[1.0.0.9] Meteor Strike Saboteur - guess who sets fire to the rain

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

I. Concept

I had my fair share of standard builds, both good and bad. But now I’m on the quest to find an original, weird (or oddball as they called me) but still viable. While exploring a most used but least understood mechanic of the game (at least for me): CONVERSION, this is the build that I produced.

The entire build hinges on the existence of 1 item: the Warpfire

It produces the highest conversion on a single item, the problem is that it is not standard physical-to-X conversion, but cold to fire (or water/rain to fire, hence the title :D). Fire part is easy, demolitionist is unrivaled there. But cold part? Nightblade comes to my mind immediately, with flat cold/frostburn damage from Nightchill, Nightfall and Elemental Awakening, I found my calling.

This is a luck-based glass cannon build that (I think, cannot prove it yet) can rivals the DPS of cold SS Spellbreaker if built into DW version.

  1. Pros:
  • Very high single target and AOE damage
  • Can facetank pretty much everything in Crucible Gladiator up to wave 120 at least, except nemesis bosses
  • Superb RR with Thermite mine + BWC + Nightchill + Eldritch fire, can total up to 40+27+30+20 = 117% RR that is multiplied by Viper, or 137% with Warpfire proc as well
  • Can produce 10-20k DPS just by standing there
  • Little energy management as long as you don’t spam Thermite mine (they last for quite a while)
  • Highly mobile with Shadow Strike and 135% movement speed
  1. Cons:
  • Squishy, despite the crucible comment above (it’s still true though).
  • Damage reflection is a big problem, despite having Owl and 83% fire resistance. I’m not sure why but a careless SS into a reflective mob will just oneshot yourself.
  • Low innate OA and DA (though this can be fixed with skill combination)
  • Cannot overcap Shadow Strike due to the lack of set bonus (fire set = no SS :()
  • Luck based defense means you can be killed when your luck runs out

II. Skills and Gears

  1. Skills and devotions:

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28Q63Vj
Grimcalc build (with +skills)
Grimcalc build (without +skills)

Stats: 85 Physique 5 Spirit to equip Warpfire. If you are lucky with gears that give more spirit, just pump the rest to physique

Devotion bindings:

  • Meteor Shower —> Shadow Strike: 100% chance to proc meteor, making the name of the build
  • Eldritch Fire --> BWC: What’s better than 1 RR? 2 RR in 1 skill
  • Fissure —> Thermite mine: so you don’t actually have to attack to trigger Fissure
  • The rest: just bind to any aura

We don’t use Rhowan Crown because it doesn’t stack with BWC, although Elemental Storm is a bit better than Agonizing Flame, I’d like the option to go for Behemoth

  1. Gears:

Head: Infernal Knight’s Faceguard (Leathery Hide / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Shoulders: Infernal Knight’s Pauldrons (Scaled Hide / Outcast’s Warding Powder (Outcasts))
Chest: Infernal Knight’s Jacket (Chains of Oleron / Outcast’s Warding Powder (Outcasts))
Main hand: Warpfire (Enchanted Flint / Creed’s Cunning (Black Legion))
Offhand: Siegebreaker (Imbued Silver / Outcast’s Bastion (Outcasts))
Hands: Wyrmbone Handguards (Spellwoven Threads / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Waist: Infernal Knight’s Girdle (Antivenom Salve / Mogdrogen’s Touch (Devil’s Crossing))
Legs: Seraphim Solael-Sect Legguards of Incantations (Scaled Hide / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Feet: Stonehide Exalted Treads of Nature’s Bounty (Mark of Mogdrogen / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Amulet: The Peerless Eye of Beronath (Arcane Spark / Survivor’s Ingenuity (Devil’s Crossing))
Rings: Entropic Coil (Mark of Illusions / Survivor’s Ingenuity (Devil’s Crossing))
Rings: Lifegiver Signet (Mark of Illusions / Survivor’s Ingenuity (Devil’s Crossing))
Medal: Mark of Fierce Resolve (Arcane Spark)
Relic: Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm

The key thing to look at is the Leathery Hide on the helm and the Mark of Fierce Resolve instead of other legendary medals. Let me insist 1 thing: you NEED that stun reduction. Running a squishy build means that CC usually spells death to you. With those 2 you can stack up to 50% stun reduction, combines with Lantern devotion and Chain of Olerons for 50% trap reduction, you are much safer.

Also if you are lucky with resistance roll on gears, you can replace the Outcast’s Bastion on shield for another Creed’s Cunning. I just need 2% more poison resistance and 1% more chaos resistance to replace it, but it didn’t happen :frowning:

Eyes of Beronath is used because this build is hungry for skill points, just like any other SS build

Alternative build #1

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/mN4yQl2g
Using the Markovian Bulwark will allow you to use an Enchanted Flint on the shield instead of Imbued Silver. No you don’t need the conversion because you have no sources of physical anyway, but Enchanted Flint gives an aura for +75% fire/burn bonus, at the cost of 100 less DA and 20% less physical resistance. I used this version in some of the videos below, but then I come to the conclusion that it is not worth it, you get 5% more total damage, but are 50% more proned to be oneshot by a group of Hulks.

Alternative build #2

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkyxlVJ
Using Rhowan Crown for elemental storm instead of BWC RR, this produce a bit more consistent RR with 100% uptime comparing to 60% of BWC, at the cost of 20 DA and 40 OA. This also makes it a bit easier to cap resistances

I cannot say this is better or worse comparing to the original build, but it’s still a good alternative since you can take down 10 skill points from Agonizing flame and sprinkle them where you like

Alternative build #3 - DW version

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/eZPWelV0
This I believe can rival cold SS spellbreaker damage (but don’t quote me on this :D). While having 20-25% less raw damage, this build offers 40% more RR than a standard Spellbreaker can ask for, which might be more or less put them on the same level.

I never explore that direction anyway, but I just put it here as an option. I like my char durable.

III. Leveling and Combat

Start with Demolitionist tree and use BWC + Firestrike to level, you cannot use this build until you find Warpfire so it is best to start after having it

In combat, pretty much just press everything, you have enough energy leech + absorption to not worry about energy

While having low OA and DA, your skills will reduce targets OA and DA as well, bringing you up on the food chain. With BWC and Veil of Shadow, you reduce target OA by 380, thus making your DA equivalent to 2500. And with Flash Bang you reduce target DA by 110, thus making your OA equivalent to 2500 as well, which isn’t too bad if you ask me. Crits happen frequently thanks to those.

Keep spamming Flash Bang, because with 20% dodge, 30% parry, and 27% fumble/impaired aim, they will keep you alive until your luck runs out :smiley:

Veil of Shadow with Nightchill will help you proc all the x% chance on attack skill, thus you produce DPS just by standing there

IV. Dungeons & Bosses tips

Steps of Torment:

It’s your SS vs his SS, with 50% stun resistance it should be easy

Bastion of Chaos:

Only Shar’Zul is a bit of a problem due to his high fire resistances, but still not much of a problem. Just stay away from his wind devils

Port Valbury:

If your nightmare has a name, Valbury would be it. Not the ground, not the bosses, but the pesky damage reflection from the cursed arcanists/mages

Also feature a Valdaran kill, which is very easy

Mad Queen:

Standard trap and kite

Nemesis:
Valdaran is super easy (check Valbury video)

Moosilauke is a problem because you have only 8% freeze resist. Pop a hoardfrost ointment when you see him

Bennjhar is easy as long as you spam Flash Bang on him

All Cronley nemesis bosses are problem, if you SS into their Blade Barrier then you just one shot yourself :smiley: play with care and let the DOT deals damage.

V. Crucible tips
I want to fight in Crucible of the Dead, but Crucible of the Sands is better for this build, there are many chokeholds and corner to run around and avoid enemies fire

I facetank pretty much everything except reflective bosses and nemesis bosses there, but you don’t have to, the burn damage should allow you to kite very effectively. If you cannot handle it, just buy the stun resistance buff and it should be easy

2

Not bad, but don’t see any reason to use this over a bwc sorc or commando especially for crucible. Also try blade spirits for meteor shower. You will always have 2 up at once and both will get off multiple showers during their life time

Btw 2x warpfire sabo is a very fun build, but whether you gear it with infernal set or mish mash of gear to max out SS it’s not even close to cold breaker levels of damage. Much less flat damage from buffs, less cdr, and both weapons have 5 base aether damage :smiley:

3

Second this, and imho there is no reason to use shield at all, your loss is much bigger than gain since shield w/o soldier mastery is not so efficient.

Also think about adding elemental storm, you will have more consistent flat rr with it than with transmuted BWC.

4

Yeah my aim isn’t to produce the best build, but a fun and original build that is still viable in all game contents. I do have a BWC Commando right in my signature :smiley:

Without shield it’s hard to cap resistances, I will need to replace other pieces of gears, which is more or less the same thing anyway.

Going for Crown means losing Lantern or Behemoth, I will have to test out to see if it is worth it

5

I have similar build, but I dual wield warpfire for 100% cold to fire.
Play what you find fun, don’t always listen to the clear speed meta crowd. Unless of course that’s what you find fun :grin:

6

That’s right, except that this build doesn’t lack clear speed at all :smiley:

7

Since you are not using the skill of Siegebreaker and neither have soldier mastery, something like Stonehide Obsidian Bulwark of Immortality would be a lot better for filling out resistances.

8

If u use DW with 2x Warpfire, u can use amarastas blade burst with lethal assault to get flat fire dmg from warpfire and OA.
U can use Iceskorn Talons too with this setup

A single Warpfire (+/- 50%) with shield works too :slight_smile:

I dont see a build that use the ring: Empowered Chillsurge Ring with -40% fire RR

9

Well, green items like that don’t come when you wish for, so I keep all my builds minimal of them. I always check the shop when running dungeons for them though. Siegebreaker has 20% physical resistance as well though, it’s useful

If you use lethal assault that means you need to siphon skill points from elsewhere (10+ points ain’t cheap)

Iceskorn talon is an interesting alternative, but it gives less OA and HP comparing to wyrmbone. If you use more normal attack it is better with the speed though

And the ring, the problem with it is that it doesn’t affect bosses at all, same as OFF

10

And yet you have double rare MI pants as BiS, which have even lower chance to drop, let alone drop double rare.
At the very least you can craft similar shield with scraps, the result will only lack ~50% chaos res and +2 Blast Shield. Not much harder than getting double rare boots.

Immovable/Keeper’s/Stonehide Sovereign Shield will always have at least 20% phys res. Stonehide variation of it will have resistances close to Siegebreaker and ~65% stun res on top.

11

The Empowered Oathbreaker’s Guard gives phys. resist, blockchance, flat fire dmg and +skills :slight_smile:

I think he use siegebreaker for pierce resist too.

12

The pants are actually pretty bad, elemental resistances are not entirely needed, the only thing useful is the chaos resistance on the suffix, which is not exactly high as well

I would love to have more green items as well, but with my luck, I usually have great affixes on the wrong item