Hey guys, just wanted to do a quick build showcase for an SR-targeted build I’ve been working on for the past week. I see that there are a few Justice Forcewave builds floating around out there, but most of them haven’t been updated for a while - so hopefully there’s something here that someone out there can gain from my tinkering. The rough “theme” or goal for the build was a self-sustaining proc machine, which isn’t exactly anything crazy in a game like GD - but I had a good time setting myself up for proc chains that can last an hour plus on the dummies (without the Whirling Blades effect). In any case…
Grimtools: Commando, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
No temporary buffs screenshot:
Build highlights: 5 buttons, excellent AoE damage, 6s Blast Shield, multiple circuit breaker defenses, 3400 OA + 170/225 DA shred, ~4k armor, 3220 DA + BWC/Rylok avoids all crits (that I’m aware of), 2k regen without procs/3.7k with Behemoth proc, 19% leech + Dryad, Crab + Wyrmscale + multiple flat DR sources.
Gear: First thing of note about this build is how flexible the gear options can be, outside of the Justicar set itself. There are several good relic options, a few good medals, an amulet that allows you to lean a little more heavily on the Claymore’s Blast Shield bonus, multiple good and viable 2h weapons, other boot choices, etc etc. As with most of my builds, I landed on a few of my choices due to the specific MIs I dropped, but several of the MIs aren’t necessary for the build to work in SR30+ and resistances are fairly flexible outside of probably wanting an Ugdenbog Girdle with the Impervious prefix. Since most of this gear is self-explanatory, I’m just gonna briefly discuss a couple of the slightly less conventional choices and mention a few viable mythical/legendary replacements for the MIs.
Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm over Korvaak’s - Pyroclasm has a very good proc that can leech, as well as freeze resist and cast speed which are slightly lacking here (the latter primarily because of my Sunherald’s roll). Depending on the build, I generally try to avoid adding too many CDs on top of my autoattack, 2 movement skills, and my 1-2 devotion proccers, so the skill on Korvaak’s is not real attractive to me. The main sacrifice I see here is the %OA/DA and slow resist, which could make the switch worth it.
Sunherald’s Claymore over Obsidian War Cleaver/Shar’zul’s: Just stating the obvious here, the Claymore provides a really nice ~65% conversion on soldier/gear flat phys bonuses (which matters less given the Justicar bonuses, I guess), 2s to Blast Shield, and some nice flat/% bonuses on Menhir’s and Blast Shield. The innate proc is also exactly the sort of thing this build wants in order to trigger its other procs. Shar’zul’s and War Cleaver are both very good options and may offer better DPS. The specific roll in the Grimtools link is just what I ended up dropping. It’d almost certainly be more effective to aim for a double fire affix (ideally one with Fireball and some cast speed) and concede a few armor augments/skill points in Decorated Soldier to come up with the elemental overcap still needed. I just like this one.
Seal of Blades over Destruction/Might/Enchanted Flint - build isn’t really lacking for damage conversion and the extra leech is nice to have. Used Might until I didn’t need the resistances anymore. Sunherald’s also gives the damage aura 100% pierce to fire conversion which is kind of cool.
Mythical/Legendary options to replace MIs: Volcanum medal (craftable) and Hellforged Legplates/Runeplates of Ignaffar are some of the easier drops to get and will work well in deep SR. Specific affix rolls are less important on Gollus’ Ring and Shambler’s Heart, and the build works pretty much regardless of what affixes drop for those. Resistances are nice to have on them, but who doesn’t like having to get a little creative with components and augments every once in a while.
Devotion: I think Crab is the least conventional choice here? Everything else is probably pretty bog-standard for a fire build that’s trying to incorporate Phoenix + Rhowan’s. I don’t love giving up the last Ulzuin’s node, but Dryad is a whole lot better than Lion, and I think the white splash is ultimately worth it. Magi looks tempting, but I’m not sure the build is after another set of middling damage bonuses and a proc that it doesn’t currently have a bind for. Would love to hear some other ideas about this build path. I’ve also experimented with a Chariot/Toad path instead of Crab/Fox, which was pretty solid.
Skills: Most are fairly self-explanatory, perhaps with the exception of taking 10 points in Ulzuin’s Wrath over War Cry. What can I say, it’s one less keybind, a nice hit of adcth, and the damage reduction is almost as good (although not proactive). I’d probably be a bit more inclined to invest in War Cry if I didn’t have retaliation rolls on a few of my MIs.
SR/Celestial experience: SR is great. 30-31 is a total breeze and the majority of it is facetankable. The exceptions I’ve seen are Zantarin shotguns while sundered and getting nullified while in a pack capable of other debuffs. That’s about it. Most boss rooms are chainable/triple or quad-pullable. Ravager of Flesh and Callagadra are down, but weren’t a great experience. Maybe a different Ravager is a better choice. I’m not sure the damage needed for speed kills is possible with this build despite solid OA/DA shred, good sheet DPS, and good crit damage. Would love to hear otherwise, and I will say that my reaction time to the mechanics I’m aware of is probably a bit subpar. So YMMV. I suspect that Lokarr would be a breeze but I haven’t attempted yet.
Well, so much for “quick”. Thanks for checking this one out, here’s hoping RNG is on your side today.