How do i “apply” the macro, where do I go and how.
Do I need to apply the macro everytime I start Grimdawn, and is it removable ?
Thank you
Gogga
How do we handle aggro ? How do we approach fights ? Blight Fiend is mostly the first thing i cast and then I actually wait a few seconds before casting my other spells i rarely use ravenous earth because the risk of getting run over by the Monster horde is far too high but its the only tool which manages to Summon enough Swarmlings in an decent amount of time but then again the fight is already over if they finally manage to reach their target and good luck trying to repositioning them with that movement speed.
Boss fights on the other hand are where they shine but then again if i even dare to cast Blight Fiend under an boss he goes crazy on me
my current setup right now: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2Gl6wjV
It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s not nearly as impossible as it looks either. Some of the hotkeys are simply buffs to be periodically refreshed, which can be easily automated with macros/AHK:[ul]
[li]Call of the Grave[/li]
[li]Blood of Dreeg[/li]
[li]Sovereign[/ul][/li]Others are CD skills that don’t need to be targeted and can simply be spammed in the general direction of the enemy. You could either macro these or simply mash buttons – I like to put a couple of them on mousewheel and simply roll the wheel up/down in combat:[ul]
[li]Ravenous Earth[/li]
[li]Bone Harvest[/li]
[li]Summon Blight Fiend[/ul][/li]That means there’s actually only a handful of skills that require specialized handling:[ul]
[li]CoF - No CD, huge AOE, and long duration, so simply cast as necessary when new enemies show up. If you watch the Gladiator video close, I tend to randomly cast this a lot when everything else is on CD, just in case I missed an enemy somewhere.[/li]
[li]Reap Spirit - Needs to be targeted, but the actual target doesn’t matter. Hit any enemy with it periodically to maintain the wraith; in fact, random trash works great to get occasional kills for bound spirits.[/li]
[li]Mark of Torment - Must be targeted on boss/hero for best effect.[/li]
[li]Raise Skeletons - This is the only skill that really benefits from actual thought and timing, but you could also simpify it by just re-cast this on CD or even macroing if you want.[/ul][/li]
Two main ways:[ul]
[li]Facetank with Twin Fangs. The key is to keep all enemies on one side of you (i.e. don’t get surrounded), and then drop RE in the middle of the pack so that Twin Fangs continuously fires and pierces as many enemies as possible.[/li]> Example: Gladiator Video @1:35
While cleaning SW spawn of wave 145, I get simultaneously hit by enemies from north and east of my position. Notice that I immediately back away to my southeast to keep all enemies clustered together on my north, while dropping Ravenous Earth and other debuffs on top of all of them in the same direction. This allows Twin Fangs to keep me alive and for pets to quickly tear them apart thanks to debuffs. It looked bad for a split second, but thanks to quick response I was actually never in any real danger.
You can see this again at 2:35 in the Gladiator video. For the massive spawns at wave 148, you can see that I once again kept moving to the northeast (kept moving to avoid ground damage) while dropping RE/debuffs on the massive cluster of enemies to my northwest. Again, it have looked risky, but there was no real danger since enemies couldn’t flank me due to pets hemming them in. As long as you use smart positioning/movement to keep enemies together and avoid being surrounded, Twin Fangs (combined with Giant’s Blood, BoD, good DA, etc.) can easily keep you alive.
[li]Use pets to bodyblock pathfinding. Enemies won’t do much damage to you if they can’t reach you. This is especially effective with choke points - places like Malmouth are full of them, making battle management easy for pet builds.[/li]> Example: Gladiator video @ 3:30
After quickly assassinating the first nemesis, I deftly drop back behind a choke point and easily hold position while my pets kill off everything else. You can see enemies spinning around impotently while trying to reach me even as my pets quickly tear them apart. This uses the same principles as “keeping enemies all on one side” per above, except also using geometry to further reduce incoming damage.
[/ul]
The key is to avoid trying to “manage aggro” by holding back - “aggro management” reduces DPS and significantly increases risk by increasing battle length and allowing enemies (especially bosses) to switch aggro to you unpredictably. High DPS + smart play >>>>>> low DPS + aggro management. Instead, you’ll want to:[ul]
[li]Take control of the battle immediately.[/li]
[li]Grab as much aggro as possible so that enemy movements are predictable.[/li]
[li]Keep enemies together to maximize debuff coverage and Twin Fangs healing.[/li]
[li]Use pets to disrupt enemy pathfinding whenever possible.[/li][*]Keep fights as short as possible.[/ul]Remember that pet builds especially reward smart tactical play!
Would you say Bysmiels Domination is better then Deathchill?
And if so what makes Primal Instinct better then Bysmiels Domination?
And thanks for the build…currently at 87 and almost done with Ultimate campaign with CRAPPY gear!!! =)
DaShiv is spot on with last post.
I’d particularly like to single out how accurate his “aggro management” point is. Stealing aggro can be risky on some summoners but not a proper necro summoner. It’s incredibly effective to be “in control” with the proper summoner build because you are not kiting to stay alive as primary concern. You are kiting to kill mobs effectively and quickly and staying alive is a byproduct.
True with trash and true with big bads. If they are fighting through your summons to get to you, you basically own them.
Occasionally I like to play aggro swap with certain enemies (MQ comes to mind) because they’ll get stuck flipping backwards and forwards as they retarget between you and a summon, which not only brakes their damage output but can play havoc with some of them in regards to their aura/attack cycle. Meanwhile your summons are steadily chopping them to pieces.
It takes some practice/observation but you’d be surprised what you can pull off with pets when you master enemy aggro. (Record your own crucible sessions an watch them afterwards. You’ll be surprised how well it works on improving your skill to criticize yourself.)
For a cabalist, yes - cabalists have lots of other sources of flat damage, so a pure flat damage relic like Deathchill or Eye of the Storm is comparatively less valuable than for other necro combinations.
Here’s my take on it from the Analysis section of the guide:
[/li]
In short, Primal Instinct has:[ul]
[li]Higher average DPS[/ul][/li]Bysmiel’s Domination has:[ul]
[li]Higher peak DPS during proc[/li]
[li]Higher summoner defense during proc[/li]
[li]Lower DPS when off-proc[/ul][/li]
Hence my summary in the Equipment Notes:
That said, you can easily substitute Bysmiel’s Domination for the extra defense until you learn the build better, then switch to Primal Instinct for better and more consistent DPS.
Yes - you can see this in action in the Mad Queen videos for both the Night King and the Skelemancer, that it’s actually safer to stay closer but keep all the pets between the boss and yourself. If you try to be “safe” and back off, you’ll actually separate yourself from your pets so that if the boss breaks free, they can suddenly charge at you without your pets next to you.
The best way to play with pets is to stay close, stay aggressive, and stay in control.
Hi Guys
Runned my necro with just skellies thrue veteran.
Want to start elite now but cant decide on build and second mastery,and how about devosions…
I love a pet build but i dont want me or my pets die fast.how about reaper?sound Nice to!
Hope to get some advices
Why only 1 point in Will of the Crypt? If the point is to convert vitality damage to lightning, WotC adds vitality AND elemental damage :eek:
The build was posted in version 1.0.2.1, where there was no flat Vitality damage given to WoTC, where flat damage is far more important than percentage bonuses (since this build already has 3,000% Lightning damage); instead all of the flat Vitality damage was in Raise Skeletons, so the build focuses on placing all the necessary skill points into overcapping Raise Skeletons.
DaShiv is currently working on a build version 2.0 where he will determine what is the proper point allocation to place into WotC to take as much flat Vitality damage as possible. Since the physical into Vitality conversion loses DPS during the Glyph procs, I’m guessing he won’t place too many points, but he’s the one doing the number crunching and spreadsheets, so he’ll come up with the optimal number.
Thank you for clarifying on the conversion stuff, DaShiv. I didn’t realize the conversion from WotC was that ineffective compared to item conversions.
im surprised physical to vitality wouldn’t be a buff, since we’re converting almost all vitality damage to lightning, wouldn’t every little bit help? that would convert up to 35% flat physical damage to vitality, effectively making even non-vitality dmg pets pitch in with lightning damage.
Also i’m assuming your 3000% figure includes every +damage with every buff overlapping, so that wouldn’t be up all at once most of the time.
Conversion only happens once, so physical damage that is converted to vitality does not get converted into lightning. It simply remains vitality damage. That means that when the Glyph proc activates, there is less physical damage that gets converted to lightning, hence the DPS loss.
Is there a simple stat priority to use while leveling? Im quite new to grim dawn and feeling abit overwhelmed with all the stats on items.
Do I need to find a blueprint for that dagger? I don’t see it at my blacksmith. Or perhaps a certain level, is it 65ish? find it then make a mule ? Thanks for taking the time to make such a detailed guide though, having fun so far!
DaShiv mentions earlier in this thread that Mantle of Mogdrogen (the lvl 94 version) is now better for damage than the Mythical Mantle of the Patron. I killed Mogdrogen on ultimate, got the level 94 version of the mantle and it seems the pet stats are far worse than the ones listed on the Grim Tools web page. For instance the lightning damage to pets mine gave was a mere 12 flat, with the % lightning modifier being 70.
So I injected about 20 more lvl 94 Mantle of Mogdrogen pieces into the game with Grim Dawn Stash to test if it had a large roll variance and that maybe I’d just gotten unlucky. Doesn’t seem to be the case, they were all 18 lightning damage to pets or less. Is Grim Tools wrong, did the Mantle get secret nerfed, or am I missing something obvious here?
This is a question for anyone if someone has these shoulders or knows about them, thanks!
I’m doing okay in Ultimate but horrible in Gladiator Crucible. I’m fully decked out except my relic (still stuck with Deathchill) and 1 handed weapon (a green Warden weapon with +1 to skeleton limit) - do those make a huge difference? I haven’t gotten the recipes for any good Necro relics or the recipe to any Spellblade sword.
Is the Dread Armor of Azragor better than Necrolord Shroud - the shroud would give me 1 extra skeleton (11 instead of 10) and raise WotC to 6 instead of 3. But Azragor’s buff sounds much better.
Yes - all non-faction blueprints are random drops/quest rewards.
Grimtools misrepresents certain item bonuses by +40%, including the vast majority of pet bonuses. For the level 94 Mantle of Mogdrogen, the actual in-game flat damage bonus is 12 to 18 (avg 15, i.e. 21/1.4).
For consistency’s sake I use the Grimtools values for all my calculations rather than actual item rolls – it’s simply far too time-consuming and error-prone to constantly make manual adjustments, and the differences will almost never actually impact any build decisions. However, this is one reason why my Max Pet Damage Calculator consistently skews a bit higher than actual in-game values.
You’re actually not very close to being “fully decked out” at all, since those are probably among the 3-4 items that most heavily impact DPS in the build. For starters, your RR is probably terrible.
For most build threads (including this one), you’ll want to post a Grimtools link of your character if you’d like to receive useful feedback on your specific itemization. There are simply far too many variables without seeing the Grimtools.
Also - soloing Gladiator is generally reserved for fully completed characters, unless you’re playing a stupidly tanky build where better items simply help you clear faster. You should stick to solo Challenger or MP Gladiator if you’re still short on gear.
Again, entirely dependent on the Grimtools for your build. For example, v1.0 of the Night King has a completely different use of the chest slot to hardcap Raise Skeletons, so it’s hard to make the same comparison for your character.
Thanks once again, DaShiv. Pretty happy with the Mantle of the Patron but it would have been nice to have an excuse to use the Mantle of Mogdrogen since it’s relatively hard to get and lightning themed but oh well.
I’ve been soloing Challenger to get more blueprints that I really need to finish the build, not too much luck so far but at least I’m filling in those I’m missing so the necessary ones have to drop sometime.
Edit: I decided to go with the Dread Armor of Azragar for my character and I finally got a Spellblade… However, I still feel pretty weak versus some bosses in Ultimate and Challenger Crucible level 130-150. Does the relic make that huge of difference? I couldn’t even put a dent in ultra bosses.
This build looks a lot of fun, and what a fantastic, comprehensive guide. Kudos to the OP.