[1.0.4.0] An obvious Octavius build for reliable 150-170 farming, no MIs required

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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1

So with the new waves our glorious tanky DOT meta is back. I find it weird that almost no one talked about our boy Octavius, who was made for that particular purpose: A tanky DOT caster. Zhuugus mentioned his own setup in his thread but I think it deserve a separate one so here we go.
The Build

Grimtools

Devotions:

This part is interesting, we went with a maximum tankiness route using quadruple tier 3 constellations thus having 3 powerful defensive procs:

  • Healing Rain from Tree of Life.
  • Nature’s Guardians with 45% damage absorbtion from Ishtak.
  • Stonefrom with 400 flat damage absorbtion from Menhir.
    At least one of them will pop up most of the time, also with Light of Empyrion we basically get permanent Warcry.

Why Witchblade instead of Tactician?
Tactician seems to the most obvious Octavius but I’ll just quoting myself here:

Granted, I haven’t tried the Tact version myself so feel free to correct me on this.

Gear Choices:

̶-̶ ̶2̶x̶ ̶B̶l̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶M̶a̶t̶r̶i̶a̶r̶c̶h̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶s̶,̶ you may switch to the Judicator rings for more safety…̶.

  • As Superfluff pointed out Myth Black Matriarch + Bladetwister seem like a better choice.
  • Myth Sigil of Bear King is too good (and seems to drop like candy for me), you may put some OP medal there for massive OA/DA but I doubt it can beat it.
  • The Pummeler: 10% Armor piercing is weird however it’s still good enough for killing stuff until you can find an OP mutant bludgeon from the vendor. Actually it yields more sheet DPS than an Earthbound Mutant Bludgeon of Fevor thanks to the 4% cooldown reduction, but I think the + 2 meters range already made up for that.

Skill Choices:

geMr4h3.png691×92

Synergy.jpg

Crucible Performance:

This build can clear 150-170 extra with 2 buffs and no banner in 18-20min. With no extra and banner it takes about 15min. Not going to break any world record but it’s not too terrible I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x1BtS3p518&t

This is with Stonefaced Mutant Bludgeon of Alacrity, after adding Blade Arc to the hotbar. Took 12min with banner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMHrvXcWzNM&feature=youtu.be

Also check out Zhuugus’ version if you are not a lazy man like me.

Some notes on the new waves:

  • Since we hit and run all the time, we don’t have to worry about that fat oaf Kuba, yay.
  • Reaper doesn’t hit too hard, can tank him easily if he doesn’t have any bullshit support, not that we need to though, 2x yay.
  • Alek is weird, sometimes he does no damage, some time nearly half of your health bar disappears, 0.5x nay, 2.5x yay.
  • Grava is retarded, ffs just remove his 52% health reduction attack already, it’s impossible to dodge in the crucible. 1.5x nay
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Shit, hit submit before completing :p:p:p
Also reserved

3

Well you beat me to it. been wanting to post one for so long but always got distracted by other builds.

I don’t know if you need to go so defense heavy with Octavius regarding devotions. it’s part of the advantage of being Dot semi ranged build.

I made a phys/retal hybrid that is finally capable of tanking crucible and that guy needs the defense but you can breathe more

Edit: About the no phys RR on inquis. Deadly aim with proper CDR has 65% uptime. ~25% extra crit is capable of matching dot’s aided by CoF. Ofc CoF has good quality of life

4

Yeah I thought I was a bit paranoid too, beside that I’ve been waiting for a chance to use that devotion route for a while.
Which offesinve route is better in your opinion? Is Fist of Vire worth it or should we go with Oleron instead?

5

I’d go Vire area. Easier to get some defensive stuff too in there.

I love the idea of ishtak don’t get me wrong. That CD on it is a bit long though

Edit: 2x matriarch debuff does not stack. It is considered same source. That is why adding bladetwister is generally better for that

6

Are you sure on that? I think I’ve read somewhere that RR from different items with same name do stack. It’s also a bit stupid that 2x Myth is weaker than Myth + non-Myth imo.

About the devotion, turns out we can freely pick 3 of the 5 instead of 4, interesting https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23wedB2

7

It does not stack. I saw the debate on the forum too and I think Ceno also confirmed it. I knew since long ago that it doesn’t stack from other players and it makes sense since it is essentially the same source. Octavius can do MAtriarch/Twister easily as it has great resists and since you are DoT you don’t need insane overcap.

What has helped me personally in making melee full face tank aside from elemental all min 60 overcap.

Edit: another thing that might help you with devotions on the offensive side is taking Overguard transmuter. 100% uptime due to your CDR is a great thing to have. Othberwise with Spellscourge amulet and ulzuin pact you can get it to ~14 sec CD

-bleed overcap and reduced duration

  • Acid
    -Vitality
    -Aether.

But you can go a bit lighter on these

8

Yeah Bladetwister only offers slightly worse bonus damage and overcapped res, anything else is pretty much the same. Guess I’ll need to update my setup.

9

You can use myth open hand of mercy. % RR and good elemental res, some regen

10

One more FW build, tons of them recently :slight_smile:
Nice one tho.

11

On the mutant bludgen wouldn’t you want “of ruin” rather than “of fervor” sense this is a phys dot build?

12

Yeah ‘of Ruin’ gives a bit better %trauma damage while ‘of Fervor’ a bit better physical damage and health. The diffs are small and I haven’t actually done any testing to see which is better. It’s irrelevant though since I intended to make a no-MIs setup. Zhuugus actually used a Stonefaced of Fervor in his build.

Guess we’ll need to make a Blade Arc build next then, been a while since I saw one and it seems to fit well with the meta.

13

Octavius attack speed is so low that of Fervor can be a Godsend to charge up deadly momentum faster

14

I like it!

Smashing 170 crucible despite all the bullshit they stuffed it with.

Light of Empyrion is far better than Fist of Vire, personal experience.

Where do you see these? Perhaps we’re reading different forums?

15

How so? Defensively Vire offers phys res and armor, relevant dmg. Good proc (reduced dmg debuff doesn’t stack with warcry, and neither does the one from vire). all empyr has are some extra resists, if you need them

16

x1x1x1x2 sent me his bleed witchblade, said it’s pretty good in 150-170.
Haven’t tested it yet.

Actually I’m surprised that there are not too little builds that can clear 150-170 reliably. I already gathered 5 in my thread, have 3 on testing, working on making battlemage and deathknight viable and who knows how many will appear.

EDIT: Typo, witchblade not warder

17

You need Ascendant points for Vire. So it’s Vire+Anvil+Hammer vs Empyrion+Ishtak
I tried both and Empyrion+Ishtak seemed so much better.

18

Well you can get Empyrion + Ishtak + Vire if you give up Stoneform :smiley:
Edit: Wait i’m wrong, can only get Ishtak + Vire + Healing Rain :undecided:, stoneform is better anyway.

19

Any ideas how can i adequately squeeze Targo instead of stupid Crane (while keeping all the major boosts Watcher, Stoneform, Tree + Empyrion) ?

Myth. Boneshatter treads (~110 OA coupled with -70 DA debuff and 30% Slow resists)?

And what is the verdict between:

Myth. Black Math. + Bladetwister

or

Judicator set

or

Myth Black Math. + Open Hand?

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If you want more AOE then consider this: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZwAvwq2. Actually I’m testing this now as Crane is indeed stupid :rolleyes:
For the boots, if you can still keep your res well overcapped then I don’t see why not.