Only managed 324K for my retaliation build. Overguard and Shield Wall increase block recovery to 99% and damage blocked to 10.5K. When I had full 93 points in Physique, had 2994 DA and never really higher then 75% chance to be hit. Too forever to actually kill anything with them missing so much lol.
I’m done with Kupacabra. I can’t take this shit anymore.
The fight with him is absolutely retarded to the point of being comical. Now get this - I can stand in his pools of vomit with zero problems. There were four of them, surrounding me and constantly spitting their shit - I don’t give a fuck. There’s this other problem, however.
The problem is his retarded heal. One I can deal with, two are okay, fucking four? Nope, not as a Retaliator Melee, no sir. The heal is so stupid this is literally a scenario, where immovable object meets unstoppable force, i.e…
No one of us can damage each other, since both of us immediately outheal all the damage taken.
That’s the best part about Retaliation builds. You can tank anything that other builds fear
I’ll test him with my Commando to spot a weakness. Didn’t notice he even had a heal with my Witch hUnter
It’s weird he’s causing you problem I recall him doing plenty of melee damage to trigger retaliation
Except for Rashalga, however. I still didn’t figure out what the fuck is causing her to be on her period every 3-4 seconds in my default setup. After I was done with her shit and rearranged my character a bit, I got 4 kills in a row with no problems, though. Full tanking her too.
The heal comes from those pools he spits out. They heal hard and fast, so instead of usual tanking you have to play a cat-mouse game with him. I managed to kill the big one, two middle ones, but last four constantly healing themselves is a bit too much. Spawning in a fucking mine didn’t help either.
Yes, he hits hard, so reflect and retaliation can sometimes shredd half of his health in a single hit. The problem afterwards comes from him spitting the pools and immediately outhealing everything.
Probably some proc is being counted as a projectile. Don’t worry about it, you’ll figure it out
So that’s what they do.
Well I hope he does get nerfed since he is stronger than Grava atm
The highest I’ve seen is 403k on some Colossi in Malmouth Harbor. Very satisfying seeing his health suddenly shredded off, when usually people tend to kite these guys, and you are tanking them face to face.
They don’t just get murdered before you can walk up to their corpse?
Just kidding with you. 
Very nice build and writeup! I still don’t know if I can ever bring myself to touch retaliation again but if I do it would be this build.
Avenger of Cairn clearing Gloomwald. Those Golems are nuts.
Avenger of Cairn busting through Barrowholm Mine - Naxen Boss.
As of today, this build killed Reaper of Souls! Another Nemesis has fallen to it’s might of Retaliation!
Kupacabra finally destroyed! Holy shit, what an ass!
So now, my testing with this build is finally complete! It turned out to be a marvelous, SMASHING SUCCESS.
Not only this build reaps through Nemesises like hot knife through butter (most of them anyway), it also gives a lot of survivability to stand on the equal ground with the likes of Super Bosses.
When I fist started to make it, my initial goal was to complete the expansion without breaking a sweat, since I’ve seen a lot of complaints and concerns about the difficulty it provides to the players. And holy shit, it was actually true.
Take Ugdenbog with it’s ridiculous poison plants or fucking mega tank Golems.
I’m not even talking about Malmouth itself - it’s a gigantic clusterfuck with tight ass corridors and A LOT OF FREAKING Aetherials all over the damn place. Today I saw a pack of 5 heroes charging me through the portal near Outskirts. Then another three came out of nowhere. It’s bonkers.
So in order to survive such harsh conditions, while maintaining acceptable clear speed was my ultimate goal. I think, it totally succeeded. As of now this build has killed the folowing:
Zantarin - Dead. Shotgunned himself into reflect.
Iron Maiden - Dead. Killed herself.
Fabius - Cut himself with his own blades. Dead.
Valdaran - The toughest of the bunch, needed to rearrange equipment a bit. Dead.
Kupacabra - Ridiculous Boss, who will soon receive a nerf. The most frustrating, annoying bullshit in entire expansion. Dead.
Reaper of Souls - Raped himself. Dead.
Alexsander - Blasted himself. Dead.
Ravager of Souls - First fight with him was a bit tough due to my default setup. After looking through Fluff’s thread, I again rearranged my equipment and this time the battle was much more comfortable. Destroyed.
Mad Queen - Annoying bitch. I actually figured what was causing her to scream all the time with my default setup… then got 4 consecutive kills in a row, finally getting that sweet claw. Also, it’s one of the few melee builds, that can tank her non stop.
I’m proud to call this build a huge testament to the power of Retaliation! The likes of which, in my opinion, are underestimated among most builds.
The professional Nemesis Killer.
The final write-up on the guide will be finished tomorrow.
Have these first!
Defeating Gabal’Thunn, the infamous Madman
Slaying Lunal’Valgoth, the Overgrown Spider
Crushing the Mountain on 2x speed (I was really bored)
Trying to figure out why toad instead of harpy / empty throne, or even wolverine earlier. Care to share thoughts on this?
You will have enough DA from the upper constellations to not worry about your defence, and Toad also provides ADCtH, which can be fairly useful.
No Throne because we have WoR.
Toad also serves as a bridge point towards getting Behemoth… which is used in another build I’ll provide later in full guide.
Harpy is virtually useless for this build. We are not going for damage increase.
I need some info on Ulgrim and Reaper of Souls abilities. I personally am aware Retaliation tanks are not good for gauging an enemy’s actual strength. This is coming from my own Commando and Battlemage. But they’re perfect to observe an enemy’s attack patterns and studying their damage types
Since data on Ulgrim and RoS is the only thing missing from the “Expansion is brutally hard” thread
Sorry, Chthon, I killed Reaper in like 16 seconds, those Retaliation strikes absolutely annihilated him. I can find him again, though, and test for this purpose, if you are interested. I know where he spawns.
Haven’t fought Ulgrim yet, don’t have access to Rattosh Altar due to only testing and not actually playing.
Or you can finally play the game with me already.
I am too lazy these days, after killing the Ravager I don’t feel like playing anymore for a while
I have on profile sitting near Barrowholm and I have to make a choice to be friendly/enemy with them. I can fight them and fight Ulgrim later but i’d prefer if someone just hands me the info at this point 
Oh you lazy ass. But seriously, I’m bored as heck here too. Want to play, but don’t want to do it alone, since my friends can only play on the weekend.
But fine, I’ll fight Reaper later today and include the info about him in the guide. I was going to make a nice little description for each Nemesis on this build anyway.
Atleast you have friends to play with, these days most of us are too busy to even meet. My friends haven’t even touched the expansion, and I basically binged it during my holidays because I knew I won’t have time for it later on
I am glad to see this Tactician though, retaliation is one of my favorite build types. Warder, BM, WB and Commando and now Tactician. It’s really nice
Eh, If you insist. But if you want to play with me someday - just PM me. Since I got my keys on both base game and expansion, I can finally play Grim Dawn as a normal person.
Actually, I figured this was the only way I could do expansion completely untouched. And it worked, heh.
I wonder, though, how will my God of Procs DoT Elemental Full Fire Forcewave Tactician will manage it.
Retaliation was third on my list after DoT build and Devastation build
I want to explore a little more with retaliation but I’m a little burned out after playing this much
Updated the guide. Leveling up section will come up in… a week if I’m not too busy.
Video recording Reaper of Souls will come up either tomorrow on on Saturday.
Looking forward to that leveling up section. Keep up the good work. 
Would you suggest using word of pain early on while leveling?