Introduction
Drain essence is one of my favorite skills in Grim Dawn due to its insane lifesteal and Aoe. I made an aether and cold drain essence builds before so I wanted to try another version which is the vitality one.
1.1.9.5 Build : Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
1.1.9.6 Build : Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Pros
High RR 115%.
Decent physical resistance 44 %.
Straightforward build all you do is cast your debuffs then use drain essence.
Cons
Piano build that might not suit everyone.
It requires a lot of green MI items with good affixes to function properly which means it is not a beginner friendly build.
Damage is average 300k max.
a lot of monsters have high vitality resistance in the game which means you will not deal a lot of damage most of the time. ( sacrifice damage for sustain ).
Clones of Bourbon kill
Lokkar kill
SR 76
Tips : craft for stun res. Do not level with drain essence as it requires a lot of energy. Level with sigil of consumption or ravenous earth as it is more optimal especially when you get the green MIs that support sigil and ravenous earth.
Conclusion : The build is very fun to play especially when you watch trash mobs get feared and confused by ill omen and bloody pox at the same time. damage could be higher with Leafmane trophy but I opted for the shield because I had energy issues. I hope that you will enjoy this build and see you later 
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4 Likes
I made similar build, except I went for Drain Essence/Sigil hybrid with Skull of Gul’Amash. Main reason - you drop Sigils and they stay on the ground for a duration so you can channel DE without interruptions, unlike Doom Bolt which needs to be cast every 3s. Because of mods on off-hand and scepter Sigils deal decent supplementary damage, too.
I also removed all greens, except medal and weapon (replaced them with Heart of Yugol chest, Girdle of Stolen Dreams belt and Boneweave Leggins). I will probably switch to MI legs (resistances are a bit tight) if I drop a good double-rare but for now legendaries are better for me.
Because of aether->vit conversion on off-hand I’m able to use Bloodfury Spaulers which give me almost 100% uptime on +150% vitality damage and +14% casting speed.
I also ditched Vigar’s Hunger because its mods for Drain Essence are pointless since you are immortal as long as you are casting. I’ll probably pick it up again once new patch hits since it will get some mods for Siphon Souls and it might be worth to get it for another vitality decay proc. But for now, I’m using weapon damage Conduit for Drain Essence which gives me ~30k dps in character sheet with only permanent buffs (without hungering void and bloodfury).
Drain Essence has a rough Act 1 but as soon as you finish it you can farm your shield and chest. Medal is early in Act 3. So you get a decent amount of pieces before you even complete main campaign. 2 important pieces of gear are in the same location, too.
Energy issues are solved with Ectoplasm and Scales of Ulcama devotion.
But this is just me - I dislike leveling up with one build and then switching because I use campaign to get comfortable with a character and train muscle memory. I like my build to become “online” as soon as possible (preferably, right after act 1), even if it’s not optimal to do it this way.
Overall, good attempt. Casting speed seems to be low and I don’t like Doom Bolt at all (interrupts channeling too often). I gave up on MIs (except two but weapon can be shop-farmed and medal matters only for mods) because I’ve got all necessary legendaries before I was able to get MIs with relevant bonuses. Green chest and legs are probably BiS but I think Gul’Amash > Spectral Shield (unless you are going for retaliation build) because of casting speed, mods to DE and energy regen.
Update : Changed ring components to ectoplasm for more energy regeneration and changed 1 seal of blight to symbol of solael for more RR.
