Skill Trees

Cleave Warlock can be leveled with its intended playstyle from the beginning, although the skill feels somewhat limited during the early stages of the game. At lower levels, Cleave has a smaller attack range and reduced Arc, making clearing groups less impressive compared to its later performance. However, as additional Skill Levels increase Cleave's Arc and overall effectiveness, the ability becomes significantly smoother, allowing you to hit more enemies with each attack and clear packs much more efficiently.

During the leveling process, continue investing into Cleave and the skills that improve your overall combat power, while using your Warlock abilities and summons as additional support during tougher encounters. As the build gains more levels, improved area coverage and stronger scaling transform Cleave from a simple melee attack into a powerful farming tool capable of cutting through large groups of enemies. This natural progression makes the leveling experience increasingly rewarding without requiring a full respec into a different setup.

Once the core skills are developed and stronger equipment becomes available, Cleave Warlock fully reaches its potential as an aggressive melee build. Better gear improves damage, survivability, and mobility, allowing the build to maintain constant pressure in endgame content while preserving the same active gameplay style used throughout leveling. For tougher enemies and bosses, Mirrored Blades serves as a powerful single-target damage option, complementing Cleave's exceptional area clear and giving the build a reliable way to handle high-health targets.

Gear

Weapon selection is the most important part of the Cleave Warlock setup, as the build heavily depends on Attack Speed, weapon damage, and maintaining a smooth melee rhythm. Fast weapon bases are strongly preferred, with Phase Blades being one of the best choices due to their excellent speed and consistent performance. Breath of the Dying is one of the strongest endgame options, offering enormous Enhanced Damage, Increased Attack Speed, Life Leech, and strong overall melee scaling. Grief remains another exceptional choice thanks to its massive flat damage bonus, which greatly improves Cleave's physical damage output despite the weapon's simplicity. The Reaper's Toll provides excellent utility through Decrepify, significantly increasing damage against tougher enemies while improving overall consistency. Tomb Reaver is another powerful option, especially for players looking for a strong two-handed setup with additional damage, resistances, and quality-of-life bonuses. Since Warlock can use two-handed weapons together with a Book, these setups can provide exceptional damage without requiring a shield.

The off-hand option depends on whether you prefer additional damage, utility, or survivability. When using a one-handed weapon setup, Phoenix is one of the strongest offensive choices, providing massive Enhanced Damage, Redemption Aura, and Fire Absorb while improving sustain after fights. Stormshield offers a defensive alternative with high Damage Reduction, Resistances, and increased durability during dangerous melee encounters. Players using a two-handed weapon can instead pair it with a Ars Dul'Mephistos, allowing them to maintain access to Warlock abilities without sacrificing weapon power.

Helmet choices focus on maximizing melee damage while maintaining enough defensive stats to survive in close combat. Andariel's Visage is one of the strongest offensive options thanks to Increased Attack Speed, Life Leech, and its excellent melee-oriented bonuses. Guillaume's Face remains a powerful alternative for maximizing Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike, especially against bosses and elite enemies. Players looking for a more balanced setup can use Harlequin Crest, which provides Skills, Life, Mana, Damage Reduction, and Magic Find. Rare Warlock Circlets with useful offensive or defensive modifiers can also become competitive in highly optimized setups.

Enigma remains one of the strongest armor choices for Cleave Warlock because Teleport dramatically improves mobility, positioning, and farming efficiency. The ability to quickly reach enemy packs, reposition during dangerous fights, and move efficiently between areas greatly improves the overall gameplay experience. The additional Skills, Strength, Life bonuses, and Magic Find further increase its value. For players prioritizing raw damage, Fortitude provides exceptional Enhanced Damage and defensive bonuses, while Chains of Honor offers a more balanced setup with strong Resistances, Damage Reduction, and +2 Skills.

Glove selection focuses on improving attack speed and melee performance. Laying of Hands is one of the strongest options thanks to 20% Increased Attack Speed and its massive bonus damage against Demons, making it especially effective in many endgame farming areas. Dracul's Grasp provides additional survivability through Life Tap, which can greatly improve consistency during difficult fights. Rare or Crafted Blood Gloves with Increased Attack Speed, Crushing Blow, Life Leech, and useful defensive modifiers can also be excellent alternatives.

Boot choices depend on whether you prioritize maximum damage or additional survivability. Gore Rider is the preferred offensive option, providing Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, and Open Wounds that directly improve both Cleave and Mirrored Blades damage. Sandstorm Trek offers a defensive alternative with Faster Hit Recovery, Strength, Vitality, and Poison Resistance. Rare Boots with Faster Run/Walk, Life, Resistances, and Faster Hit Recovery remain useful for players optimizing specific requirements.

For belts, Verdungo's Hearty Cord is one of the strongest defensive choices for Cleave Warlock, providing Vitality, Faster Hit Recovery, and Physical Damage Reduction. Thundergod's Vigor can be used when additional Lightning protection is required, thanks to Lightning Absorb and increased Maximum Lightning Resistance. Rare Belts with Life, Resistances, Strength, and Faster Hit Recovery are also valuable during progression or when completing specific defensive requirements.

Jewelry choices focus on increasing damage while covering important melee requirements. Highlord's Wrath is the preferred offensive amulet thanks to Increased Attack Speed, Deadly Strike, and +1 Skills, making it a natural fit for a fast melee build. Mara's Kaleidoscope provides a more defensive alternative with +2 Skills, Attributes, and Resistances. Raven Frost is highly recommended as one ring slot due to Cannot Be Frozen, Dexterity, and Attack Rating. The second ring slot can be filled by Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for additional Life and Skills, while Rare Rings with Life Leech, Attack Rating, Strength, Dexterity, and Resistances can become stronger choices in optimized setups.

Charms

Charms for the Cleave Warlock are primarily focused on increasing physical damage, improving Attack Rating, and providing enough survivability to comfortably fight in melee range.

The Warlock Hellfire Torch and Annihilus are mandatory in every completed setup, providing valuable Skill Levels, Attributes, and All Resistances. Unlike caster-oriented Warlock builds, Cleave does not benefit significantly from stacking Skill Grand Charms, as the build's main damage comes from weapon attacks and physical scaling. Instead, the preferred choice is Small Charms with Maximum Damage, Attack Rating, and Life, commonly known as 3/20/20s, which dramatically improve both damage output and hit chance while providing additional survivability.

The remaining inventory can be filled with additional Max Damage / Attack Rating Small Charms, although defensive options such as Life, Faster Hit Recovery, Resistances, or Strength can also be valuable depending on your equipment setup. A Physical Sunder Charm is optional and can help against Physical Immune enemies, but it is not required for the build to perform effectively.

Mercenary

The recommended endgame setup is Act 2 Offensive (Might) Desert Guard Mercenary 

• Pride or Insight (Weapon)
• Andariel’s Visage (Helmet)
• Fortitude, Chains of Honor, or Treachery (Armour)

Final Thoughts

Cleave Warlock is one of the most unique melee builds available in Diablo II Resurrected, combining fast weapon-based combat with powerful Warlock mechanics and strong single-target options through Mirrored Blades. Unlike traditional melee characters that rely only on raw weapon damage, Cleave Warlock benefits from a flexible toolkit that allows it to clear groups efficiently while still having reliable damage against stronger enemies.

With proper gear, the build transforms into a fast and enjoyable endgame farmer capable of handling a wide variety of PvM content. High-end items such as Breath of the Dying, Grief, Ars Dul'Mephistos, and Enigma significantly improve damage, mobility, and overall smoothness, allowing the Warlock to maintain strong attack speed while quickly repositioning between encounters. For players looking for an active melee playstyle that combines powerful cleaving attacks with additional utility skills, Cleave Warlock offers a refreshing alternative to more traditional melee builds.

We will continue updating this guide with future Diablo 2 Resurrected changes and expand our D2R content with more builds and strategies.

If you have suggestions or would like to see other builds covered, feel free to share your feedback - it helps us improve and deliver better guides.

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