Playing around with hue saturations is fun.
In-game stat screen (with Inquisitor Seal and Word of Renewal)
Grim Tools
Shattered Realm 30-31 run
My first build post!
I’ve been playing Grim Dawn on and off since 2016, usually drawing inspiration for my builds from the venerable @mad_lee, Today I am happy to share my creation, which started out as an attempt to build around the skill Flames of Ignaffar, which I had never used. Going in, I had not even reviewed the 1.2.1.3 patch notes, which fortuitously noted the following:
- Flames of Ignaffar: increased Fire and Burn damage scaling with rank. Increased Distance by ~30% and Turn Rate by 100%.
- Intensify: increased Lightning damage scaling with rank
- Tainted Flame: replaced % Lightning to Vitality conversion with 100% of Lightning dealt as Chaos
Interestingly, my initial build concept revolved around the Voidsoul set to pump flat chaos and %WD to Flames of Ignaffar, but I pivoted away from the set when I discovered that Mythical Pagar’s Betrayal and Mythical Consumption of Agrivix added 33% of retaliation damage to attack to FoI. The pieces then fell into place: stack fire and lightning retaliation gear, convert it all to chaos with the Tainted Flame skill transmuter, slap on Demolitionist for Thermite Mine, and blast away.
Stat highlights
- 20k Health
- 3150 OA (3600 with Deadly Aim)
- +92% Crit Damage to Flames of Ignaffar
- 3000 DA
- 4100 Armor (5200 with Shield Wall)
- 12% ADctH (34% WD * 18% + 6% flat)
- 1600 Health Regen/sec (3350 with Giant’s Blood proc)
- 33% Reduced Monster Damage from Ulzuin’s Wrath
- 25% Monster Chance to Fumble
- 28% Physical Resist
- 80% Stun Resist (with some binning of Mythical Divinesteel Hauberk and Stormtitan Treads)
- 80% Freeze Resist
- 80% Slow Resist (58% without green ring)
- +7% Maximum Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance
- 1500 flat damage absorption with Inquisitor Seal, Phoenix Fire, and Blast Shield all active
How the damage math works
61548-62654 fire retaliation +
16731-99716 lightning retaliation =
78729-162370 chaos retaliation x 0.33 =
25980-53582 chaos retaliation added to each tick of Flames of Ignaffar
Based on the tooltip, the chaos damage component is 30646-59332, so at 190% cast speed:
True DPS is about 284780
Gameplay
- Drop Inquisitor Seal. Seal is love, Seal is life.
- Drop Thermite Mine. I hadn’t played Demo in a long time so I was surprised at how much easier these are to use compared to years ago. This is 75% of your resistance shred.
- Cast Word of Pain. Perhaps the least impactful, and probably not necessary for trash and most elite mobs, but Shield Wall is bound here which really beefs up your armor.
- Hold down Flames of Ignaffar until things stop moving.
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Despite being ostensibly a caster, this character has just melted everything in its path while facetanking Nemeses since it was able to put on its level 94 gear.
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Energy is not a problem with Tip the Scales giving you energy leech. You can intermittently drink some green juice if you’re running low for some reason.
Gear
I know it has 4 greens, but it’s 100% legitimate.
- Rings: The Gollus rings were farmed for and surprisingly were both obtained very quickly, probably <30 runs total. I had some other Gollus rings and other MI rings which I used at first to fill in basic resists and OA, which this build will otherwise sorely lack due to the generally defensive nature of retaliation gear. Just an of Attack yellow suffix and some green prefix fixing resists or adding health is probably good enough. For Legendaries, Mythical Combustion Band and Voidheart are your picks for -% Chaos resist but I think the build is too lacking on basic stats to easily fit these in.
- Medal: The Basilisk Crest base is half quality-of-life, half poison res/more OA. Again of Attack suffix and some green prefix fixing resists is good. This particular one is just one I had laying around so I popped it in. The other MI option here is Ikrix Scale for more flat retaliation and % retaliation damage which is probably more optimal but less cushy without the triple Word of Renewal duration. Mythical Serenir’s Commendation is probably the only Legendary alternative but the other two MIs are just superior.
- Gloves:The Magestorm gloves are crafted, I probably rolled 20ish before I got a decent mix. You’re looking for Celerity and a useful green prefix. Really this is being used for as much cast speed as possible which the offhand is sadly lacking, but Mythical Light’s Defender Gauntlets is a good alternative that was also considered.
- Weapon/Off-Hand: Mythical Pagan’s Betrayal and Mythical Consumption of Agrivix as mentioned earlier enable this build to function.
- Amulet and Shoulders: Mythical Dawnbreaker’s Beacon and Mythical Dawnbreaker’s Shoulderguard enable the 2-piece set bonus and comprise a massive amount of flat lightning retaliation. There really aren’t any better alternatives for these two slots.
- Helm: Gaze of Empyrion: DA, Energy regen, +1 Inquisitor skills, +3 Ulzuin’s Wrath, and a nifty range increase to Vindictive Flame. The other option here is Mythical Dawnshard Gaze which gives health instead of DA and has vitality resist.
- Chest: Mythical Divinesteel Hauberk: massive % health, % physical resist, % stun resistance, and +3 Ulzuin’s Wrath. The alternative for this slot is Mythical Dawnshard Hauberk which is the offensive option through more flat retaliation damage, % retaliation damage and + to Temper, but you lose a lot of stun resist.
- Pants: Mythical Runeplates of Ignaffar: Nice stats all around. The other option is Mythical Stormcage Legguards, but Runeplates are better with the physical resist and the + to FoI and Endless Flame
- Belt: Mythical Ulzuin’s Torment: +1 Demo skills, +2 to FoI and Vindictive Flame, very nice. The other option here is Mythical Sash of the Immortal Sage which has Aether resist, a lot of flat health, and + to Temper, but loses OA so it’s the worse option.
- Boots: Mythical Stormtitan Treads: Good health, poison resist, stun resist, +2 to Ulzuin’s Wrath. The alternative in this slot is Stormbearers, which has physical resist, vitality resist, and DA. You end up with more vitality resist than poison resist so Stormtitan wins here.
- Relic: Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm: gives cast speed and flat retaliation. The other option is Ignaffar’s Combustion which is primarily for -10% Chaos resist. I’ll need to experiment more to determine which is better.
Devotion
The important constellations are the following:
- Solael’s Witchblade (Eldritch Fire proc -35% chaos resist)
- Scales of Ulcama (Tip the Scales proc for energy leech and reduced resist shred)
- Messenger of War (330 flat retaliation, 90% retaliation, Messenger of War proc)
- Obelisk of Menhir (140% retaliation, armor, DA)
- Targo the Builder (120% retaliation, health, armor, Shield Wall proc)
- Alladrah’s Phoenix (200 flat retaliation, 80% retaliation, 10% crit damage, Phoenix Fire proc)
- Hound (70% retaliation, armor)
Everything else is just to get enough affinity or to round out the character. For instance, if you don’t care about Giant’s Blood, you can take Hawk and Jackal for more OA, Crit Damage, Total Speed, and a little Physical Resist. Sailor’s Guide and 1 point Empty Throne are taken mostly for Slow Resist, but if you have this covered from one of the rings, then you could shuffle those devotion points around as well. Chariot of the Dead is another good constellation but requires a complete re-juggling of constellations and looks something like this: - Lion, - Sailor’s Guide, - Behemoth, - (1) Obelisk of Menhir, - Empty Throne, - Purple Crossroads, + Yellow Crossroads, + Wraith, + Stag
FAQ
- Why no Flashbang? Flashbang is statistically superior for DA shred and Fumble when you move points out of Intensify and Endless Flame, but then introduces another key press to the rotation and I am pretty lazy when it comes to piloting.
- I don’t have enough attribute points! Yes, this build is very tight on attribute points because you need 1035 physique for Divinesteel Hauberk, 511 for Pagan’s and 724 for Consumption of Agrivix. That’s why you need to pay attention to your components. Seal of Annihilation gives 20 spirit. Ancient Armor Plate gives 18 physique. Spellwoven Threads for gloves gives 15 spirit and 34 OA if you’re short (although you lose 2% cast speed vs Restless Remains). I happen to have a 30ish spirit coming from one of the Gollus rings, so you will have to plan around what you can get.
- Why no Prismatic Diamond? It can be fit in just barely if you swap Ancient Armor Plate in Pants for a Scaled Hide but then you run into the previous problem as above. I will need to test this but my character might actually be short of attribute points as a result.
- Why no Osyr’s Fortitude augments on rings? Seems like a shame not to take these but OA is so scarce and the Bleed (and Vitality to a lesser extent) resists are very helpful in overcapping.
Leveling
- You have to rely on Incendiary Casque MI drops from Cronley’s hideout and dual wield Segarius’ Tainted Blade MI which drops from Brother Segarius at the end of FG campaign. You can use a relic such as Bladesworn Talisman to enable dual wield. This will give you enough flat damage to overwhelm early mobs. It will get a little slow between 70-93, but when you hit 94 the build is fully online. Don’t bother with retaliation gear until then because it has to be added through the level 94 weapon and off-hand. Otherwise, you can level with another skill of your choice and then re-spec at 94.
I’ll be adding more of my thoughts in future edits, but please enjoy for now and let me know what you think. 