[1.1.8.1] Rattosh - 2H melee vitality Cadence Death Knight, SR 80+

[Duchy]

INTRODUCTION

The reason behind this build is to create 2H melee vitality Cadence because I have not seen it anywhere. Using Death Knight is the best option becasue of support for vitality damage from Necromancer. As a weapon I use Korvan Reaping Halberd with support for Bone Harvest. The core of the build is The Blood Knight set. Cadence generally has weaker AoE so I also use gloves that give Cadence more targets for better AoE. Bone Harvest also helps with AoE. I have not maxed it because of skill points shortage but it still gets +120 % weapon damage to it. Physical to vitality damage conversion is 80 % for Deadly Momentum. Build has % damage reduction, very high lifesteal, high life, Scales, Mark of Torment and Ghoul + Bat. Yet as it is with all vitality melee it is squishier with packs of mobs in high SR despite all of these defenses but it can still do SR 80 consistently if you play carefully.

I have other Cadence builds here. I have other vitality melee builds here. All my builds are here.

Here is a list comparing all my Cadence builds from best to worst. All are at least SR 65-66 capable.

1. Oleron – great build, 2H melee physical, good offensively and very powerful defensively

2. Aether Crusher – great build, 2H melee aether, offensively a little weaker than Oleron, defensively noticably weaker than Oleron

3. Ultos – great build, 2H melee lightning, offensively noticably weaker than Aether Crusher, defensively a little weaker than Oleron

4. Chaotic Crusher – great build, 2H melee chaos, offensively similar to Aether Crusher, defensively noticably weaker than Aether Crusher

5. Amatok – great build, 2H melee cold, offensively a little weaker than Chaotic Crusher, defensively a little weaker than Chaotic Crusher

6. Ele Mental – good build, 2H melee elemental, offensively a little weaker than Ultos, defensively a little weaker than Aether Crusher

7. Empyrion – good build, 2H melee fire, offensively a little weaker than Amatok, defensively a little weaker than Amatok

8. Rattosh – good build, 2H melee vitality, offensively similar to Amatok, defensively a little weaker than Empyrion

GRIMTOOLS https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jQKbEN

Build uses four monster infrequent items - Ugdenbog Girdle, Mark of Plagius, Reaper’s Legguards and Korvan Reaping Halberd. You want affixes for vitality damage, resistances and OA, DA. A lot of the affixes are interchangeable. Crafting bonus on helm is to stun resistance.

Stats of the build

OFFENSE

high DPS from 130k to 230k

high base weapon damage

high attack speed 193 % (200 % with Hungerin Void)

low critical damage - 21 % (39 % with Hungerin Void)

OK OA - base around 2900 OA (with Fighting Spirit above 3000 OA)

55 DA reduction to enemies from Annihilation

good vitality resistance reduction - from Spectral Wrath, Rattosh, ring, Soul of Nazaran and Scales - up to - 102 %

damage from devotions - Rattosh, Scales and Bat

DEFENSE

good life around 17500 HP

OK base DA around 2900 DA

55 OA reduction to enemies from Annihilation and Arcane Bomb

nice lifesteal 46 % (70 % with Bloodthirster)

good CC resistances

reasonably overcapped resistances

OK armor - around 2650

good physical resistance 28 %

damage reduction from Ill Omen

Scales

Ghoul + Bat

Menhir’s Will

Prismatic Rage from component

Mark of Torment

image from the game with passive buffs only

image from the game with passive buffs + Deadly Momentum and Soul Harvest (both are always up)

image from the game with passive buffs + Deadly Momentum, Soul Harvest, Hungering Void and Fighting Spirit

SR, CRUCIBLE

I play SR with camera pointed away from enemies and I try my builds only in SR 65-66 and SR 80. I play around 10 SR runs per character.

This build can do SR 80. No boss is a problem but killing Kuba is very slow. DoTs can weaken this build but it has great lifesteal. Life goes up and down a lot.

I don’t play Crucible so I don’t have a time number for it.

Images from SR 80

[fordprefect]

Nice one! Try MA instead of NE, you AoE should be enough with BH and ZT and you can’t convert it’s flat cold damage, animation is slow so atleast Markovian has DA shred which helps you proc signet’s RR.

[Duchy]

I am not sure why but isn’t MA bad with 2H builds? Build is fine with bosses and that proc is mostly for bosses. I think AoE is better but I will try it.

[fordprefect]

I am not sure why but isn’t MA bad with 2H builds?

Well technically all uninvested WPS are bad for 2H cadence builds if you have good AS but I never had any problem with MA, though I always hardcap it because it’s a DA shred without extra button. Maybe as a one pointer it’s bad. And animation is almost same with Reaping Strike. So I believei if you keep it 12/12 with it’s DA shred it boost your proc rate and damage better than NE. Maybe you can test it with just MA and RS without other wps, one provides extra lifesteal with basic attacks and other provides DA shred, use extra points into BH to get more AoE.

[fordprefect]

Hey man, got an idea with my Reaper, surely will work for your build aswell; use Namadea’s Eye instead of Plagius Mark; total dps gain. The only problem is balancing resistances.

[Torzini]

Made some personal adjustments to this- thanks for the nice build idea.

Death Knight, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Main change is that I picked up Siphon Souls and experimented with Spectral Warmaul as the weapon, which actually works surprisingly well. The beefed-up SS works wonders for helping to keep you alive in packs. Also swapped out the medal for Namadea’s Eye (credits to @fordprefect for that!). Tweaked the devotion map too, so now there is a fair bit more crit dmg - as well as bat, which I previously lacked a good proc skill to bind to (all my other ones were taken). But now it works pretty nicely on SS.

This is my own character with drops I got in game; one can no doubt farm/stash for even better. But I have been using this successfully, and it’s a pretty comfortable SR75 farmer.

[Kosebamse]

Hello. How u get Ulcama with just 6 order points? Via temporary Scarab or Stag (for + 2 oder points)?