[1.0.2.1]Deathmarked Shadow Strike Spellbreaker

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Introduction
Spellbreaker is my first successful build so far since patch 1.0.0.6 and now the expansion released. I want to push it forward and rebuild it again with many new upgrade items. Testing with new powerful foes.

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Grimtool Link

  • Current Defensive BiS setup : http://www.grimtools.com/calc/4VxA4wlZ
    This is my current setup. You’ll find it has more HP by sacrifice a little bit of DPS and 400 OA from my offensive. Better at survival and stable enough to beat new content.

  • Old Offensive Setup : http://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLJvkMN
    This setup can beat all endgame content except new nemesis and sometimes can get burst down. With cheaper gears and not require much RNG to get specific property. It could survive on 8k HP by many mechanics I use to diminish dmg and reduced probability to get hit.

*note : it is not necessary to get all mythical or lv94 variation as i said in closing that they’re not get significant buff.

Survivability [ul]
[li] 1.6k armor with 98% armor absorption. Pretty solid to non-soldier base build.[/li]
[li] Probability of being hit by melee : 33% Fumble debuff + about 30% dodge + 2.3k of DA --> 0.66x0.7x0.9 = 42% chance to get melee hit.[/li]
[li] Overall 20% dmg absorption from Maiven’s[/li]
[li] High Stun and Freeze resistance.[/li]
[li] CC with freeze and procs from pants. [/li]
[li] Many instant health procs, shield procs to prevent death. Huge ADCtH from skills and %weapon dmg mechanic.[/li]
[li] Good mobility with Shadow Strike[/li]
[li] 20% reduce enemy dmg from Oleron’s Might[/li]
[li] reduce enemies’ OA[/li]
[li] 2 emergency immortal skills (Blade Barrier and Mirror of Ereoctes) [/li]
[li] 1 circuit breaker from Mark of Divinity and 2 soft circuit breaker from Turtle Shell and Ghoulish Hunger[/ul][/li]
Offense [ul]
[li] 28 flat RR[/li]
[li] 23(Devotion:Murmur)+15(Weapon:Crescent Moon)+39(Aura Skill:Night’s Chill) = 77 stackable RR[/li]
[li] 20% amp RR[/li]
[li] High crit dmg.[/li]
[li] High burst dmg from Oleron’s Might and Shadow Strike [/ul][/li]
Alternative Gearing
The main problems in spellbreaker who use Deathmarked set and Alkamos’ Rings are

  • low max HP : There is no support HP for the whole class and appropriate gears for this class give small amount
  • low Aether, Chaos resistance
  • lack of Bleeding and Poison&Acid resistance

So the rest gear in open slots(Pants, Boots, Belt, Medal and Amulet) should add these stats.

Amulet : Mythical Peerless Eyes of Beronath or Conduit of Night Whispers(prefer Acid&Poison Resistance or Bleeding Resistance and anything not Shadow Strike dmg conversion roll. BiS should be like in the grimtool) Mythical Night’s Embrace is ok too.
Medal : Mythical Mark of Dark Dream
Weapon 1 : Mythical Deathmarked Decapitator
Belt : Mythical Blade Breaker Sash
Pants : Mythical Deathwhisper Leggings, Mythical Slithscales Legwraps, Spellstalker’s Legwraps, Mythical Soiled Trousers, Empowered Swampdweller’s Legguards(There’s no Mythical version yet), Kubacabra’s Chausses (with good affixes), Solael-Sect Legguards (with good affixes)
Boots : Boneshatter Treads, Mythical Serpentine Wraps, Fiendflesh Greaves. Any crafted boot with good double rare affixes

Skills [ul]
[li]Dual Wield : 1 point to get benefit from Nightblade Bonus and WPS[/li]
[li]ABB : 1 point for triggering only Lethal Assault, Max Lethal assault because it boost our dmg significantly into our atk. (Flat dmg from it will be worth a lot when combine with %weapon dmg mechanic) [/li]
[li]Ring of Steel : 1 for RoS to triggering CoS, 1 in Ring of Frost for applying freeze. 10/12 CoS because it give fumble to mobs at effective investment(33%). Reduce the chance you’ll be hit by melee even bosses can be affect. No matter they can be freeze or not. [/li]
[li]Shadow Strike : Max it because it give a huge %weapon dmg in both and it’s our main dmg skills. NJE 12/12 for minimize CD. Max Night Fall for getting full dmg potential[/li]
[li]Pneumatic Burst : 12/12 to get significant instant health and speed bonus. 1 point in shadow dance. max Elemental Awakening to get full buff and overcapped elemental resistance[/li]
[li]Veil of Shadow : 1 point of wonder, Max Night’s Chill to get maximum -X% res (which is stackable debuff)[/li]
[li]Blade Barrier : 1 point of wonder. 2nd Panic button[/li]
[li]Phantasmal Armor : 1 point because the rings give us bonus. Reduce freezing time is very good to fight anyone who can freeze you w/o “Sailor’s Guide” constellation.[/li]
[li]Anatomy of Murder : 1 point of wonder.[/li]
[li]Merciless Repertoire : 1 point of wonder.[/li]
[li]Blade Spirit : 1 point of wonder. An another dmg source + to fill my scrolling mouse slot[/li]
[li]IEE : 1 point and 12/12 to Elemental Balance to get max crit dmg.[/li]
[li]Mirror of Ereoctes : 1st Panic button[/li]
[li]Maiven’s Sphere of Protection : 1 of the best auras in game, Max it. Conversion is to anyone who has low Disable Time Reduction. So max it if you don’t wear Avatar of Mercy.[/li]
[li]Starpact : Max it to get max buff [/li]
[li]Inner Focus : to boost more OA and some stats.[/li]
[li]Arcane Will : 1 point of wonder.[/li]
[li]Nullification : 1 point of wonder. This purge skill is one of arcanist’s best skills. Remove debuff on self and good buff/auras from enemies.[/li]
[/ul]

Devotions [ul]
[li]Quill : New constellation for first tier green and purple. 4 points worth 6.[/li]
[li]Murmur, Mistress of Rumors : New constellation which can give us more -% cold resistance debuff(stackable RR)[/li]
[li]Turtle and Behemoth : Work very well and perfect combination to any build. They’re also very good as a defensive procs for low HP build. Turtle can hold time enough to make you press panic button in time. Behemoth help in most situation and also have high HP regen to slow down some DoT too.[/li]
[li]Ghoul : To get 4% ADCtH at the lowest cost. The proc is working 2nd priority to turtle and behemoth(when they’re on CD). It help us can sustain much longer and turn the tide of battle when you’re nearly died. Anyway you can skip the proc and invest in some 1 point of wonder constellation instead.[/li]
[li]Rowan’s Crown or Manticore : To get the proc that reduce enemies’ resistance(flat RR / unstackable). Manticore will gives you more HP and Poison&Acid resistance[/li]
[li]Viper : Amplier to our overall debuff on resistance reduction.[/li]
[/ul]

Other Suggestion for Constellation are

  • Vulture
  • Chariot of the Dead
  • Ulo the Keeper of the Waters
  • Revenant
  • Amatok the spirit of Winter

My hotkeys
Left Hand control
1 : Nullification
2 : Blade Barrier
3 : Ring of Steel
4 : Oleron’s Might // Major Dmg (from “Oleron’s Blood” Component)
5 : Mirror of Ereoctes

Right Hand control
scroll up (9): Blade Spirit
scroll down (0): Pneumatic Burst
RMB : Amarasta’s Blade Burst // Essential procs
LMB : Shadow Strike // Major Dmg

*2nd skill bar is for all auras (switch skill bar with “Y”)
***Beginner Advice : Default Shortcut for HP Potion = “R”, Energy Potion = “E”

Videos
Grava’thul Fight 26 sec best time
Grava’thul Fight with kiting 42 sec
Madqueen Fight 14 sec
Fabius Fight 20 sec // a little bit longer than my expectation
Crucible Gladiator Solo floor 100-150 Extra spawn

Tips on Bosses and Nemesis

Madqueen, Rashalga : Be careful to her vengeance aura. When she activate pink aura, use Nullification to remove her aura. The rest is easy

Old nemesis : Our only problem is Zantarin. Don’t aggressive at him and beware his shotgun projectiles. It could burst any melee char down no matter how durable it is. Just only that. The rest of them are easy.

New Unique Boss : Still don’t have any problems to all purple name boss on new expansion yet.

Grava’thul : This build cannot 100% facetank on him yet. It is possible but it depends on your luck too. He has massive dmg, debuff on grounds and auras. Most annoying ground debuff is Fumble(about 47% you’ll land miss attack) and Skill disruption(Our weakness. It’s like getting silenced or prevent us using skills). Careful of his projectile while kiting. The projectile could kill you even though you use Mirror or Blade Barrier. So if he shoot his projectile. run away until it disappear. If you want to facetank him better and more secure, use “Aether Cluster” after engage for few secs.

Kubacabra : Remove Maiven’s buff(it is useless for fighting with Kuba), then use only Mirror and Blade Barrier to stay alive. Careful on his breath and time properly to burst his HP down fastest you could. When on 2nd and 3rd stage. Kill the one with least HP first(I knew it is confusing).

Alek : Never seen him yet. Want to try but don’t know his spawn spot.

Leveling Advice

  • If you have Crucible DLC, Play it with advice from This guide.

  • Normal/Veteran : You can use single mastery to complete it.
    Mine is using pure arcanist with TSS+PRM (I just want to try them for first time). Have only 3 death. Mostly from reckless play.
    If playing pure Nightblade I’d recommend playing range with PB, Blade Trap etc or combine with low arcanist mastery.

  • Elite : Stay on Elite until you’re satisfy or above lv75. Try everything you don’t know as a caster here. It’s fun and it’s so much different from after 75 that we went through this melee bursty build. Getting other feeling and experience here

  • Ultimate : Caster and range is recommend below lv75 or above if don’t have full gear. Going melee with unprepare and half-baked gear would make the game so damn hard.

My personal comment on new items
I understand that SS spellbreaker is already strong since old patch before the expansion. So the gears and skill might not change much or getting more buff. But I think the meta has change and there’re more builds coming. As far as I test it is still cannot wreck all nemesis easily or as easy as old patch is yet. May be they’re too strong or design to be hard stuff like this. Anyway I want to give you feedback about items for you to buff or reworks something to create more variation of builds. :slight_smile:

  • Mythical Deathmarked Set : Almost the same. Old was powerful, but now I’m not sure. It is pretty solid but 5 set bonus is rather weak now. 10% physical res is not help much. Deflect chance is also useless one. No ranged attack is fatal. But the projectile from skills that this mechanic don’t affect is.

There should be something benefit in different scenario than or to be an alternative setup for 5 pieces or 4 pieces+Crescent Moon.

  • Mythical Crescent Moon : better to + overall skill points and don’t need to cast -15% cold resistance. Also it is obviously better than DM’s weapon
  • Mythical Chilling Grip of Hagarrad : Very insane Gloves for pierce to cold conversion
  • Mythical Mark of Dark Dream : the rework is very good and make this medal more interesting.
  • Conduit of Night Whispers : It skill modifier and properties are very good. It provides better and more creatives gameplay.
  • Galewind Treads : The procs skill is very insane. It could freeze very well and can make the perma-freeze combo on mobs with Night’s Embrace. It is good at it state but still lack of some resistance.

Attachment: DM_spellbreaker_sheet.jpg

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I remember when you first posted this; looks solid now as it did then.

Is there a reason you went coldstone over seal of the night?

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Add more detail. The rest of video will be upload later within 12 hours.

Thank you :slight_smile:

I don’t use the skill granted from Seal of the Night, but I use Coldstone’s aura.

So coldstone gives me about +25%cold dmg and aura gives +75% cold aura dmg = +100% cold dmg. (flat cold dmg in the same case too.) = more bonus than Seal of the Night

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Bonus for coldstone is that the aura add flat cold damage to both weapons.
On the other hand, seal of the night gives +3% OA

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I suggest to max Shadow dance , stack it with Eel and full Deathmaker set.

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Video update. All information has been added

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Hi, just a quick question, i’m really new, what attributes do I go? Do I just put it all in Physique?

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Can I level this up and effectively play it without all these legendaries? Or rather, just work my way into the build?

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Hi. Could someone please explain why the dual wield nightblades generally don’t take other WPS than execute? Are belgothian’s shears, amarasta’s quick cut and whirling death not good or do they stack poorly or what is the reason? Thx :slight_smile:

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Mostly Physique and you could all in physique or spend like me in grimtool.

I’m sorry to say this is a gear dependent build. That’s mean it is not recommend on playing straight follow up to the guide, but need to fix something to suit your current character the most.

You may leveling your character up follow my advice. IMO playing like caster is less gear dependent. When you’re ready to farm legendary find party or random join at crucible dlc.

I won’t say generally, but if you met someone playing SS(shadow strike). Major dmg come from SS(and mine have Oleron’s Might too).

So we won’t do normal attack much(because we’ve fast cooldown). Skipped those WPS to spend the points else where or just put only 1 point in each WPS is fine either.

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I leveled my cold damage melee Spellbreaker as a melee from start to finish. Level as a spell caster might give you a false sense of security. Imho it is better to get used to the hit and run style early on. The legendaries allow you to survive longer in melee range while with lesser gear you have to learn to properly choose your target for SS and then kite around and keep your MoE and BB for the oh shit situations.
Pump at least 50 points into physique, more if you feel you need it. You might need some points in cunning and spirit but I advise to keep it to 5-10 points respectively.

If you feel the need for some added ranged, get Blade Spirit and Phantasmal Blades with 1 point and add the Falcon devotion this helps at least in veteran and elite.

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Thank you InkOsk132 for updating one of the best build ever seen in GD imo.

How would you consider switching from 1H non-mythical weapons to a Lvl94 Soulrend well-rolled?
I’m getting a headache trying to find some upgrades, but for now no luck except for the boots and a non-mythical version of the gloves. So i tought Soulrend could make the farming easier…also didn’t get any ring from Alkamos after over 30 runs :mad:

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wait
multiple -% resist stack now?

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Soulrend is 2H. I’d recommend to use dual 1H instead(It’s necessary to procs Belgothian’s Carnage relic).

Anyway mythical legendary is an optimal choice. You could use non-mythical (lv75) instead.

my suggestion on other 1H are typical cold weapon like : Beacon of the winter’s veil, Olexra’s Chill, Shard of Asterkan etc.

About the rings. You can use lv75 or 94 variation. I farmed them at first release and get lv75 rings about 3 pairs in about 2X runs(drop rate was fix several patches later). The only way for now is keep farming SoT or wait until devs fix drop rate.

Regarding to this thread.

These are what I call each kind of resistance reduction(RR).

XX reduced … resistance = flat RR (don’t stack)

  • XX% … resistance = stackable RR
    XX% reduce … resistance = amp. RR (don’t stack)

The calculation apply like the link above. It always like this since old patch.

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How solid is this build without the set? Will it still work alright for farming with just random +cold/pierce legendaries or do I really need the full set and gear to make it work? Obviously it’ll be a lot weaker but I just want to be sure I can farm my way up to BiS gear relatively painlessly.

I should add that I’m very new to the game and this’ll probably be my first character. I leveled another character to 100 already, but I’ve heard its going to be hit pretty hard by the devotion proc nerf on Seal of Blades. This build looks exactly like something I’d enjoy, as I typically play bursty mobile characters in ARPGs.

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Without the set.

  • You’ll be lacking of some skill points : Spend the skill wisely. Try to learn what is more/less important then fix it to suits yourself
  • Different resistance configuration : Depend on what you’re wearing. If you can’t get all resistance to 80, take the upper row resistance to 80 or take whatever match your farming place to 80 first.

Anyway, deathmarked piece is considered as the last thing you should find.(Other legendaries can shine themselves. but DM need 4)

Another easy to find weapon is Loxmere’s Frostblade from Loxmere mage at Plain of Strife(Star monster, not 100% spawn, spawn spot I knew before the expansion)

Closing
I don’t know how weaker it will be. It is good if you could kill things fast, better if you’re not squishy. Before the expansion, I prepared most items for this char from farming crucible dlc with my sorceress long time ago.

After the expansion release I also farmed for lv.94 items at crucible and trade anyone I farmed with. Some items don’t get significant buff. So using lv75 isn’t bad. Plus, I farm in campaign of new expansion and got somethings while testing&fix the build too.

MIs like alkamos’ loots have the same name in lv75 and lv94 variation. If you got new one you can use it with old one too.

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i dont have the expansion so i think i dont have all devotions avaiable, any replacements on quill and murmur?

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I suggest you could follow Elementoid’s Spellbreaker thread for leveling or take this old setup with cheap gear : http://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9q3LVj

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Possible variant on the build

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BoGADV

Improvements: Significantly more OA, more crit damage, more flat damage, marginally more resist reduction, more DA (original version is lacking DA, will get crit by basic enemies), more armor and more physical resist. 12/12 mirror. Capped stun resistance.

Tradeoff: 2k less hp, fewer passive circuit breakers.

Overall it will be taking smaller hits, killing things faster and will have mirror up much more often to supplement the lost Ghoulish Hunger and Turtle Shell. I will again emphasize that this version is MUCH less likely to get crit and heavy hitters i.e. Iron Maiden can full to zero you with a single crit.

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Thank you for your suggestion. I think it’s better than my old offense setup. I’d add it instead.

Actually, the defensive build is design to be capable to fight Grava’Thul. Who hit like truck and hard for medium-lower armor char to deal with. I tried with several setup including your kind of devotions.

I understand ghoul-behemoth-chariot-turtle may be too defensive, but they’re necessary to upheal and gain life more than usual because new nemesis are brutally hard even we have good dodge+fumble. We can’t count on only ADCtH while we can sometimes miss and dont have enough armor. As you see in the video I can sometimes facetank him depend on non-miss Attack.

About old stats, with that amount of DA, HP and defense like that it can solo gladiator crucible. Never had issue about getting crit from Iron Maiden or even Fabius with notch bone. In vanilla, pre-xpac I could kill maiden at 12 sec. So she is far from being my trouble :slight_smile:

PS. Sadly, Swampdweller don’t have mythical version yet. I used it too since 1.0.0.6 before get good Solael-Sect and Really Great pants proc is attractive to me. So I pick it instead.