[1.2.0.1] Assassin - Update: 5.8m crits - Big Shadow Striker - SR 76, Cr 170

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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GrimTools: Witch Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Second Update

Edit: Just updated a second time as I managed to get a 2.9m crit, making a max potential of 5.8m if both weapons hit/crit for similar. Skip to 2:15 of this video to see it:

Updated video:

First Update

Edit: Updated Link for better energy regen! Also, updated max damage. Highest crit is 2.7m from one of the weapons making the total potential damage about 5.4m damage if both weapons hit/crit. Skip to 2:27 of this video to see it:

First update video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YqVV5sXO1M

Original Grimtools Link (click to view)

Witch Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

So I made this build a few months ago, but didn’t post it. Then the patch came out and I saw they boosted Shadow Strike AND gave Occultists some crit damage… so I thought I’d fire up the build again to see how it goes. Turns out? IT SLAPS.

When I fired up Crucible and saw a 1.9m crit within a few seconds of starting, I knew I was in for a good time. In crucible, it can two-shot nemesis’. In fact, if lucky, it can potentially one-shot them. In this video, you’ll see a couple of nearly-two-shot or nearly-one-shot examples. Wave 154 is a good example.

The highest crit recorded on the build so far is 2.4m, but Shadow Strike deals two lots of damage - one for each weapon. So, the highest recorded crit on the build is only half of the potential crit damage that it can achieve; it can potentially achieve 2.4m per weapon, making a tasty 4.8m crit. This would make it my highest ever single-skill-critting build (my previous one was a Blade Arc build at 4.5m).

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An added bonus is that the build gets up to ~980k dot damage with all dots stacked and critting, as you can see versing this dummy:

But, the build is squishy! Even with crucible buffs, it’s squishy. How would it go in SR? Well, not too bad. But you gotta keep moving and pick your battles. And you’ll run out of energy a lot. Turns out being a pro ninja assassin is tiring! Here’s a vid of SR 75. Completed within the time limit despite one death early on as I got used to piloting the squishiness.

Enjoy, and many thanks to the Crate devs for an amazing and interesting new patch :smiley:

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Here’s a side variation for better energy regen with a few tweaks to the devotion and one of the jewellery components:

It will do slightly less damage (about 600 character sheet weapon damage less, so… about 1.7% less damage lol), but has slightly higher OA/DA, about 30% more energy regen, and importantly, a point in Revenant and some points in Viper to get those chances of energy leech which should help significantly. So if you don’t mind getting 4.7m crits instead of 4.8m crits but you want some overall quality of life, these refinements may do the trick :smiley:

Side note, I haven’t tested this in game, but it looks good in GrimTools :slight_smile:

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So I started playing with the better-energy-variation of the build (see first comment).

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Turns out it can crit for 2.7m damage, making a total potential damage of 5.4m if both weapons hit and crit for similar damage… :open_mouth:

Crit shown at 2:27 of this video (SR 78 run):

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Two questions born from ignorance:

  1. Why use Bloody Pox for devo proccing when you can spend the point elsewhere and just bind it to Shadow Strike or Deathstalker? (I mean I know it proccs like a madman, but the point could be valuable somewhere else, like the Belgo breath transmuter?)
  2. On the topic of Devo proccing, why not use the Abomination left arm over one of the Yugol nodes for more AoE?
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It’s dot damage gets to over 1m now :smiley:

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Good questions.

  1. Probably because I liked that it procs everywhere yay :smiley:
  2. I think I wanted more OA and HP… OA for mor crits, HP because the build is squishy, and with very high damage output, the added AOE seemed… almost inconsequential.That said, the AOE confuse might help with the squishiness, so… It’d probably be worth taking for big crowds!
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Cool build :slight_smile:
Before anyone cries about SS nerfs, I think the total damage modifier for SS (set bonus) is doing the heavy lifting here. That stat by itself is doubling+ your damage. Neat.

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I don’t understand what you mean… Dunefiend was reduced from 125% TDM to 110%, but every node of SS has been buffed, was this build nerfed at all? Because all non-Dunefiend SS builds have received nothing but buffs :thinking:

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Agree, this build hits way harder than it did pre-patch. Also Second Rite now gives added crit damage, which serves the build’s purposes nicely…

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I swear, every time I got a build idea I look into the forum and see a WyreZ post matching it perfectly :rofl:.

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What are Rings of Shuroth here for? For flat damage from Second Rite?

You don’t have capped Dual Blades (phys res, pierce damage) and you have flat pierce damage from medal which is lost (unless i miss something)?

Did you consider Mythical Widow Stings as rings? To convert the flat pierce from Dual Blades and Medal? Or are they worse here?

no point in Blade Spirits for proccing devotion?

Rune of Stormtitan or Rune of Rahn’s Might? Flat lightning is almost fully converted to acid, it’s like a second nuke while Shadow Strike is on cooldown.

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Yeah, interesting thoughts. I hadn’t tried the pierce conversion as I was indeed prioritising 100% vitality to acid conversion. But the pierce conversion would offer a lot of extra damage due to the amount of flat pierce on shadow strike. :open_mouth:

I used Rune of the Dark Progenitor for the DA debuff, for more crits :slight_smile:

Dual Blades is a tricky one - it offers flat pierce, and much needed phys resist. But in the aim of getting the most damage possible, this skill-point-scarce build needed those points elsewhere. Second Rite took precedence because it brought more converted flat damage to the table when I built it. Now that Second Rite also buffs crit damage, it’s even more helpful to get for a damage focused build.

…but that pierce damage on Shadow Strike, hm…

And, when looking at the devotions… no blade spirits necessary; Every skill point must be used for MOAR DAMAGE or RR or something :smiley:

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So I just did a quick napkin calculation. 30% of pierce converted to acid + 50% of vitality converted to acid seems to be less than the straight 100% of vitality converted to acid because of the weapon damage (658%) on the skill. The flat piercing damage of the skill doesn’t get that weapon damage % multiplier.

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Haha! That’s the trick tho - Only open the forums to make posts, never to read posts and you’ll never have this problem :rofl: :thinking:

I don’t read the forums much, but this also means I might accidentally reinvent many other theory crafter’s wheels, or not learn from their public knowledge as much as I probably could/should…