Best Warlock Skills in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

After a very long time waiting, the Warlock is finally available for all players who own Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, and it is truly one of the most fun and devastating classes in the game so far. However, just like any new class, learning all its skills will be a real challenge, and if you want to start taking a look at the Warlock’s arsenal, here’s a list of what we consider to be its best skills in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred.

Best Basic Skills

As you know, Basic Skills are the ones you’ll be spamming constantly to generate Wrath, which is one of the two primary resources of the Warlock in Diablo 4. When starting out, we recommend the following skills, as we’ve noticed they are the fastest when it comes to clearing enemy rooms and topping up your Wrath.

• Doom (Occult/Abyss): Burst a sigil on your enemies, Hexing them and dealing damage.
  • Explanation: The reason why Doom is so powerful is due to its follow-up upgrades, which let you echo 10% of its damage to other Hexed enemies and generate more Wrath with each Hexed enemy. Also, in our case, we went with a sort of “affliction” Warlock, as one of its upgrades spread Doom to other foes after killing an enemy, making clearing hordes extremely fast.
• Molten Bomb (Occult/Hellfire): Lob molten lava at an enemy, dealing damage in a small area.
  • Explanation: Molten Bomb is a terrific choice, especially for new players who want to play safely and at a distance. We noticed this skill has the longest range, and its upgrades allow it to increase its damage up to 40%, depending on how far the bomb travels, and even warp it into a Demonology skill, summoning a turret where it lands.

Best Core Skills

The next skills you want to be on the lookout for are Core Skills, and while a proper build is still up in the air, there are two we consider are among the best, not too expensive, and extremely easy to use, on top of having an excellent range.

• Bombardment (Demonology/Lesser Demon): Smash down 4 demons into the ground, each one dealing damage.
  • Explanation: When it comes to Demonology skills, Bombardment is among the best, because, besides its excellent base effects, its upgrades increase its damage, throw an extra demon, and can even become a single-target skill in a way. Yet, what makes the skill extremely fun to use is morphing it into a Hellfire skill, which just makes an infinite bombardment of fiery demons.
• Dread Claws (Demonology/Abyss): Burst 4 shadowy claws, each dealing damage.
  • Explanation: This is yet another skill we used for our final build, and we quickly noticed that Dread Claws is one of the highest DPS Abyss skills with the right upgrades. In its base form, it’s already powerful with its 4 claws able to travel far and hit several enemies. However, it becomes even better when you start applying Vulnerable to enemies and even duplicate the claws you initially send out.

Best Defensive Skills

Contrary to the Paladin in Diablo 4, the Warlock may not have a lot of self-healing capabilities, but it has several skills that allow it to put enemies in place, stun them, or even dash around the battlefield to escape from foes.

• Wall of Agony (Demonology/Summon/Lesser Demon): Summon and fuse 5 frenzied demons into a line for 8 seconds. The demons block enemies and flail wildly, dealing damage to those in front of them.
  • Explanation: Since the Warlock only has a few options to get out of a tight spot, the best way to keep enemies at bay is with a wall of Demons (literally). What makes it even better is how some upgrades change the wall’s formation, with some even pulling enemies in, and a few others knocking them back for a bit, giving you a moment of respite.
• Dark Prison (Occult/Abyss/Recast): Create a shadowy totem that chains enemies, tethering them to an area and preventing them from escaping.
  • Explanation: Many are already calling this skill core for the “Nuke” build, which is quite accurate. What you’ll want to do is unlock the Calimity Cage upgrade, which only lets you have one Dark Prison at a time. However, it explodes for increased damage, which gets better depending on how many enemies you have inside it. Its cooldown can be a bit long, but the payoff is worth it.

Best Archfiend Skills

We’ve reached the part of summoning big demons. Now, Archfiend skills are great, but while experimenting, we saw they are a bit niche, and some players might prefer to skip this skill line in favor of something else. Still, these are the ones we recommend.

• Rampage (Demonology/Summon/Greater Demon): Summon a rampaging brute for 10 seconds that smashes wildly, dealing damage with a 5% chance per hit to Eviscerate enemies.
  • Explanation: Rampage is an amazing choice for those following the Eviscerate build of Warlocks. We actually think it is this skill that helps trigger that build, and it really starts shining with some upgrades that make triggering Eviscerate easier.
• Tyrant’s Grasp (Demonology/Hellfire/Greater Demon): Summon a demon hand that pulls enemies away from you.
  • Explanation: At first, this skill might not seem too useful, but the truth is that it has some excellent crowd-control capabilities, and it even lets you go into Demonform after casting or even knock down enemies.

Best Sigil Skills

Just like Paladins’ auras, Warlocks have their own version of those in Diablo 4, called Sigil skills. And, just like the holy crusaders’ ones, these are extremely useful with a lot of utility and high-damage potential.

• Sigil of Summons (Demonology/Summon/Lesser Demon): Create a binding ritual for 10 seconds that extends the duration of your Summons. Killing enemies or Demons inside it fuels the ritual to summon a demon for 20 seconds, which attacks nearby enemies.
  • Explanation: We consider the Sigil of Summons a must-have skill for Summoning builds. The fact that this sigil is basically a machine for demons that just gets better with upgrades that either decrease its cooldown or summon an entirely new demon.
• Sigil of Chaos (Occult/Hellfire): Create a destructive ritual for 10 seconds that grants you Volatility within. Killing enemies or Demons within fuels the ritual, increasing the chance for each enemy to explode.
  • Explanation: This one is yet another fun Hellfire skill that can turn everything into an explosive frenzy or even summon tendrils that attack Hexed enemies. So far, we’ve noticed Hellfire and Abyss skills go hand in hand, so if you’re going for this duo-type build, we recommend adding this Sigil to use alongside your Shadow skills.

Best Ultimates and Souls Shards

We decided to put these two categories together because some of the Soul Shard skills often work better than some ultimates, so some players might end up swapping some skills for them. Still, here are the ones we think work well on most builds.

• Metamorphosis (Demonology/Hellfire/Archfiend): Transform into a demon and gain Demonform and all Archfiend Demonform skill variants.
  • Explanation: Besides looking cool, Metamorphosis increases your Hellfire damage potential, swapping pretty much all your skills, but also allowing you to feel a bit tankier. This one also pairs perfectly with one particular Soul Shard.
• Vanguard Shard: While in Demonform, casting Archfiend skills additionally summons the Archfiend demon. Grants the Summon Abodian skill.
  • Explanation: This shard is one of the best for Demonform builds, as it gives you a free demon with some casts, and you can even summon a permanent demon to use as a temporary mount that also hits like a truck. Again, this might be a bit of a niche Shard to use, but we believe the above skill and this one work perfectly together.

While these are the skills we consider to be the best for Warlocks in Diablo 4, don’t take them as a definitive build or must-haves. They are pretty useful when leveling up, but things may change in the endgame once you start grabbing a few aspects and experimenting with some of the new items.