I’m greatly enjoying Warlock. I haven’t tried Battlemage. I have maxed out my talents for getting satiation from physical damage to soul marked foes, and the chances of soul marking when hit by foes. I’ve had some close calls, but at dungeon level 19 I have a tier-5 extremely accurate hammer that does up to 30 damage.

(I have a battle-axe that does up to 50 points, but requires 20 strength and is slow - I probably won’t ever be able to use it)

I don’t put wands in my staff. The benefits of using magic missle in a plus 7 staff are too awesome. My +0 wand of disintegration becomes +7 for one use, which does insane damage. Even cursed wands I keep because I can use it on myself to get shielding without losing value from other wands.

I’m concerned that I should have waited for plate armor before putting upgrades into armor, but my +5 scale of speed is doing okay so far. It makes me giddy when I see my health go UP when striking soul-marked foes, especially since I’m finding very few health potions for some reason. I get the same feeling when my hunger goes away vs the same foes.

I’m not seeing any value from the corruption talent, though. Sure, your victim becomes a wraith, but it doesn’t follow me around or attack my enemies. It seems to be purely an atmospheric effect. I can do the “switch places” talent with it, though, which can be helpful once in a while.

I’m finding the ring of furor is surprisingly useful with this build. It means I get more hits, so I do more siphoning and reduce the damage I receive as a result. Now, if only I could find something that blocks magic damage - those undead warlocks are nasty even for a warlock!

I’m worried about the dwarf king, though. I’ve never survived him. I’m hoping an elixer of toxicity and my wand of fire blast (boosted to +7 after using my staff) will do the trick. I don’t have any stone of flock to create barricades, so I expect to be wiped out from being hit 10 times per round. Maybe my speed will keep me ahead of them long enough.