[1.1.9.1 - 1.2.0.3] Veil Incomprehensible - DW Veilkeeper Spellbinder [sr+][mi][vid]

Greetings! :slightly_smiling_face:

Waiting for 1.1.9.2 patch and its amazing content? Well, why not making another build then, right? Looks like, the patch is delayed a bit… Anyway.

Veilkeeper set is kinda strange for me. Provides Health Regen, Lightning + Aether Damage, supports Shaman, Arcanist and Necromancer classes, melee playstyle with WPS modifiers, Upheaval and Arcane Will (what? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:). Looks like Rah’Zin… but way, way worse. No RR, no interesting set bonuses. Can we apply it to endgame content then? :thinking: Let us find out.

I decided to make Aether Spellbinder using the set as the worst (in my opinion) variant (why would you make this build when you have 4 pieces Krieg set + Ascended Casque? :laughing:). I have one vacant character, also I wanted to try it in endgame more thoroughly. Here are the results.

1. Grimtools link.

Since we want to make melee Spellbinder to fully utilize Veilkeeper, we need an AA replacer. Uroboruuk relic does not fit since its skill cannot proc WPS, component and other relic ones (Shard of Beronath, Mistborn talisman etc.) are horrible. So, good old Theodin’s Fleshwarped Strikes remain. DW character then.

About devotions. I tried to follow game devs idea and make Aether Health Regen build :grin:. That is why it includes Behemoth, Tree of Life and Spear, Ghoul/Tortoise for extra defense, then usual stuff like Widow for RR, Watcher to fix our terrible DA.

Harbinger of Souls has higher priority over Reckless Power due to ADCtH. Also, because the build has pretty low Defensive Ability, Blood Boil was maxed out to avoid nasty crits.

2. In-game character stats.
1.2.0.3_DWVS_general_stats
general stats, only passive buffs are active

1.2.0.3_DWVS_regen_stats
regen stats

1.2.0.3_DWVS_magic_stats
magic stats

1.2.0.3_DWVS_defense_stats
defense stats

3. Gear/Build explanation.
The build does not have optional gear. Everything is at least mandatory. Fortunately, most items are target-farmable.

  1. Core items.
    Set . Veilkeeper. “Star” of the show, obiously :grin:.
    Weapon 1. Heart of Theodin Marcell. Provides an AA replacer - Fleshwarped Strikes with in-built flat RR. The current one I use has BiS suffix and old Demolitionist prefix (just some %Cunning and %Spirit). Try to get %AS suffix at least and some %Aether Damage. It is harder than you might think, believe my experience :laughing:.
    Weapon 2. Mindwarp. BiS secondary weapon for melee Aether builds (or even main). Nice RR, flat and percentage, good proc, +1 to Arcanist, CDR is also useful for Spellbinders. Second Heart of Marcell is not better and even redundant (unless you like using GD Stash :neutral_face:).
    Amulet. Conduit of Undying Whispers. We need that sweet RR modifier for Siphon Souls. Craftable.
    Relic. Blademaster’s Talisman. We cannot use dual weapons without it. Veilkeeper set blocks Medal slot (our usual option for DW enabling), belts with that option are not good. So, this relic remains. By the way, our WPS pool is 100% thanks to it and two Seals of the Void. Crafting bonuses are up to you. My current one helps dealing with Ravager and Reaper of the Lost (our main Nemesis).
  2. Mandatory items.
    Rings. The Magelord. Provide Elemental-to-Aether conversion (important for Soul Harvest and devotions) and another AoE proc. Skill bonuses are not great. It would be nice to have %Attack/Cast Speed on then (and logical), but oh well.
    Pants. Leggings of Arcane Currents. We need Physical Resistance so much since the character is a melee fighter. And DA. These pants are the only option. Wraithborne Legwraps are for Krieg lads :neutral_face:.
    Belt. Chains of Ygraad. Vitality-to-Aether conversion (again, important for Soul Harvest), +1 to Arcanist. Look for OA/DA and resistances, mostly Poison/Pierce/Bleed/Aether/Chaos. The last are hard to overcap, I must confess.
    Gloves+Boots. Krieg’s. A minimal combo for melee Aether builds. Big %Aether Damage, bonuses to Mark of Torment and Mirror of Ereoctes - our defence abilities, Physical Resistance, gloves have AoE proc to deal with trash mobs.

Craft items with whatever you desire.

About Resistance Reduction. Total amount is ~87-93% (-27% from Spectral Wrath (when hit), -10% from conduit Siphon Souls modifier, -35% from Widow constellation and flat 15-21 from Theodin scepter) plus up to 36% RR from Mindwarp. Not amazing, but workable. Our main problem is Reaper of the Lost, as usual. Fortunately, we have instruments to deal with him, like Nullification and Mirror/Mark combo.

4. Gameplay.
Apply Siphon Souls for RR, Ill Omen to reduce incoming damage from enemies, uptime Soul Harvest for big damage boost, smack everything with Fleshwarped Strikes. Will of the Fallen Kings and Nullification/Mirror/MoT are for movement/defense according to current situation.

5. Videos.
Mad Queen.

Kra’Vall.

Lokarr.

Morgoneth.

SR 75 full.

Avatar of Mogdrogen (old video) (terrible gameplay, used Stormshroud potion and couple of Heals on Phase 2 just to be safe).

Ravager of Flesh (potions are in the video, no Aether Clusters and healpots, facetanking with evade on sunder. Tried without evading, but decided to be safe at the end :sweat_smile:).

Callagadra (potions are in the video, no Aether Clusters and healpots, facetanking with evade on sunder on first phase, kiting on second).

No interest in Crucible runs, too lazy to farm Tributes, too arrogant to use “cheating” programs :rofl:.

What can I say? The build is playable, idea is not that crazy. If played properly, it can do almost all endgame content (maybe even Crate? :thinking: If you manage to get more %Petrify Res, of course, it is a nightmare otherwise). If you want to try something different from full/4-pieces Krieg Spellbinder setups, Veilkeeper is also a viable option. What do you think about that? Feel free to comment :slightly_smiling_face:.

Thanks for reading and have a good time!

10 Likes

Reserved, again.

Sees 2795, wonders if we live in the same world :rofl:

6 Likes

that’s low as fuq man, gotta get that 3k.

1 Like

Actually, I always try to get 3k OA/DA on any character with permanent and temporary buffs with 100% uptime. Sometimes it is possible only with abilities that shred OA/DA. And, of course, procs :slightly_smiling_face:.

Haha not everyone can be a confident 2k Andy

3 Likes

It is good practice to do so, but binder doesn’t need anywhere near that much. MoT and mirror are more than enough to make up for low DA. You could probably get away with 2-2.5k

A friend of mine (@Gilric) made a melee regen memer around this set too. Instead of going with the ‘obvious’ Necro or Shaman masteries he went for a Spellbreaker to make use of the WPS. The second weapon wasn’t a Mindwarp but a Blaze Herald with the addition of an Aether Shadow Strike Conduit of Night Whispers to convert the piercing damage from Dual Blades and Whirling Death to aether damage. The set itself converts some cold damage to aether damage which is nice for Execution.

For a pure meme build it turned out to be quite ‘good’ :scorv:

May be the case if you are more experienced endgame player than me :slightly_smiling_face:. And attentive to battlefield dangers.

I would have chosen more Aether RR to Veil of Shadow. Except if Shadow Strike is a core ability.

Who needs boring standard builds anyway? :laughing:

1 Like

Hi!

The build in question got many nerfs for some unknown reason and a little bit of buffs :laughing: (should have thought before creating Aether Health Regen build). Here is the list of changes:

  • Updated Jump Attack animation speed for 1h-melee and 2h-melee to match the speed used when dual wielding. This animation is used in many WPS skills and granted weapon attacks from items and components, as well as Soldier’s Markovian’s Advantage, and should result in a roughly 34% improvement.
  • Blademaster’s Talisman: further increased % Activation Chance on the granted skill.
  • Heart of Theodin Marcell: reduced % Weapon damage and Aether damage on the granted skill.
  • The Magelord Set: added 20 Aether damage bonus.
  • Magelord Band: removed Aether damage.
  • Magelord Signet: removed Aether damage.
  • All Conduits: increased Health to 840.
  • Krieg’s Grip: removed Health. Added 180 Aether damage modifier for Blitz.
  • Veilkeeper’s Armor: added 4% Physical resist.
  • Veilkeeper’s Mantle: added 28 Health Regeneration.
  • Veilkeeper’s Mask: replaced bonus to Arcane Will with +1 to Arcanist Skills and added modifiers for Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange.
  • Alladrah’s Phoenix: reduced % Burn damage to 50% and removed % Health Regen.
  • Behemoth: reduced % Health Regen to 30%.
  • Phoenix Fire: fixed an issue where the Absorption effect was not applying.

According to changes, the build was updated to this Spellbinder, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.4) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator. No changes in gear, only talents reshuffle. One SR 75 run to show its performance (with unlucky first Shard):

The build is still okay, but feels somewhat worse. Started to get one-shots from Iron Maiden (bad luck or…). Anyway, the journey continues :slightly_smiling_face:. Until next big patch!

Thank you for the update. I have a question though.
I don’t understand how you were able to create the devotion map system with the following points.
Spellbinder, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (grimtools.com)

I can’t seem to find a way to achieve ascendant and eldritch points as I can’t map to them. Can you explain how you were able to map the devotion points as I’m stuck with 19/55 to spend. Thank you in advance.

Here is my map for my character.
I don’t know how to achieve what you have listed in devotion.

Please check the skills as I’m stuck at 19 out of 55 points.

The trick is that Phoenix and Behemoth give Eldritch completion points, so they can sustain themselves (with additional Eldritch point in Crossroads). All we need is one temporal Eldritch devotion, for example, Raven. So, the start of devotion tree will be like this:

  1. Chaos (red) point into Crossroads;
  2. Complete Viper constellation;
  3. Complete Eel constellation;
  4. Order (yellow) point into Crossroads;
  5. Complete Lion constellation;
  6. Remove Order point from Crossroads;
  7. Eldritch (green) point into Crossroads;
  8. Complete Raven constellation;
  9. Now you can complete both Behemoth and Phoenix constellations;
  10. Remove Raven constellation.

Rest of the map does not have any problem to complete, just take all remaining devotions :slightly_smiling_face:.

OK. Thank you for the reply.
I successfully updated the devotion using the strategy you mentioned. Thank you once again.

One more question.
I was comparing the devotion points and it seems I have two more in Chaos.
My build:

my devotion points
2
10
6
3
20

your devotion points
2
8
6
3
20

Question: Are you missing two chaos points?

You completed Ghoul constellation and it gave 3 Chaos points. I used last point in Crossroads. So we have:

  1. In your setup: 3 points in Jackal + 3 in Ghoul + 2 in Viper + 2 in Giant = 10 Chaos Completion points;
  2. In my setup: 3 points in Jackal + 1 in Crossroads + 2 in Viper + 2 in Giant = 8 Chaos Completion points.

Thank you once again. I understand now.
I appreciate the help.

1 Like

Hello and welcome back to this Aether regenerator’s den :slightly_smiling_face:.

List of 1.1.9.6 changes:

  • Alladrah’s Phoenix: increased Health to 250 and % All Retaliation damage to 80%
  • Bone Harvest: increased base % Weapon damage to 120% and increased its scaling with rank to 300% by rank 16, 360% by max ultimate rank
  • Dread: increased Vitality Decay damage scaling with rank
  • Siphon Souls: increased Duration to 6s and reduced Cooldown to 5s
  • Blood Boil: increased Bleed and Vitality Decay damage scaling with rank. Increased Offensive Ability reduction scaling at ultimate ranks to -285 by max ultimate rank.
  • Sear Souls: reduced Duration bonus to 3s

As you can see, nothing game-breaking :grin:. The build did not change. Until next time!

1 Like

Hello! :slightly_smiling_face:

Not much to report in 1.1.9.7:

  • Arcane Will: increased Defensive Ability scaling with rank to 200 by rank 10, 380 by max ultimate rank
  • Maiven’s Sphere of Protection: increased % Damage Absorb scaling with rank to 22% by rank 12, 32% by max ultimate rank

Just more defense, no gear changes. Have fun!

Greetings!

This is 1.1.9.8 build update:

  • The Magelord Set: increased damage on the skill proc and added % Damage Reduction to it.
  • Magelord Band: added 190 Health.
  • Magelord Signet: added 190 Health.
  • Alladrah’s Phoenix: added 15% Freeze Resist and 30% Burn Duration.
  • Behemoth: increased % Health to 8% and increased % Health for pets to 12%. Added 4% Physical Resist for pets.
  • Lion: increased % Run Speed to 6% and increased % Health for pets to 8%.
  • Spear of the Heavens: replaced % Lightning Resist with 15% Energy Regeneration
  • Callidor’s Tempest: increased % Weapon damage scaling with rank to 115% by rank 16, 145% by max ultimate rank
  • Inferno: reduced Energy Cost scaling with rank
  • Wrath of Agrivix: reduced Cooldown to 3.8s and the % Damage Modified to 140%. Removed % Weapon damage.
  • Ill Omen: increased damage scaling with rank
  • Necrotic Edge: sped up the melee animation hit frame by 27% to match comparable WPS skills. Average DPS of this ability remains unchanged.

The build was adjusted accordingly by moving points from CT to Ill Omen since the first has lost 100% Aeon activation chance. Bone Harvest has only 68% to proc though :neutral_face:, but it is the best available skill with cooldown and we need it for flat damage buff anyway. The GT link was updated. Have fun!

1 Like