Diablo 4 Season 16 PTR nerfs the two best Warlock builds of Season 15

Warlock

Warlock Skills

Nether Step

• Increased animation speed

• Portals Variant swapped with Extra Charge Side Upgrade.

• New Variant: Perpetual Darkness

  • Nether Step gains 2 extra charges and grants 1 Shadowform every 0.5s while its Movement Speed Bonus is active.

• Vacuum Swap Upgrade: Swapped enemies are now additionally Knocked Down and Vulnerable.

• Shadow Recall Variant now works for Laalish Terror Realm.

Tortured Wretch

• Domination Variant

  • Cost Reduced from 15 to 10.

  • Damage Increased from 50% to 100%.

  • Dominated effect now works for Shadow of Harash’s 5-Piece Set Bonus.

Rampage

• Abyssal Titan Variant

  • Adjusted to show Smash Base Damage instead of bonus modifier %.

  • Recast Smash adjusted from 192% (x1.5) -> 288%.

  • Automatic Smashes increased from 64% (x1.5) -> 288%.

Blazing Scream

• Base damage reduced from 130% to 115%.

• Abyssal Oppression Variant damage increased from 227% to 259%.

Umbral Chains

• Periodic Chain Damage increased from 25% to 60%.

Hell Fracture

• Lava Fissures Variant updated to allow fissures to hit targets closer to the center.

Sigils

• Sigil Life Upgrade costs reduced from 48% to 24%.

• Visual FX reduced for other players, coop, and via Reduce Strobing Accessibility setting.

Sigil of Summons

• Summon Succubus Variant: Bloodstar Impact Damage increased from 96% to 144%.

Tyrant's Grasp

• Rate of repeated casts is now 33% slower.

Fiend of Abaddon

• Abyssal Colossus Variant

  • Swipe damage increased from 455% to 630%.

  • Smash damage increased from 700% to 1000%.

Apocalypse

• Annihilation Variant 

  • Max Stacks increased from 100 to 200.

  • Damage bonus per stack decreased from 40% to 20%.

• Abyssal Minefield Variant adjusted scaling of Damage to not benefit exponentially from Skill Ranks.

• Survivor Damage Upgrade

  • Damage bonus decreased from 25% to 6.66%.

  • Bonus now stacks up to 12 times per hit with Apocalypse.

Metamorphosis

• Basic Attack

  • Now also a Greater Demon Skill.

  • Base Damage increased from 65% to 95%.

  • Attack rate increased by 15%.

• Damage Scaling Upgrade

  • Threshold increased from 1200 to 1500 Maximum Life.

  • Now only affects Greater Demon Skills.

Warlock Soul Shards

Mastermind Shard

• Recast skills no longer cost Shadowform.

• Command Laalish

  • Laalish is now a Recast Skill and his Terror Realm can be repositioned while active.

  • Laalish Terror Realm duration increased by 50%.

• Unfathomable Fragment

  • Previous: Laalish also Weakens enemies. Laalish deals 100% increased damage and Executes enemies. When Laalish kills an enemy or when an enemy is Executed, the Cooldown of Command Laalish is reduced by 2 seconds.

  • Now: Laalish now Weakens and Executes enemies. Laalish passively increases your Maximum Shadowform by 4. Additionally, your Non-Recast Abyss Skills deal 20% increased damage and no longer break Shadowform Stealth at the cost of 1 Shadowform stack per cast.

  • Note: Shadowform is capped at a maximum of 14, matching the UI counter.

• Blasphemous Fragment

  • Previous: Recast Skills Hex enemies on hit and increase the damage they take from your Abyss Demonology Skills by 20%.

  • Now: Recast Skills Hex enemies on hit and have 20% reduced Resource Costs and Cooldowns. Your Abyss Summon Skills deal 35% increased damage to Hexed enemies.

• Subjugation fragment

  • Damage Bonus per Dominance increased from 1.75% to 2.50%.

  • No longer excludes Laalish.

Ritualist Shard

• Valloch Wrath Regen reduced from 100% to 50%.

• Abyssal Fragment

  • Previous: Hex stacks up to a maximum of 4. When a target gains stacks, 25% of the Occult Abyss Skill damage dealt to the target echoes after 4 seconds and removes all stacks of Hex. Command Valloch also causes Occult Abyss Skills to apply 1 additional stack of Hex to enemies while you've siphoned its power.

  • Now: Hex stacks up to a maximum of 4. When a target gains 4 stacks, 25% of the Occult Abyss Skill damage dealt to the target echoes after 4 seconds and removes all stacks of Hex. Command Valloch now causes Hexed enemies to take 100% of the Occult Abyss Skill damage instantly and killing enemies reduces your active Occult Abyss Skill Cooldowns by 0.5 seconds while you've siphoned its power.

• Twisted Fragment

  • Occult Hellfire Skill Hex damage now increased by your Hex Stack Damage Bonuses.

Vanguard Shard

• Inferno Fragment’s Fire Aura damage reduced from 30% of damage done to 25%.

Warlock Paragon

Overmind Legendary Node

• Previous: Abyss Skills deal 45% increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies and 65% increased damage to Elites.

• Now: Abyss Skills deal 120% increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies, increased by 100% against Elites. Hitting Elite enemies with Abyss Skills generates 0.1 Dominance.

Dynamism Legendary Node

• Demonform Damage Bonus decreased from 2.5% to 2.0%.

Demonic Spicules Legendary Node

• Maximum Damage bonus decreased from 120% to 110%.

Warlock Unique Items

Rictus of Terror

• Previous: Command Laalish is now an Ultimate Skill and deals 100-120% increased damage. Command Laalish's Terror Realm lasts 50% longer and while within your Abyss Skill casts do not break Shadowform Stealth.

• Now: Command Laalish is now an Ultimate Skill and deals 100-120% increased damage. You gain the effects of the Unfathomable Fragment for free with 100% increased Potency.

Footfalls of the Waning World

• Updated to be able to cancel the Abyss Walk variant early when triggered via Evade.

Scourge of Duriel

• Now additionally makes Umbral Chains a Greater Demonology Skill.

Litany of Sable

• Now casts a full Dread Claws when an effect grants more than one stack at once.

Hellbrand Signet

• Previous: Sigil of Chaos gains the Diabolic Rebuke Variant for free and deals [100 - 130]%[x] increased damage.

• Now: Sigil of Chaos gains the Diabolic Rebuke Variant for free and you always gain the benefits of being within Sigil of Chaos. Enemies hit by Sigil of Chaos take 60-75% increased Occult Skill damage for 4 seconds.

The Hemat Stone

• Ritualist Potency now rolls 77-154%.

Eightfold Idol

• Damage bonus decreased from 60-80% to 55-75%.

The Fecund Seal

• Now additionally makes Sigil of Summons and Occult Skill.

Elegy

• Reworked to only increase the Mini Skull damage for the Channeled Variants.

Hand of the Worldbreaker

• Damage bonus reduced from 290%-350% to 250-300%.

• Updated to work better with Sigils of Chaos created by the Rite of the Nameless Set.

• Adjusted tooltip to clarify you need to be within the Sigil of Chaos to gain the bonus.

Eye of Baal

• All damage bonus now rolls from 8-10% per stack (40-50% max).

Infernal Homunculus

• Damage bonus decreased from 80-110% to 75-100%.

Morlu Fleshward

• Life Limit now rolls from 60-75%.

Moloch’s Beating Flame.

• Damage per empowered Skill reduced from 20-30% to 15-20%

Developer’s Note: This is intended to be self-multiplicative due to the randomness of Volatility empowerment; however, we are reducing its value to account for improved tools for maintaining Volatility.

Warlock Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Doom contagion caused way too many Sigil of Smoke tendrils to spawn at once, immediately deleting earlier ones.

• Fixed an issue where Twisted Valloch lost his Hellfire & Abyss tags in town.

• Fixed an issue where Shadowform Unhindered did not prevent all Movement Speed Reductions.

• Fixed an issue where Sigil of Subversion Seekers could teleport enemies out of the playable space.

• Fixed an issue where Sigil of Chaos Diabolic Rebuke did not trigger when your demons were hit by enemies.

• Fixed an issue where Laalish could stop applying the Weaken from the Unfathomable Fragment during combat.

• Fixed an issue where Dark Prison Calamity did not benefit from Sigil Duration bonuses.

• Fixed an issue where Archfiend skills with Anathema of the Primes did not update their Wrath Cost tooltips based on Resource Cost Reduction affixes.

• Fixed an issue where Shadow of Harash Domination would direct to previous Cast positions instead of the new Recast target position.

• Fixed an issue where Sigils could stop benefiting from Overpower after Doom Sigil dealt damage. 

• Fixed an issue where Warlocks could become stuck on the revive screen after being killed by Rathma's Golem's Soul Split ability.

• Fixed an issue where salvaging Infernal Homunculus did not unlock its appearance.

• Fixed an issue where Tortured Wretch did not deal damage when attacked inside of Sigil of Chaos with the Diabolic Rebuke variant active.

• Fixed an issue where the cost reduction from the Dominion Paragon node didn't apply to Tyrant's Grasp.

• Fixed an issue where Abyssal Oppression could remove Shrine effects.