GRIMTOOLS
Foreword
The idea for this build is to maximize the damage of Phantasmal Blades by boosting it with Soul Harvest. PBs benefit greatly from it by having nearly 700% weapon damage if not transmuted.
Surprisingly decent results for how simple the build is and for just PBs and undeveloped Bone Harvest which provides AoE against trash monsters. I’m more into kiting / cooldown builds at the moment which is one of the reasons it doesn’t use Chillspikes filler, the Frenetic Throw transmuter or even the default shot you get if you put PBs on your mouse.
There are advantages of this approach
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being more adjusted to kiting Crate or Callagadra
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no delays to 3 spells the build uses in rotation - PBs, BH and Ill Omen
all of which are very important and benefit of being cast ASAP- in particular the button for PB should be pressed down to minimize the delay
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not having to chase Casting Speed leaves room for improving other stats / using better items
The build is very resilient because of
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high Life Leech on both main skills
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Ill Omen’s permanent and Mark of Torment’s situational damage reduction
Pneumatic Burst heal
Shadow Dance evasion
Blade Barrier in case of emergency -
Turtle, Tsunami, Korvaak devotions
Here’s some math if you’re interested in trying the spam variant of Phantasmal Blades:
- Soul Harvested Cooldown shot deals 3.4 times more Cold damage than Soul Harvested Spam shot
Gear
Chosen affixes on rares are nice but I think you should be able to balance the build if you have some other good ones:
- Cleric’s and Tempest prefixes are also great for example, of the Eagle suffix on the belt could replace of Frostburn etc.
Item pages below are shortened to most important stats.
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Harra’s Artifice to boost Cold PBs. Chillwhisper Crown is also an option instead the 4p bonus (+1 projectile) but after doing some math I abandoned this idea. |
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Arcanum Frigus is mandatory for conversion and CDR. |
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The same can be said about Speaker for the Dead. It also applies the Cold res debuff and provides global Vit → Cold for Heart Seeker and Soul Harvest. |
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Ghol’s Mark improve Bone Harvest’s range, Life Leech and CDR which helps with damage and devotion proccing. |
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Dreadchill Mark for skill points and support for Bone Harvest. |
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Band of the Eternal Haunt’s Cold res debuff improves damage especially against Moosilauke and Kuba. |
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Wraithwalkers’ evasion syngergizes with Nightblade’s Shadow Dance skill. |
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Gargoyle Waistguard for +1 to NB and Vit → Cold conversion which is not additive with the Harra’s mod for PB so we need 100% in total with Speaker of the Dead. |
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Nemesis improves running and casting speed. Also provides a pet which can proc a devotion and reduce DA which makes Eye of the Korvaak proc more consistent. |
The two remaining items provide skill points to Phantasmal Blades and Soul Harvest.
Stats
My character has
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at least 100% global Vit → Cold conversion in total on the belt and the off-hand for Heart Seeker and Soul Harvest
- because it’s not additive with the Harra’s Vit → Cold mod for PB unfortunately
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high Physical Res and Cooldown rolls
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2.6k DA which is enough to not take big hits from Ravager
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high OA which is good against superbosses and other high DA enemies to proc on Crit devotions and Seal of Annihilation. Also PBs have Crit damage bonus.
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I have % Physique crafting bonuses but feel free to use different ones
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~50% Freeze res which I’ve found to be good enough (mainly for Moosi)
Some things you can do to balance the build around affixes you have:
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Physique dump for Health / DA
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Spirit dump for more damage
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Ateph’s Glare, Wraith’s Scream and Osyr’s Wisdom jewellery augments depending on what you need
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more Bloodied Crystals and Runebound Topazes for their defensive stats
- Arcane Spark is not needed for Energy even against Ravager of Flesh unless you don’t want to use Energy potion. I like Disrupt resistance on it though and seeing Energy drop can be distracting.
Controls
Phantasmal Blades need to be shot as often as possible for max DPS which means
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it has to be on a button that you hold down
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I don’t like it on LMB / RMB because
- it then shoots from pistol as well which can delay our important skills
- the character is meant too be a caster
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you can bind PB to MMB for example, hold it with your middle finger and mash RMB with Bone Harvest using your ring finger
The first PB shot should be after Bone Harvest for the Soul Harvest bonus but after that either deliberately cast PB first or don’t mash BH too hard to prevent a situation when Bone Harvest animation is interrupting PB in every subsequent turn and cast before PB as a result because this makes the lower (than BH) cooldown of PB not beneficial.
If the lack of Shadow Strike for zooming is a deal breaker to you don’t worry, I can provide a 1-button macro for it that utilizes Weapon Swap. Obviously I couldn’t use it while testing the build for this guide.
Skills
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try to align multiple enemies with yourself, especially heroes in SR, so that you can shoot all of them at once with Phantasmal Blades
- tight corridors / passages / walls can help with that
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use Mark of Torment proactively / aggressively unless specified otherwise in the SR videos section
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have enemies in the (small) range of Veil of Shadow unless they are particularly dangerous like Crate, Callagadra, Moosilauke
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I decided to spam Ill Omen ASAP just in case and not wait for its duration to be over
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use Pneumatic Burst before Health pot if low on Health
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Blade Barrier is a last resort but it doesn’t suit every situation. It’s good at the end of fights or to block some attacks after which enemies need to catch up with you. Not the best in the middle of facetanking.
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Teleport movement skill is the best for Crate but feel free to experiment with different ones for other content
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I tested Reap Spirit and bringing down Nightblade mastery - the single target damage might be a tiny bit better (if you cast all skills very well) but I don’t think it’s worth it in general
Videos
Ravager
Naked Ravager (also known as Raw Raburger) 5 times in a row (kills are in the 1:40 - 1:48 range). Specifically for trolls who think it’s pure luck when the Health bar is moving. I stopped at 5 kills because the game stuck at loading screen in the end. I was a bit tired if I remember correctly with slower reactions and I sometimes used a wrong heal / circuit breaker so it has some, although small, margin of error.
This setup is a bit different than the OP, it’s a previous iteration with a bit different components and augments but all stats like DA, Health, Leech, Phys Res, OA etc. are the same so I didn’t bother with retesting. I also had 5 points in Mark of Torment instead of 6 and 1 point too many in Elemental Awekening.
Crate
Felt very easy with this character due to distance, kiting potential, decent damage and all defensive skills. Didn’t manage to get into the groove / learn to play properly actually. This fight might have a 100% consistency if you practice a bit.
Callagadra
Shameful kite. Unless clustered. Don’t step on shiny sand and you’re good. It was an easy fight for me.
Adjustments
- 4 x 15% Pierce res Armor augment (losing 1 Lifescent with 3% Life)
- 1 x Wraith’s Scream amulet augment changed to Osyr’s Wisom for more Bleeding res
- all perma pots shown in the video, including 30% Fire and 30% Bleeding res ones
SR 75-76
I’m not the best at speed-running but I tried. My SR 75-76 runs seem to always be between 9.5 and 10 minutes, here’s one of them:
And here are just boss rooms - over 50 minutes of continuous gameplay without dying. Timestamps / tips below the video.
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try to align multiple enemies with yourself, especially heroes in SR, so that you can shoot all of them at once with Phantasmal Blades
- tight corridors / passages / walls can help with that
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all rare bosses like Korvaak, Mad Queen, Gargabol, Magi I fought against cautiously, taking my time because they are too rare to get good flow with them
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Alex: 7:40 - MoT aggressively from the start, teleport away from meteor, destroy crystals or run away from them
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Benn’Jarr: 2:00, 11:23, 14:05, 53:30 - Mark of Torment before he summons the mines
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Fabius: 2:30, 8:44, 19:30, 36:10, 46:25, 47:30 - Blade Barrier as soon as he moves to block Shadow Strike as late into BB as possible. I personally cast Mark of Torment when he activates Blade Barrier, seems better than doing nothing.
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Father Abbadoth - try Mark of Tormenting just after the crystal is created or run away from it (I’m not sure it can be destroyed)
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Gargabol: 42:35 - facetank the 1st phase, 2nd phase - just move around, destroy plants and summons, use Mark of Torment, Blade Barrier
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Grava’Thul: 20:50, 26:00
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Guardian and Protectors: 33:56, 52:30 - it’s very easy for them to join the fight which can be problematic. Try to avoid it.
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Iron Maiden: 21:30
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Kaisan: 0:15, 13:20, 17:23, 18:28, 42:00, 45:00, 50:15 - tank till he summons a crystal, then Mark of Torment, teleport far away, Blade Barrier for the Doom Bolt and finish him when he catches up
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Korvaak: 21:50
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Kubacabra: 11:55, 28:30 - MoT aggressively, use every tool correctly, should be facetankable
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Mad Queen: 48:30 - kite if having problems
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Moosilauke: 4:45, 16:30, 24:20, 44:15 - don’t stand near crystals, MoT aggressively, fight him alone, kill archers if they appear
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Morgoneth: 1:04
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Reaper: 34:33, 38:15, 39:38 - MoT at the end of the fight when he summons wraiths
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Rutnick - likes to join the fight so better lure the previous enemy a bit
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Slathssar: 8:05, 31:14, 40:30
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Trio - don’t stay in their Aether clouds, do them last
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Valdaran: 0:40, 26:50, 29:4, 53:10
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Zantarin: 3:50, 6:55, 25:15, 31:34, 32:08, 33:30, 35:35, 39:00
credit to the author of the art and fordprefect from whom I’ve stolen the GT link design
