Lets Talk about Warlock

With recent buff to his ult, lets take time to discuss Warlock

Some simple questions:

What is his role?
Skill build?
Item build?
Relevance in meta?
Other?

Did Warlock ult get buffed? I'm not so sure. Looks more like a nerf to me.

Flaming Fists proc chance was reduced from 60% to 40%. That's a huge deal. If you don't know, flaming fists in Warlock's main source of damage. The golem's attack damage is pretty much garbage, the only strong thing was that on 60% of attacks it procced an *universal damage nuke* that dealt some really high damage in an AOE.

Warlock's damage output was pretty much reduced by 2/3. Well actually 2/3 times 1.35/1.2 when you count the base attack time buff.

The damage from Warlock's ult is now only ~75% of what it used to be. Only thing compensating for it is that the golems have longer attack range.

Besides, the Refresher Orb nerf is a huge nerf to his late game.

A buff? what buff?

I think the best role for him is safelane farmer, and in unorganised pubs mid is also ok.

Apart from low pubs where you can do anything he is really situational as a support, he just does nothing from behind and is one of the worst gankers.


For skillbuild probably a Shadow Word max followed by Fatal Bonds, since you usually pick him in an AOE teamfight lineup.

Items, DAT aghs refresher rush with phase as possible boots upgrade. After that all sorts of utility luxury items like shivas, hex, ghost scepter, anything you need.

Maybe a midas is good when you have absolute freefarm so you can get lvl 16 really fast.

In higher level games you usually see him as a farming mid, rushing Aghs/Refresher, he has really big team fight.

I actually really like him as a support (quite tanky and good mana pool for an int hero), although he's pretty situational. Channelled slow and ultimate stun means he can't really roam or gank effectively, and he can't semi-jungle without creeps.

However, he is a good babysitter - heals from Shadow Word, which also deals good harassment along with Fatal Bonds. Upheaval can actually be good early on against the right laning opponent.

Generally I'd pick him for 2v1 safelane support against squishy/evasive offlane solo heroes. The likes of Mirana/ Windranger/ Weaver have a bad time against him as they can't dodge his harassment.

You don't really want him in a trilane as he's too level dependent unless the other support goes roaming or mostly jungle...bit slow for offlane, although he can do a job if he plays relatively passively. He's really great if you have big AOE damage on the team - the likes of Sand King, Earthshaker and Venomancer etc.

I in my opinion he is either a position 2 or 3. He badly needs experience to be relevant with his ultimate that can decimate early teamfights, Flaming Fists is no joke people.

I gotta disagree with you Timminatorr Shadow Word is good yes, but recent buffs to uppheaval makes this skill insane. 3 points in this skill becomes a screenwide icewall. When i play mid i ussualy have

3-1-3-1 at level 8 for mid. Using Shadow Word mostly for the heal ( Need Fatal Bonds to get good farm for fast core items

Item build Aghs is just to good on him to pass up. With recent damage change i have found that Veil of Discord can be a good pickup, but refresher or Blink Dagger is always solid.

I have mixed opinions on him in todays meta, he is incredible in pubs in around my MMR level (4600-5000) but he doesn't really have a place in the meta i feel, there are just better mid heroes that fit the passive farmer role and do more late game, maybe with new bkb nerf he can become more relevant late game, biggest problem is the Golem's dying instatly late game and his ult just becoming a aoe stun.

For me Warlock in pubs is best played as a greedy support. Like a #4, but that number stuff doesn't make any sense in pubs anyways.

His lane presence is good enough to be a support (he has the best non-ultimate heal/nuke in the game with Shadow Word after all). Indeed it limits his kill potential because he has no disable but on the other hand you will almost always passively win your lane and have your carry freefarm.

After the laning stage is over, he has actually a lot of opportunities to farm and get levels because of the way the hero works. First, Chaotic Offering has a huge cooldown so Warlock is all about joining fights when his ult is up and farming when his ult is down. This actually leaves him a TON of time to farm. And secondly, his golems are very powerful farming tools. Whenever you get your golems in a teamfight, they can push lanes very hard and farm the jungle. With good micro you can get ~500-800 gold of farm whenever you use your ult by farming with the golems. Not to mention that he often gets ~2 kills with each successful golem usage. He can get fed very quickly.

In competitive he's almost always played as a solo mid for levels. But in competitive there are just no greedy supports because of how much the early game matters. In pubs you can go Aghs/refresher on a trilane support Warlock, I've done it several times with a good timing (~35 mins) and I ended up semi-carrying teamfights. Pubs <> competitive on that point : pub supports can farm.

Warlock pub build ( From what I've seen )
1) Get phase or almost never seen on him arcane
2) Don't buy wards or courier
3) Rush an aghs
4) Get a refresher

He stomps pubs really hard and generally I would play him as a "semi-carry" as what I've seen in the previous patches when team MVP.Phoenix literally stomped teams like Titan and Arrow Gaming with a farming warlock.

@ PotatisFarfar : This is actually not a buff. This is just 6.82c reverting the 6.82 nerf.

6.82 : Flaming Fists no longer pierces Spell Immunity.

6.82c : Flaming Fists damage type changed from Magical to Pure (pierces Spell Immunity), Flaming Fists damage reduced from 100/150/200 to 80/115/150

Actually it's exactly the same skill. Before, it dealt universal damage, now it deals pure damage but only 3/4 of the amount. It was already BKB pirecing before. Only thing it changes is that it's no longer blocked by Pipe of Insight.

But on the other hand it procs only 3/4 of the time, meaning a net nerf to the damage.

ive seen him mid maybe once a very long time ago.
the only times i see him getting picked its MVP as a safelane farmer or sometimes C9 AUI2000 as a support.

MVP had a lot of succes with it but C9 not much.

Buff is still a buff ;). Warlock is still an overall stronger hero after 6.82 though. Base attack time + range is nothing to laugh at