[1.1.9.0] Beginner's Forgotten Blademaster

Hey Dragon, a number of your links are broken. Specifically the one that talks about dual blades interactions and WPS setup to “learn more” (in how this build works section) as well as a few of your grimtools links. Your link to your level 50 blademaster doesn’t have its points on grimtools allocated.

Any chance you might have some time? The former is the most important to me, I really dont understand the dual wield mechanics, would love to learn more about them.

Well I see you found the WPS guide it was supposed to link to on your own, but thanks, fixed in the guide.
Didn’t understood what you mean by broken GT links though, they open fine for me.

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My apologies Dragon. I must have had too many tools links opened or something.

Hi @Stupid_Dragon, firstly, thank you so much for your excellent guide; it’s exactly what a beginner player needs in the face of overwhelming end-game builds full of super-duper gear that just get thrown on there with just videos and a GT link. So your guide was a lifesaver, thanks!

Now to my questions, which are mainly to do with Devotions. Having no knowledge of prior versions of the game and hence how the current 1.1.8.1 version is different from them, but also noting that you last reviewed the build for patch 1.1.2.0. I want to ask:

  1. How would you now change the Devotions path? I noted in this thread you said Targo the builder is no longer recommended; any thoughts on replacement now?

  2. I like the sound of Unknown Soldier instead of Revenant, but I noted your comments a while back on why you’d stick with Revenant. Has that changed for current patch?

  3. Would having [Assassin + Unknown Soldier] be as good as or better than [Revenant + Jackal + Mantis]? What is the reasoning behind not taking the Assassin Constellation for this build?
    I’m nowhere near unlocking all the Devotion points but what do you think of something like this:

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

I’d probably drop harp and targo and include assasin instead.

Not really. Revenant is still 24 flat resistance reduction, 6% lifesteal, 4% attack speed, 6% total speed from mandatory Jackal, 3% physical resistance from mandatory Mantis.

Not a proper comparison because you can fit Assasin with Revenant by getting rid of non-meta constellations - Targo and Harp. Fitting Azraaka and Unknown Soldier with Revenant is unfortunately not feasible, if even possible.

On-crit activation, eats hella lot of devotion points while offering little in return.
Well, doesn’t matter because nowadays I would had taken Assasin and worked around these limitations with gear.

No flat RR (well, Warcry transmuter can substitude somewhat), 5% less attack speed, 6% less lifesteal. It’s pretty much the setup high end blademasters go for, but they use gloves that add 18 flat RR to ring of steel.

Thank you for your prompt reply!

Sounds good to me, and I see you’ve updated your guide’s constellation section - even more awesome, thanks so much.

Hands-down best guide and I am enjoying it tremendously!

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Build updated to current patch and standards.

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How do you assign Blade of Nadeen as your 4th Devotion?? It require 10 purple

Harpy and Owl give 5 purple each.

Sorry, new to the game, but it says complete constellation bonus so I have to assign every star in the owl and harpy right?? To unlock the Blade of Nadeen?

Yes, you have to complete constellations unless said otherwise.
https://www.grimdawn.com/guide/character/devotion/

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Thanks for the info

This is a solid beginner guide. I’m playing HC atm and I invested 1 point in Blade barrier. Together with 12/12 Pneumatic Burst and 1 point in veterancy , it’s a good circuit breaker due to the health regen and just rotate it with Ghoul.

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This is a nice build for a fairly new player like myself and I absolutely went full sicko mode with this build.
I have some questions tho: does it have to be Puncturing / Superior of Alacrity? Because I got two Reletnless Dermapteran Slicer of Spines and they show that they have better damage output. (I have the base game btw and planning on buying the dlc later on)

If it shows higher DPS on Cadence then it’s ok to use. Puncturing of Alacrity is just the right combination of affordability vs performance. :slight_smile:

Ah okay gotcha, thank you!

  • Normal attacks in-between a discharge will generate one Cadence charge, doesn’t matter if they hit with one hand or both. When a both-hand Cadence discharge happens a followup attack will generate a charge . This is part of the reason why DW Cadence is best Cadence.

I don’t mean to derail the thread, but I have heard conflicting things about DW Cadence vs 2H Cadence. Some people say that DW Cadence is better because your Cadence attacks tend to come out more frequently. Others say that 2H Cadence is the way to go because the higher weapon damage on 2H weapons means that your Cadence multiplier will give you much greater damage on the Cadence hit when it does come out.

@Stupid_Dragon, could you weigh in on that debate, if there is anything more to be said beyond the above quote?

And does the answer change depending on if we are talking about melee Cadence or ranged Cadence?

2H Cadence main issue is it’s inconsistent. 2H weapons usually have a high base damage spread, so your big Cadence discharge can either be really heavy or barely scratching, so there can be random periods of you doing very little damage. This too ofcourse will average out in the long run, but problem is usually builds like that live off the sustain so these periods of low damage also mean you have random dips in your sustain and therefore survivability.

Tbh I wouldn’t even argue about that and simply ask to show the performance of the best 2H Cadence build. I know how good DW Cadence is but 2H Cadence builds are quite scarce and the examples I’ve seen are somewhat average in performance at best.

Last time I’ve seen a discussion on ranged Cadence 2H wasn’t even mentioned.

How well does the mythical duelist’s sabre perform compared to a slicer? I have the recipe and I’m around lv 85 right now so I can craft one right away. There’s always the way to farm for the slicers but I’m not planning to farm for a good pair before I hit 95.

It very much depends on Slicer’s affixes. Honestly even a level 94 budget “puncturing of alacrity” slicer should be slightly better compared to Duelist Sabre, unless you have problems with attack speed in which case the duelist sabre can win over. With good enough affixes Duelist Sabre won’t even come close imo.

In short, if you’re lazy to farm the slicers then they are a possible alternative, but they aren’t better.