It is sad indeed because Dark One set is vitality first, poison/acid second, Acid/Poison right now don’t have anything really cool to play with.
Start as an Occultist, max out DEE line, get Vulnerability, get Night’s chill > profit.
All right, so in 1.0.7 this build took a massive hit. It became stronger, but because Crucible got buffed casters now have a real tough time there, especially Poison ones.
I honestly tried to put everything I could in it to make it survive better, but two Reapers waves are almost always undoable. Real shame. Here is an example of a failed run.
I did update the build and buffed it with Ghoul devotion and increased it slow resistance to 45% and hard capped Dreeg’s Evil Eye since it has been buffed slightly in 1.0.7. Here is the new build. Really shitty time to be a non-binder/non-infiltrator caster in Grim Dawn.
What was your impression of the changes to DEE and Pox (I think Pox got a boost from this tome).
Still weak or better? I guess your PoV would be with DEE + Focused gaze rather than DEE spam.
DEE got stronger, but only at hard cap and it’s still not enough. Bloody Pox is still there just for Wasting’s debuff. Main skill will remain useless as a damage dealer forever imo.
Survivability is a big problem even with a tanky build like that, Reapers are just not dying fast enough.
I am afraid to even begin to imagine what it’s like to play in Dreeg’s set in Crucible.
All in all, A&P still at the bottom of the food chain.
I hear you. I only hope FG will bring some relief to all the builds that now are marginal, and new sets/components/augments /SOMETHING for all the ones they nerfed into meaninglessness.
Question—I am assuming the build is still viable in campaign? Any switches or modifications you’d recommend where you made sacrifices for Crucible that wouldn’t be needed in the regular game?
My Sorc says otherwise 
Don’t worry. Oathkeeper is coming to the rescue.
Nah, it still rips Campaign into pieces. I would say just follow the updated link since it’s much better overall.
I would try it again after Crucible has been toned down in a hotfix.
Oathkeeper? I have a Witch Hunter, a class with a double resist reduction and a main poison spell - DEE. How the heck is Oathkeeper coming to the rescue?
Oathkeeper also has acid RR (the fire/phys RR on the pet turns into acid/vit when transmuted IIRC), 2 acid main skills (transmuted autoattack and transmuted aegis of menhir). Looks like it’s got a good kit too (acid star pact) so acid/poison will hopefully be at least mid tier next expansion.
Is it worthy trying Dark One Set for Cabalist with idea to use DEE and Ravenous Earth as main damage sources? Or will points be spread to thin and devotions-wise it will be hard to concentrate on both types of damage (Vitality/Acid & Poison)?
I just hope that og A&P that is WH will shine again one day.
You can convert DEE into Vitality with a Blood Orb or partially with a Conduit.
All right, so 63% Slow Resist + Ghoul and build works again.New 150-170 viable spec.
Here is a video of 150-170 3 blessings/1 banner run. 10 minutes, which is kinda sad, because it’s a double RR class combo with hard capped DEE - number 1 poison skill in-game. I imagine that new Dreeg set might do slightly more damage but it sure as hell won’t survive in current Crucible (and it still sucks).
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I tried it with vit conversion (both conduit and the blood orb) and it was a fail. RE and DEE don’t perform unless you max them and get mods. Plus the first is direct damage and the latter is DoT mostly. DEE spam also don’t work as casting cdr-ed RE, Siphon, Curse, Pox and other stuff leaves little room for spam, and maxing cast speed is a problem anyway.
I never tried the offhand for vit to acid to RE but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
Was testing updated Acid Purge (from Seal of Blight) and decided to make a test run with Biting Blades first.
Surprisingly made it in 8:25. Don’t know if it’s mutators or if I played good this time, but shit died fast.
Here is Acid Purge run. Much slower and more awkward and procced Ghoul way too many times. Also died at 170. So from my experience I would recommend sticking to Biting Blades for now.
How does this hold up compared to a vit dee build (like cabalist)? More specifically, something like the build posted by Excelsiar (can’t link because this is my first reply)? I’ve followed this build through normal and I like it a lot, but I never use the nightblade skills. I’m wondering if changing to necro would be more helpful? Or am I just too early in the game to truly take advantage of the nightblade skills?
Is there a reason you max blood burst and vile eruption but not terrifying gaze? Is it simply because our gear lets us get further in the ultimate levels for those skills? Or is the damage simply too low scaling on terrifying gaze?
Also, why do you recommend maxing cof+vuln first instead of veil of shadow+nights chill? Doesn’t the permanence of the aura make it better than cof? Or do you choose cof for the range? If it’s the points required directly into nightblade, wouldn’t that be offset by you being able to get shadow dance next? Or do cof+vuln then switch to vos when you have the 15 points allocated?
A piece of advice: Don’t take levelling guides the same way as endgame builds. Levelling guides are normally not optimally minmaxed (and it’s not worth doing so) and the most likely answer to your question is that mad_lee felt it worked well while he was levelling. You’re overthinking the levelling process, tbh.
Well vulnerability reduces DA as well… So that probably also has to do with it.
If you really wanna look into it deeper then it’s all about possession, BoD and Aspect giving you huge poison mods for low level chars and also sustain and tankiness. The nightblade tree delays that. But night’s chill and the Nb tree has it’s own merits (namely shadow strike) that it will ultimately depend on what you’re comfortable with while levelling
True, and it doesn’t need to be fully optimized, but I’m looking to make this my first hc character, so I’m trying to plan more than usual since mistakes are a little more costly 
And veil of shadows lowers enemies OA. So it’s an offensive vs defensive question. I was asking which is better (although I may have phrased it poorly).
I’m actually using BoD as a filler for now. Having a second heal does make him feel safer. Granted, 99% of the time I only use BoD, but that 1% when I can also use the health pot is quite refreshing. The resists (lookin at you aspect of the guardian) don’t matter much in normal imo, dodge and nuke, dodge and nuke. Maxed dee, blood burst, and vile eruption with a grobles toxic effigy (for that +2 dreeg and 33% weapon damage) can kill anything in normals pretty easily (except that 1 poison hero on your way to log). I’m more worried about getting to elite (so the 50-70 level range).
Cool Build! My first character was a Witch Hunter, and the poor gal’s been gathering dust since AoM. I didn’t know how to make her viable while staying true to the build I was going for (DEE caster). This build did just that. However, did you consider picking up Oklaine’s Lantern for the extra Trap Resist and Casting Speed?
That being said though, I definitely see your point about P&A being in dire need of some love. While my Bleed Warder can easily rack up 500k Bleed ticks, this character struggles to even get past 200k poison ticks.