We’re back! Evoker of Elgoloth took a couple nerfs in 1.1.9.6 PT to go along with buffs to passthrough WPS. In the small amount of time I’ve had to play since release I’ve been tinkering. I was further pushed because some poor dude on reddit was trying to kill supers with the old offensive setup in 1.1.9.6 and that just doesn’t work anymore. However the usual reddit advice of 8,000,000 DA minimum was being tossed around so let’s correct that again while we are at it.
In game (apologies about fashion, it’s a disaster but I haven’t bothered updating yet)
1.1.9.6 GT: Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
We swap Ludrigan helm for Korvaak, grab some solael pants (ideally with a vitality roll), and shop or relatively easy farm for a living ring (xyz of the hurricane, prefix is less important). Devos drop tempest for now and go spear for Ravager, although I’d go Korvaak in SR when the crit OA threshold is not an issue.
More points into feral hunger and less into chilling rounds now.
In general we grab a bunch more HP while keeping a damage heavy focus so we can kill nasty stuff via buffer and leech.
SR75-76 (6:34) 1.1.9.6 Evoker Vindi SR75-76 - YouTube
Ravager (:58 via banana) Eard's Evoker Vindicator vs Ravager [9.6, high winrate] - 0:58 - YouTube
Crate (:45) 1.1.9.6 Evoker Vindi Crate kill - YouTube
Someone with more patience can try Cally, I don’t do that fight
Ta da!
Old
Evoker of Elgoloth had quite the rollercoaster in 1.1.9.2 public test. The crossbow had always brought considerable single target damage, but early in test struggled greatly with AoE, making it workable for SR and pretty awful for crucible. Then it got full time passthrough, and the world was upheaved for a patch. It finally settled on it’s current iteration with a unique WPS passthrough mechanic to storm spread. Can’t be abused by upheaval passthrough scaling, and storm spread caps at a 30% chance. Wind devil changes and storm spread now cover AoE needs.
Did I mention it hits hard? Cause it’s out here getting revenge for years of Grava terror upon lightning AA builds
W/buffs
Damage layout: Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.2) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Defensive layout: Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
This is a super flexible platform. I made about 10 tabs in GT and tested 4-5 of them with higher numbers. Thematically I still enjoy Ludrigan helm for lightning chilling rounds even if it doesn’t have passthrough now. In test after full passthrough removal, upheaval secondary focus was better, but I also found about 15% more flat damage for this approach that even out the crucible times. The build can also go more defensive while keeping most of the crazy single target damage.
So doing the gear section a bit different this time
The Needs:
Weapon: Evoker, wouldn’t be here otherwise
Medal: Korvaak. Savagery damage and adcth mods
Necklace: Stormseer. This is actually a storm spread build and not savagery. We wanna nuke shit when storm spread procs
Relic: Eye of the Storm. Really can’t beat it for shaman lightning damage
That’s really it for what Id’ consider hard requirements. The rest is going to be up to your offense vs defense standards and what kind of overcaps you want to rock.
Helm: Thematically I like Ludrigan. Stats are nice as well. Korvaak helm is also a great play, and 3 piece with Ultos helm is an option as well.
Rings: I prefer 2x glyph of kelphat’zoth, as they bring the most damage and we can cap attack speed still with decent rolls. That said depending on other gear choices you’ll have resist holes. Arcane seal is a solid choice as well, bringing similar unbuffed damage while dropping a bit from peak.
Chest: Ultos for damage, now with flat and triggered 2 piece bonus with shoulders. Fateweaver is also a strong defensive choice here and will help resists, along with considerably more physical res, at the cost of damage.
Legs: I like Arcane Currents here but a well rolled MI set of pants works fine as well, the skill points aren’t mandatory. Phys res is needed and poison resist is also tough on this build to cap
Belt: I prefer arcanoweave for +1 all. Storm Shepard is an option although damage is a bit of a wash without +1 inquisitor. Shaman MI belt would work too but who wants to farm that.
Boots: Wyrmscale help cap out stun res. If you’ve made other gear swaps, Stormtitans are nice for HP pool, or Stormbearers if you want the phys res and bump up maelstrom. Could also just go stoneplate for resistance holes
Gloves: Cindertouch for damage thanks to the addition of attack speed. Light’s defender for better resist coverage. Eyeballing the current setup I felt Cindertouch + Arcane Seal was worth more than Light’s Defender + 2x kelphat. We partially convert the cinderwind procs
Shoulders: Ultos unless you’ve considerably changed the setup. Stats we want and +3 savagery.
3-4 crafted gear slots. Stun and slow res if they aren’t near cap due to bad rolls, otherwise physique to get DA up.
Skills:
Skill distribution is focused on max AA damage and ease of play. No totems, only Word of Renewal, Inquisitor Seal, and Wind Devils. Storm spread is maxed, chilling rounds has investment, and we hit up the extra phys damage in Mogdrogen’s Pact in 1.1.9.2. For more AoE pull points from chilling rounds or mog pact and cap maelstrom. Steal a couple points from either for wendigo totem for more survivability, or add to WoR first node for better heal and defensive ability if you’re uncomfortable running ~2400DA.
I’ve purposefully gone with no upheaval here to see how it performs. Dropping any wps excluding storm spread and putting points into upheaval is also a great approach, but you’ll want to look for more OA on multiple item slots then.
Devotions:
Devo tree is heavy focus on lightning damage, taking Tempest and Ultos. Tempest AoE support is really good now with last round of test changes adding targets. Map also lets us take ghoul and elemental storm for additional RR. Remaining points try to fix up slow res. I normally prefer korvaak but had trouble fixing some stats with it in this setup.
Gameplay:
Keep wind devils up. Dash in, drop seal immediately, shoot. Depending on your storm spread procs things will go fast to loldeletebutton. You are a single target destroyer and with some luck can take down nemesis before they even get to use their trump card move. Packs can still be scary, reckless tempest on cooldown and a string of wps without storm spread can get you overwhelmed if playing aggressively.
SR75-76 ~7:41 (had just switched ring and left savagery +2 over overcap here. Also has 5 point chilling rounds and capped maelstrom, but differences are extremely minor during play)
SR75-76 defensive setup ~8:14
Crucible runs by @romanN1
4:23 with great mutators
4:53 with super bad mutators
1:15 Ravager of Flesh w/ defensive setup
~:50 Crate w/ defensive setup. Probably faster if you know what you’re doing
