We have here another unusual build. Next addition to my Aeon’s Hourglass + Shadow Strike build collection. It’s TIME for Vitality Shadow Strike Blademaster!
"BUILD COLLECTION" CONTEXT
If you check the expanded About Me section in my forum profile you’ll see a list of some games that I played and also the characters that I liked playing. I’m not forcing anyone to do that, I’m just sharing a bit about me so maybe readers can understand why I do what I do.
Simply put, I’m a Time Assassin enjoyer. I like time-related and assassin concepts in games.
So here in Grim Dawn:
Aeon’s Hourglass, favorite devotion.
Nightblade, favorite mastery.
Shadow Strike, favorite skill.
I’m doing builds with a different damage type of Shadow Strike for each class with Nightblade mastery while using Aeon’s Hourglass devotion on Hardcore and I’m trying to be as creative as possible. Some of my builds failed and died 
. But those who survived, I try to share. I’m not expecting to come up with the best and well-optimized builds but I’m experimenting on things that might work while having fun playing it.
This is my 5th successful build so far. Maybe someday in the future, I’ll create my Build Collection topic here in the forum. Hopefully that’s a good idea. I’ll save the details (e.g., standards for a build to be marked as successful) for when I create the topic.
^In-game stats (1.2.0.3): Permanent buffs + Pneumatic Burst and Hungering Void (Dying God devotion). DPS shown is Shadow Strike.
Reaver’s Hunger and Mythical Edge of Death got % Physique crafting bonus.
So about the name:
#1 was a Vitality Trickster that started Ultimate from Level 1 without Lokarr’s set after using Merit. It’s doable but not so safe on Hardcore. Died Level 60.
#2 was a Vitality Reaper that used the usual speedleveling with Lokarr’s set. Died Level 100 in SR 65. It was so close to succeeding.
And here comes #3 the Vitality Blademaster!
GRIMTOOLS 1.2.0.3 UPDATED LINK
BUILD OVERVIEW
- Vitality damage Shadow Strike
- Ring of Steel deals mostly Vitality damage and also procs Hungering Void.
- Weapon-Pool Skills as filler whenever Shadow Strike is on cooldown. Total is just slightly over 100% but they are all 1-pointer skills. Most of their damage are converted to Vitality damage.
Reaver’s Hunger
100% Cold Damage converted to Vitality Damage to Shadow Strike
100% Acid Damage converted to Vitality Damage to Shadow Strike
Elemental Damage converted to Vitality Damage
Morgoneth’s Visage, Morgoneth’s Dark Mantle, and Mythical Death Omen
Piercing Damage converted to Vitality Damage
Mythical Edge of Death, Mythical Death Omen, Seal of Blight
Physical Damage converted to Vitality Damage
Mythical Undying Oath
Flat Cold damage that gets partially converted to Vitality damage by Reaver’s Hunger. Skills that benefit the most are Shadow Strike and Execution because they both have 100% Cold Damage converted to Vitality Damage from item skill modifiers.
Belgothian’s Carnage relic is just personal preference. +1 to all skills in Nightblade, flat damage, and OA are nice. I also like the granted skill.
RESISTANCE REDUCTION
Will of Rattosh (Rattosh, the Veilwarden devotion)
- -25% Vitality Resistance
Viper devotion
- 20% Reduced target’s Elemental Resistances for 3 seconds
Got this mainly for devotion affinities and % OA. The Elemental RR is still nice for the excess Cold damage not converted to Vitality damage.
Armor of the Eternal Night set
- -18% Vitality Resistance to Veil of Shadow
- Granted Skills: Mark of the Fallen (20% Chance on Critical Attack)
-10% Vitality Resistance
Mythical Edge of Death
- 18 Reduced target’s Resistances for 5 Seconds to Markovian’s Advantage
Essence of Ch’thon weapon augment
- 15% Chance of 15% Reduced target’s Resistances for 5 Seconds
I’m not sure whether taking this or a 2nd Ravager’s Harvest is the better option.
PERFORMANCE
LEVELING
Lokarr’s set and 2 Leovinus’ Rings were used until Level 94. The tier 3 devotions did not really help much until I got damage conversions to Vitality damage. I could’ve used a different devotion setup for leveling then changed everything later on but reaching Level 94 does not take too long so I didn’t.
Gear options while leveling:
- Dual wield rare Monster Infrequents (MI) useful for Nightblade leveling such as Rift Scourge Slicer
- Bloodbriar’s Thorn: Ring of Steel skill modifier
- Non-mythical version of planned end-game items
If anyone else is going to try this, maybe it’s a better idea to take a different approach on leveling a Blademaster.
FEEDBACK / CLOSING
This build did surprisingly good. The weapons have skill modifiers that fit well with the build. Survivability is overall good. I’m not sure whether this build’s DPS is low or the monsters in SR were just too tanky because of Toughened modifier that gave them 12% more health. Maybe both statements are true. 
But at least it can defeat Lokarr.
Thank you for reading and I hope you find this build interesting! 