Once a worshipper of Menhir, this shaman was forced to roam the land in search of new meaning after the Grim Dawn and the vanishing of the gods. The balance of nature has been upset, but perhaps new gods might have the answers he is looking for…
Post 1 (this one) -> Summary
Post 2 (below) -> Leveling
Post 3 -> Endgame variants (input welcomed !)
Post 4 -> idk yet
This is a build for a Conjurer using retaliation damage and the Grasping Vines skill. It is friendly to new players for many reasons:
-: no requirements
-: tanky
-: simple gameplay
-: easy to gear (can be your first character)
Grimcalc link =>-> Tree of the Three core <-<= =>-> Tree of the Three endgame project <-<=
Theme
This character is a classic druid in flavour and gameplay: you deal damage by summoning plants beneath your foes and you have a faithful animal companion.
But you also dabble in forbidden magic: your power over fauna and flora were not enough to survive the Grim Dawn. To support the maimed nature of Cairn, you had to turn to the Three witch gods: Dreeg, Bysmiel and Solael. While at first your abilities came from the raw strength of nature, tearing and slashing at your ennemies, the more time pass and the more you resort to curses, afflictions and eldritch powers. Even the plants you command end up corrupting and dissolving your ennemies rather than whipping them. You are… the Tree of the Three.
Are you still a servant of nature ? Or did you become a thrall of the Witch Gods ?
Main design
Grasping Vines is a 1.2 seconds cd spell that creates a lasting circular ground effect at your mouse. With the Forgotten Gods expansion, the modifier Entangling Vines gain the ability to add a fraction of your retaliation damage to the ground effect, which is what we are going to build upon.
1.2 second cooldown
Our main skill is not spammable, which is both good and bad. Bad because obviously we would do more damage by spamming it. But also good because we will spend less energy as a result, allowing us to wear gear with no energy generation (so… very heavy armour).
The cooldown is short enough that you can cast, move a tiny bit and re-cast it. It’s excellent for kiting if needed (which is rare).
Retaliation damage
x% of retaliation damage added to attack is a new stat. It takes ALL your retaliation damage on gear, skills and devotions, aplly your retaliation damage bonuses, and then x% of that damage to every tick of grasping vines. This damage is not further boosted by your ‘usual’ damage bonus like +x% physical damage.
This is where we will focus our efforts to gain more damage.
AoE
Big.
It’s no Canister Bomb, but it’s still quite big.
Duration= 4s+
Ground effects stack with themselves, they can exist on top of each other. This means that repeatedly casting Grasping VInes on the same spot makes you deal more damage.
HOWEVER ! Dots of the same type from the same source don’t stack. For us, it essentially means that the physical damage and the retribution stack, but not the dots. Since our main source of damage will be retributive, this doesn’t bother us.
Gameplay
Grasping Vines is your bread and butter skill.
Curse of Frailty is a good skill to cast second for packs. It’s more or less a +50% effective damage in one click.
Bloody Pox is a good skill to cast third.
Grasping Vines is a good skill to cast fourth, because it’s now off cooldown
Once you reach heavy enough defenses, you can essentially Pox everything:
-: Against melee ennemies it’s a death sentence (for them)
-: Against ranged shooters it’s still very nice for getting more procs like Targo’s hammer
-: Against spellcasters… well… this is the weakness of the build. Boss spellcasters may take up to three times more time than other bosses to deal with. I still suggest to Pox them for increased chance to hit&crit.
Briarthorn is just there to look pretty. (Yes he does ! Yes he does !)
Videos
Leveling videos (lvl ~90):Dermpateran Queen (and a bug (nopunintended)), Random void area and Fabius
WIP
Hi there !
Basic guide structure done, leveling guide is next. The most daunting of readers may even start a character right now without too much trouble.
I remind you that the grimtool link currently presented is only one endgame gear configuration and is in no way representative of what your gear will look like while leveling and farming early. I thought the required lvl 94 would have given away that you can’t wear it from the get go.
WIP
Attachment: Char&Vines.jpg