[1.2.1.6] The Stormcaller - Lightning Conjurer

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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This has been done before, but I couldn't find anything even close to up-to-date, so I tried my hand on doing it myself. I've long been fascinated by the Storm Herald, Lightning Damage is probably my favourite damage type in the game and fully converting Doom Bolt sounded like a whole load of fun.

First build (and first post) for me on the forum, so I guess I can be decently happy with how things turned out. Not surprised this didn't make it into the Top2021, but it can do all endgame content and the visuals are pretty amazing. I did this on softcore, so no promises for harcore.

The Build:

Updated Lightning Doom Bolt Conjurer

Original spec

Changes thanks to @tqFan
Changelog:
Switched out Wendigo Totem for Solael’s Witchfire and Second Rite for more DA and Crit Damage
Exchanged Unholy Inscription for Restless Remains for a bit more Casting Speed

GD_Lightning_Conjurer_Statsheet_New
EDIT: Statsheet is after changes and with Blood of Dreeg active.


Gear Choices:

Main Hand: Whole reason I’m doing this build in the first place.
Head, Gloves: Brings the cooldown of DB to 1.7-1.6 seconds after global CDR. Not the lowest it can go, but most items supporting DB do not support Lightning Damage.
Off-Hand, Amulet: More summons plus shorter CD on Storm Totems. Not quite Ludrigan, but five Totems still end up doing a decent bit of damage.
Chest, Shoulders, Pants, Boots: Generic support for Doom Bolt, Storm Totems and Wind Devils.
Rings, Medal, Relic: Gollus Rings help with fixing resistances and health regen, Medal and Relic are generic Lightning support.
Belt: More health regen and a defensive proc.
Craft whatever possible with Freeze resistance. Build ends up a bit short on that front (70%), with really good rolls it’s probably just enough to cap it. Otherwise pop a hoarfrost ointment or don’t go cuddling with Moosi.

Devotions:

Fairly standard for Lightning builds as far as I can tell. Originally had Tempest instead of Turtle and Crab, but turned out to be way too flimsy. Deals a bit less damage with this setup, and four defensive procs (on top of Tinker’s Ingenuity) feels like a lot, but at least it doesn’t die on the first step into SR anymore.

Speaking of SR, which content can this thing do?

Shattered Realm: 30-31 easy and decently fast, although not in contention for speedruns by any means. Pushed all the way up to 35, but admittedly died once in 34.
Celestial bosses: Haven’t tried Lokarr, but pretty confident it can do it. Ravager was fine, but requires kiting. Luckily, Doom Bolt and Storm Totem are pretty good at that. Same goes for Callagadra. Kill times are fine but not amazing.
EDIT: Re-did most of the achievements with the updated build, feels much smoother and damage is noticeably higher, while survivability didn’t decrease much. Binding Arcane Bomb to Doom Bolt makes a big difference for Ravager specifically, because there is less time to stand still and cast Chain Lightning. Overall very happy with the improvements and the suggestions I got.


Anyway, glad to finally contribute something here, I have learned a lot from lurking on the forum for the past six years and I am sure the hivemind can help me improve this a little while we all wait for Fangs of Asterkarn!


SR30-31

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Congrats on your first build , if you throw Turtle for Bard Harp you will see better results to be fair , Turtle was nerfed several times and doesn’t fit at all In endgame Lightning setups especially in SC

I think this Devo map fits better in your setup and gear of choice and still keeps the identity of your build by changing just one tier 1 devotion for tier 2

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They would need to test how it feels without Turtle in SR. And against Lokarr / Crate perhaps too. :crab: :turtle: is good, their synergy is great (:crab: going down first and then :turtle: after :crab: 's down) especially on Conjurer without any other absorbtion but maybe not needed.

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Congrats, looks like a fun build!

I’m greedy and wondering if it’s worth it to ditch the wendi totem and instead add some points in second rite for that extra crit damage :sweat_smile: and then switch out the defensive ring augments for offensive ones. :grimacing:

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@TheNex Awesome! Such an instant classic that I couldn’t help but create a Beginner variant. But first some comments to your build:

  • Ateph’s Promise augments are strictly better than Typhoon Powders for this GT.
    They give a tiny bit more DA and Petrifiy resist on top.

  • Do you find Chain Lightning useful / doing significant damage? Doesn’t seem very useful looking at GT. Especially with your low Casting Speed. You could proc Bomb with Doom Bolt (100% chance probably). But I guess you deal more damage if you’re stationary even if you disregard Chain Lightning since i.e. the dubuffs have permanent uptime then.

    I may be a bit biased because I’m in my “no filler” phase now. However I used to always used fillers (i.e. Oblivion in Vit builds) in the past.

  • :turtle: → Tempest trade is possible without losing :crab: Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator but I like :crab: :turtle: too.

Beginner setup:

  • magic affixes except one “Of Torrents” with +2 to Storm Totem (can occur on off-hand or on the dagger)

  • no res on the conduit

  • I wondered whether to skip Wendigo Totem and/or Chain Lightning. I skipped the former. The latter could probably be skipped too for the purpose of leveling and making things simpler. Not necessary optimal damage wise.

  • I maxed Solael’s Witchfire line; its general DA, Crit, Vit res bonuses are useful but I also have 50% Chaos and Vitality conversion so it will add a bit of flat damage to Chain Lightning.

  • I wanted to use Legendary Faction Mark of the Farseer medal for more Freeze res and other stats but it seems very expensive to craft (5 Eldritch Essences for example).

  • The purple Doom Bolt helmet is technically farmable but the drop chance is very low so it’s probably a waste of time and one should run SR instead (?). If it drops there . Also the reason I didn’t use it here.

  • I’d love to have it in the Beginner Compendium. I’ve done my part, now someone please level it :wink:

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@tqFan Oh wow, you’ve been hard at work while I was asleep. Thanks for the feedback!

Ateph’s Promise is a good call. I either compared them at a previous stage of the build where I didn’t have enough flat DA bonuses for the % increase to matter, or I straight up missed it.

To address a couple other remarks: This build went through multiple iterations (none of them worked) and some of them can still be seen in remnants, such as Chain Lightning (originally I had one more devotion I wanted to proc) and Wendigo Totem (I tried to increase survivability without shuffling around the devotions).

I am not married to the idea of using CL, I think I am just currently in the opposite phase where I am really excited to slap a filler skill into anything. The damage is not spectacular admittedly, especially without the casting speed to back it up. Then again, just holding right click for some extra damage and to constantly proc Arcane Bomb is also just damn convenient.

Now dropping Wendigo Totem for Solael’s Witchfire and Second Rite is a really intriguing idea. I forget to cast WT half the time anyways and with Turtle and Crab it might very well not be needed anymore. Will try it out as soon as possible and give updates how it turns out. May also take up @RSnoomak on his suggestion and try Harp over Turtle, but this would require some reshuffling of devotions and may in fact end up too squishy.

Beginner build looks cool! A friend of mine has been levelling a totem caster with my build in mind, but we were struggling to put together something good for the levelling process. Might revisit that idea and level this character myself, we will see.

Yeah, helmet is “targetfarmable” in heavy air quotes. Drop chance is abysmal, but on the flipside, at least it drops as a blueprint. The DB Deceiver sadly didn’t make the Top20, but there are definitely some really good builds to use this on later, even as a beginner.

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Yes, when I get excited I cannot stop. I’m working on that but failed this time although it was worth it :laughing:

Not saying it’s useless of course. Even Blood Pact’s Life Leech does increase sustain somewhat when you use Chain Lightning. You could still have both. I just did it to decrease the number of buttons.

Chain Lightning seems more valuable in the beginner setup due to longer DB cooldown.

I’m really happy you can include Lightning Doom Bolt in Conjurer that easily and max it out. I didn’t know that and also Doom Bolt got buffed. Leveling Lightning / Cold Caster Conjurer (for Trozan Conjurer for example which has Sigils converted or your build now of course) was always missing sth for me in comparison to Druid which has TSS and the fact that Occultist mastery was not utilized much. Not anymore!

This beginner setup looks optimal to me for a starter Lightning / Cold Conjurer caster :thinking:
You could have 1 more Storm Totem from the weapon MI but Doom Bolt should be way stronger and also more fun. And that Occultist conduit is a great budget option till you get the Storm Totem amu.

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The excitement is palpable :laughing: Glad I got you thinking.

Oh, is Blood Pact’s ADCTH global? I always thought it just applied to the totem’s damage itself.

Yeah, that’s always a bummer. I mean occultist is a good support mastery, but if it doesn’t contribute anything else to the build, it’s quickly overshadowed.

Depending on how much you’re willing to farm, Stormstrife might be accessible earlier than Storm Herald, given you need to unlock that one through Black Legion rep. Can’t quite tell how much reputation the normal questing gives you for them without using rep boost. Conduit is a great call, if Stone of Halakor didn’t exist, this would probably be the choice for the final build as well.

Side note: Do you happen to know why some builds from the forum show up on Grimtools and others don’t? Always wondered that and after posting one of my own I’m thinking if there are any conditions you need to meet (video proof, etc.)?

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Everything on Blood Pact is bonus to your character.

A video (YT?) is a requirement I think.

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