Introduction
This is a homage to one of my alltime favorite builds.
Acid Dervish using Righteous Fervor was my first character to defeat Ravager and one of my fastest farmers for any content.
In my opinion, this is still one of the best builds you can start Grim Dawn with.
This is also an updated variant of the Virulent Dervish by Stupid_Dragon.
Grim Tools lvl 100 with all skill points 
____
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Extremely easy to gear
- Good single target damage
- Decent sustain
- 3 Movement skills and cooldown reduction, very zoomy, much fast
- Good upgrade path from basic- to endgame-gear
However
- AoE damage is not the greatest
- not very tanky
- requires active playstyle, with 3 buffs, 3 movement skills plus Evade and attack skill.
How the build works
We attack with Righteous Fervor (RF). The skill transmuter “Dreeg’s Reproach” converts all physical damage of that attack to acid damage.
Because Righteous Fervor counts as a “default attack”, it can trigger “weapon pool skills” (WPS) like Smite, Amarasta’s Quick Cut, Belgothian Shears, Execution and Whirling Death.
These WPS amplify the damage from RF, while keeping all modifiers that apply to it.
So we get a nice, strong attack that is nearly fully converted to acid damage.
Meanwhile we massively buff our own damage with Lethal Assault, a node triggered by Amarasta’s Blade Burst. This one adds more Acid damage, but also some Cold damage.
For the cold damage, we need t add some global damage conversion to turn it into acid.
The build also has an instant heal & buff in Pneumatic Burst and some damage absorption and a buff in Ascension.
Monsters resistances are shredded by Veil of Shadow, Guardians of Empyrion and the Murmur & Manticore devotions.
General advice for new players
- Do all the quests, at least on your first play-through. They give you reputation with factions and keep you on track to level 100.
- Explore the map, especially if it’s your first time playing. Finding stuff like shrines is quite important.
- Prioritize resistances first, damage second
- Use crafted components from the smith to fix missing resistances
- Use 2x Scaled Hide (crafted) in pants, chest or shoulders to fix your armor absorption
- The inventor can recover components from your outdated gear, whenever you swap to a better piece
- Additionally to components, you can apply augments, which you buy from the faction vendors. They also sell great gear and blueprints, for leveling and even late-game setups.
Faction choices
- Ideally you side with Death’s Vigil on normal and Elite, the after buying all their important stuff at max reputation, switch sides to join Kymon’s Chosen.
- That way you can farm the Death’s Vigil Nemesis for shoulders, however, if end up friendly with Vigil, you can still get those in the Shattered Realm
- not a hugely important choice. If you’re on your first play-through, either faction choice works fine.
- I prefer Cult of Bysmiel on normal, for the Emblem of the Leaping Mantis. If you desire a different movement skill, the choice is all yours. Alternate cults between difficulties to rank them up evenly.
- Friendly with Barrowholm. This one is important, so we can buy their faction gear later.
- Outcasts (Anasteria) do not matter. I recommend going hostile so you can
Leveling & gearing up!
We start by leveling as a Nightblade, using Amarasta’s Blade Burst. This will require the least amount of respeccing and is very close to the final play-style.
Items listed should be picked up when it is convenient, most of them will just drop along the way.
The stats on the items will vary, don’t farm for exact copies of my example setups.
You’ll have to make some of your own choices when it comes to randomly dropped blue and purple items, I’ll only list items that can be reliably farmed.
The guide will provide links to item locations, if you absolutely don’t want (minor) map spoilers, don’t click on those links.
I will provide snapshots of the character roughly every 25 levels, those will include the devotion progression (just scroll through the bar on the bottom in the devotion page).
Stat points are mostly invested into physique, with a few into cunning and spirit for gear requirements.
Level 1-25 -- Act 1 & 2
Items to get:Act 1:
- Viloth’s Ring from Viloth the Corruptor
Act 2:
- 2x Spectral weapons (axe or sword) from the Spined Cove (after Act 1 completion)
- Bladesworn Talisman (blueprint from Devil’s Crossing faction merchant) or Guile relic (at level 25)
(For the first part of the game, we don’t care about our damage type and just use some cool weapons, anything you want, until we get our hands on the frosty weapons from the ghosts in the Spined Cove.)
Leveling up in order:
-
1 point Nightblade
- 1 point Dual Blades
- Amarasta’s Blade Burst to 10
-
Nightblade to 10
- 1 point Pneumatic Burst & Breath of Belgothian
- 1 point Shadow Strike
-
Nightblade to 15
- 1 point Veil of Shadow
- then splitting points between Night’s Chill, Lethal Assault
- a few points into Pneumatic Burst, until Pneumatic Burst’s healing feels good and Night’s Chill, Lethal Assault are maxed
-
Amarasta’s Blade burst to max level
- 1 point into Belgothian Shears, Amarasta’s Quick Cut, Phantasmal Armor
-
Nightblade to 20
- 1 point Anatomy of Murder
At this point if you followed the quest-line, you should be roughly in Broken Hills.
After crafting the relic and fixing the resistances, using components from the smith, the build looks something like this:
Level 26-40 -- Act 3 & 4
At this point you should have the Dynamite from Cronley’s Hideout to start the Hidden Path quest-line in Lower Crossing.
We need that to acquire an important item, our pants.
Items to get:
- Solael-Sect Legguards from Guardian of Solael
- Bolvar’s Pendant from Bolvar, the Bloodbinder (after Homestead)
- Harvest Footpads, Harvest Grips or Rhowari Grips from the Homestead and Rover (in Old Arkovia) faction vendors
- Updated versions of our weapons (optional)
- If you get lucky, you might find some Rift Scourge Slicers in the first area of the hidden path, dropped from the acidic bugs. Those are very good at this point, but quite rare drops on normal difficulty.
- If you need more chaos resistance, you can pick up a Mark of Plagius in the Black Sepulcher
Leveling:
-
Nightblade to 25
- 1 point Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends
- 1 point Whirling Death
-
Oathkeeper to 25
- As soon as you reach them, 1 point each into Smite, Resilience, Vire’s Might, Volcanic Stride, Presence of Virtue, Haven, Ascension
- max out Rebuke
At this point we are about ready to take on the final boss of the main campaign (after fixing our resists again):
Level 40 snapshot before big boss fight
After finishing the vanilla campaign is a good time to level up to about level 50 and fetch some crucial items for the build.
Thankfully, almost all of them drop in the Forgotten Gods DLC.
Level 41-50+ -- Forgotten Gods
Items to get:
- 2x Gannar’Vakkar’s Sting from the King of the Sands (preferably with some attack speed rolls)
- Chosen Raiment from Sister Crimson or Segarius
- Legion Greaves & Legion Headguard from the Black Legion faction vendor (Homestead or Fort Ikon)
- Devil’s Spaulders (optional, Devil’s Crossing faction vendor)
- Endurance relic (optional, blueprint from any cult faction vendor)
- Gargoyle belt (optional, only if you get a lucky drop)
- Harvest Venom Seal rings (sold my Homestead faction, only if you already reached Honored)
After we have acquired these items, we can respec into Righteous Fervor:
- Remove all but 1 point from Amarasta’s Blade Burst (keep Lethal Assault maxed)
- max out Righteous Fervor, 1 point into Dreeg’s Reproach & Consecration
- 1 point each into Nidalla’s Hidden Hand, Shadow Dance
- 4-5 points each into Belgothian Shears, Amarasta’s Quick Cut, Whirling Death, the rest into Smite and Veil of Shadow
- a few into Phantasmal Armor, if the resists are needed
Now, after reaching level 50, the setup should look sth like this:
Level 50-75 -- Ashes of Malmouth, Elite, Prep for Ultimate
In Ashes of Malmouth we make friends with all factions, because we require their faction gear.After playing through AoM we have the option to go to Elite, which I recommend to get a few extra level-ups, cleanse some more shrines for devotion points and get some upgrades for our old and outdated items.
You probably don’t need to do a full play-through of Elite, but it can smooth out the progression to Ultimate.
Items to get:
- Wendigo Vile Spaulders, Wendigo Guardian Cuirass (Barrowholm faction vendor)
- Malmouth Bladed Waistguard (blueprint from Malmouth Resistance faction vendor)
- 1-2x Gannar’Vakkar Stings of appropriate level
- You can combo the Gannar-club with a Rift-Scourge Slicer from the Hidden Path area - this will be a higher damage setup, if you can get a nice slicer.
- 2x Viloth’s Rings
- Bolvar’s Pendant
- Solael-Sect Legguards
- Fettan Mask, from the Urn near the Maw of Enaht
Leveling up:
- Oathkeeper to 50
- 1 point Guardians of Empyrion, max out Celestial Presence
- 1 point Scion of Dreeg to convert their aura to our damage type
- Path of the Three to 12 total
- 1 point Clarity of Purpose, Tectonic Shift
- remaining points max out Pneumatic Burst and then fix resistances with Phantasmal Armor, Consecration
With a few extra levels, fresh new gear, components and a few augments, the build should look similar to this:
This was pretty much the setup used play through Ultimate and farm the final gear.
Level to 100 and farming the final setup
At this point a full play-through of Ultimate will provide the experience and most of the reputation needed. Once you reach "Honored" with a faction you should buy and read a "Writ" to increase the reputation gain with them for the grind to "Revered". Once we reach about level 90 and Honored/Revered with factions like Coven and Barrowholm, we can start to farm, buy and suit up in some endgame gear:Items to get:
- 1x Gannar’Vakkar Stings, ideally level 94 and with the “of the Venomfang” suffix
- 1x Riftscourge Slicer, a dagger dropped by Rift Scourges, for example in the Guardian of Dreeg area or in the Temple of the Three. They are slightly harder to farm, but improve your dps by converting cold to acid damage and adding more speed. Ideally with a “Venomfang” suffix.
- 2x Viloth’s Rings, ideally at least one with attack speed
- Solael-Sect Legguards
- Chosen Raiment from Sister Crimson or other Chosen
- if you have unlocked the Tomb of Morgoneth, you can farm a Magi Armor from the Court of the Magi - it provides a little extra damage, at the cost of physical resistance, but after you upgrade your relic the Chosen Raiment is better again
- Fettan Mask (Ultimate version, from the Urn near the Maw)
- alternatively a Korvan Gaze can be a great helmet that fixes your attack speed, but loses you +1 to all skills and slow resistance. It can sometimes be found in various areas around Forgotten Gods
- Elite Wendigo Vile Spaulders (from Barrowholm faction vendor at “Revered” standing)
- Mark of Lethal Intents (crafted, blueprint from Coven of Ugdenbog at “Revered” standing)
- Coven Darkener Pendant (from the Coven faction vendor at “Honored” standing)
- Malmouth Bladed Girdle (from the Malmouth Resistance faction vendor at “Honored” standing)
- Stoneplate Greaves (crafted, blueprint is a random drop, but very common, chances are you’ll have it at this point)
- Mythical Vilescorn Bracers (random epic drop, starts to drop around level 80 and is very common, until it drops: Use any gloves with attack speed and some resists or HP, for example Elite Rhowari Grips from the Rovers)
Leveling up:
- Nightblade to 50
- 1 point Elemental Awakening, Merciless Repertoire
- 1 point Nightfall, Execution
- Shadow Dance to 11, Pneumatic Burst to 12
- max out Nidalla’s Hidden Hand
- finally, respeccing some levels from Phantasmal Armor, Belgothian Shears to invest into Presence of Virtue & Haven (getting Haven to the softcap of 10/10 for safety)
I had to drink a potion to reset my attributes as well, to get the requirements for my gear in cunning and spirit. Every spare point went into physique.
Level 100 snapshot, before completing Shattered Realm
Augments for the final setup
The augments are sold by all factions at “Revered” standing. If you play through all three difficulties, you’ll reach that rep either late in Elite or after you have done their quests on Ultimate.
If you buy and read a “Writ” after you reach Honored with a faction, you will get bonus reputation for your future actions. Strongly recommended.
Various armor augments are used to fix our resistances, until they are all ~33% over the maximum cap, ideally.
After we have reached our desired overcaps, we can use Solael Bloodbinding (Cult of Solael) or Wendigo Lifescent Powder (Barrowholm), to improve our pool of HP and Defensive Ability.
Rings and amulets are enhanced with damage augments, our main augments are:
- Irrah’s Venomtogue (Cult of Solael) for offensive ability
- Rotgut Venom (Malmouth Resistance) for defensive ability
- Basilisk’s Gaze (Coven of Ugdenbog), if you feel like your armor needs a little boost
- Arcanum Dust (Malmouth Resistance) for elemental resistances and defensive ability
- Survivor’s Ingenuity (Devil’s Crossing) for offensive and defensive ability, can be quite a big boost and is accessible very early, if you have the reputation.
Weapon augments only have one real option, Dreeg’s Spinedust (Cult of Dreeg)
Helpful farming and crafting guide for gear pieces listed above
Crafted items
Crafting items at the Blacksmith adds a “crafting bonus” stat, depending on the blacksmith.
My recommended smiths are:
- Kaylon, Steelcap District - for Freeze or Stun resistance
- Egellon, Sunbane Oasis (hidden) - for Slow or Reflect resistance
- Angrim, Devil’s Crossing - for Armor, Physique (even pierce resistance can help)
On this build, you will probably want to craft for slow resistance.
If you don’t get your desired bonus, it’s not the end of the world, usually.
The bonus doesn’t apply to relics, they get a different bonus, unrelated to the blacksmith.
Scrap & crafting mats
- Collect dynamite while you are leveling, to blow up Legendaries. Anything below level 84 can be blown to bits, without regrets. A lot of higher level stuff as well.
- This will provide the scrap needed for crafting and also the rare material that you don’t want to painstakingly farm
- Dynamite can be crafted from Aether Shards, shards can be crafted from crystals. Farming Aether Crystals (in the Warden’s lab for example) is going to yield more dynamite, than picking up individual sticks
Viloth’s Ring
- Simply run into the basement under Devil’s Crossing to smack the snake
- Look for attack speed, offensive/defensive ability, resists
- “of the Cabal”, Blighted & “Maniacal” are good rare affixes with acid damage, for example
Gannar’Vakkar’s Sting
- Start from Sunbane Oasis rift, walking North. Gannar will zip West to East and then South. if he dashes away, he can run quite far
- Look for “Venomfang”, “of the Venomclaw”, “Eldritch”, “Corrosive” and any affix with attack speed
Riftscourge Slicer
- The area of the Guardian of Dreeg and the Temple of the Three are the best farming locations
- I will mostly drop from heroic Rift Scourge mobs, those only spawn in good quantity on Ultimate, which is why I advice farming them only on that difficulty. If your want some on normal, swapping to Veteran might be your best bet
- They can spawn with affixes for caster-weapons and have slightly less good average quality than Gannar’s weapon as a result, but a well rolled Riftclaw Slicer will perform better
- You really want “Venomfang” or “of the Venomclaw” on these, as you will lack skill points otherwise. “Eldritch” is another great prefix that can roll on the mace.
- A weapon without extra attack speed is almost always worse
Solael-Sect Legguards
- Start at Broken Hills, take the loop to the Guardian’s hidden area. There is often a totem on the path, which will provide good opportunities to find blueprints and the blue gloves.
- Look for health, resistances and (if you are lucky) physical resistance on those pants
Chosen Raiment
- Start at the Infernal Wastes rift, walking North to the Tomb of Sethan. Inside there’s Sister Crimson, often also a totem on the outside and the inside. One totem spawn is right next to the other exit outside of the tomb.
- She “only” has a ~25% chance to drop the right chest armor, but it often has good rolls for acid builds.
Try to get at least two affixes with extra HP, even better three or four, so you end up with 17-18k HP.
Overcap your resistances by at least 32%, up to 50% still has value.
Max out your slow, freeze and stun resistance. (the devotion map already provides almost all you need, some extra stun and slow is required.)
The remaining affixes should mostly provide offensive ability, so you can get some critical hits.
Try to aim for over 3000 offensive ability, while not dropping below 2700 defensive ability (with RF charges).
Alternative items and instant upgrades
By far the biggest upgrade would be the Meditation relic, the blueprint for which might actually drop while farming or even leveling.
After that, Mythical Pack of Deadly Means , to convert the Vitality damage from the relic to Acid damage.
Other good gear choices include:
- Deathguard Sigil
- Ring of Shuroth
- Mad Queen’s Claw for the pierce to acid conversion and WPS boosts
- Misery, a legendary acid sword with +1 to Nightblade and Oathkeeper skills
- Mythical Mark of the Forbidden
- Mythical Venomspine Greaves (A good choice for anyone struggling with resists)
- Plagueguard Grips, a craftable pair of gloves that can fix your attack speed, with the right suffix
- Zantarin’s Shoulderguard (Have to roll quite well to be an upgrade over the Wendigo shoulders)
- Grava’Thul’s Legguards
- Kubacabra’s Chausses (to fix Lethal Assault, if you can’t max it otherwise.)
- Kaisan’s amulet(s)
Some gameplay:
(This only serves to showcase the playstyle. I don’t necessarily recommend diving straight into the Shattered Realm, it’s just a way to show pure gameplay without major spoilers.)
Acid Dervish vs the Shattered Realm
Old Lokarr fight on outdated spec
# Lokarr, with a little bit of drug usage (Oil for HP & 1 Aether Cluster for safety) (some spoilers)
Upgrade paths to endgame builds
The build transitions very smoothly into the Deathguard Set or the Venomblade/Vileblade set.
The Deathguard Set currently seems to perform better for me.
Once you get the 4 set pieces (or transmute into the missing ones), the remaining slots are very flexible, because the set already converts most of the damage and adds a good amount of HP and offensive/defensive ability.
Overall, it’s fairly easy to gear and doesn’t need any special affixes, outside of one “of the Venomclaw” on a Gannar stick.
The Vileblade Set used to be my old favorite setup.
The 2-piece combo of helm and chest armor provides a fair amount of damage conversion and valuable skills. However, it lacks full conversion for cold and vitality damage, so you will have to pair it with specific items to address that.
Hope you enjoyed and maybe found helpful information.
Let me know if there is anything crucial that I have left out! 
)
also love the inclusion of cheeky tips like vigil/kymon rep swap “cheese” 
