Introduction: 
In AoM era Stupid Dragon created wonderful guide for beginners dw pierce ranged Tactician https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-0-4-1-beginners-ranged-tactician/43913 and I wanted to create budget version with some new and updated items. Also since few patches ago this build have proper endgame set in Goredrinker, so it makes more sense to play
with this build and farm for it!
- Guide and budget built are for 1.1.9.3 version of the game.
Build: 
- image with permanent buffs, damage for Cadence with Deadly Momentum and standing on Seal.
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Build video from SR 65, bosses tend to be easier for this build than massive swarms of heroes/lesser enemies. Grim Dawn Beginner’s Tactician Shattered Realm 65, boss chunk - YouTube
Skills: 
Cadence - Our main attack, put as many as possible points here and in Deadly momentum buff, Fighting Form sits well at 12/12.
Words of pain - Used for the death sentence, which gives pierce resistance reduction. Also this skill is good for procing devotion.
Words of renewal - Healing skill, but the line offers health,DA and resistances.
War cry - Used for it’s damage reduction properties.
Inquisitor Seal - Important defensive skill, staying inside grants damage absorption, second node gives flat damage, which is used by Cadence and weapon-pool skills.
Aura of Conviction -Our exclusive skill -Offensive ability, pierce damage and physical resistance. In this configuration is 22/12 but regardless, should put as many points as possible.
Budget Gear: 
Weapons - Bloodborers - recipe from Cult of Bysmiel. Pierce weapon with mod to Storm Spread, pierce damage and attack speed
Amulet - Nightsalker, recipe from Cult of Bysmiel. +1 Inquisitor’s skills and pierce damage.
Rings - Malmouth and Dreeg blade seals from respective factions.
Helm - Fettan mask, my standard choice for budget builds, guaranteed drop in FG area. It gives +1 all skills and slow.
Chest -Elite Coven’s Combatant Chestguard - faction Coven refugee, bonus to Conviction and Cadence, quite nice.
Shoulders - Coven faction again, nice skill bonuses and flat pierce damage.
Gloves - Mythical quick draws- crafted epic gloves, suitable for ranged build.
Legs - Solael pants for life steal and resistances. Kuba Chauses can cap Deadly Momentum skill.
Belt - Wendigo crafted belt, reputation from Barrowholm.
Medal - Gutworm boss monster infrequent, some bleeding damage to Cadence and skill point bonus to Deadly Momentum.
Boots - Stoneplate crafted boots.
Relic - Vendetta, again +1 Inquisitor skills, pierce damage and proc. Recipe is bought from Malmouth’s Resistance faction vendor.
End Game Gear: 
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For end game you really want the Goredrinker set, which support both classes, boosting Cadence damage and also Word of Pain. Is excellent for mixing pierce damage with some bleeding.
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Other very important items are Jaxxon lucky Bullet ring for extra WPS skill and pierce damage, Pack of Treachorous means, which is THE belt for pierce ranged characters and Oathbearer pistol, which can be used instead of the one Bloodborer. For relic best one is either Azraaka’s Epoch or Vengeance, which is direct upgrade over Vendetta, used in the budget configuration.
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For more information about gear, devotion and skills check the end game version made by @banana_peel, GT - Tactician, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (grimtools.com)
Devotions: 
For pierce damage you don’t have great T3 devotion but I’ve decided to use Azraaka. Also Huntress for some bleeding damage, especially useful with Goredrinker set. Scales is here for flat RR and healing. Hydra is used, it’s exclusive ranged devotion. Assassin’s Mark on Cadence for pierce RR.
*If you want to beef up the build more you can take Ghoul and Unknown Soldier, just like Banana’s build listed above.
Devotions in order:
- Yellow crossroad affinity point.
- Assassin’s Mark, assign to Cadence.
- Harpy
- Stag
- Assassin, assign proc to Strom Spread (end game setup) or Pain/Seal
- Eel
- Ulzaad, assign to movement rune or War Cry.
- Lion
- Scales, remove Lion.
- Red
- Bat, if you do it in leveling, assign to Pain. For end game you can use Rat just for affinity points.
- Hydra, remove Bat or Rat
- Huntress, assign to Pain
- Azraaka. You can take the upper node for defensive ability and attack speed or proc.
Attributes: 
- You need certain amounts of physique to wear armor and spirit for jewels. everything else should go to cunning, since it gives both % pierce damage and offensive ability.
Leveling Guide (outdated) 
Leveling guide is old, done by Stupid_Dragon. I might redo the leveling in the future but this is for now.
Levels 1-10. With your first skill points gained on level 2 open with Inquisitor and put 1 point into Mastery bar and 2 points into Ranged Expertise. Each next level put 1 point to Ranged Expertise and 2 points into Mastery Bar.
Levels 10-30. At level 10 go visit the Spirit Guide and revoke all the points from Inquisitor’s Mastery Bar besides the first one (you can’t :D), leave Ranged Expertise on 10/10. Open Soldier, push the Soldier’s Mastery bar to 15 while putting 1 point into Cadence. Put the remaining points into Fighting Form. With next few levels you should max Fighting Form (your level should be around 14-15). After than just push the Mastery Bar again till 40, and max Deadly Momentum; and then yet again push the Mastery bar to 50 and get Oleron’s Rage maxed. With this your level should be around 32-33.
Levels 30-50. Focus on maxing Cadence (or at least getting it to 10+), push Inquisitor mastery bar to 10 and get Deadly Aim maxed. Get Field Command and Squad Tactics from Soldier.
Levels 50-90. Push Inquisitor mastery to 20, once you did respec Oleron’s Rage, Squad Tactics, Field Command and Soldier mastery bar to 40, use these points to push Inquisitor mastery to 50 and get Aura of Conviction. After this the core of your build is ready. Use subsequent skill points to restore Field Command, then get Vigor, Steel Resolve, Squad Tactics, Warcry, Inquisitor’s Seal. The order doesn’t matter much, try various things. I recommend getting Inquisitor’s Seal first because it’s another layer of your defense that’ll allow you to kite less.
Levels 90-100. That’s the time when you shape the build to it’s final form. Since you’ll probably get some skill points from gear a lot of your skills will be beyond maximum level. While ultimate levels of some skills scale well, a lot of them don’t. You don’t need Fighting Form above 12, so just remove a few points from it to keep it that way. Deadly Aim also doesn’t scale well above 12, so keep it at that as well.
- There are also a few tricks to grow stronger quicker.
- Once you get full Serrated Spike insert it into one of your guns and activate the buff, it’ll increase your damage a lot early on.
- Craft Vicious Spikes and insert them into your other gun, and activate the buff as well. Buffs from Serrated Spike and Vicious Spike stack.
- Best early relic to use is Guile. It requires a recipe, but if you happen to get it then craft asap – it’s very strong for this build, you wouldn’t want to switch it till very late into the game.
- Some advises from me-leveling is important to keep your resistances high-that’s the priority.My rule of thumb is to replace the gear with lowest armor every few levels.You need decent OA throughout the game in order to proc Assasin’s mark.At level 70 you can use augments,so at that point is good if you reached revered with most faction
