DoT Focused Chaos Bolts Warlock Build Guide

DoT Focused

Great AoE

Red and Orange Effects look great

No Unique Items Required

Incredibly Versatile main skill

3 "Active" Skills

Has some very bad build variants, creating a sort of "meta" around Bleed

A bit on the Squishy side

In Monoliths, you'll be running around with Transplant and keeping yourself safe with Profane Veil whenever you get surrounded or need to dodge a targeted skill. Attack back with Chaos Bolts by either manually casting it or throwing down Chthonic Fissure to help get extra projectiles in the fight. Because this is a DoT focused build, don't expect your enemies to die in just a single cast, but you can walk away early and let them tick down if you are in a rush. The best way to deal with a large group of enemies is to play around your Chthonic Fissure, use your movement skills to help keep your enemies on top of the Chthonic Fissure while stacking your DoT effects with Chaos Bolts.

For Bosses, you will want 100% uptime on your Chthonic Fissure and spend as long as possible standing still between mechanics casting Chaos Bolts. In modest gear you should be able to reach upwards of 200 stacks for both Bleed and Ignite depending on the size of your target. The best way to know when Chthonic Fissure needs to be recast is when you see the rocky effect that the skill produces fade away. If the fight is graphically intensive and you cannot keep an eye on your Chthonic Fissure animations, you will want to get in the habit of casting it about every 8 seconds. The base duration of Chthonic Fissure should be between 5 to 6 seconds and your Chaos Bolts will extend it by 2 seconds every 3 seconds due to The Burn 1/1. In short, constantly casting Chaos Bolts should bring your total Chthonic Fissure duration to nearly 10 seconds.

When using The Burn 1/1, it is important to note that when the duration of an active Chthonic Fissure exceeds 7 seconds its ground animation completely disappears. The only way to know if it is still active is by watching for the Tormenting Spirits which are still being released from where it's graphic used to be.

Transplant can be used offensively because of the Acolyte's Fervor 3/3 node to boost your Cast Speed.

Triggering Bone Curse from casting Chaos Bolts does not count as a "Direct Cast" and therefore does not trigger the Profane Veil cooldown via the Stream of Profanity 2/5 node. This is why I generally don't take more than 1 - 2 points in this node when using Chaos Bolts as a main skill.

Leveling as this build is quite easy, start out with Rip Blood and Wandering Spirits, specialize Rip Blood first. Focus on acquiring items with PrefixPhysical Damage, PrefixCast Speed, PrefixIntelligence, and any Resistances. Once you unlock your Warlock mastery, you can start working with Chthonic Fissure and unlock Chaos Bolts. Spam Chaos Bolts, scoop up PrefixDamage Over Time items and use Chthonic Fissure on large packs of mobs or bigger enemies. For those following the 100% Bleed path, your leveling gear is already perfect stat wise for your entrance into Monoliths, otherwise for those who wish to do a Hybrid Ignite Bleed, look out for items that have SuffixChance to Ignite on Hit and PrefixSpell Damage.

Make sure to always stay within 5 levels under the area you are running through, this is easily checked by pressing "C" to open the Character Panel then pressing "Tab" to see the Enemy Level by your Minimap. If you find yourself too low, kill more. Too high? Ignore enemies more.

I will link a leveling Build Variant showcasing the skills and early Skill Trees I would use while leveling.

Once you have fully cleared each Empowered Monolith at least once, work towards getting at least 200 Corruption in the timelines that provide the most benefits from their Empowered Blessings. By completing an Empowered Timeline with 200 Corruption you will unlock an extra 5th choice when presented options to pick out a Blessing. This is incredibly useful when farming for specific Empowered Blessings or trying to min-max your rolls.

Keep an eye out for any Uniques with LP that drop so that you can further enhance your character. This also means looking for Exalted items within the same category to use as fuel for them. See the Gearing Section if you need help figuring out which Exalted Affixes you will want to pick up.

For this build, it is fairly easy to find a Boneclamor Barbute with 2LP and a Cradle of the Erased which drops with 10+ Weavers Will. Farming Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros with even 1 LP may take awhile so consider yourself somewhat satisfied if you find a well rolled version without any LP. My general rule for farming LP is if it is considered a "common" drop when you look it up on this website, shoot for 2LP. Otherwise 1 LP is fine and don't hold onto a "really good" Exalted item in hopes you find the perfect 3 or 4LP item.

If you want to push corruption or arena and are struggling with damage output, consider swapping to a Bleed variant.

I won't link my own filter here since it is not specifically dedicated for this build, but if you wish to make your own I recommend starting from the following rules:

1. Exalted Items with T6+ of any desired affix
2. Show All Uniques
3. Any Item with Hybrid Health or Experimental Affixes (useful for shattering)

Early Game Rules:

1. Any Belt/Ring/Amulet with Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance of any tier
2. Any Chest with Resistances and Intellect
3. Any Boots with Resistances, Movement Speed
4. Any Gloves with Resistances, Intellect

Mid Game Rules (Combined Tiers >= 10):

1. Any Belt/Ring/Amulet with Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance
2. Any Chest with Resistances, % Increased Health, Chthonic Fissure Spirit Frequency or +Level to Chthonic Fissure, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes
3. Any Boots with Resistances, Movement Speed, Intellect, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes
4. Any Gloves with Resistances, Intellect, Hybrid Health, Area for Area Skills, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes

End Game Rules (Combined Tiers >= 15):

1. Any Belt/Ring/Amulet with Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance, Intellect, Spell / Fire / Physical Damage
2. Any Chest with Resistances, % Increased Health, Chthonic Fissure Spirit Frequency or +Level to Chthonic Fissure, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes
3. Any Boots with Resistances, Movement Speed, Intellect, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes
4. Any Gloves with Resistances, Intellect, Hybrid Health, Area for Area Skills, Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes

I recommend using combined tier totals to make finding craft-able items easier. You can add the Early, Middle, and Endgame rules under 1 filter and either turn them off as needed or set a rough Level range for each of them.

If you want to do a Level range and need a suggestion for it, do 0 - 60 as Early, 61 - 80 as Mid, and 81 - 100 as End Game. These are not solid level ranges for each player, the Mid and End game rules vary depending on how quickly you make it to Monoliths and Empowered Monoliths and how fast you can farm them.

How did you create your tier list for which ailments are best for Chaos Bolts?

• I've slowly acquired a massive stash of similar gear and tested out the different varieties of Chaos Bolts around the 250 Corruption range. Although 200 - 300 Corruption is not very high in terms of endgame content, I believe if a build cannot feel comfortable running through empowered monoliths at this level it is most likely not worth writing a full guide about.

What about Low Life?

• I won't go in depth in how to transition to low life, but in general then you will end up needing both Last Steps of the Living and Exsanguinous. Chaos Bolts provides a ridiculous amount of health gain per cast due to Devour the Damned 2/2 and Cursed Blood 1/1. Even without Leech in your passive tree or gear, fighting the health gain from the projectiles generated by directly casting Chaos Bolts and Chthonic Fissure is fairly annoying. I recommend using Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros , dropping Devour the Damned 2/2 or Cursed Blood 1/1 in order to keep yourself at low health and gain as much value from A Grave for Two 1/1 as possible.