[1.1.4.2] So cold... Callidor's Tempest spamming Spellbreaker

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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solid-ice-cube-500x500

  • State of the enemies after I hit’em

Introduction

Spellbreaker caster, what year is it now? CT as skill doesn’t look strong on paper and cold casters usually sucks. Furthermore very often you will encounter Nemesis and bosses resistant against cold and Spellbreaker class have limited potential for - RR. And also as you’ll notice, it’s 2h caster and without even CDR granted by the weapon. So you are at huge disadvantage. But still doesn’t mean this build won’t work.

Credit for the original idea goes to @sir_spanksalot and to thanks to @Boromonokli

Build

Grim%20Dawn%202019-11-10%2015-08-09-28

  • pic with permanent buffs and relic proc

Grim%20Dawn%202019-11-10%2015-08-26-41

  • damage breakdown for CT

GRIM TOOLS - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWz94n2

Gear&Devotions:

Harra set supports CT by converting fully aether and fire into cold, also have flat damage bonus to the skill. Others:

  • Weapon: Winter King, monster stats, Soulrend is possible too but -18% RR is really great. Also 20% armor can’t hurt you.

  • Jewels: For cold casters, Ice and Fire+ Eternal Haunt rings are always good. Probably Alkamos rings can be nice fit too. Medal is for CT boost, the flat damage bonus is converted to cold.

  • Relic: Iskandra is the usual suspect for elemental Arcanist build with flat damage.

  • Belt: Again standard one for Arcanist. Monster OA and energy absorb helps in Crucible.

  • Pants: Decided to take Kuba pants with skill bonus to Inferno. Stonehide rare prefix helps with resistances. Imprevious is nice cheap alternative.

  • Boots are great for casters and Gloves are nice fit as well.

Devotions: Decided to take Leviathan route. The proc is nice supplementary damage. Also Elemental storm for flat RR.

Offense:

CT unlike Spellbinder, where you have Devastation is stand alone damage source. As you can see DPS is near twice higher here. Also some damage is dealt by Leviathan and Blizzard devotion procs. And everything is powered by good OA, crit damage and decent amount of spirit.

Defense:

The defense isn’t that impressive. It might look build is super squishy and health is jumping up and down constantly but still it’s not dying constantly. Ghoul and Mirror are circuit breakers, Nullification debuff, dodge&deflect, fumble and freeze from Ring of Steel also some damage absorb. Just multiple small forms of sustain and defense.

Performance

So I played with it in Crucible like 10 times. Probably finished 7 out of 10 runs. Definitely have few flaws but damage is so good. You can see big crit numbers often. Kuba is absolute nightmare. If you are not killed, you are slowed big time. And healing pools everywhere, especially in bannered run is unpleasant experience. Fabius and Moosi are also slow to kill. For some reasons Sentinel is very dangerous for this build as well.

Times depend on Nemesis combos and mutators. I had 9 out of 10 times Kuba at 154, that adds time. Unsurprisingly my fastest run is my only time I missed that stupid animal. Average time is perhaps a little bit under 7 minutes. But my best time is lot faster 6:17! Here’s video from it.

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nice run… almost the dream mutators on that run! if only marked instead of voidmarked and you would have went under 6 mins lol. Too bad that NeVeR happens

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And toughened on 150-160 but yeah, perfect condition and Kuba free run. That’s why it’s good to note the average time and not to put just ‘‘eye candy’’ cause that creates misconception about build capabilities.

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You did it!

But here goes my dreams for buffs to harra CT :stuck_out_tongue:

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#BuffHarra2019 The damage is decent actually but more defense and higher RR to Murmur can help further.

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nice , so Frostyyyyyyy

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Really nice Nery! Haven’t try Leviathan for a long time. Is the proc damage really noticeable now? I haven’t tried it again for a long time because usually most of my cold build need revenant.

BTW, some questions/suggestions:

  • You have quite a lot of WD there with 2h, why not use rune of amatok’s breath for additional damage source?
  • CT has some lightning damage from inferno that is always unconverted in all of the set and build using it. Have you tried chillheart + offhand for a cold CT harra?
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Thanks!

  • Amatok is nice idea, I use SS for mobility and Displacement for instant travel but that’s nice idea for extra damage.

  • Lightning damage is small but it’s the only unconverted type. But which off hand to use? Maybe Cataclysm or Iskandra?

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145 is quite significant IMO. Though IDK if it’s worth to change your itemization for this conversion.

I will want to try chillheart + grasp of the dead + purple alkamos rings + Hagarrad gloves. Then shift points from ABB for blade spirit. But this is just me still influenced from my last rimetongue BT :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:.

RR will be far less though. And it will change the focus of the build too much. Hmmm…

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Builds sometimes are like house of cards. Touching one card can result in building collapse. Wait, to whom am I speaking this :sweat_smile:

But you can create classical caster or hybrid CT/Blade Spirits. Judging from your builds it might be even better :thinking:

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BTW, when I think about it again, agree that flat lightning in inferno is quite small.

Might be worth to shifth points from inferno and others to overcap ABB for extra source of damage. Then you can replace the pants with deathwhisper or slithscale.

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Mad Lee’s idea is Slithscale pants+green boots and more points in Anatomy for big cunning and racial bonuses.

Actually build isn’t necessary min-maxed and I wanted to use Leviathan here. So why not?

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Actually, I think it was about time Leviathan got utilized. So I really like your try here.

I was only suggesting to utilize that huge WD further. It seems a waste not to use a good WD nuke here. So I thought ABB + amatok’s breath will be nice while you’re spamming CT.

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why not untransmuted PB?

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Did you forget the budget version I sent you?

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Good job Nery! I had pretty much the same concept lying around in my google doc since patch 1.1.1, but only tried it as a Sorc so far, which is obviously worse and also failed horribly.
Nice to see the concept is viable as a Spellbreaker at least :smile: :+1:

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With soulrend maybe. Or still use winterking but spam chillspikes instead.

So many things can be tested.

EDIT: lol, I thought you said untransmuted CT… :laughing:

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Thanks! I tried Stun Jacks Sorc, not so good. Harra set need more love!

You are right, it was nice idea with Alkamos Sword!

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List of CT items skill modifiers for CT takes a while to read. :smiley:

Nice build overall, thanks for sharing! :slight_smile: Never tried cold CT before, so I will give it a try this weekend!

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Nice, Nery.

You are putting together a whack of builds of late. It is nice to see less whining about cold (over a couple of bosses :roll_eyes:) and more proof of concepts. Hell, this build even wears the pants to shove it in Kuba’s face.

Keep it coming.

1 Like