[1.0.2.1] The Immortal Retaliator - Avenger of Cairn Tactician (Full Tank)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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81

I can’t think of any ranged mobs that pose a threat to a tanky character at all; they all tend to do significantly less damage than their melee counterparts. It’s really a matter of whether you bother to kill them or just ignore them. It probably does speed things up a bit but I don’t know if I’d classify it as making it easier; it just makes it less tedious.

What happens if you try to join a game without the mod is my question? Since it’s altering the base game’s dll, will you get some kind of version mismatch or will the ranged retaliation just not work? I don’t want to join a game with a friend or something and have my game corrupt or, worse, theirs.

82

I had to put 83 points into physique to even be able to wear Thornhide Legguards. Also Grimtools say you have 330 + 701 physique somehow … i have 714+395 … No idea what im doing wrong.

Edit: OK. I just noticed i didn’t have component on legs …

83

Not just a bit. A lot faster. The retaliation works like a reflect due to this mod, so they damage themselves all the time instead of only when Shield Wall is up. It’s a significant improvement over the standard, I hope Crate will get notice about this and imp[lement the mechanic themselves.

I will test this today, I hope. Were really busy recently, so didn’t have the time to reply.

Don’t worry too much about it. You really can’t trust Grimtools on item’s stats, since all of them are variable in-game. That’s why I said to improvise to improve your resistances etc.

84

Where’s Valbury Trio kill? Also, 1st mistake - there are no assassin blade in any build. 2nd mistake - there are no inquisitor word with 2nd synergy in any build.

p.s blademaster retailation is better:D

85

Why bother with retaliation? With just mythical dawnbreaker set and nothing else you’d have 10k-50k retal, but also Counter Strike going twice a second. So instead of boosting retaliation, it might worth going for boosting CS damage instead.

86

Hey, new-ish player. This build looks great but I’ve never used Retaliation before and don’t know how to level this character up. I’ve been using Blade Arc so far and I’m getting into Act 2. Have no idea how I’m supposed to switch to Retaliation. Leveling guide or a brief idea would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

87

Valbury Trio can’t be killed with this build. And I suspect you know full well why. All three of them are casters, which can’t be retaliated, and they also have high health regen.
This build doesn’t, in any way, need Assasin’s Blade.
This build doesn’t, in any way, need Arcane Empowerment.
This is not a build focusing around actual damage. And fuck no, BM retaliation is abomination.

Why bother coming to the thread of retaliation build and asking this question?

>10k-50k retal

Also, in case you haven’t noticed, CS is maxed in this build.

Hello. You can read some bits of leveling guide on previous pages. You can use BA or FW to level up, then you can already change to RET starting from level 35, providing you have enough rep with either Homestead or Devil’s Crossing, where you can buy their green retalition faction gear. Don’t forget about Serrated Shells as well.
Afther this you can use Perdition Set, then Dawnguard, before going for actual items.

88

In case you haven’t noticed, the full set allows for CS to go off twice a second. Sure attacking everyone in radius when someone lands a hit is better than waiting for everyone to hit so they could kill themselves. And makes the build more functional against ranged enemies. Your quadrillion pure retal damage doesn’t mean shit if you have to skip white mobs because you can’t kill them.

89

Yeah, and? This isn’t a CS-focused build, it’s a retaliation build. What are you doing here?
The lack of ranged retaliation is actually the dev’s fault, not the players, since we should have some form of it. And even then, it’s easily mitigated by the fact that you can edit game.dll and fix the problem yourself.
I never have any problems with white mobs, so I dunno what are you on about here. The only problem right now RET has are casters. And even then, only some heroes and bosses pose problems, while this build still boasts unmatched immortality against any enemy.

90

Valbury Trio can’t be killed with this build. And I suspect you know full well why. All three of them are casters, which can’t be retaliated, and they also have high health regen.

Okay, understood. It seems, that your build can’t pass the final test so.

This build doesn’t, in any way, need Assasin’s Blade.
This build doesn’t, in any way, need Arcane Empowerment.
This is not a build focusing around actual damage.

Do you know, that assassin blade and 2nd synergy of inquisitor word with reduce resistance will greatly increase your retailation?

And fuck no, BM retaliation is abomination.

That’s funny. You said that one of the best combos for retailation damage is abomination. That makes no sense. But why my abomination killed valbury trio then?:undecided:

P.S. Maybe you’re tactician spec, but you aren’t retaliation spec, that’s for sure.

91

So if this build can’t finish one dungeon, it’s not viable at all… is that what you are trying to say? This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read today on these forums, congratulations!
By the way, this build can easily respec to Auramancer and destroy Valbury.

Except RET is calculated as a completely separate source of damage in this game. Good lord, you don’t even know what you talking about.

A class, built for specifically as high raw damage as possible is the best for retaliation… oh my God. Where the hell did you come from, dude?
Any viable build can kill Valbury, I already told you why mine can’t.

I for sure know, that you know nothing about how retaliation works in this game. Now please, leave this thread along and try somewhere else.

92

Nice build!

93

So if this build can’t finish one dungeon, it’s not viable at all… is that what you are trying to say? This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read today on these forums, congratulations!

Just put your words to you

This guy gives no fucks to anyone

Except RET is calculated as a completely separate source of damage in this game. Good lord, you don’t even know what you talking about.

Tsk-tsk-tsk. You can’t even recognize your mistake. Just take 2nd synergy of word and test on practice. You’ll be surprised.

A class, built for specifically as high raw damage as possible is the best for retaliation… oh my God. Where the hell did you come from, dude?
Any viable build can kill Valbury, I already told you why mine can’t.

Yes, it is best for pierce retaliation. Blademaster is best for pierce retaliation, Witchblade is best for poison retaliation, warder is best for elemental retaliation and Death Knight is good for vitality retaliation. Don’t look on things in flat way. There are so many ideas that work, think widely.

I for sure know, that you know nothing about how retaliation works in this game. Now please, leave this thread along and try somewhere else.

No, you don’t. I take some screenshots as my argument and i’ll see what you say after all.

P.S. You can’t even take constructive critic about your build. When i point to your mistakes, you just got mad.

94

I see no connection between two citations you demostrated. Specify your concern.
But well, let me explain myself, if you can’t think for yourself. The gives no fucks bit of OP relates to the immortality factor this build provides. And it does exactly that. Your point is null.

Take your own advice.

Once again, retaliation is calculated as a separate source of damage, which doesn’t benefit from usual damage multiplicatives. I’m not gonna repeat myself.

If you can.

If by constructive you mean not knowing anything about RET mechanics, than sure, go ahead.

95

I’m back.

Without veil of shadow.

With veil of shadow.

With veil of shadow and assassin blade.

96

As a Retaliation Tank main myself, this is statement is a bit unfair, to the person who made this build. Like Squib’s Warder Retaliator Build, this concept, like most builds in this forum takes it’s concept to its absolute efficiency. That is to say, that does create some weaknesses for those builds.

It is a known fact to every Pure Retaliator Builds that we will never be able to kill Ultimate Avatar of Mogdrogen (stalemate) and Valbury (Stalemate) due to the bosses outhealing your damage and not triggering your main source of damage. It’s either you adapt to the situation by re-spec’ing to a Hybrid to compensate, which is easy to do or skip their content entirely.

In my case, I sacrificed Half of my Retaliation damage to spec out of some standard retaliation devotions and get off standard retal gear, build ~ to 2.3 OA and, some attack procs and a fully built Cadence Line = ~ 25-40k in DPS. >>> an eye-sore to any Retaliation Build. Given that I gave up 100k+ of retaliation damage to build up a pathetic 25-40k DPS, this was enough to outdamage Heal Bitch Salazar and the Valbury trio though. Ultimate Mog is just on another level and I’m too scared to try…

Most Pure Retaliatior Builds can easily hit 150-250k damage consistently but only to melee. Tactician’s With it’s inherent kit giving free Elemental Retaliation (3 damage types) + boni according to this has the potential to hit 300k+ w/ the BiS gear. That’s in itself is amazing. and it can clear ~90% of the game’s content.

It’s pretty retarded to conclude that the build “fails” the final test, given that it’s one of the few builds atm that can Wipe the floor with Ultimate Ravager with ease.

  1. Did you know that you still have to be hit in melee for Retaliation to take effect???
  2. So even if the enemy’s resistance goes down, if the Retaliation never procs you get 0 damage… GENIUS…
  3. Valbury Boss is Caster. It in most likelihood will not/rarely hit you melee… GENIUS…

You saying you are a BM Pure Retaliator makes you very suspicious already. Given that Blademaster amplifies the well-rounded melee capabilities of a Soldier giving you easy access to increased OA, reduced resistances and damage% bonuses through the roof only from you skill kit, which most Retaliators naturally have no access to; you are most likely a hybrid Retaliator with a pretty potent melee attack damage. Enough to offset the healing regen of Valbury bosses.

However, if you are a pure retaliator and you claim you have cleared Valbury Ultimate without melee attack or proc damages, I’ll call you out on bluffing. Either you are using ranged retalition mod, an edited game file, or plain lying out of your ass. Post a video on the 3 bosses in Valbury fight in Ultimate here and make that claim again.

  1. you stand still
  2. you’re mouse should be on the boss showing it’s HP and status… at all times during the fight.

Freakin trolls disrupting the peace on a good theory build

97

It’s pretty retarded to conclude that the build “fails” the final test, given that it’s one of the few builds atm that can Wipe the floor with Ultimate Ravager with ease.

Yes, you are right. Range enemies is our weakness, so i rush to judge.

  1. Did you know that you still have to be hit in melee for Retaliation to take effect???
  2. So even if the enemy’s resistance goes down, if the Retaliation never procs you get 0 damage… GENIUS…
  3. Valbury Boss is Caster. It in most likelihood will not/rarely hit you melee… GENIUS…

I know that retal works only in melee. And when their resistance goes down from veil of shadow, inq. word or assasin blade, doesn’t matter, they begin to get hit from you harder than without resist reduction. About Van Aldrich, i wrote in beginning. I kill him only with full cadence, and this isn’t easy, because of that i’ll never go to valbury until get my final equip, otherwise their “Come forth” will pursuit me in my nightmares.

However, if you are a pure retaliator and you claim you have cleared Valbury Ultimate without melee attack or proc damages, I’ll call you out on bluffing. Either you are using ranged retalition mod, an edited game file, or plain lying out of your ass. Post a video on the 3 bosses in Valbury fight in Ultimate here and make that claim again.

I can’t, but i think that death knight can do it as reflector, not retaliator. Need test.

Freakin trolls disrupting the peace on a good theory build

I only go mad because of “retaliation blademaster is abomination” and “reduce resistance” not affect retaliation damage, that’s all. My apologies, if my words hurt someone.

P.S. That’s a great build, but this can be better, now we must consider about to get points for inq. word or assa blade or both with higher AR for trigger assa blade.

98

Okay, guys, calm down, please.

I was wrong too. I actually had no idea RR can work on Retaliation, I thought, it was completely separated as a damage-type. Not only it enhances things like WPS skills, it also enhances RET damage, I just went from 294k to over 400k in testing. Like, holy shit, it’s actually working.

I again, must apologise for my rudeness and for my rushed judgement. Halbu built a pretty strong Hybrid Retaliator, which can actually work quite well. We already talked on PM, and I explained the situation.

As the leveling guide is ALMOST ready, I will make some neccessary adjustments to the first build, maybe to the second one too - MQ will be killed faster, with greater efficiency. Not too much however, since I stand still on my opinion of immortality of this build - it would remain as solid as rock, able to withstand the deadliest blows.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

99

Hey Autentist, how you doing? (Great guide btw)

i share with you a especial interest in making tactician builds only (tactician kinds of remind me about Paladins, in every game i try to play as paladin or kind of Paladin playstyle)

Do you think your build can handle Lokarr? (im trying to kill him atm, i want to get the set for my GF, so she can level up faster).

Thank you.

100

Struggling with toothache, not for long I hope.

Yeah, this is the same reasoning for me. It’s the closest class to paladin in GD universe, that’s why I love it so much.

It 100% can. The problem with Lokarr, though, that he is more of a caster, even if he has some melee attacks. With a little tweaking I’m currently doing, I hope to beat him much faster, while facetanking everything.