Hi guys, so I restarted the game recently after years, went back to my favourite build and optimized it with the newer FG stuff(I didn’t play FG a lot back in the days). And bc I think it’s a fun build concept I thought I’d present it here, maybe somebody wants to try it. Sorry to say it, but I don’t have a lot of time, so I probably won’t update this build regularly, it’s more to show the concept of the build. Also I only have one video to show yet, and that’s just normal gameplay, not SR 31 or the hardest bosses or smth, will probably add some videos later, but Idk if this build can even kill some of these bosses, as it’s not a super strong or even “meta” build, just a build that’s fun to play to me. But I’ll try to push it and see how far it can go, most Nemesis bosses are no problem at least…so, on to the build:
Screenshot is with Pneumatic Burst active.
Build Concept:
Pretty simple, the idea was making a bleeding caster, using Grasping Vines(GV) and Devouring Swarm as main skills and to proc a lot of item and devotion procs(bc I LOVE procs in this game, and I realized GV is amazing at proccing stuff, probably bc it’s an AOE hitting multiple targets and it also has DoT ticks where each tick has a chance to trigger the procs), and also using some player-scaling pets(Deathstalker, Blade Spirits) to also apply bleed and proc devotion skills. I find Falcon Swoop bound to GV particularly cool. And that’s it, that’s why I have a lot of items equipped that have a bleeding proc on them to add to the procs madness.
GrimTools Link:
Itemization:
As the title says, it’s still a bit of a work in progress and I don’t have the absolute BiS gear completed, but it already works very well. The gear I’m using is not all self-found, I used some stuff found with other characters, BUT it’s 100% legit and also at least reasonably possible to target-farm(talking about the 3 MIs used for example), and I tried to not include stuff that is extremely hard to get, as on the one hand farming is a huge part of any ARPG and also fun to me to a certain extent, but on the other hand I’m not a huge fan of farming for weeks or months only for one specific item, so I’d rather look for alternatives, and for this build there’s alternatives in every slot, nothing is mandatory for the build, but obviously some things are nice to have. But while for example Eldritch Gaze would be nice to have as a helmet(bc of the proc mainly), there is the problem that I don’t have enough physique to wear the Lvl 94 one so it’d have to be the Lvl 75 one which to my understanding is near impossible to get except you have a character lvl 65-79 that can farm for it(which I don’t have), but even then it’d probably take forever, so I use something that is easier to get instead(that lower version of Abyssal Mask is buyable from the Ancient Grove NPC). Another example is the MI medal I use, farming it from that boss in BoC is a pain in the butt bc it takes forever to get to him, costs Skeleton keys and he only has a 50% chance to drop it bc he can also drop a vitality version which we don’t want for this buid, so I’m using the first decent one I got after like 6 tries. The prefix is garbage bc I already have a ton of these 2 resistances, but it’s still good bc of the suffix “of butchery”. But for example smth like "Bloodletters …of attack/readiness/… would be better, but I don’t wanna farm for it that much, will give it some more tries later, but the one I got is fine for the time being. I don’t want to go over every single item, but like I said, I’m using the best I could come up with a REASONABLE amount of farming. And yeah, I got mad at some point when I had to farm for Manticore Eyes for the Deathstalker relic bc getting the 15 eyes took me way longer than getting the relic blueprint, mea culpa, still love the game, just had to rant a little in that other thread 
So I think this itemization is still not super budget for newcomers bc there’s still some random legendaries included, but there’s also faction items(like the amulet) and the MIs are at least okay to target-farm(the offhand drops like crazy in that area actually, I just wanted “of the oracle” and that took a while bc like 90% of them drop with “of decay” suffix which is not great for the build bc it’s vitality, not bleeding. But after like 5 hours I got an “of the oracle” and was happily done with that). And I love this part of ARPGs: messing around with the items, getting smth new you wanna implement in the build, but then you’d lose some other stats, so how/where can you compensate for that? Switching a component? Or some augments? Devotion points? Etc, just a lot of fun to me.
So yeah, this is the build how I have it right now and I’m already very happy with it, but will still try to optimize it, the fun never stops 
Weaknesses:
Obviously not the tankiest build. DA is fine I think bc of the Veil debuff of enemies OA, but the second row of resistances is not overmaxed properly, and physical resistance and armor are pretty low. Freeze resistance is terrible, so have to use Hoarfrost Ointment for bosses that freeze. Build is defensively mainly banking on high HP and HP-reg(1,7k/s with Pneumatic Burst active, Giant’s Blood brings it up to 3,3k/s) and also dogde and deflect chance. But it’s not a tank/melee build anyways, so you can always run away, kite stuff, let the bleeding and your pets do their work and slow everything down with spamming GV, so you don’t even have to do too much, stuff is melting on its own. Also can heal with PB and heal potions both, and if that isn’t enough use Blade Barrier to heal up for 3 secs. So I think survivabilty is fine, but have not tested it vs. the hardest content, so like I said, probably not a meta build, but still fun
I think that’s enough for now, will add some more videos, but not sure when exactly, here’s the video I got which shows an example of a farming route for the MI offhand(there’s actually a double-rare one dropping!!). I’ll try to get as far as possible in SR later and upload a video of that. But first I think I’ll continue to farm for a better version of the MI medal. Maybe I’ll be able to get that ‘Bloodletter…of smth useful’ combination 
I will try to read and answer to comments, please don’t be too harsh on me, have not posted a lot of builds, so it’s probably not that good…
I will try some of the advices, but with some I disagree(which is totally fine, like I said, you have to lot of gear options for this build). Yes, I lack +skills, but I don’t think that matters too much, I got GV and DS pumped up a bit, everything else is secondary for the build skill-wise. The helmet definitely is a better option though, don’t think that Bloody Pox when-hit proc is doing too much, so +skills would be better. But I don’t wanna lose the procs of the belt and the ring as the build is centered around having a ton of procs which includes item procs, and I’m already not using (for example) Mark of Bloody Ends as medal which would give me yet another additional Blood Pool proc, but it’s only on the lower level version of the medal, which I don’t have and I don’t think I can farm without having a lower level character farming for it…
You think 8% physical resistance is gonna cut it though? Is 100% armor absorption compensation enough for that? Edit: Man, Unknown Soldier looks really cool though, maybe I can manage to squeeze it in together with Oleron?? Back to the drawing board 
)
Oh yes, that girdle looks nice, don’t know if I have that one though, have to look through my stashes…
but will be very interesting to see how much I can still optimize it…starting tomorrow 
Good night!
