. |  Diamond for All Resistances or Skull for increased physical damage reduction. |
When it comes to Runewords, the most beneficial combinations are:
| Runeword | Priority | Comments |
Angu +  Que | Very High | Let’s you automtically cast  Earthen Bulwark for barrier generation. |
 Nagu +  Jah | High | Replaces your evade skill with a teleport ability instead. |
You get runes back for free, when salvaging item or Jeweler can extract them for you.
Lord of Hatred (Season 13)
Season 13 does not offer any specific seasonal mechanic due to the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion. Instead we’re getting a ton of new features such as the Warlock and Paladin class, War Plans, Talismans, Horadric Cube, Echoing Hatred and reworked skill-trees!
Talismans
The Lord of Hatred expansion introduces Talismans as a new character progression system. You get to equip a Seal and place Charms into its slots for a massive power boost. The recommended setup for the Demon Summoner Warlock build is listed below:
- Seal – Prioritize any seal that provides the most amount of Charm slots as you’re leveling.
- Charms – Anything that increases your experience or movement speed should be the highest priority here. Attack speed is of third highest priority.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the main questline in the Vessel of Hatred expansion. Follow this guide on how to acquire each Mercenary and benefits they provide.
The recommendation for this build is to hire Raheir as soon as possible due to the damage multipliers he brings to the table. Below you’ll find the list of his skills you want to use:
Use the Reinforcement slot to level up all your remaining mercenaries to get 
Pale Marks and all possible caches for extra loot:
- Aldkin: Cast
Haunt when the player use any skill in combat. - Varyana : Cast
Bloodthirst or 
Shockwave when the player casts any skill in combat. - Subo: Cast
Wire Trap when the player casts any skill in combat.
Build Mechanics
We use Command Fallen to generate a ton of Lesser Demons, this is also emphasized with our Legion Soul Shard Ae’grom who helps generate Lesser Demons. These Lesser Demons are then used as fuel to make Dread Claws do as much damage as possible. This also enables our Greater Demons to assist us.
On the utility front we have Nether Step as our main mobility skill.
Rotation and Playstyle
- Sigil of Subversion – Should be used as your opening ability Hexing enemies.
- Command Fallen– Mainly used to generate Wrath as well as Dominance when needed and to summon Lesser Demons on the field.
- Dread Claws– Use this next to spend your Wrath resource for high damage output.
Tortured Wretch – Your main dominance spender until you unlock your Ultimate at 19.- Fiend of Abaddon– Main dominance spender ability for massive damage output once unlocked.
- Nether Step– Mobility skill for whenever it’s needed.
- Command Ae’grom – Big AoE damage with no cost exploding your Lesser Demons.
Murmuring Obols Gambling
Murmuring Obols gambling at the Purveyor of Curiosities is a great alternative way to find Legendary Aspects or specific-slot Uniques required to start playing your build. The most efficient Murmuring Obols farming methods can be found here.
Check out the new gambling optimization tool guide from Icy Veins to maximize your chances.
Season Updates
Since the Warlock is a brand new class coming to the world of Sanctuary there are no changes to be mentioned.
For a complete overview of Season 13, including the mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
Post-Leveling Strategy
This guide is designed to get you to level 70 in a smooth and enjoyable way. Once there, you’ll want to look at a proper endgame-designed build guide and start making required preparations. Make sure you pick one of our recommended ones!
Preparations for an endgame build usually take some time to acquire the required gear and often result in your character reaching level 70 and unlocking the Paragon Board well before you’re done.
One of the sneaky ways to get some easy gear is to open Baleful Chests in the Fields of Hatred. This method is especially effective right after ascending into Torment tiers to get first Ancestral Legendary weapon, which makes a world difference. Results may vary, depending on PvP activity and other players farming the chests too, but rewards usually worth the time spent. If other players activity bothers you, its always worth to try change server layer by relogging or adjusting cross-play settings.
To open Baleful Chests, you must be Bloodmarked (PvP enabled) via the Emote Wheel (default bind ‘E’ for PC or ‘D-Pad Up’ for controller). Locations of Baleful Chests can be found on third-party interactive maps, and routes can be planned accordingly – something like this:
If luck isn’t on your side and endgame prep takes longer than expected, this build’s progression should still comfortably handle Torment III content and even go a bit further.
Changelog
April 27th, 2026: Guide Added.
