[1.1.9.7] Cold DW Caster Infiltrator | SSF Beginner guide, leveling & Advanced | All Celestials | HC friendly

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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17

Great, I actually wanted to ask you about that yesterday (DPS optimized Chillwhisper with Spectral Longsword).

18

Starfury Emerald is BiS DPS-wise. Maybe like this Infiltrator, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator without extreme stuff like dropping Runebound Topazes for Vengeful Wraiths. But it’s not gonna live.

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19

First Callagadra kill in my Grim Dawn career. 5:30 in 1.1.9.7 with the Advanced setup. Pretty easy fight, should be doable faster by playing more aggressively. Beat her in my 3rd attempt, after getting into the groove and following a very safe strategy of just fighting when my heals and barrier were off cooldown. Also if a defensive potion / cluster were near refreshing, I waited for them too.

I didn’t pay attention to any of her attacks or summons, just my Cooldowns and Health. I had to watch out for not being in the range of Inquisitor Seal - it can happen with such a big enemy. I was changing locations in the hope of her stuff not accumulating on me. Tornadoes sometimes tanked my FPS. My game minimized at around 0:57 but fortunately the game stopped when it happened.

Adjustments for the fight (GrimTools):

  • :turtle: devotion like in the OP’s update

  • Titan Plating instead of Diamond in the helmet

  • augments to reach at least 58% overcaps in Pierce / Bleed / Fire resistances (see the guide by RektByProtoss)

    • I totally overdid it with Fire and Bleed overcaps - forgot that you drink 30% potions for those
      Titan plating most probably not needed

  • Courageous Tincture - probably not necessary, was fighting in the 2nd phase without it and Cluster sometimes

  • all long duration pots beneficial for this fight

4 Likes
20

Hello! :wave: New player here, very interested in Infiltrator.

I appreciate this immensely thorough guide, and the extent to which you lay this out with such care and detail. By no means do I mean to go against the thoughtfulness of this build, but as a new player who loves the idea of Nightblade’s early game, do you think it would be possible for me to level the two trees more in tandem, or even prioritize Nightblade first?

I’m coming from a very different video game background so my understanding of the deep skill synergies here is limited to put it generously. But from my point of view, it seems like the offensive skills (Shadow Strike, Amarasta’s Blade Burst, and Veil of Shadow w/ Night’s Chill) plus the big defensive boosts (Phantasmal Armor and Pneumatic Burst w/ some light investment in its upgrades like Breath of Belgothian and Shadow Dance), would make for a really fun early game.

Am I way off base here? I definitely don’t want to mess anything up, but I wasn’t sure if this was a “do what suits your playstyle” thing (since it can all end in the same place eventually) or if this just won’t work.

Sorry for the slightly rambling question - I won’t be at all offended if you don’t respond, and either way I hugely appreciate this write-up! :pray:

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21

Sure you can pump all in Nightblade first and stry grom there :slight_smile:

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22

:point_up_2:

Welcome on the forum! Perhaps later you’ll want 100% focused Shadow Strike character :thinking:
This is definitely a caster / Rune of Hagarrad focused build. Here are some mostly old beginner builds:

And here are endgame builds:

If you follow mine (at least later), make sure to include Turtle devotion and Blade Barrier (1p while leveling) which are not present in the Leveling Journey, to make the build even tankier. Not that it’s particularly needed. Only against Korvaak I’d say, to facetank his meteors.

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23

Wow, thank you for such a thorough reply, you are an angel! I think you’re right, and I may want to opt for a build more focused around the Nightblade actives that I have a lot of fun with. After perusing your recommendations, something like that DW Cold Spellbreaker appeals to me a lot. Just wanted to say thanks - I appreciate you!

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24

New player here. Got a question about the Devotion points. On item 3 in the list it states “- Green” what does that mean? I can’t take away the green because of the dependency for Scholars Light.

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25

Completed Scholar’s Light gives 1 Green Affinity so you definitely can respec the “Green”:

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26

Oh, got it. Thanks for the ultra quick reply.

27

I wanted shadow strike infiltrator for a long time, can this build safely do sr7576? And how far can it go?

28

It’s more Rune of Hagarrad / caster centered, not pure Shadow Strike.
SR75-76 should be comfy but I didn’t test higher. I can send you a character folder if you’d like to try out
if it’s something for you.

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29

Sure, thanks a lot!

30

_SelenaAdv.zip (1.2 MB)

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31

Loving this. One question. Would this build work for HC? Also, what end-game build could I aim for?

32

Yes, it’s very hard to kill and consistent, just remember to be in the Inquisitor Seal
and use Pneumatic Burst, Healing Pot and Blade Barrier in that order of priority if your Health drops too much. Beginner build has also some points in Word of Renewal but the Advanced version not and doesn’t use it for healing.

Also better have it developed well (devotions, component, Vitality → Cold conversion for example) before the 2nd part of the Forgotten Gods in Ultimate. Although when I was there I didn’t have Blade Barrier and Turtle devotion that were added later so it should be even better while leveling there.

For example you should be able to facetank Korvaak’s meteors in hist last phase with the Beginner Build. And all Main Campaign bosses in Ultimate.

The Advanced build from the OP which I tested could be a build to aim for
or the Chillwhisper one but that one I did not test but it’s similar.

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33

I’ve managed naked facetank (1:53) with Advanced after today’s 2% Phys res buff in 1.1.9.7 (I have 45% in total now):

I also tried with the Chillwhisper a bit and perhaps I did something wrong but I couldn’t beat Ravager even with pharma. I may investigate this some other time but perhaps the Phys res difference between the two (8%) does matter a lot. The Chillwhisper variant also has less DA, Armor and RR.

3 Likes
34

hello, is there config for GDautocaster?

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35

I’ll answer quote your message in this program’s thread.

36

8% difference in this case lead to an effective amor (factoring in physical res) of ~3610 vs ~2930

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