[1.2.03] Tanky Skeleton Cabalist - SR 90+ - SF - New Player Friendly

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Just started playing GD again after the 1.2 patch. Never did SR before so this was all new to me. Saw the patch notes had increased healing and buffed pets. Decided to make a tankier build with the stuff I found along the way. It ended up doing really well. Lowest pet resist is 75 pierce and am working on raising that.

The other big consideration was not too many clicks. Im handicapped with severe spinal damage. Pets need to not die fast and still do a bit of damage.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKkQ3WN

I did SR 65 -81 back to back without loosing a single skeleton. SR 65 to 76 was a snooze fest. SR 80 plus you need to pay attention.

Simple tanky build with SF drops. Grove, tomb of heretic, SR. Easy build for new players.

SR 65/66

SR 75/76

SR 80/81 Double Moosi on 81

SR 90/91 Went nice and slow. Even messed up and turned blood off.

Crucible 150-170

Range Vet

7 Likes
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Afterward and room for a leveling guide if there is interest.

I took this up to 90. It did great with an occasional pet loss. At 89 I had my first death and another at 90. This is the point when pet aggro holding seems to fall off . Its run for your life time. You get hit hard and its death.

A note on damage. To get consistent damage your pets need to be alive and dealing damage. Dead pets do no damage. Constantly re-summoning skeletons is not very good for your overall DPS. This is where this build shines. Pets resists are great as well as healing.

Zerg / Over run. This is where you get swamped with mobs. This is usually very bad for your pets and your self. Easy for you and your pets to die. Build shines with these types of situations. No need to run. Just let the pets handle it.

Attention. Your attention should be on the tactical situation. Not on which pets are dead or close to to death. Or the distraction of resummoning. Attention where it does not belong gets you killed. Tanky consistent pets Keep YOU alive to collect that loot.

Devotions

Purple - Shepherds Crook ( Curse of frailty ) Remove purple
Red - Fiend ( Skells )
Blue - Sailors Guide
Green - Behemoth ( Blood Of Dreeg ) Remove Red and Green and blue
Rowans Crown - 3 points ( Take elemental storm - Hellhound )
Yellow - Crane - Remove yellow
Lion - Eel - Lizard - Hound - stag
Ishtak ( master of death )
tree of life 4 points ( Bonds of bysmiel )
Last point wolverine for pierce resistance

Leveling

This how I leveled…

Start necromancer. Get 1 -2 levels in skeleton. Hit crucible to get 5-8 devotion points. Should be around level 16 now. Start the campaign. Initially get skeletons and undead legion
up to a comfortable level. Occultist get curse of frailty and the bird. I rushed blood of dreeg.

There really is no wrong way to do this. I usually work on occultist first and when the skels start taking too much damage I push out to will of the crypt.

Fiend and shepherd are your first damage boosts. After killing the warden get ( wardens judgement ). Use a wrath stone on the mace and secondary ( second damage boost ).

After warden I make the climb to the tomb of the eldrich sun. This gets you needed faction and a korvaaks burning blade. The blade is a big boost. It converts phy/vit to fire. Anoint
blade and secondary with enchanted flint.

Finish main campaign around 50. At 65 an 90 get faction gear at conclave of the 3. I finished the campaign at 96 and started running the grove for blue prints. You only need 1 to drop. Once equipped with the lost souls I did tomb of the heretic and then went to SR.

Resists are king. Keep your pet resists up. Pet resists are on the second tab in the character sheet.

Cabalist is easy to level.

Here is this build in green/blue doing SR 65/66. Faction armor and normal leveling stuff. Look at the drops at the end. Resist are still good except for bleeding. Easily Doable.

3 Likes
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This build looks interessting. a leveling guide etc. would be great.

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As both a new player and a fellow spinal sufferer–hello neuropathy and spastic fingers–a levelling guide would be of invaluable assistance.

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Spinal stuff is awfull. My spine rotted out after 5 years of depleted uranium exposure. My necks held together with 3 titanium plates. stenosis and a host of other issues. Add in lots of pain killers and life is a trip. But I can still game…

Oh… Im old. I actually played dungeons and dragons in the mid 70’s.

RangeVet

1 Like
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my neck is same–cervical stenosis. Bolts and pins. Almost took a year to recover–don’t call me a fat head for nuttin’–and lumbar stenosis also. Not uranium for me just a total spinal collapse. Orthopedic surgeon said no option fusion or die. On the table less than 3 weeks later. I am a little aged also…born in 1953 and yes I played D&D back then and well into the 90’s.

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Added Crucible 150-170. Blue\green faction gear SR 65/66 run. Notice the drops at the end and the ease of doing the run. Perfect for farming that early game or getting gear for other builds.

RangeVet

3 Likes
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Thanks for posting! Are the gloves BiS here? I think the conversion to vitality isn’t helping, but maybe I am totally wrong about that. Is the +4 Skeletons just worth the cost?

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I’ve just tried to unvrap the ending damage type for skellies and I’d say the gloves are messing with it: if I understand it right, with average rolls on trinkets and hands, the final phys and acid damage goes ~50/50 elemental/vitality with too few sources of RR on board. Without the gloves, phys/acid part goes straight to ele damage where build’s RRs is better (but still low-ish).
Mythical Touch of the Everliving Grove looks more promising, it even closes the pierce res gap, +HP, +another healing… tho 25/16 Skellies looks heartbreaking.
Oh, and that Bysmiel’ set is a true b.tch to find (no blueprints to craft the starter to transmute, which means you must find any 4 pieces yourself).

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I’d actually go Ghol’s gloves… skellies can still get to 25/12 and there’d be useful pets from the ring conversion.

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nice build than another pet build i try, easy to run sr 80
thank you sir