But I’m not 100% satisfied with her.
While she still looks OK on paper, I still get insta-killed by some bosses when the stars are right.
Is this expected or did I drop the ball somewhere?
Thanks in advance.
12k hp
rest looks sorta fine’ish (no RR in devos, didn’t max soul harvest, no CC res)
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Based on your feedback, I came up with this.
Just done a couple of 30-31 runs. It went a bit smoother even tho HP is worse.
Still conducting some tests…but it’s already improved from the first version. thx
adding 5k more hp will make it feel even more smoother 
here’s a quick doodle with more focus on hp as example Reaper, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator *deliberately left prefix on pants empty since farming vitality suffix is hard enough without specific prefix, can then adjust augments as necessary
(you have wasted high overcaps on res in yours/don’t need 70-90 overs so can already swap augs)
genuine question: why are you playing the olexras chill over the other deathmarked weapon?
you lose bonuses to ABB and conversion (that doesn’t even covert the lethal assault bonus, at least i’m pretty sure) but gain more RR and physical res which is more valuable for your build.
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Max out Spectral Binding and Spectral Wrath.
It’s the strongest passive in the game.
You can ditch the extra points in Ring of Steel, Blade Spirit, Shadow Strike, as those add very little to your DPS. That gives you 17-20 skill points for better skills.
Get pants with a “of Vitality” roll.
Ideally with a prefix that also adds some HP.
And the rest is the devotion map, which has a lot of questionable choices.
Try to get 18k HP or more.
2 Likes
I created a slightly different build in the past, using the Deathmarked set, if you’re interested in an alternative. The main problem of this set is that its weapons have physical damage, so you need to convert that into cold for any skills that use % weapon damage. I managed this easily for Righteous fervor.
What would you suggest for a better devotion path?
Whatever version you do, you should also convert the physical damage to cold for that set, because the weapons have pure physical damage and both weapons from the set only convert an average of 30%. That means that any skill with % weapon damage will only have one third of its total weapon damage scaled by global cold damage bonus. This makes you lose a lot of damage, without as much conversion as possible. So, unless you manage to gather a total of 100% conversion from multiple pieces of gear (which is hard, if possible), you’re better off using Righteous fervor, like in the build I showed you. You also shouldn’t use this set if you don’t use default attacks, as it provides bonuses and conversions to all those WPS, which can only be triggered by default attacks or replacers, like Righteous fervor. If your aim is to use Amarasta’s blade burst or Ring of steel, you should change the gear.
Maybe sth like this.
I also swapped some skills around, Harbinger being the big missing piece.
Not sure 12/12 Soul Harvest is ideal, but better than nothing.
I swapped the augments on your rings and one weapon, mostly to show some alternatives with HP. In your build, your hat is missing an augment, that could be extra HP as well (from Barrowholm).
You are missing slow res and stun res (in the updated build less so, but still some), so maybe swap to Mythical Amatok’s Step and change the hat component to Leathery Hide, the ring components to Runebound Topaz.
Unless you can find pants with stun/slow res.
Oh and ancient armor plate in the pants over Scaled Hide is useless, if your armor absorption is not 100%
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here is the current version.
I had to drop that delicious pool of damage from Levi in exchange of some survival. I also dropped ring of steel and put those points in mark of torment for some damage soaking. Fixed the 100% armor abs. Still no CC resist.
Looks like it worked as the latest SR runs went more smoothly and with no close calls. Still can’t eat sunders tho.
I’ll search on my stash for an alternative leggings. I really want to make this work, but I don’t think I can push this build much farther to the point of killing some celestials (unless Lokkar and Bourbon qualify).
Ring of Steel gives you survival via circle of slaughter, you could have taken the points out of shadow strike as the extra 4+ etc couple from Nightfall as those don’t add that much to your setup, so going from r8 to r4 wont be a big deal dmg wise.
Swap boots to amatok/primord/ intrepid crafts to get CC res
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You have too many buttons to press to accomplish too little.
If you can’t kill Ravager, then you still have room to optimize (and you have a LOT of room to optimize).
Here is a half-baked meme, cold Reaper with Chillwhisper Set but auto-attacking with Beronath’s Fury (instead of using the set for the intended purpose.
Poorly optimized, poorly piloted (didn’t use Mark of Torment 
)
Killing Ravager:
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What’s your process to optimize a build? What are your metrics ? What are the things you look for?
Economically speaking:
First step is to file away the inefficiencies that are basically free.
- Devotion map - can I get more HP, Offensive Ability, resistances, life leech etc, to free up augments or gear? This can be done in GT to save time.
- Is there a redundant stat (flat RR, Damage Reduction…) or stat that I can get easier from other gear? That could open up an item slot.
- Is there a weak item in my setup and are there better alternatives
- Look for +skills on items to max your most important skills.
- check if there’s any better rolled legendaries in your stash.
Step 2 is to fix those things, which require only a little effort.
- Farm greens with reasonably good rare affixes and “Aggressive/of Attack/Readiness/Clout” (on rings, amulets, belts) and “Vigorous/Impervious/of Vitality” (on armor)
- Reroll set items at the inventor until you get reasonably high rolls
- Craft items for Slow res or Stun/Freeze res until you get a 10%+ roll
- Test different weapon setups and devotion triggers with DPYes.
Third step would be to optimize everything that requires lots of effort.
- Farm ideal affixes on your greens. (This part may suck, depending on build)
- Reroll/recraft set gear until everything is high-rolled and crafted items have CC res.
- Test and re-test different devotion maps over and over. Sometimes one devo proc on the right skill can make all the difference, and you’ll never know until you have tried.
- (for WPS based builds) test different WPS setups
- Farm high rolled legendary MIs (Alkamos, Magi rings etc) (yikes)
- Craft your relic with the best bonus and high rolls. (super yikes)
Regarding stat benchmarks:
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Flat damage for weapon damage based builds, especially dual-wield: Get all you can, within reason. Especially global flats (on all non-weapon slots, skills, devotions). Ignore flat DoTs unless you are specifically scaling DoTs.
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For default attack builds, use the best attack replacer you can find. Fill out your weapon pool skills to 100% (or as close as you get)
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18k+ HP (20k+ is better)
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DA depends, keeping in mind that debuffing enemy OA is a thing. Typically 2700 is enough.
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OA more than you think. Always more. If you want to crit vs Ravager, aim for 3500+
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Resists for SR over cap Ele/Vit/Acid by 40+, Chaos/Aether by ~30, Bleed by about 10-20%, Pierce overcap not required in SR (but that might change in FoA. You want 20% pierce overcap in campaign).
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Life Leech depends, but more is better. Reaper has Harbinger which almost fixes life leech by itself. 20% is alright, 30% is better. Healing effect can also help to improve leech.
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Attack (or cast) speed (for spammy builds). Slow res capped. Stun res 60%+, capped if possible. Freeze res 60%+, capped if you are melee build going into SR.
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Reflect res: For SR none. For campaign 20-30% is usually fine.
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Phys res: Get what you can, but it’s no easy to find. Either your class or set has a chunk, or you use a shield - or you live with 10-15% at best.
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Armor scaling only, if your build scales it naturally well, or you have the luxury of an open slot (stuff like Chariot is solid tho)
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At least one good source of damage reduction, flat RR, flat DA shred (if at all available), fumble (if available)
On the next patch the skill from the Deathmarked set should be an automated proc, so the build will get easier to play.
If you can fix the HP of the Reaper, attacking with Shard of Beronath and using Soul Harvest with Vit->Cold conversion to buff up your flat damage should be very solid.
ABB has a pitfall, as a main attack skill: The skill conversion only works on the ABB-hit, not on the WPS hits. So you’ll have a lot of flat acid damage mixed in.
There’s also a Cold Reaper with Morgoneth’s set in the top 20 topic. That set doesn’t block the weapon slots.
(Thx for coming to my game rant)
5 Likes
Thank you very much for the class.
I saving this text on a doc so I can revisit it over and over until (maybe) one day I git gud.
Recently I’m getting more experimental/bold with devotions and its paying off. I picked an archon build on the internet and I was dying left and right until I said “screw this” and made a map on my own. Guess what, my survival increased greatly.
Here’s another build concept that I want to play at some point. It has spammable Aegis of Menhir and other secondary skills, everything converted to piercing.
Or since this post is about the Reaper class, I have only one Reaper build concept on cold (so far), that uses Drain essence as the main skill, if you’re interested in this build style.
I have one character that uses DE, and personally, not my favorite.
But maybe I can salvage some ideas from it to build a spellbreaker. Probably a cold AAR because I cant help but to use AAR when making an arcanist…
Yes, you should definitely come up with your own version. For me, building is 90% of the game, while only 10% is playing. Playing is testing the work I invest building. You’re right that channeled spells like DE are somewhat undesirable, because you constantly interrupt your channeling whenever you use secondary skills and that diminishes your dps a bit (because of DE’s delay of 0.3 seconds).