I’m currently level 74 with this build and I’m finding more benefit from the resist reduction than I ever got from the Harbinger (used Sovereign Blade for some time myself). Keep in mind that once you get the Plaguebearer’s prefix on your master spellblade, you’ll be looking at 30+ RR, not just the 15 from the base item.
Thank you Thaelyn, I though the Plaguebearer was giving the whole bonus (so a max of 15 with the nerf).
If it’s indeed 15+15 from the prefix then yeah it looks far better 
The posted build uses Primal Instinct, so that’s probably the relic I’d consider optimal for this build.
Pre-nerf it was 25+15 = 40 average, 49 max roll (using the mule-crafting method). Post-nerf is 15+15 = 30 average, 37 max roll (mule-crafting).
Thanks for your helpful reply!
I wasn’t asking if the build was beginner-friendly regarding its gearing aspects, but rather because of the skill required in order to play it. Hence my question as to how you bind your hotkey buttons. I don’t see how a human can do all of that. Won’t you need
- CoF
- Reap Spirit
- Bone Harvest
- Ravenous Earth
- Skeletons
- Blood of Dreeg
- Mark of Torment
- Call of Grave
- Blight Fiend
- Sovereign
all the time? and - Hellhound &
- Raven
at least every now and then? Possibly you’ll want a hotkey for a consumable?
That’s a lot of buttons to be constantly pushing. How do you do it?
I’m not really sure either. I have 2 skills bound to my side mouse buttons and use 1-6 on keyboard for constant button pressing + E/R for potions… And I don’t think having temporary 8 second Blight Fiends is necessary for the build, I just have the normal one going as there are already too many other button presses you must constantly be doing.
im not sure i understand the reason for plaguebearer master spell blade… sry im still fairly new to grim dawn. how do i know if i crafted a good one. what are the stat #'s we are looking for?
The master’s spellblade is in the build for enemy resist reduction (RR). That’s the only stat on your spellblade this build is looking for. The spellblade itself has an average of 15 RR, with the Plaguebearer’s prefix the RR goes up to an average of 30 RR and a max of 37. You, according to the guide, should be aiming for a plaguebearer’s master’s spellblade with 32 RR or better.
i got one 32rr roll and a 30rr… but both for 5sec… good enough or should i be trying for longer duration? i had pretty bad luck rolling plaguebearer’s it took quite a bit to get
I dont believe the duration is variable, so I’d go with the 32 and call it good. I’ve crafted about 275 of them and gotten one plaguebearers with a roll of 31. Sticking with that for now, hehe.
Are there special places where to get the pants and the boots? I haven’t dropped them so far, despite them being green items.
For people struggling with skills(the number canbe a bit overwhelming), I use a macro software provided with my mouse and i do the following: i bind all summons to one button,all attacks to the second, and i put all “permanent” passive skills on the second skill bar.
Doing this way and removing the spirit potion from the skill bar, i have just enough keys for all the skills from this build.
In my case , right click= pet attack. Mouse Wheel:all the special attacks+buffs.
Boots are crafted. The pants are an MI drop available from the Guardian of Bysmiel (one of the boss enemies in the Hidden Path quest line, farmable once you get past them in the quest). The pants also have a chance to drop in Crucible, if I recall correctly.
the ass long summon animation for skeletons and blight fiend is so fucking long you literally wait 2 seconds until it starts attacking something, makes the whole class/mechanic anti fun to play why cant it be like summon hellhound it really cripples the play style of re summoning Skeletons
meanwhile u getting chased down by an x99 movement speed Boss
This guide is missing an essential component…which transmogs do you use? 
I was dying more to missing keys to fire off skills than anything else, so I wrote an Autohotkey script to do the following on Right Mouse Click:
- Bone Harvest - R
- Reap Spirit - 8
- Ravenous Earth - WD
- Curse of Frailty - WU
- Call of the Grave - 4
- Summon Skeleton - 2
- Summon Blight Fiend - 5
The numbers on the right are the key that the skill is bound to.
Basically I now right click to fire off all those skills, and then manually control when to hit Sovereign, as this to me needs to be saved for The Zerg.
When the Fiend and the Raven do die then they’re manually summoned from the secondary quickslot bar, but this doesn’t happen too often.
Here’s the script if anyone’s interested:
Ins::Suspend
~RButton::
Loop
{
Send 8
sleep 250
Send {WheelDown}
sleep 250
Send {WheelUp}
sleep 250
Send 2
sleep 250
Send 4
sleep 250
Send 5
sleep 250
If (GetKeyState("RButton","P")=0)
Break
}
Enjoy!
PS: Might be worth removing the Blight Fiend summon from that script.
Thanks for the detailed numbers ; indeed far better than my Harbinger
You actually have 12 hotkeys you can assign without switching quickbars (10 quickbar + RMB + LMB), and I have the first 10 of your list assigned there (along with Pet Attack and either Attack or a 2nd Bone Harvest on LMB). Theoretically if you eliminate the redundant Bone Harvest and don’t use Pet Attack, you could even squeeze in 2 more skills on your hotkeys without any switching.
Macros and AHK can definitely be a major help for playing this build.
Skeleton resummoning is a necessary evil, since as extensively discussed, it’s impossible to make them sufficiently tanky against endgame bosses.
Temporary blight fiends and blight fiend resummoning is more a perk for improved DPS and improved damage sponges from having multiple iterations of blight fiend. Note that it’s removed in the “simplified” version of the build as described in the Analysis section of the guide, so it’s definitely not “required”. However, for those who can manage the resummoning burden, it’s definitely “better” than having a single blight fiend, especially with TD providing instant full resets to blight fiend CD.
Thanks! I can imagine being able to bind all those keys, but I doubt I have the skill to apply them all correctly (waiting for the best opportunity, taking CDR and possible TD resets into account, being in range, etc.). 12 buttons including mouse is a serious hammer, that’s what I mean by not being beginner-friendly. Hat’s off to you and your skill!
Can someone point me to a link on how to make “macros” and whatever “AHK” means? I am not very computer-agile, I’m just a user and cannot program. Can I learn to make a “macro” without a special mouse software?
thanks tons and sorry if this is off topic, should I use PM?
Download Autohotkey, use the code in my recent post above, and you should be good.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
Autohotkey wasn’t working for me in grim dawn but a bit of googling showed a fix so I’m using the following script which will send Right Mouse button and keys 8,7 and 6 ( currently bound to Curse of Fraility, Bone Harvest, Ravenous Earth and Summon Blight Fiend - will add Reap Spirit later once I have it ):
SetTimer, Monitor, 50
return
Ins::Suspend
~RButton::
Loop
{
Send 8
sleep 200
Send 7
sleep 200
Send 6
sleep 200
If (GetKeyState(“RButton”,“P”)=0)
Break
}
Monitor:
res := WinActive(“ahk_class Grim Dawn”)
If (res)
Suspend, Off
else
Suspend, on
return