[1.1.9.1] Bloodthirst Cult: Bleed Builds and Team Proposal

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
, , ,
1

Foreword:
This is a themed team (a meme-themed team if you will :wink: ). These builds are built with ‘theme’ and ‘playstyle fun’ in mind. They are each quite powerful, but are not designed or minmaxed for superboss slaying. :slight_smile:

A good bleed build is all about balancing flat sources of bleed dot damage, and bleed RR. The build with the highest bleed RR (Occultist) has one of the least amounts of flat bleed damage. The build with the most bleed damage (Nightblade) has no bleed RR. Finding ways to get a good amount of both is the balancing act, and working with a bleed team is no different (when the goal is “max bleed dmg ty”! I think I’ve managed to come up with a team that should have EXCELLENT damage output.

This team is all about HIT AND RUN playstyle. Each build can stay and fight for a short amount of time, but none of them are tanks, and none should be treated as such. The general rule of thumb is: Stay to fight to apply as much of your dot damage as you can before you need to retreat, but always be prepared to retreat. The bleed ticks will take care of the rest. (In particular, check out Executioner’s Tap and Go playstyle video for a demonstration, or Gunner’s dot duration vid).

Things of note:

  • Two builds bring insane and complementary bleed RR to the team, and two builds bring insane flat bleed damage to the team. There are two other “bonus builds” thrown into the mix for fun (Mage and Gunner).
  • Each of the builds can be played as a solo char, and can comfortably clear 76 with hit-and-run playstyle. (Some more comfy than others).
  • The team synergy is yet to be tested in practice, but I am very excited for it.
  • Each build can achieve 400k + dot tick minimum while soloing. Some builds are considerably higher.
  • Devouring Swarm is a great source of RR, but it is not very widespread. It is spammable, but each cast only affects enemies in a line. Because of this, having multiple players with Devouring Swarm in the team was decided not a bad thing, as it would mean for more effective spread of RR. For team plate, all players except Scyther should cap devouring swarm at 18/16. This allows Scyther’s to take precedence over the others, but otherwise allows all builds to bring their own Devouring Swarm for better coverage.
  • This team has a total of 253 bleed RR. I believe it is possible to get significantly higher in a team (over 300, by incorporating Messenger gun + Goredrinker set, Sangvinar, or by having 20/10 curse of frailty+skill modifiers etc), but to do so would be at the significant expense of good flat bleed damage. At least, this is what I found while theorycrafting or field testing different bleed builds.

Bloodthirst Executioner: RR Master
Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

  • 2he Axe Melee
  • ~450k top bleed ticks solo
  • Brings +100% unique bleed RR
  • Added bleed damage and OA through Presence of Virtue
  • Sear Souls allows longer uptime on the Siphon Souls bleed RR and DA debuff.
  • Ill Omen to reduce enemy damage by 26%
  • Mark of Torment and Ascension to boost toughness

Executioner: Cruci 160-170: Tap and Go playstyle

Bloodthirst Scyther: RR Master
Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

  • 2he Axe Melee
  • ~570k top bleed ticks solo
  • Brings +87% unique bleed RR
  • Brings Blood of Dreeg for OA, Regen, Physical Resistance
  • Powerful Upheaval and Feral Hunger bleed ticks
  • Highest phys res of all Bloodthirst builds (52%)

Scyther: SR 75

Bloodthirst Butcher: High Flat Damage
Trickster, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

  • 1m+ bleed ticks versus humans (600k+ on others) solo.
  • Highest solo damage build in the team.
  • Max’d Circle of Slaughter for 45% fumble to enemies and massive bleed tick
  • Would lower Devouring Swarm to 18/16 while in the team to allow Scyther’s to take over.
  • Blade Barrier for panic button if required. Great for letting enemies die from bleed ticks.

Sr75: 1m+ Bleed tick vs Fabius:

Bloodthirst Bladekeeper: High Flat Damage
Trickster, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

This is one of my new favourite ranged bleed builds. Essentially a bleed caster with 4x buffed blade spirits, each providing unique sources of bleed damage. Kiting in this build is particularly effective, because as you run the blade spirits trail behind you, often about the pace that the enemies are chasing you in. Blade Spirits are loaded up with Blind Fury for additional bleed damage. While the bleed dot damage itself is around the 450k mark, the wide spread and ease of spread of dot damage across the battlefield is very fast and comfortable. In the vid below you can see that even though crucible buffs disappear, the build is quite stable while kiting. His downfall was lack of CC resist and thus being unable to dodge Aleks’ rock when trapped by Benn’jahr!

  • Phantasmal Blades Bleed caster
  • 4x enhanced Blade Spirits
  • 450k bleed ticks solo
  • High Circle of Slaughter for better coverage to enemies
  • 25% dodge chance + 43% fumble to enemies significantly lowers incoming damage
  • This is most comfortable of all classes solo, with good sustain.

Cruci 150-169 - Buffs wore off at 166.

Bonus Build: Bloodthirst Gunner
Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

This build would take Scyther’s place on the team if one of the builds was to swap out. Scyther brings +30% more bleed RR to the team, so was chosen as part of the core group. But, this gunner being a ranged build is actually more stable, as she can stay further away from combat while significantly slowing most enemies and shooting them from a safe distance.

  • 2he Ranged
  • 550k dot ticks solo
  • Boosts the team’s bleed damage by an additional +50% and 50% duration (bonus on Mogdrogen’s Pact).
  • +57% unique RR (not unique if Scyther is on the team)
  • Blood of Dreeg for OA, regen, physical resistance buff
  • Slows enemy movement by -122% (massive against trash!!)
  • Big Feral Hunger and Upheaval hits.

Playstyle Demo: Movement Reduction vs Trash

Dot Duration Demo: 1. Get DoTs up. 2. Watch and see damage happen for 40s.

Bonus Build: Bloodthirst Mage
Tactician, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

A tanky, AOE spamming blood mage, equipped with long range radial and wave bleed damage attacks. I’d previously posted this build, but it seems appropriate to include here. :smiley:

  • 20% unique bleed RR (Word of Pain)
  • Wide reaching bleed AOE attacks: War Cry, Horn of Gandarr, Word of Pain, Forcewave.
  • Immune to bleed damage (100% bleeding duration reduction)
  • Inquisitor Seals to bolster defenses.
  • Field Command + Squad Tactics + Word of Renewal for significant OA/DA and attack speed buffs
  • Constant reduction to enemy damage due to War Cry and Horn of Gandarr

Cruci 160-170

Enjoy :slight_smile:

8 Likes
2

Very nice meme theme you’ve got here @WyreZ! :+1: :+1:

image

2 Likes
3

I love your posts @WyreZ , hope you continue to post team build ideas like this, my friends and I love them

1 Like
4

This gave me a tiny idea that I had previously… stack as many flat bleed dots as i can and came something like this:

image

Even tho it seems a lot I feel like playing with a secondary player whose debuffs bleed from many sources it could do much more favors… that’s my take. Thanks for reading.

1 Like
5

Ah, thank you so much :smiley: I’m glad other people are enjoying them!

6

Yes definitely! That’s going to leave a mark…!

7

we are push this into late ultimate now, still, really no struggles. once we start to fill out the MI’s i think we will cruise even more, but the damage potential is already really high, and we’re seeing huge bleed ticks. super fun.

I think we are going to theme a poison version or something next :slight_smile:

1 Like
8

Yeah! Also for dot damage - look into poison, and then look into Electrocute… :smiley:

9

Thanks for the builds.

  1. Is there a chance to add Berserker devotion here? It’s a shame it’s not here, on axe bleeding build.
  2. Ghoul over Scales?
  3. Do you even need Assassin’s Blade considering low phys damage/low % phys damage? Or is it taken for affinities?
  4. Pants and medal: any other choices if i don’t want to stack %damage to humans?
  5. Weapons are best for bleeding or is something like Gorefeast may be considered?
10

Hi Angmar! I posted 6 builds above. Which ones are your points referring to?

11

Sorry, somehow i lost the reference while editing

this is the build: Trickster, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

12

Ah, sure. I mean, you can probably work out a number of these questions on your own :smiley: So, to encourage that, I’ll ask you some of the same questions.

The devotions are very tight. It’s possible to have Berserker, but only at the expense of some of the other devotion options which I wanted - sometimes out of playstyle or aesthetic preference rather than pure functionality. I think in this case I decided that three Living Shadows dealing additional beleding damage and giving more healing were more beneficial than the benefis of Berserker.

Why do you suppose I might have chosen Scales over Ghoul?

Correct re: Assassin’s blade - mainly for affinites, but also to slightly boost the effectiveness of the lifesteal (as lifesteal only applies to the non-bleeding damage types).

Pants and medal: Yep, plenty of other choices. Which ones would you choose, and why?

It’s been a while since I built this build, but I think you’d get overall more bleeding damage using Mythical Scion of Crimson Wakes (although less bleeding duration and OA). The Butcher of Burrwitch’s Devour proc can help to give a bit of extra healing throughout a fight, too.

There’re always tradeoffs!

13

lol, well, yes, dummies don’t give change, but in fact a lot of rubbish, not assemblies …