So far it seems like physical builds are among the ones that are the most affected by the changes. They were amongst the builds who relied mostly on high physical resist/high armor for their defenses and now with the whole physical damage rebalancing some of them lose much more than the others while some actually become stronger.
This is my feedback based on the builds I played, I will be adding more builds as I test them.
1) Warborn Death Knight Death Knight, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (21% phys res in-game)
Notable changes:
Experimented with some devotion setups and decided to invest into DA and drop Scales (which were a source of passive sustain).
Cadence: feels much better but still not as strong as top melee builds. I think initial 45% to 40% weapon damage to Cadence nerf was a bit pre-mature. I would recommend adding ~30-50% weapon damage to the main skill.
Also it would be nice if Warborn set proc gave casting speed too since Death Knight casts War Cry and Bone Harvest (and MoT).
P.S. Tested Warlord with two gavels and it felt worse than DK.
2) Blitz Warlord
Chains of Anguish version: Warlord, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Normal belt version: Warlord, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Notable changes:
Physical resist in-game: 43% (down from 83%)
This one was “trimmed” quite a bit. Chains of Anguish version is not really viable anymore as the proc duration increased while value of the remaining physical resist increased too (before it was 83% physical resist minus 15% on the proc, now it’s 43% - 15%).
Version with “normal” belt feels okay, but overall tankiness of this archetype has been nerfed. First and foremost, it’s the physical resist (yes, I know that monsters deal less physical damage now, but not 50% less, right), then it’s the hp and then nerf to wps damage.
Biggest problem still persists: where to get enough adtch. Currently build has 9% from (what it feels like mandatory) Azragor chest and Unholy Inscription component, which doesn’t feel like enough. And this problem persists for all physical SnB builds currently - getting speeds and adtch is almost impossible.
3) Avenger Archon
Current phys res: 35% (down from ~64%)
Notable changes:
Also overall hp regen has been reduced (went from ~2600 to ~2200 with all the procs active).
As you can see this one has been hit from all fronts. It feels very mid in-game: from a stable tanky build with decent damage it became just somewhat tanky build with okay damage.
I don’t think its damage deserved any nerfs. It has been nerfed in previous patches and in the current live patch it’s just good but far from top-tier. Right now it’s less than good. Complete removal of the phys res from proc makes it quite a bit weaker than before since nothing was given back to compensate for it. And it’s really hard to stack armor on Archon (currently just 2400 armor in-game).
I also keep refering to our current top20 testing, as you can see build was just good in all categories and got a lot of points thanks to relatively cheap gear and then very simplistic gameplay.
Why did Crate decide to nerf it on all fronts I really have no idea.
4) Voldrak’s Witchblade
Actually it didn’t in-game. Currently build is not even mid tier. Despite %absorb from Menhir and War Cry build’s performance is very sketchy. Cadence damage output is episodic and inconsistent, the highs are not high at all while lows are really low. 17% adtch is not enough to keep it afloat.
And this is with unrealistic double rare weapon that you will never ever farm probably. 2H Cadence needs a lot of help still.
5) Octavius Paladin
This one on paper gained something from runes rework. It feels okay in-game however its sustain is still mediocre at best: you have to use crutches like converted Scales and hope that + Bear and drops of direct leech will be enough. Again, not many ways to gain adtch.
It also suffers from apparent gaps in physical Paladin itemization. Like there is no weapon with mods to both main skills (and that pistol has a pretty weak mod overall), there are no items that give skill point to both skill (have to use a pierce ring there).
What’s interesting is that if you play this as an snb melee and drop aegis for RF with shield wps it would become much better.
6) Ranged Warlord
Build used to be a lot of fun in 1.9.9.x but after several target nerfs it became pretty mid. This patch is a complete disaster for it. It lost almost two-thirds of its physical resist and about 1400 of hp while gaining absolutely nothing. No armor (because Field Command was nerfed and so were Physical devotion nods with Armor), no damage, just a smidge of DA.
Its performance overall is pretty mediocre and that is with unrealistic greens (now that we know that Imposing prefix is at the bottom of all of the loot tables).