*it’s actually Ashes of melee builds again 
Foreword (written in a time when Melee builds ruled)
Behold, The Era of dual wield melee builds is in its prime. First it was Belgothian assassins, long lost brothers, Blademaster and Infiltrator, paving the way into the meta dominated by casters. Then Korba the Trickster - a master of a deadly ring of frosty steel showed how it can be down without any green weapons. Beronath/Warborn Death Knight proved to be a serious contender for the melee crown. Then suddenly, Deathmarked Blademaster made his claim and what a claim it was. The latest and now dethroned king came from the shiny house of Malakor, and unlike all other contenders he lacked any of refinement of the Nightblade school and preferred hard blunt maces to sharp swords and axes.
But the real king, was hiding in cool shadows all along. You may confuse him for his twin - Blademaster, but he is a Trickster, the deadliest melee build ever.
The Build
[1.1.4.2] Update
Revived this old spec somewhat. Build is a fast melee killer, but you have to play very agressive with it and kill dangerous targets fast. It’s fun and powerful but it’s not a tank by any means.
<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>
Gear
Green free and effiecient. Mythical Stormtitan Treads can be a good alternative and provide bit more tankiness by letting you wear Prismatic Diamond in helmet.
Gameplay
Agressive. Build is tanky enough to take a lot of heat while fighting because of the huge damage and huge ADCtH returns, but do not linger while in Crucible, keep fighting, kill dangerous Nemeses first, and kill Anasteria first.
Skills and Devotion setup
I chose somewhat conservative devotion setup without Dying God proc or Blizzard. Build dishes out insane amounts of damage already and with amazing stats from Revenant piloting is much smoother and easier. Same with skill points allocations, I chose to overcap Shadow Dance for additional DA and dodge/evade. You can choose a more agressive skill/devotion setup or even more defensive one depending on your skill and preference.
Stats
With Pneumatic Burst and Lethal Assault (and Savagery charges)
Life Steal and Magical
Defense
Videos
MercyMaker’s 6:13 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 run OLD
Mad Queen fight OLD
Mad Queen fight take two OLD
Lokkar fight showing necessary pre-fight preparation OLD
Faster Lokarr fight
(19 seconds kill time, probably not the fastest this build can do)
Gargabol fight OLD
In Conclusion
I want to give a shout-out to the part of Russian Grim Dawn community located at Safarel’s Discord server, namely to Firozo for suggesting that I should try out Deathmarked Trickster and Veretragna, who put Deathmarked back on the map long before set was buffed in 1.0.7.1.
P.S. I wish jajaja or JoV could witness these glorious times of the rise of melee builds. But then they would’ve witnessed their downfall too.
Build is super strong, easy to assemble since no greens are necessary and performs crazy good. Only nemesis that can give you issue is grava’thul cause his fumble pool. Kuba can also be a bitch since he takes a bit longer to kill which as always, is bad when combined with grava and/or reaper. Otherwise the build kills stuff so fast nemesis waves usually aren’t even an issue.
