The Versatile Bowlock — Top-Tier DPS for Everything from P8 T5 to UbersTL;DR: A Bowlock built around Bind Demon + 2 Defilers + Engorge, with Hex Siphon for self-sustain (no leech or Insight needed). It clears everything from Players 8 Terror Zones to Ubers. Core gear is
Demon Machine + Enigma; the rest is flexible. Tanky, Hardcore-safe, and easy to pilot — summon your demons, keep Engorge up, cast Hex Siphon, and go kill.
————————————————————————————After a
TON of testing since the patch dropped, I'm confident I've put together the most versatile Bowlock setup possible — it brings enough DPS to clear any content, from Players 8 Terror Zones all the way up to Ubers, without worry.
The build is extremely flexible, so I'll point out the options along the way and explain what I personally run, since I'm playing Hardcore.
I personally went with a
Fire version — it's the strongest one in my experience, and it gets even better if you have an Enchantress Sorc. If you don't, you can just slot some fire damage SCs on your gear. (I leaned into Fire mostly because I already had some fire gear left over from my Tainted Lock testing.) That said, the build itself is element-agnostic — you can run a magic version with Hex Bane, a physical version with Mist, or whatever you prefer. The core (Bind Demon + 2 Defilers + Engorge + Hex Siphon) stays the same; you only swap your damage source, your Sunder, and a few gear choices to match.
————————————————————————————Gear
- Weapon — Demon Machine (mandatory): The interaction between Demon Machine and Defilers is just too big to pass up.
- Helm — CoA with facet + jewel, or Hellwarden with jewel: This build misses a lot of resistances (I don't find I need much — I've never come close to dying), so I run CoA since I'm on Hardcore. If you want the 75 FCR breakpoint version, go Hellwarden.
- Gloves — rare gloves with res, or Magefist for the FCR setup.
- Boots — Horazon: The magic resist stats plus Cannot Be Frozen are too good to pass up.
- Armor — Enigma: nothing to say.
- Rings — SoJs / BK / Sling / rare rings / fire Opal Veins: here things get interesting — it's really about filling whatever you need. I started out using rare rings with high mana and dual leech, but after my last build update there's no need for leech anymore (only for Ubers if you want to attack, but even that isn't needed — the demon will handle it). So I'm running fire Opal Veins for the FCR, resist, fire damage, and life/mana on kill. Another option I sometimes run is 1 Opal Vein + 1 Sling for the extra MF and teleport comfort.
- Offhand — Mang Song's / Pride / CtA, whatever you need: if you play with a BO Barb you can run a Mang Song's for teleport / prebuff / casting Siphon. Pride is great for powering up your demon.
Prebuff GearStandard bind-demon prebuff stuff:
- Helm: +3 Demon
- Amulet: +3 Demon
- Book: +5–6 Bind Demon
- Full Demon skillers
- Mang Song's: +6 Bind Demon weapon
- Physical Sunder — to break immunes (I never really felt the need)
- BKs / SoJs
- Arachnid Mesh
InventoryHere's another great thing about the build: skillers don't do much for you except right when you enter the game (to summon Bind Demon and Defilers). I like to play full MF, so I run a Fire Sunder, Gheed's, and fill the rest with MF SCs — but you can swap in all-res SCs, resist SCs, or whatever you feel like. If you need more damage, run some fire damage SCs (or another element you like, or max damage charms) — or even keep a Demon Limb or a full Demon set in your inventory for the prebuff, if you prefer.
And one more thing:
GCs do almost nothing for you here, so there's no point. I play with full MF SCs (having an Enchantress helps a lot), but I also tested without an Enchantress and I can still kill everything — Bind Demon + 2 Defilers is already enough for anything.
————————————————————————————The Build
- 20 Bind Demon — get a Spearwoman with Fanaticism and a curse. I know HF is better for applying the curse, but you don't need it — she'll kill everything with 2 Defilers plus your fire damage.
- 20 Demon Mastery — more of everything for your demons.
- 20 Blood Oath — tankiness.
- 20 Engorge — this skill is amazing and I can't stress enough how important it is to keep it up. It brings a ton of DPS for the demon and the Defilers, and they seem to use more skills while it's active.
- X Mirror Blade — pump this until you have at least 15 points (counting +skills from gear) for max projectiles.
- 1 Sigil of Lethargy — bosses only.
- 1 Sigil of Death — I use this most of the time against Herald packs; they just explode.
- 1 Death Mark — one point is all you need. This is your targeting tool: cast it on a priority enemy (bosses, uniques, packs, or Heralds) to lock your Bind Demon onto it instead of letting it wander. A single point lasts plenty long, so you stay in full control of what dies first — huge for tough single targets and dangerous packs.
- 1 Hex Siphon — this is the BEST skill in the build. With max Engorge we get a TON of life/mana back from our kills — no need for any leech or Insight!
You'll have some leftover skill points after that, so put them wherever you want: more Siphon for longer uptime, some Sigil points, or whatever suits you.
————————————————————————————Merc
- Might merc
- Helm — Cure: we want that Cleansing aura.
- Armor — CoH: we need the life steal.
- Weapon — Infinity / Pride / whatever you need: very flexible here. I personally run Infinity, since I'm on a Fire version with a Fire Sunder and lean on Sigil of Death a lot — I find it helps far more than any other weapon, plus the merc gets high damage and can leech against tough targets. Pride is mostly to power up your demon; I'd lean toward it against Uber Baal, since I don't like shooting him because of the frozen spikes.
————————————————————————————GameplayIt's pretty basic. Enter the game with your Bind Demon prebuff (remember to summon 2 Defilers!), then swap to your normal gear/inventory.
You don't strictly need to do the Bind Demon prebuff if you're running fast games (Baal-only, Chaos-only, etc.) — but you'll feel a speed difference with the prebuff, mostly against high Heralds, which won't even come up in short runs.
Swap to your damage gear (Demon Machine feels mandatory here, but you can try Mist or whatever), do your buffs, cast
Hex Siphon, and go kill.
————————————————————————————Reminders
- Sigil of Death adds a LOT of damage. If you're not in high-end gear, you can use HF on your demon to slow down Heralds and help keep them inside the Death circle. PS: you can even grab a Lister to help hold aggro.
- Death Mark is a must against big targets and groups. Always use it to direct your Bind Demon onto bosses, uniques, packs, and Heralds.
- Keep Engorge up at all times. Can't stress enough how much damage this adds.
————————————————————————————The most broken interaction is 2 Defilers + Engorge + something doing the killing. We found 3 Defilers even more broken, just spamming Mirror Blade to clear whole screens (that was a Hex Bane version), but I find Bind Demon
too good to pass up — Bind Demon + 2 Defilers will do anything you need.
The ultimate setup would be with a BO Barb
and an Enchantress for even more damage, but that's far from necessary.
PS: I'm not claiming this is the fastest or absolute strongest — for me it's the
most versatile build, since we don't need Insight or potions and it can clear all content safely. However, IF you run a BO Barb and an Enchantress, I find this to be the strongest build right now, even beating Tainted Lock (run the 75 FCR setup for speed clearing).
Hope someone finds this fun — there was a lot of testing and a lot of respecs to get here. Enjoy!