[1.0.0.8] Big Al's Ray of Awesomeness [Aether/Fire AAR]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Why hello there strangers. Are you a thrill seeker? Do you wish you can be like the cool kids, and shoot beams and shit, and watch things melt and wither away into piles of smouldering aetherial ashes? Did all of these verbs in different colors grab your attention? Excellent! Well guess what, here is another Albrecht’s Aether Ray build just for you! But be warned, this set up is totally leagues above all the other AAR builds out there! Why is that you ask? Well silly, because I made it, and I am super biased of course! But let us take a deeper look into my take on this build and why it actually does shine brighter than similar builds out there.

UPDATED FOR 1.0.0.9

Let’s get into the build, shall we?

All points can be pumped into Physique

Wow, talk about probably not what you expected. Where’s all that Iskandra’s armor? In the trash/stash that’s where! I decided to take a different approach regarding this AAR build, that only utilizes the chest piece from Iskandra’s, because I feel as if individual pieces of gear greatly outshine the set bonuses provided by Iskrandra’s set. Let’s look at them in a more detailed fashion. Everything I post below regarding gear, is what in my personal opinion, constitute as best in slot. Of course that is a subjective term and some of you may disagree, and I welcome any input and perspective you may have that differs from mine!

Helm: Clairvoyant’s Hat (Runestone/Venomguard Powder)

  • I go with Clairvoyants Hat over Outcast’s Secret, or any other helm because honestly, nothing beats it for this build. +1 in all skills, cdr, energy regen, +aether damage, what more can you possibly want? Runestone is used for the +ele damage/res. Venomguard for the poison res.

Armor: Iskandra’s Vestments (Sanctified Bone/Mogdrogen’s Touch)

  • Iskandra’s is best in slot in my opinion here, namely because of the +aether damage, a ridiculous amount of additional health, chaos res and the +2 to maivens and arcane will. Sanctified Bone is used for vit/chaos res and Mogdrogen is used for poison/vit res.

Legs: Empowered Legplates of Valor (Silk Swatch/Mogdrogen’s Touch)

  • When I was building this character, a major category it lacked in was pierce and bleed res. Luckily, these pants take care of that extremely well, with innate res for both, and a nice chunk of health to top it off. Silk Swatch is used for pierce/bleed res and Mogdrogen is used for additional poison/vit res.

Belt: Phantom-Thread Girdle (Antivenom Salve/Bladeward Powder)

  • What more can I say about this belt? +Aether damage, a hefty amount of OA and +1 all skills in Arcanist… wrap yourself around my waist now.

Boots: Golemborn Greaves (Mark of the Traveler/Kingsguard Powder)

  • These things make you feel as if you were wearing a kevlar vest. They add great survivability with health, health regen, movement speed, increased armor and pierce res, and to top it all off, the granted “Golemborn” makes you damn near tank status. Mark of the Traveler is used for health regen and movement speed. Kingsguard as if you couldnt tell by now, is once again used to bump up our pierce and poison res.

Gloves: Aethereach (Unholy Inscription/Venomguard Powder)

  • As if I really need to explain why these are leagues better than anything else that can grace your magical hands. +Aether damage, energy, casting speed, +ele res, +2 to AAR and Disintegration… excuse me as I wipe the jizz off my keyboard. Unholy Inscription is used to up our vit/bleed res and Venomguard for additional poison res.

Shoulders: Clairvoyant’s Mantle (Silk Swatch/Venomguard Powder)

  • Now I’ve done a lot of testing on what to consider best in slot for shoulders, and I kept coming back to these. +aether damage, chaos damage converted to aether damage, health and health regen, all res, chaos res, it has it all. The chaos to aether actually is a huge advantage for these shoulders, because of Albrecht’s Duality, which gives us a nice chunk of aether damage, with additional conversion, to add all of this chaos damage into more aether firepower. Silk Swatch is used for pierce/bleeding res and Venomguard for extra poison res.

Weapon: Warpfire (Wrathstone/Outcast’s Wrath)

  • No other weapon comes close to this monster. +fire/aether damage, cold converted to fire damage (hello there OFF), casting speed and +1 to arcanist/demo skills. This thing is a game changer, there is no way around it. We slap on a Wrathstone for +aether damage, and its granted skill Aether Weapons, which just continues to add even more +aether damage to this thing. Outcast’s Wrath is used for +aether damage, health and OA.

Offhand: Codex of Lies (Imbued Silver/Outcast’s Wrath)

  • Ohhhhh you. You bashfully overpowered offhand you. Is there anything that this tome doesnt provide us? Crit damage, +chaos and aether damage (which remember, we convert a portion of our chaos damage to aether for even more pewpew), cdr, energy consumption reduction, and for the cherry on top, as if this thing even needed it, its granted skill Mark of the Deceiver, which lowers enemies DA, movement speed and aether res. If I didn’t already have a girlfriend, I would wife this thing up super quick. Imbued Silver is used for its granted skill Void-Ward for additional chaos res and Outcast’s Wrath is used for the reasons I stated above.

Ammy: Arcane Shard of Agrivix (Focusing Prism/Rhowan’s Wisdom)

  • Okay Crate, stop twisting my arm and giving me such amazing items to use, I just don’t wanna! (can you audibly hear my sarcasm when you’re reading that sentence?) I mean this ammy man, +fire and aether damage, fire damage converted to aether, health, casting speed, +2 Arcane Will and +1 to arcanist/demo skills… Staaaaahp Crate stahhhhp (pls don’t) We put in a Focusing Prism for additional crit damage, some lovely spirit and - energy cost. We top it off with Rhowan’s Wisdom for some lovely +ele damage, spirit, casting speed and all res.

Ring 1: Band of the Eternal Haunt (Ectoplasm/Rhowan’s Wisdom)

  • Why hello there +cold damage which we convert to fire, why hello there +aether damage, why hello there casting speed, why hello there +2 OFF, and why hello there -15 enemy aether res, how you doin’? We put a nice and juicy Ectoplasm in there for 20% energy, and Rhowan’s Wisdom for the perks I mentioned in the ammy description.

Ring 2: Albrecht’s Duality (Ectoplasm/Rhowan’s Wisdom)

  • “Wt ring u got bithc?” Excuse my Dark Souls Giant Dad reference, moving along. +aether and chaos damage, and here it is, chaos damage converted to aether damage, now it all makes sense why I have chaos damage on so many pieces of gear. A healthy amount of OA, casting speed and +2 disintegration, droooooool. We again make use of Ectoplasm and Rhowan’s Wisdom for dat dere benefits.

Relic: Iskandra’s Balance

  • +fire and cold damage, cast speed, - skill energy cost and +1 to arcanist skills, nothing to see here folks, moving on.

Medal: Badge of Mastery (Arcane Spark)

  • Absolutely, positively, undoubtedly, unequivocally the best medal you can equip. This is the Emma Watson of medals. This is the medal to end all other medals. This badge is what Ash could never earn in Pokemon (Gary could though, because Gary pulls massive amounts of pussy). This gives us +ele res, OA, a great granted skill, and of course, the either +5 to a skill, or +3/2 to a skill. Mine rolled with +3 AAR and +2 OFF, what more could you ask for? I already have the answer, nothing.

Grim Calc (without +skills): http://grimcalc.com/build/1008-zXpJVn
Grim Calc (with +skills): http://grimcalc.com/build/1008-Q1eDLs

As you can see, I have 5 left over points. I ended up tossing 3 into IEE and 2 into Inner Focus. You can use them anywhere to your liking.

Devotions:

Devotion Route: (shoutout to Zars for this progression, extremely effective, and just minor differences between his and mine)

  • 1 point in Eldritch Crossroad

  • Complete Spider

  • Remove Eldritch Crossroad

  • 1 point in Primordial Crossroad

  • Complete Sailor’s Guide

  • Remove Primordial Crossroad

  • Complete Widow (Arcane Bomb assigned to PRM(early leveling), later to OFF)

  • 1 point in Ascendant Crossroad

  • Complete Owl

  • Remove Ascendant Crossroad

  • Complete Chariot of the Dead

  • 1 point in Order Crossroad

  • Complete Tortoise

  • Complete Hawk

  • Remove Sailor’s Guide

  • Remove Spider Crossroad

  • Complete Crane

  • Complete Scales of Ulcama

  • Complete Lion

  • Remove Crane

  • Complete Viper

  • Complete Manticore (Acid Spray assigned to Albrecht’s Aether Ray)

  • 3 points in Behemoth (Giant’s Blood)

  • 2 points leftover, I decided to put them in the “4% health” node in Behemoth and the first node in Dryad for +energy and poison res

Rough Leveling Guide:

Levels 1-20: We focus on getting sorcerer mastery to 32 by the time we hit level 20. I pumped Panetti’s up to level 12, 5 points into Distortion, and 1 into Supercharged. I also grabbed a single point in Mirror, a single point in IEE, 4 in Inner Focus and 4 in Mental Alacrity. These first 20 levels will be a complete joke, Panetti’s utterly melts everything early game.

Levels 21-40: Our goal here is to max out sorcerer mastery bar by level 40. I leveled up Panetti’s to max, brought Inner Focus up to 8, 1 point into Arcane Will, 1 into Nullification, max out Mental Alacrity, 1 point into Maiven and Conversion, max out OFF, dump a few points into Absolute Zero and max out Reckless Power. If I recall properly, I had a decent amount of points left to redistribute when I hit 40, because asides from leveling up a few of our defensive/utility skills, Panetti’s carries us with no problems this far. I probably distributed a few extra points into IEE and maybe a few extra into Distortion because Reckless Power adds a nice chunk of damage to it.

Levels 41-60: Get Maivens to 8, get Flame Touched maxed, get Vindictive Flames to 10, spec out of Panetti’s and get AAR to at least level 8. All the left over points I dumped into Demo mastery. Pump the mastery up as much as you can, until you reach 32. We dont take Demo mastery any further than that because all we care about now in Demo is Blast Shield. If there any left over points by the time you hit 60, start leveling up Blast Shield. I don’t recall exactly how many points I had to spare at 60, I didn’t write it down as I was leveling lol

61-70: Get Inner Focus to 10, AAR to 12 at least, Blast Shield to at least 4, pick up a point in Fabric of Reality, a few points into Disintegration.

71-85: We max Blast Shield, max AAR, max Devastation, get Disintegration to 4, 1 point into Elemental Balance, put a couple more into IEE, believe I put 2 more into Inner Focus.

Well folks, that about wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed my first guide, and I hope some people actually decide to make this build based off of my creation. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post em here and I will try my best to answer them, or explain my rationale behind gear selection, or devotions used, or whatever it may be. If anyone is curious as to how I leveled, all I did was max out PRM and its synergies, OFF, dump some points into Maivens, max out Flame Touched and Vindictive Flame, and proceeded to steamroll normal and most of elite before switching over to AAR, when I attained decent gear to make the transition. Until next time guys!

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Reserved for future content if need be!

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I can’t judge your build but it was a fantastic read. :smiley:

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I just have to say that it is so impressive that your character’s inventory is empty. Did you clear it out just for these screenshots? You could’ve saved time and cropped them instead!

Also, why Mark of the Traveler instead of Mark of Mogdrogen? You say it’s for health regen + movement speed, but Mog gives more health regen and 3% less movement speed…plus a +4% health. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Anyways, it’s good to see new life in AAR builds.

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They never died. There aren’t many guides cause there are only so many ways you can make one

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Oh, man, you have so little energy regen, seems it`s a big issue for this build…

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Any videos? I like the layout, but this forum have a thing for colored texts :stuck_out_tongue:

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Energy skill cost reduction > energy regen per second

Prior to using codex of lies, i used aldanars vanity. It gave me an addition “increase energy regen by 75%” which bumped up sheet regen to 134 as opposed to 104 which i have now.

AAR costs me 900 energy per second.

Aldanar equipped) AAR = 900, ecr = 46%
900x.46=414
900-414=486
AAR costs me 486eps to cast

Codex of lies equipped) AAR = 900, ecr = 56%
900x.56=504
900-504=396
AAR costs me 396eps to cast

Using codex of lies over aldanars, we save 90eps while we cast AAR. This outweighs the additional 30ish energy regen we lose by switching offhands. We burn through our complete bar of energy in a few tenths of a second quicker (22.87seconds vs 23.03seconds) but we dish out an extra 9k dps. Overall, ecr>energy regen, to a certain point that is.

Energy skill cost reduction > increase energy regen

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I enjoyed reading this guide more than I did playing my own AAR character.

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Seems you burn all your energy per 5924/(941.7*0.44-104.31)= 19.1 sec
Okay, I have similar result on my AAR build :slight_smile: But I also have 96% energy absorption from enemy spells.
I`ve noticed your stats because for my experience to feel good need not less then 200 energy regen per second.

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Whats your dps/res/oa/da/ecr/etc…

Id like to know the similarities and differences between our builds!

And i never feel energy deprived while playing my character. 200 energy regen is overkill imo. Unless you want to spam AAR for 73 seconds straight lol

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If you’re using Arcane Shard, you’re focusing Aether more than fire, right? So why Demolitionist then? You’re getting Flash bang, some total speed, and Flame Touched. Total Speed is nice, but not really needed. Flash bang, the same, but more useful after you’ve put on Shard, for the DA reduction. Flame Touched… eh? Doesn’t seem worth the class choice just for that TBH. It seems like picking a defensive class would net you better results overall. It’s AAR after all, it’s not hurting for damage no matter what you do with it.

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No other class would support AAR better than Demo. With Demo you get 141-165 OA from Flame Touched, you get and effective 250 OA from Flash Bang, you get total speed from Vindictive Flame, and you get an immense toughness boost from Blast Shield. EDIT: I also forgot to add the option for some physical damage reduction from BWC.

Soldier offers very little to AAR. Some health, less OA than Flame Touched from Field Command, a little DA, and maybe some radial damage reduction from War Cry if you have the points.

Shaman offers some health and heal from Wendigo Totem, that’s it.

With Occultist you literally only get Blood of Dreeg.

Nightblade only gives you some total speed and minor health regen from Pneumatic Burst.

None of those outweigh the versatility of Demo’s options, and the OA boost alone from Demo is huge. I’m honestly surprised that OP’s OA is so low with an AAR Sorc, it should be WAY higher, especially with Chariot. He needs to get way more OA in order to get full effectiveness out of AAR.

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…but they’re not all verbs.

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Are you able to swap out Runestone for Leathery Hide without lowering resists too much?

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Soldier and Shaman both offer something that Arcanists traditionally lack: Defenses. I agree that Occultist and Nightblade wouldn’t help much, but the defense offered by Soldier and Shaman both FAR outweigh Blast Shield.

As I said before, AAR has damage to spare, by FAR. As long as you hit 150% Cast Speed minimum, and keep up at least a 90% Hit Chance on bosses/Nemesis, then AAR is fine on damage, so the OA out of Demo, while nice, isn’t really needed.

I get the damage aspect, Demo has damage, nice…But you don’t need more damage, you’re running AAR. What you lack isn’t damage, it’s defenses…And Demo doesn’t really offer much of that. What they DO offer that’s nice is Blast Shield…Which only helps AFTER you got hit, and it’s not 100% uptime. Shaman and Soldier’s options both help all the time, in comparison.

Just seems odd that the OP stresses that he doesn’t need more DPS, it’s AAR…but then picked a DPS class rather than a tankier one. Shrug.

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You should have 100% chance to hit everything as a bare minimum. AAR builds also have an enormous amount of free crit damage from Disintegration and Elemental Balance. Combine that with the high tick rate of AAR from 190-200% cast speed (which is incredibly easy to do), and OA becomes enormously important. Without high OA on AAR builds you are completely squandering the skill’s potential.

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Potential is MASSIVE…What you actually NEED to kill everything is a small fraction of that potential. It’d be NICE to have 100% chance and 200% cast, and I agree that both are what you AIM for…BUT, if you are hard up for some reason, or are just trying to see what the baseline of actual need is, it’s actually pretty small, because of how the skill works.

I agree that going for the gold is great, but you don’t actually NEED that, because AAR is so strong. And OFC, your point does not negate mine, which is…You’ve got lots of DPS with one class, why pick a second DPS class instead of shoring up your one weak point?

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Demo allows you to build into the skill’s strengths while adding tankiness. Blast Shield is easily one of the best defensive skills in the game. Flash Bang has an enormous area, and gives enemies a 20% fumble chance, which is pretty significant, and transmuted BWC can reduce physical damage for a short time. There’s no other class that compares to Demo for supporting aether AAR builds.

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Demo is very good defensively (Searing Light + Blast Shield) Becomes even better when combined with Arcanist (Mirror + Maivens)

Soldier is pretty horrible for defense unless you go shield and I doubt you could maintain AAR for very long with a shield

Shaman is good also but Demo has better gear options with arcanist for aether damage.