[1.1.9.0] Vindictive Fame - Ember's Calling Aura Purifier (SR80)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Finally completed one of the new SR sets for patch 1.1.9.0 so now I could finally try it out!

:fire: Ember’s Calling Aura Purifier :fire:

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GRIM TOOLS ►►►https://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2z83dRZ◄◄◄
(consider changing Prismatic Diamond to Sanctified bone)

Alternative version, a bit more offensive with procs from ring, relic and gloves pretty fun https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDrkBQ2

Theory Crafted alternative version 2: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV703AJZ one less button to push, for lazy game-play. Not tested yet.

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In order to make this char, I took one of my old Purifiers from waaaay back and renamed it in GD stash to something more suiting. Items used are found legit by myself in game so rolls are not optimal but still decent.

Idea with build was to try see how much dps and sustain one can get from Vindictive flame skill which got huge buff with Ember’s Calling set (and previous existing items Ascendant Conduit & Colossal Fortress ).

The scepter and shield are easy to get, Hyram in steelclap sells them so just reset him over and over again until he sells dope ones. I used scepter with +3 inq seal and basic shield with phys res and health.

As reference, this is how the new set performs with similar style but with Saboteur and Fire Blade spirits [1.1.9.0] Saboteur caster-auramancer 150-170 4m 53s. SR 75-76 and other super bosses pretty nuts! My purifier is not this fast because it lacks the punch that 3 fire dmg blade spirit provides.

Some stuff can be changed here and there, not 100% optimized yet because for such task I need to have optimal rolls on the gear anyway and that is gonna be hard to do legit. Perhaps you guys have some ideas. Some of my own ideas was to add stornfire skill but energy sustain is not enough for that :stuck_out_tongue: If get better amulet with higher OA I can use Sanctified bone in chest for more racial dmg. Amulet Mythical Tainted Ruby of Gar’dal could be fun for the aura theme. Still build performs reasonable good in SR (and skeleton key dungeons, Lokarr etc) but I was expecting more.

Here is a SR 76 completion pic. Timer was about 8 min left in this run and we had Grava’Thul in boss room which, together with MQ, are probably most hard / annoying bosses for this build I have met so far (Iron Maiden with bad mutators and gear roll is of course PITA too).

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All in all, I give this build a pass but if you are serious in Aura build with this new set, consider saboteur build by alexgold fish linked to above :slight_smile: Now I am gonna visit Hyram a few hundred times and see if he is kind to sell better shield :wink:

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when a build has more blues than MIs, and still gets the job done :smile: :+1:
not sure how i feel about a build with “no attacks”, that isn’t pet/retal :sweat_smile:

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It is like “retal light”.

I got some ideas from fordperfect to include more “proc” items. Can be fun. But frist, gonna find/buy new shield :wink: Maybe also use another enchanted flint for better conversion on meteor

but yes good summary, build gets the work done, but not at fast speed. A 75-76 run take like 20 min depending on what bosses and mutators you get

Edit @Gnomish_Inquisition https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDrkBQ2 I might try this soon, more procs and dmg, but less hp and inq seal… looks like it could be flashy though :slight_smile: Maybe adding grenado too … :thinking:

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I just made a shieldbreaker that is similar. Might post it sometime soon. Just trying to push the SRs further lmao

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sounds nice, I guess you use heart of wrath as secondary aura? How far have you made it yet? I might try 80+ on mine at some point

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I don’t have room for it in current version, as I have decent investment in FS. Still working some ideas out. I’ve done 80 so far and some mediocre 7 min crucibles. Still wanna try RF instead, and possibly try other skills.

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Fire strike Aurabuild then. SR80 is doable on most builds tbh, as long as you know how it plays and have some luck with spawns and mutators :wink:

But tbh, the way to go with an aura build is sabo with fire spirits.

Crucible for me is not worth the time, loot per minute spent is bullshit. I can’t believe why devs don’t crank up the drops there :frowning: I mean it is harder than SR in some sense, bc if you die in crucible you have to restart and re-farm tributes and stuff so if one completes CR there should be a reward for it in terms of loot. Same with SR80+, at least the treasure room could drop some crafting mats at least!

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Yeah for sure, but I don’t really consider my results worthwhile unless I get zero deaths or at least am on the timer so I can progress to next SR. My build can grind through and get a clear on 90 or 95 by the metric of just sliding my ass over the finish line lol. I like to go by ML’s philosophy of posting the SR number that it can reliably do. I may write a guide in the next few days. I’m a perfectionist, which is why I never write guides here - id just want to keep tinkering and tweaking, so I just move on and play something else lol.

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Reliably is also like “up to taste” is 1 death in 10 tries good, how important is piloting etc.

Hard to be perfectionist when you play legit, imagine the number of ugdenbog blooms needed to try out best combination of components for instance :stuck_out_tongue: I rather make 10 builds that are 90% “perfect” than 1 build that is 99,5% perfect :slight_smile: After all, there are so many coold and weird builds one can do. Also posting something that is not perfect is nice for community too, to share ideas and give each other feedback. Since this is single player focused game, this is the aspect of GD that I enjoy most, to share builds and ideas

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ugh, i suck… i can’t make a “better”/more passive version of this… :unamused:
-i wanted to try benefit from the flat chaos dmg, adding in chaos->fire conversion, which would boost Fiend and make GG possibly viable too and stacking more procs on top - but ofc all the conversion slots overlap with the desired/BiS vindictive flame boosting items and ofc Embercall too…

“only” semi-reasonable thing i could come up with to add to this was changing affixes to CDR, - which aside from fudging affixes ofc, also would mean a resist loss, some of which are actually significant to the build :confounded:

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Malagant has a vid called “chill dawn” I think and it’s SUPER passive

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True but it’s a matter of preference. I play legit in HC but I consider it silly to theorycraft and limit my options. Not hating on your playstyle, but you’re kneecapping yourself

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aye but i don’t think it was embercall/“heavily” modified Vindictive?, but more like a usual aura build,
which can be super passive regardless, ex infil or pally, but without stacking deep modifiers, at least in my experience, it doesn’t become all that “effective”, as in you might as well just make a passive retal build and it will be faster/stronger. Hence why “trying” to see if “moar” could be stacked on top of all these VF modifiers Ulvar has here.

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My buddy @Fretheo has been working on VF combos for months now, so there will likely be something like what you’re talking about, sooner rather than later :smiley:

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Imagine grim dawn without GDstash. That is how I play it :slight_smile: Most of my game time is spent on farming blooms crystals and leveling chars. When I do drop some sick MI then I theory-craft build and if it ends up well in GT i try to make char in game. Its like an experiment almost.

Sure I could focus on a few chars but that is not fun for me. The main reason why I play GD so much is because of uts build diversity and creativity.

At least this build has more dps than my mortar purifier. The reduced attack rate on mortar hurt a lot. The extra burn dmg on big one (kekw false advertisment) does not compensate. Still build is tanky as hell so still gets the work done. Like playing a retal build almost

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You could easily stash builds for concepts, like I do, and then proceed to work toward making them in game. It’s the literal same thing, except all your testing is done on the dummy build.

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It is a slippery slope. Too much temptation skipping the farming and leveling step. Also I enjoy the excitement of seeing the planned build in action, the “experiment” as I mentioned and that I have to prioritize only based on my knowledge and experience in the game to know what build is “worth” doing just based on its stats shown in Grim Tools. Knowing how the goal build will perform and play out is therefore kinda like spoiling the fun for me.

But as I said, imagine GD without GDstash. Do people pre-create their chars in Diablo 3 and PoE too with cheat tools and test play them before League/Season/Ladder?

I think this comment is spot-on btw:

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No cheat tool in PoE, but using a planning tool before to plan out the entire build map is more critical than GD. Refunds are expensive to the point that they are one of the trading currencies. And there are a number of irreversible game play choices that impact builds.

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I know, which means it would make more sense in PoE to have such cheat tool, like ability to download the patch and play local on your computer to try builds etc.

Now I am to starting to think about how much time I have saved using Grim Tools and just not a self made excel spreadsheet … perhaps Grim Tools is also cheating :thinking: perhaps my next SSF char will be a “no grim tools” build :sweat_smile:

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love that little final note “well, mostly no one… will criticize it” :laughing:

on the other hand, the main problem with GDstashed/BiS gear builds (imo) are they can give some players a skewed or even unrealistic picture of GD, endgame, and expectations for their (own) builds and performance - when/where not clearly highlighted what was done, who piloted it, items high rolled, or even fudged mutators/camera exploit(tho that matters not anymore)
^since many/most players will never, eeever, see themselves actually making those builds 1:1 (legit),

not just because of the absurd amount of RNG it can take just with regular blues or purples. But outside budget builds/“guaranteed obtainable” items/crafts, stuff like sets or specific build key items can be potentially “impossible” to get legit in any avg casual player’s timeframe that just want to reach endgame and try powerrun a suped up toon, not spending 1000hours farming.
-and that’s ofc even before potentially considering either double rare affixes or worse; specific demanded affixes, ex to fix resists/CC, worse outside of MIs that can’t be shopped,
^eg someone on Steam has been farming Primordian for 900+ kills without getting anywhere near to even potential desired decent affixes https://steamcommunity.com/app/219990/discussions/0/3103512736621052220/

And that’s also ofc even if ignore stuff like obvious “hell MIs”/Uniques, like double Magi rings, Alkamos Rings, Sharzul firestick, or other stupid low droprate Uniques/MIs, just to be able to make 1 build.

I think that’s what makes stuff like not just the "different setup"grimtools good ex in Ulvar or Baka’s “affix posts”, but also the SSF’ish nature of such builds, being a much more realistic “upgrade” from ex budget/beginner builds.

even something as simple as a build including “legit” items, ex Stoneplate greaves can throw a spanner in some builds, if it’s GDstashed/posted with specific affixes, specially the double rare versions… because the mad rng required to get them legit and craft obscene amounts of boots you need heaps of scrap/dynamite for

i’ve even tried a character that straight up didn’t work without “all” item’s being semi-high rolled, because defenses and resists just wouldn’t be decent with avg GT rolls, but much less with realistic ingame lowball rolls.

there are so many potential qualifiers for not just a builds performance, but overall basic function, that i think these types of “Ulvar builds” does the general or casual community a much bigger service than pure GDstashed builds/that has no regard for farming/ingame acquirement/BiS just for BiS sake - so it’s kinda good there’s a least a couple of players staying away from that slippery slope :wink:

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