[1.2.1.2] Targo and Mythical Inashkor's Corrupted Head - Blade Arc/Physical Doom Bolt - SR 80, Ravager, Callagadra, Mogdrogen

Hi everyone! I would just want to give back to the community and share this build I have been trying to optimize for a while now.

It all started when I picked up the Mythical Inashkor’s Corrupted Head and I started theorycrafting. But, it turned out so bad. I was still levelling up this Witchblade back then.

Afterwards, I got to level 94 and checked which armors that support internal trauma damage and Targo’s got my attention. Supports Blade Arc, and also does not have any off-hand as its set part.

I posted another Reddit thread showing the progress back then. There were numerous suggestions and recommendations. Components were bad because I was still progressing to 100. Aaaaand I was so set in getting Solemn Watcher devotion that I forgot that there’s Titan Plating for the reflect damage reduction LOL.

So that’s enough backstory.

BUILD

The playstyle if not obvious is to use Curse of Frailty + Warcry → Blitz → Blade Arc → Doom Bolt → Seismic Leap (optional), and then walk away and let internal trauma damage with Targo’s Hammer from the armor set do its work. Both Blade Arc and Doom Bolt deal decent damage (not as decent as those builds focusing more on either of them) due to their crit damage modifiers, combined with high offensive ability of the build should do crits alot. And also, from what I’ve read, DoTs love OA and crit damage% (I’m new-ish player, started only around June or July (?) 2024 and now at 540hrs).

ALTERNATIVES

  1. Fleshwarped Casque and Mark of Harvoul for the 24/7 uptime of Warcry.

  2. Mythical Decree of the Circle of Five, Benn’Jahr’s Shoulderguards and Rah’Zin’s Armor.

  3. Changing one of the Rings to Combustion Band or Mythical Ring of the Black Matriarch for additional physical resistance shred (if you have a Diviner’s Gargabol ring) which results to losing 1 point in Doom Bolt. And of course, if it triggers you like it does me, double Gargabol’s with one having Diviner’s so that Doom Bolt is hardcapped.

  4. Golemborn, Earthshatterer or Stonetreaders for boots.

  5. Balthazar’s Crest for hardcapping Laceration (weakest alternative for this build imo).

WEAKNESS/PROBLEM

Since you are running around, while waiting for the 1.1second cd of Warcry (or not if you’re using the alternative), the weakness of the build is when you are hindered either by the number of mobs around you, the size of the room, or Trap.

END

This build is really comfortable for me. I have other builds but this is the first build I want to share since it’s my first that I actually made myself. I really like the playstyle and I hope to share the enjoyment with you.

I can’t really record vids or clips since I play on the Steam Deck. My PC is too old to handle both play + record via OBS. I tried connecting the Deck to the PC for recording, but the quality is ass since the resolution is for the Deck’s OLED.

I just want to share this achievement anyways. I will try Mogdrogen and Callagadra next. Not really sure if I want to fight Crate with this build. SR85-86 viable but use the Fleshwarped Casque + Mark of Harvoul combination instead.

6 Likes

just a note, the way dot mechanics work means it’s technically not as huge an issue like for flat dmg spam builds maximizing dps - just means have to pay attention to timing/application instead

*which funnily enough also becomes why some of the alternative suggestions isn’t as great/doesn’t fit the Trauma approach as it “ruins” your blade arc/trauma dmg

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Nice OA :smiley:
Giant’s blood doesn’t seem to be bound to anything?
Is second rite just for the crit damage? Doesn’t seem super useful otherwise :thinking:

Ah yes. I think I forgot to mention that. I’m also counting that in my head. And there’s alot to take note :sweat_smile:

Ah, that should be bound to Serenity. I’ll fix that.

Also yes for the Second Rite. I can’t actually think of another use of the skill points here. My thought process was, since I have that high OA, why not just get crit damage%

The way trauma works means it doesn’t matter if RR falls off after the trauma is applied; the trauma dmg is counted from state of enemy stats on the initial attack.
So if you have break morale debuffing enemy, hit blade arc/applies trauma, the trauma/dot checks enemy stats “in this moment”, and will keep rolling with this status in mind until the DoT runs out - also even if the RR wears off before the trauma ends.
*this is per trauma application not on “refreshing” the trauma, ie, if you have RR applied enemy, applies trauma ex via blade arc, trauma rolls, 1 sec later RR wears off, trauma still rolling for 3 secs past(still counting thte RR), hitting blade arc again now while the RR is off but before initial trauma wears off, wont “refresh” the original trauma that factored in the RR - the new blade arc his is a new trauma application.

But it means, since you have buttload of +trauma duration, on top of trauma lasting 3? secs default, you can easily roll a trauma hit through the 1½ sec war cry downtime. - where as for flat dmg spam dps it would be 1½ sec with actual dps loss

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Ooooh! I see! I thought that the tic will check what’s the status of the target when it was applied.

So am I understanding this correctly? I can just reapply the trauma anytime (as long as the effect time is done or almost done) even if the res shreds aren’t applied yet since the tic will check the res by the time they are counted?

No. It takes the state at the time you apply it, then uses that for the remainder of the time. If you apply it again, it will take the state at that time. So only apply the trauma when you have all rr active ideally.

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true DoTs like Trauma factor in enemy stats/defences (and your offences) in the moment of initial application.
The way it works mechanically is the highest dot “from same source” will count, ie if you hit twice with blade arc, you don’t get 2 stacking trauma, whichever hit of the two blade arcs that’s the highest will roll/deal the actual dmg

Since RR naturally would aide to factor in for higher dmg, whatever hit(s) lands or landed during the RR being active will/should usually out do whatever hit you might have “accidentally” applied during the 1½ RR down time

so you use War Cry, hit with blade arc, you keep hitting with blade arc when off CD, and lets say one of those hits happen to land while the RR wore out, that trauma hit simply just wont “count” (unless you stop using war cry and blade arc altogether from that moemnt on). The trauma from the previous hit will still carry through, highly likely being the highest/being higher than the BA hit applied while RR was down. And next you use War Cry, and again hit’s with BA 1-2-3 times, one of these will then be the new highest carrying on for the trauma that rolled through before.

as example (dealing with just 1 target for illustration) *each hit is a new Blade Arc attack/skill activation not just trauma tick, made up term"Enemy defence check"EDC)
War Cry->Blade Arc hitting,EDC, 10k trauma(A)->BA hitting,EDC, 9.5k trauma(B)->BA hitting,EDC, 9.9k trauma(C)->RR fades->BA hitting,EDC, 7k trauma(D)-> War Cry on → BA hitting,EDC, 9.5k Trauma(E)-> BA hit,EDC, 10k trauma(F)
hit A will simply carry through all the way to hit F,
it’s only if hit A’s trauma duration (12sec on your setup?) happens to run out before hit F was applied in which case hit C would be rolling in the foreground/dealing the dmg, until hit F took over (or hit C ran out if you didn’t hit higher in the meantime/12sec after)

So because the hit during RR downtime is simply lower than the others, it just wont get counted (trauma wise), as you simply manage to get another larger again when the RR was or gets up(before/after), that would automatically override the hit potentially made during the RR. Effectively resulting in never having any dmg/dps loss on the DoT/Trauma portion of the attack/dmg

hope it didnt’ just end up confusing more :sweat_smile:

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Done with Callagadra. Mog next. I think pots were not necessary at all but still took some. Mistakenly drank anti-bleed pot too LOL.

RIP screenshot function on the Deck. I can’t share it to my IPhone or I’m just lazy to figure it all out.

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You inspired me to dust off my ancient blade arc Tactician that was a bit all over the place and respec him into trauma with Trago. Tactician, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.2) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (Yes the off-hand is silly :D)

spellscourge, or farm a Kalis’ka with CDR prefix if the cooldown is important to you :sweat_smile: - or Erulan if inquis points matters to you

Maybe something like this? I don’t think Targo will be good for a Tactician to be honest since with Inquisitor, you probably want to move between seals and prefer a gun. I think Octavius is better supporting for Tactician since you give Rune of Kalastor physical damage conversion and internal trauma, with crit damage%. Then your 2nd main damage source can be Forcewave (better suited I think with the playstyle). Please take this suggestion with alot of salt since I have not delved into Tacticians yet. I have a Purifier but that’s using the Shattered Realm Set + Stronghold Set.

No, I absolutely don’t. :rofl: I’m sure they’re great for other people, but I can’t play with them properly.

Yes, that’s also a way to go, but I didn’t want to turn my blade arc character into a forcewave dude. I’ll make a new guy one day to build around the Octavius set. Your build idea looks good though.

Yeah I thought about Kalis’ka, but hrm… It doesn’t do too much for trauma damage. And the shield part doesn’t do anything on this guy anyway. Actually Octavius shield might not be that bad. It has reflect reduction, +1 soldier, cdr, chaos resist, and flat internal trauma damage (I assume this applies globally?)

Spellscourge might be nice for the set bonus actually :thinking: Erulan is also worth giving a go, I didn’t think of using that.

There’s also Tome of Names, Codex of Reckoning, maybe I can find some more to have fun with :smiley:

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except grant you blitz scaling, Menhir’s Will, overguard, - offhand currently gives nothing

sadly does not,
Flat dmg/stats on a shield is considered weapon specific, (same is if on a sword etc), ie only applied by attacks with that hand, in this case/at a glance only applying to your blitz (which is still something i suppose)

edit, i just realize you even have spellscourge neck which gives a modifier to overguard, you could then benefit from, even if minor bonus for cdr build :sweat_smile:

Not true. It boosts word of renewal and aura of conviction (though I’ve been thinking oleron is probably better), and has good health regen, including proc.

:upside_down_face: fml ok. So really only useful on shield specific skills then?

Quite confusing. Why is it listed separately and not just as the base damage? Like…What’s the difference between damage listed as base damage (red) and damage listed as property on the weapon (blue)?

Might not be bad

Yeah quite minor, normal attacks don’t do too much here, but I’ll give some things a go tonight. See if anything is noticeably better.

PS. Sorry for hijacking this thread. :no_mouth:

yes, must slap with shield/scale with shield dmg in some way, blitz, (CD)forcewave, rune etc that mentions shield specifically as applied

one is fixed/base dmg
the other is technically a variable, as in is part of the stat range rolls, so you can get more or less - base is always guaranteed
image
and ofc for flat phys dmg builds you then get the lovely “individual source checked against armour” interaction too :smile:
*phys shenanigans joking aside, i think it’s just done to be one of the layers or RNG we/items get to deal with as part of the ARPGness and loot fiesta
when you know the roll range do you get more happy about a low/high roll etc, that “perfect” chasing satisfaction stat ranges imparts

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No worries man! Hahaha. I look forward to your optimized build soon


Done with Mogdrogen. Hardest one actually since it’s difficult to aim Doom Bolt on him and there’s tons of adds being summoned. :upside_down_face:

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