GT
(all comments, criticisms and advice welcome)
(EDIT: build updated with some of the ideas in the comments below. Some details are different than on the one in the linked video.)
Disclaimer: This is so called “g5” build meaning it needs greens to function and it’s quite hard to assemble in legit game.
Inspiration and Credits: Some ideas were copied from veretragna’s Electric Madness build. That’s one of the best no-green totem builds. It proves that adcth can be effectively utilized by lightning casters only through devotion procs. Also, credits to mad_lee for pointing me in the right direction regarding devotions.
Concept and Gameplay: This build revolves around the idea of keeping 5 Storm Totems up at all time. Light’s Defender and some green affixes allow for a lot of tankiness (for a caster). Basically, you turtle up in the seal and smash at the buttons like a madman, trying to slowly move to where the mobs are thickest. Only some nemeses combos - heavy phys hitters like Reaper, Kuba, Grava and to lesser extent Maiden - can hurt and force to leave the foxhole (as can be seen in 170 in the video).
(EDIT: some information removed as it was proved incorrect in the comments below)
Gear:
full Light’s Defender set - core. Dread Mask of Gulgoth isn’t worth it.
Stormstrife - can be replaced by Rune of Elgoloth or the Electrolis gun for more RR at the cost of one totem, oa and % lighting. BiS would be probably Thunderstruck/Runecaster’s Ugdenbog Strormstrife of Torrents but anything with high %lighting is good here.
Groble Sky Effigy - core. Sandstorm prefix is quite vital as LD has no phys res. BiS would be of Rituals/Torrents.
Conduit of the Wild Whispers - core. Best res affix would be acid.
Boots - using random SG here. BiS would be Formidable of Kings.
Belt - I was split between Arcanoweave and Scales of Beronath. Both are good.
Medal - I think this Wendigo Eye here is pretty good here. BiS: Thunderstuck/Tempest of the Dranghoul. Due to lack of good medals for lightning the only non-green option is Tempest Sigil.
Pants - I settled for Barbaros due to lack of oa and phys res. Tranquil Mind comes to mind but non-spamming casters are not desperate for slow res. However, it could allow to wear Ignaffar relic which might be a superior option.
Rings - Kephlat’Zoths sadly give nothing except dmg. After some testing I settled on double Sky Seals for oa/da and maxed Box. Time-Flux isn’t needed here as slow res isn’t that crucial and it’s already ok.
Thanks for reading and in advance for your comments. Also, this is my first real build post so excuse me if there are errors. All feedback more than welcome
I would drop Null field, cause all it does is reduce your cast speed. Not sure if maxing Storm box is a good idea, dmg output is quite low, better max Wind devil, it scale better and there is 3 of them.
OAK skin is all in or onepointer. If you max %armor on LD then its a good idea to max it. Vigor is onepointer, dumping points in mastery bar provide better returns that Vigor. I`d max Steel resolve for crucible, extra racial dmg is always wellcome Not sure if Tenacity worth it, Arcane empowerment scale better.
Not exactly, pseudo pets are treated as character’s own skill, so Hand of Ultos bound to Wind Devil actually heals you. That’s how I made “Electric Madness”.
korsar posted a proof somewhere here, with Flame Torrent bound to Wind Devil, it heals the char.
I didn’t know this build benefited from cast speed at all. I thought the totem was dmg-per-second and maelstorm was on cd. Thanks.
Maxed devils have 122 phys and about 320 electrocute (per one) more than at base one point. Maxed box has 173 lightning and about 100 electrocute more than base one point. Devils are 2-3. Box has da shred. Devils move around. Box has larger radius. Really hard to say lol…
Oak is there for pierce res mostly. Had to choose between Oak or Titan Plating and dropping either the bone or 100% armor absorption.
I am a full supporter of Grim Dawn racism, too, lol
You mean the whole Savagery as oa/da boost or just that extra couple of points in Tenacity?
I tested it again just now. You’re right. You do get heal from Ultos bound to totems or wind devils. Somehow I didn’t notice it when I tested it for the first time. But it seems to be much higher when you bind it to Aether Corruption or am I seeing things?
If you have 3 Wind Devils around, each hitting 4 targets by Maelstrom and some targets by itself in AoE, Wind Devils proc rate is tremendous.
Also Wind Devil is good single-target trigger, 3 WD = 3 hits from WD itself + 3 hits via Maelstrom.
Aether Corruption is straightly worse.
Yes, you’re right. I must have been prejudiced by some opinions I read in the past. I’m changing op and the build. Thanks for your correction and feedback.
Thanks for mentioning me. I watched your run, and it was pretty smooth except you had quite a lot of downtime without Savagery charges. I still think it’s an awkward and inefficient way to play as a caster.
Maybe add 12/12 Biting Cold for better effective OA and less awkward gameplay, like this.
Yeah, I watched the video again and I hardly ever used savagery. Thing is it’s not exactly a bad idea itself. It does work. But it kinda needs good calm piloting. And it was my first time ever recording a run and I was just fucking smashing at the keyboard just to make the run as fast as possible and forgot about savagery…
If used right it could’ve made it like 20-30s faster, I think.
Or, or, or you could just drop Savagery altogether along with Haunted Steel and take up RoH Biting Cold or Chaing Lightning and make build more streamlined
“Ancient Groble proverb: five storm totems better than four.”
EDIT: One more thing, if cast speed affects this thing (which I didn’t know) it’s best to get the conduit with acid res and get restless remains on the gloves (which I should have tried to do even without the acid res conduit)
I think it would be about the same tbh, the build has decent enough DA and with banner OA is mostly irrelevant. I think the OA from savagery could help out if you decide to not do bannered runs, but otherwise you could probably go your suggested route and swap out haunted steel for seal of skies and use chain lightning in place of savagery and reallocate the savagery points to whatever. You’d miss out on the extra slow res though. But the end result would most likely be about the same. But as usual, it warrants some test runs before i can say that with any certainty
Of course. Not gonna argue with that, it’s just that most people usually get intimidated by the G5 tag and all the greens in a build. So it’s always a good idea to have a ‘budget’ legendary build alternative. You did cover gear in your first post but no legendary alternatives for boots and medal.
Just wanted to show that your build works great even without all those greens
But muh stun res and 18% racial damage and OA dips a bit low without direwolf, but yeah. Mostly irrelevant with Vanguard banner
Serious though, that’s also a valid combination, you can do tempest sigil + magelord too. It’s very flexible what to replace the green medals and boots
That would do nicely. Though, would have to give up on 100% armor absorb or the bone to fit it more stun res, I think, or just give up on stun res. Besides, for the green haters, I added a link to veretragna’s build. Also, mercymaker’s purple-ish redo is also very good.
I don’t do GDStash (much) myself. I wonder how this would perform in all double rares…
Not sure if Tenacity worth it, Arcane empowerment scale better.
