Tested in Crucible 150 ex, acceptable tankiness but abysmal damage. Couldn’t clear wave 170, ended up getting killed before or after wave 160.
Feedback is much needed.
GrimTools: OFF with Aether RR from Conduit, Crucible death vid: https://youtu.be/f_hEPzd0nyU
GrimTools: No OFF, Crucible death vid: https://youtu.be/I3mTh8c-SwQ
Tried Haunt relic?
I’ll test it and let you know, but at this rate, I’m not sure if -8% Aether RR would help. You have any more ideas?
Tested that Haunt relic. I perceived a marginal improvement, but that’s it. Build can still get wrecked even in standard Crucible.
It’s possible to redo the Devotions in a way that you can grab the rest of Hourglass and get a little defense. You can also rejigger some of the skills to amp up Blitz to shred DA and grab a couple utility things to boost OA and DA.
Here’s a build that doesn’t change anything out on gear besides putting an Ancient Armor Plate in the chest so you can still hit 820 Physique (Titan Plating better, just expensive): Hourglass Battlemage
As you farm more and get other bits of green gear you can grab a little more OA and DA and shuffle points around so you maintain your Callidor’s overcaps.
more lifesteal, and setup has low OA/DA and HP
i think OFF is pointless because of its innate mechanics, and you get no extra freeze shred there making it less useable on too many targets vs investment
it’s kinda funny, aside from it cockblocking so many slots, but i think Krieg might actually be “the”/a choice there, despite blocking the callidor helmet
Personally not a fan of time dilation approach, just too little use imo, “expensive” route for something that only applies to 2 skills and fairly infrequent at that.
and while i get the idea about stacking flat dmg so going for a blue amulet with flat, but it’s not a bad notion to consider the benefit +1 class might have, ex Mythical Peerless Eye of Beronath - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database, besides modifiers ofc
With maxed out Fabric of Reality i’d probably swap out mage Magelord for Duality, get that chaos conversion for them flats being chased elsewhere, - assuming stats/res etc can be salvaged ofc
these are far from perfect, just some food for though perspective perhaps
full krieg Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
callidor helmet and partial krieg Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (legit don’t think it’s more optimal over ex greens) - res overcap needs shuffling depending on affix
no affixes on kaisan because didn’t want to cherrypick
*imp/aetherfire could actually be an easy input on full krieg because wrath of krieg could be slotted to 100% proc arcane bomb, with callidor spamming aetherfire. Unsure if it’s “better”/“good” because fixed delay on RR might slow speed kill down, and i kinda felt like sheet stats were overall higher/easier without imp route
Without Aether conversions with from Magelord rings and Despair helmet on this setup, Imp proc may be less useful, even if it can be procced consistently (still better than no Imp, I suppose). Losing Revenant is also a loss, because you can have 6 skeletons constantly deal decent Aether and converted Vitality damage (thanks to belt). So build could deal even less damage than before. Eye of Korvaak doesn’t deal much damage, besides OA & DA shred that boost crit chance only a bit more.
Still, when I have time, I’ll test your options to see how it goes.
you have 100% conversion on aetherfire without magelord 
not taking revenant is because overall more stronger path since you get to skip the RR opening up additional stats
also, you really shouldn’t underestimate korvaak proc 
Whoops, forgot about the Fire conversion from Fleshwarped Core.
Well, Krieg’s set actually gives higher RR than Revenant. But even so, Revenant can still spawn 6 skeletons that gang-smacking targets with Aether damage. Also, their Vitality damage gets 60% Aether conversion from belt. This Battlemage has low damage, so maybe those skellies would help a bit.
But I’m still gonna test Korvaak Devo to see how it goes.
YT is blueballing me again 
but “trust me bro”
extra spawn, 150-170 gladiator, no buffs or banners
*will fully admit it wasn’t the smoothest run ever/“bit” clumsy since i haven’t been in crucible in ages 
- and like i said the (krieg) setup isn’t “perfect” either, but still doable
(different) partial krieg set setup Battlemage, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (ngl using peerless eyes feel kinda clunky despite same button amount):
Not too shabby. Considering that this build took you ~7 minutes in Crucible, I assume that better Crucible players, mad lee for example, would finish in ~6 mins. This means that damage is terrible, and as a result, you can’t kill fast enough and have to waste time running around to avoid damage.
Many other builds would take just ~4 mins in good hands.
By the way, thanks for testing the build for me. I’m not sure if I’m gonna test a different version myself to see whether the damage can be higher.
most builds avoid those big hits that i avoid there too, you’re not intended to just eat aleks meteors etc
and unsure about this setup, but i never come even close to lee’s speeds, even on his builds i’m atleast 90 secs behind if not more, in buffed cruci without extra spawn
And if you’re expecting 4 min on naked ex on a callidor bama, i think you’re playing the wrong game, atlest i don’t think it’s ever going to have that dmg since that’s top of the top line builds - even other great builds/top20 etc are slower than 4mins
moving also isn’t just to avoid dmg, but reposition and intercept, something i’m not great at, as you see, similar like in your vids i dont’ always group up enemies close enough so they don’t actually get hit by callidor, then i try to move in range to do so etc. While at the same time having 0 clue about its tankiness as a new build, so i’m unsure/uncomfy about eating XY sunders or taking 5 benji clusters to the face sans mirror/cluster
But honestly, we gotta admit, even if the top 20s clear Crucible in ~5 mins (with some possible oopsies), they would still be at least ~1 min faster than this Battlemage build, which obviously kills much slower. 1 to 2-min difference in clear time shows that damage (or killing) potential is low.
Bama tankiness in this case is actually pretty good (almost 38% damage absorption), but the slow killing speed drags it down.
no, it doesn’t, because if you’re for some weird reason expecting them to be remotely equal, then you’re missing several parts of the game.
Being a minute slower doesn’t mean it’s bad or dmg/kill potential is low, it means it’s lower, which should be obvious of a 0 RR class that has to coast on raw dmg.
Trying to make up for 50-60 RR other classes should put some semblance of realism into the difference and expectations to have.
if X build has 40k flat and 100 RR, and Y build has 40k flat, and 50 RR, that’s simply just a base equation that’s never going to equal to the same left and right side. And that’s fine, not every build has to be a 4 or 5min naked ex cruci runner - hell normally that would be grounds for nerfs in the “older” days 
I mean this Battlemage build is viable, based on what you’ve shown. This may be fine by your standard, but for me, it still kills way too slow. Maybe it just depends on personal preferences.
i mean, it went from an 8+min fail on yours, to a sub 7 in my hands, if you can’t see that dmg increase already there, then i don’t know where you’re looking 
That should indicate to you the potential for extra dmg is there, it’s just about doing/adding better, and i’m a slow runner too.
And i’m neeeever going to crack 5mins on naked ex, heck i’ve barely cracked sub5 on buffed no spawn more than a couple of times
Yeah, I’m aware that improvement is there. But nah, sub 7 mins is still not good enough for me. I’ve tested better builds.
Though, I’m willing to accept the fact that Battlemage is supposed to be slow. Yeah, this is probably the best that this build can get.
yes, and i’m not remotely claiming this is “peak” bama, hence the room for further improvements there. It was just an obvious improvement to your base shorter stats.
The point is thus twofold, you should have realistic expectations of the game, and what that means for bama, expecting it to be 4/ever be close to 4 might be completely far fetched (cant’ state for certain but i’d guess on it considering top20 speeds)
And that gains can indeed be made. If you want further gains you just gotta try harder or request help from even better builders, but it’s rare my builds can never be improved upon a “little” extra - let alone quick drafts