[1.2.1.2] Dog in the vineyard - Acid GV Archon - [CR+] [SR 80+]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hello everybody,

1.2.1.2 Little revamp. A bit less Physical resist, improved damage and resists. Overall build is a little better, and a little easier to play (We changed relics, and so replaced an extra action with a player-scaled pet)

1.1.9.8 Update: Moved to the new and improved Daega set. Armor went down a lot, but physical resist went up a lot too, so it’s kind of a wash, and damage improved slightly.

I’ve been sitting on this build for a bit now. I love it, but It was always lacking a bit of punch. With 1.1.9.5 it got good enough to share, and with 1.1.9.6 it got good enough to compete with the top dogs.

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GRIMTOOLS 1.2.1.2

GRIMTOOLS 1.1.9.8
GRIMTOOLS 1.1.9.6
GRIMTOOLS 1.1.9.5
(Craft for slow resist)

Gear and Devotions

Bramblevine, Misery, Conduit, and Mark of Lethal intents are core.
Daega set takes the place of 4-piece perdition set.
Rings to hardcap EV or add acid / retal damage. They are otherwise interchangeable.

Devotions are all for sustain/defense, Retaliation, or RR

Build could benefit from more cooldown, better CC resist, and a better source of DR.

Gameplay

So few buttons, you can almost play one-handed.
Deploy Wendigo Totem, cast GV repeatedly, use Ascension, absolution and the 2 movement skills when needed… that’s it.

The key to the damage output is the extended duration on GV (8 seconds with all gear) allowing you to stack about 7 in a pretty wide area. One GV is usually enough for mobs. A bit slow to start on bigger targets, but once it gets going it’s pretty powerful. Sustain mostly comes from ADCtH on GV and Wendigo Totem.

Performance ## Crucible

Curtesy of @tqFan :
4:50

Shattered realms

Cleared SR80 somewhat easily. Got bodied twice by Valdaran and Theodin Marcel in the boss room, but I wasn’t very careful. In my last run, I ended up aggo’ing them both by mistake, but with a bit of kiting I was able to beat both. Zantarine is very long to kill for some reason, but not very hard. Everything else is kind of easy. It can probably go a lot further in the right hands.

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Mad Queen

1: Cast lots of GV around
2: Dodge the red needles
3: ?
4: Profit

(No pictures, sorry)

Celestials

Bourbon clones and Lokar were pretty easy.

Will try more of them later

There is no doubt that this build can be improved, so if you have suggestions I’d be happy to hear them.

Thank you!

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Reserved for …things.

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Cool build congrats but I have a question, you have a lot of extra skill points and I presume you can squeze in RF with hardcapped Retribution into the build right? Maybe you can use honor(has a good rata skill) or absolution relic for more skill points, even meditation can work. You’ll have extra damage source with %16 rata.

Edit: Archon, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator something like this may fit better to your hybrid approach but not sure how losing scales and stoneform will affect the general survival.

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I’ll give RF a try for sure, thanks for the suggestion. My attack speed is kinda low though, so not sure how much damage I could squeeze out of that.

I tried Meditation and Absolution, but not Honor. I’ll try that as well.

The survivability of the build without scales, Obelisk AND with a much weaker Wendigo totem is not promising, but once 1.1.9.6 rolls in it could work.

I was also exploring this as a devotion setup, with Dryad on GV:

This has the advantage of not requiring any vitality-to-acid conversion
No Flat RR though… I could move the points from Obelisk to Manticore to fix that…

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How’s it doing in v1.1.9.6?

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Haven’t properly tested it yet, but it does feel a little sturdier in SR75

I’ll try to run crucible again, go deeper than SR80 and try a few celestials to see what it can now do :slight_smile:

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Edited the OP with 1.1.9.6 Grimtools.
The added ADCtH on grasping vine really helps, so I was able to drop Bat in favor of more Retal, and change my belt to more easily cap GV and Entangling vines. Rings were changed too. The build has more damage, slightly better sustain and much better resists overcaps while sporting one less green.

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[edit] Sorry this is 1.1.9.7 with some buffs I think, I forgot I was playing it :man_facepalming:

4:50 first try and can be a lot faster, a lot of mistakes were made but I just wanted to earn it the [cr+] tag.
@DeputyChuck you could totally improve the time and replicate my pro strat of standing in the corner of Crucible of the Stars and spamming Vines :wink:

Doesn’t seem like a good idea to me to insert a filler in between 1.05s recharge main ability casts.

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Thanks a lot ! :smiley:
It’s really cool having someone who knows what they’re doing taking your build for a spin.

Do you mind if I link it in the OP ?
I know it’s with the test patch for 1.1.9.7, but the difference should be minimal enough to showcase your run. I won’t add the cr+ tag to the title yet however, but once 1.1.9.7 rolls in, I will. :slight_smile:

I did try to use RF in between GV casts, and to @fordprefect’s credit, it did result in faster kills on tougher targets. However, it was so awkward to use (at least, for me) that I just gave it up.
However, inserting a cooldown ability, like AoM, could work.

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Buffs are as such:

Devotion

  • Messenger of War (celestial proc): increased % Fire Retaliation to 140%

Shaman

  • Oak Skin: increased % All Retaliation damage scaling with rank

Oathkeeper

  • Ascension: increased % All Retaliation damage scaling with rank
  • Presence of Virtue: increased Physical Retaliation scaling with rank
  • Rebuke: increased % All Retaliation damage scaling with rank

That’s it. gear is unaffected.

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Edited the OP again: Made a tiny compromise on damage to make the build more accessible:

1: No more greens.
2: No augments require a specific faction choice.

We also get better DA and resist overcaps as a result, so I think it was worth it.

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Updated the build to 1.1.9.8 to include Daega set now that it has acid retal instead of poison.

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hmmm, I’ve seen this build before :nerd_face:

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Yeah, I love GV as a skill and of course, your poison ivy build is my main inspiration.
But I wanted something that was VERY straightforward and focused on the vines, so no AoM for me :slight_smile:

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Could you try yours against Ravager (with pharma), I am curious about how much damage it has, because on paper it should have more damage then mine that is more retal/tank focused.

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I will give it a shot :slight_smile:
I’m not exactly a good pilot (Hence the “very straightforward build” part), so it might not pan out very well…

I could also give you a copy of the character and you can have a firsthand feel for it ?

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I am sure you can pilot the ravager kill tho. And you can send me the save on Discord as well, will give it a try at some point.

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