[1.1.6.2] Beginner's vitality caster Conjurer guide, how to build monster build from the scratch! Suitable for first character

@11115 Grim Internals has this option:

GrimInternals.ini:

HeroDebuffIcons=True
HeroDebuffIconsScale=0.600
HeroDebuffIconsInTextform=False

Btw Frailty is actually quite visible on enemies and I’m one of those players who are generally blind to those things and also play in very low settings. Not sure about Pox because I rarely use it.

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@tqFan, TY, i am blind for such sh*t, too. Like to have visual debuff icons, or bars, or any stuff like that. Again, i spoiled with years of WoWing (which shoul be read as "years of spending time just nowhere)

Hi @Nery , can you give me devotion route alternative? i only have AoM (still waiting for another steam sales for FG), i start notice when i reach lvl 50 i dont have Lotus because it FG only. Pleease help!! thanks!

up, can anyone help me please, these devotion route so confusing, and i only have AoM

There are some Vitality Conjurers in this Compendium so see what they used for devotion paths.

Hi all,

I’ve been playing Grimdawn for a few months now, and I’ve started with that beginner build, and I’ve eventually decided to post a feedback and ask for advice possibly.

The whole leveling went like a breeze thanks to the easy availability of gear for the class : Boneshield of Decay, Bonespile which I’ve used instead of Boneblade because of the needed cunning, and later Ascendant source that can roll very high vitality damage. I’ve found it to be an excellent weapon, easy to vendor farm in Malmouth, until I got Fang of Ch’ton, just a few days ago. By the way, I fail to see how Skull of Gul’Amash can compete against Bonewall for this build, especially as you can roll a high phys resist on the shield, which I feel is a good tradeoff for the skull’s ward (I’ve tried both).

I did the whole campaign without issue, but I had a few close calls. Eventually, I went farming Dark One’s set and this is where I hit my first hard wall, against Lokarr (because yeah, I had to pay him a visit while being here…). After some experiment, I tried playing without dying god and I find it much safer actually, then I’ve tried switching the whole devotions route to that of Dahbadu’s Wildblood build. It’s a lot more safe now and so here my current iteration of the build : https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62aG0YmZ

SR: I’m going through them, only at 30 for now. It’s so long to go through them.
Crucible: I’ve not tried much, and I feel the build is not ideal because of its lack of mobility to reach the waves
Lokarr: faced tank without any problem, with no additional potion. I haven’t died a single time since I’ve change the devo route against him.
Ravager of Mind: killed in ultimate without any potion, fully face tank. However I miss A LOT because of my very low OA. The change of devo route didn’t help here, Dying God was giving a fair bunch.
Ravager of Soul: easily killed in elite
Mogdronen: fully faced tank in elite without any potion. Also fully faced tank in ultimate with one resist lightning potion. I had lots of close calls on the end though ; I had to use one aether cluster.
Crate : ha ha, she face rolled me totally
Callagadra: she face rolled me… in elite -_-

From those fights, the biggest issue I see in my setup is very low OA and DA, even though the build can shred 500 OA. I’m working on improving my MIs to get more, possibly by trading damage for it (“of Decay” on the shield…). But I feel this will improve the values only so much as I don’t have much % OA/DA. Any idea on how to improve those values substantially?

This is my first post here btw, pleased to meet you fellow players :wink:

Thanks for the patience on reading my WoT :p.

edit: fixing hyperlinks…
edit 2: messed up with build calculator, plenty of room for improvements on the MIs. Also, using two Mythical Signets of the Damned, Mythical Wendigo Bane and Skull of Gull’Amash bring me to around 2.8k OA / 2.6k DA, at the cost of 2k life and 12% phys res.

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@Panini it seems you’ve hit the point of the game you decide how your build will look like and make tweaks for better performance. Also congrats on your max level build, nice! :slightly_smiling_face:

Devotions: Actually I find my route to be pretty balanced between defense and offense. Sure for super bosses you can go for more defensive one but DG is massive boost to your damage. Also gives some OA/DA, which as you mentioned can be problematic and actually is common thing for vitality casters. So DG/Rattosh is actually the most efficient map. Also looking at build mentioned I find hard to believe 2H build without Kraken devotion. :thinking: But I should say linked build is Wildblood set, which hybridize vitality damage with bleeding, while Dark One have nothing to do with bleeding, so going Huntress isn’t optimal and having two sources of flat RR - Revenant and Scales is redundant.

Skull have pretty good mod, might be even better for sustain and more damage on top of pretty valuable stat for casters - cooldown reduction. Only significant advantage of shield is the chance of rolling physical resistance.

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Hello there, I am getting my head wrapped around this game (trying :smiley: ) But devotions are still hard… can anyone give a path to follow for this build?

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Hi Warplord,
the path is described in guide, in the Devotions drop down. This is the final path, but it works well while leveling as well.

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Yes, as mentioned by @Panini devotion section contains step by step instructions how to take devotions during the leveling phase.

Remember that devotions can sustain their cost and you can remove points via spirit guides, first one is in Devil’s crossing. And during your adventures you’ll find the necessary shrines. There are topics about their location or you can use the map in Grim Tools site.

For the sake of illustration, Ravager of minds killed without pharma with the setup I’ve linked above (Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator - biggest difference from guide is on devo route) :

and Mogdrogen with just lighting resist pot and one Aether cluster:

I haven’t tried again with my current setup: Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.4) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

edit: so I gave it a try… and died.
I’ve then equipped back my Solael-Sect Pants and an Impassable Vampiric Bonewall of Decay for 17% more physical resistance, and I’ve killed it again without any sweat. Still lots of hit miss though as I lose a good bunch of OA with this switch.

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This has been my favourite build to level but my main goal for him is to take down lokkar…

Ive overcapped resists, have similar stats to OPs build but cant seem to come even close…

Any build tips would be appreciated as im stuck. cheers.

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Hi!

Not beating Lokarr seems weird, since your build looks good on paper. I would say your gear isn’t BiS but is adequate enough. For future reference your slow is 0% which is bad. For items you might wanna craft amulet and use jewel augments with vitality damage, DA and aether resistances . Lokarr have high OA and might be good idea to boost that DA. Other than that potion for reduce burning duration will also be helpful.

Thanks for the reply I appreciate the feedback, i boosted DA quite a bit and managed to get my first kill yiew! It was pretty slow and messy with a lot of kiting and ‘oh shit’ moments but we got there :slight_smile:

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Hi everyone! I also want to ask for help. I have some experience in the game but not much. I’m looking for a build hc (ssf) that I can do with gladiator crucible 170. Do you think it’s possible to do this build with 1.1.9.5? Thanks for the helpful answers. Sorry for the bad English.

This probably won’t be seen BUT I need to say that this guide was so easy to follow and truly beginner friendly. I was able to complete my first run on veteran with dlcs, I’m now on Elite and it’s doing really well so far. I was lucky with drops (playing ssf) maybe but gearing has been very easy. It’s a bit piano but I don’t mind. I’ve tried a lot of builds after this one and they don’t really compare. For me it was the best choice and I’m happy you made as guide for this! Thank you!

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Well, I saw your comment and appreciate it! Hopefully, you’ll continue to succeed with this build in ultimate as well. Vitality casters are pretty good choice for newish player and they allow you to make some mistakes, without stopping your progression.

The build goes up in levels so smooth n fast, I should be bothered with its future way too early than usual :sweat_smile:
So, what’s about the endgame, is Mad_lee’s Conjurer still good for, say, “golden” SR75-76 and Celestials, or nerfbat has smashed it too hard? And with the current “meta” switch with way lower DA, there could be some major changes?

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Conjurer have fallen out of grace. And sadly this happened long time ago. But we are talking about speed. Tankiness is still there and build should be really safe and reliable SR farmer. And Ravager should still be doable. If you are on test patch, there are significant amount of buffs to both Sigil and Pox, so actually build might be better than we’re thinking. Worth trying out.

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Very good guide. Just started this build as I don’t have the expansions yet, hoping it’s still one of the best beginner build in 2023.
So far, one things that is a bit unclear: what do you do exactly between lvl 10 and 15?