Have you ever wanted to play like a nova sorc, but be also able to teleport your novas to other spots in the room you don’t want to go to?

Have you ever looked at the damage reduction of a Stormshield and thought to yourself, “Make it higher, and I’d prefer to still not have to wear a shield at all”?

Have you ever had to ask yourself if you preferred a mercenary that grants conviction or one that grants fanaticism, and thought that “yes” was the proper answer?

Have you also had to ask yourself if you preferred maximum killability or healthy amounts of magic find, and also thought the answer should be “again, yes!”?

How about the ability to kill every mob, champion, elite, boss, and herald in the same game, regardless of player count? And maybe having more than one thing to do when you encounter mobs, but not so many things that it feels overwhelming or unapproachable?

Since the answer to all of those is obviously “of course”, then you should consider Blood Boil!



Over the past few weeks, I've played around with different versions of this, and I think I've landed on what I like the most for my specific playstyle - one that I would think probably lines up with other people who have been playing this for the better part of 25 years.

Lots of credit to Goomshill for his topic that allowed blood boilers to bounce ideas around, leading me to make some adjustments to my own build for the better. I’ve bought in on max Bind Demon as a result.

There is a guide on Maxroll that was created by someone who presents themselves as someone who perhaps has never even played Diablo II, let alone someone who knows anything about Blood Boil. I know they’re trying their best, but there’s lots of wrong information and strange recommendations there. You will see this one be very different than that.



I: Skills:

Demon:

• 1 - Summon Goatman - prereq, you will rarely if ever use this
  
• 1-X - Demonic Mastery - this is where you will dump the rest of your skills
  
• 20 - Blood Oath - the absolute most powerful thing in the game, renders you functionally invulnerable except to poison and being stupid/careless (like I was last week), also a synergy to your core damage skill
  
• 1 - Death Mark - one point wonder, this skill has tremendous functionality that I will explain later
  
• 20 - Blood Boil - core damage skill
  
• 20 - Engorge - essential skill for the build, and a synergy to your core damage skill
  
• 1 - Summon Tainted - one point wonder/prereq
  
• 1 - Summon Defiler - one point wonder/prereq
  
• 20 - Bind Demon - obviously crucial to the build
  
• 0-1 - Consume - very important to the build, but can be acquired with gear

Eldritch:

• 1 - Hex: Bane - prereq
  
• 1 - Hex: Purge - prereq
  
• 1 - Hex: Siphon - one point wonder

Chaos:

• 1 - Sigil: Lethargy - one point wonder
  
• 1 - Sigil: Rancor - prereq
  
• 1 - Sigil: Death - one point wonder

II: Gear:

Weapon: Obsession (key stats: 65% FCR, 60-70 all resist, +4 skills, % max life, %regen mana, MF, GF, 60% FHR)

Lots of people will tell you to use other things. They may be right in some cases. Not in mine. I want to do as much damage as possible, with as much MF as possible, and die/think about dying as little as possible. The most underrated aspect of the Warlock class is that it makes SC play like HC, because if I die I need to get a new demon, and fuck that. Obsession is the be all, end all in my mind of accomplishing every goal I could want to have.

The skills are essential to a build whose damage/radius is predicated entirely on +skills (as well as +fire/-fire res, which will be talked about later). This is a build that can also find resistances and FCR hard to come by in "optimal" gear, and so the massive resistances and FCR on this staff make it a game changer, and that alone is worth the price of admission in my opinion. MF and GF are very strong, and the max life/mana regen is crazy. An underrated thing about this underrated weapon is the fact that while it requires a high rune, even a bottom of the barrel roll is still great. The +skills don't vary, so you aren't handicapped by a bad roll there. The FCR doesn't change, so low rolls aren't throwaways like spirits are in some cases. 60 all res instead of 70 is still incredible. Any amount of max life % and mana regen really helps.

Some people want to talk about the "10% chance to cast weaken when struck" overwriting amplify damage. On paper, this is TERRIBLE! My amp! The horror! In reality, I have never once had a time where I thought to myself "oh, interesting, ctc weaken has happened". Not. Once. That's because the mobs that had weaken cast on them (the ones that are in your immediate range) are probably already dead after a couple of boils, and the others get amp cast right back on them because that's what these demons do. I have literally never once been concerned about this proc in practice, through numerous p8 tz games. The monsters you're worried about amp falling off of, like heralds and bosses, aren't hitting you because your demons and merc are tanking them while you are at a safe distance. And then amp gets immediately reapplied (if they aren't dead already).

Also, how about hitting a top tier breakpoint for FHR without even trying?

Other guides will preach Mang Song's Lesson, which is a very nice weapon. The potential for -15% fire resistance is amazing. +5 skills is even better than Obsession. The FCR is... decent! The ability to socket it with a facet or Uber Ancients jewel is very underrated. I just think Obsession is better for numerous reasons. The resistances are important to me, because I don't want to compromise my gear elsewhere to acquire them. Same with the FCR. The price is also a big part of it. Obsessions use a zod rune, a rune that thankfully isn't as priced as ber/jah, and cheaper to acquire earlier in the ladder season. I'm an eth archon staff man, but you don't need that to make it work. Mang Song's Lesson is very rare, and if you get a low fire roll, it can crater its value and usefulness. You're not going to put a high end Defender's Fire jewel into a 7% Mang Song's. The combined cost of the weapon and jewel with good rolls is higher than Obsession, and, as I explained earlier, isn't as good. I can get the -15% elsewhere in ways that really help my build, but the resistances and FCR are going to be harder to come up with.


Shield: Ars Tor'Baalos (key stats: +2 demon skills, consume/blood boil/engorge/demonic mastery skills, life per level, damage reduction) socketed with a Defender's Fire jewel (prioritize -% enemy fire resist and MF)

Again, this is one that doesn't fit other people's builds, and that's fine. They can be very right, but this one is right for me and my play style. The huge +skills to basically everything you use as a BB lock make this a really clean and nice choice. It's also not as expensive as some of the other alternatives that, in my opinion, aren't as good when combined with the rest of the gear in this build.

The skills do vary a lot, but thankfully many of them aren't super important. Really, the only crucial one to have maxed is blood boil. A perfect roll one will have +5 consume, +6 blood boil, +5 engorge, +5 demonic mastery. A couple of those being +4 isn't the end of the world, and keeps the price down. DR is super cool to have on an item, because when using an Enigma, Gives you mid-teens damage reduction without really trying.

There is no FCR on this item, which might make it hard to use with some gear options, but because we use Obsession, we are not hurting in any way for this stat. There's also no all-res, but again, we have Obsession to carry the load there.

One of the biggest reasons for me to use this item is because I can socket it. There are runeword options for the shield which would require me to use a non runeword weapon or helm, and those aren't things I'm interested in doing for the reasons I have outlined (and will outline) with my gear choices. Defender's Fire jewel adds a lot of +fire damage, -enemy fire resist, MF, and GF. The experience gain is the icing on the cake. Has to be a part of your build somewhere, and Baalos gives me the slot to use it. You can also put an Um here if you want to cap your resists and have found another spot for the jewel (explained below).

Some people will opt for a Phoenix here, and they can certainly do that. The numbers might look better against natural fire immunes. I would almost wonder if a 3 5/-5 Rainbow Facet and 1 x/-10 Defender's Fire would be better than that, because I don't think redemption aura is necessary at all for this build to have lots of success. Either way, you're using a shield that offers no resistances/DR/FCR and requiring you to make serious compromises in other slots of your gear unless you're using an Obsession. Some people would go with a Spirit to hit the FCR they need, with res and FHR. To that I would add, go make a sorc. Spirit is boring. And it's not as good.


Armor: Enigma Mage Plate (key stats: they're so good, but it's for teleport. MP is to save stat points)


Helm: Flickering Flame Diadem (key stats: -% enemy fire resist - this is the priority, resist fire aura, +3 fire skills, mana, poison length reduced)

Another item unlocked by the Obsession weapon. If I used Mang Song's and a Baalos/Phoenix with my Enigma, I would be looking at 30% FCR so far through 3 locked in pieces of gear, which won't pay the bills. The -fire resist is the real key here, I would probably reroll or look for another one if it wasn't -14 or -15. The fire resist aura negates the impact of the Flame Rift sunder (imagine if we were using Mang Song, Phoenix, and Enigma and had a grand total of -170% fire resist so far with our sunder), but there isn't a massive impact on you if it rolls a 5 vs an 8. +3 fire skills works for Blood Boil.

Another option is the Hellwarden's Will unique, which gives +1 skills with 20% FCR, up to -8% enemy fire resist, and MAEK. If you insisted on using a Phoenix shield and need the socket, or wanted to completely free up your rings/amulet from FCR, then this is a legit alternative that doesn't cost a whole lot. A much more expensive option would be a +2 warlock/20% FCR/2 open sockets circlet, or even a +3 demon/20% FCR/20 open sockets one. Double facet you can get the 10%/-10% that can offset the Flickering Flame (or 15%/-15% if this is where your Defender's Fire goes) and exceed the damage. But again, this is a play style thing. You'll be worried about your fire resists and definitely dying more often with negative fire resists using that (especially because if you use Spirit there is no fire resist there), and there's just no reason to put yourself through that for the potential of a marginal gain (at an exorbitant cost) when there's cheaper, really nice options available.

Poison length reduced is nothing to sleep on in this build. Blood oath and your ability to stay away from especially dangerous enemies means your physical damage intake is relatively low. But there's nothing to absorb your poison damage, and that is what will keep you needing potions/having to back out. It's a QOL thing in a build with few QOL holes to make it even nicer.


Gloves: Magefist (plus skills and 20% FCR is enough said, but there's mana regen too?)


Belt: Arachnid's Mesh (plus skills and 20% FCR is enough said, but there's max mana too?)


Boots: Wraithstep (key stats: 20% FHR, +dex, +energy, +1 skills (demon in this case) OR Horazon's Legacy (key stats: +str, +dex, magic resist, cannot be frozen) OR [/B]War Travelers[/B] (key stats: MF)

Simple. I like not being frozen, and this is a nice way to acquire it. I personally wear the Horazon's boots often because of this. The build needs an extra 30-40 strength to wear Wraithstep. The FHR on Wraithstep is superfluous due to the 56% breakpoint already being achieved from Obsession (and it isn’t enough on its own to get you to the 86% breakpoint, though your sunder can get there). 35 vitality moved to strength is a fair amount of life to lose to equip these (but gain some mana, which is almost more helpful in this build). The +1 skill is very nice, however, but it might not offset the life or CBF in your eyes. I could also use rare boots with resists and FRW, but the resists aren't crucially needed in this build and so the flexibility is nice. If you want magic find, go with the Travs.


Amulet: Rare +2 Warlock 10% FCR and resists/whatever else

Don't have to break the bank here. All you need is +2 skills (even +2 demon skills works) and 10% FCR, any other mods are gravy. I picked up a +2/10% FCR/13 all resist rare amulet for not a ton earlier in the ladder, and that does the trick for me. You could even do a +3 demon/10% FCR amulet here if you didn't want the resists. I personally run a +2 warlock, 10% FCR, 15 all resist (30 poison) with some strength that met all my needs.


Ring #1: Stone of Jordan (+1 skills, lots of mana)
Ring #2: Sling (10% FCR, some mana and MF, and TOWN PORTAL) or, let’s be serious, probably an Opalvein (10% FCR with fire damage, resists, MAEK/LAEK, 100% less TOWN PORTAL)

I need 10% more FCR to hit 125%, which I feel is something that every teleporting build should do if it's at all feasible. The security from being able to move faster through content, move out of harms way, reposition, get blood boils off to melt your screen, there's just no reason not to. Your calculator DPS might be higher at some 75% builds, but this isn't a hard thing to accomplish and you basically have 105% built in automatically just from Obsession/Arach/Magefist, so why not find 20% more? If you use a Hellwarden's or 2/20 circlet instead of Flickering Flame, you can just rock 2 SOJs and a Maras if you want as your jewelry.

But those options don't have PLUS ONE TO TOWN PORTAL. I can't begin to describe how happy it makes for me to never have to carry TP scrolls. Raise your hand if this is you: You carry a torch, tome of identify, and tome of town portals with you, and hate that you have 3 things that take up two vertical slots in your inventory, but only two of them fit with the 2x2 size of the cube. So you either need to drop a skiller/Gheeds in favor of more small charms, or you live in tyranny your whole life to have to keep TP scrolls on your belt. Really fun when running A2 and you need to go find Drognan in the middle of your run.

I bring a BO/hork barb with me in games, and so I end up casting a decent amount of portals. Every time I cast a Sling TP, it makes me so happy. So now, if I'm using a 2/20 super expensive circlet, I'm going to have 135% FCR, because I'm using the damn Sling forever on my mains. No double SOJs for this guy.

That being said, an Opalvein fire is probably better, and there’s a lot you can do with a high str/resist 10% fcr ring with this build, so go nuts there. I just can’t live without my portals anymore.


Inventory:

• Rows 1-2: Torch and Tome of Identify over the cube
  
• Row 3: Renewed Flame Rift sunder (I prefer -% enemy fire resist, MF, all attributes, and mana as the stats - go with +fire damage if you want, however because we already have good -% resist with the FF and jewel) and the Annihilus
  -I currently run a 15% fire damage Renewed Flame Rift, because I like the balance of +fire damage and -% enemy fire resist I have currently
  
• Row 4: Gheeds and my keys
  
• Rows 5-8: either 3 demon skillers with life and some 7 small charm combination of needed resists/mf scs or 4 demon skillers with life and 4 small charms - if you need the resists and want the MF, go with option 1. Otherwise, option 2 is great and adds a touch more damage.
  
• Rows 9-10: Loot (never enough space)

Small Charms:
I would go with poison resist for the reasons outlined in the Flickering Flame section. I usually run with 7 SCs and 3 skillers so I can add MF and customize my resists. My ideal would be to get my fire up to the 80% if my FF aura isn't fantastic after getting my poison resist up to close to the max.

III: Stats Summary and Current Gear:

Gear Summary (unbuffed, without small charms accounted for):

• Weapon: Obsession eth archon staff (65 all resist, 24% maximum life, 21% mana regen)
  
• Off-Hand: Ars tor’Baalos (3/4/3/3 with 8% damage reduction) socketed with Defender’s Fire (+6% fire damage, -10% enemy fire resist, 5% experience, high MF/GF) - I have a 3/4/3/3 10% DR that I’m just waiting on the right jewel for
  
• Helm: Flickering Flame diadem (-15% enemy fire resist, level 5 resist fire aura)
  
• Armor: Enigma mage plate
  
• Gloves: Magefist
  
• Belt: Arachnid’s Mesh
  
• Boots: Wraithstep (+1 demon, 15 dex, 15 energy)
  
• Amulet: Caster amulet (+2 warlock skills, 10% FCR, 5 str, 15 all resist, 30 poison resist)
  
• Ring 1: Sling (crap rolls)
  
• Ring 2: Stone of Jordan
  
• Sunder: Renewed Flame Rift (24% FHR, 15% fire damage, life and MF)
  
• Torch: 20/15
  
• Annihilus: 19/19/8

Stats Summary (just self-buffed with consume, no BO or small charms accounted for):

• 125% FCR breakpoint (Obsession, Sling, Amulet, Magefist, Arach)
  
• 86% FHR breakpoint (Obsession, Wraithstep, Renewed Flame Rift)
  
• 35-45 resist all (roughly 60 for poison)
  
• 16% damage reduction from gear (Enigma and Baalos)
  
• ~3200 unbuffed life (averaging 35 life on 3 demon skillers, with a consumed Tainted)
  
• ~500 mana unbuffed
  
• +21% fire damage unbuffed (Defender’s Fire and Renewed Flame Rift), 41% with a consumed Tainted
  
• -25% enemy fire resistance unbuffed (Flickering Flame and Defender’s Fire), -40% with a consumed Tainted
  
• ~230% magic find before small charms
  
• ~200% gold find before small charms
  
• Level 48 Blood Boils

IV: Mercenary:

Mercenary: A2 might mercenary
I bet thorns would be fun to play around with, and I've used A5 mercenaries before, but this one is the king because against bosses, the might helps your merc/demon take them down.

Weapon: Infinity (key stats: CONVICTION, crushing blow, prevent monster heal)

The conviction is obviously the selling point, but the crushing blow and prevent monster heal are what separates this from using a mania or faith to get the fanaticism that way and having conviction from the demon. This build isn't nearly as good as ES for single target boss killing, and I don't want that being compounded by them healing on me. The CB helps knock them down too. Just an overall perfect complement to this build.

I generally elect to do this in a Great Poleaxe for this build, because then you don't NEED an Andy's or any more IAS from your helm to hit the lowest breakpoint with your demon's fanaticism. Cryptic Axe works well if you do use an Andy's.

Insight is completely unnecessary and I never consider it here. While you are killing mobs, your natural mana regen coupled with Hex: Siphon will keep you flush with mana, and if you’re just teleporting around in space, pop a potion every once in a while if you have to or stop and kill some mobs. Even when in budget mode before getting an Infinity, I would almost rock a Mania polearm for fanaticism and have my demon have conviction over using Insight.

Armor: Treachery (key stats: 45% IAS and fade proc)

It's the IAS and fade. When hunting heralds and relying on the mercenary's aura as much as we do, the fade is just so hard to give up. I want to use Hysteria so much for the FRW for Waheed, but I just can't give up the fade when the T5 Heralds are smacking away.

Helm: Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral (key stats: +2 skills, 20% IAS, tons of poison resistance and higher max, high strength and life leech)

Really, it's the life leech. Nothing else on there is something that I have to have on the merc when using Infinity, but the leech is essential because I'm not giving up conviction or fade. Someday, when mercenaries can wear an additional piece of gear, there will be some diversity opened up on this, but for now it's Andy's for the leech, and the insane rest of the stats are just gravy.

I think there’s a use case for Cure as well, as the poison can be what dings your Urdar minion (he has no poison resistance - the big weakness!) as well as you (I was horking one time on my barb and didn’t realize my warlock was in zone at 1 hp once…), and it helps offset getting amped all the time I guess in cursed games, but those are limited use cases.

V: Playstyle (buffs/demons):


Bind Demon:

Find an Urdar/Blunderbore/Gorebelly/Mauler because they are the demons who have, in addition to 25% crushing blow, the highest level of health regen. This will mean having to engorge fewer corpses. This is most meaningful during more difficult fights, as described below.

Notes about each type:

• A2 Harem/Palace Cellar - Blunderbore: Fire immune
  
• A2 Tal Rasha’s Tomb - Gorebelly: Cold immune
  
• A3 Durance of Hate - Mauler: Lightning immune
  
• A4 River of Flame - Urdar: Faster movement (like, lancer movement speed)

I prefer the Urdar (ones found in Act 4 TZ River of Flame) because they move faster than the other ones, and the Maulers from Durance because of their lightning immunity. Except for certain cases, you don’t really rely on demon movement too much (telestomp locks them in place, and Death Mark is how you control their movement, but there are definitely use cases - like when the heralds run around - where the movement speed is really nice). Really, any of the Gorebelly style characters will work, because of their health regen. That ends up being a crucial part of this build that makes the Hephastos/Listers of the world not helpful, unless you want to just non-stop engorge your demon.

Current demon: Elite Mauler from Durance 2 from a cursed game that had fire enchanted as a mod, who gained fanaticism aura from my 20+ points in Bind Demon.

Note: I’m going to spend some time exploring using one of the Overseer demons, specifically the Blood Boss variant found in the Infernal Pit/WSK 3. Their regen is decent (about ⅔ of the Gorebellies) and they don’t have the crushing blow, but I’d be interested to see what their “Healing Vortex” skill does in action.

For me, the lancers don’t do enough damage to justify their lack of regen, lower HP, and lack of block to consider for this build.

My strategy is to make a public game called “TZ 96 My Shards” or something dumb like that, which encourages players to join my game for free loot and TZs. I wait until the TZ modifier is cursed, and keep remaking the game using similarly inane names until I do. Once people join, I pop a couple of shards. I’ll go to River first to see if there’s Urdar’s there (my preferred, partly because of 100% fewer dolls, guaranteed!), then go to Durance and just pick a few out and bind them until I get a fanaticism roll. I’ll probably try this in non-cursed games and just hunt for a lightning enchanted cursed unique Urdar without an aura that I can hope comes out fanaticism.

Your demon really needs two things to be viable: health regen and cursed. The close third, but not absolutely essential, is fanaticism. Everything else is fun, except for cold enchanted because I like to hork my heralds and big kills. The Urdar hits hard, has the highest regen of any demon (you’ll see why this matters shortly), and has a lot of life when you get him in a P8 TZ 96 game. You can use other demons too, so long as they have cursed (and ideally fanat).
Demon Slots:
This build has 3 demon slots.

• Slot 1: Mauler
  
• Slot 2: Defiler - this will take your already impressive AOE damage, enhance it, and spread it to additional enemies that may or may not already be getting 125% FCR blood boils shoved in their face
  
• Slot 3: Tainted (CONSUMED - this grants us +20% fire damage and -15% enemy fire resist, as well as increased FRW and ~25% max life - this ends up being around 500+ life before BO)

So we will have two summoned minions running with us, the Urdar we carry game to game with us, and the Defiler that we summon every game. If you have a third demon active, it overwrites the consumed demon. There is no damage bonus from having extra demons when you boil their blood, so don’t worry about not having all 3. There are situational plays when it makes sense to drop your Defiler for a Tainted, such as when you’re fighting a boss/herald, but that’s likely unnecessary.

Buffs
At the beginning of each game, I do the following:

Cast Tainted
Consume Tainted
Cast Defiler
Cast Hex: Siphon

With Battle Orders from my side piece, I now will have well over 6000 life, 41% fire damage, -40% enemy fire resist, and 35 mana and life after each kill (Hex: Siphon is cracked like that).

When I notice my mana dropping when I’m killing, it means the ~5 minute duration of Hex: Siphon has worn off, so I might use this moment to then resummon the Tainted (giving me 3 minions) and then consume him (dropping me back to two). To be on the safe side, I often re-do my orders around this time.

Key point about consuming the Tainted: Tainteds of a high enough level (which ours are) give a resist fire aura that clashes with your aura from Flickering Flame. If the aura hits him, any summoned demons (but not your Urdar) will die. If you’re casting in town, this isn’t an issue. If you’re in the zones, just summon him far away from you and this isn’t a problem, because you’ll consume him before he gets close enough to you for it to be an issue. This is also good practice so you don’t accidentally consume your Urdar, which is definitely something I’ve done before.



VI: Playstyle (strategy):


Blood Boil will take 5% of your demon’s life in exchange for bodyrocking everything in a medium-sized radius. Your demon will also take a huge amount of the damage that was supposed to go to you via Blood Oath. To account for that, your Urdar has passive regeneration, which helps. But you will also need to use Engorge on a corpse sporadically after fights (and sometimes during more challenging ones) to replenish ~75% of their health per corpse.

This makes Blood Boil not a skill you can just mindlessly spam against bosses and tougher fights, because there is a consequence. Your demon will not die because of Blood Boil but you can get him down low enough that he can die from the attacks of the enemies he is fighting. I have never had my bound demon die as BB spec. Sometimes the Defiler does, in which case I just recast him.

Enemies with low fire resistances and low damage reduction: Telestomp and drop a boil or two. Engorge one corpse every couple of packs.

Enemies with high fire resistances and low damage reduction (fallen, etc): Telestomp and drop a couple of boils, maybe one or two extras. Engorge one corpse if needed.

Enemies with low fire resistances and high damage reduction: The same. Noticing a pattern?

Enemies with high fire resistances and high damage reduction, and ones with very high life (venom lords, Minions of Destruction, etc): Cast Sigil: Death, telestomp/Death Mark your demon to them, boil until they’re dead, and engorge the bodies left over from the sigil as you go if you notice your demon’s health declining.

Full rooms of dozens of mixed enemies/minions (such as TR Tombs, WSK, etc): Because you’re telestomping and random and not stopping to check that you’ve just become surrounded by 73 mobs with fanaticism from one elite and might from another: just drop a Sigil: Lethargy on your radius to slow everyone down and increase their damage, drop a couple of boils, and then tele around to clean up the rest because you’re already in control of the room.

Dolls: The only ones I’m really worried about other than the venom lords. When I’m in the Swampy Pit, Flayer Dungeon, Durances, etc, I just take it a little slower with my tele, and use Death Mark to launch my demons into the new room before I tele into it. If they get accosted immediately, then I cast Blood Boil once or twice and they’re all dead. Otherwise, it’s safe for me to tele into and clean up naturally. If I see dolls, I just tele away and Death Mark to where the dolls are coming from. 1-2 might get through, but that’s not enough even when amped to touch 6k health, and most die to the boils at a safe distance.

Bosses like Andariel/Mephisto in P8: Proceed as normally, you should easily kill them before your demon has lost too much life from Blood Boil. Cast Sigil: Lethargy if you are worried about that.

Bosses like Duriel/Diablo in P8: I find these guys sometimes require me to slow down on the Blood Boil spam, so I usually take a moment to cast Sigil: Lethargy on him and then will occasionally stop my attack to let my demon regenerate health and leech, while my merc/demon take them down. Duriel has no corpses around, and Diablo requires you to move to find them, so it just takes a touch longer.

Baal in P8: Definitely need to take it a bit slower and let your merc/demon do more of the work. Cast Blood Boils until the demon gets low, then pause, regen, and resume. Usually two rounds of this does the job.

Herald versions of mobs with low fire resist and/or damage reduction in P8: Cast Sigil: Lethargy on the herald and/or the pack, and cast Death Mark to shoot your demon into the pack. Boil away, and Engorge as needed to keep their health. These heralds die easily.

Herald T5 versions of mobs with high fire resist and damage reduction (or other challenging/dangerous mods) in P8: I use Sigil: Lethargy before my Death Mark/Boils until some mobs get low, then cast Sigil: Death to start chaining corpse explosions. Once it’s just the herald and a couple left, it’s back to Lethargy to wear him down with Boils and use the surrounding bodies to Engorge as needed. Sometimes the damage is slow just because the demon needs repositioning, in which case a quick double-teleport or Death Marks to move things around can get things going. I never leave Sigil: Death on the ground so I don’t explode the Herald (for horking purposes).

Uber Ancients: Get an ES lock to do it for you

damn i wish i could read

did you just copy paste the brothers karamazov in its entirety

Tl;Dr play like nova sorc but with an urdar minion that does 30k buffed dps and gives you 50% Dr, while having 40 maek

I've been listening to Blood Meridian on a recommendation, so I guess I was feeling inspired to challenge reading stamina

it’s like a bad version of guide

So that’s why I cannot afford RAM or a GPU nowadays