[1.0.3.1] Korba's Trickster - No Tricks, just cold hard dps. 18s Dummy, No buff gladiator cruci etc

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Before starting - Special thanks to JoV for initial build idea and world peace.

This is the 3rd DW melee build in my GD: Ashes of Meleebuilds TM series. This is by far the highest single DPS build out of them killing the dummy in 18secs. The philosophy is similar to belgothian: have enough defense to kill them before they kill you.

This build is based on Korba’s frenzy helm with cold conversion DW savagery to take advantage of night’s chill + lethal assault, large amounts of electrocute dmg in the shaman tree are also converted to frostburn as supplemental damage. The build excels in single target dps, with moderate aoe capability. And a massive amount of resist reduction: elemental storm, wind devil, night’s chill, rumor +20% amp from viper. You also have massive crit dmg and lvl 14/8 execution - with good rng bosses disappear faster than they spawn.

Call me old fashioned, but in an era where saboteurs resort voodoo magic and blademasters turn to such blasphemy as Physique, can’t we sometimes use a little bit of the reckless abandon that once defined DW melee? (translation: take off that MoD you *****!)

[v1.0.3.1]Video: Gladiator Crucible 140-150 normal farm. 3.5min run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBC0L7ba5g&feature=youtu.be

[v1.0.3.1]Video: Gladiator Crucible 140-150 no tribute Buffs, no banners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCvqj9vN7vw&feature=youtu.be

Challenge mode for build testing. got it on the 3-4th try i think, somethings that you will just die to when playing without tribute buffs - 2x maiden+fabius. sharzul is very manageable with blizzard shotgunning and cold damage.

PROS:
-mad deepz

CONS:
-everything else

(jk its reasonably balanced build, but does share the same issues as non S&B melee in general, need to dodge stacked ground AOE, and shotguns etc.)

GrimTools http://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQ9bl8N

Gameplay:
LMB: savagery (devotion ability - elemental storm )
RMB: shadowstrike (devotion ability Rumor)
mousewheel up: ring of steel (devotion ability whirlpool)
mousewheel down: amarasta’s bladeburst
middle mouse - pneumatic burst
keyboard 1 - wind devil (devotion ability - blizzard)
keyboard 2 - pneumatic burst
keyboard 3 - bladebarrier
keyboard tilde - heal pot

shadowstrike in, cast wind devil. and hold LMB while scrolling mouse wheel up and down to use ring of steel + lethal assault buff.

you have a decent amount of frostburn damage, so you can kite a bit after a few secs of uptime if needed. while continuing to cast wind devils -> they will chase enemies and proc blizzard on them, which does quite a bit of shotgun damage against bigger enemies.

When u get chunked, ghoul will proc if its off CD for near 100% lifesteal and extra IAS/phys resist, so its often favorable to stay and manfight. In accordance to the berserker ethos, often times running is more likely to get you killed. However, do shift a bit to move out of stacked up aoe on the ground.

[SIZE=“2”]Gearing: (everything Mythical unless specifically stated otherwise)
Medal: in accordance to the national society of berserkers - mark of divinity is strictly disallowed… jk, use it in cruci by all means. I used it on the no buff challenge run. and DPS medal on the run with buffs, the dps medal gives about +10% damage, and MoD isn’t really needed with buffs if you are not careless.

Gearing is fairly flexible - you can use green rings to cap resists (psn+chaos) as they can spawn really high single resist nonrare prefix, like 100psn and 55 chaos with just a purging/ordered. if you use green rings, you can combine with Silver sentinels shoulders to get more damage.

I used alkamos rings so i needed zantarin shoulders for resists. (the purple alkamos rings are likely better but i didn’t have a full set so i used blues, which are quite decent as well.)

on MI -> ugdenbog dagger is super strong item that is very easy to farm, with -10% extra resist on the aura and easily 450% cold dmg, per grimtools im using a pretty mediocre one, if you have a good one you will do alot more damage than me.

components/enchants are depended on your gear rolls to cap resists, if resists are capped extra goes to 3% hp.

Shaman tree does not have naturally high OA while the build has massive crit dmg, so you want to gear for at least 3k OA. part of the reason i went for the blue alkamos rings.

Leveling guide:
see post #2

[COLOR=“DarkOrange”]In closing:
Overall the build preforms even better in campaign compared to crucible - due to many highly cold resistant bosses in crucible such as fabius,maiden,moosi, ?zantarin. As it excels in single target dps and requires minimal setup and will destroy campaign stuff very very quickly.

Cruci is very anti melee however, we compensate with pure dps. and with buffs, the build farms cruci very comfortably but you still cannot be reckless like with an S&B build and must move out of stacked ground aoe and be mindful of shotguns.

In campaign however, where boss fights are 1v1, this is one of the fastest/most fluid farm builds i’ve played, as it can burst near instaneously
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reserved for lvling guide

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Hah, so the blue rings can help capping freeze resistance, interesting, Moomoo has been my main concern in the Crucible since this build does surprisingly well against common tough guys/gals like Iron Maiden or Anasteria.
Great build as usual, I wish it could’ve used not so many MIs though :slight_smile:

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unfortunately there is simply no reasonable pants/boot for vast majority of builds :frowning:

silver sentinel is good for acid conversion if you can cap resists with rings. the chillstrife is very easy to farm for a half decent one

the other korba axe is unfortunately complete shit , i mean theres no way to hybridize cold and bleed. really pathetic flat/% dmg on the axes too, its almost like a vanilla item. if you compare korba axe with deathmark weapon, its like the same stats except less lol…

alkamos rings isn’t an requirement -> you can get more points in phanstasmal armor + the elemental weapon component aura. frostborn chillstife gives freeze resist as well if you have one. last resort is frozen heart in rings:(

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Nice build. What’s sheet DPS with Savagery charges, LA and PB up?

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Have you tried Bane of Winter King yet? Single target dps seems to be nuts since it’s pure cold all the way with no unfortunate conversion.

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Good to see a Trickster build here that doesn’t suck since they tend to suffer from bad OA/DA due to their available items.
I like how you solved it with that Torch/Viper and some MIs with OA.

It’s also really cool how you used the Shaman relic instead of a NB one with cold damage %, the converted damage on the toggle is really strong.
This is a really likable build.

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The next will be Trickster (starting with its shitty class name)

I was looking forward to explanations on why Trickster is a shitty name.

You disappoint me, mortal :mad:

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“A Better Tomorrow” is the name of the film

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Is the conversion only applied to base savagery lightning damage or also to other flat lightning damage added to overall output?

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What about a two handed version? How much inferior should be?

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I was theorycrafting Korba’s Trickster in Grimtools, but in the end build turned me away because of how shitty forced bleed/cold synergy is and how hard is to farm rings for this build to work (and I decided to turn my leveling Shaman into a Vindicator).

But you are thinking out of the box here, just 3 Korba pieces and new MI dagger, simpler rings, no Primal Bond for damage absorption, no Wendigo Totem, just pure offense, same idea that is behind most spellbreakers builds - kill before you get killed, and it works. Great job!

I am very curious about the Relic choice tho. Why this and not Nemesis?

Also very curious to see how this build holds up against Kupa and Grava. I am guessing Kupa would be not that hard, but Grava tho…

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I know you wanted as much OA as possible but wouldn’t you rather use Mythical Heart of the Mountain? Or you forgot about it?

You get bonuses to both classes, nice chunky flat Cold and %Cold + Frostburn damage plus attack speed.

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Yeah that one is a huge dps boost for DW, I don’t find ~100OA from Beronath makes that much of a different either.

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great idea about heart of the mountain, definitely overlooked that one.

ya i needed OA bad so i went with beronath without thinking, but OA can be made up elsewhere, as i was already thinking about swap components to the cold seal which is 3% OA each. so i can weap swap without rebuffing if kiting is needed. the skill might be worth while in special situations also…

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You must have dreams with chillstrife daggers by now:p

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i think 50 hours of pure janaxia and larria so far. at least this build 2 shots them now.

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I forgot to mention about crit damage, im not overlooking at that but i think your setup is pretty sweet and wouldn’t mind loosing some OA/Crit damage for more fire power(cold in this case :p).

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never tried grava. but kupa is very easy now.
also any build that can do gladiator , let alone without any tribute buff, will roflstomp any campaign content. save for gimick fights like ravager that require specific setup.

i hear grava is only hard for range; i suspect we can blow up grava in the duration of an MoD anyway

we have enough crit dmg, losing it on beronath is ok. ironically if not using mod we will go below +36 lightnign overcap without beronath and will have to use an enchant slot for it.

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I’m so used to kiting Moosie since all of my builds are ranged/casters and lately I’ve been toying with cold ranged characters. He’s really the only one that gives me problems aside from Maiden who closes the gap so damn quick.

I’ve always wanted to try melee builds but they bore me to death. I might try to convert an older ranged Trickster into this to see how it fares.