Dread Claws Warlock Leveling Guide for Diablo IV Season 13 – Season of Reckoning

Welcome to the Dread Claws Warlock Leveling Guide! This Abyss-themed build revolves around positioning and brings massive AoE damage to the table. If you want to stealth around before striking the entire screen at once from the shadows, you’ve come to the right place!

Your main skill Dread Claws – Encircling Terror summons a circular AoE around both yourself and your Greater Demon (Rampage – Abyssal Titan), allowing you to double up on your damage and cover more area.

Meanwhile, Hellion Sting serves as an incredible single target solution thanks to its Eviscerate synergies. Once you unlock the combo of Tail Spikes + Eviscerate, you can simply hold down this button to melt any elite or boss in seconds while refilling your Wrath.

All in all, the Dread Claws Warlock is a great allrounder that brings magnificent AoE coverage to the table and breezes through the entire game with ease. Let’s dive in to see how it works!

The Skill Tree represents the core of your build and offers deep customization. As you level up, more and more branches gradually unlock at specific level thresholds. Follow the step by step progression below for a smooth leveling experience with the Dread Claws Warlock.

Hellion Sting is your Basic Skill to generate resources and occasionally apply a powerful DoT, supercharged by the Eviscerate upgrade (lvl 9) paired with the Tail Spikes variant (lvl 14) to absolutely melt elites and bosses. Note that the bonus Eviscerate chance only applies to your selected target – you have to lock on or mouseover for it to work!

Dread Claws (lvl 3) is the Core Skill you want to spam for AoE. It sends out a powerful frontal wave, later converted into a circular AoE around you and your Greater Demon by Encircling Terror (lvl 15). When low on resources, weave in a Basic attack to ramp up Damage for bigger bursts.

Nether Step (lvl 4) is your mobility tool, allowing you to teleport around the battlefield. Use it on cooldown to go faster and to generate Shadowform for Encircling Terror.

Rampage (lvl 8) is your best friend for this build, fueled by your secondary resource bar called Dominance. Not only does this guy pack a punch on his own, but you can summon him into packs to unleash Encircling Terror in two locations at once. The Abyssal Titan variant (lvl 20) allows you to reposition him without spending additional Dominance by recasting the ability. Later, this step can be semi-automated with Nether Step – Recall Shadows (lvl 34).

Laalish, acquired from the Mastermind Shard at lvl 15, is your second best friend. It continuously attacks nearby enemies and you can command it to unleash free AoE damage at a specific location.

After level 30, most of the key synergies are unlocked and the gameplay loop is almost complete. As you level up, you unlock a lot of extra points that first fill up all skill ranks on your primary abilities with leftovers spent on utility skills. Check out our Warlock Endgame Builds for the next steps!

At level 15, you can unlock your class mechanic called Soul Shards, with a secondary option called Fragments at level 30.

Mastermind Shard unlocks Laalish for free but more importantly grants synergies for Abyss and Shadowform (generated by Nether Step, Sigil of Subversion), boosting most of our damage sources.

Blasphemous Fragment further builds into that by allowing Rampage – Abyssal Titan to apply Hex, amplifying all Abyss damage even further.

To get started as a Dread Claws Warlock, focus the most on upgrading your weapon, as its damage is the base for all further damage calculations. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don’t have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options, such as Resistances, Life, and Armor, to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap, and the results can be very impactful.

The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist, unlocked by salvaging items with these powers.

For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.

Great Uniques for this build

1. Litany of Sable
2. Seed of Horazon
3. Lurid Pact

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 70, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:

Build-defining Uniques

1. Spine of Tathamet (enables Hell Fracture Endgame Build)
2. Anathema of the Primes (enables Tyrant’s Grasp Endgame Build)

You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Preferably, socket them into your Armor pieces as Weapon Gems offer powerful multiplicative damage bonuses. The Dread Claws Warlock focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Cir + Ceh – Spawns wolves that deal damage and freeze enemies
• Cem + Qua – Free movement speed buff every time you evade

Alternative choices

If you have access to higher level runes, you can also explore the following options:

• Gar – For more crit
• Que – Earthen Bulwark helps with defense
• Igni – Another good way of generating offering
• Tam – You spam our core skill all the time
• Jah – Allows you to go faster with free Teleport

In Diablo 4, you can level by completing any of the game’s Campaigns, completing War Plans activities, clearing Strongholds, or interacting with Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.

As you approach level 70 with the Dread Claws Warlock, you unlock higher item power gear that represents a massive jump in character power. This is a good time to refresh your setup with new tempers and imprints. After reaching 70, Paragon Levels unlock, offering you a steady power progression even after the initial leveling phase. Complete Pit Tier 10 to enter Torment 1, where Diablo IV’s Endgame begins.

With better gear, more levels, and Glyphs, you can push further and eventually unlock higher difficulties for increased rewards while exploring the perks of War Plans activities and their trees.

This step marks the end of the leveling guide. Below is the Paragon setup to get you started in Torment difficulty, but ideally, you should now transition towards the endgame version of this build or choose another of your liking.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

1. TBD
2. TBD
3. TBD
4. TBD
5. TBD

Coming soon.

The Dread Claws Warlock is simple to play AoE powerhouse with great endgame scaling potential.

• Attack with Dread Claws and position your Greater Demon inside packs to get double hits.
• Delete elites and bosses with Hellion Sting.
• Use Nether Step to move around and to generate Shadowform.
• Cast Sigil of Subversion and Command Laalish in large fights.
• Become one with the shadows!

Written by wudijo