[1.2.0.2] Melee Ultos Upheaval Vindicator (SR 80)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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I love two-handers. I love Inquisitor. I love lightning. I love chopping ridiculous %s off HP bars. I decided to bring all of those worlds together, with shockingly solid results.

Grimtools Link

SR 80 Clear

Here’s some background:
I’ve been trying to make a build with Ultos work for a couple months now. The set intrigued me when I was starting out, but I was disappointed with the performance of an Ultos Primal Strike build, and I couldn’t quite make cooldown PS with Savagery work either. So I abandoned the idea for a while until, on a whim, I forsook Primal Strike entirely in favor of focusing exclusively on Lightning Savagery. I’d never tried Upheaval before, and the damage certainly didn’t disappoint me after I went all in on it.

Most Vindicator builds I’ve seen are two-handed Ranged using the Evoker of Elgoloth. I figured that since Upheaval requires a pretty high amount of OA to proc in an efficient manner, Deadly Aim would give me the boost I needed. Focusing on melee also means I don’t need to concern myself with using Inquisitor’s ranged WPS or passives, and I could spend more points on boosting my Shaman abilities. Capping Inquisitor Seal as much as I could, combined with some leeching from Wendigo Totem, made this build tanky enough for me to feel comfortable pushing to a higher SR than my usual 60-70 range. This character is my first ever clear of SR 80, so that’s pretty cool.

Sheet stats with 0 procs:

zayne sheet dps.PNG

Sheet stats with Savagery, Kelphat’zoth, and Deadly Aim:

zaynewithbuffs

STRENGTHS:

  • High damage, obviously
  • Pretty good physical resistance
  • Good mobility and energy efficiency thanks to reworked Inquistor Seal transmuter
  • ~80% Phys → Lightning conversion allows me to take more advantage of the flat physical damage from Mogdrogen’s Pact and Steel Resolve
  • High OA (thanks to Deadly Aim, Korvaak devotion proc) and Crit Damage (thanks to Stormcaller’s Pact); useful for boosting the proc rate and damage of Upheavals
  • Very respectable HP regen (around 2k)
  • Decent leech from Crimson Claws and Korvaak’s Brand

WEAKNESSES:

  • Usual suspects for lightning builds, like Grava and Iron Maiden (albeit they are usually more tedious than actually dangerous, provided you aren’t ganged up on in a chunk); IM’s high DA specifically nullifies a lot of crit-based effects in skills and devotions
  • Relies on Upheaval procs for a majority of crowd control
  • Petrify and entrapment effects
  • My own incompetence; could a better pilot do superbosses, or push SR higher with this build? Most likely. Me? Doubtful.

NOTES/THINGS TO IMPROVE:

  • Stormcage Legguards work decently if you don’t feel like farming an MI, but resistance problems may arise in that case. I actually went out of my way to farm these pants, instead of GDstashing them in, so a better roll on what I have is also very much possible.
  • I took Crimson Claws here for the leech and points for a 9th charge of Savagery. There may very well be a more synergistic option available; let me know if you’ve got any ideas on that
  • Not taking Arcane Empowerment might have been a dumb move. Skill points were a little tight, though. I haven’t tested with it yet, time will tell.
  • I’m pretty bad at making good devotion maps. There may be some non-stacking RR issues or more optimal constellations that I overlooked. Again, feedback is welcome.
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Not bad :+1: Good work managing SR80 too with a self-made build, it’s definitely harsh on builds and poor piloting, as I have found out the hard way :crazy_face: So overall, definitely a good take on the venerable Ultos Savagery build type.

But personally I would used this build instead:

As I’ve always found pushing Savagery to 26/16 works best, as does adding moar WPS and Tempest is excellent for crowd smashing :3 Less tanky for sure, but in testing SR85-86 I’ve found out DA of 2500 can work, if say you have Inquisitor Seal or other damage mitigation systems. Sure, it’s going to be more squishy, but it also has more sustain from Ghoul + Feral Hunger. Which only procs on non Upheaval strikes iirc. Which is going to be the norm when Deadly Aim is on cooldown.

Also, Ghoul is frankly a must have for any melee build, even with the nerfs to it’s attack damage converted to health it’s still a life saver in SR75, never mind SR85-86. Where I usually test builds out these days :crazy_face:

Unless of course you have more stuff for sustain and other sources of physical resist.

I do like the idea to go with Korvaak though, but for a lightning build it’s a bit difficult to pull off due to Ultos being in the South. While going with Solemn Watcher can help, sometimes DA stacking isn’t the be all and end all answer lawl.

As for Viper vs Hand of Ultos - yes, they don’t stack, but HoS isn’t going to be proccing all the time, where as Viper works with every 100%+ weapon hit, which makes it far more reliable + the +3% to OA is majorly helpful. While in SR I’ve found it’s also very, very useful for you to use Cursed Tinctures from the Coven of Ugdenbog. As that extra -8% RR to elemental = tons MOAR damage, especially in SR85-86…

Unfortunately I’m still tinkering with some Lightning Aegis of Menhir builds, with the non-spam version needing some more work as I need to switch it to retaliation + savagery otherwise I’d mess around with your build and the one I suggested. The spam versions though now rival mad_lee’s one for SR85-86 :3

Which also reminds me I need to finish my tester+ save file so I can post the damn thing already, just need to fill out components and augments etc and it’ll be good to go. Since it has everything unlocked and all the devotions levelled up…

But that’s severe ADHD for you :crazy_face: I forget to do things constantly at the bloody moment.

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