I'll say it every time, every person in this thread can rock a Demon Machine and be 100% right, there's little reason not to use it. I just happen to be one of the few people who prefer Brand for a couple of specific reasons, but you legitimately can't go wrong with either.

As for the hit check, I have literally never noticed a monster that had an arrow fly into them not take the full bane damage.

Yep. Not overly concerned with the conc or anything, just the pierce. I might give demon machine a go, if that’s going to trigger hex bane procs. On explosion + pierce, how does that mechanic work? And does bone spear proc hex bane? I guess no?

The spears don't proc bane, but the little damage they do adds up when combined with explosions, definer binds, and so mobs who aren't impacted by pierced arrows still die without ever seeing a bolt.

If an exploding arrow pierces, it explodes upon the next impact.

Love the dedication!

This build owns btw also HEX BANE FTW fuck purge

Thanks for sharing these kind of guides.
Will play one next season if no nerfs

Lol

Do you have a video to show , not tell how it works ?
Preferably in p8

Amazing guide!!

i would like to share some toughts on this kind of build, i did alot of test even with magic version:

if you not on bind demon " witch i cant recomend enought how good it its, but probably becouse i do play hardcore only soo if soft not that much) you might try 3 defillers instead of 2+ consume, even on hardcore we find better to let bind demon out and use 3 defillers if no bind demon oor 2 defillers + bind demon, 3 defillers with hex bane is monstrous!

some QoL tips:

while i undestand that using 2 slings or sling + opal bring the best "damage" possible its not necessery truth:

- if you run a enchantres you want a merc with infiinity instead of insight
- if you dont run an enchantress you mighjt want a merc with pride or another good tool, i ran might + conviction/pride

with this in mind and how i hate to pot i did some adjustments in my version, if you find valuable to add something nice if not i probably do a "confort" version later on

-vex rune on demon machine you realaly need a good mana leech

gloves with life and mana leech and other res - warlock have a prolbem getting high res, while in soft thats a no big in hardcore i care a little about it

- rings - here is the best, you want a fcr with ll ml and HIGH MANA (70+) while i know you loosing some damage after alot of test that really changed 0 things in the kill speedof the build, i lvled up to 95 with this version and when i got here with those rings that i discovered the hex siphon version i wrote down

- important thing - sunder charm with high mana! - you need to reach high mana to get ride of insight, but its all worth

i know its not easy or cheap to reaach this confort version but we are not talking about budget here, the rings i did not find a need for 2 of those, probably becouse i'm with a bo barb, and i like alot a sling for confort

hex bane version is a monstrous and you can reach a confort zone too using the right gear ( horazon gloves did 0 things for me, )

hope this can help somehow or at least you might wanna give a try, you can pm me to change some toughts on this veersion if you like

did you test void vs mang song using a 3 eldritch book for buff hex bane ? honestly i did not test the difference but i ended up using mang song becouse i would have more points in all other skills and was already killing in 1 shot all screen

Thanks for the amazing write down!

This post was edited by N1ck0 on Jun 25 2026 04:27am

Sure I will make one today