It is, almost 13s cooldown and 13s duration but with the cost of somewhat lower damage a little bit. But yeah the build have low DA compare to others build that have 2 piece of Targo.
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How would one level this bad boy and have you taken it to SR?
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Normally DA would be more important, but on this character beyond a certain threshold (around 2500 for level 100) it’s mostly a waste and it’s best to invest in other areas for efficiency. And you’re right about the defensive layers – insane block, about 60% damage absorb, overcapped resistances, strong secondary resistances, reducing monster damage, etc. – they do make up for it.
This build is great for everything. If you want, I can try to get together a SR video and post it.
However, my Vire’s Might build (also linked in the OP) is even better for SR due to its movement speed, and is also an insanely tanky build (without using normal ways to be tanky), so if I do a SR run I may showcase that.
I’ll work on putting together some leveling milestones on this build. Thanks for the feedback.
I updated the OP with a leveling guidance milestone, to give people an idea of how to level the character without completely changing things around.
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Could you explain the thought process behind going for Time Dilation? I must be missing something because I’m not seeing what it does for the build as you currently have it. I guess every third War Cry will have 100% uptime? Every other use I can see doesn’t seem worth it.
Mainly for Overguard I think. And more Devastation casts.
Overguard already has 100% uptime in this setup and Time Dilation would only help every ~2 casts of Devastation. I guess the rotation could be Devastation>War Cry>Devastation>War Cry, but then every third cast you have uptime on neither?
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You’re right, I didn’t look at its transmuter 
My guess is that at some point the transmuter wasn’t being used in the build, in which case Time Dilation would give 100% uptime to Overguard. But now that the transmuter is in the picture, Time Dilation isn’t really doing much.
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Yeah, Time Dilation doesn’t play a role in cycling Overguard. Overguard actually can be up “more” than 100% of the time wtihout it.
Time Dilation is more about cycling Mehnir’s Bastion, Mirror and Nullification, Fighting Spirit, and giving you a free reset on any other item/devotion procs that are on cooldown.
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Do you find that on-block devotions don’t seem to proc as they should? You have 94% block with 100% recovery and yet the 0.1 second Targo’s Hammer is rarely above 2 procs at a time.
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It could just be that it’s hard to see most of them amidst all the glowing particles in the middle of a fight, and by the time a group is more or less dead that some of the hammers are reaching their full duration (10 seconds) and starting to despawn.
Worth noting as well that Targo’s Hammer is capped at 8 Hammers max at any time and that not everything can be blocked - melee attacks and projectiles (like fireballs or falling meteors/rocks) can be blocked but damaging ground effects (like patches of fire) and wave skills (like novas) can’t be blocked. Dodging attacks as well will as one can imagine - not result in a block.
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Hi
I am a Level 45 BM and was getting killed easily by the bosses.
Your build setup really helped and I totally redid my BM using your ideas.
I wished I had more points. 
Its much stronger now and can withstand boss attacks.
Can you clearly explain how u get Overguard up 100% of the time. Mine still goes into cooldown.
Thank you so much for the build. Gonna get back in the game and level up as much as I can.
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To have an overguard uptime of 100% - you need in most cases Markovian’s Defense and some other means to either increase the uptime of overguard or/and lower the cooldown (Spellscourge has both)
Thanks for the tip.
So basically I need to get the SpellScourge set items.
It is one option, but there is also other gear options that can reduce the cooldown - if a 100% uptime is wanted. E.g. Colossal Bulwark - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database or gear with cooldown reduction. Another way would be e.g. to use Aeon’s Hourglass. But in most cases the cost is considered too high for the gain
IMO, having Overguard up 100% is incredibly powerful and you should shoot for it, but don’t completely kneecap yourself in doing so.
If you wanna get creative with your devotions, you can also rush Aeon’s Hourglass. That devotion plus Markovian’s Defense (the skill transmute/upgrade for Overguard on the skill tree, which is mandatory) is enough alone to have 100% up-time.
In the OP above, I have a level 65-ish milestone posted with level appropriate gear: Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
The mid-level version of the build hasn’t reached Aeon’s Hourglass yet, but it’s well rounded and you’ll have Overguard up most of the time. Note that the end-game version of the build utilizes Aeon’s Hourglass, so it’s very much doable to deviate to AH first if you like the skill recycling. That should give you some ideas on how to min-max around mid level, and what to shoot for.
i dont understand the pants