[1.0.3.1] HC Multi-Proc Lightning Caster - Gladiator Crucible / Facetanking / Beginner Friendly

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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[b]Storm Totem and Wind Devil are one of my most beloved skills and i have always enjoyed builds centered around them.

Their immense AoE and spammability enables a strong stationary or kiting playstyle when needed.
By nature they are not complex to play, quite beginner friendly and non gear intensive to build around.

There are many combos to build around Totem/Devil, pre expansion i have played a lot of Warder and Druid. Post AoM release my current favorite setup that i will be presenting would be Vindicator

Gradually i would also like to showcase other class combos such as Elementalist, Warder, Druid under this thread.

I am aware there are other Totem/Devil focused builds, this is my rendition. [/b]

Different Class Combos

I have played a lot mainly Warder followed by Druid with this setup. My Lightning Warder was my first character that i bested HC Gladiator with.
I absolutely love what Soldiers brings into the table as in sturdiness and durability along with amazing skill set of Overguard and War Cry, procs such as Menhir’s Will and Fighting Spirit.
The biggest downside i felt throughout my playtime was the lack of resist reduction and utility.

With Druid i tried opting out of shield and embrace a more ‘caster’ approach. Arcanist has also amazing skill set of Mirror, Maiven, Nullification, higher crit multipler from Overload and so on.
Although pre expansion it was a lot harder to cap Bleed and Stun resistances in this setup so what Soldier brought into the table back then was a lot more valuable in my opinion.

Vindicator

Inquisitor is just an amazing selection and i love what the class offers in general.
SBoE and Lightning Tether are immense assets and an extra source of proccing.
Word of Renewal line is a valuable source of heal and replaces Scars of Battle along with making resistance capping so much easier.
Deadly Aim replaces Fightning Spirit as a way better option with 100% uptime and provides the invaluable crit multiplier we need in order for build to shine.
Inquisitor Seal replaces Overguard again with 100% availability along with more crit multiplier to stack.

Although i value Overguard to be one of the best skills in the game and i do miss it. Still Inquisitor allows much higher offensive set with way higher crit damage which may be the most important stat in the build.


Grimtools : Click

Gearing

To keep it as beginner friendly as possible i chose not to use any MI’s or rares with nutty rolls.
The build is gear intensive but nothing that needs extra effort and specific target farming to have.

It is up to player’s preference to use MI’s or crafted rares and some spots may use a good MI on it which i can agree.

Alternatives

Mythical Chausses of Barbaros and Mythical Tinker’s Ingeunity can be used together as alternatives to choices in the setup.
They proc often especially in cases of the pants and boost All Damage quite high and nicely. Its great to overcap P/A and Bleed resistances and frees up mandatory component choices.

I have tested running double Allagast’s Stormgem instead of Judicator’s Seals. Sealed Fate is a useful proc, small heal is nice to have although not that easily noticeable but its definitely there. Chunky boost to OA and mainly DA is invaluable has 100% uptime in Crucible.

Allagast’s on the other hand gives a lot of bonus to damage in our direction, overcaps Vitality resistance and when used with Tinkers Ingeunity, pretty much caps Poison/Acid res by default.

It would be a really lucky shot to craft a Conduit of Wild Whispers but if managed to craft with either Storm Totem or Wind Devil affixes, it would be a great addition to the build.

Although i don’t think its necessary if anyone wishes to have more skills points, using Mythical Arcanoweave Cord belt provides +1 bonuses to both Inquisitor and Shaman.

Mythical Spark of Ultos is another amazing option and was my to go for pre expansion release. It boats the highest %damage values for any 1H weapon in the game and almost rivals the top of the top 2H weapons for its % boost. Also makes Wind Devils really persistent and enables having 3 up at any given time.

Alternative Grimtools : Click

Resulting changes grants us more dynamic proc intensive damage, higher %damage and a lot more Armor and Health in exchange of OA and DA loss.

Omega MI Version that i don’t have but if anyones interested : CLICK

- Current Version i am testing : CLICK

Aetherbolt Pendant has a nice addition to overcap elemental res and using it to test more %damage oriented version. Spark of Ultos as i said before is the best weapon choice for pushing %damage. Changed belts to squeeze out more skills points and got an amazingly well rolled and perfect fit Aleksander Chausses for the build. I even thought those are one of the best possible pants for the build and i actually got one from Crucible farming.

Albeit they are still quiet solid and on the higher end, im not too happy with DA/OA shrinking so i can see myself going back to Peerles Eye of Beronath, also for more critical multiplier.

Overall this also is a good version and running pretty good so far minus so energy tightness. Switched Tainted Heart on medal to an Arcane Spark, if it doesn’t cut can even use an Ectoplasm for that.

- Melee Electrocute Hybrid version : CLICK

This is another version i have been testing and it is quite the strong one. Getting high amounts of leech was a priority in this one.
Essentials are similar but now the character takes a more active stance and this one manages to tank the most amount of damage due to high sustain while stacking Electrocute from different sources. I have seen ticks of 240k and bosses especially melt rapidly with this one.
Overall another different approach.

- Full Caster version : CLICK

This is a proper caster variation for people that don’t want to see a shield utilized in a non-soldier combo and as a caster. It completely runs through campaign content but for Crucible, facetanking should be avoided against multiple nemeses depending on the situations. Seal + Wendigo totem enables a strong tankiness combined with the huge health pool but lack of physical resistance is a big minus against certain enemies.
Kiting should be the most effective playstyle in Crucible, even relocating around Wendigo Totem suffices most of the time.

Devotions are slightly changed to focus more on constant proc buffs although i think Bat and Tempest are still valuable as leech sustain and as a damage source, it is easy to respec back into the original setup i suggested with minor allocations.

Devotions

The current setup aims to acquire as many Lightning focused procs as possible along with taking necessary RR ones at that.

When all the procs are on and going in, single target damage is impeccable on top of having massive AoE which is incredibly useful and a must have for Crucible.

Post AoM we finally got ourselves a fully Lightning focus T3 constellation and its an amazing one which also caused an indecision on my part.
Storm Totem attack chains hence synergizes perfectly well with Hand of Ultos but pre AoM i loved binding Storm Totem into Twin Fangs which was a crucial part of my build’s sustain.
When binded to Storm Totem, Twin Fangs proc all the time and a lot which is a quite noticeble sustain when taken off away from it.

I still switch SBoE and Storm Totem between Twin Fangs and Hand of Ultos but ultimately decided as shown in the grimtools.

SBoE can be tricky and hard to keep up 100% because it isn’t a priority on our cast list compared to Totem/Devil followed by Wendigo + Inquisitor Seal.

Alternative Devotion Tree would be focusing on Both Ultos and Hourglass, i centered the devotions around Hourglass pre AoM but with the new changes i find this old tree to be highly unneeded along with Time Dilation.

Videos


HC Gladiator 130-150 Extra Spawn : Click

Facetank Sentinel : Click

Mad Queen : Click

I did 5 MQ attempts at total and this was my least kited, carefree one. It takes 10-12 seconds longer to avoid dangerous shotgun situations which should obviously be done but i wanted to showcase a facetank one.

Port Valbury Council : Click

I don’t really do a lot of rogulikes anymore especially after Crucible become available. This was my first run on HC appearantly and although you need to manage your playstyle since it is never smart to facetank 10 Golems are running to your face but other than that it was relatively a relaxed, easy run.

Alternative Gear Mad Queen : Click

Alternative Gear HC Gladiator 130-150 Extra Spawn : Click

I am planning to record and upload more videos in time.

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Leveling Guide

There are quite a lot of efficient and different ways to level and a lot of players do it in their own way so i’d like to refrain from ruling out anyone else’s leveling choices, if it works for you then go on with it.

In this particular character i leveled as 2H/DW ranged depending on what i’ve found throughout. I used Savagery and rushed Storm Spread as my main AoE and gradually getting help from Wind Devil and Rune of Hagarrad as CC and additional AoE/proc sources.

Around mid 40’s i switched into the end game build’s track.

Pre Level 30 : Click

I’d like to advise another path that i have taken many times while leveling class combos that involves Shaman, since Shaman is the main focus whether paired with Demo/Soldier/Inquisitor, we can prioritize it throughout the leveling process and it more than enough to carry us through.

Start with Devouring Swarm and level it to a satisfactory point that you’ll one shot all the trash.
Move up to Grasping Vines followed by Entangling Vines. I also advise putting 1 points into Briarthorn and Ground Slam as CC and aggro taker away from you.

Note thet energy sustain might be an issue up to a certain point so positioning enemies in a linear way to snipe them with Devouring Swarm is an efficient and essential trick.

Pre Leve 26 : Click

After that you can respec into Wind Devil and Storm Totem as shown below.
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Pre Level 30[/b] : Click

Afterwards we can start filling points into necessary AoE and RR in Wind Devil, tankiness through Heart of the Wild followed by starting on Inquisitor tree and acquiring Lightning Tether.

Level 50 for Vindicator : Click

Level 50 for Warder : Click

After reaching this essential foundation, it is up to player’s preference to progress to the end game build.

It doesn’t require any specific and hard gear to level and works perfectly with whatever found even until late gearing phase since it is not a skill point intensive build.

While leveling prioritize Lightning/elemental damage and health followed by resistances.
I tend to do a full run in Veteran and acquire all factions then breeze through Elite without touching AoM and doing only the essential quests that submit skill and devotion points.
I don’t bother with roguelike dungeons pre Ultimate but if you know what you are doing and knowledged in anything that can shotgun you, rogulikes can be done for farming some gear before changing difficulty.

Keep Poison/Acid, Bleed maxed before venturing into Gloomwald and Aether resistance before Malmouth.
I complete AoM content in Veteran mainly for not having to bother a lot with faction reputation in Ultimate but i know it can be quite dangerous for beginners so it is not a necessity. Not going through AoM in Veteran will only result attention for faction reputation in end game farming which is what end game is all about.

Keep in mind to check all the vendors whenever you are back in any outpost, you can find rares with useful affixes depending on your luck.
These lucky purchases might save your life and carry you for dozen or more levels.

Invest all of your attributes into physique for as much HP and Defensive ability as possible. Spirit is not gonna be a problem for equipping items but just in case to guarantee for late game players can invest 5 points into Spirit which wouldn’t be a problem.

Playstyle is simple and kiting is advised if necessary. Using Storm Totem and Wind Devil for initiation then dropping Wendigo Totem for heal and taking a defensive/kiting stance around it’s radius while enemies getting melted should be the base playstyle.

Devotions

Eldritch Crossroads > Bat > refund Eldritch > Hawk > Ascendant Crossroads > Empty Throne > refund Ascendant > Chariot of the Dead > Rhowan’s Crown > Viper > Primordial Crossroads > Widow > Eel > Ultos, Shepherd of Storms > Solemn Watcher > refund Eel > Reckless Tempest > refund Primordial Crossroads > Behemoth

This isn’t the exact pathing i followed but for beginners this is the most direct one.

Crucible

This build is a solid choice for beginners or first time HC players that want to use this character as their foundation.
This build easily transitions into Aspirant without having any gear whatsoever and more than tanky enough to go through Challenger difficulty without specific or BiS gear.

To test it, i went into Aspirant and Challanger without equipping anything that i haven’t dropped and went on with it until Gladiator difficulty.
I did around a half a dozen Aspirant runs and a dozen Challanger runs in total.

If the blueprint is available crafting an Eye of Storm relic as soon as you hit level 60 will get you miles forward.

With less than optimal, random, faction gear : CLICK

As it can be clearly seen in the link above, general build isn’t hindered with random gear choices and still boasts quite superior numbers overall.
This setup alone can best Aspirant and Challanger if played carefully.

This is a one strong and stable build that focuses on skill choices before specific gear and manages to function well regardless of it.

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Warder

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GRIMTOOLS : CLICK

GT 2 : CLICK

Check Zhuugus’ Crucible Builds Compendium for 150-170 Gladiator Update

Here it is the Warder version of the Multi-Proc Lightning Caster.

Compared to Vindicator, the already enormous tankiness the build already possessed is multiplied by everything Soldier brings into the table.
Overguard, War Cry, one of the best abilities in the game Menhir’s Will are added into our arsenal. Menhir’s will is an invaluable circuit breaker especially when playing HC since avoiding death is our top priority.

Blitz is an extremely useful as an initiator or an escape mechanism when needed. It also is a huge quality of life improvement when playing non-Crucible.

Of course all that big jump in survivability and tankiness comes with the expense of huge Inquisitor DPS possess.
Inquisitor has one of the best DPS potential in the game and the loss of Deadly Aim and Arcane Empowerment through Inquisitor Seal results a chunky loss of %Damage and most importantly Crit Multiplier.
It may go unnoticed but while taking less damage from Eldritch and Ch’thonics, Vindicator also deals more damage to them so yet another slight multiplicative damage reduction and damage bonus.

Biggest loss is SBoE in my opinion. SBoE was one of the crucial sources of damage in the Vindicator setup so the loss of it results in a noticable dps loss and puts us into switching constellation procs a bit.

All in all Warder version is for anyone who wants even more tankiness and completely facetank everything in the game. It may be hard to notice any increase in tankiness since Vindicator version was already heavy tanky to begin with but i ultimately noticed how most things don’t even stratch even in standing in the nastiest debuffs and AoE damage and tanking hordes at the same time.

Gearing

Gearing retains the general lines of the build while having some changes in couple spots. Im a keen user of Mythical Avenger of Cairn in builds that don’t require double skill point boost and needs more OA. Plus resistances are amazing to have but if anyone wishes Mythical Peerles Eye of Beronath is still a viable option but i don’t think bonus skill points is an obligation.

The % damage loss is appearant and to patch that we use Mythical Chausses of Barbaros and Tinker’s Ingenuity. It enables more dynamic proc based damage boost, Tinker’s is mainly for Crucible and also capping P/A resistances.

Biggest change to the build is using a Badge of Mastery. It synergizes and is best when used together with Judicator’s Seals to bring DA and OA to more ridiculous numbers. I didn’t think Mythical Mark of Divinity was necessary because the build is already quite tanky. If anyone wants more HP, another semi circuit breaker and +% max elemental resistance then feel free to keep MoD.

I left the BoM bonuses empty and it poses no hinderance to maxing any skills. I had a +3 Wendigo Totem and +2 Savagery crafted pre expansion and i still use that. Dream roll would be +5 to Wendigo Totem or +3 WD and +2 WC.

Videos

MQ 1 : CLICK

MQ 2 : CLICK

Anyone who pays attention and knows the mechanics of the fight would notice i pushed the general limits and didn’t bother to dodge and avoid anything and tried to showcase how sturdy the build is vs debuff and reflect damage, this is a proper facetank.

HC Gladiator Crucible 130-150 Extra Spawn : CLICK

A bit slower compared to Vindicator due to DPS loss, also the fact that im not used to playing anything else than Crucible of the Dead may had an effect i guess.

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Reserved just in case.

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Really like ur build.
Hope u will post ur druid and warder versions too.

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Unrelated question: Are you Vietnamese? Had some guy shared the almost exact same build to our facebook group a few hours ago. Heh heh

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I like the build. Will level a new toon this weekend to try it out.

TX!

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Where is the best place to find the Lights Guardian set, Elgoloth, Judicators Seals and Beronath items? I have logged a ton of time in AOM and haven’t seen any of those.

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Really impressive and should be super easy and safe to play, great job. Can’t help but wonder if Elementalist with the same gear and stun jacks spam is better or worse. But this build looks like it can kill any enemy, maybe even Ravager, if you run fast enough.

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What would you say you have over this build? http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63461
trying to figure out a good lightning build.

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Well each to their own. I think it isn’t that hard to tell the differences after a quick glance on items.

If you like that setup and most importantly if you think you can actually drop those rare items with the exact affixes sure go for that build, seems good.

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Sorry if this a dumb question. You have savagery and it looks like a melee skill but the title says caster. So i want to check if it is a caster.

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Just to proc Tenacity of the Boar, occasional bit of leech and proccing here and there. It isn’t there for damage :slight_smile:

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And here I was jumping in and meleeing everything along will all my spells! :rolleyes:

By the way… this build is awesome!

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I have been trying to gear my Vindicator for a while now, using a very similar setup but mostly having Rares and a couple of legendaries here and there. Without the full gear, it is already quite strong and I have cleared most content on HC outside of super-bosses (which I have not tried yet to be honest), but toughness is definitely not up to the same level. Your devotions look a lot cleaner than mine as well.

Are you using Viper solely for the affinity or do you feel like savagery is enough to proc the Reduced resistances, to ensure full uptime along with Hand of Ultos? I have been wondering a lot about it.

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TX for the build guide, Currently L31 using a 2 hander. Cruising through everything. I may switch to sword and board in Elite difficulty. In your videos, how do you get your health up to 29,000 in combat? Mogdrogen gives 33% which should put you at 17,000…?

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can u level this using storm box? and word of renewal maybe

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IMHO, even though I didn’t create the build, it’s far better to level as a Shaman. Inquisitor gives you some late game tankiness with inquisitors seal and luxury skills like word of renewal. Shaman gives you stormcallers pact and your core DPS/debuff/proccer skills (Storm Totem and wind devil) Tankiness is availble through mog’s pact and wendigo totem, you can sink some points into those when you feel the content is becoming to hard to survive.

I’ might take 10 levels in Inquisitor before level 50 to get deadly aim since that’s a huge DPS buff.

You can clear veteran like this easly. If you focus on gravy survival skills first you will struggle alot more.

Question to the author as well: If we take the overcap points from vigor and word of renewal we can get after + skills a 6 point briarthorn with 12/12 emboldening presence. You lose a bit of max health and healing and a few % points to third page resists but you gain 33% bleed resist 12% physical resist an extra 58% all damage and 78 OA. The OA and 12% physical resist is huge but I’m wondering if a 6 point briarthorn can survive in ultimate.

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In game with the second version, i have around 20.3k hp. Vanguard Banner + Empyrion’s Guidance and prob due to some HP mutators i reached around 29.3k.

You implement WoR whenever you feel comfortable with your damage and i’d advise you to put some points into that line around mid 40s if you can.

Leveling mainly relying on SBoE you mean? Its not reliable and tricky because you always need a single target to cast it and problem is trash just die without even half its duration, so you need a champion to cast on it and that is always not the case when fighting and trying to farm or level on a good speed.

You seem to be on a good path for leveling, keep it up.

I tried it and unbuffed Briarthorn doesn’t even survive during boss fights in Vanilla and doesn’t see the light of day for more than a couple seconds in Crucible thats why i didn’t bother in end game and presented it as an option.

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You mentioned that… “Deadly Aim replaces Fightning Spirit as a way better option with 100% uptime…”

I never used this skill before, so let me ask:

  • Isn’t there a cooldown of 5 secondes, so uptime of 50% at best?
  • Does deadly aim only proc on crit from weapon damage or also from skills like storm totem, wind devil, stormbox…?

Thanks for taking the time to post your build and answer questions. :slight_smile: