[1.1.5.2 - 1.1.9.0] (Melee) The Primarch of Death - Deathguard Reaper (c+) (sr+)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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#1

Deathguard set is rather old but is still underperforming, as it is mostly utilised by single-RR classes like Reaper and Oppressor. For voting for its buff or writing your opinion, visit this thread: [Idea] [Poll] Deathguard set could use a little buff.

Now back to the build. Deathguard Reaper is the oldest spec coming up to mind and I finally managed to make it work, although in modern era of 5-mins-builds it may look too slow. But anyway, at least I finally like it.

1.1.9.0 UPDATE: after a while and with new bonuses to DG set I came back to the build. It has become considerably stronger but somehow glassier, though i see zero reasons for the latter.

1.1.9.0 GRIMTOOLS LINK - CLICK ME

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Update 1.1.6.2: added new vids and new GT. Build has become faster and stronger.

GRIMTOOLS LINK
DOWNLOAD LINK - CLICK ME

BUILD EXPLANATION

  • Deathguard set - core of the build. Used second Deathguard’s Blade for its bonuses;
  • Medal and gloves - 2 parts of Ghol’s set to boost stats, all damage and get additional bonuses to BH;
  • Boots - craftable with high native slow res and stats;
  • Belt - another very good item with additional conversion, % damage, crit and OA;
  • Rings - flat acid, bonuses to RE and Night’s Chill that gives us more RR, also cool procs;
  • Amulet - for additional resists and flat damage to BH that is converted to acid completely.

PROS AND CONS OF THE BUILD

PROS

  • Nice AoE damage - BH has 16 meters range, and RoS with Abom’s proc does supporting job;
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  • Build is pretty sturdy in SR, failed only 1 run out of 10 because of MQ. In Crucible may be less consistent.

CONS

  • Very modest RR - only -93%, so acid-resistant enemies like Alexander/Basilisk heroes are assholes;
  • Not impressing solo-damage as most skills are AoE-focused.

BUILD’S PERFORMANCE

LOKARR

CRUCIBLE - best run of 5:03 so far

SHATTERED REALM

Special thanks to @mad_lee for helping with the build and @Slev1n for recording Crucible video, also to @grey-maybe for the Devotions setup and to all Safarel Discord Community.

12 Likes
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#2

Meditation relic and maxed RE with the green RE medal will probably give you some solid returns.

#3

This may be a good point on Oppressor but I doubt it’ll make a sence on Reaper :thinking: and losing resists and +1 to all skills strikes me right in my heart!

#4

Nice build!

Haven’t played Deathguard in ages. Now I have to try it with different class combo.

1 Like
#5

I haven’t played it for ages too, before recent days :sweat_smile:

Afaik, oppressor is a decent build.
But as the last SS on it I remember only mad_lee’s dervish and it failed absolutely.

#6

Solid final polish with adding Ravenous Earth :wink:

Yeah, build had really nice numbers on paper but was an absolute pain to play.

1 Like
#7

Tried that on oppressor. Made a post on it and two more chars.
Will definitely take this baby to a spin soon :smiley:

1 Like
#8

So you are rotating skills not using AA? Always interesting to see such builds. But the dmg output suffers a lot if you don’t have skillpoints to max them.

Here is a variant with fewer skills: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLm0yMZ
Imo Nightfall is definitely worth maxing, you have too many conversions for it to skip. You can get rid of Ring of Steel and 7 ranks in RE with very little losses and invest in Nightfall, you’ll feel the difference right away.

Also here is a cheap way into AA-caster hybrid: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jxl7mZ
WPS is very cheap dmg here, even if it applies to the basic attack. Worth trying.

#9

Much disapoint that the character name is not Mortarion 0/10

2 Likes
#10

I think if a filler spell is going to be added it should just be biting blades. It slots in perfectly here.

#11

mostly yes. as BH has low CD and I have to push 4 buttons in 1,5 secs, I decided to get rid of WPS.
I used them in very first setup but haven’t seen any solid contribution.
Your setups truly have more damage but seem too glassy for me :frowning: and even no RoS and fumble!

#12

Fumble on RoS is way overrated. It’s a small chance to apply a 50% miss to the targets in a small area every 3 secs. It’s too unreliable. And melee hits arent the biggest threat in Cruci. Definitely not worth to keep in rotation just for fumble.

#13

About WPS you are probably right, its more authentic to keep it without basic attack. Do consider ditching RoS and RE ranks for Nightfall hardcap. Should improve the timer nicely.

#14

Dunno how i really feel about this. Vs big clusters of mobs it probably aint really worth, but vs 4 nemesis, each getting a chance to miss, sounds good to me.

1 Like
#15

Let’s look closely on that. We pay 5 skillpoints for a skill with low dmg (including it in rotation is 100% a damage loss) and get 28% chance to make the targets miss 50%.

In the ideal situation, which is rarely the case with that AoE, you hit all the nems and make them miss 14% of their melee hits on average. Melee hits are like 30% dmg of bosses. So in the end you are mitigating 4% of dmg on average - and this excludes basically all the dangerous dmg spikes like shotguns and meteors. And you lose dps. And you lose 5 skillpoints.

Sounds bad to me.

1 Like
#16

Nice statistics, but thats on paper most of the time… Its like, will of fallen kings rune being better than astral rifts on my binder but the practice prooved the otherwise. Dunno i guess its a matter of worth the risk or not.

1 Like
#17

build updated for 1.1.6.2

1 Like
#18

No points left for Ill Omen to gain some (more) Damage Reduction than from Black Blood?

#19

it can be taken with some points out of Dread/Merciless Repertoire but the build is really sturdy even w/o Omen. probably Scales do their job perfectly.

#20

Okay, no need to press another button if not necessary. :slight_smile: