Whenever you want to make a good build in Grim Dawn, one of the first tips people will tell you is to focus on one or two damage types, but what if you wanted to go to the total opposite instead and deal all damage types with you main attack while still having a decent character? This is what this build is about. Just look at this in-game damage breakdown from Phantasmal Blades:
- Build features
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200% cast speed Phantasmal Blades with Frenetic Throw.
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Deal all damage types with you Phantasmal Blades.
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+7 to Arcanist skills and +6 to Nightblade skills (simply delicious).
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Very good survivability with near 20k hp, lots of life steal, a strong heal (Pneumatic Burst), a circuit breaker (Shatterguard) and a panic button (Mirror of Ereoctes).
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Huge crit multipliers.
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Easy 150-170 gladiator Crucible, albeit a bit slow (~10 minutes).
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Easy SR 30/31, although slow (>15 minutes).
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Up to 3 rows of status effects on your targets:
- Grim Tools link:
- How to play
Although Phantasmal Blades is a ranged skill, you want to be close to your enemies because Veil of Shadow, Eye of Korvaak (Devotion) and Agrivix’s Malice (Artifact) only affect enemies close to you.
So, basically you jump into the fray with Upon Rylok Wings (medal augment) and throw blades like crazy. Because PB has 100% pass through, you should target the farthest enemy so that it pierces as many enemies as possible and try to keep enemies in a line.
Nullification is overpowered so don’t forget to use it in crowds to dispel auras like those from regenerator enemies, Zantarin’s bubble, Valdaran when a skull appears over his head, etc. You may also it on yourself to dispel Sunder!
About Mirror of Ereoctes, you may treat it as panic button, but I prefer to use it for when I am in a good position with tough enemies lined-up and I want to keep attacking longer before moving or when I am going to jump in a dangerous group.
Finally, Amarasta’s Blade Burst is used only to trigger the buff from Lethal Assault. It is annoying to remember to trigger it every 8s and it is not strictly necessary as the increase in DPS is not that high. I just have it assigned to left mouse button so I sometimes trigger it by accident when I am trying to move and shoot an enemy. You may remove this skill and assign the 2 points to something else like Arcane Will if you want.
- Equipment
Gearing-up this build shouldn’t be hard:
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Pants, gloves, belt and artifact have crafting recipes.
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Medal can be bought from vendors or mass crafted until you get the needed affixes (it is just the basic medal recipe in the blacksmith).
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The Shattered Guardian set is bought from the SR vendor.
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Mythical Silverbolt and Mythical Golemborn Greaves drop like crazy.
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The rings might be slowest pieces to acquire (Mythical Eternal Band was the last item from the setup that I got), but since they are just epics, totem farming runs in the Blood Grove should be enough.
Most of these items also have lower level versions that you can use while leveling and you can just use faction gear in place of the SR set before level 94. Cronley Signets also have a tendency to drop with “of Butchery” (+2 to Phatasmal Blades and other bonuses) which you can use while Nightscorn doesn’t show up.
- Motivation for some of the choices
Since this build deals all damage types, we want stuff that benefits all damage types: +% all damage (specially), OA, crit damage, global reduced target’s resistance, etc.
The devotion setup is intended to take as much +% all damage bonuses as possible. Hydra, Kraken, Korvaak, Staff of Rattosh, Lion and Owl all have it. Rattosh the Veilwarden is included to provide a source of vitality decay and Bull is included to provide a source of internal trauma and that -10% physique requirements for armor.
On the equipment side, the SR set and the Mythical Chains of Anguish were chosen for the +% all damage and the +2/1 to skills. The generic medal instead of a MI with the same affixes was also chosen because the generic high level medals also carry +% all damage bonuses.
A two-handed ranged weapon was necessary to have both Hydra and Kraken. Mythical Silverbolt was mainly chosen because I was wanted to have a build using it and I had one gathering dust for a long time on my transfer stash. Nevertheless, +3 to all skills is extremely useful for this build and it also includes +40% to all damage in the granted aura. Unfortunately, it is a 100% armor piercing weapon, so I had to use the Seal of Might component just to convert some damage to physical (otherwise I wouldn’t deal physical damage). The augment was chosen to provide a source of acid damage even when Lethal Assault buff is down.
Finally, Mythical Eternal Band provides two sources of ALL resistance reductions and disruption resist. 80% disruption resist is important because if you are disrupted you don’t throw knives!
The rings/amulet augments are, of course, the ones that give +% to all damage. 
- Video
Gladiator crucible 150-170 with extra spawn and only one blessing (10:12).
- Final words
It may be possible to optimize this build a little more, however I have been playing only this character for a while, therefore I am a little tired and I am marking the character as “finished” for myself. But feel free to test improvements and share them here! 
Also, you may have noticed that the first image of the damage breakdown does not show eletrocute, but that is because of the way that Overload’s “100% chance for one of the following” shows in the damage breakdown. Don’t worry, however, with 6 knives hitting you enemy, there is only a 8.8% chance that you won’t deal eletrocute damage on attack (and it will last for almost 8 seconds when it hits anyway). 
