Lightning Retaliation + Primal Strike Warder
I decided to try a retal build. I have never done one and I noticed that Dawnshield set was not touched a lot. I did Warder, Archon and Warlord for it. I will post the other builds soon. Today it is Warder.
There is a support in devotions for physical retal or for fire retal but not for lightning retal. And the support is also mostly for shield builds. I thus decided that the best way to approach it is to go for a hybrid retal build. Some normal lightning damage and some lightning retal damage. Thus by itself the retal damage here is not spectacular and the normal damage is also not spectacular but if you combine them it actually works. RATA skills that are used here are Counter Strike and Grasping Vines. I decided to not use Savagery with them although it has some retal damage. It would require too many skill points into it + to WPS to be useful and instead I went for Primal Strike. And that makes the build far cooler anyway 
Thus you strike with lightning from above, do retal damage and do RATA with CS and GV. In devotions I went rather non conventional. The only retal one I took is Hyrian. And the rest went for support of lightning damage, attack speed and defenses. I didn’t even take any tier 3 devos. It is my first hybrid retal build so I am not sure if the optimization is that good but the build has great results and that should speak for itself. And my approach also worked for Archon and Warlord as well.
Warder is the best offensively and defensively of those three possible class combos for this set. It has lower attack speed (all do) but it works anyways. Defensively the build uses damage absorption on Menhir’s Bulwark, damage reduction on attuned lodestone, nice HP regen 2k HP/s (but I didn’t go fully into it), Wendigo Totem which is great with high life pool and high healing increase of 55 % and of course nice ADCtH after healing increase (this is where Primal strike is good). Primal Strike has only 100k DPS yet it is noticable when you use it. No single damage skill is overwhelming but together they work well. Build also has high phys res and armor. It is hard to get OA and DA though so you have to roll good items for that. I also went for some racial damage to help the build in high SR.
I am actually quite surprised how well it all works together. And take into account that this is a blue set that will get ascended in FoA expansion. Build can do SR 90 within the timer consistently. Even finish within the timer in SR 95 though not in the majority of times. And it can kill Ravager and Callagadra.
GRIMTOOLS
Warder, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.2) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Download
_Champion Warder.zip (701.9 KB)
This build is just a template. Customize it to your own liking. Crafting bonuses are to freeze resistance. Arcane spark is necessary for energy sustain.
Primal Strike DPS with passive buffs
SR
I finished SR 80-81 5 out of 5 times within the timer. It is easy.
In SR 85-86 I finished 5 out of 5 times within the timer. It is easy but don’t do totally stupid things. First Valdaran aura you can facetank and for second take a potion and facetank it as well.
In SR 90 I finished 5 out of 5 times within the timer. If you die you will be on the edge with the timer. Aleksander is slow to kill. Kill his crystals ASAP. Valdaran is slow to kill. Disengage and use potion through his aura.
In SR 95 I finished 2 out of 5 times within the timer. You must not die to finish it within the timer. Outside of the timer you can finish it always. Valdaran is tough and slow, avoid his aura. Play it safe in the first three shards and avoid nemeses. Play it safe in the boss rooms as well.
Celestials
I killed Ravager of Minds without pharma. It is slower but you can mostly survive being sundered. Avoid the null of course.
I killed Callagadra without pharma. Avoid the sunder and tornados.