Thanks 
though It was my first character, was really easy and joyful to follow the guide.
I picked a another build from you, I hope soon to start it as my second char and give feedback there too.
Im 8/12 with the revered factions. When i get all the mandates I’m gonna start with it.
Thanks for the great guide!
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Hey, I really like your beginner guides. Very well-thought-out builds.
I’m currently leveling the Warlord here.
Any thoughts or comments on the following:
Devotion: I thought Maul was a “must-have” for physical damage builds because the negative % armor on the enemy is so strong? What do you think?
Skills:
Any opinion on swapping Oleron Rage for Divine Mandate?
Divine Mandate gives the strong bonus crit damage instead of extra crit damage.
Oleron Rage gives much-needed offensive ability.
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Yes, you should 100% take Maul. No question.
You likely don’t have enough OA for that to pay of. If you can get to 3.5k with Divine Mandate maybe. Pretty easy to test that with DPYes (vs sth sturdy, like Calla, once you get there).
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any idea how to min/max the devotion tree with taking maul?
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For DPS, you can try this on the Warlord:
Let me know how it performs. 
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I am right now level 50 and on my way to Ultimate, so I will report later.
Yeah, I will try it. Or something like this:
We lose a lot of HP regen, but maybe leech is good enough. I think Maul is a good addition to every physical damage build."
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Also something I found / was wondering about:
In the OP, the build uses Arcanum Dust as ring augments — maybe for the % damage, resistances, and DA.
I would use Steelbloom Powder for the flat physical damage and OA.
But I’m more of a softcore guy.
what endgame relict you would prefere? deathstalker? doom?
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hey there.
ty for the reply!
yeah i used arcanum dust to help with DA\resists , but if you want more DPS, you shoul use steelbloom powder + deathstalker relic
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The leveling phase was actually the highlight for me. I picked up Vire’s Might as an extra movement skill, which made the campaign feel incredibly smooth and fast.
Now that I’ve reached the endgame, things are slowing down a bit. The build is exceptionally tanky, but to be honest, the DPS feels a little low for my taste at this stage.
Here is my current character: Warlord, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I’ve already made some adjustments to the Devotion route and Augments to squeeze out more damage. With this setup, I managed to:
- Beat Lokkar (though I can’t facetank him).
- Clear all Skeleton Key dungeons.
I’m curious if switching back to the HP regen Devotions from the original guide would actually allow for facetanking, or if the trade-off in damage would be too high.
Gear Thoughts
Funny enough, I just completed the Baldir set, but I’m also nearly done with Targo and Octavius. That said, you really don’t need Baldir for this to function as a starter.
- The War Cry helmet is great for extra AOE in the leveling phase.
- For the chest/shoulders, Galakros armor or MI shoulders from Benn’Jhar (or FG physical MIs) work perfectly fine too.
Next Steps
I’m going to experiment a bit more with the Baldir set now. After that, I’ll either push this Warlord into a proper endgame set or move on to the next character.
Thanks for the guide! It was a great help getting started.
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Well, I’m ready to render my final verdict on this build, now that I’ve had 4 characters make it to 100 Ultimate Hardcore (two of them based on your builds… not that I’m stalking you or anything 
but I really like your UHC builds). I’m evaluating it from that Ultimate Hardcore perspective.
As reported, I would not take this build into deep SR - it’s too dependent on getting into the face of enemies, which with terrain effects or certain bosses, is too dangerous in deep SR - Grava is a problem, and Clarity of Purpose doesn’t last long enough, and energy drain vs Ravager means I wouldn’t try all the regular celestials either. But if I can postulate, that isn’t this build’s purpose. For deep SR, a finalized version of your Sabotinha is far more viable (tested by me to SR 33, with a relic change to Sanctuary). Where this build shines is that it is extremely accessible, and can do all of regular Ultimate Hardcore; I would strongly endorse this build for anyone doing their first entry into starting Hardcore, because it can essentially farm gear that subsequent characters can use as builds that can do deeper SR (for example, the afore-mentioned Sabotinha, or the variety of pet builds out there). For that purpose - as a fast-progressing and viable first entry into Hardcore - I’d give this build 9.5 out of 10. I haven’t seen anything better. Great guide again!
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Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah,it seems crate devs are working night and day to definitely put an end the full facetankin’ on this game, but i got surprised with this one, since i chose survivability over DPS, I felt the damage was not so bad in the endgame (specially for new players)
Ty ty 
I appreciate! I’m glad these guides are being useful for the community 
I think sabotinha’s gameplay is somewhat easier to survive since you can kite enemies and her regen is way bigger, but on the other side, the warlord is easier to equip for a budget endgame setup
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I sometimes wonder how the devs envision melee working.
I sometimes get the impression that either your build and gear are so strong that you can facetank bossfights, and if not, the content is simply impossible.
For example, when I watch videos of the top 20 builds by rektbyprotoss, you see how often those builds just get ripped off against Callagara.
Either facetanking and RNG are good, or it’s a rip.
Casters can at least kite for 5 to 10 minutes and then defeat the bosses, and you can still feel good about it because you feel like you’ve defeated the boss, having played the fight flawlessly for so long.
But if you don’t do any high DoT damage, or only a little, how is melee supposed to work against bosses?
I’ve also seen videos of SSF builds whose goal was to defeat Lokkar - from Hamilcar grim dawn streamer. And he also facetanked Lokkar using cooldowns, and then ran in circles until the defensive cooldown was ready again. But that’s not a game system that’s really fun.
edit:
i tryed Ravager with this
And I didn’t stand a chance.
Way too little damage.
Too little defense.
And the DoTs were too weak for kitting. I think a two-handed bleed build would be even better for kitting.
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Well to be fair - you wouldn’t expect to take beyond-endgame content based on with only a blue set. What makes this build so accessible that it makes use of easily-farmable MI drops plus a very common epic blue set (as I said above, I have only 4 level 100 HCs now, yet I have already obtained 4¾ Mythical Baldir sets just from random totem pops and heroes/minibosses). I’ve only done Ravager in HC Elite; I am not sure I want to really risk him in Ultimate with a Hardcore character investment. In softcore Ultimate though, I’ve had success only with a handful of tough (Briarthorn-based) pet builds, or retaliation builds, where energy drain isn’t such a big deal.
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Agreed on the facetanking. In my softcore set, I have a phys retaliation warlord who has easily taken out Cally multiple times in (non-HC) Ultimate, yet gets cooked in SR 26+. Melee DPS that used to rely upon life leech is also no longer viable in deep SR or against Celestial bosses.
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Yeah, like @wlssenatus said: the budget setup using this blue cheap set surprised me.
I was not expecting much, but I heard it was able to even defeat mogdrogen and I’m very happy it got this far.
About the other superbosses, man… They become harder and harder to facetank at each new patch…
I see a lot of builders destroying them in seconds, but usually on softcore, when you can go fully for DPS.
I still think this class can perform barely OK against the superbastards using the targo’s set (with some changes to increase DPS)
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Leveling this build now, and it’s been going great so far!
Dropped a Korvan Qasque Korvan Casque - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database and was using it till I got to Homestead and found the Fleshwarped Casque. Are those helmets about the same for this build? Seems the Korvan Qasque with its dot-damage and dmg converted to health would be good?
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Ty for the reply!
Korvan casque is a good option to increase DPS, but i personally prefer the fleshwarped casque bcs war cry is truly great, besides the AoE damage, reduces damage, flat phys resists and even disrupts enemies
Having tested it a bit more myself, I’ll have to agree! The AOE dmg from war cry is really nice while leveling! Thanks for the guide, I love that the build is so focused. Get a real juggernaut feel from playing it.
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The damage is nice but not that important. It’s the warcry cooldown that is essential, especially at higher difficulties.
Warcry does two essential things for the build:
- Provide flat enemy physical resistance reduction → this is a total damage multiplier that increases how much damage you do.
- Reduces enemy damage inflicted → this is also a total damage multplier, that reduces the amount of damage you take.
These are some of the most important debuffs in the game, and pretty much every build wants to have a way to get them.
The -3 seconds cooldown means you can apply these debuffs permanently to bosses and other tough foes, because the duration is now longer than the cooldown. Without it, you get the debuffs for 5 seconds and then have to wait another 2.5 seconds to re-apply. (Assuming you have no other items or abilities that reduce cooldowns.)
The difference between playing a soldier with perma-warcry debuffs and one that only has 66% uptime is pretty huge.
In fact, in this build I’d be very much inclined to keep using a good Fleshwarped Casque instead of the Baldir set helm. (2 set pieces give the biggest bonuses, and you can still reach the blade-arc hard cap without the helm. Though you would lose the proc.)
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