[1.0.3.2] 2H Firewave Commando - The Gift of Korvaak

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Build

Original (Wave 150)
No Greens - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zKJddV
With Greens - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNk1MeBV
For Ravager - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoWvlGZ

Wave 170
Initial 3 green version - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV150xPV
Goal 5 green version - http://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26AMrON

Videos

Original (Wave 150)
No Greens - Crucible Extra Spawn Wave 140 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxrLyWR9OZE 4:07
No Greens - SECRET BOSS SPOILER ALERT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPYwxaTJAM&t 1:31
Ridiculous Gear - Ravager of Souls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FipUE458M&t 5:36

Crucible is done with 2 Blessings and 1 Banner.

Wave 170
Initial 3 green version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0J2JbJgWr4 13:27

Gameplay

Purge your enemies with flaming Forcewaves while wielding a big weapon. It can smoothly clear most content without green MIs. Kiting is needed for tougher crucible waves. Greens are needed for Ravager and waves 150+.

Keep BWC on Iron Maiden and don’t forget Shar’Zul’s Wrath for large crowds.

Thermite Mine bounces off enemies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMNTM2GKebo. They can also bounce off your feet. So if you want to improve your play, consider paying just a little more attention to placement. With the default camera angle, the mines deploy in the same general direction:

Gear

Original (Wave 150)
2 Combustion Bands = 20% chance. However, you want to overcap resistances and the Invoker’s Burning Hand helps with that.

Greens to consider are the Solael-Sect Legguards, Living Ring, and the Stoneplate Greaves. I’m using greens with the of Kings affix (for stun) but you can also look for Thunderstruck or General’s.

I put 10 points into spirit in case you don’t have gear that gives you spirit (see pants).

Sigil of the Bear King does proc off Forcewave if the enemies are in melee range. Also, the Internal Trauma damage gets converted to a burn. You could also consider Mark of Divinity for HC. You can consider Blood Sigil of Ch’Thon (non mythical) for the human damage in the crucible. Iron Maiden is (was) our worst nemesis so it helps put her down.

Arcane Spark or Ectoplasm if you don’t like using energy potions.

Wave 170
We need greens that give more health while maintaining our other stats. I also switched to Traveler’s Boon on the rings for the slow resis and armor. There are several really nice affixes but I prefer Light Bringer’s for the casting speed.

Leveling

You will probably be doing mostly physical damage with some fire damage as you level, but it depends on what weapons you find. Either Kymon or Order of Death is fine. However, we like Korvaak’s power so pick Kymon :).

Skills
1 point into Forcewave
1 point into Tremor
Max Forcewave
Max Flame Touched
1 point into Blitz
1 point into Rending Force
Max Field Command
1 point into Internal Trauma
Max Oleron’s Rage
Max Temper
1 point into Blackwater Cocktail
1 point into High Potency
…

Devotions
1st Rhowan’s Crown (requires Crossroads, Quill, and Hawk)
2nd Chariot of the Dead
3rd Solael’s Witchblade (requires Jackal or Viper)
4th Ulzuin’s Torch (requires Scholar’s Light)
…

Gear

  • Casting speed on gloves
  • New greens drop at about levels 35, 55, and 70. If you need a weapon try farming for the Troll Bonecrusher (troll boss in East Marsh or Smuggler’s Pass) or the Obsidian War Cleaver (big Chthonians with axes). Or craft the 2H maces with blueprints from Kymon’s Chosen.
  • In order to cap resistances, my components usually look like:
    Helm - Runestone
    Chest - Sanctified Bone
    Shoulders - Silk Swatch
    Pants - Silk Swatch
    Belt - Antivenom Salve
    Gloves - Restless Remains
    Boots - Mark of the Traveler
    Amulet - Aether Soul
    Rings - Frozen Heart and Corpse Dust
    Medal - Black Tallow
    Weapon - Purified Salt or Imbued Silver

Ravager

[spoiler]The Ravager build gives suggestions for gear with greens that include 1 rare affix and 1 magic affix. You can also use greens with 2 rare affixes if you are lucky.

Basically, you want anything that will reduce the amount of physical damage you take and help give you health. Most of the damage you take will be physical but there are 3 versions of Ravager. I fought Souls so overcapping Aether helps. This is also with 30%+ ADCTH.

Now you need the potions:

These are the buffs that will last the entire time. The fight will be over in 450 seconds one way or the other…

5 different Royal Jelly potions
Spiritbane (or similar) - help overcap Aether resis
Elixir of the Ancients, Ugdenjuice, and Ugdensalve - too expensive to make, only use if you can get Ravager to 50% health without them

Temporary buffs that you need to alternate:

Slithblood Tincture - 10 sec duration, 75% fumble
Courageous Tincture - 30 sec duration, 10% DA, 20% Armor, it has a long cooldown so save this for when it gets mad
Hungerer Oil - reapply every 25 secs, 8% ADCTH, this is the only cooldown icon you need to watch besides your skills. Or, just spam it every 5 flashbangs.
Cursed Tincture - 6 sec duration, -5% Life Leech resis
Aether Cluster - I don’t like to farm these, so I would only use if it is close to dieing
Arcanum Oil - for energy

Stay calm and figure out which cooldown you can use next.
[/spoiler]

2

Updates:

  1. Thermite Mine tip

  2. Removed Fissure devo for more OA and updated greens. They should be easier to get.

  3. Patch 1.0.4 - Crucible and gear update. Cinderplate Girdle is supposed to give 50% pierce to fire now (it was in the patch notes but I don’t see it yet). We have to be tankier now. Skills and devotions were also adjusted.

  4. Added better leveling suggestions

3

Looks like Dranghoul is the new meta bois.
Cool concept though, I didn’t see many Worldeater builds around here, maybe people got tired of it (and Souldrend), such a shame :smiley:

4

Was hoping to see someone post a Firewave Commando eventually :stuck_out_tongue:

Your build looks good, your no-MI setup is fairly similar to the one I’m using (Phys/Cun have since been rebalanced since this version though).

It looks like yours is overall more defensive with capped Menhirs Will, Ghoulish Hunger and higher Health/DA/Armour/ADCtH.

How is Fissure doing for you? I only ever see it used on Burn builds and less so for Fire.

5

Here’s my version, http://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlMxEoZ
I also cleared Crucible Gladiator with that build! 2 blessings, no banner!
–> https://youtu.be/_RYtSgsp27w

My devotion set-up would be an upgrade to your devotion :stuck_out_tongue:
All the same, except I also go Kraken
Gear is a bit different too

It’s a really fun build to play! :smiley:

6

I tried fire-based Forcewave too. But i should say, without Sharzul’s Worldeater (i dont have it), it isnt impressive at all. For me, it was like a weaker version of physical Forcewave, sadly.

7

I’m not too surprised really. My impressions are that Physical damage is generally better or more consistent than Fire is.

8

Wow, thats basically the same build :). I don’t think I would survive crucible without menhirs will and ADCTH

I don’t do a lot of burn damage so maybe I should rethink Fissure. I went to that tree for the cast speed and I think Fissure also can shotgun enemies.

Agree. I’m still trying to get 1 in HC.

I do usually pick Kraken on my 2H chars but I’m not sure I agree with it here. I’ll check it out while thinking about Fissure.

It is a lot of fun!

9

I have a toon with the same idea and almost the same implementation, bug I tried to use FS as aa replacer, with cd forcewawe as a nuke. I felt forcewawe is a terrible nuke, max what I saw it crit was like 30% more than my FS crit. I don’t have that good MIs, though. Will try the non-cd forcewawe probably.

10

Why convert to fire damage? Physical is MUCH better

11

“Korvaak lives?”

hHWGev8.jpg563×720

R.I.P preferred playstyles :stuck_out_tongue:

P.S

Good build heathen :slight_smile:

On the topic of Fissure it’s good for AoE trash clear but for Burn and Crucible I think Phoenix Fire is superior and also because Phoenix’s nodes are superior to Magi’s

12

With the right mods and sharz weapon, not really.

13

Thanks for sharing your build, i’m too using a Worldeater Forcewave Commando and it’s really similar to yours. Here it is:

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoWp7dZ

*Way less health than your, but 25% damage reduction from War Cry, Giant’s Blood and Wayward Soul and a bit more of Phys Res help for this.
*Resistance are over maxed: this can be a bit of a waste, but gives you more defenses against enemy’s RR.
*I have been a bit lucky with the 2 greens (thanks for the good people here on the forums) but replacing them with a M Legwrpas of Tranquil Minds and M EarthShatter Treads should be enough.
*Less RR but more critical damage: imho all the OA and DA reduction this builds can offer is a bit wasted if crits don’t hit hard. So i’m using the 15% crit damage node from Kraken and other gear (plus Rending Force skill for FW). One could even use Seals Of Destruction for 6% more crit.
*Double Blitz: because moving fast is cool. And blitz with Justice set skill modifier is not that bad.

I haven’t tried on Crucible, i think he’ll need some buff for survive later waves. But on main campaign is really good. He has a really good clear speed and movement speed (double blitz), and it’s not impeded much (freeze, slow, trap, stun res are above 50). It’s excellent for farming particular stuff and running Rouge like dungeons. He facetanks mad queen and kill her in few secs despite having a -25% life leech res, the hardest enemy for him is Lokarr, you have to be more careful and kite a bit. Ravager of the lost (i’m enemy with Barrowholm) shouldn’t be underestimated too when enraged (that thing hits like a truck); i still need to test him on Grava.

For those who don’t have Worldeater, M Stonefist Rebuke can be a good temporary replacement imho. DPS will not suffer too much (all phys damage for forcewave will be converted to fire thanks to medal and Justice set), you’ll lose phys/fire conversion (useful for other skill/auras/procs), +%fire damage and the awesome Worldeater skill, but you’ll gain some DA and a lot of Phys Res, plus some points and range for Forcewave.

14

Ask Zantai to buff Fire then:D

15

Mostly because I found the Worldeater :D. I will have to try out MortalKombat’s build.

Lol, I am a heathen. I better stay away from Superfluff.

Also, thank you for the devotion suggestion.

16

Sorry for the slow response. I wanted to do my due diligence by looking at each variant posted.

I like how Evil_Baka used only 3 nodes of Kraken. I also like the Cinderbelt for the extra 40 flat fire damage but opted to still use Ulzuin’s Torment.

Vastator had great points too so I put a point in Blitz and added more crit/OA. I didn’t want to spend the skill points for WC when I have High Potency though. I don’t think Giant’s Blood has much synergy with this build because I have low health regen. So, I still opt for lots of ADCTH.

I also tried some Phoenix Fire variations too.

Despite having less health than before, this is what I settled on for now.

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zKJddV

I had no problems in crucible without greens. I could still handle double Maiden with kiting. Runs take less than 20 mins.

I also updated the greens to be easier to find. And by using a green belt, we have a much better Ravager kill although it is slower at 7 min. The greens used for Ravager were chosen to have 1 rare and 1 magic affix. We look for anything that gives armor and health.

17

As a new player I really appreciate this thread. I started out with the intention of doing a Demo/Soldier 2 Pistol Gunslinger build but early on I found 2H Rifles to be a lot of fun and so I stuck with it.

I have a few questions if that is okay.

  1. Where should I place most of my skill points in for the Soldier class as it is my secondary choice?

  2. How many max skill points should be invested in Soldier?

  3. As much as I love the play style the attack speed I have been noticing is starting to become an issue. I haven’t really found much at this juncture. I am between Acts 3 and 4 (I didn’t know how to find the Conflagaration until I started Act 4). When will attack speed items begin to show up that provide better AS?

Thanks much.

18

1 and 2. There’s not really much for soldier for 2h ranged except for Cadence which requires you to abandon Fire Strike which I don’t recommend. I recommend just putting it on the mastery and get some points on the passives Military Conditioning, Markovians and Zolhans if you like it then Decorated Soldier and Scars of Battle if you need it. later on you can add warcry

3 and 4. I assume you’re at the 30-40 level range. Watch out for items with Alacrity suffix. The best versions of that suffix start dropping around level 35 so you can start finding them. Most good attack speed items are legendaries though, so you won’t find them until level 50 and most of those are at level 75+. That said, 2h really has low attack speeds. Even endgame builds usually have 140-150% with a few exceptions. Get Kraken devotion to help a lot with that.

Also, this is a Forcewave spam thread, which scales with cast speed so it’s not surprising that you won’t find anything about attack speed here.

19

Why, thanks so much for your quick reply; much appreciated. It clarified perfectly the answers I was looking for. I didn’t know that is how Cadence would affect my Firestrike build. I’ll just go ahead and respect those points. I chose Soldier for defensive. I’ll certainly do more studying of this game. The nuances are almost endless in number.

One other question if you don’t mind. Besides Kraken what other Devotions do you believe are essential?

20

Does Rhowan Crown’s proc stack with BWC? They are both flat RR.