[1.1.4.2] The CockTailer - retal commando, mini-guide [g3][c+][vid]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Yo guys.
Today I’ll share my first succesfull build, using RtA. Before I tried twice with acid retal, and it was :nauseated_face:
I havenot experience with shielded supertanks or retal, so I played it as a regular caster, just a bit more tanky than usual.

Build

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About build

Build use Turrion’s reprisal shield to add 16% RtA to BwC, Beronath sword to convert elemental dmg to physical (non-myth version for less mp consumption), 2 dawnbreaker parts for massive retal dmg and another usual retal stuff.
In gear and devos I’ve to take so much items for mana regen, spamming BwC for commando isn’t cheap.
Also, BwC transmuter doesn’t increase RtA dmg= > impossible to play with transmuter.

Build was made for 76SR and cruci, and clears it easily. But don’t try just facetank all the boss chunk, 2 times out of 3 it will finish tragically. Need some kiting.
In general, build have same or a bit less dmg, than tier1 elemental casters with 5.15-5.40 cruci timers, but with retal kills melee enemies faster, and shows impressive cruci timer.

I also tried this concept as a shieldbreaker, it have ~same dmg, but survivability :dizzy_face:

Videos



SR with old setup with DG. New one performs better, but haven’t recorded vid yet.

The End

Commando power :firecracker::damage_fire:

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Just an ordinary non-broken build, nothing to see here, move along

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It’s time to make a commando

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Go away Cocktail
Go away Retal
Go away Balance

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There’s a reason why you can’t spell commando without spelling man.

Great build as always

Just a dumb sexist joke on my end. Apologies in advance if anyone is offended by it

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Nice build @John_Smith!

commando_explosion

Explosive! :fire: :fire:

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How many years did people try and fail to make BwC spam work? Huh!

Btw how about Markovian Strategem? 20% on block is low for the Serenir’s buff, I’d take a bit less retal but all the time.

Also, tried Stonetreaders?

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Tried Markovian and Stonetreaders in crucible, and Serenir+titan’s showed better timings+better stats in general.

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Apparently the answer was Zantai’s faulty RtA math all along!

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image

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which RtA skill is better? DEE or BWC?
And except 2 skills above there’re any other spam able RtA skill exist?
sr for my English

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And Coma and Mando and Command and And… :laughing:

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What in the hell naked cruci with extra spawn in 6:30 minutes.

I tried that retal bwc with dawnguard for lightning rental and failed miserably :rofl:. I see that physical retal is the answer, much like DE retal.

The build will be hard to balance though, no doubt it’s broken, but nerfing it will make elemental retal bwc unplayable.

Though honestly the whole RtA should not happen at all, slippery slope to balance. Very thin line between unplayable and broken.

Anyway, congrats for another insane build!

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I don’t understand…will someone explain to me why phys retal is so much better?

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I don’t know about physical retal but I can explain why this build is so broken. Spam BWC on this build has twice as much damage as BWC on my Burn Ward Shieldbreaker which has 22/12 transmuted pimped out BWC and 2800% to Fire/Burn. And most of its damage is direct damage, which means it stacks with itself when you spam it at one area. So not only the damage on BWC here is obscene, it’s a direct physical damage that stacks with itself.

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I just don’t see why that can’t translate into another damage type

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I guess because first of all, Soldier has a huge Retaliation damage support but most importantly, Beronath’s Sword converts Elemental retaliation and Lightning Retaliation numbers that are higher than physical values into physical.

Or maybe also because when you have physical damage numbers as high as this stacking with itself monster’s armor doesn’t matter as much and their phys res is much lower than their other resists.

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It’s a nice retal build and no doubt about it. The durability from Bulwark and Healing Rain is great.

Beranoth is huge and allows for almost complete flexibility on items. And not only for BWC rta retal and associated conversions via skills/equipment/devotions, but for all normal retaliations including counterstrike and basic retaliation. (As MLee mentioned). Armor is the main nemesis of small numbers - but once you get past the threshold, few mobs have very significant resists (some boss exceptions). And even with very high enemy armor, 30% gets through before the threshold, which can add up when stacked.

Beranoth [purely imho] is the most insane conversion item out there (100% to many types).

If you were curious to compare a similar concept but different damage type, I did theorize a gimmicky chaos BWC spammer , which is pretty restricted to one conversion. I have no plans to test it, though. And it has not soldier for CS, which means that it would not be a direct comparision.

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Really nice build, love it!

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Nice build, John!

Actually is more than nice. Soldier don’t have fire RR but build looks super fast. And Rta is still under explored mechanic, dare to say. So you find that niche, congrats!

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