*Defiler setting up Aetherfires in Crate’s office (please don’t ban me for this joke, Crate)
Foreword (never an afterword, but just skip this)
Defiler is an ugly duckling in a huge family of mastery combos that Grim Dawn offers us. Even Crate themselves pretend like this particular class never happened. Demolitionist mastery is at its weakest point right now, and coupled with Necromancer it becomes as ridiculous as it might sound even weaker. Defilers have no resists (except vitality resist on Master of Death) or crowd control resists or any heals (Siphon Souls doesn’t count) or any DA. Moreover, skills from two masteries just don’t match. And all you have to “make them match” is a mediocre sword that drops just once for every character (and Defilers can’t melee effectively, I tried) and a ridiculous pistol with no attack speed that is a monster infrequent item you have to farm from the toughest rougelike dungeon boss in-game. Oh wait, you have to farm two of them.
So being stuck with that Defiler that I for some reason made as my 4th character quite some time ago I tried everything to make it into a decent character. Nothing worked. Untill this build. This build shreds. So if you are one of the few unlucky ones stuck with a defiler on character’s list, this build is your way to salvation.
Build Concept
Immortality
This build refuses to die. And believe me I tried. You have several layers of defense, first comes a pretty decent DA (~3000 before Crucible blessings) + a massive monster’s OA shred (around 560 in total), so with that and 8% dodge/evade you don’t get hit a lot. After that you got quite a few circuit breakers: 15/12 Blast Shield + Ghoul + Mark of Torment which get their cooldowns reset pretty frequently thanks to Time Dilation + Clairvoyant set + Albrecht’s Duality ring. And a massive leeching from all the weapon damage spells and devotion procs and 12% adtch.
Affordability
You can build this character without any green items and you don’t need any monster infrequents for it whatsoever.
Fast and consistent Crucible clears
That can be your go to Crucible farmer. It consistently farms 150-170 Crucible Gladiator in ~9:30 minutes with 4 blessings and no banner. And it doesn’t die.
The Build
<<<<<<GRIMTOOLS>>>>>>* (I used whatever green boots I had available, perfect ones would be Thunderstruck of Featherstep or better Stonehide of Kings)
*you can use any boots that have physical resist and pierce resist
Gear
Core of the build is Clairvoyant Set. Every other item is there to increase entropy of our universe and to reap as much souls as possible.
Skills and Devotions
Again, we are making everything to make a entropy a bit closer. But in all seriousness, it took a lot of testing to come to this setup.
Leveling and Attribute points distribution
Level as Necromancer with Ravenous Earth/Spectral Wrath combo. Get any kind of Bonespike and any kind of Basilisk Crest and you are golden.
Put enough points in spirit to equp an off-hand. Put rest in physique.
The Showdown
How to Play
It’s a piano build. You are mashing all the buttons. What’s important is to anchor a Nemesis or a big purple boss with a Mark of Torment in big fights and refresh Siphon Souls against Reaper. But your overall strategy is herding mobs together to deal as much damage as possible.
Stats
No temporary buffs
Build’s pros and cons
Cons:
- Still not a Spellbinder
- Piano build!
Pros:
- Best Defiler build up-to-date
- Immortal, huge damage, reliable
Videos
Easily defiling Grava’Thul (~29 seconds kill)
Crucible Gladiator 150-170 4 blessings no banner run (9:20 minutes)
In Conclusion
Want to give some credit to Valinov and his idea to try Clairvoyant set on a defiler. And also thanks to idontwannaknow0 who persuaded me to use Imp instead of Bat (and build still couldn’t die afterwards).
