UPDATE 31/07/18:
Added Forcewave Death Knight. Why? Because I can! And if you’re choosing between Krieg BM and DK, I’d recommend you go for DK for now. They were pretty equal back in the day when they were both tanks, but now, as we can change some defenses for damage, DK turns out to be faster. Don’t get me wrong, Krieg BM is still more than enough to stomp the campaign, but in crucible DK shines more.
There is a common opinion that battlemages are inferior. I was such a blind man myself. And then I had the revelation!
First this was a thread only about Battlemage, but since Death Knight also uses Krieg set and is very popular among players I added DK too.
I present you a faceroll battlemage which clears gladiator crucible buffed (waves 100-150) under 25 min without any green MI gear. And he is far from being squishy with a shield (say hello to Overguard and Menhir’s will), Maiven’s Sphere and Mirror of ereoctes.
In case you are a beginner and you don’t know what these mean I’ll put it straight: this is a top tier build that destroys even gladiator crucible which is by far harder that anything in the main campaign. And it is easy to play. And not hard to farm the gear (in comparison with other top tier builds).
UPDATE 31.07.18:
>>>Grimtools link<<< forcewave death knight for leveling (as you level up to Krieg with a forcewave DK and then you can keep it as it is a top build too, Krieg is just easier to get the items for) and gladiator 150-170 (12min with 4 blessings). I’m putting it into this thread as I don’t have time to make separate one.
UPDATE 11.05.18:
>>>Grimtools link<<< death knight for gladiator 150-170, 14min with Empyrion and Amatok blessing
Waves 160 and 170 are now not meant to be facetankable 100% of the time, kite a bit. Fiend devotion is useless for DK, on leveling stage you can invest into Bat instead of Rat and even leave it like this if you sacrifice 1 point from Dying God.
UPDATE 24.04.18:
>>>Grimtools link<<< battlemage for gladiator 150-170, 20min with Empyrion and Amatok blessings
>>>Grimtools link<<< death knight for gladiator 150-170, 20min with Empyrion and Amatok blessings
Important notes. First, DK is easier to level up because you level any of these as a physical-based soldier and DK has physical RR which helps a lot. With DK you should be very careful with Mad Queen: Spectral Wrath is concidered to be projectiles, so it procs MQ’s super balanced aura and she starts dealing insane damage. Better wait till it goes off (when she stops glowing red). You will note that BM has Haunted Steel component: yes, he does need that a lot to sustain HP. DK does need that exact belt because otherwise you will often run out of mana and Arcane Spark won’t help since bosses have stupid mana leech resistance.
UPDATE 05.01.18:
>>>Grimtools link<<< battlemage for gladiator 150-170, 25min with Empyrion and Amatok blessings
>>>Grimtools link<<< death knight for gladiator 150-170, 25min with Empyrion and Amatok blessings
Krieg boiz are back in business! You liked that fancy Hourglass or maybe Spear? Kiss it goodbye! Hug your new best friends now: Menhir, Empyrion and Targo. Battlemage uses Turtle as he needs more HP and death knight uses Ulo since he has no Nullification.
We do need extra 20% physical resist, so at least you should equip Mythical Siegebreaker. Pants are there only for lifesteal, so if you don’t have these change Wrathstone component for Seal of Blades.
For waves 160 and 170 do not facetank all the time, if you see that your HP goes down kite a bit. For example to kill Kuba you have to strike him with Blitz, Callidor and Krieg’s Wrath and then kite to use all these immediately on cd. Always kill Kuba first, otherwise he will heal everybody else and they will never die. Aleksander throws his meteor every 8 seconds, you can counter that with mirror of just be ready to kite.
Here is a screenshot with the biggest reward I ever received for 150-170:
>>>Grimtools link<<< Original version, excellent for campaign and crucible 100-150.
With Deadly Momentum buff up.
Since we use the Krieg set and Mindwarp the closest mastery combination is Death Knight.
Let’s compare them:
Death Knight has such top skills as Spectral Binding and Spectral Wrath. There is a massive aether RR there, so you would think that battlemage has nothing to compensate that. Wrong! We can compensate pretty easily with a massive raw damage boost from Reckless Power and Fabric of Reality. Our ring Albrecht’s Duality even converts half of FoR’s chaos damage into aether! We also have more physical to aether convertion thanks to Reckless Power.
And that’s not all - we are a CDR build (sort of), with Time Dilation devotion resetting all the skills (including defensive ones, don’t forget that). And we add transmuted Callidor’s Tempest to Blitz and Krieg’s wrath (from set), so it’s 3 (instead of 2 in DK) damaging CDR skills that will be reset by devotion!
If you worry that the setup is too offensive and Hungering Void’s +10AS and +40% crit damage are not worth minus 300hp\sec - well, stop worrying right this instant! We are tanky, we can allow that easily. Casually facetanking Iron Maiden+Fabius.
As a result my best time for now in Crucible of the Dead (waves 100-150, extra spawn, +damage, +health blessings, no banners) was…
[spoiler]…22 min! You can see on the picture that blessing I bought at lvl 100 haven’t expired.
Please, don’t tell the devs, I’m sick of battlemages being crap over all these years.
[/spoiler]
Killing sequence:
- Lock targets.
- Engage.
- Eliminate targets. Procedure: attack with Cadence, cast War Cry, use Blitz - Callidor’s Tempest - Krieg’s Wrath (from set). Time Dilation devotion will proc and you can use all the skills again! Then just mash the buttons and use everything on cd. Use Aether Corruption (from component) on tough enemies. If things get ugly use Overguard and Mirror.
- Proceed.
Leveling tips:
-
Level up as a physical-based two-handed soldier, main skill is Forcewave with Tremor transmuter. Blitz is also useful. Better to play with 2-hand weapon for more damage, you’ll have defences from arcanist anyway. In arcanist put 15 points into the mastery and max Maiven’s sphere. Put at least one point into Mirror - it will be your escape button.
For DK version mandatory in necro mastery is Spectral Wrath: it gives -phys resist, that boosts your damage output a lot. All you need in necro while leveling is spectral binding+spectral wrath.
Don’t forget to take War cry and Break morale. Soldier passives are very useful too, so is Menhir’s will (few points there). After that max inner Focus and Mirror in arcanist. -
In devotions first of all take Assasin’s Blade and bind its proc to Forcewave - it significantly raises your damage.
Try to stack some +physical damage on gear.
Here is thread about two-hand Soldier with forcewave, you can learn something from there (devotions for example):
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64706 -
When can you respec into the aether build? Well, Krieg set requires level 94 and a few dozens runs on Krieg, Valaxteria and Terrnox in Ashes of Malmouth (this is still faster than relying on luck in finding other sets randomly). Mythical Mindwarp also requires level 94.
I think most effective is to switch only when you find Krieg set and Mindwarp. Otherwise you will loose too much damage.
When you respec into aether max out Reckless Power and Fabric of Reality for raw damage boost and use 2 Wrathstones to convert more physical damage into aether.
Farming Krieg set:
- Terrnox drops boots, his location: Malmouth Outskirts, in the Burning cellar
- Valaxteria drops shoulders and gloves, her location: Crown Hill
- Fleshweaver Krieg drops head and chest, his location: Fleshworks
Alternative gear:
Haunt relic - very cheap and effective for its cost. It is by far the best option when you already respeced into aether but don’t have the pricey stuff yet.
Mythical Chausses of Barbaros - especially good if you struggle to cap chaos res
Stonehide Kubacabra’s Chausses of Kings - cheesy MI, allows to realocate some components and augments to get more life.
In conclusion:
S&B cadence+blitz build reigns supreme once again! All hail the almighty Soldier! 
Crucible guide:
The hardest game content by far is gladiator crucible. It is also very rewarding: for 100-150 waves of gladiator crucuble you get 8 legendaries and other stuff (including rare MI items). This takes less than 25 min for this build. And how much legendaries do you farm in the campagn in 25 min? One or two if lucky.
Guide is located in the end of post #1 of my main thread:
