[1.1.9.1 - 1.2.0.3] Blades Flammable - Fire Phantasmal Blades Dervish [sr+][vid]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Good day! :slightly_smiling_face:

The build I am going to present today has roots from the past. When I complained about questionable mechanic of Vitality conversion in Frenetic Throw modifier for Phantasmal Blades. That it spoils conversion and makes you lose a big chunk of possible converted Damage. All information I got that day was: no one knows why such conversion was implemented, the game was balanced around this mechanic and not going to change, if I want to play something different from Pierce or Vitality spammable PB - convert what you can and enjoy, the skill itself is pretty strong :roll_eyes:. Ok then. Let us try some non-standard idea - Fire Phantasmal Blades and see what it is capable of.

First I wanted to make Saboteur, but it was so squishy. And no Exclusive. And points-hungry. And I do not like the class :neutral_face:. On the other hand, Dervish has some useful bonuses, as well as RR, %Fire Damage, Ascension, Resilience etc. The choice is obvious.

All right, here is the build.

1. Grimtools link

I have chosen defensive route with Empyrion and Scales to have at least some chances to survive. Magi instead of Torch helps with damage, single and AoE. Because %Fire Damage is quite low, Spirit dump is recommended, Physique only to equip Armor, nothing more.

2. In-game character stats
1.2.0.3_FPBD_general_stats
general stats, only passive buffs and Pneumatic Burst are active

1.2.0.3_FPBD_PB_breakdown
Phantasmal Blades breakdown

1.2.0.3_FPBD_magic_stats
magic stats

1.2.0.3_FPBD_defense_stats
defense stats

3. Gear/Build explanation
The gear I used provides full conversion for Phantasmal Blades, its 24/16 skill level (so that we have 6 blades per throw) and RR.

  1. Core items.
    Set. Ember’s Calling. Provides support for Fire Nightblades, RR, %Fire Damage, and full Cold-to-Fire conversion for Phantasmal Blades.
    Weapons. Dual Blazehearts. Provide Vitality and Chaos-to-Fire conversions for Phantasmal Blades and some devotions (Eldritch Fire, Tip the Scales). +2 to Oathkeeper is also nice. No Casting Speed unfortunately :frowning_face:.
    Amulet. Conduit of Night Whispers. Huge RR to our Veil of Shadow, +1 to Nightblade. Craftable.
    Relic. Serenity. We need Skillpoints and circuit-breaker since Ghoul devotion is not available.
  2. Mandatory items.
    Ring 1. Combustion Band. Usual Fire RR ring, nothing more to say, take it.
    Pants. Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind. OA, Slow Resistance, Spirit, some points to Veil of Shadow means more DA. Proc is good.
    Gloves. Quickdraw Gloves. The only gloves with PB points. Craftable.
    Boots. Wyrmscale Footguards. Great Fire boots with OA, DA, Stun Resistance, proc also is useful against Elemental and Bleeding enemies.
  3. Can be changed.
    Ring 2. Signet of the Fallen. Provides points to PB, %Casting Speed, proc just deals some Fire Damage. Not the best ring. Can be changed to any green or yellow ring with “of Butchery” suffix (mandatory) and %Casting Speed (much needed, but not necessary). For example, some ring like “Light Bringer’s … of Butchery” - like I have now.
    Belt. Spellbreaker Waistguard. +1 to Nightblade and +2 to Nether Edge, %OA. Conversion does nothing since we do not have any Acid Damage. As an alternative, any +1 to Nightblade Belt (except for Gargoyle Waistguard, its Vitality-to-Cold conversion is bad) will fit nicely.

Craft items with Reduced Stun/Freeze Duration (bonus is provided by Malmouth blacksmith in Steelcap District). My conduit has %Slow Resistance and gloves have %Reduced Freeze Duration though, so %Reduced Freeze Duration could be even bigger and Serenity bonus could be changed (or vice versa). Especially if you take craftable Belt.

About Resistance Reduction. Total amount is ~116% (-37% from modified Veil of Shadow, -28% from Guardians of Empyrion aura, -8% from Combustion Band proc, -23% from Solael’s Witchblade constellation and flat 20 from Scales of Ulcama constellation (when hit)) plus up to 20% RR from Viper Constellation. Ok, but can be better. Fire-resistant enemies require some time to deal with (like Grava’Thul, Shar’Zul, Gargabol, Maiden), also Kuba is surprisingly tanky.

4. Gameplay
Always try to keep enemies under your Veil of Shadow aura. It means middle-range or close combat for full effectiveness. Spam your Fire blades. Uptime Pneumatic Burst and Ring of Steel against melee fighters to fumble their attacks as well as stunning them. Ascension for damage burst/defence. Blade Barrier in some dire circumstances only (invincibility at the cost of movement and attacking). Vire’s Might and Chaos Strike for mobility/critical Damage Reduction. Energy management is not a problem despite not having an Off-Hand thanks to Scales and nice Regen.

5. Videos
Mad Queen.

Kra’Vall.

Lokarr (try to dodge his Flame Waves).

Morgoneth.

SR 75 full.

Avatar of Mogdrogen (old video) (surprisingly easy fight, even though it is longer. But what do you expect from build with less that 2000% Fire Damage without Spirit? :laughing: Potions are in the video).

Clones of Burbon (potions are in the video, no Aether Clusters/healpots, tried to put mobs in one line. The fight and boss are not amazing, loot is garbage, but music slams :metal:).

The conclusion? Build is decent :slightly_smiling_face:. Much tankier than my ill-fated Chaos PB Witch Hunter and comfortable to play. Performs better than some “intended” builds :laughing:. Of course, not from top-tier, but does it really matter sometimes?

Hope you like it. Feel free to write your questions/feedback.

Have fun!

12 Likes
2

Reserved. Nothing more to say.

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Neat build. Binding magi to vires might or pb will increase dps by quite a bit. Guardians are really bad for procing it on cooldown. Also is double spark required for energy or would seal of annihilation work? I would imagine eng leech from scales + that level of regen would be sufficient.

4

Thanks!

Vire’s Might - only if you rush the map frequently, not the case in my gameplay (in Crucible maybe). I would rather have reliable RR proc on my spam skill, so Guardians with binded Magi is a nice complement to damage.

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Mostly for Disruption Protection. Seal of Annihilation also can be used.

6

Nice Fire PB Dervish here @Willnoword! :+1::+1:

Off-beat builds are always great to see.

2 Likes
7

Can this build beat Gladiator Crucible 150-170 in less than 4 minutes?

1 Like
8

It depends on how frequently Fire-resistant human heroes appear in Waves :laughing:.

1 Like
9

Hello! :slightly_smiling_face:

Did you miss this meme? Have you wondered if it survived last three patches? The answer is: yes, it did :laughing:. Got some buffs even. Here they are (with nerfs, of course):

  • Rare Suffix - Butchery: replaced % Cunning with Defensive Ability, this affects level 82+ versions of the affix only
  • Mythical Quickdraw Gloves: reduced Pierce damage to 7-11 and increased bonus to Ranged Expertise to +3
  • All Conduits: increased Health to 840
  • Mythical Combustion Band: increased % Attack Speed to 8%, Fire damage to 14 and added % Physical damage
  • Ember’s Calling Set: increased % Offensive and % Defensive Ability bonuses to 7%. Increased % Attack damage Converted to Health modifier for Vindictive Flame to 20%. Increased Chaos damage modifier for Dreeg’s Evil Eye to 220 and its Burn damage modifier to 350 / 5s.
  • Crest of Ember’s Calling: increased Fire and Chaos damage modifiers for Dreeg’s Evil Eye to 66. Added 12% Health modifier for Phantasmal Armor.
  • Magi: increased Defensive Ability to 35 and Fire damage to 10-14 and reduced % Burn damage to 100%
  • Fissure: increased Cooldown to 1.8s
  • Scales of Ulcama: reduced Health Regen to 18
  • Haven: increased % Healing Increase scaling with rank to 22% by rank 10, 33% by max ultimate rank and increased % Health scaling with rank to 30% by rank 10, 40% by max ultimate rank
  • Summon Guardian of Empyrion: fixed an issue where flat damage modifiers on items for this skill were not increasing the damage of the basic attack of the guardians. Reduced Burn damage scaling with rank.
  • Dual Blades: increased % Physical Resist scaling with rank to 12% by rank 16, 20% by max ultimate rank
  • Phantasmal Armor: increased Armor scaling with rank to 152 by rank 12, 320 by max ultimate rank

Build has got a new ring instead of Signet of the Fallen with exactly the same affixes I described in main topic :grinning:. I was just lucky. Slightly better damage for each Phantasmal Blade and resistances are pretty good. Here is my current Grimtools link: Dervish, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.4) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator. Rest of the items did not change and you may still use Signet ring though.
A strange performance I had in SR 75:

One question. Since when did Fabius become as much Fire-resistant as Grava’Thul? :thinking:

Anyway, thanks for reading this topic and have a wonderful day!

1 Like
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Hello! :slightly_smiling_face:

What’s new in 1.1.9.6?

  • Solemn Watcher: increased Physique to 25 and % Defensive Ability to 5%
  • Blade Barrier: increased base Health Regeneration and its scaling with rank and increased Cooldown scaling at ultimate ranks to 12s by max ultimate rank. Crowd Control Resist is now 80% at all ranks. The buff is now undispellable.
  • Clarity of Purpose: reduced base % Crowd Control Resists to 12% but increased their scaling with rank such that the value at rank 12 remains at 50%
  • Haven: increased % Shield Damage Blocked scaling with rank to 40% by rank 10, 60% by max ultimate rank. Reduced % Health scaling with rank to 26% by rank 10 and increased scaling at ultimate ranks such that value at max ultimate rank remains at 40%.
  • Resilience: reduced base % Maximum All Resist and % Defensive Ability to 1% and increased their scaling with rank such that the values at rank 12 remain at 5% and 12%, respectively

Nothing unusual, continue enjoying this meme :grin:.

2 Likes
11

Hi! Time to update another meme of mine :slightly_smiling_face:

Here are 1.1.9.7 changes:

  • Reduced monster % Fire Resist by 3% on Ultimate difficulty and 2% on Elite difficulty
  • Dual Blades: increased base % Physical Resist by 2%
  • Pneumatic Burst: reduced Cooldown to 8s and increased Offensive Ability scaling with rank to 110 by rank 12, 200 by max ultimate rank
  • Breath of Belgothian: reduced Cooldown Reduction to -3s
  • Shadow Dance: increased Defensive Ability scaling with rank to 160 by rank 12, 290 by max ultimate rank, and increased % Melee and % Ranged Avoidance scaling with rank to 22% by rank 12, 28% by max ultimate rank
  • Elemental Awakening: increased Frostburn, % Elemental damage and % Frostburn damage damage scaling with rank

They are not specific to the topic build, so it did not change in terms of gear :grinning:. Have fun!

12

Greetings!

This is 1.1.9.8 build update:

  • Reduced monster % Fire Resist by 2% on Elite and Ultimate difficulty
  • Light of Empyrion: increased % Health to 16%. Increased % Health for pets to 15% and % Aether/% Chaos/% Vitality Resists for pets to 25%.
  • Magi: added 15% Freeze Resist and 1.5 Energy Regeneration. Removed % Fire Resist.
  • Sailor’s Guide: added 15% Fire Resist and increased % Run Speed to 10%
  • Scales of Ulcama: increased % Health to 6%, Health to 250 and % Run Speed to 6%
  • Solael’s Witchfire: increased Defensive Ability to 40
  • Solemn Watcher: replaced % Cold Resist with 18% Chaos Resist
  • Ring of Steel: increased % Weapon damage scaling with rank to 260% by rank 16, 320% by max ultimate rank

The build was adjusted accordingly by changing some armor augment, also you do not need %Freeze res crafting bonus anymore. The GT link was updated. Have fun!

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When I made my Dervish, I did so with the eventual plan to try to make at a PB knife-thrower. This build seemed to fit the bill, so I thought I’d try to aim for it and see what could become of it. Gotta say, I’m not disappointed! Kudos for your hard work, including the regular updates =)

1 Like
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Hi! :slightly_smiling_face:

It is time to update memes in 1.2.0.3!

  • Mythical Signet of the Fallen: increased Offensive Ability to 34 and reduced % Vitality Resist Reduction on the skill proc
  • Mythical Wyrmscale Footguards: reduced Cooldown on the granted skill
  • Ghoul: increased Health Regeneration to 16 and % Health Regeneration to 30%
  • Light of Empyrion: increased % Health to 20% and added 26 Fire damage for pets
  • Scales of Ulcama: reduced Energy Regeneration to 2.5 and incrased Health Regeneration to 30 and Defensive Ability to 45
  • Ghoulish Hunger: added % Increased Healing (Forgotten Gods only) and added % Cast Speed
  • Pneumatic Burst: increased Duration to 60s. Increased Energy Cost, % Heal and Health Regeneration scaling with rank.
  • Breath of Belgothian: increased % Health Regeneration to 50%
  • Ascension: increased Energy Cost scaling with rank
  • Vire’s Might: increased Travel Distance

Minor changes mostly :slightly_smiling_face:. Still, the build is updated, with new GT link and videos except for Mogdrogen (wish I could re-fight him legally).

Have fun!