i thought id give a little update, made it to lvl 38.
im clearing out the Blood Grove im a slow leveler
but im gonne take my time and enjoy myself.
my resists are ok atm, eather could be a little higher might have to change a component around
i dont know.
im really happy with the off-handed weapon i found was a nice upgrade.
now that i respect to the “real” build like Stupid Dragon said feels nice aswell
Other than that +1 to Nightblade is great - a lot of extra skillpoints.
But yes, it’s probably a significant drop in DPS if you use it just like that. You can use 2x Blessed Whetstone to bump armor piercing to 90%, but it’s ofcourse inferior compared to using Seal of Blades. Well, if you don’t actually have Seal of Blades then perhaps that’s a possible solution.
I just hit 94, so now I’m looking around what could be used other than slicers (I have clarity pot, so I’d avoid resetting game and I got nothing useful from the hive).
First, let me thank you very much for the build and the detailed write-up. I just started Grim Dawn a few days ago, and despite having some ARPG experience, this really helped me getting easily into it.
The only part that is confusing for me is the gearing part, namely during the levelling process - what to look for as stats on new equipment :
On the defensive aspect, reading the thread I understand I should more or less favor :
armour > resists > DA
On the offensive aspect, it’s harder to get what is worth/not worth.
My understanding is flat piercing / flat physical / % physical / % piercing are all great for the build, attack speed also helping. But then most Grimtools link I see also include some bleeding / internal trauma / OA stats which I am not quite sure how to value correctly when making upgrade decision.
I also came across some gear that had physical to xxx conversion which I avoided at all costs as I understand we need 100% physical - converted through weapon + devotion to 100% piercing. But imagine I have a 9% Physical to Aether somewhere, which is going in first ? Is it really a stat I want to avoid at all cost ?
My current specific dilemna is regarding weapons, I am now level 39 and managed to drop some Dermapteran Slicer - but I previously crafted some Honed Broadswords (see my grimtool profile : https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62ak4AEZ) and the mainhand seems to be always better than the Dermapteran, at least according to the in game tooltips
Am I missing something there ? The 50% piercing ratio we are looking for is the same on both swords, and only the Amarasta’s quick cut part is missing (I don’t have it unlocked yet) but I am quite loving the Ring of steel AoE proc of the Honed Broadswords for AoE clear.
Sorry for these noob questions, there’s A LOT in this game and I couldn’t find answers to those so far
This is a pure pierce build, so any trauma and bleed you get has very little impact. Recently there’s a trend of trying to use bleed as a secondary damage type for physical/pierce, but since this guide was written awhile ago it doesn’t follow this trend. It’s fine though.
%pierce ratio happens last.
Interesting idea to use these swords.
In short, I usually trust the tooltip. But you need to be aware that tooltip only shows DPS of your skill on LMB (which should be Cadence, but in your case it’s just normal weapon attack; playing with the controller?), it ignores stuff like Amarasta’s Quck Cut and your Ring of Steel proc. So basically if the green number of DPS increase isn’t that high it’s ok to consider keeping your Ring of Steel proc swords, if it’s in the red then I wouldn’t even consider that a replacement. But keep in mind that you need to compare without components, for which you need to hold either Ctrl or Shift, can’t remember which one.
Didn’t know the tooltip was calculating from the LMB skill - I always have bound as “force move” in all ARPG I play, that’s why usually my main attack is not there
Even when replacing with Cadence for the sake of tooltip comparison, my Honed Swords seem better (with Ctrl cliked to remove components factor).
I’ve been playing this game for ~500hrs. Blademaster was my first character(always been a dual weilding guy) But couldn’t actually cracked end game content. My blademaster phys build(shit weapon) could barely farm fabius(but so far from efficient). He’s level 79(have sgit gear). I also had another character witchblade level 85(need gear, but couldn’t farm)…I come back to game this week, found your guide, with proof of faction item…wow, i could maybe own endgame content with this I’m starting a new character, now level 42 act 3…found 2 slicers(superior/alacrity + puncture/alacrity) I hope this build’s gonna be my saviour Thank you.
Hey man, great guide! I reached 100 on my Blademaster based on your guide, just killed Log and startingAoM and FG on Ultimate. I still die every now and then, and I think my damage is not high enough. I know Tooltip DPS isn’t everything, but your Tooltip DPS was in the 90k, I can’t even reach 50k, and my gear isn’t half bad. Could you take a look at my gt link and tell me what I’m doing wrong? I know my DA is low, working on it. Cheers!
Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V0L4drV
Stats:
For starters it would be good to know whether it’s DPS with Deadly Momentum up or not. Mine is with Deadly Momentum and Ulzaad’s Decree to boot.
Other than that you’re using a vastly inferior devotion setup. It doesn’t have a crapton of flat damage from Ulzaad, it doesn’t have 10% more attack speed from Jackal + Revenant and it doesn’t have a source of flat RR, which is Revenant in my case. So your damage being significantly lower than mine is no surprise. You’re also using gloves without attack speed, so there’s that too. You have 170% in GT without Ghoul’s proc, while a reasonable DW build should have 190%+.
If you’re lacking in Bloodied Crystals you can use Mark of Illusion as a cheap alternative, that’s +64 DA Also your ring/amulet augments are level 40, they are crap for your level. I use Hammerfall Powder, it’s pretty much +210 DA. It’s no wonder you’re dying on Ultimate with DA that low if you ask me.
Other than that you didn’t update your components to high level ones yet, that’s something you can improve too.
Skill-wise it puzzles me why you left Warcry not softcapped at 12/12. It contributes a lot to survival, just spam it in fights.
If you can you point me towards what I must do now I would be so grateful. The farthest i reach in this game was Ultimate Cronley’s Hideout for Fabius with other character.
With this character I didn’t finish AoM campaign on normal, after unlocking Coven+Borrow Faction I went straight to Elite, I just beat Loghorrean in Elite. Should I finish AoM+FG or farm? (what should I probably farm?) or move to ultimate?
This was my phys blademaster level 79 before https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZo8DjGN Was so stupid and not use any components :’( 9k dps… What would I do with this game if I didn’t find your guide here, can’t even imagine…
A bit suboptimal if it’s your first character, but nothing that ruins your character.
Generally for any beginner I recommend to do almost full playthroughs of normal and elite, mostly because it’s a nice method to build up reputation with factions, which you would need to buy stuff from them later on. In some cases it’s even worth it to come back from elite to normal and complete a quest you didn’t had access before due to low reputation.
Basically, when I’m making a fresh new character I don’t think much about how to level faster, I think about how to max reputation with most factions in the game, because almost all of my builds are faction gear based.
Skipping content means you’ll be short on faction reputation so you’d have to do some faction bounties and / or boring grind. I think that answers your inquiry on what should you probably farm.
As for moving to Ultimate - it is a good way to boost your level for sure, but level isn’t something I pursue much before I have faction reputations maxed out, so my typical cadence is not stepping into Ultimate until levels 90. Some may disagree, but that’s just what works best for me when I emulate a fresh start.
Grimtools calculates your resistances based on average roll while it could be either above or below average in-game.
Looks fine, I’d replace relic with Zeal if you’ve got a blueprint. Generally levels 70+ is when you should have augments in all of your gear slots, but since you’re behind in faction rep it’s understandable.
Looks awful, but admittedly my first character that reached the same level had something like 4-5k DPS.
I’m starting a new character, now level 42 act 3…found 2 slicers(superior/alacrity + puncture/alacrity) I hope this build’s gonna be my saviour 
