Primary Damage Types: Fire and Chaos
Secondary Damage Types: Vitality and Acid
Grimcalc (no gear): http://grimcalc.com/build/6jC5gT
Grimcalc (with gear): http://grimcalc.com/build/bFkWNy
Pros
Good Survivability
Strong Resistance Debuffs
Gobs of attack speed
Hit things and fire rains from the sky!
Cons
Late-blooming build (both survival and AoE potential)
Late-game enemies resistant to both major damage types (hence the resist debuffs)
Basics Q&A
[spoiler]What’s a meleemancer?
This is my name for a hybrid caster that spends a significant amount of time swinging a melee weapon. One of my favorite things about the dual mastery system in Grim Dawn (and TQ) is the ability to create characters that can stand in a crowd and brawl but also make use of all kinds of flashy abilities for support, debuffs, and supplemental damage.
What this build is/isn’t:
The Infernal Meleemancer is a 2h melee pyro build that focuses on attack speed, flat damage sources, and resist debuffs. This isn’t just a caster build that happens to use a melee weapon. It’s a brawler build that relies on items, spells, and devotions for AoE and support. This build has a variety of defensive procs and skills to keep you alive but it isn’t a “tank everything” build. Notably, you want to avoid standing in ground effects and getting shotgunned by bosses, but you will be fairly resilient otherwise. It isn’t a one-button build, but it isn’t terribly complex either.
I have cleared ultimate with it (at level 76), but haven’t faced any nemeses as yet. I find this play style to be great fun and that was the goal. Offense is pretty solid, I think, but if you are looking for speed clears, look elsewhere. If you want to wade into throngs of enemies and rapidly bash bosses on the head while fire rains down from the sky and their minions melt around you, read on.
Build inspiration and a note on gearing:
I came up with the concept for this build after Infernal Brimstone dropped for my Warder. I started with thermite/hellfire mines and the rest followed from there.
This is not a self-found build. I already mentioned the weapon that inspired it and I traded for the chest, amulet, belt, and one ring. The helm is crafted.
I am continuing to try and see just how strong I can make it (and want to try the different nemeses) but you should absolutely be able to clear content without having everything BiS. I should also note I used a Mistborn Talisman all the way to level 65 and it was fine.[/spoiler]
Skills and Attributes
[spoiler]Thermite Mines, Hellfire Mines, and Vulnerability: Resistance debuffs. Note that Grimcalc still does not show the resist reduction from the mines. There’s no need to over level these, but you can pick pump the mine skills for extra damage if you like.
Solael’s Witchfire and Vindictive Flame: These are major sources of attack and total speed. My attack speed with Infernal Brimstone is about 140%. Note that I still don’t have points in Consecrated Blade yet. They aren’t a priority.
Flame Touched: provides flat fire damage to go along with flat chaos damage from SWF. Also (along with Blood of Dreeg) provides a significant amount of Offensive Ability.
Blood of Dreeg is a heal that also increases regen and OA and gives access to physical and poison resists. It also gives some flat acid damage as a bonus. This is a GREAT supplemental survival tool, but a lousy primary survival tool. It will not help you stay alive until you have other defensive tools at your disposal. Note that physical resistance gains decrease after Aspect reaches 12.
Sigil of Consumption and Blast Shield: Amazing survival tools. Max Blast Shield. Sigil can be stopped at 12 because the increase in health conversion rate practically stops there, but you can over level it for more damage if you like. Destruction is gravy. It isn’t remotely necessary if you’d rather use the points elsewhere. Might come in handy vs Nemeses.
Flashbang and Canister Bomb: These are optional CC powers. I found I needed them less often once my gear started falling into place.
The basic playstyle is to drop mines and sigil and fight on top of them, so enemies are rebuffed and take damage, using CoF/Vulnerability on tough/resistant enemies and Blood of Dreeg to heal as needed. If you get in over your head, flashbang and canister bomb can buy you precious seconds to regroup. Fighting in doorways and narrow areas can help make the most of mines and sigil.
As for attributes, all physique all the time. You need it to equip armor. I put 4 into spirit early, but I don’t think they were really necessary.
[/spoiler]
Devotions
[spoiler]Chariot and Behemoth provide OA, Health, and two strong defensive procs.
Kraken provides gobs of attack speed, damage, and crit damage. Yes, yes, and yes.
Eldritch Fire (Solael’s Witchblade): Attach this to thermite mines to further debuff fire and chaos resists (yes, it debuffs both).
Meteor Shower (Ulzuin’s Torch): This is a huge source of AoE for dealing with trash. I have it attached to Sigil of Consumption. The only downside to that is that Sigil is expensive to cast. If that causes problems for you (because you want the proc without casting sigil, you could put it on your weapon attack instead. You should have this ability by the time you finish Elite.
Abominable Might (Abomination): Flat chaos damage, physical conversion to chaos, +%chaos damage, and health? You bet! I have this attached to Beronath’s Fury.
Everything else was chosen to be as useful as possible while meeting the requirements for Abomination.
[/spoiler]
Gear
Note that there are lots of good options. Aside from a good weapon and a shard, none of this is specifically needed for the build to work, but this is what I am currently using. A defensive proc or two is definitely useful, but many of these pieces were chosen because I needed some health or a particular resistance and they complemented the build in other respects.
Weapon Infernal Brimstone w/ Shard of Beronath
Any strong fire or chaos weapon will work great
Amulet Peerless Eye of Beronath w/ Focusing Prism
Rings Ultimate Slith Primal | Entropic Coil w/ Corpse Dust
Relic Aegis
Medal +Physique w/ Black Tallow
Helm Mask of Infernal Truth w/ w/ Leathery Hide
Shoulders Divinesteel Shoulderguard w/ Mutated Scales
Chest Divinesteel Hauberk w/ Chains of Oleron
Hands Voidsteel Gauntlets w/ Unholy Inscription
Belt Girdle of Stolen Dreams w/ Rigid Shell
Legs Empowered Legplates of Valor w/ Ancient Armor Plate
Feet Golemborn Greaves w/ Mark of Mogdrogen
Augments
Potent Outcast’s Bastion
Outcast’s Warding Powder (7)
Mogdrogen’s Sanctity (3)
Aegis may get replaced eventually, but I was able to make it and it’s a solid defensive proc. I can’t decide what the best replacement would be.
My current medal has +59 physique, enabling me to wear the chest and pants. At level 81, I will have enough physique to remove the medal, at which point, I may replace it with a Mark of Divinity and the Slith ring with a Lifegiver Signet, which will give me a nice little health boost (currently just over 10k with the chest aura on).
I wore Glory of the Silver Knight (epic) before I had the mask and found the active skill to be quite useful. I wore an obsidian-plate cuirass (epic) for a long time. Cthonian Thread Sash is a solid belt replacement. Boneweave Leggings work great (Sigils everywhere). Before I got Entropic Coil I wore two Slith rings (first two elite, then one elite and one ultimate). As I said before, none of the gear is critical, except having a good weapon.
Leveling Guide
[spoiler]Levels 1-35
Do something else. ANYTHING else. If you try and use this build prior to level 35, you will hate me, hate yourself, and probably stop playing video games out of sheer frustration. At level 35, you can start to make the build work by getting some points into Blast Shield and Thermite Mines (also Sigil of Consumption), and by picking up a Solar Sledge in Homestead. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
35-end of normal
Your first priority is survival. You should have 32 points in Demolitionist and at least 15 in Occultist. A few points in Blood/Aspect are good, but focus your efforts on Sigil, Blast Shield, and Thermite Mine (you need the AoE from the latter and dead things stop hitting you). You will want to get Occultist to 32 before heading into elite, because some points in Aspect will be rather beneficial in Act I (won’t hurt for the Log fight either). If you have points to spare, start building up your attack speed with Vindictive Flame and SWF. The few points required for Flashbang and Canister Bomb are very helpful at this point.
With 27 Shrines (all but the Rover one), you should have completed Scholar’s Light, Empty Throne, Chariot, Viper, and Solael’s, with 3 in Behemoth (for Giant’s Blood) and a temporary point in Crossroads (blue)
Elite
Finish off Thermite, Blast Shield, and Sigil if you haven’t already. Balance out adding to VF, SWF, and Flame Touched, with increasing Blood/Aspect. Add a point to Vulnerability when you can. If things are going well, Start working toward 50 in demo for Hellfire Mines.
On the devotion side, complete Lizard temporarily, remove crossroad (blue), and get Kraken. Once Kraken is completed, pull the points out of Lizard and finish Behemoth. Next is Spider and a point in Crossroads (green). By the time Elite is finished, you should be able to do the Rover shrine quest in both elite and normal, giving you the points you need to reach Meteor Shower. The aoe is very helpful and you may want to go that route first even if using a chaos weapon.
Ultimate
Continue as before. The main concern is managing your resists. If you have those covered and gear is decent, you should be feeling like a wrecking machine. Destruction and Consecrated Blade are low priorities unless you feel your damage is lacking for some reason and survival is not an issue.
Weapons Used before 65:
Solar Sledge 35-39
Prismatic Eviscerator 40-49
Scythe of Tenebris 50-64[/spoiler]
Detail Q&A
[spoiler]I don’t have a Shard of Beronath
No problem. Make a Mistborn Talisman. Use the Solar Sledge from 35-50. Recover the Talisman and drop it in a level 50 weapon. Shard of Beronath is crafted. If you don’t have the recipe, get someone to make one for you by the time you are ready to transition to your endgame weapon.
I don’t have Infernal Brimstone
That particular weapon isn’t required for the build to function, but you will definitely want a strong fire or chaos-based weapon (a few tweaks to skill points may be desirable if using a chaos weapon like Obsidian Juggernaut, notably for thermite/hellfire mines). If this build and play style seem like they would be fun for you, don’t let that stop you from giving it a try. If all else fails, there’s a level 70 version of the Solar Sledge (requires revered with Homestead) until you can get something better.
Why can’t I use Fire Strike instead?
Well, you could, in theory, but there aren’t enough skill points to go around. You could cut the ones from destruction, but that’s not nearly enough to surpass a Shard. Anything else significant is going to sacrifice attack speed, OA, resist debuffs, or survivability. Not only that, but you’d need to allocate at least a good chunk of those points early (unless you switch to fire strike late), making it harder to get thermite mines and blast shield going.
Didn’t you know that Tier 3 Offensive Constellations suck?
Well, if you honestly think that, we may just have to disagree. Meteor Storm is pretty helpful to this build for clearing swarms of enemies (not every fight takes place in a choke point). The cooldown on the Infernal Brimstone proc is nearly twice as long and the ability itself has a much shorter duration. Abominable Might gives a huge DPS boost and the health they added recently is the cherry on top. These constellations received significant buffs across the board recently, and if you haven’t thought about them in a while, you should give them another look.
While I made some different constellation choices than I would have otherwise, the only real oddball is Spider, and even that has cunning, spirit, OA, DA, and chaos resist, so it’s not like it is all wasted points. True, most people go 4 points at most into Behemoth, but for what you get out of it in the long run, it’s well worth it to me. At the end of the day, I think there’s a pretty nice balance here across skills, gear, and devotions.[/spoiler]
