[Ranged/Caster][v 1.0.0.4.] (hc) (u) (g5) (l) (vid) Solomon, the Doom Bolter
Damage : Chaos, Vitality, Lightning, Physical, Pets.
Active Skills : Blood of Dreeg, Bloody Pox, Curse of Frailty, Devouring Swarm, Doom Bolt, Pet attack, Primal Strike, Sigil of Consumption, Summon Hellhound.
Passive Skills: Bonds of Bysmiel, Mogdrogen’s Pact, Possession, Solael’s Witchfire.
WPS: -.
Hello boys and girls and welcome to GD. Chances are if you clicked this thread you are interested in one of the following:
(i) Hardcore Ultimate viable builds;
(ii) Doom and destruction;
(iii) High damage characters.
(iv) Hybrid pet builds that are easy to play.
(v) A viable alternative to the old and tired Conjurer builds that revolve either around pets or vitality damage.
Because I suspect some of you may be impatient and want to know how the character performs against high level Ultimate threats I will provide the video section right away.
General Build presentation (includes Fabius and Moosilauke kills as well as pretty much every boss) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yMc9hp5piI
OBS: I apologize to anyone who doesn’t like gothic/doom metal (just mute the track pls).
Ultimate Mad Queen kill compilation in 6-7 sec (not handpicked): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR0Bj2-Eqvg
I. SHORT DESCRIPTION
Part chronomancer, part master of the forbidden arts, the character I am about to present you is extremely “noob friendly” in terms of mechanics but requires some gear in order to operate as advertised. The basic idea is as follows – 98-99% of the game you will be using pets (Hellhound and Swarmlings) + primal strike to clear trash mobs, unique monsters and act bosses. This way you will not have to “facetank” anything (although you can), you will conserve mana and, generally speaking, you will be outside of the harm’s way. For nemeses and hard unique monsters (i.e. the Mad Queen), however, you will leave the pets aside and become an agent of destruction capable of dealing over 250.000 dps. More explicitly, you have an 8 second window provided by Time Dilation in which you have to deal obscene amounts of damage such that everything dies. If you can’t pull this off you are basically dead because you will have zero mana and all your circuit-breakers will be on cooldown. That or you run away like a headless chicken. Because destroying nemeses in 8-9 seconds can be tricky for a new player even with the perfect setup, I advise you to read section VI of this guide (i.e. “Boss Challenge”) before experimenting in vivo.
For Grim Dawn veterans: In making this build I did not aim to create the most powerful character I could. Indeed, Nemeses + Mad Queen kill times can be considered competitive at <10 seconds (<6.5 for Mad Queen and <9 for Fabius), survivability is sufficiently high such that all challenges can be done without dying (0 Deaths after around 6 days of playtime and still going) and you will have maximum movement speed 80% of the time . In over 100 trials against Fabius, for example, I have encountered him with some pretty crazy weapons and I was not always able to destroy him in under 9 seconds (sometimes it can take as long as 13-14 sec if you position yourself incorrectly – see last part of the “human enemies” section from the video). However, I was never close to dying…
With these being said, my aim was simply to create a character around five things that are generally considered very bad in Grim Dawn and succeed with it:
(1) Vitality/Chaos damage – worst damage types in the entire game.
(2) Hybrid pet builds – considered at the bottom of the barrel…and for good reasons.
(3) Hungering Void – one of the worst devotions due to it basically cutting your HP regeneration.
(4) The Harbinger set – when was the last time you saw anyone using it ? Yeah… that’s what I thought.
(5) 2h rifle builds – same as point (2).
II. PROS / CONS and GENERAL PERFORMANCE
Blue = no procs;
Red = with procs.
RATINGS explanation:
(a) Single Target Damage.
(1) = less than 15k dps.
(5) = more than 150k dps.
(b) AoE Damage.
(1) = capable of doing 5k damage to an entire screen in less than 3 s;
(5) = capable of doing more than 40k damage to an entire screen in less than 3 s.
© Survivability:
(1) = no over capped resistances, less than 8k hp, less than 1500 DA, no circuit-breaker.
(5) = all resistances are over capped, more than 15k hp, 2500 DA+, more than 2 circuit-breakers.
(d) Mobility.
(1) – less than 110% run speed, no resistance to enemy CC, no gap-closer;
(5) – max run speed, more than 50% resistance to enemy CC (e.g. slow, freeze, petrify, sleep), a gap-closer ability than can be spammed.
(e) CC/Escape
(1) – no CC ability, no panic button,
(5) – multiple CC abilities that apply slow, freeze, terrify, petrify and confusion status to a large area, at least one panic button ability, a gap-closer than can be used to escape.
TOTAL: 19/25 (no procs); 23/25 (with procs).
PROS:
(1) HARDCORE ULTIMATE VIABLE: I finished the game and killed all nemeses with 0 DEATHS, didn’t I? Let me teach you the “Rule of Uroborook”: a dead man has no DPS. Contrary to what you might think, TOTAL DEATHS is one of the most important stats in this game.
(2) Huge single target damage: 99% of the game you will achieve 50k-60k dps easily without going overboard with TD. For Ultimate Nemeses and hard bosses (i.e. Mad Queen, Alkamos), we have the “Time Dilation – Doom Bolt Shotgun” strategy that puts even the famous Blademaster class to shame.
(3) Powerful AOE Primal Strike, Sigil + Falcon swoop deals easily with dense trash mob packs. Your pets will take care of the rest.
(4) NOT a potion addict Health and Elixir potions are tasty. I know that. However, I see a lot of builds promote potion addiction and that, for me at least, seems like a very, very bad idea (unless you are a commando, ofc). There’s only one case where you absolutely need to use elixir potions and sometimes a mana regeneration potion – more precisely, when dealing with nemeses during Time Dilation. As far as HP potions go I never used them in Elite and Ultimate. I can only imagine that if you do want to use them the game will become much easier.
(5) Versatile gameplay : You want to use pets while having an active role in destroying the aetherial menace ? – no problem, you can do that. You want to get rid of the pets – no problem again… pets suck badly vs Nemeses as you probably know by now.
(6) High survivability: The Harbinger proc + Time Dilation can provide you not only with insane damage output, but also with insane survivability. As a chronomancer you will be able to put 30 sigils on the ground while abusing Blood of Dreeg ad infinitum. Traversing the Immolation has never been easier (see video section).
(7) High mobility: Max run speed and immunity to all forms of enemy CC – enough said.
(8) 2 Circuit-breakers / Fail-safe mechanisms: You want to “facetank” enraged Shar’Zul even if you don’t need to? Do you fear Loxmere Nightmage? Your worst nightmare revolves around Fabius or the Mad Queen (ohh…scary) ? Fear not, my friend, the Harbinger Proc + Time Dilation will ensure you survive these encounters and get back on your feet at full health. The only thing you need to remember is the following: for the love of Empyrion… DO NOT use Blood of Dreeg or Sigil just before the procs (!!!)
CONS:
(1) High gear requirements: This is a G5 build (G8 actually). As such, in late ultimate you will need every legendary item listed here if you want to destroy all Nemeses in 8-10 seconds. Hardcore achievement is easier to get, ofc, because you know…Log is a joke and this character is partially a vitality caster.
(2) Not good for people with anxiety disorders: . For the procs to work you need to be low health (<50%). If you have a panic disorder or you sympathetic nervous system is hyperactive I suggest the following:
(a) take a capsule of Ativan (aka Lorazepam);
(b) equip an Avatar of Mercy or Mark of Divinity on your character when going against Ultimate Valdaran or Fabius for the first time.
). Also, Crate approached the problem like everyone wanted to: small nerfs to what was considered OP (except static strike - i don’t get that), big buffs to what was considered UP.