So i guess a high level version of this would be great…
Actually, anyone playing this build should check out Mountain Deeps on 20-35-52-70-84-94 levels to get a newer Bonespike. By itself it’s an easy task, but getting a good one will require some farming. As I’ve mentioned before, Deeps is a good place to run anyway since there’s a Treasure Trove spawn points(s), so that’s twice useful run - a dagger and a box.
About affexes I wasn’t too picy and stopped on Eldritch Bonespike of Decay, tho there’s a plenty of other combinations that will do. I’d like to see how good would be [Any decently rolled Vitality Damage prefix] Bonespike of Blight, cuz it’s freakin’ +4 RE.
First off, let me say thanks for the wonderful guide. As others have said, this is probably the best guide I’ve ever seen in any game and I’ve been playing online since Diablo 1. Also a tip of the hat to Bykot for keeping the thread alive. I am a total newb here. I tried a couple other guides before finding this one, but they were not beginner friendly (requiring lots of farmed gear).
So, I just got into act 2 Ultimate. On my way to Mountain Deeps (still using a 212% Bonespike from Elite), a Pandemic dropped and boosted my flat dps by quite a bit, but it’s missing the +2 sec duration. As far as I can tell, a blight bonespike is probably the only thing that would top it in dmg. Or possibly a 400%+ bonespike b/c of the duration? Highest I’ve found so far is 320% and it didn’t seem any stronger really.
Also, I was wondering if anyone has tried lvling foul eruption instead of DB. I only have the 1 pt in it per the guide, but it shows the next lvl as having a 3% increase in reduction to enemy’s health. DB’s dmg seems pretty meh, and I’m guessing it’s primary function is lowering health as targets burn noticeably faster after using. At lvl 12, DB health reduction is 20-35%. Foul eruption, if it scales evenly should end up at 43%. Anyone tried it? Ya, it would be useless on a single target fight, but that doesn’t happen very often. I dunno, just thinking.
% Reduction to health is heavily resisted by Bosses. They take somewhere around 92-96% less damage from it.
What Doom Bolt is used for mainly is the high amount of Chaos and Vitality damage it does (namely Vitality in this case as this is a Vitality build). It’s basically a Vitality nuke that is good for chunking Heroes and above.
Foul Eruption as you have mentioned is unreliable in Boss encounters because you won’t get it to trigger on Bosses often whereas Doom Bolt can be used on cooldown over and over, thus is the better investment of the 2. Skills like it that trigger on enemy death do best in dense environments (such as Crucible).
Well, that clears that up. Thanks.
Oh, this will happen far more often in the late game, trash and heroes won’t be a real menace but any Nemesis is an exactly single target fight. I even did kind of “fork” off Cerulian’s build with my own Ritualist (Shaman+Necro, with devotions’ deviations) 'cause running away from Kuba gets annoying despite the reward - I hope three transmuted Storm Totems, RE and swarm’s RR could bury any Nemesis a bit faster and safer. 57 lvl, goes incredible smooth so far.
So, this new Ritualist is a boss killer? How does lvling compare to this Cabalist? Any thread links? I’d like to see your progress, but don’t want to derail. I think this Cabalist is a great first toon for limited farming, but obviously, I’m gonna need a bosskiller in the end. Actually, I guess I should start looking at those end game build links. Have any of y’all used them?
This should be tested yet. Besides, Ritualist would be harder to gear since Blood of Dreeg + AotG is nearly cheating: resistance, burst heal, damage buff and OA in one skill, and losing it is a big downside. Valguur’s set feels like a must have… well, I know what to farm then.
I don’t mean to necro (lol) the thread if it’s not being updated anymore but as a brand new player (to grim dawn, been playing arpgs for 20 years) I have some questions about the suggested leveling progression. I realized I am way ahead of the suggested progression, having cleared malmouth outskirts at only level 51 (Veteran) when the suggested level is 63. I’ve been doing all the quests along the way, and I am wondering if I have essentially missed an area where I am supposed to just stop and farm. Should I have farmed honored with all the factions before progressing to a new area? Just feel like if I am following the guide I must have missed something.
I’m glad to see that I’m not the first to Necro this thread lately. I am wondering if the latest patch has changed anything. This has been a great first character so far for restarting my Grim Dawn collection for characters to come. Can anyone add or suggest anything that should be done differently now that there has been a major rebalancing or did the changes have little to no effect on the build?
Apart from the general question I am also wondering if I should still place most of my attribute points into Physique? If not what other layers of defense, if any should I aim for?
Not: The only faction I would bother with farming on veteran is Rovers. Their augments are quite useful for your jewelry, weapon and offhand. I did it just by picking up bounties as I progressed naturally through the game, with one extra hive queen run. I am actually a little ahead on level for where I am in the storyline, but I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you… I did do the Rogue-like parts of Steps of Torment (with a bounty on the boss.) Apart from that, if you could find a way to post your quest log I might be able to tell you if you missed anything.
I ended up questing out my last couple quests and it got me close to 60 at least. I seem to be progressing fine in elite. My resists are a bit lacking in the poison area so every once in a while I get one shot but yeah. The build is holding up so far.
Put more in Aspect of the Guardian and keep Blood of Dreeg up at all time. That should cover your need for poison resistance.
I’ve played this build in 1.0.5 and it still works as intended at the time of conception. It’s reasonably tough enough to survive Ultimate with just faction gear thanks to absurd amounts of lifesteal, but it’s essentially a stone wall that sacrifices attack power to have endgame-worthy defenses even when undergeared. I’ve switched to a more offensive build with Dying God and Aeon’s Hourglass after I farmed full Dark One’s set from the Lokarr quest Edge of Reality and got a decent amount of legendaries to go with it, and never looked back since.
I’m aiming for this aswell, how long did it take you to farm a complete Dark One’s?
Holy Hell was this build a surprise!
Took it all the way to Wave 134 on Aspirant till I run into Z’s shotgun with a toon level 40 w/ no fancy gear.
Just drop RE on yar feet, spam CoF and laugh at the mobs dyin funny.
Tbh Z did the same to me, too busy with Moose to notice old fa**ot creepin behind ya.
Not too long, drop chances are pretty high and the route is rather short, takes some windup time to complete the quest, but once the portal’s open it stays open. So all you need to a character strong enough to handle edge of reality - enemy density is high and there’s some dangeorus environmental hazards. It took some 10-20 runs to get a full set, and I managed to also get a full Lokarr set from the ideal.
May I ask what devotions you got rid of from this guide? I’m a new player but would like to go down the path you took once I’ve farmed a Dark One’s set myself.
I am really enjoying this playing along this guide. My toon is in Ultimate Arkovia now and is kicking some serious butt! “Only” two deaths so far (one of them do aeather ground…)
I have been searching around for items I have gathered up so far, and I have three proposed “end game” builds, which are all the same apart for the Doom Bolt skill. I just wanna use “basic” components at this stage.
I also don’t wanna use Solael’s flame due to QoL (another button to push)
Version with Doom Bolt
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b2835ayN
Version with Sigil of consumption instead of DB
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RVvKnkvZ
Version with Bone Harvest instead of DB
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2MDjElN
Not sure which one will turn out best in the end, I am not to crazy about DB since you have to aim 
I mainly want to go with shield because I think it is safer than offhand, but I might use Mythical Padala’s will ( https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8640 ), Mythical Edrick’s Backscratcher (https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/9347), Mythical Virulent Maw (https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8641) and adjust devotions according the original guide.
Components in Rings will most likely be switched out to Corpse dust.
I also have a green belt with similar stats as the belt in my GT links, but with +6% armor instead of health and a bit more +% vitality damage.
I was also wondering what your opinions are regarding the weapon, Pandemic ( https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8535 ) vs. a Bonespike ( https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/2074 )
More damage per RE or longer uptime (more active RE at once), what would be preferred in crucible?
Thanks in advance
My guess is he did something like this:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pKXn6N
Hi there,
Awesome build so far. Any chance you could give me some suggestions for end game items? For example the Dark One’s set? =)
Huge props for the detailed skill and devotion walkthrough, but the gear section seems very questionable.
Why use that dagger over a bonespike? There’s no way you wouldn’t get a single one dropped by playing through the campaign. If the gear section is only meant as a backup plan for pieces that didn’t drop, maybe it should be mentioned more explicitly?
for bonus health and defensive ability