[1.2.1.2]: The Oppressor: 4:20 Crucible, Shard 90, Celestials, the ultimate vitality EoR Oppressor by mad_lee

[mad_lee]

#NoToWar

Foreword

This is the first one out of my two last builds. This Oppressor is pound-for-pound one of the strongest builds currently and there is not much to add here, build is an absolute machine. I was inspired to make this build by Vitality EoR Sentinel made by @Torzini: I noticed great potential in Vitality EoR, however to fully realize that potential I thought it needed a stronger class, and what better class to choose for everything Vitality other than Oppressor.
Also credit to @Valinov for being probably the first one who put together Blood Knight set and EoR long before Death’s Reach was cool got buffed.

The Build

1.2.1.2 update!

Decided to update this old spinner, after all new patch improved the performance of EoR builds across the board and this one is no exception.

<<<< GRIMTOOLS (actual) >>>>*

OLD GRIMTOOLS (1.1.9.8)

OLD GRIMTOOLS (1.1.9.5)

*Craft for slow resistance
**For gear and gear alternatives explanation check Gear section below
***For the Ravager fight use 3x Coven’s Wraith Scream jewelry augments.

Head spinning but vital questions

The stats on this one look poor. Will it work well outside of buffed Crucible?
Yes, it can clear SR as high as Shard 90 (maybe higher if you fish for mutators and bosses), absolutely wrecks SR 75-76 and facetanks Ravager.

So if you say it’s the strongest Vitality EoR build, why @Torzini’s Sentinel shows faster Ravager kill time?
Ravager, unlike all other farmable content, has unusually high DA and Vitality resistance (131%). So extra OA and RR and that Sentinel has scales really well against him while against everything else (except Celestials) Oppressor is much better

But why is Oppressor better than Sentinel or Ritualist? Death’s Reach got dual support for those two classes but not for Oppressor.
Oppressor got the strongest itemization with the Blood Knight set and Namadea’s Eye medal. And Necromancer’s skill set synergizes the best with Vitality EoR: the only EoR interruption being Bone Harvest which deals decent damage itself while offering great damage buff to EoR, passive RR, extra speed and leech from passive, big hp boost and a circuit breaker. Plus we get a decent Bleeding damage support synergy from BK set

Gear/Skills and Devotions/Leveling

All gear pieces are best in slot here. Build relies quite a bit on green affixes to fully shine so assembling it won’t be cheap. Look for max %cdr rolls on the weapon. I’ve tried focusing on getting maximum cc-resists when gearing it because it’s a channeling build so interruptions from cc-effects is our main enemy. Eternal Band ring was taken for its Soulfire points, speed, great resists, and a very useful disruption resist (flat RR and %RR on it scales poorly with EoR’s low %weapon damage so it’s almost useless). I didn’t take Greaves of Ill Omen because they are still bloody awful because of their Confuse proc and lack of physical resistance.
Skill distribution is pretty standard here.
When it comes to devotions on Vitality builds my philosophy is always Scales over Revenant. Especially with 2handed bases and all that %cdr (plus it’s more ergonomic in terms of QoL since we don’t use any extra buttons just to proc stuff).

For leveling check beginner guides, this is an endgame build

Gameplay

In Crucible

Build facetanks everything in buffed Crucible. Mark of Torment or Bloodthirster are not really needed, but you can use it just in case on waves 169 and 170.

In Shattered Realm

Build is an extremely fast and safe SR 75-76 farmer. Its mobility and speed are really a sight to behold.

Celestial fights

Ravager is easy with pharma. Use pharma and smartly cycle through your circuit breakers. Don’t forget to change jewelry augments for him. Mogdrogen is easy with proper Lightning resistance overcap and both Crate and Callagadra are quite hard but doable and might require a lot of focus and quite a few tries.

Just watch the videos to learn how to play the build.

Stats

All screenshots are taken with all temporary buffs

General

EoR damage

Videos

1.2.1.2 Vitality EoR Oppressor vs. Ravager of Minds 2:08 kill (new spec)

1.2.1.2 Vitality EoR Oppressor vs. SR 75-76 5:06 run (new spec)

1.1.9.6 SR 75-76 7:25 run

1.1.9.5 Crate of Entertainment kill

1.1.9.5 Mogdrogen 2:33 kill

1.1.9.5 Lokarr 13sec kill

1.1.9.5 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 LUCKY 4:03 run run

1.1.9.5 SR 75-76 6:49 run

1.1.9.5 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 “naked” extra spawn 5:55 run

1.1.9.4 Shard 90 boss room with few deaths

1.1.9.4 Ravager kill 1:48 kill

In Conclusion

Stay tuned for my next build guide that will also include all the builds that I didn’t post on this forum.

[Nery]

Another great build by Mad_Lee!

Also worth saying piloting matters a lot in Crucible’s results. I did for instance 4:50 in my sole run, probably can do better but still…

Speaking of build, I like the caster hybridisation alongside EoR. BK pet, Bone Harvest as powerful nuke offering extra damage. And passive RR from Spectral Binding is really important for EoR build. In my experience QoL is number one priority for this skill. Also 2H vitality build is pretty cool, cause you can have Kraken on top of DG/Rattosh and Scales. Extra AS is especially crucial for this build, cause it’s lacking.

[Stupid_Dragon]

Some new videos vs Celestials

Vitality EoR Opressor vs. Lokarr (13 seconds kill)

Vitality EoR Opressor vs. Mogdrogen (2:33 kill)

Vitality EoR Opressor vs. Crate (1:02 kill)

[GrimFandango]

Hi all! I have been having a total blast with this build the past couple of days, and after experiencing it’s strengths and weaknesses I wanted to submit an alternative and get people’s thoughts. This is really the first “build edit” I’ve ever done here, and I’ll admit I’m not the most knowledgeable player or the best pilot, so I would love anyone’s feedback and or criticism of my edits!

Here’s the build: Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Objectives when changing the build (mostly centering around a more well rounded defense):

• Reconfigured components for optimized physical defense - I’ve changed around a few to reach 100% Armor Absorption and to eek out a bit more Ele Res and drop some of what I see as weaker components like Consecrated Wrapping and Frozen Heart, but admittedly this makes it weaker to Freeze Resist and drops the OA a bit
• All 3 MRs are Double Rare with more optimized affixes - the suffixes in particular focus more on OA / DA / +%health. I believe I’ve done this without any negatives to the +% Vit Dmg
• Evened out resistances and getting them all to at least +25% over max cap. The “of Soulwarding” affix in particular is extremely useful here, as you no longer have to spend all Augment slots just to get Aether Res up to just capped level
• Evened out skill point allocations to soft cap persistent auras and more of a +dmg focus to Call of the Grave
• 100% Physique attr dump instead of a 2/1/1 split

Changed build thoughts:

• Feels much more safe and secure to play - even in situations where you’re surrounded and you don’t have Ascension up, I really don’t have any huge worries that I’m going to get 1 shot
• For overall DPS simming against target dummies, this seems almost exactly the same to the original build (maybe a small bit less thanks to no +%Atk Speed from the Consecrated Wrappings, but to me this seems extremely negligible)
• I play a bit different than the pilot in the videos - I cast Bone Harvest and the Medal OA/DA shred jump on cooldown, and I feel it works out well for keeping damage extremely high without needing to pop the 3 +dmg or defensive cooldowns until absolutely necessary

In game results:

• Was able to get Ravager of Flesh to ~10% without ANY pharma whatsoever or any optimized Ring / Amulet augments (with a bit of kiting), and get an extremely easy kill w/ all pharma - a more experienced pilot I’m sure could kill the Ravager without any. Truly crazy, and was my first Ravager kill
• Able to kill Mogdrogen with only the Lightning Res potion and nothing else
• I can’t get Callagadra even past 80% with running around her cyclones, as her Phys damage is far too much (25k dps/sec incoming, even with Ascension up). Maybe changing the Pants and Belt to an option that has +%Phys Res and more +%Armor would help this out a bit
• 170 Crucible w/ 6th spawn point within time limit, easily - admittedly I’m not a Crucible player at all, so I had to play the angles on some of the maps here, but this seemed pretty nuts with the amount of life steal and mobility provided
• SR 75 with 10 minutes on the clock after all bosses, no pharma

Other notes:

• I really tried to find a way to fit in Signet of the Fallen for the permanent -15% Vit Res debuff, but the resistances lost when changing out either item are just too much of a deficit to make up with augments / etc. I also might not understand the game enough to properly evaluate the -% and -flat Res shred on Eternal Band, but I was just trying to experiment!
• VERY weak to Freezing enemies, but luckily there’s not many at all outside of a couple SR bosses, and when you’re facing only one boss at a time you pretty much can’t die anyways with Ascension or Mark of Torment up. 55% Stun Res made Mogdrogen a little annoying, but you can change out a couple of augments to make this a walk in the park

Again, any and all feedback / criticisms / suggested improvements are welcome, as this is my first ever build edit or writeup. Thank you @mad_lee and @Stupid_Dragon for making and posting this build, respectively! I’ve had an absolute blast playing it.

[Stupid_Dragon]

Hello, GrimFandango, @mad_lee here writing you from the land of the dead, in the spirit of your nickname. Thanks for taking interest in my build. You can tweak it and play it however you want, but for optimal performance I suggest following my grimtools more closely.

• Removing Frozen Heart and Chains of Oleron is a mistake, in my opinion. Literally few sentences after you complain about “Freezing enemies”. The whole idea of my itemization is to have cc-res as high as possible when Ascension is down. Frozen Heart, Chains of Oleron and Disruption res help that, keeping the number of interruptions your spinning gets to the minimum thus ensuring more consistent leech and faster and safer kill times.

• Patching Armor Absorb with armor that low doesn’t make a significant difference here. You are doing it by sacrificing OA from Chains of Oleron component (and trap res), less OA - less critical hits (and here because OA is so low, more misses against some debuffing monsters), which ultimately leads to less consistent leech. And higher leech here is more important for survivability than a bit more armor on a low armor character.

• Your gameplay should be as follows: popping Ascension and Call of the Grave as soon as they are off cooldown. Your medal rune is just means of transportation, don’t use it deliberately as a debuffer and interrupt EoR for it. Use MoT frequently since you have quite a bit of cooldown reduction, and also don’t be shy to use Bloodthirster.

• Regarding Attribute distribution: full physique dump means less damage and OA which means less leech and longer and potentially more drawn out fights which is ultimately worse for survivability. Build designed in a way that it can take most hits, even crits from Nemeses and instantly leech back to full hp. Going full physique hinders that ability. But again, you are free to play it as you like.

• Finally, here is the latest calc if you want a bit more juice from the build and not shy from stashing double rares: Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator Note more aggressive jewelry augments for higher base OA and flat damage

@GrimFandango

[willketch41]

there’s one problem there’s no way to place WW GD version of the classic Diablo 2/Diablo3 Barb skill and all that came w the oath keeper mastery in this game and all, I don’t see a way to add it on the Xbox controller SB/skill bar quick slot setup peace.

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

what are you talking about, you even have slots leftover

the build uses 8 skills…

[willketch41]

on Xbox it goes A X Y B but ya you’re right though You’d had the controls a bit backwards and all.

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

@willketch41

it goes A X Y B

you know you can rebind things, right?

[Reservao]

Hi!

Where can i find a leveling guide for this Build?

[beserkjay]

I am not the author or a good player but here’s generally what I did to level this build:

Early on I maxed ravenous earth and the modifiers. I also picked up Bonespike - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database while using ravenous earth.

I didn’t swap to Eye of reckoning until I could farm two of these weapons: Blugrug's Plagued Edge - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database. This was probably around level 50.

I used the same level 50ish weapons until I swapped into deaths reach at level 84.

[tqFan]

I think such EoR might be playable from the start if a player desires so.

• could grab these Korvan Pauldrons

  • this is what I literally just did half an hour ago but the other shoulders (Ele → Phy) for Physical EoR I’m playing
    at level 28 after killing Cronley when I could buy DW relic. I will see if the rest of Normal till Ugdenbog is fine with partial conversion.

• Namadea’s Eye in Ugdenbog

• Lunal’Valgoth’s Girdle in Cinder Wastes

---

Then of course the weapons you mentioned can be thrown into the mix depending on which conversion items are optimal for you then.

[Co0k]

Hey, thanks for the awesome build. I’m not very experienced in GD and I have a few questions:

Why do you use Sandreaver gloves? Are there no better alternatives for a vitality build?
Could you elaborate on “Build relies quite a bit on green affixes to fully shine”? Which ones?

Thank you

[Rancor]

Welcome to the forum.

Sandreaver gloves add add flat physical damage to EoR that is then converted by the weapon to vitality damage because of its “100% physical damage converted to vitality damage modifier”. Funny you mention it as a new player, there’s not really a great pair of melee vitality gloves but that’s moot here because Sandreavers are awesome for this build.

Green affixes mean rare affixes on non-unique/legendary gear. Here it refers to the affixes on the pants, belt, and medal. This can be confusing as it’s not obvious in-game what is a rare affix. Clicking on an item in the Grimtools link will allow you to look at its pre- and suffix. Yellow is common, green is rare. I think the Rainbow Filter mod shows them in-game, if you want to add that to your game.

The reason this build shines with green affixes is that most of the CC res is coming from these affixes as well as a bunch of OA and DA.

[Stupid_Dragon]

New GT: Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

New video:

Vitality EoR Oppressor vs. SR 75-76 (7:25 run, dangerous mutators/bosses)

[BOG]

Mythical Death’s Reach is an incredibly powerful weapon, despite being lvl84 one. It almost doubles EoR WD, adds a bulk of flat damage on top of that, converts EoR damage into the one Oathkeeper STILL has RR to, and if that isnt enough, it also has massive CD reduction, an insanely useful on-attack proc (100% lifesteal wave with 1 s CD? Really?).
Recently, i’ve started over from scratch due to loss of my former PC. I started with cold DE Reaper (to farm some gear for my lightning retal Archon i’ve leveled too meanwhile). Hell, even though DE Reaper kills trash really fast, he just dies from random oneshots here and there… Then i remembered i’ve got a Mythical Death Reach dropped at around level 90. I’ve leveled my Archon a bit, respecced him into vitality EoR build, slapped together some random legendaries and MI’s - and BOOM, i already have a character with 240k DPS before any procs, 22k+ HP, massive lifesteal, and all capped and overcapped resistances for endgame. Deadly and tanky at the same time.
I DO like such a build, maybe i’ll level an Opressor later for it, and respec my Archon back into lightning retal when i get enough good gear…

@Stupid_Dragon

But why is Oppressor better than Sentinel or Ritualist? Death’s Reach got dual support for those two classes but not for Oppressor.

Ritualist is Necromancer+Shaman, it cant use EoR at all. Maybe, you meant Archon instead (Shaman+Oathkeeper)?

@Stupid_Dragon

Eternal Band ring was taken for its Soulfire points, speed, great resists, and a very useful disruption resist (flat RR and %RR on it scales poorly with EoR’s low %weapon damage so it’s almost useless).

I wouldnt say that. You get 68% WD on EoR, that’s only 68% of normal RR effectiveness, and you get it exactly when and where it’s needed (on all EoR targets instantly) unlike Scales, that can only debuff 2-3 targets max, and those are chosen randomly (so it might be some ranged guys you arent hitting ATM). Not to mention you also have Bone Harvest with enough WD to keep full RR effect on your target. Actually, with well-rolled ring, you dont really need that RR devotion at all. Not for its RR, at least.

[AngmarDT]

Madlee, how does this compare with your Physical Eye of Reckoning Warlord? Which one would you prefer if you have only one build to play Eye of Reckoning with and why? In terms of farming SR/Crucible, Superbosses.

[mad_lee]

@AngmarDT

Madlee, how does this compare with your Physical Eye of Reckoning Warlord?

both are mid to top tier

@AngmarDT

Which one would you prefer if you have only one build to play Eye of Reckoning with and why

[1.2.0.2] THE METABREAKER: 4:15m Crucible Gladiator, SR 75-76 crusher, SR90, Ravager easy and tanky spin-to-win Shieldbreaker by mad_lee [sr+][c+][vid]

[output]* *always a great hair day with this build Foreword During the 1.2 patch testing tons of stuff were buffed, some of it was nerfed, dozens of suggestions and reports were made by testers to Crate, most of them were accepted and implemented. I know, I was there. But few could’ve predicted the 180 turnaround that was the complete revision of health regeneration mechanic. HP regen was always more or less a supplementary healing mechanic for meta builds at best bar Avenger. After a complet…

[mad_lee]

1.2.1.2 update!

Decided to update this old spinner, after all new patch improved the performance of EoR builds across the board and this one is no exception.

Find the updated grimtools in the op. Here are some videos with build’s current performance.

1.2.1.2 Vitality EoR Oppressor vs. Ravager of Minds 2:08 kill (new spec)

1.2.1.2 Vitality EoR Oppressor vs. SR 75-76 5:06 run (new spec)

[Dabuwa87]

Is this build stronger or the RE Oppressor?

RE could kill kala, right? But this one is faster in SR?