[1.1.9.8] Paindemic - Bloody Pox Bleed Cabalist SR80+

[DeputyChuck]

With Crate dragging Bloody pox from the depths of memedom after the last patch, it’s time to share the build I’ve been enjoying most since the previous patch.

Sustain is very good, HP, CC resist, resist overcaps and OA are all good-to-respectabe, and the gameplay isn’t too much like Chopin.

This is not a build guide, just a showcase (And a plea for help)

Shoutout to @MergosWetNurse for helping me with Bloody pox while I was working on the conjurer version of this, where many of the pointers made their way there. And thanks to @mad_lee for the final tweaking to crank it up to 11.

Grimtool

(Yes, there are still unspent skill points, this is a WiP)

Gear and Devotions

The recent buffs to Hungering maw and Boneblade are what makes this possible. Abyssal mask, Bolvar’s pendant and Bloodfeast’s mark round up the playstyle by providing -RR and extra potency to our 2 main skills.
Laceratore girdle is something I wouldn’t play bleed without at this point. The DR proc is just too good to pass up.

Rest of the gear is kinda interchangeable. Just capping out our main skills.

Devotions are chosen mostly for their ability to keep us alive (Bat, Scale and Living shadows)
Plus Mogdrogen and Huntress, obviously.

Gameplay

As lazy as it gets.
Hit the crowd with CoF and BP, use SS as soon as it’s out of cooldown, and hit big targets with Hungering maw. That’s pretty much it.

Bloody Pox does most of the heavy lifting, while Siphon Souls assist while providing an enormous amount of sustain.

Things just die on their own, and SS keeps you alive while that happens.

Performance

Crucible

Haven’t bothered running it yet, but I’m certain that in the right hands, it can finish it with a decent time.

Shattered realms

Cleared SR80 pretty easily, so this can likely go deeper. I was never worried even for a second, which is rare for me

Mad Queen

Hit her once with my 4 main attacks, then waited 4-5 seconds while running circles around one of the pillars…

Celestials

I’m not yet at a point with this character where I can fight any of them. Haven’t even finished FG.
Will update later.

Conclusion:

The build is still not finished:
It still has 9 unspent skill points, uses whatever I could find for affixes and other gear, hasn’t been through crucible yet, hasn’t dealt with any celestial, doesn’t have a filler skill (Though it doesn’t appear to need one) and has likely a TON of other improvements to be made.

So ANY suggestion is welcome.
(I’ve never has @mad_lee pick one of my builds apart, so maybe that will be a first ? (Please? ))

Thank you!

[DeputyChuck]

Reserved for likely nothing, but you never know.

[mad_lee]

@DeputyChuck

(I’ve never has @mad_lee pick one of my builds apart, so maybe that will be a first ? (Please? ))

Hey, no problem, first one is free too.

To begin with, a concept of Bleeding Cabalist using Fevered Rage is inherently flawed, so one should not have high expectations when trying to assemble something like this. Why is the concept inherently flawed, someone might ask? Well, first of all, Bleeding Cabalist does not have good support in terms of items and Bleeding is a very niche meta and Bleeding builds require a lot of things to work well (most of those Cabalist is missing, like multiple good sources, Bleeding exclusive, set support etc.). Secondly, Fevered Rage gameplay can only be sustained by extremely tanky builds that can also leech very well and Bleeding Cabalist can neither be extremely tanky nor leech well.

Now that we tamed our expectactions let’s go into the nitty gritty and see how we can squeeze the absolute maximum out of this meme concept. First and foremost, it’s important to recognize that build’s sustain comes from its Vitality damage leftovers, namely from Siphon Souls and Scales. Now we can’t max out both Vitality and Bleeding devotions and mixing them up will leave us lacking on both fronts, so going for either one or the other devotion map would be better. Here author went for Bleeding for more damage (and because the identity of the build is Bleeding damage). That means the only way we can support our %Vitality damage is thru skills and items. That’s why it’s important to get as many items with dual damage as possible. I would suggest to change the blue ring to something else here. Possible variants: Carnage set or two Deathlord rings (points in wasting are whatever). I understand boots or gloves choice tho.
Secondly, since we made a crazy (fun?) choice to go with Fevered Rage we have to max out on all of our defenses to make this build as tough as possible. This means (among other things) that we can’t be frugal when it comes to DA and physical resist. Those 350 hp ring augments won’t do here, I am afraid, gotta get those juicy 210 DA from Arcanum Dusts. Same with ring components, we need DA there and energy regeneration should not be a problem with Arcanums). Damage reduction from this belt is good, but we have a much more powerful damage reduction tool: Ill Omen. Max out Ill Omen and take Boneweave Girdle belt: it has both damages plus healing proc plus juicy physical resist.
Last but not the least: some component re-shuffle to plug our cc-res holes (because with this build it’s important to be able to run away without getting stunlocked or frozen).

Here is a rough sketch of my suggestions: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (craft for freeze resistance).

EDIT: Arcane Spark is not needed (I forgot about disrupt res on Possession), so one can use Tainted Heart in the medal slot (or anything one wants).

[DeputyChuck]

Much appreciated

@mad_lee

To begin with, a concept of Bleeding Cabalist using Fevered Rage is inherently flawed, so one should not have high expectations when trying to assemble something like this. Why is the concept inherently flawed, someone might ask? Well, first of all, Bleeding Cabalist does not have good support in terms of items and Bleeding is a very niche meta and Bleeding builds require a lot of things to work well (most of those Cabalist is missing, like multiple good sources, Bleeding exclusive, set support etc.). Secondly, Fevered Rage gameplay can only be sustained by extremely tanky builds that can also leech very well and Bleeding Cabalist can neither be extremely tanky nor leech well.

Yeah, I figured as much, but to me, this kinda works better than other BP builds I tried. But that’s probably due to my personal playstyle, and the fact that I must have stumbled into a more optimal version of Cabalist than the others … (Cabalist being more… foolproof if you will?)

I recognize that Conjurer is indeed more powerful and probably has better sustain potential, but I guess I’m not experienced enough to optimize it yet. (here’s what I was doing with it: Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.7) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator )

@mad_lee

Here is a rough sketch of my suggestions: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

How… wha… how did you improve every single metric (except health) without creating new big gaps ???
That’s amazing!
I’m running off to test the changes out.

Thank you so much!

Edit: Last question: Do you think we have enough -RR to swap Deathstalker for Azrakaa’s epoc ? (and… should I?) Seems like that could improve single-target damage output as it spawns multiple new sources of bleed, and would help proc on-attack skills…

[mad_lee]

@DeputyChuck

How… wha… how did you improve every single metric (except health) without creating new big gaps ???
That’s amazing!

Been doing this thing for far too long I guess. And health is something was worth sacrificing because DA would give more ehp here imo.

@DeputyChuck

Edit: Last question: Do you think we have enough -RR to swap Deathstalker for Azrakaa’s epoc ? (and… should I?) Seems like that could improve single-target damage output as it spawns multiple new sources of bleed, and would help proc on-attack skills…

No idea, up to tests. Deathstalker does offer really nice total speed and cc-res while Azrakaa relic on paper is more bleeding sources.

[Avyctes]

The Azrakaa tornadoes are reskinned wind devils and as such they don’t stack, it’s only one source.

[DeputyChuck]

So it’s an aura, not an attack…
Good to know, thanks.

[Avyctes]

It’s technically a debuff, because it has impaired aim, and those never stack.

[KaiserNH]

Do you think this build can solve big single target?
And conjurer or cabalist is the best class for bloody pox?

[DeputyChuck]

I’ve had no real problem with big targets other than the fact my biggest source of sustain is much more efficient when there are a lot of foes around.

I think conjurer has higher potential, but in terms of damage and sustain. I still want to try conjurer with the new mod for Dark one set.

If we’re talking bloody pox as a whole, not just BLEEDING bloody pox, Conjurer is probably the best, with Witch Hunter and Sentinel right behind, with a focus either on acid or vitality. Cabalist is probably still very good with a vitality focus (maybe even better than bleed… but I like bleeding damage! )