In light of Pohx’s return to Grim Dawn, I’ve decided to stop sitting on what I’ve been referring to as the ‘optimized’ version of his build (of which I was the original creator way back in October of 2015 
What’s the difference between my build and Pohx’s? CRITS. Also gear dependency. The core of the common SoC build is centered on the concept of doing more damage -> getting more health back. Most SoC Builds, like Pohx’s, go for +% Damage and Resist Reduction, of which there is a TON for Vitality…and then they stop there. But why? Well, I couldn’t answer that. +% Vitality is common enough, and -Vitality Resist is so potently present in the Shaman and Occultist masteries that you essentially get it for free.
So why not lose out on a wee bit of +% Vitality Damage, which doesn’t scale well anyways, and gain a ton of +% Crit Damage by swapping from Possession to Stormcaller’s Pact? And why don’t we also work to nuke our enemy’s DA into the ground, too? If only there was a skill that did that…
Once we’ve spec’d for critting everything that moves, we’re done, right? We’ll have reached the maximum possible damage potential of the build, which in turn means the maximum possible healing…right?
Nah. We can push ourselves even further with a change of itemization from the typical setup to a hybrid Vitality-OA-healing setup.
All toggled buffs + Blood of Dreeg active
Theory aside, let’s get into the build:
Grimcalc (no +skills) (this link has Devotion)
Grimcalc (w/ +skills) (this link does not have Devotion)
Skill Choices:
Sigil of Consumption, Destruction, Curse of Frailty, Vulnerability, Solael’s Witchfire, Devouring Swarm, Wendigo Totem, and Heart of the Wild - All standard skills for the build concept.
Oak Skin - Covering up our Pierce Resist as we can. Bonus Armor is nice too.
Transmuted Storm Totem - Mostly standard, but you can make an argument against it to put points elsewhere. Nice sustained damage which can help burst down enemies that step outside your sigils.
Stormcaller’s Pact - The bread and butter of this variant of the Vitality Conjurer. +35% Crit Damage when maxed is a substantial dps increase, vastly more than the +135% Vitality Damage obtained from maxing Possession. Losing out on the 12% Damage Absorb hurts, but not more than this build is capable of tanking.
Blood of Dreeg + Aspect of the Guardian - Also pretty standard, but sometimes skipped over depending on the player. BoD is a substantial OA boost when overleveled and AotG helps cover our Poison/Acid resists, which are considerably low otherwise. This skill should be used on cooldown; if you’re using it for the heal, you’re doing something wrong.
Fevered Rage + Wasting (Bloody Pox) - Fevered Rage pummels the DA of our opponents far more than anything else we have easy access to. The cost of that is a +% Total Speed and +% OA buff for our opponents. We can somewhat reduce the movespeed of enemies with CoF, but we can better keep our enemies from critting us via an overleveled Wasting, which grants a colossal flat OA reduction to afflicted opponents. Still, the Cast/Attack Speeds of enemies can prove troublesome. Don’t use it on enemies like Mad Queen or any of the Nemeses unless you have great reflexes for handling a sour situation.
Devotion:
We seek out Spear of the Heavens for a solid amount of flat and % OA. If we had but one more point, we could get even more Crit Damage, too…
…You can trade the 4th node of Targo the Builder for that, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The flat health there is simply too potent to pass up. Likewise for the % Health nodes in the constellation.
Getting to SotH sees us taking Gallows, which we wouldn’t mind doing anyways for a Vitality build. We also take Sailor’s Guide for the resists + movespeed, Panther to further our critting potential, and Lizard, Viper, and Vulture for some more defenses.
As for the rest, we go for Hawk for yet more critting potential and to lead us to Behemoth, which we go 3 points into. The % Health node would be nice, but it’s not possible.
We also go for Dryad, which is likely to be a fairly prominent point of contention, but Dryad rounds out our Poison/Acid resist, gives us a proccing heal (which goes off a lot), and a bit of damage in the form of % Spirit.
While we’re reaching for SotH, we can also pick up Aeon’s Hourglass as it has slightly lesser affinity requirements. We get some incredible core stats - which help with fitting -, solid resistances, and a non-negligible amount of DA from the constellation on the way to Time Dilation, which at its max rank will let us essentially double our Sigil’s damage/healing potential every 15 seconds (~12 seconds with CDR). Worth.
I recommend putting Dryad’s Blessing/Time Dilation onto CoF + DS; your call as to which is which, it’s fairly irrelevant. CoF is arguably better suited for DB, but the difference is minor. Giant’s Blood gets put on a buff that won’t be disabled from Energy Burn. That means Stormcaller’s.
Itemization:
Blademaster’s Talisman - Health, flat OA, and % OA, along with the ability to dual wield melee weapons. How could that not come in handy? Slower Target Movement Speed is also nice for chasing down kiting range enemies that try to escape your sigils.
Soulbearer (x2) - You know what’s better than +Health, +Damage, +Wendigo/SoC, and CDR? DOUBLE OF ALL THE ABOVE. Also, if you use two of them, every time you kill an enemy (which will be happening a lot in the Crucible) you’ll regain 6% of your Max Health and Energy. You can make an argument for swapping these out in the main campaign for moderately more efficiency against bosses, but they’ll still be capable of blowing apart anything alive and helping you feast on their souls regardless.
[INDENT]Components:
Imbued Silver - While we actually need the Aether Resist from Purified Salt’s buff more than the Chaos Resist here, the Bleeding Resist and Damage to Chthonics on the base item is all-around far more powerful.
Symbol of Solael - Resist debuff.
Augments:
2x Troll Wart Powder - More Health
Clairvoyant’s Hat - +1 All Skills, Aether Resist, Health/Energy, and a smidge of CDR. `nuff said.
Component:
Leathery Hide - Health and Stun Resist
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Clairvoyant’s Mantle - Resists, about half a thousand health, and a crapton of OA make this piece highly desirable for the build. Mantle of Dreeg is a good secondary option, and Bloodfury Spaulders should be your third choice, not counting hightier Nemesis Shoulders. Benn’jahr’s Pauldrons are probably the best replacement here if they roll well enough.
Component:
Silk Swatch - Resists
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Vestments of the Great Guardian - HOLY OFFENSIVE ABILITY BATMAN. Also the granted buff provides us with 25% Poison/Acid resist, which is welcome as it frees up a couple points from AotG.
Component:
Chains of Oleron - OA and Trap resist, especially useful against Undead and Nemeses in the Crucible.
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Touch of the Everliving Grove - Provides some solid health, health regen, and resists. Also provides +2 to Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin, which means yet more health and resists. And is that a heal proc I see? Yes it is…what a cute little fella’. If you want to go even more offensive, Necromancer’s Deathgrips are really solid for this build, too. Purely a player-by-player call, as I’d consider the options to be equally potent.
Component:
Unholy Inscription - Resists and OA
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Boneweave Leggings - Well we have to have some Vitality pieces, right? Here we go. Frankly, if not for the Sigil proc, I’d have taken something else, but more Sigils means more chances to crit, meaning way more damage and more healing! Also +Skills is a thing.
Component:
Silk Swatch - Resists
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Stormtitan Treads - OK I might like these things a little too much, but hear me out. Lightning Resist, Crapton of health, movespeed, and…STUN RESISTANCE. To me, for a caster, these are just too good to pass up. Plus they give us yet more damage from their proc, albeit not the kind we can leech from. Still not convinced? Then take what you like here.
Component:
Mark of Mogdrogen - Health and Health Regen. Could make a case for the utility of additional movement speed from Mark of the Traveler.
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether
Pestilence of Dreeg - …but only with the granted skill that debuffs Vitality Resistance. I mean, the item is fairly solid for the build otherwise, but having yet more -Vit Resist is too good to pass up.
Component:
Focusing Prism - Crit Damage and -%Skill Energy Cost
Augment:
Mogdrogen’s Sanctity - Health and Elemental Resist
Signet of the Damned (x2) - MORE SIGILS! Also some more +skills, too, particularly to Wasting, a key component of our build as described above.
Components:
2x Frozen Hearts - Freeze Resist, ~110+ Health each after our % bonuses. Cold Resist is needed too but is covered by our other items.
Mogdrogen’s Sanctity - Health and Elemental Resist
Mark of Divinity - Second wind proc. Health. Health Regen. Resists. Toss that Badge of Mastery out the window, you know MoD is better in every way, even for a crit build.
Component:
Arcane Spark - OA
Girdle of Stolen Dreams - I shouldn’t have to explain this one.
Component:
Antivenom Salve - Poison/Acid resist, much needed, and global armor as it’s put on our Belt slot. A bit more Health Regen too.
Augment:
2x 10%Fire/7%Pierce, 3x 10%Pierce, 2x 10%Aether[/INDENT]
Any questions?
Yeah, think I’ll make that swap tonight. I’m just so used to taking Troll Wart Power.