Welcome to the Torment Warlock Guide. This destructive spellcaster uses dark powers to open a Chthonic Fissure in the ground that releases seeking Spirits. These Spirits inflict Torment on enemies, a powerful Curse dealing Necrotic Damage over Time. Master the forbidden arts of the Warlock and make all your enemies wither away.
While your main source of Damage comes from Torment, this build takes advantage of multiple different Necrotic Skills. You manually cast Spirit Plague, a Curse which deals Damage while providing Buffs and Utility. Profane Veil is used in conjuction with Wandering Spirits for extra Damage and survivability. The build also has great mobility thanks to Transplant.
This build doesn't require any Unique to function. However, Exsanguinous is necessary to switch to the Low Life variant. Immolator's Oblation in combination with Maehlin's Hubris provides massive Damage, while Ashes of Mortality boosts the tankiness. In addition, items like Boneclamor Barbute and Omnis are amazing Uniques that you want to obtain when scaling the build to its full potential.
Overall this powerful Torment Warlock is an amazing Damage over Time build capable of crushing all the content in the game, even in Hardcore. If you are looking for a Necrotic based caster which has amazing AoE and is able to survive the hardest encounters, this build is perfect for you!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Warlock Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Amazing AoE
- Visually Stunning
- Deals Damage While Moving
- Great Scaling With Gear and Uniques
- Screen Clutter
- Mana Management
- Needs Uniques To Shine
- Defensive Tools Require Timing
Skills
Chthonic Fissure
Chthonic Fissure releases Spirits which apply Torment. This is your primary source of Damage. Twisted Waves allows you to stack Necrotic Resistance for a massive Damage multiplier. With Grim Tide, generic Critical Strike Multiplier is converted into More Damage. Spirits can also apply powerful Ailments thanks to Severed Wards and Damned Waters.
Alternative Skills & Tips
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Take Nodes with Intelligence and Added Spell Damage for Curses.
- Investing Points into Forbidden Knowledge and Unnatural Preservation grants a good amount of Necrotic Resistance.
- Soul Stealer and Occultist's Mind provide Mana Sustain and maximum Mana.
- Allocate Points into Spirit Leech to Sustain your Health early on. Later on when you focus on Ward with Boneclamor Barbute, you can take Points out of this Passive.
- Place 5 Points into both Harrowing Armor and Dark Protections for the tankiness they provide.
- Speccing into Wither allows you to apply Withered to enemies, granting amazing bonuses to Damage and survivability.
- Doom Herald is very powerful when you're using Profane Veil.
- Grab Fleeting Crone for its increased effect of Haste.
- Wreak Havoc provides a good amount of Crit Multi.
- You can invest your final Points into Apocrypha.
- Accursed Seer is an option for extra Cast Speed with Spirit Plague.
- If you're playing the Low Life version of the build, the Passive Tree is specialized differently. Check out the Low Life Planner for the optimized Passive Tree.
- Currently Aspect of Death seems to be bugged, and does not apply its Damage multiplier. When it's fixed, the Planner will be updated to include this Passive.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Open a Chthonic Fissure in the ground that spews out tons of Spirits inflicting enemies with the deadly Torment Curse. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to the telegraphed attacks of your enemies and stay out of their range.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Use Chthonic Fissure to apply Torment. To maximize Damage with Immolator's Oblation, get 40 Ignite stacks on you before casting Chthonic Fissure. This Skill snapshots the Damage Buff from the Belt for its whole duration.
- Spread Spirit Plague to as many enemies as possible. With Immolator's Oblation, spam it to get stacks of Ignite on yourself.
- Cast Wandering Spirits and use Profane Veil immediately after to boost the Damage and become practically invincible.
- Use Transplant to move around the map.
Mapping
- Rush to the objective with Transplant.
- Let all of your various Damage over Time effects kill enemies as you cruise through the Echoes.
- Use Profane Veil for its Buffs and to negate incoming Damage. It can also be used to get through enemies that are blocking your path.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your Buffs and keep them active.
- Line up the cooldowns of Wandering Spirits and Profane Veil and use them at the same time to maximize your Ward.
- Save Transplant for emergency situations.
- Use Profane Veil to tank telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and stack as many other defensive layers as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Empowered Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- 100% Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Crits
- 4000+ Stable Ward
- 50%+ Armor
- 80+ Intelligence
- 100% Block Chance
- 70%+ Block Effectiveness
- 400 - 500%+ Ward Retention
- 1000%+ Necrotic Resistance
- 600%+ Increased Damage
- 70% - 90%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with four valuable T5 Affixes. The Defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives. Get a Weapon with double T5 offensive Prefixes as soon as possible.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance or Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes is capped. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. Farm this by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
At this stage, investing fully into Ward is not feasible, so you need to fit as much Health onto your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 4
Any Affixes with extra levels to Skills are great to invest more Points into their Skill Trees. Level of Wandering Spirits, Level of Profane Veil and Level of Transplant are great finds.
Milestone 5
The Ghost Maker is a good option as your weapon before transitioning to the Advanced setup. Find it by using Rune of Ascendance on Daggers.
Milestone 6
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols that can help you cap all your Resistances momentarily or increase your Damage output. Try to find Ornate Bone Idols and Grand Bone Idols with Necrotic Resistance.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 gear with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes.
Milestone 2
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Necrotic Resistance, Intelligence and Critical Strike Multiplier to increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 3
Get Boneclamor Barbute, a common world drop and start to fully gear for Ward. Get Necrotic Resistance everywhere you can and build as much Armor as possible.
Milestone 4
Switch from a Catalyst to Cradle of the Erased, a common Shield that provides high Block Chance and Block Effectiveness. As a Weaver's Will Unique, it gains random affixes.
Milestone 5
Look for Sinathia's Dying Breath, a common Set Mace that provides amazing Damage and Resistances. It's also one of the few sources of Increased Block Effectiveness, which raises tankiness considerably. As a world drop, the easiest way to get it is by using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 6
Farm Immolator's Oblation. It grants you a huge amount of Flat Spell Damage per stack of Ignite on you, up to 40 Ignite stacks. Get this item by killing Fire Lich Cremorus in Soulfire Bastion. It can drop at Dungeon Tier 3, but Tier 4 has increased drop rate. To properly take advantage of this Belt, farm Maehlin's Hubris. This item converts all your Bleeds to Ignites, including the ones from Spirit Plague and Transplant. It's a common world drop that is farmed by completing Unique Gloves Reward Echoes in the Ending the Storm Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 7
While you're farming Soulfire Bastion, look for Ashes of Mortality from Fire Lich Cremorus. This item provides additional Ward per stack of Ignite on you. It can drop at any Dungeon Tier, but T4 has the highest drop rate.
Milestone 8
Soulfire with Legendary Potential grants a large amount of % Armor along with extra Damage. It's a common world drop that you can easily farm by targeting the Unique Relic Echo Rewards in the Last Ruin Timeline or by using Rune of Ascendance. Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros is also a good option for the Relic slot.
Milestone 9
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a high stable Ward pool, capped Resistances and Critical Strike Avoidance or Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes. Your goal is to have items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20. Keep an eye out for Ornate Bone Idols and Grand Bone Idols with Increased Duration for Profane Veil and Armor granted by Bone Armor Prefixes and Necrotic Resistance Suffix. In addition, Large Immortal Idol with Chance To Chill With Necrotic Skills Prefix and Ward Retention Suffix is great for extra survivability.
Milestone 1
Continue upgrading your gear with T7 Exalted items and begin farming all your Uniques with Legendary Potential.
Milestone 2
Omnis is a great addition to this build for the valuable +1 To All Skills and Resistances it provides. Farm this by killing the Shade of Orobyss at 200+ Corruption. High rolls are not necessary but the item itself could take significant time to farm.
Milestone 3
Red Ring of Atlaria is a decent option for the build, but reaching the 180 total attributes requirement is difficult. If you're able to reach it, this extremely rare Ring provides extra tankiness but comes with lower Damage, unless you have one with Legendary Potential.
Milestone 4
This build can use many different items effectively. Depending on your preferences, you can try Uniques like The Ghost Maker, Wheel of Torment, Mad Alchemist's Ladle, Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros and Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs.
Milestone 5
Focus on finishing your Ornate Bone Idols and Grand Bone Idols with Increased Duration for Profane Veil and Armor granted by Bone Armor Prefixes and Necrotic Resistance Suffix.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with high tier Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and in the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes and Legendary Potential are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Get as close to perfect rolls for all your Empowered Blessings and find all your desired Idols with the best in slot Prefixes and Suffixes.
Milestone 3
Continue farming all the Uniques with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some of these Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential. Good luck with the chase!
Milestone 4
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless!
The Low Life variant offers extra tankiness, but comes with a higher gear investment. This setup stacks Health to get Ward per Missing Health. Make sure you have all the key items before switching to this variant, as without them, the regular version is better.
Milestone 1
Exsanguinous and Experimental Ward per Missing Health are required to run this setup. Exsanguinous is a somewhat rare world drop that is farmed by completing Unique Chest Reward Echoes in the Blood, Frost and Death Monolith Timeline. Getting Legendary Potential on it is highly recommended. The Experimental Ward per Missing Health Affix drops from Exiled Mages. Last Steps of the Living from Formosus the Undying is an option, but only use it with at least 2 Legendary Potential and if you're able to cap Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits.
Milestone 2
Build Health on your gear for more Ward, but prioritize Necrotic Resistance. The gains from Low Life are sizeable even with a mediocre amount of Health, so don't go out of your way to stack HP.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Echo of Solarum
- Emptiness of Ash
- Hunger of the Void
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Heart of the Caldera
- Body of Obsidian
- Embers of Immortality
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as fast as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- If you are lacking Critical Strike Avoidance, start with Grand Survival of Might. A high roll on this Empowered Blessing can be combined with a single high rolled T5 Critical Strike Avoidance to cap it. In endgame, the Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes Affix is the preferred option on this build.
- Grand Resolve of Humanity provides tons of Resistances.
- Work on Grand Resonance of the Sea for extra survivability.
- Grand Resolve of Grael is useful to cap your Physical Resistance early on. Whenever that is not needed, grab Grand Bones of Eternity or Grand Bulwark of the Tundra for a big survivability boost.
- Once your core Defenses are sorted, grab Grand Emptiness of Ash for a huge Damage boost. Make sure you eventually get a high roll!
- Farm the best rolled Grand Body of Obsidian you can get. It grants a large amount of Flat Armor that helps increase the survivability of the build.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Favor of Souls and Grand Pride of Rebellion are very valuable to help you find Ornate Bone Idols and Grand Bone Idols with Increased Duration for Profane Veil and Armor granted by Bone Armor Prefixes and Necrotic Resistance Suffix. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Farm Grand Resolve of Frost to find more Sinathia's Dying Breath.
- Lastly, take Grand Slumber of Morditas to find more Relics.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your character bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Get 2 Ornate Bone Idols with the Increased Duration for Profane Veil Prefix and Necrotic Resistance Suffix.
- You also want 2 Grand Bone Idols with the Armor granted by Bone Armor Prefix and Necrotic Resistance Suffix.
- Large Immortal Idol with the Chance To Chill With Necrotic Skills Prefix and Ward Retention Suffix is great for extra survivability.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
Other useful Idol Affixes
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
This build's main Damage comes from Torment, which is applied by the Spirits from Chthonic Fissure. It also uses multiple other Skills to output high Necrotic Damage over Time. This Warlock also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Flat Spell Damage: With the amount of Damage Multipliers this build has access to, you want to stack as much Flat Damage as possible. Your Weapon, Immolator's Oblation and the passive Unholy Torment are the main sources of it.
- Necrotic Resistance: Thanks to the Twisted Waves Node in Chthonic Fissure, you can scale the Damage of Torment by stacking Necrotic Resistance.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: The build can further scale the Damage of Chthonic Fissure and its Ailments, including Torment by building generic Critical Strike Multiplier thanks to the Grim Tide Node.
- Intelligence: Gain 4% Damage per point of Intelligence. In addition, Spirit Plague gains Flat Damage from it when specced into Plague of Eyes.
- % Increased Damage: Anything that increases Necrotic Damage is welcomed.
- Necrotic Resistance Shred: Severed Wards in Chthonic Fissure provides the build with enough Shred. 10 stacks increase the Damage enemies take by 50% (20% for Bosses).
- Penetration: Any amount of Penetration is welcomed.
- Doom Herald: This Passive provides a multiplicative Damage bonus to Damned enemies while channeling Profane Veil.
- Wither: Each stack of Withered increases Damage taken from Curses by 10% (6% against players and Bosses), lasts 3 seconds and can stack up to 20 times.
- Warlock Mastery Bonus: You get 5% more Damage per Curse on the target. This build can apply 6 different Curses (Torment, Anguish, Penance, Mark For Death, Spirit Plague and Bone Curse) for a total multiplicative Damage bonus of 30%.
- Violent Emergence: This Node inside Transplant provides a Cull. Great for Bossing.
- Low Life: Dance with Death is a strong Passive when running the Low Life setup. Speccing into Chains of Ruin is also an option for the Damned Overload provided by the 5 Point bonus. Damned Overload grants you 1% more Damned Damage to enemies per 2% missing Health on you and per 2% missing Health on the target.
- Bone Armor: Transplant provides this buff. It grants Flat Armor and Damage Reduction.
- Intelligence: Aside from gaining Damage per point of Intelligence with your Skills, each point of Intelligence provides 4% Ward Retention per point.
- Ward: This build can get high Ward. The End Game planner can achieve 4000+ stable Ward. The Low Life variant can reach 10000 Ward and beyond.
- Ward Retention: Reduces the rate of Ward decay.
- Ward per Second: Determines the amount of Ward gained per second. Boneclamor Barbute allows you to gain it by stacking Necrotic Resistance.
- Ward on Kill: Provides a certain amount of Ward on each kill. Necropolis Plate and Experimental Ward on Kill are great sources of it.
- Ward Decay Threshold: Ward does not decay below this threshold and Ward below it does not contribute to decay rate. Imperishable provides a ton of it.
- Block Chance: Block is a defensive mechanic that grants a chance to reduce the Damage taken from Hits. On a successful Block, a percentage of the Damage is mitigated. This build can have anywhere between 50% and 100% block.
- Block Effectiveness: The percentage of Damage reduced on Block depends on how much Block Effectiveness you have. The percentage cannot exceed 85%. Thanks to Cradle of the Erased, this build gets a ton of it from all the Resistances it has. This is then further scaled with the Increased Block Effectiveness stat from Sinathia's Dying Breath.
- Armor Mitigation: This build can get high amounts of Armor. With the Armor from your gear, Grand Bulwark of the Tundra and Grand Body of Obsidian Blessings and Bone Armor you reach 50%+ Mitigation.
- Health: Since this build focuses on Ward, Health is a low priority. On the other hand, for the Low Life variant, you want to stack Health to maximize your Ward.
- Leech: Spirit Leech provides the build with enough Health Sustain. As a Ward focused build, Leech is not a high priority.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Due to the Ward nature of the build, Endurance is not as valuable as it is for pure Health setups.
- Harrowing Armor and Dark Protections: These Passive Nodes provide tankiness per unique Curse on the target.
- Doom Herald: Grants less Damage taken while channeling. Great with Profane Veil.
- Wither: You take less Damage from Withered enemies.
- Chill and Slow: Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanses all Ailments on Potion use.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
Summary
Overall the Torment Warlock is a horrific powerhouse capable of defeating all the content in the game. It has amazing clear, good single target DPS and great survivability thanks to its multiple defensive layers.
- Open a Chthonic Fissure in the ground that spews out tons of Spirits inflicting enemies with the deadly Torment Curse.
- Use all your different Skills together to obliterate your enemies.
- Channel Profane Veil to boost your Damage and become practically invincible.
- The build has access to one of the best Movement Skills, Transplant.
- The Low Life variant provides amazing tankiness with Exsanguinous and the Experimental Ward per Missing Health Affix.
- While they are not mandatory, Maehlin's Hubris, Immolator's Oblation, Boneclamor Barbute, Ashes of Mortality and Omnis are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Volca.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Tenkiei.