[1.1.6.2] Spiky Snail - Retaliation Saboteur

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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1

Intro

As part of my Grim Dawn experience/playstyle I like to experiment with some weird build opportunities - thus retaliation saboteur emerged. It's stupidly slow, but it works and somewhat fun to play around.

After checking some skills and items to make a build around them I ended up focusing on Blade Barrier and lowering it's downtime.

Initially I tried using [Daega's Oath] while dual-wielding [Mythical Basilisk Claw] but the performance and survivability were underwhelming. The best thing about that setup - it's still totally viable for Ultimate and an actual joke to pilot:

  • jump into the crowd
  • turn on Blade Barrier
  • jump out as soon as Barrier ends
  • run around and survive for about 3-4 seconds
  • repeat...

The version presented below is more durable and can technically clear even SR75, but I couldn't add proper defense to this mix to consistently survive multiple bosses as once. SR65 is a bit more consistent, although boss rooms still could be painful. Running chunks is fairly simple using the same steps from DW variation above.

Crucible on the other hand (with arena buffs) is almost a face-roll carnival. Insanely... Slow... One...

Build

Spiky Snail:
sabo

Daega’s Toxic Snail:
daega

:link: Grim Tools - A

Boots [Mythical Stormtitan Treads]
Amulet Component [Seal of Annihilation]
Shield Component [Seal of Might]

Video: Crucible 160~170 (very slow, timecoded by wave)

:link: Grim Tools - B

Boots [Mythical Stonetreaders]
Amulet Component [Seal of Ancestry]
Shield Component [Seal of Resonance]

Video: SR65 Boss Room (easy one, faster than usual)

:link: Grim Tools - DW + Daega’s Oath
Video: SR50 3rd chunk + Boss Room (1 death, timecoded)
Video: Crucible 166~170 (last 5 minutes, buffs + defenses)
I have no shame in enabling everything in Crucible for this build variation.
It’s just not suited for that. (or perhaps I’m just bad at this)


Builds Summary

  • [Retal] [1.1.6.2] (mi) (sr) (vid) Spiky Snail - Retaliation Saboteur (Fretheo)

    • Damage: Retaliation
    • Active Skills: Dreeg’s Wounds, Shadow Strike, Blade Barrier, Pneumatic Burst, Absolution, Grenado
    • Passive Skills: Veil of Shadow, Flame Touched, Vindictive Flame, Blast Shield, Presence of Might

  • [Retal] [1.1.6.2] (sr-) (vid) Daega’s Toxic Snail - Retaliation Saboteur (Fretheo)

    • Damage: Retaliation
    • Active Skills: Dreeg’s Wounds, Shadow Strike, Blade Barrier, Pneumatic Burst, Blackwater Cocktail
    • Passive Skills: Veil of Shadow, Flame Touched, Vindictive Flame, Blast Shield, Presence of Might, Arcane Resonance

Leveling

This "guide" is more of a short version of character journey

:link: Level 10 ~ Around Flooded Passage
With a new game start hoarding retaliation gear and (for now) fire damage as well
Retaliation - just for the build foundation, Fire - for Vindictive Flame

:link: Level 20 ~ Right before Krieg
Ventured a bit into Act 2, to unlock some shrines
I was lucky to get [Razorback’s Spined Mantle], now Fire is removed from loot filter

After Krieg go straight to FG DLC: get shrines and experience, complete [Tome of Eanatum] quest to unlock transmutes (will be helpful with [Perdition] later)

:link: Level 30 ~ Around Arkovian Undercity
Thanks to FG shrines we have Behemoth constellation. Back on track of the main game storyline.
Keep hoarding/updating retaliation gear. After leveling Vindictive Flame and Flame Touched (with their upgrades) go for base Nightblade masterty leveling, next target - Merciless Repertoire.

:link: Level 40 ~ Next to Swarm Queen Ravna
Already have one [Perdition] item, now slow down leveling/questing to get full set before the character outlevels it. Took me 1 level of farming act 1 totems (Lower Crossing, Wightmire, Foggy Bank, Burrwitch Outskirts) to get 5 pieces. After that you either already have some Eldritch Essence or need to farm FG areas for it (to reroll set pieces)
When Merciless Repertoire is maxed - go for Blade Barrier (finally). We’re still far away, but now the playstyle is somewhat close to endgame one.

At level 45 - Loghorrean is dead.

:link: Level 50 ~ Around Malmouth Crown Hill
Collecting as many shrines as possible before moving to Elite.

Al level 55 - Moving to Elite
No more tracking - it doesn’t seem to matter going further
Feel free use any route you want

:link: Level 60 ~ Just progressing through
All devotions, more resistances. Now you could either be thorough and complete every side quest. Or just rush to Ultimate - what I did for this playthrough.

:link: Level 75 ~ Just progressing further (already on Ultimate)

:link: Level 84 ~ Another itemization milestone
Need to farm [Daega’s Oath]. After it’s done - just keep it till you get more gear to balance set swap.

:link: Level 94 ~ Last milestone
At this point put some retaliation gear you should’ve gotten while leveling and just continue forming the build. You’ve reached the endgame.


9 Likes
2

This is wicked cool build!

But… No Blast Shield?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see it there now. You didnt list it as a passive so I was confused.

3

Oh yes, thanks. I missed it in summary

4

of course.

I love Saboteur so, always glad to see posts about them, especially weird unconventional ways to run them, like this!

5

first off, welcome to the forum, hopefully you’ll find it nice here.
second, good build you’ve got going, except both of the grimtools links appear to be missing augments. even though your resistances are maxed, you could use those free augment slots for getting more stats overall, e.g for armor slots you could get more DA ,or health, or even overcap some of the resistances by a bit (or a bit more).

6

Thank you.

And regarding augments - I have some on, but I left out the rest of them intentionally. Usually you don’t get perfect rolls on resistances, or you might just want some other stats to be improved.

In my current variation in-game I have [Osyr’s Fortitude] for both rings and amulet and some resist balancing augments for weapon+shield

1 Like
7

this is an unexepected combination for retal build.
anyway, nice meme build, though, this head and rings are a bit too expensive.

8

I can drop a [Daega’s Oath] variation later :upside_down_face:
I doubt it is capable to beat even SR65, but the Crucible is doable.

9

Fitting in the proc from affliction devotion would help dps quite a bit too… can’t see devotions on my phone

Edit after watching the video I think you have it? Lol

10

Yes, I have it! (also just noticed i haven’t bound Murmur’s Rumor to anything in grimtools)
image

11

Cool build and welcome to the forums! :slightly_smiling_face:

Did you try taking Blade Barrier to 22/12 but the trade-offs were too harsh?

12

I mentioned the DW+Daega variation, that one has 22/12. It’s way harder to survive that way, 4 sec of downtime lasts forever, but overall it’s a bit more fun to play I think.

I’ll add that variation to the post later

13

@Trudel @grey-maybe JFYI I’ve added that “cheaper” build variation with 22/12 Blade Barrier to the post with performance videos

1 Like
14

Hi, very interesting build. Can u please give us a leveling guide based on your build? Thanks in advance.

15

Hello, I didn’t plan to add leveling guide - Demolitionist with Blackwater Cocktail is good enough to cover early game. Around 40s you can get [Perdition] pretty easily and respec to some retaliation.

But sure, why not. I leveled it as retal anyway. I’ll drop it later.

16

Thank u!! I would always love to level based on a new build and not wait till max level to respect into the intended build.

17

Hi, i started your build from level 40 onwards…my ratal is about 600%…but my blade barrier still takes long time for cool down…any suggestions for early gear with faster cooldown? So right now i just depends on shadow strike and vindictive flame…kinda slow…

18

It is slow :slightly_smiling_face: “snail” is in the title.

Sorry the “guide” takes too long. I’m just finishing a full leveling journey with character snapshots at certain levels, it’s ready up to lvl 70 right now.
I hope I complete it today and add it to the post.

Regarding cooldowns - the base reduction is in the skill itself, at 22/12 you’ll have 14 sec and at 12/12 - 16 sec. Unfortunately the real cooldown drops are way up high at lvl 94 items.

19

Thanks… so for now, what should i do to survive till level 90s?

20

Here’s my unfinished notes at level 40:

:link: Level 40 ~ Next to Swarm Queen Ravna

Already have one Perdition item, now slow down leveling/questing to get full set before the character outlevels it. Took me 1 level of farming act 1 totems (lower crossing, wightmire, foggy bank, burrwitch outskirts) to get 5 pieces of Perdition. After that you either already have some Eldritch Essence or need to farm FG areas for it. In 3 transmute rolls I got the full lvl 40 Perdition set.

I plan to add more context to every “snapshot”, but hope this still helps a bit.