Command the forces of Hell to vanquish your foes with this Pure Goatlock build for Diablo II Resurrected: Reign of the Warlock. Primarily relying on Summon Goatman, Demonic Mastery, and Death Mark, this build also utilizes Sigil: Lethargy and Blade Warp for buffs and mobility. Find out which gear you should try to use with this Goatman Warlock leveling build, discover which Mercenary you should select and the gear you should give them, and learn other tips and tricks that will help you while leveling the Warlock in D2R’s new expansion.

Your goats farm XP for you while keeping you completely safe from harm.

I have been playing and loving the new Diablo II Resurrected DLC, Reign of the Warlock. The Warlock is everything I ever wanted from a summoner class in the Diablo series, and it still blows my mind that the game has a new class after 25 years.

In this full Warlock leveling build guide for Diablo II Resurrected, my goal is to tell you how to get to high levels using very simple skills.

We’re going to focus on the skills you should use, the stat points you should allocate, how to use the skills properly, and we’ll talk a little bit about gear. I’ll even touch on your Mercenary, including the gear you should equip on him for maximum effectiveness.

It’s time to learn about this “goated” leveling build for the Warlock, which has gotten me really far through the game very easily.

It’s absolutely true this class is OP. Let’s dive into it.

Best Goatlock Leveling Skills in D2R

We’ll start by covering the skills you need and the order in which you should get them. Of course, Summon Goatman is your main skill.

Goatmen are great because they’re melee tanks. They do a lot of damage and they have a chance of dealing crushing blows. I would put my first few skill points into Summon Goatman and then start dividing your points equally between Goatman and Demonic Mastery.

Demonic Mastery is a skill that will allow you to eventually get multiple goats. So, it’s worth putting some points into that right from the beginning.

Then, once you get to level 6, it’s time to start investing in a couple other skills. First is Death Mark, which sends your goats to a particular location.

This is incredibly useful because as a summoner, I’m used to enemies targeting me and not really being able to do anything to stop them. But with this skill, you can make your goats attack specific enemies, and you can also summon them in front of you if you’re being attacked by mobs.

Death Mark also increases the damage that your demons do, and it decreases the defense of the targeted enemy.

At level six, you’re also going to want to invest one point into your sole Chaos skill, the Sigil: Lethargy. This makes a really cool visual effect on the ground, and it also slows enemies, reduces their attack speed, and increases their damage taken, and reduces their defense.

You only need one skill point in Death Mark at first. And while I do suggest investing at least a few points into Blood Oath eventually, you can leave it alone for now.

Up until you get to level 18, just keep dividing your points somewhat equally between Summon Goatman and Demonic Mastery. Getting Demonic Mastery to level 10 at least will give you a huge boost because then you can have two Goatmen instead of just one.

Once you get to level 18, it’s time to get Blade Warp. You’ll need three skill points to do so. Put one into Levitation Mastery, one into Echoing Strike, and then one into Blade Warp, and that’s all you’ll need.

This is mainly a mobility skill. You’re not really going to be using it for damage, but you throw your blade and you teleport to that location. You can’t teleport through walls, but you can go anywhere within your line of sight.

Blade Warp is great for getting away from monsters, getting through walls you can see through, like jail cell walls, getting across rivers like in the Sewers of Kurast. It’s not quite as good as a Sorceress’ teleport, but it’s still a pretty good teleport skill.

Skills to Max First

From there, your main goal is simply to max both Demonic Mastery and Summon Goatman. Maxing Demonic Mastery first is usually a good idea, but it doesn’t give quite as much damage as the Goatman skill itself.

Once you do get to level 20 in Demonic Mastery, you’ll be able to summon three goats at once, which gives you a huge boost to damage. By the time you get to around level 40, you should be able to have 20 points in both Summon Goatman and Demonic Mastery.

When you get to level 24, you may also want to invest a point in Blood Boil and then Engorge.

Engorge allows you to heal your goats, which costs a lot less than resummoning them, but I hardly use it at this point because my goats are tanky enough.

Once you’ve maxed out both Summon Goatman and Demonic Mastery, it’s time to start investing in Death Mark and then Blood Oath. Every point you invest in Death Mark gives another 1% chance of your goats using a Crushing Blow, which reduces the monster’s total HP by 25% (12.5% on bosses).

It’s really great against bosses, especially at the beginning of the fight. Additional points in Death Mark also do increase the reductions to defense and increases the damage that it provides.

And then when it comes to Blood Oath, the entire point of this skill is simply making your goats tankier, which is really useful against bosses who can relatively quickly decimate your goats. This saves you from having to resummon them, which uses a lot of mana.

Endgame Skill Allocation

Once you’ve invested 20 points in Goatman, Mastery, Blood Oath, and Death Mark, you’ll be at level 80. And from that point, you can just start investing in your Sigil to make it bigger and stronger.

You can invest in Engorge to make it provide more health back to your goats — or really whatever you want past that point. This isn’t an endgame build. I’m not really thinking about anything beyond level 80 when leveling really slows down.

The main point of this build is to get you to level 70 or 80 by which point you’ll have completed Hell Difficulty and you’re moving on to the endgame.

So those are the skills for this build. Summarizing it again one more time:

• Your main skills are Summon Goatman and Demonic Mastery, which you should invest in early.
• Once you get to level 6, put a point each into Death Mark and Lethargy.
• When you get to level 18, invest in Blade Warp.
• And, when you get to level 24, get at least one point in Engorge.
• Along the way, you might want to put a couple points into Blood Oath if your goats don’t seem tanky enough.
• Once you’ve done all that, max out Goatman and Demonic Mastery, and work on maxing out Death Mark and then Blood Oath.

D2R Goatman Warlock Stat Points

Now that we’ve covered the skills, let’s take a quick look at stat points. As is usually the case with leveling builds in Diablo II, you’re going to want to invest all your points that you can into Vitality.

This improves your tankiness and helps you survive against mobs and bosses. You won’t need any points in Energy, and you’ll understand why when we start talking about the Mercenary.

When it comes to Strength and Dexterity, just invest as many as you need to wear your gear. Eventually, you’ll also get gear that increases these attributes.

Just put everything into Vitality except what you need to put into Strength and Dexterity to use the gear that you want to use.

Leveling Gear for Goatman Warlock in D2R

Speaking of gear, let’s talk about good leveling gear for this build. Of course, early Runewords like Lore and Spirit are good here.

You should be able to get most of the runes you need just leveling, but if you need any more, just go fight the Countess in the Black Marsh. She almost always drops Runes.

I haven’t gotten a four-socket shield yet to put Spirit into. So until you can do Spirit, just keep an eye out for any Warlock Books that give skill points to either Demonic Mastery or Goatman.

Also, while you’re leveling, keep an eye out for Knives, which now drop with Warlock skill points on them. And again, just look out for Goatman or Demonic Mastery.

Once you do get to level 55, Heart of the Oak is an excellent Runeword to slot. It gives you +3 to all skills and a lot of other buffs.

Aside from that, just try to find the best unique items you can put in other slots.

• Chance Guards is good for gloves because it helps you get other gear.
• Sander’s is fine for boots.
• Skin of the Vipermagi works pretty well for the chest because it gives you plus one to all skills and increases your resistances.

And then in the jewelry slots, I have:

• Manald Heal for extra life replenishment, which is really important if you don’t want to be using potions all the time.
• On the other ring, I have a Nagelring.
• On the amulet, I have the Mahim Oak Curio.

And I’ve got a Goldwrap on for my belt.

You just want to be stacking resistances plus the skill points if you can and also Magic Find so you’ll be able to get the better gear you’re going to want later on.

Best Mercenary for D2R Goat Warlock

That just about covers it, but let’s touch on your Mercenary here before we finish up.

As soon as possible, it’s important to get an Insight Runeword on your Act 2 Mercenary. The best Aura for your mercenary is Blessed Aim because that increases the attack rating of your goats.

But as long as your Mercenary has Insight, you won’t even need to use any mana potions. Your mana will replenish basically instantly, allowing you to keep resummoning goats if they die as long as your mercenary is alive.

Insight is also just a cheap and good Runeword for your mercenary anyway. Also on my merc, I have the Cow King set. It’s really not the best armor for the merc, but it works pretty well.

Just try to get anything with high defense and high resistances. Honestly, what’s best for the chest of your mercenary is the Treachery rune word, which is Shael Thul Lum. But I haven’t gotten the runes I need for that yet.

Just put Insight on your merc and you’ll be set for mana.

Summary

I’m just going to summarize everything one more time.

• Your main skill is Summon Goatman.
• Your Goatmen will be able to get in between you and enemies using Death Mark, and you’ll be able to have three of them once you max out Demonic Mastery.
• You can heal your Goatmen using Engorge.
• You can make them stronger using Sigil: Lethargy.
• Your “oh crap” button is Blade Warp, which allows you to get out of trouble or cross environmental obstacles.
• And you’re going to want to dump every stat point you can into Vitality.
• As far as gear goes, try to get a Spirit shield and Heart of the Oak on your weapon as soon as you get high enough level.
• And otherwise just simply items that give you plus to skills, resistances, and Magic Find chance.
• Your Mercenary should be an Act 2 Mercenary and use the Insight Runeword, and Cow King’s works as a set.
• You’ll be better off with the Treachery Runeword and maybe a Lore Runeword on the helmet.

What I love about the Warlock is it stays true to what Blizzard said about it: that is a sandbox class. You can do so many different things with it.

So, I thought I’d just do what I felt like doing, which is Goatman all the way. I’m excited to see how far I can get with them.

So far, everything in Nightmare Difficulty has been easy. I’m just about to get to Hell difficulty, which I don’t imagine being that much harder.

It’s really cool that you can just go with the first skill that you get and it can be viable all the way through the game. I’m loving the Warlock so far.