[1.0.0.9] [Saboteur] The Grenado Gunslinger [Caster/Gunslinger]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

The Grenado Gunslinger

This is a Grenado/Canister Bomb Saboteur that uses the Barrelsmith’s Twins set. I’ve been using it to farm Fabius, Zantarin, and Mad Queen. This build is LOTS of fun, when you get multiple procs of Ulzuin’s Chosen in a row you deal HUGE burst damage.

AoM update - GG Saboteurs

Unfortunately I would not go Saboteur for the Barrelsmith set anymore. After tinkering with Grimtools it’s clear Saboteur is totally outclassed by Purifiers, who get Ranged Expertise, Deadly Aim, powerful exclusive skills (Aura of Conviction and Censure are both amazing), IMO Word of Renewal is superior to Pneumatic burst, also you get powerful WPS including Bursting Round. Purifiers also end up with much more DA/OA than Saboteurs.

[spoiler]Why Saboteur?

Most Grenado/Canister Bomb builds I’ve seen have been either a Elementalist/Sorcerer/Commando. These seem like obvious choices because of powerful Exclusive skills but I didn’t want to sink 50 mastery points to get them. Saboteur works because you get massive Total Speed buffs (Vindictive Flame + Pneumatic burst) with minimal investment into the Nightblade tree. The result is a nimble caster/gunslinger hybrid that blows stuff up from afar.

Concept

  • [li]Use Grenado as a LMB and Canister Bomb as a RMB. [/li]Ulzuin’s Chosen and cooldown reduction from the Barrelsmith set offers high uptime on these skills.
    [li] When LMB and RMB are cooling down, use the strong debuffs Demolitionists have at their disposal. [/li]I.e. Flashbang, Thermite Mine, Blackwater cocktail
  • In between cooldowns, your default weapon attack is boosted by some nice WPS’s offered by the Barrelsmith set.
  • Because Ulzuin’s Chosen and the Barrelsmith set convert a lot of physical damage to Fire, the majority of damage dealt is Burn and Fire.
    [li] Uses a lot of energy. [/li]Saboteurs don’t have energy management skills so I make up for this with –skill energy cost and energy absorb from devotions/components/augments.
  • Squishy due to low health but has a lot of defensive options.

Grimtools with gear, skills and devotions

Gear note: Pants, gloves, boots, rings, and amulet are all flexible. I recommend you complete Infernal Knight’s set for the nice bonuses to BWC and Thermite Mine.

All attribute points to physique.


(with auras/buffs/Wayward Soul/Sealed Fate procs up)

Album of stats

Head: Infernal Knight’s Faceguard (Prismatic Diamond / Venomguard Powder (Rovers))

Shoulders: Aetherfire Iron Maiden’s Mantle of the Wolf (Silk Swatch / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Can be any green to fill resists. Outcast’s burning mantle is OK. Infernal Knight’s Pauldrons or Fabius’ shoulderguard is probably BiS.

Chest: Infernal Knight’s Jacket (Chains of Oleron / Kingsguard Powder (Black Legion))

Main hand: Barrelsmith’s Salvo (Flintcore Bolts / Solar Radiance (Homestead))

Offhand: Barrelsmith’s Crossfire (Devil-Touched Ammo / Solar Radiance (Homestead))

Hands: Empowered Embergrip Handguards (Restless Remains / Mankind’s Vigil (Black Legion))
Wyrmbone handguards is probably BiS, otherwise you can use Harvest Grips or Rhowari Handguards.

Waist: Infernal Knight’s Girdle (Antivenom Salve / Demonbane Powder (Kymon’s Chosen))

Legs: Renegade’s Solael-Sect Legguards of the Boar (Silk Swatch / Demonbane Powder (Kymon’s Chosen))
Or any Sect-Legguards or Legplates of Valor.

Feet: Stonehide Exalted Sabatons of Ulzuin’s Flame (Mark of Mogdrogen / Kingsguard Powder (Black Legion))
Obviously Exalted Treads is better :wink: or Golemborne Greaves

Amulet: Empowered Essence of Beronath (Focusing Prism / Survivor’s Ingenuity (Devil’s Crossing))

Rings: Open Hand of Mercy (Soul Shard / Survivor’s Perseverance (Devil’s Crossing))

Rings: Closed Fist of Vengeance (Mark of Illusions / Breath of Life (Rovers))
Any good green works here too.

Medal: Mark of Divinity (Arcane Spark)
Or you can go with Pyroclasm Mark.

Relic: Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm

Grimcalc build (with +skills)
Grimcalc build (without +skills)
Click here to view equipment configuration

Active skills:

  • [li] Grenado and Canister Bomb[/li]Your primary damage source, on LMB and RMB. Linked with Meteor Shower and Eldritch Fire.
    [li] Flashbang[/li]Insane debuff.
    [li] Pneumatic Burst[/li]Spammable heal and also a great buff for total speed, DA, and chance to dodge attacks
    [li] BWC[/li]Another insane debuff: 1) physical damage reduction 2) OA reduction 3) another Burn dot. Linked with Elemental Storm for flat RR
    [li] Thermite mine[/li]For fire resist reduction. Since it’s awkward to use, I only spent 1 point.
    [li] Blade Barrier[/li]A great one point wonder to use if things get hairy and your heals are on cooldown
    [li] Demon’s Breath[/li]From Devil Touched ammo component, I don’t use this much against bosses but it’s an option for AoE damage and life steal

Passive skills:

  • [li] Flame Touched[/li]Insane OA boost and also some solid Fire/Burn damage
    [li] Blast Shield[/li]Insane cheat-death skill with a low cooldown
    [li] Veil of Shadow[/li]Huge OA reduction. I put one point in Night’s Chill to proc things.
    [li] Vindictive Flame[/li]Huge total speed buff.
    [li] Ulzuin’s Chosen[/li]Very strong buff to the abilities you use the most. Also extremely fun when it procs multiple times in a row!
  • I also spent 1 point in Temper, Phantasmal Armor, and Anatomy of Murder for some decent buffs.

Energy sustain
This build has energy issues because when Ulzuin’s chosen procs several times in a row, you’ll eat through energy very fast. With my setup, I regularly use Elixirs but am not energy starved.

  • Ulzuin’s Chosen, Owl, and Focusing Prism for –skill cost
  • Energy absorb (I have 90%) from Solar Radiance augment, Soul Shard and Prismatic Diamond components, Phantasmal Armor, Viper constellation
  • Energy leech from Phantasmal Armor, Viper, Arcane Spark component

Defense
I’m running only 8k health but there are a lot of defensive options to make up for it.

  • #1 defense is maxed move speed and high total speed, in this build you MUST kite everything. You simply cannot facetank ultra bosses.
  • 3 cheat death abilities – Blast Shield, Mark of Divinity, and Prismatic Diamond component
  • Heals from Pneumatic Burst, Judicator’s Signets, Behemoth, and Chariot of the Dead
  • Searing Light, Shadow Dance, Wayward Soul, BWC, Veil of Shadow together give huge OA debuffs, DA buffs, and chance to dodge attacks
  • Blade Barrier is a great “o $$$$” button

Devotions

  • I built around Ulzuin’s Torch to get Meteor Shower
  • You get a lot of OA from Hydra, Hawk, Viper, and Chariot of the Dead
  • RR from Solael’s Witchblade, Viper, and Elemental Storm
  • Owl for skill cost reduction
  • Heals and solid defense from Chariot of the Dead and Behemoth

Thanks for reading! [/spoiler]

Attachment: Grenado comparison.jpg

2

nice concept ! always wondered how a build like that would work, thanks for sharing

3

Good job making a build around the Barrelsmith’s Twins set! :cool:

4

Could you generate a link to the build using grimtools link?

Thanks for sharing. GP.

5

Nice concept :slight_smile:

Few ideas:
Imho, you should go 50 in NB mastery and put one point into BS it works really good with meteor shower bound on it.
Also BS twins are nice but you would gain more with 2x melee weapon, for instance 2x warpfire would convert all cold/frostburn to fire burn so you could take blizard proc, or use ABB, SS and/or execution as fire burn sources;)

6

I tried making a Pierce+Fire Commando that used the Barrelsmith’s Twins.

It lacked flat resist reduction and it was hard to squeeze either BWC or Manticore to improve it. I’m going to wait for the expansion before I modify it further.

You really end up point-starved using the twins. It honestly seems like going caster is a better option but then you miss all the WPS bonuses the Twins provide. On the other end of the scale if you focus on an LMB attack replacer like Fire Strike you’ll have strong DPS but have poor nukes. etc.

Perhaps the devs just want you to focus on one path or the other but not both.

7

Thank you both.

It’s in there :wink:

Meteor actually has 100% chance to proc from Grenado so I have no problem with uptime on that skill. I tried to avoid going 50 into NB so I could spend points on all the juicy Demo skills.

I agree that in general melee outperforms casters in this game. My motivation was to make a build for Barrelsmith since I just finished finding the set. A melee saboteur, like jajaja’s tri-elemental, probably has no space for Grenado/Canister bomb.

Thank you for your comments Duck King, I actually watched your youtube videos when I was coming up with the concept. I originally started with BWC and Agonizing Flames for Physical/Pierce/Fire RR. But after looking closely at the damage tooltips it’s clear most damage (~85%) is fire. So I went with Elemental Storm and specced away from Agonizing Flames, which opened up more skill points. I’m not sure which build is superior, probably the best way to know is to run some dummy tests but I hate wailing away at those things.

I considered Fire Strike but I feel like my playstyle, which is using Grenado as LMB and auto-attacking in between cooldowns, is probably the way the set is intended to be played.

8

If you bind Meteor to BladeSpirit and call two BladeSpirit, each BladeSpirit proc Meteor.

9

@_@ well that would certainly be powerful.

10

I literally waited for ages for that moment than somebody makes this build. At last my waiting ended.

11

Ofc it has 100% chance to proc but with BS you can have 2-3 of them in same time and you dont have to build it like melee if you even use melee weapons, but its your build, that was just an advice :wink:
And melee does not outperform casters at lest not any more, especially in crucible.

12

I tried going pure Grenado + Canister Sorc.

But I’m clearly insane. :rolleyes:

13

What about… melee casters? :cool:

Callidor’s.

So good.

14

Yeah I used to bind Meteor to Thermite mine, those were the days. Did not realize that BS worked similarly. That’s obviously a massive power boost, anyone willing to move away from the theme of the build should probably pick up BS. I’m probably putting a point in BS in my tri-elemental sab now… lol

As long as you don’t have to spend time kiting, a build usually outperforms others. On the other hand, this build completely wrecks bosses like Zantarin and Moose with some movement and reaction speed. This build is definitely not brain-dead LMB/RMB and watch Hulu while you play :wink:

15

This is a build based on barrelsmith set, but talking about grenado itself, I think that other then geniune interest, going phys/fire is not worth it. Not enough gear/devotion support.

16

Grenado can be made fire/lightning and its pretty effective that way.

17

I meant that that there’s not much point in NOT taking transmuter, since fire/lightning is a better combination. Canister is even worse, with bigger pierce component and non transmutable internal trauma.
And yeah it is effective, did challenger crucible with this build - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NOYgOVn
Tried glad, but that will require going commando, which actually ends up looking quite a lot like your Avatar of Ulzuin. Torn between Meat Shield and Siegebreaker. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2ELOPNd

18

Canister’s pretty good for Burn builds but not much else imo. You can get large amounts of AoE Burn damage and have a 100% chance to proc Eldritch Fire.

I agree that Lightning+Fire is the way to go with Grenado. I tried bringing back my old Chaos Grenadier using Blood Orb of Chthon (and obviously not taking the transmuter). It’s damage still pales in comparison even with multiple sources of resist reduction.

The highest crit I could get was around 80K compared to 230K from the lightning+fire combo. With an elementalist or sorcerer you can pretty much get full conversion of phys-elemental.


Lighning+Fire on left - Chaos attempt on the right (probably should not have taken Ulzuin’s Chosen)

19

Int trauma is transmutable dmg, with, for example, 10% phys to fire conversion you get 10% int trauma converted to burn.
Biggest problem for canister is huge CD that makes is not so efficient and large pierce component. On other hand greando can be seriously strong dmg source but ist lacking gear support.
You can finish glad cruci even with sorcerer but that will require much more defensive devotion setup than the one you are using. Also weapon/ofhand choice you made left you starved in skill points department, and that doesn’t have to be the case cuz sorcerer is arguably most gear wise supporter setup.
Siege breaker is infinite times more better than meat shield, also UC is not worth more than 1 pt investment since the build is skill point starved and you rely on procs to do most of the dmg dealing job and you should take menhirs b and lower investment in menhirs w.

20

Yeah, it can be converted, but there’s no transmuter for conversion, so 20% is the maximum you get, I think. 10 from amuler and 10 from ulzuin’s chosen.

Yeah, that would be pretty much overhaul of the build, since procs are my AoE. I’d argue that with +5 to demo this build isn’t relly skillpoint starved, though mastery point sink does hurt. Most of the stuff left is gravy on top, like elemental balance for crit bonus, maxing out maiven sphere and other.

Phys resist that good? Guess I’ll try out both. Ulzuin’s chosen may not be the best investment, but I wanted to max it for the theme of the build. It’s not really grenado build if you just throw it sometimes. And without ulzuin’s chosen I’d say that you might as well focus on procs for damage and use those 40 points in grenado for something else.