1.0.1.0 - Newbie's Selffound braindead-gaming Gunslinging Sorcerer

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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EDITS: I tried to get the whole thing to be more friendly to the viewer. And I will say it again. This is only my second character in the game, First one to finish elite (up to act3 in ultimate). Don’t expect top notch end game knowledge and optimal BIS item-builds by this guide. What I do offer here is the PoV of someone new to the game, willing to learn fast and experiment and not follow blind builds, with very certain things in mind which I’m trying to accomplish!

Hey guys! Friends got me playing the game. like 10-12 days ago, and I’ve been scouting forums ever since along with playing. I started with a PRM spammer battlemage that I thought died A LOT without a shield once I entered Elite(and no devastation) so I made a gunslinging sorcerer as my 2nd char, which I now use as main!

The build is far from perfect, it’s not even max level yet. But it breezed through Veteran and Elite (only Alkamos and BoC gave me couple of deaths till I figured 'em out), but it’s having slight problems with very high damage incomes-low HP in elite. I think it’s my very offensive devotion set up, I’d love some input on that.

Here’s a pic of the char panel:
http://imgur.com/LppJQBX

Here’s a collective pic of the current equipment:


+Gunslinger’s Talisman.

The essential items for this build to deal damage:
Gunslinger’s Talisman (or any other item that allows you to dual weild pistols, like Marauder’s belt).
x2 Pistols that grant you fire damage mainly. Other than that, you’re looking for +Crit Damage, +Attack Speed, +Offensive Ability, +Physical to Fire damage Convertion, +Fire Strike Line, +To Demolitionist Skills, +To arcanist skills(lastly). I’m not well rolled in the game’s items yet to be able to tell you exactly what you want for this to work. Also, you HAVE TO HAVE capped ressistances, considering we have one of the lowest health pools in the game from our base masteries and not many +(%)HP devotions and so on. Blessed Steel on one pistol, Devil Touched Ammo on the other. That’s a must: Blessed Steel gives you Sacred Strike on which you put your Rohan’s Crown devotion for -resistances. Devil Touched Ammo converts Physical to Fire damage and gives you Demon’s Breath, your worst case scenario circuit breaker if Tome of Mending and Mirror of Erectotes are both on cooldown.
Mark of the Traveller on your boots is very important imo, considering that this build’s only mobility comes from Vindictive Flame’s +Total Speed. And if you can get Movespeed on your Pants, that’s great as well!

Augments should firstly and foremostly be used to maximize your ressistances. After you get capped, you should focus on adding Offensive Augments to your jewels (Devils’ Crossing Revered +20% All damage/a piece is very, very strong).

Now, why do i name this braindead?

…Grimtools:
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2dl002J

Yeap, that’s right. 2 usable skills, one of which is the - as far as I can tell - game’s most lovable panic button, Mirror of Erectotes, and the other is oh so hard to master… Fire strike.

It’s extremely simple really. You firestrike stuff. If you don’t firestrike stuff hard enough, you use your Sacred Strike to lower the enemies’ defenses on firestrike. If stuff doesn’t like getting Firestrike’d and starts hitting you hard, you got Mirror of Erectotes and Demon’s breath to save your ass. And you move around. A lot. Think of an archer in Lineage 2, or Templar Assassin in Dota2, or any other class/character in any other game that hates sitting stale!

The build plays out pretty simple. Open with Sacred Strike. Autoattack with Fire Strike till stuff reaches you.
From then on you can either use heal pot + procs and facetank, using mirror if needed but I suggest you kite stuff around and use mirror only under extreme duress. That’s if you have your mirror at level 1. You can be a lot more liberal with a Maxed level Mirror of Erectotes as it gives you a whooping 18 second cooldown instead of 30, in fact you wanna facetank with it open as much as possible if it’s maxed cos of the 150% reflect damage that gets applied on top of your enemies’ reduced ressistances thanks to your Sacred Strike. Demon’s breath when things get REALLY tough, which means when you get swarmed by many trash and a couple of heros! The more units you hit with it, the more Health it will you for, afterall. If you are about to die to one hero and you think to your self “hey, i’ll drain it with this kickass skill then facetank the rest 15% of its hp, it’s only elite act 2 afterall”, DON’T. I went about Alkamos that way and died at his 2% HP. Haven’t been SO pissed at a game since I lost my first ever LAN finals in wc3dota :confused:

Main damage type is elemental (70% fire, 30% lightning), but I wanna try Fire-Aether if I get the gear required for the damage convertion (deviltongue, and I think cronley’s rings? I still dunno the game’s items like at all ^_^)

I’ve found in ultimate I’d rather kite and keep Mirror handy. I might invest some points in it so I can keep my original playstyle though.

Pretty sure It can’t kill any nemesis with this gear at max level, which means I will have to readjust my devotions. Or farm for gear. Or bite the bullet and change one of the 3-4 legendary rifles I have for a deviltongue or something on a 3rd party software ^^

I’m open to all suggestions, but I’m mostly looking for suggestions of devotions I can add to my buffs (IEE etc). I played with Chariot of the Dead and Behemoth. Don’t think I’m in love with either, and I dunno how to incorporate Crown and Torch in a build with any else. Any options anyone?

Also, I know, all of you are gonna tell me to get flash bangs and thermite minesand so on. But I’m not really interrested in that playstyle… I might end up adding a point to OFF but I’d really not like to! (Tbh I was bothered by how useful Blessed Steel’s active + Crown devotion turned out to be, I really wanted to only use fire strike and mirror :P)

Now, how I started this build and ended up breezing through elite:

At first, I got Firestrike at 5/12, then got 10 mastery points in Demo to get Vindictive flame + Flame touched, which I instalty leveled to 5.
Explosive strike 2/10 then max fire strike. Add 1 point to arcanist mastery and 1 to Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange.
25 your Demo tree, 5 explosive strike, 5 static strike.
32 your Demo, 3 blast shield, max buffs(V.F. and F.T.)
Max your demo tree and brimstone.
Back to your other tree and 25 on arcanist, with lvl1 Mirror+Arcane will+Maiven’s spheere.
Max elemental balance then move back to Demo and max your firestrike line.
(Enter act 3-4 elite and low aether ressist around:) Max Maiven’s Spheere, max vindictive flame and flame touched line, blast shield to level 5, finish up arcanist with IEE(my plaudrons give +3 and I thought why not?) and Inner focus - You can max Mirror of Erectotes instead of IEE if you are dying way too much.

As for the leftover 14 points I am still to get, I will spend another 2 points at least on arcane will, as long as it gives +15% per level that is, and will perhaps max out Maiven’s Spheere line, cos whenever I lose my Kiting potential, I feel like someone’s taken the mouse out of my hands: HELPLESS!
Overload seems cheap and I didn’t like Nullification for anything in particular considering I move around a lot.

I do miss my Empowered boots of unseeing swiftness , an excellent item all the way to Elite BoC… but I couldn’t play through ultimate with 'em. Also I should mention I have yet to get Revered status with Black Legion and The Outcast, so I will get access to better augments soon.

All in all I found this build much much much better than my first attempt, and also much more fun (while essentially doing the same thing tbh). But ultimate is tougher than I anticipated even with capped ressists. I guess it’s low HP and low armor on my helm and gloves, if a crit rolls there I just die. :confused:

Thanks for reading. Any suggestions are welcome considering i only have like a tenth of playtime on the game to other build posters!

Cheers

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Reserved. Also I need 3 posts to be able to post my photos :x

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FYI this is kind of irrelevant. You can press ctrl+shift to ignore +skill bonuses in grimtools when looking at a skilltree. I imagine people would enjoy consolidating the images of your gear into the grimtools link instead. :slight_smile:

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Yeah I thought about it but I did it with the screenshots to show the exact values on the random rolls - which I now think is super picky and detail oriented. I might end up doing it tomorrow during office dead hours tho.

Also thx for the tip

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Phew, I was afraid someone would post a guide 1.0.1.0 gunslinger sorcerer before me, but it turned out to be not a proper guide. Nothing personal, but it’s not a finished build, man. You could have at least bothered and posted grimtools link with with all the gear.

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I’m also working on a pyromancer so you better be fast :smiley: Jokes aside I think he is more looking for input/advice rather than posting a guide.

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hurry up, man. or I’ll post before you :stuck_out_tongue:

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Devotion setup seems pretty doubtful.
I would replace Revenant, 1 point Magi and Scholar’s Light with Solael’s Witchblade (-20% fire res) and Viper (additional multiplier for elemental res reduction). Though it require 1 more active skill (Flasbang or Thermite Mines), not so braindead as it could be with current setup.

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Do you think that Solael’s witchblade would be spent okayish at Volley (gunsilnger talisman passive)? or is it a must to get another usable skill?

I actually had Viper but removed it when I used to think that it gave way too little lifesteal and that I shouldn’t be arched with the trait at all. I can see now I was wrong.

Also, instead of Solael’s, would you recommend anything else to put on top of viper, perhaps something that gives a bit more lifeleech?

As much as i’m trying not to be offended by your post… I can’t.

I mean, I say like 4-5 times that I’m new to the game, the build ain’t optimal, that it’s not a guide…

" You could have at least bothered and posted grimtools link with with all the gear."
I mean there’s 2 essential things in this build: gunslinger’s talisman and upgrades, and fire pistols. The rest is there to help reach ressists at cap and give a few skills. It’s a NEWBIE SELF FOUND CHAR! I didn’t make a “best x build”, obviously I can’t with 10 days worth of playtime in a game of this size.

whatever thx for your reply i guess

— First post updated

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Hi,

I strongly recommend at least 12/12 thermites and a bit in flashbang+ searing light.

Your killing power will noticeably improve and so will your survivability.

Get solael devotion too. Bog boost to dmg.

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Dont go sorcerer, pyromancer is MUCH better for gunslinger firestrike
Resist Red is very important and pyro is quite good:
Fire Mine 40
Exterminus 20
Ulzuin’s head 15
Cof 30
Eldritch 20
Elemental storm30
Viper 20
= -175%

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Don’t be offended. People here are used to polished and decked out with BiS gear build guides (some even want only “the best of the best” builds in here).

I like the idea of posting a true newbie build, but there are definately downfalls to it. As you progress and learn more and more about the game, you will see, that you need to update your guide constantly.

Also, build guides are considered as a road to a certain goal. So you additionally might want to post a “final form” of your build, which you and others can aim for, even if it is only theory crafted.

You also might want to look at some other peoples guides and update yours accordingly with some headlines and stuff. And you might want to directly insert the picture of your character sheet into your post.

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Ofc you can though chances for proc will be too miserable (10% Volley2 shots15% Solael’s = 3%). Better put it on a Demon’s Breath (i saw you have it anyway), or swap Torch’s Meteor Shower to Demon’s Breath (it has almost same cooldown anyway, Breath 3 sec, Meteor 3.5 just don’t fire it in this 0.5 sec) and put Solael to Firestrike. This way with Eldritch Fire on Firestrike (and Meteor on Breath on demand as a BFG with 3.5 sec CD) you should notice bigger boost to your damage overall.

Actually I don’t like lifesteal as only source of sustain (it’s far from the good comparing to D2 or POE) - regen is more consistent as many monster (most bosses on Ultimate) will get huge resists to lifesteal and fighting them without other sources of sustain can be PITA. It can work if you dedicate your build to lifestealing, getting every source you can and stacking resist reduction (ultimately with Haunt relic’s curse).
Though you can find a way (it can require some jiggling with devotions) to put 3 points in Behemoth, either with Viper or without it, taking it’s heal/regen proc.
Bad side - most of the time Chariot proc at the same moment as Behemoth and both goes on CD :slight_smile:
Good side - during this double proc you can facetank almost everything and even if your Blast Shield procs you’ll regen to full to the time it goes off.

p.s. FYI, resist reduction from Blessed Steel doesn’t stack with RR from Elemental Storm (Rhowan’s Crown), stronger get precedence. Though as Blessed Steel reduce all resists (not only elemental) it should boost your damage anyway as you have a good bunch of physical and piercing as well.
p.p.s. Thermite Mines are really good with reducing resists but have awful usability, if you are too lazy, you can skip them respeccing back on big fights like Log (who doesn’t move anyway so it’s easy to use vs him).

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You do it wrong with a Viper. It’s a multiplier, not a flat reduction.
If someone has 0 fire res, you put -155 with all above and then multiply it, getting -186.
If someone has 100 fire res, you make it -551.2=-66.
If someone has 200 you make it 450.8=36.

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first of all, rest of you newbies like myself take notes, this guy fucks
2ndly, bold part is why i said i didnt like chariot and behemoth: they activated together along with blast shield, giving me essentially a 2nd mirror of erectotes but it didn’t feel enough in the long run, as i wanna deal damage continously, not like 33% of the time.

I’ll re-try eldritch fire on firestrike, i removed it cos i thought the chaos damage was going to waste. but it was before i used devil’s touched ammo.
considering I’ll have eldritch fire, should i replace blessed steel (even though as u say it’s good) with another devil touched ammo and struggle to find something to apply reduction ressistance with (BWC? my weap has it as passive, but u cant place divine const on it so maybe a skill point on it)? at first ofc i’ll keep the blessed steel, add meteors to breath and eldritch on firestrike, but i think that if i abuse the physical to fire convertion of a 2nd deviltouched and add the bonus chaos damage it provides on top of the eldritch sword constellation, i might end up with bigger damage benefits.

unluckily i dont have enough iron/aether crystals to keep on tinkering as much as i’d like (this game makes me doubt every single point i’ve ever spent based on whether it was optimal or not :/), which i might say may be half of the reason i created a one skill only build to begin with!

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OK, I came off as a bit of an ass in my reply, sorry about that. Build is incoming. So far I have tested two different gear setups (Ulzuin’s and Iskandra) and Ulzuin’s is slightly better due to additional RR from helmet and Flame Touched bonuses.

Here is what it looks like (everything melts, a lot of RR, a lot of life returns, 3 circuit brakers: Mirror, Ghoul, Blast Shield). Flashbang @ 12/12 is a must. My aim was to make a viable vanilla farmer without using any extremely hard to find/craft rare gear (like Solael pants or stonehide of kings boots). All items synergize with the build:

Grim Tools link

Despite what it shows in the link, all resists are maxed out, some are overcapped. Only downsides are low DA and base armor absorption. But we have so many CC tools in our disposal that it hardly matters.

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Well, it’s just the matter of preference, as i said - lifesteal can work. Then it doesn’t you can just kite.
The problem may arise if it doesn’t work and you cannot kite due to some reason (too fast enemy or some type of entrapment like from obsidian dudes or bone golems) but it’s not a problem as well if you play softcore.

Anyway you have a big chunk of flat chaos dmg of Brimstone (last skill in Firestrike).

I personally don’t like BWC usability even more than Thermite Mines cuz of CD on it. Also it has same unstackable type of RR as Elemental Storm and Blessed Steel (you can check this: http://i.imgur.com/Gn6iupJ.png) but require lot of skillpoints to make it worth.

If this is your first playthrough you don’t have much resources to spend. Nvm then - if it works for you as it is, let it work and just play as you like it. Respec when you feel that something goes wrong (3 death in a row on the same boss or playing horror survival with a white mobs coughbiggreenstonyaetherialmotherloverscough). I don’t think you’ll have trouble before ultimate and by this time you should get enough iron/crystals to do any respec.
If you tend to keep lifesteal i would do smthing like this (changed only some devotions).