[1.1.9.8] Scion of the Elements V1.2 - A Tri-Elemental Battlemage That Actually Works! SR75-76 - Showcase

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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So after banging my head against the puzzle that is an elemental Battlemage using 2-handed weapon Cadence via Scion of Arcane Forces I have finally found a build that actually works okay enough to post.

Ze Build V1.2:

Version 1.1: Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Uses 4 Green MI’s to cover the weakspots, because itemisation is a bastard for BM that isn’t physical damage based, personally I recommend GDstashing them, because you need the Eldritch Eye MI amulet to be exactly the same. So might as well indulge and get them all. Iron Maidan MI’s could work in a pinch though, but the aether to elemental conversion the Ascended Epaulets have is needed to maximise damage.

Which gets to 226K with various damage+ skills procced:

Could be pushed higher, but the tradeoffs in survivability aren’t worth it, because getting physical resist is hard with the requirements of this build. Only managed to get to 37% with my gear rolls:

Now why does this work? Well, given both masteries lack elemental RR in any form and it can only provided by gear and devotions I had the crazy idea to make use of Fire, Lightening and Cold RR% devotions. And found it actually does provide just enough total RR with everything else to work. But survivability was hit and miss in SR75-76 runs, and +elemental resist rolls = nightmare, even with Cursed Tinctures. Doesn’t help I’m a crap SR pilot either as I love to bite off more that I can chew :stuck_out_tongue:

But today I finally got around to trying to boost the lacklustre PR of 26% it had by swapping out the chest piece, belt and boots for other ones and then done a quick SR 75-76 run. Result, feels a lot better, as now there’s more time to respond and gtfo before dying and still survive, and this was with the +15% to enemy elemental resistance too. Did I die? Yes, of course. But it now feels a lot better to run, because the death and it’s cause (Kaisan and wrong skill use by me) were my own fault instead of the glassiness of the build.

For reference to lMarcusl SR ratings I’d say this is about a 7/10 to 8/10.

Now is it still glassy? Hell Yes. But now, with decent piloting you can carve through SR75-76 relatively safely, Resistance pots most definitely recommended for the biggest threats, namely Grava’Thul (I hate those fumble pools) and Kasian. Father Abaddoth however is now a much more manageable threat. While Kupa can be facetanked in his pools of blood if you don’t mind taking your time :3 Otherwise, don’t stand in ground affects and use Will of Kings to gtfo to safety, meanwhile the various DoT’s you’ve triggered will carve away at the horde a bit.

Case in Point - I present the “Gumby Run” SR75-76:

Died twice due to overextending and not spreading out hordes when need be, but still got through within in the timer. Which in turn shows the strengths and weakness of this build.

Otherwise it should do okay enough in Crucible (need to test), can probably do moggy using resist pots, already trashed Lokarr and probably Burbon (it was a bit of a slog). Can probably take on Ravager of Minds with better piloting skills, but I’ll leave Cally and Crate to those with more skill and less sanity.

Oh and here’s the old V1.0 save file, which is copied off the tester one, I just threw out all the junk I didn’t need. All super bosses unlocked though.

Will I ever provide a levelling guide for this abomination? Maybe, but mess by name, mess by nature due to ADHD. It is doable though, because I have a ancient build this was created to be the final form that’s in the 70’s

Now to get the elemental, no-sets based gunslingers done :stuck_out_tongue: The Mage Hunter one’s proving pretty good now, while the Purifier still needs to get to SR 75, since it is an ancient build of mine I’ve been tinkering with for ages.

[edit - 23/10] - Forgot the belt augment, changed rings for more DA/damage + capped Field Command at the cost of health/physique to improve DA/OA.

[edit - 25/10] - Thanks to Marcus’s feedback mucked around with skill point allocations and found that investing in WPS + critical damage% actually works much better dps wise, which increases sustain and kill times a noticeable amount. So updated build to V1.2 and dropped the (Mostly) bit, because it actually works now. Unfortunately due to all the SR runs done this build’s stash is now filled with MI shoulders, so further testing will be minor. Will add Celestials as I get it dones, did confirm Lokarr and factanked him :3

[edit 27/10] - Added SR75-76 run. And yes, I am that bad of a pilot lawl.

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SR Guide

  1. Elemental resistance thing means you need to use Cursed Tinctures for bosses, but otherwise you just kill a little more slowly. Cursed Tinctures are also good for the boss room since Fabius and IM are regulars in them.

  2. Grava is your worst boss, and you’ll need to hit and run if you get them in the boss room, as those fumble pools kill your dps and no dps = no sustain. Takes about 2-3 minutes to kill them depending on which maluses you’ve rolled for SR.

  3. Kasian is also a pain in the rear, I strongly suggest downing acid and lightening resist pots if you have to fight him and when he spawns his crystals gtfo. As staying will get you killed.

  4. Pulling all the mobs isn’t always the best idea, but Will of Fallen Kings can allow you to escape easily, so you can string them out if things get too hairy. Especially if there’s a healer hiding in the pack. Or the bane of all SR runs, Gargoyle heroes and their life eating pools of dooooooom.

  5. This isn’t the fastest SR clearer, but it can do it in under the time limit, if you stay alive. So remember to keep Mirror as your last resort save and run away otherwise. I am bads at doing this obviously.

  6. Due to dropping a skill point in Veterancy for V1.2 of this build you should probably use acid resistance pots if the Poison Mutator rolls, because it hits you heavily. Which in big mobs can be a death sentence due to them all applying their own separate poison DoT effects /learnt-the-hard-way

  7. If you roll both Korvaak and Grava in the boss room, you will run out of time if there’s not enough space to kite them and not draw in another boss. But the rewards are still good enough to try the challenge :3

Levelling

Roughly - 2 hander cadence with the discord transmuter will see you all the way to level 94. Helping with this is the The Conduit, which is a) all elemental damage and b) gives + skills to Acarnist in all it’s versions. Helping with dealing AoE is CT, and Gavel of Justice from the relic:

Battlemage, Level 71 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator - lvl 71 in progress. Modified the devotions though, as Crown is not useful sadly :frowning:

Otherwise use what ever gear you have to hand to fill in skills and resists. And if you level up as far as possible in Veteran you don’t have to worry as much about RR before you hit Elite or skip to Ultimate.

Devotion Path:

  • Go Viper first, since that gives -RR% we badly need, and take the point of out of Crossroads, then fill in Ghoul, go for Fox + Solael’s Witchblade, but take the green point out of Crossroads, followed by getting Eel.

  • Then get Widow and bind it’s skill to Blitz and take the points out of Eel and start putting them into Kraken. Once that’s done take 1 point of Ghoul, and start on Quill.

  • Then get Toad for more adctch and grab Murmur’s RR skill, then fill in Throne and put 1 point in Crown for the elemental damage. After this you can then fill in Blind Sage and bind Seeker to Cadence.

Celestials:

  • Lokarr can be quickly facetanked and quickly killed by this build with no pots.
  • Burbon is sort of easy too, but you need resistance pots for that fight.
  • Ravager of Minds, well this build is not tanky enough for the chonk that he is, and he’s got solid resistances to elemental damage. So this build can’t sustain it’s health off attacking him.
  • I did try Crate of Entertainment, I got half way and died. No surprise given melee is hard mode for fighting Crate.
  • Cally = forget it.
  • Mog is probably doable, but it would take ages due to the lack of RR this build has available.
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Um, once again a non Battlemage Scion of Arcane Forces theory crafted build works even better:

I came up with this last night was I was fluffing around and it breezed through everything despite lower dps and and changed devotion build lawl. Needs MOAR testing of course. Manages to get about 200K dps too, which was a bit surprising.

I swear it’s almost like Crate don’t want us to make elemental cadence Battlemages :stuck_out_tongue:

[edit] I’ll put the alternative builds in here, been screwing around with a WB version, and it’s definitely worse than this or the Tactician versions. I haz a plan thoughs.

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/bump

Updated build, added SR guide, rough levelling guide + devotions path.

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Looks good from a brief glance, but I think you’re undervaluing Fighting Form. That’s a major source of AoE that you’re skipping. I’m no melee Discord Cadence expert by any means, with my 1 chunk’s worth of experience, but I think getting Fighting Form to the 4 target threshold would help, plus the % damage on top of it won’t go to waste since Discord converts that. That’s around another 100-ish % damage for both AoE and single target. You could take some points from Elemental Balance, 1 point each from the WPS, then a point from Veterancy and either Menhir’s Will or Fighting Spirit. I think those points won’t be missed at all. In return, you’ll essentially increase your AoE damage output by around 30 % not counting the % damage increase.

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A good point, but the the WPS skills are needed to proc RR devotions and add significant damage, Veterancy only has 1 point in it and given how often this build hits for crits and does DoTs, Elemental Balance is useful :stuck_out_tongue:

Aka there is method to my madness. I’ll still try it though, but points are probably going to have to come from Maviens Sphere etc. Hmmmn, oh well, yet another puzzle in the meta-puzzle that is elemental discord cadence battle-mages lawl.

Edit: So this is what I think might work, but the loss in damage absorb + enemy damage reduction probably aren’t worth it: Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

As that stuff is needed to tank the bosses/heroes etc.

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Did a run of SR 75, and while it does help clear mobs a bit faster, the health was constantly getting hammered, and then in shard 1 SR76 I got ganked by Alex + a mob due to I think not having enough absorb/damage reduction. Sure, I had poison and bleeding maluses, but my health usually doesn’t spike up and down this much. So I think boosting Fighting Form just isn’t worth the costs, as due to a lack of elemental battlemage gear there’s just not the points spare to cover boosting it and maintain suvivability/damage.

Besides, Eldritch Fire and Rumour tend to do a good enough job thinning the hordes from my experience.

Hmmmn, really need to do a mod already for an elemental cadence armour set (i.e. recolour Dawnshard stuff). With an -RR% proc as part of the set as a set bonus…

[edit]
SR is trolling me today, just got two Ravagers on a small map on the first shard >_< Went about as well
as you’d think lawl.

edit 2 - Next run was much better, starting to get the full hang of this build’s strengths and weaknesses and managed to gank Grava with nary a sweat and sneak past Kaisan on a small map. However, my stash is filling up with nemi shoulders…

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No no no no no, why in the world would you tank your DR and absorb of all things? Those are must-haves, you do not touch those skills for anything. You have points to spare elsewhere that don’t give you much benefit at all.

The point in Veterancy is doing literally nothing for your build, you’re not about regen (you got a grand total of like 70, who cares) and you don’t need the Physique requirement reduction. Removing a single point from each of the WPS doesn’t affect their proc chance at all, you’re still at 25 % at 9 points, so that’s another 2 points freed up at no cost. You have 59 % crit damage. You can easily drop those 3 extra points you’ve got in Overload and not feel the difference. That’s 3 % crit damage down, that’s nothing. You don’t need the elemental DoT duration when you’re constantly reapplying, so all you lose is a tiny bit of % DoT damage. With these points removed, all you need is to find 2 points to get Fighting Form to the 4 target threshold (11 points, not 12 like you linked in the build above). And given that you’ve got extra points in Fighting Spirit and Menhir’s Will, you can easily find those points there.

One does not touch Maiven and War Cry and get away with it.

On the topic of survivability, I think you’d be better off with Fleshwarped Casque as the helmet to maintain full War Cry uptime. It’s what saved my Battlemage from being a disaster.

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NYET.

Ravager’s Helm is too important due to the +1 to all skills, plus the -8% RR skill, how dare thee suggest changing it! /j

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Sure, damage is nice, but you can’t do damage if you’re dead. As you said

Fleshwarped Casque could maybe fix that or at least help. RR from helmet or not this is never going to be a speed demon. But it could perhaps be slow yet consistent. And the benefits of the extra OA and DA on the Casque are not to be overlooked.

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Right, so I tried what you suggested: Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

But, I ran SR75-76 and found that you were wrongs :stuck_out_tongue: As this hits dps way lower and took longer to kill bosses. So turns out the damage from the weapon skills are needing and the critical hits allow allow more dps. IM was the reason, as it took much longer to kill her every time lawl.

Anyhow, brains deads, me loosing words due to lethologica >_< So time to hit the sack, after dealing with the sad lower bags of loot, as I died, 3 times testing this.

[edit]

Changed skill points: Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator - worked a hell of a lot better, sure it’s still glassy, but very noticeable change in time to kill for all bosses. As that 1-3% difference in crit damage adds up when cadence is regularly hitting for 200,000+ or crits of 400K, which I see semi-regularly. As does the WPS weapon% damage, as this all feeds back into adcth. And this is despite me being half-awakes on both runs and constantly fumbling button presses lawl.

On the bright-side, brain’s now not being hit with lethologica, but I’m going to take the hint and go to fucking bed before my autistic-ADHD blessed brain decides it’s super happy fun insomnia tiem.

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I have serious doubts that losing mere 2 points in WPS in return for gaining 100 % extra damage on Cadence has had such negative impact on the build’s performance that it tanks the IM encounter. I’d suspect mutators or IM’s equipment will have played a much bigger role. But without footage I can’t dispute your results, so I’ll leave it at that.

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So did I, but there differences in runs were very, very obvious. I suspect it’s because how crit and WPS weapon% feed back into adcth + total dps. As at the large value crit’s this build gets it’s significant chunks of damage that can be gained and lost.

Anyhow, I Must Sleeeeeeeeeeep, but thanks for the constructive criticism :slight_smile:

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/bump

Updated Build to V1.2, thanks to lMarcusl feedback I was able to find that increasing skill points to WPS and critical% increases this build much better and killing of bosses and nemesis. Found also this allows you facetank a bit better. Also, assigned some devotions to other skills to more readily proc them.

Build’s still glassy if the circuit breaker proc’s/skills aren’t available or you run into too many mobs with debuffs/healers. Which I am very, very good at doing :stuck_out_tongue: But I’m getting better at dealing with them/running away…

[edit] - whoops, misspelled “Actually” - but that’s what happens when I get shit sleep >_< Corrected some other stuff too. And may I get some fucking sleep tonight.

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So from 5 runs today with the V1.2 I found I was right about the model I worked out last night. More WPS skill points works much better, but I think Scion of the Elements needs to have 1+ skills for Soliders to make it a bit better. Since WPS are needed to make make dps more higher.

Anyhow, brain’s deads again, didn’t sleep well due to the heat ;-; Need to work out a better blanket thing again…

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/ShamelessSelfBump

Finally added a video, which shows off my terrible piloting skills (ADHD and sleep debt ftw), which in turn shows the weakness of the build. But this also shows the strengths, as despite dying twice I still made it in under the timer despite rolling +15% elemental resistance to all enemies and facing Korvaak, who takes ages to kill.