[1.0.6.1] DW Physical Firestrike Commando

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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1

No temporary buffs:

Warborn, Battlecry and Fighting Spirit are up:

>>> GRIMTOOLS <<<

Mythical Beronath, Reforged is the core of the build as it converts elemental & chaos damage to physical.

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Gotta figure out what else can i write here.
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At the current state the build is capable of clearing 170 gladiator crucible, which basically was my goal, but too slow. I wasn’t been able to perform two 150-170 runs in a single blessings round, even with the Vanguard banner. It clearly lacks damage and i don’t see the way to solve this problem. A possible way for improving would be by collecting more bonuses to the Firestrike line, especially Brimstone, and Temper. However, as experience has shown, for every item that gives bonuses to these skills there is a better alternative, and it’s still not enough.

I’m hoping to see some new interesting item/costellations options in the upcoming DLC.

Credits: mad_lee for the rings suggestion, and some other helpful advices

2

reserved because i can

3

reserved because why not

4

This 1.0.7.1 not 1.0.6.1.

I tried to make one with physical and fire dw, but didn’t work.

  1. i don’t really udnerstand why u pick hugnering void, since u have only 91 hp regen and 10 lifesteal.
  2. If u really want fire I would go Ortus + justice set. (Tried not worked, but i think still viable.)
5

Well, this is only physical. All elemental and chaos damage are converted to physical.

Hungering Void because it gives speed and, much more importantly, crit damage. Dying God also provides +85 and +3% OA boost, a little bit DA, chaos resist (i have only 1% overcap with good pants roll) and flat chaos damage.

6

Hey, man, interesting idea and all, but if you don’t mind, some advice:

If you are having mana problems, why not use Arcane Spark + Seal of Annihilation? Also, Golemborns add some flat damage thru Temper, I get it, but there are at least THREE pairs of legendary/epic boots that are infinitely superior to Golemborns because of more relevant resists/bonuses.

Relic choice is weird af, if you are not using meteor, whhy even use it? Any Soldier Relic will be better here. 38% Slow res is also kinda on the lower side.

Zolhan is absolutely horrible for melee-DW, just remove it. Not taking last nod in Empyrion is a loss of damage.

7

Hi, mad_lee!

If you are having mana problems, why not use Arcane Spark + Seal of Annihilation?

All i need is to consume a potion and it’s solved! I’ve never been in a situation where i have no mana and potion is on cooldown, so i don’t really mind to have this problem. And Tainted heart also helps to cap Aether resist.

Golemborns add some flat damage thru Temper, I get it, but there are at least THREE pairs of legendary/epic boots that are infinitely superior to Golemborns because of more relevant resists/bonuses

I agree, Golemborn is a very questionable choise. I have Boneshatter and Earthshatter treads. Which epics would you suggest? Dreadnought Footpads? Which boots do you think are the best?

Relic choice is weird af, if you are not using meteor, whhy even use it? Any Soldier Relic will be better here.

It gives flat fire, +%physical, but the main reason is +1 Demo, which helps to overcap FS & modifiers further (i’m also not losing hope to craft one with +brimstone bonus some day), while Soldier relic will allow me to hardcap Break Morale (1% more phys RR) and free some skillpoints. However, as i mentioned, i’m considering the Doom relic, just need to craft it and see how it goes.

Zolhan is absolutely horrible for melee-DW, just remove it

Well, it’s a 3-target nuke afterall. No doubts that it’s much more powerfull with a 2-handed, but it still does 225% WD if the following formula is correct:
Weapon damage * 1.26 (FS) * 1.05 (Searing Strike) * 1.7 (Zolhan)
Is it correct?
And it also procs Explosive strike around each target i believe (is that correct?)

Not taking last nod in Empyrion is a loss of damage

Like in Zolhan case, it’s much more powerfull with a 2-hander and initially i had it, but then did some calculations and it seems that it does ~20k damage every 2.5 sec (if procs instantly after CD). Not so much, imo, considering that in order to get it i’ll must drop either 5% DA in Obelisk, 6% AS & undead racial bonus in Revenant or flat chaos in Dying God. Hm, that last option i actually haven’t considered yet. I need to do some calculations again.
edit: yeah, that flat chaos is ~2k dps, Empyrion is much better

Thank you for the advices!

8

I’d go for the obvious: Final March for aether and slow res or Stormtitans for stun res, ele and acid res. All five are low so it’s up to you. Unless you’re really tight on pierce res and armor but everything else is ok, Golemborn aren’t that great. IMO more slow res would make up for the lost Temper flat especially as your attack speed isn’t stellar as is.

9

I dont think you need Zolhan this much, better drop it for Vindictive Flame or Blast shield. Also if you already capped War Cry, why Light of Empyrion when they are not stacked? 1 points on War Cry is more than enough.:stuck_out_tongue:

10

I’d go for the obvious: Final March for aether and slow res or Stormtitans for stun res, ele and acid res. All five are low so it’s up to you. Unless you’re really tight on pierce res and armor but everything else is ok, Golemborn aren’t that great. IMO more slow res would make up for the lost Temper flat especially as your attack speed isn’t stellar as is.

For some reason i thought that Ulo blessing gives slow res and relied on it. Turned out it doesnt. So i’m giving the Boneshatter treads a run (i have an amazing pair with 35% slow res roll). However, core resists are still meh. Pierce was even undercapped as Golemborns were covering it, but i swapped Topaz for Tainted heart in amulet (+Aether res) and some Aether&Chaos augments for Pierce&Chaos, so it’s somewhat ok.
If i only had 1 more Devotion point i could swap Stag or Panther for Ulo as it gives fire/acid/chaos res. Stag gives pierce though, so probably Panther. I can free one point by swapping Sailor’s Guide for Eel, but not sure it worth it though.

I dont think you need Zolhan this much, better drop it for Vindictive Flame or Blast shield. Also if you already capped War Cry, why Light of Empyrion when they are not stacked? 1 points on War Cry is more than enough.

I’m still not convinced that Zolhan is that useless. If anybody could clarify whether that formula in my recent message is correct or not…
Warcry is way more reliable as a source of damage reduction as it has huge AoE, 4.5s cd and 5s duration, and does not require to be procced by melee attack. Empyrion is just for dmg.

11

I managed to beat 170 (Reaper, Kuba, Fabius, Benn)

Clear speed is horrible - as you can see, almost 3/4 of blessings duration is gone, however mutators were not so pleasant - +40% hp for them, -15% AS for me.

Current setup:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25D9PGN

ingame resists are slightly overcapped due to good rolls (warborn proc is up):

Have no idea how to improve.

12

I managed to beat 170 (Reaper, Kuba, Fabius, Benn)

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Clear speed is horrible - as you can see, almost 3/4 of blessings duration is gone, however mutators were not so pleasant - +40% hp for them, -15% AS for me.

Current setup:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25D9PGN

ingame resists are slightly overcapped due to good rolls (warborn proc is up):

Any ideas on how to improve?

13

Dude, I gave you ideas previously, but you kinda ignored them.

And wtf are those gloves, just use Graps of Unchained Might. You won’t get fast runs with Comando based on melee physical Fire Strike anyway, but you can definitely improve your build quite a bit.

14

Ugh, no, i considered all your ideas, and even wrote a wall of text with my reasoning in response. I did not agree with some of them (i mean zolhan, you can be right of course, but you didn’t explain, and i don’t like to copy or follow anything without understanding), but this is not ignoring.

Graps are better but these gloves cover resists in this setup.
This setup has maxed slow res and more ADCTH, but lower dps and hp. Overall it feels much safer though. I made that run on the first try while with the previous one ( https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23eWQYZ ) i died very often even during 100-150 runs.

15

Just try Black Matriarch + Coven ring. I mean, it’s worth a try. If it’s worse, it’s worse, but at leas you will know for certain.

16

Interesting. Thanks, i’ll try them.

I have a question regarding attack speed/slow. Is the mechanics the same as with resists? For instance if i have 200% AS and 10% overcap (and 0 slow resist), and some, let’s say, person slows me for 10%, how much AS will i have? 200%?

17

I am not sure, but if you have 210% attack speed, then 10% slow is -21% so you will have 189% attack speed. Slow resist is paramount for melee builds success, I would say 40 is a bare minimum any auto-attacker or caster-spammer should aim for, 50-60 is pretty great.

18

This is a kind of a mix between the two prev setups and the 2 new rings suggested by mad_lee. To be honest, before i tried those ring, i expected a large dps loss. Well, i was wrong - dps loss was rather small - ~5k, which by itself already worth it because of additional -10%RR in the Matriarch ring.
Moreover due to provided relevant resist & DA they allowed me to preserve gloves and pants from the 1st setup and 6% additional ADCTH & almost maxed slow res from the 2nd.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BwDKrV

max resists are actually 80 (vitality 83) (shown are bigger because of some ugdenbog buff). Warborn & battlecry are up:

I had to kite Kuba & Grava & i dont remeber who else at wave 160, while 170 was rather easy (2 Aleksanders and 2 valdarans). Because of the aetherward oil i guess. Mutators were horrible again (-15%AS for me, +15% phys res for them).

apBXiX7.jpg958×538

19

So RR setup yielded more damage and more defense in the end?

20

Yeah. I even dare to think that it’s possible to make a 12-min run. Although it will probably require some luck with mutators or nemesis combos.
Also I want to try to drop Toad for Hawk for more damage. Not sure 13% adcth will be enough, but worth a try.