Gearing
Since this build doesn’t use any set of items it has almost ultimate freedom of picking any piece of equipment you want or consider bis.
Set items are indeed giving powerful bonuses to builds, for many builds certain sets are considered bis and I wont argue that.
But also set items are somewhat restricting and in many cases piece of set, when looked individually is not a bis or even close to bis.
Take a DM for example, almost no one uses both DM weapons, probably no one would use any of DM weapons if it wasn’t for +2 to NB skills.
Not to mention that is really hard to get all pieces together and believe me I know what Im talking about.
About equipping this build
Because this build is all to cunning it naturally have low spirit and low physique thus for equipping gear you have to rise those stats or lower gear requirements.
Its much easier for physique requirements cuz Veterancy lowers physique requirements for armor, so you can invest in Veterancy or get some gear that adds to physique.
For spirit, to be able to equip jewelry, you have to take Dryad devotion or have to find some piece of gear that gives point to spirit. You need about 50-55 spirit so one piece, or even two if you get bad rolls, of your equipment has to be of the boar, of psyche, of the fox or with some other affix that gives + to spirit.
If you dont want that kind of trouble just invest ~6-7 attribute points into spirit, you wont lose anything but will gain much more freedom in picking gear.
Mentioning that I will lvl up one more BM with, from my point of view, optimal attribute distribution, Im still not sure about cunning to physique ratio, but for sure it will have those 6-7 points invested into spirit for ultimate gear picking freedom.
Important things for gear picking
Offensive vise main rule is: try to find as much gear that gives flat pierce or flat phys dmg, +% to pierce, OA,…
Defensive vise I find it mandatory to cap or at least have all resistances on 75+%. This is arguable but I personally find it to be important, cuz i don’t like changing gear setups for certain runs and it gives you consistence in places like crucible.
My gear setup aimed to have all resistances caped. To achieve that I sacrificed some offensive stats in favor of resistances and with better rolls on some equipment (ie dreg pants, belg sigil,…) even aether would be caped (bcz of bad rolled vitality res on mentioned equipment I had to use one 7% Vitality/Chaos armor augment).
Also DA is thing that you have to keep at least on 1.9 k imo. Due to all to cunning investment its naturally low and you have to give it some love. To up DA for this build I took Wolverine devotion.
Currently equipped gear
To cap or nearly cap all resistance for this gear setup you need flowing affixes on your gear: one stonehide, one warding, one of kings.
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Head: Cowl of venomblade - leathery hide - 7% Aether/Chaos armor augment
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Chest: Valdun jacket - Chains of Oleron - 7% A/C
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Shoulders: Warding Iron Maidens shoulder guards of fortitude - AV salve - 7% A/C
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Hands: Grasp of unchained might - Mutated scales - 7% A/C
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Legs: Stonehide Dreg set legguards of the boar - Scaled hide - 7% Chaos/Vitality armor augment
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Boots: Survivalist exalted thread of kings - Mark of Mogdrogen - 7% A/C
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Belt: Blade breaker stash - AV salve - 7% A/C
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Amulet: The Peerless eye of Beronath - Focusing prism - 150 hp, 12% elemental resistance
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Ring 1 Belgothians Sigil - Corpse dust - 20% to all dmg 2% OA/DA
[u]Ring 2[/u] Cutthroats Cronley signet of the badger - Corpse dust - 20% to all dmg 2% OA/DA
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Weapons: 2x Reavers claw: - blessed whetstone - 15% chance of 15% reduced resistances - Vicious spikes - Ulgrim Guile
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Medal: Black Star of deceit - Arcane spark
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Relic: Belgothians carnage
To go for aether res I crafted cowl at black legion blacksmith and have +3% aether res on it, I have one more with better stats and +to HP but I chose this one for already mentioned goal to cap resistances.
For shoulders I needed +% to aether and elemental res, this ones are best I have with 48% aether res.
To be honest I cried when got those dreg set legguars, was aiming for of vitality or of nature bounty ones but they turned out to be perfect for this build pretty much filling all your phys/spirit gapes.
I use Cronleys and not Golus ring bcz I needed to fill huge gap in pierce resistance. I have cuthtroats Golus ring of rift hound and its overall better than this Cronleys but gap that had to be filled is 46% pierce res and that Golus ring has only ~15%.
For boots I have noting to say except that to make them I wasted more than 4k scrap and small fortune in iron. Crafted also at BL blacksmith, rng luck they are with +HP and not +%aether res.
Bis gear
Like I mentioned earlier some of my items aren’t Bis. In picking bis equipment I follow above stated goal of caped all resistances. Due to lack of physique and more important spirit I will consider dreg-set pants that Im wearing to be a bis. In some other cases (ie if this build had those 6-7 points into spirit) they wouldn’t be a bis.
Stating that this build has at least 3 pieces of equipment that aren’t BIS:
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Weapon - Hearth piercing dermapteran slicer of voracity would be a bis. I would change one claw for it for sure, Im not sure about changing both claws cuz, maybe, it would be to much skill points loss. Changing one is easy to compensate.
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Shoulders - warding Fabius pauldrons of natures bounty I will just say 10-15 flat pierce, abundance of +% pierce res, more hp.
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Ring - Puncturing Golus ring of the rifthound Some other suffix on Golus ring is maybe better, but I have this ring so I didn’t considered much other options. With Fabius pauldrons equiped gap in pierce resistance would be pretty much filled so ~15 % from that ring would be more than enough to cap pierce. With that ring equipped atc speed would be caped on 200%, would gain ~360 HP. Of natures bounty could be good option to, with it you could swap hp, elemental res augment on jewelry to 20% to all dmg 2% OA/DA one, and even gain some more hp.
Overall with equipping suggested bis items you would lose few skill points, about 120 armor, some DA but would gain more than 500 HP, some atc speed, ~ 6 % ADCTH on your main hand, all dmg on your main hand would be pierce (probably I would swap whetstone on other hand to something else than) and most important you would gain abundance of flat pierce dmg.
Acceptable gear
As I said to work properly this build doesn’t have high gear requirements imo. There is abundance of items that would more or less fit this build and I will state some of them.
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Head: Cowl of venomblade (bis) - Valduns hat, Dethmarked hood, warborn visor, or some other with flat pierce, +% to pierce, +HP, required resistances,…
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Chest: Valdun jacket - Korvoran, Deathmarked, Warborn chests or or some other with flat pierce, +% to pierce, +HP, required resistances,…
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Shoulders: warding Fabius pauldrons of natures bounty - Some other Fabius, Iron maidens shoulders, deathmarked, warborn,…
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Hands: Grasp of unchained might - Void steel gauntlets, handguards of justice,…
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Legs: Stonehide Dreg set legguards of the boar - Some other dreg sect or some other sect, Pretty great pant, wraitbourne legwraps, Legwraps of tranquil mind, chausses of barbados, Empowered legplates of valor,…
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Boots: Survivalist exalted thread of kings - Some other good rolled exalted threads, golemborne,…
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Belt: Blade breaker stash -Reforged chains of Oleron,…(If you can keep your OA well above 3 k and dont have problems caping bleed resistance Reforged chains are better option cuz flat phys dmg will skyrocket your dps)
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Amulet: The Peerless eye of Beronath - Valduns bounty,…
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Ring 1 Belgothians Sigil - Some other good rolled Golus/Cronley ring, empowered blackwach, amarastan, black matriach, carnage,…
[u]Ring 2[/u] Puncturing Golus ring of the rifthound - same as abowe
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Weapons: Hearth piercing dermapteran slicer of voracity - some other derma slicer/claw, DM weapons, emp dualist sabre, emp vilies razor,…
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Medal: Black Star of deceit - changing medal is tricky cuz its your source of flat resistance reduction, it can be changed for badge of mastery, direwolf crest, emp insignia of justice and even for mark of divinity, but you would have to find other flat resistance reduction source (ie changing devotion to take manticore acid spray, geting derma slicer with flat res reduction affix Plaguebearer’s)
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Relic: Belgothians carnage I wouldnt suggest anything other cuz this relic is godlike, its must for every BM under the sky so do what you have to do to get one asap.
Sidenote: Keep in mind that for equipping gear with higher physique requirement you have to invest points in veterancu and probably owercap it together with military conditioning, maybe even take bull devotion. Or you can just invest attribute points into physique to meet requirements.
In closing
If you came this far, first thank you for reading I hope it will help you to make your BM build more fitting. Also Im apologizing for any typos or syntax errors you may stumble upon. This guide is mostly to show that for making proper BM you dont need DM set or any other set as a mater of fact, so feel free to experiment with gear, devotion attribute and specially skill points distribution (ie lower cadence investment and take SS,…).
If you have any questions I would be glad to answer.
Peace out!
Edit1: Variation of this build with ultimate dummy kill time (22 sec): http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48091
Edit2: Changed belt and got some better gear so build looks like this now:
1.0.0.7 CHANGES TO THIS BUILD
Like all previous upgrades this one also was not favorable for blademasters. Belgotians carnage flat pierce dmg got nerfed, blades of wrath got nerfed, nights chill got nerfed, for cadence builds like this one deadly momentum got nerfed, for DM builds set bonus got nerfed.
But do not despair BM builds are still top notch!
We got a slight upgrade also, cunning received slight increase in % dmg and a really small increase in OA boost (I would like someone to confirm this, Im not 100% sure but it seams like this, also it seams that phys got slight increase in DA boost). So now more than ever high cunning investments are paying off.
Here are the pictures how this build looks like in 1.0.0.7, cadence and weapon dmg:
How to cap resistances
I personally find caping or nearly caping resistances of great importance. It gives your build more consistency by letting you awoid specific dmg type spikes that can put you down if you are not cautious enough. Here I will make one general guide how to plan your resistances to get to the aimed goal, also I will make one more specific guide for this build in particular.
General guide
- Augments When planing your resistance caping route take special attention to augments at your disposal, specially armor augments. I always try to cap resistances wile leaving jewelry augment slots for something else than resistances augments. Sometimes I do succeed sometimes I dont, but its nice to have some backup if you fail to do it with equipment, components and armor augments. Weapons augments can be source of resistances also.
a) Pay special attention to armor augment combinations (ie. you can combine chaos and aether armor augment or chaos and vitality, but there is no option to combine aether and vitality for instance)
b) Be advised that there is none armor augment that can up your bleed resistance (really shame tbh)
c) Be aware of maximum resistance potential of armor augments. Ie. maximum armor augment potential of aether is 70% but for chaos is only 49%
- Componets are really helpful in this matter, get familiar with types of components that are offering resistances and on what armor slots they can be applied.
a)When planing resistances caping route, I always try to leave chest armor slot free but if that is not possible there are some really nice chest armor components that can be used to cap resistances (Ie. hollowed ground, Kilrians shattered soul).
b) Leave at least one space to put scaled hide for armor absorption increase. Its next to impossible to get your armor adsorption to 100% without it. When all resistances caped only thing that can burst you down is phys dmg, armor adsorption helps in avoiding that.
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Devotions When planing devotion routes for specific builds, always account for resistances some devotion constellations are offering. I know this is less popular but it can be really powerful tool in helping you to cap resistances. As instance, many of you will not agree here with me, I consider Empty throne to be one of the best constellations there is, 4 pts investment for 5 pts gain + bunch of resistances.
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Get familiar with equipment at your disposal.
a) Some armor peaces are offensively much better than others still in most cases I will take ones that are giving me resistances needed.
b) Resistance amounts can wary depending on gear rolls for significant amount. If you have more than one armor piece pick the one with better resistances roll on it. If you have only one armor piece at your disposal account that slot as a fix, I will later elaborate on this.
- Blacksmiths Pay special attention to craftable armor pieces practiced skill bonuses that are offered from various blacksmiths.
a) To get better resistance rolls on equipment be ready to bulk craft equipment untill you get it.
b) Practiced skill bonuses from blacksmiths can be really useful tool in caping resistances. For instance on single craftable piece of gear you can get practiced skill bonus up to 7% pierce resistance or up to 4% aether or chaos resistance. Use this to fill in small gapes.
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Gear affixes Be advised that maximum % resistances of affixes are different for different types of gear. Ie. warding affix on shoulders is offering much more % aether resistance than warding affix on pants.
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Mastery skills Use skills from class mastery to fill gapes in missing resistances. Soldier and ocultist are best for this followed closely by nightblade, demolitionist mastery is worst when it comes to resistances, it doesn’t give any.
Fix and changeable gear
In short of better terms for this I called it fix and changeable gear, what does that mean?
Fix gear is something that you are unable to change easily or at all, wile changeable gear is something that you can change and improve with more or less effort.
Ie. for this build in particular fix gear are pants, hardly that I will ever again obtain another ones with same affixes combinations, stonehide of the boar, and this build need both of those affixes. Changeable gear on the other hand would be belgothian ring, believe or not from time I made this build till now I got them two drooped and one obtained gambling. But someone will not have that amount of luck with them so belgo ring is changeable, but not easy changeable gear. Easy changeable gear is craftable gear, assuming you have recipe for it. For this build craftable and thus easy changeable gear are belt (reforged chain) and helm (cowl of vb).
How that helps in caping resistances?
Like stated earlier resistance rolls on gear can wary significantly and you can also, by crafting at particular BS, get practiced skill bonus that will help you fill small gaps in resistances. Dont be shy to bulk craft the gear you need, use it to your advantage. Until now I made more than 15 cowls of VB and honestly dont know how many reforged chains in search for best rolls and practiced skill bonuses.
Guide for this build
Caping or nearly caping all resistances for this build for me wasn’t to hard, but I have really wealthy stash of equipment farmed so for players with less equipment it can be challenging.
All things that are mentioned in general guide are applied and used for this build.
With equipment I now have all jewelry slots on this build are with 20% to all dmg 2% OA/DA augments.
Gear pieces changed from original post of this build till now are:
- Ring: Cronley signet its cutthroats of attack now
- Shoulders: they are warding of the kings
- Boots: they are survivalist of survival with practiced skill bonus of 4% to aether resistance from black legion blacksmith.
Like stated earlier to cap or nearly cap all resistances for this build you need 3 affixes on your gear,
- Warding - aether resistance can go up to 48% on shoulders or even more, Im not sure, best ones I have are 48%, ones that Im using atm on this build are 47%
- Of kings - I have it on shoulders
- Stonehide - I have it on pants
Resistance caping by type for this build:
I will start here from easiest to hardest imo:
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Elemental By far easiest resistance to cap mainly because you have two skills that are huge in helping to cap elemental resistance, decorated soldier and elemental awakening.
Starting point for this resistance (devotion bonuses included, although you don’t have any for this resistance type) is -50% goal is 80% so you need to get 130% of elemental resistance.
This build has 16% from amulet, 26% from belgo ring, 34% from shoulders, 26% from hood. Thats total of 102%, rest is obtained from two earlier mentioned skills. Those two skill can fill even much higher gap if you have less elemental resistance to begin with so it really shouldn’t be a problem.
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Stun Its second easiest not just because is easy to cap and doesnt get difficulty penalty but because it has a bit less significance than other resistances. That doesn’t mean is not important and like all other resistances I like it caped.
Starting point for this type or resistance is 15% (including devotion bonus from empty throne) goal is 80% so you need to get 65% stun resistance.
This build has 22% from shoulders, 25% from helm component (leathery hide) rest is obtained from Scars of battle.
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Bleed Its on third place cuz Scars of battle skill is giving massive bleed resistance boost and devotions bonuses are huge in this matter also.
Starting point is 3% (devotion bonuses included) goal is 80% so you need 77%
This build has 42% from pants, 5% practiced skill bonus on belt, rest is obtained from scars of Battle skill
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Pierce Ironically for pierce dmg build caping pierce resistance wasn’t that easy.
Starting point is -22% (devotion bonuses included) goal is 82% in this case so you need 104%
This build has 21% from pants, 17% from gloves, 49% from cronley ring rest is obtained from phantasmal armor.
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Poison and acid This build doesnt have any skill that can improve P&A resistance, so to cap it you need really good roll on cowl of VB.
Starting point is -50% goal is 80% so you need 130% of P&A resistance.
This build has 42% from pants, 48% from cowl of VB, 2x20% from components. P&A resistance is only resistance type that doesent have practiced skill bonus at any blacksmith. So if you are unable to cap it with gear components and augments, dont despair you can take left hand node of assassin for nice 8% P&A resistance and some other bonuses.
5.Vitality Similar story like with P&A resistance but for vitality you need good roll on belgo ring or BSoD.
Starting point is -25% goal is 80% so you need 105% of vitality resistance.
This build has 28% from belgo ring, 39% from BSoD, 24% from pants, 12% from 2xCorpse dust on rings, and 3% on cowl of VB practical skill bonus.
Unfortunately If you can get this amount you will be forced to use one 7% Chaos/Vitality augment on armor. I was using it at beginning also.
5.Chaos Only equipment source of chaos resistance is BSoD, but weapon augment that Is used for 15% rr is giving some chaos resistance also 8% to be more specific.
Starting point for this build is -17% goal is 80% so we need 97% chaos resistance.
This build has 41% from BSoD, 8% from weapon augment and 49% from armor augments. If you cant cap chaos with gear and armor and weapon augments you will have to sacrifice one jewelry augment slot to do so.
5.Aether Similar story like with chaos but this time only source are shoulders. On any other piece of gear except shoulders warding prefix is much weaker thus you will not have enough aether resistance.
Starting point like with chaos -17% goal is 80% so we need 97%
This build has 47% from shoulders, 4% practiced skill bonus on boots, and 49% from augments. If you cant cap aether like this, same story like with chaos you will need one jewelry augment slot to do so.
I hope that this things I wrote will help you in planing your build resistances.
Also I hope that you were not bored to death by reading this.
Thx for reading, have fun 
1.0.0.8
I just did some testing on Mad queen but before I have to write something more.
Sidenote: This is not complaining/crying or w/e I will just write some numbers
When I made that setup in 1.0.0.6 after final polishing time on dummy was 28s due to nerfs in 1.0.0.7 that time went on 32s, finally now in 1.0.0.8 dummy time is 37s. You can do the math and calculate real single target dps lost from 1.0.0.6 to 1.0.0.8, not to mention that build lost fear chunk of AoE also due to nerfs. (this is related to offensive setup posted in guide I made).
Since 1.0.0.7 I switched to defensive setup of the build, defensive setup of the build needs 39s in 1.0.0.8 to put the dummy down. Reason for switching to def setup was that I dont find offensive setup 100% reliable any more.
For references I compared defensive BM setup and SJ elementalist. In 1.0.0.8 Sj elementalist needs 36s secs to kill the dummy so it has upper hand in single target dmg output. Comparing of AoE never was an issue cuz SJ elementalist wins in that department by huge margin. Also crucible performances are not comparable, SJ elementalist is probably tier1 crucible farmer dw BM in best situation have some 50% success rate.
So basically thing I was comparing was vanilla game performances. I picked Mad Queen as a reference cuz its arguably hardest boss in vanilla game.
BM def setup performances:
1.0.0.7 Killed MQ 5 times in row w/o need to blade barrier, facetanked 100% of the time average kill time ~17 secs, w/o even slight chance to die.
1.0.0.8 Killed MQ 4 times, died 1 time, 2 times needed to BB. Average kill time 25 sec, survivalbility was hanging on the edge in every fight.
SJ elementalist
1.0.0.8 Killed MQ 5 times, facetanked 100% of the time, w/o even slight chance to die, average kill time 17 secs.
Pictures of the builds:
In closing
Are the DW BMs viable in 1.0.0.8 in classic meaning of that word? Yes they are.
Do they shine even with best gear possible in any aspect of game play? No, they are vastly out shined by many builds in all aspects of game play.
Personal conclusion: DW BMs went long way from hero to zero, welcome to new casters meta GD.
Peace out!
