Blood! Sometimes it sets my teeth on edge.
Other times it helps me control the chaos.
I’m a very neat monster.
On my on-going campaign to make Bleeding Builds with Bloodrager´s Set outside the typical TWC (Trickster, Warder, Conjurer) I have got a lot of ideas but some happen to be better than others. I try to utilize these items/masteries which are supported with skills and/or items and make them viable.
After miserably failing with my last 2 attempts, a ranged Bleeding Vindicator ( a “Beehunter” (Greetings to the Russian Discord Community! ) and a Bleeding Dervish (not even a Beehunter, more a “Beekeeper”), I made this build last night and was surprised how well it performed.
Build Explanation
The goal of this build was to make an Auto Attacker utilizing Necromancer´s WPS and the skill modifiers from Mythical Guillotine. After Shoot2033 made an excellent build with this weapon (“Boatman of Styx”) I wanted to see how well Necromancer with only little Bleeding support will fit in.
Well, it fits very nice:
- Gear: You don´t need any green items. The only thing which comes to my mind would be a Cronley Signet for better resistances/less resistance puzzling.
- Devotions: Standard 2H-Melee Bleeding Devotions including left arm of Berserker for using an axe
- Gameplay: Very smooth. Left Mousebutton Savagery, right the excellent Rune of Violent Delights. Press 4, 5, 6…wait 3 seconds…repeat. Loot. Oh wait…a Hard Hitter! Press “3”, too.
- Stats: Get as much Physique as you need for pants. Rest: Go for Cunning.
- OA/DA: You think, they are a little bit low? Well, this build has a 398 OA- and a 170 DA-shred. It is enough.
- RR: 99 is a little bit low for my standards, but I take what I get.
- AoE: Grasping Vines plus Siphon Souls plus Rend Devotion give over 500 flat bleeding damage…per second. Add Devouring Swarm and Falcon Swoop and multiply all things with about 30.
- Sustain: No kidding: This is the 1st build I made where I think ADctH seesm useful. Really, really useful! This build has it everywhere and it has the flat damage (Physical) that it really makes an impact. Hey, Ghoul healed me from 20 % to Full with one or two hits!
- Resistances: The one weakness…hard to cap/overcap the resistances. Had to change the augment in amulet to get more Poison Resistance (previously had +1).
- Other details: Have a look at the Slow Resistance. Very, very nice. Energy Problems? Don´t know it. The proccs? Will talk about it later.
- Weakness: Because of the resistances I couldn´t find a way to insert a Sanctified Bone or Prismatic Diamond. But this is no MIN/MAX-build, perhaps somebody sees a possibility.
Build Performance
As I said, I made this build last night and I was a little bit tired. But after I saw the surprising performance on my standard test-route (Dummy, Warden, Fabius, Kra´vall), I choose to try SR, starting at 65 (with other builds I start with 50). I will be honest: I used pharma (Poison Resistance) and died 2 times. In 65 Boss Shard the combination of Sister Crimson and new “Speedy Gonzalez” Zantarin surprised me and in 66, Fabius and his love Anasteria got me. But no problem:
I don´t use Rune of Displacement on this build but Rune of Violent Delights, which is perfect here. I just had to get used to it.
I don´t play Crucible but I think this build will perform very well because the proccs are even better in Crucible than in SR Boss Shards. This build has 3 (4) “on kill”-proccs which will be up nearly 100 % in Crucible. Just have a look at “Revel in Death”; awesome. If someone wants to try it, I will gladly give my savefile (btw: Welcome back, Spanks! ). For speed runs, I would suggest to even skip Wendigo Totem/Blood Pact (you heal enough…) and put the points somewhere else. Maxing out Grasping Vines and Upheaval seems viable, or putting points in Siphon Souls for 10/12 to have the same radius as Grasping Vines.
Leveling Guide
First decision to make: Leveling as Bleeding Build or with a different type of damage? Leveling as Bleeding is fun but not easy.
If you decide to level as a Bleeding Build I would do it like this:
- Forget about Necromancer and go Shaman. You don´t need Necromancer till have you have full mastery bar in Shaman.
- Start as Caster: Devouring Swarm plus Grasping Vines = Win! Add Falcon Swoop.
- Devotionwise, start with Falcon and go “South”: Hawk–>Empty Throne–>Wolverine–>Fox (or Fox even earlier). After that, get Jackal, then Huntress for REND! Now you are free to choose, depending if you want to got 2H at this point (Kraken next) or still want to cast. Last step: Retrieve all points from Crossroads and devotions, you used to get e. g. Kraken, and max out Mogdrogen.
- Skip Step of Torment! There are not many Bosses with really high Bleeding Resistance in Grim Dawn but there you have one (Alkamos has 118 % in Ultimate) and the annoying reflecting mobs like Skeleton Knights. Kilrian and Zarthuzellan have these resistances, too…and be careful with Baros Wradlith in Spined Cove.
- Enjoy your ride through Cairn!
Picture and quotation lent from “Dexter”.
Layout shamelessly copied from x1x1x1x2.