*famous last picture of a top-tier build in the last hotfix
credit for the picture goes again to @Tararihen
Foreword
“This magic is what brought Cairn to ruins” - Malakor was furiously pacing back and forth in his spacious study where only the most trusted of his allies were allowed. “That bitch, can you believe it” - it seems that he was mostly muttering stuff to himself. “Exiled into another world and reborn, and those pompous old hacks, who for some fucking reason call themselves Witch Gods seemed to have a hand in it after all”. Old Inquisitor has gained a little weight in the few years after the last time he swinged his infamous maces - these days he was mostly seen wearing his old patchy robe locked up in his study reading ancient manuscripts. “I think I found a way to save Cairn from that Magic for good, yes. That arrogant wench, Harra, died retreiving those Mad God diaries.” Malakor leaned over his table where a lot of old books were lying chaotically scattered. His grey-haired plump belly was showing - falling out of his robe a bit. “But wouldn’t that also strengthen Aetherial invaders and Chtonian demons, Sire?..” - a figure in a suit of red heavy armor stepped out of the shadow. Malakor looked amazed for a second like he forgot that his new hired sword was in the room the whole time. “It’s none of your concern and you have a job to do. Do it well and Inquisition will not forget your deeds for the Empire. Whatever your damn name was…” last words Malakor muttered almost to himself. “Murciélago de Fuego, Sire” - the figure answered. “What in a Korvaak’s name… You don’t use that dialect in my house! Now get out!” screamed Malakor. “Fire Bat,” red figure calmly answered “You can call me Fire Bat,” he added disappearing into the red portal.
The Build.
The concept of this build was born as more of a joke in response to @adoomgod plea to make a good “fire” Fire Strike in one of our chats. Naturally Shieldbreaker is a very strong archetype, however, not for melee. And melee “fire” Fire Strike was more of a meme among Grim Dawn veterans. Well, “was”.
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For the bonus build scroll down to the bottom of the post
Burning questions:
Melee fire based Fire Strike? On a Shieldbreaker? What?
Yes.
But why no Essence of Beronath amulet or Annihilation relic? Do you hate damage, mad_lee?
After couple of recent patches Endgame became extremely demanding to melee builds. Without the defenses from Serenity and Conduit build would have no consistency. And I have actually tested Annihilation + Essence of Beronath + green boots and it’s the same in terms of killing speed (but dies a lot).
Shouldn’t you bind Eldritch Fire to Fire Strike for speed?
Weirdly, no, build works better with 70% Fire damage Bat proc bound to main attack, I have tested it.
Flashbang flat RR mod Conduit? What in the meme??
There are no great Demo conduit options for this build (at all). This one actually works pretty well.
Ancient Armor? What about armor absorption?
Same values of effective armor as with Scaled Hide but AA has +physique
What about Abomination in devotions? You have 100% Chaos to Fire conversion, should be a sick flat damage boost.
I have tested it and while flat damage did look good on paper and build got even more OA with that devotion map, clear times were the same, except build has lost its consistency with some minor losses of defensive stats
Gear
Dual Blazehearts was an obvious choice - amazing stats + they fully convert Vitality from Bat devotion proc (and actually little flat damage on a 4th nod) and Burning Void WPS which makes build hit like a truck. Justicar is a great set with great stats and it has plenty of flat damage on it (for some reason). I wish it supported Fire Strike, sigh. Everything else is patching the wholes in the defense or/and stats. Yes, Black Tallow in the medal performs better than Tainted Heart.
Skills and Devotions
One of the more tankier Fire devotion maps. Didn’t go for Aeon because I wanted that flat fire damage from Magi, although I guess Time Dilation setup perform similiarily, maybe even better in shards. Skill distribution is obvious too. Chaos Strike movement rune is actually taken for its damage reduction. Helps a lot versus dangerous heavy hitters.
Just regular fire devotions with some emphasize on phys res
Gameplay
In Crucible - blink around and decimate stuff. Be careful on wave 169 and 170. Try to take out Grava first, use Chaos Strike on him and Anasteria (and Kaisan) to tone down their damage a bit.
In Shattered Realm - 65-66 is a sweet spot, although expect to die sometimes, SR had become even worse nightmare than it has ever been. It’s okay to kite versus some bosses on boss chunks. After becoming a better SR pilot taking on Shards 75-76 with this build becomes a trivial task, but do expect to die on 75-76 sometimes.
One on one you can take anyone in SR 75-76, but build is susceptible to swarms of heroes and monsters, so try to pick your battles.
Stats
General with Ascension up
Fire Strike tooltip with Ascension up
Defense with Ascension up
Videos
1.1.9.8 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. SR 75-76 7:32 run w/bad mutators (Empyrion/Scales spec)
1.1.9.8 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager 55 sec. no pharma kill (Empyrion/Scales spec)
1.1.9.8 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager 48 seconds kill (Empyrion/Scales spec)
1.1.9.7 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager 51 seconds kill
1.1.9.7 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. SR 75-76 (6:58 run, final spec)
1.1.9.8 Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. Shard 90 (tough bosses, few deaths)
Shattered Realm 75-76 run (couple of deaths)
Shattered Realm 75-76 run (couple of deaths - take 2)
Shattered Realm 75-76 run (no deaths, really fast run)
5:58 super lucky Crucible run (1.1.4.2.)
6:06 lucky Crucible run (1.1.4.2)
6 seconds Mad Queen kill (lucky Armored mutator with -8% elemental res to monsters) (new devotion bindings)
1.1.4.2 test - 6:40 Crucible run
6:14 lucky Crucible run (new devotion bindings)
6:52 unlucky Crucible run (new devotion bindings)
Shards 65-66 run (just 3 deaths but still fast, lol)
Death at 6:43 on wave 169 with Essence of Beronath+Annihilation+green boots spec
In Conclusion
Go check out @malawiglenn similiar Purifer’s build. It seems like he decided to make a very similiar concept at the same time as me (random coincedence, lol), but he managed to post it couple of days earlier (for which I wholeheartedly hate him so actually don’t go to his guide and don’t check out his stupid stinky build! jk 
)
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Bonus Build: Fire SnB Shieldbreaker
A brother of this build but with a bit more tankiness and a different flavour. Very bursty when put together right. Stolen from Inspired by similiar specs made by @banana_peel and @grey-maybe
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Videos
1.1.9.8 Fire snb Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager (44 seconds kill)
1.1.9.8 Fire snb Shieldbreaker vs. SR 90 (few deaths)
1.1.9.8 Fire snb Shieldbreaker vs. SR 75-76 (5:45 run)
1.1.9.8 Fire snb Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager (56 seconds kill, no pharma/no cluster)
Bonus Meme: Ravager Kill world record
Probably could’ve glassified it further and squeezed out another second or two, but still not too bad.
Fire DW Melee Shieldbreaker vs. Ravager 22 seconds kill (world record)
LoL
