OK, so I’ve done some testing on several of my characters. All of the characters I tested were able to clear SR80 previously and all of them can still do it, so if SR80 is the benchmark, then nothing has really changed. All testing was done with no pharma.
Blood Knight DK went from 63% physical resistances to 52%. This maths out to be a 30% more damage taken from Physical, minus whatever the reduction to damage done was. Run time is about the same (right around 6m for SR80) and I didn’t notice any issues face-tanking the buffed Sunders from Benn’Jarr, Fabius and Kaisan. Kaisan came with a pack of 5 heros as well, I don’t remember what they were but apparently it didn’t matter. This was the build I expected to take the biggest hit due to it being the one I stacked physical resistances on and it actually seems like it got more tanky? Second and third runs were more of the same, face tanked everything, didn’t dodge, didn’t evade, didn’t back off.
Cold Forcewave Battlemage went from 16% to 8% (9% more damage taken). This one relied on armour for defence before and it still does. The clear time wasn’t affected (slow at 9 minutes or so) but man this feels like it can tank the entire world. Face-tanked Fabius, Reaper and Moosilaukke, ignored Sunder, never even triggered Prismatic Diamond. I expected this build to get stronger due to not really having a lot of Physical resistances before, but man it’s a brick now. Second and third runs basically showed more of the same. Just need to figure out how to do more damage
Physical Forcewave spam Deathknight. 47% to 29%. 34% more damage taken. This one feels about the same as before. 7 minute runs have remained the same. Still managed to facetank Fabius, Benn’Jarr and Iron Maiden, completely ignored Sunders and just kept on trucking. This was the last of my big physical resistance tanks and after 3 runs it feels a little squishier but not massively so. I did manage to trigger my circuit breakers in the boss room on the third run while tanking Moosilaukke. This is probably the build that was most negatively affected, though I am basing this on “feels”.
Dagallon’s Purifier went from 11% to 8% (lol). Feels a lot tankier now because 10% crit damage became +1400 hp. That’s a loss of about 2-3% total damage for a gain of about 8% health… and somehow I’ve got around 300 more armour on average too. SR80 times are a few seconds faster (7 minutes-ish), but I think that’s because I’m not playing quite so scared with this anymore. Straight up buff for this build, which is nice because this build didn’t need damage, but it did need more tank. Dagallon’s buff!
Lost Souls Cabalist I noticed almost no difference. Went from 23% physical resistance on the Skeletons to 11% (15% more damage taken). Still murdered SR80. Some skeletons still died but it actually felt like less? The character itself took almost no damage, but went from 51% to 21% (61% more damage!) so this build may need a bit more defences.
Ghol’s Pet Ritualist went from 16% to 5%. No noticeable difference because the player almost never gets hit, but also because it relies on a huge health pool rather than physical resistances. Pets went from 18% to 11%. Again, no noticeable difference, SR times around 6 minutes. Bigger pets means there are no squishy pets. Stomped SR80 like it was campaign difficulty.
Overall I think that most of these builds are actually more tanky than previously, with the only ones that aren’t being characters that were stacking large amounts of Physical Resistances, so I guess mission accomplished. Builds that struggled with <SR80 before still do, though the ATV Templar I have did manage to finish SR80 now where before I had to exit to menu with it 3 times in a row.
Obviously, I haven’t limit-tested any of these characters because hardcore, but mostly they are either stronger now or only slightly weaker.
Some skeletons still died but it actually felt like less?
Skeletons dying less makes sense since they made skeletons invincible during spawn animations. Before this change they would sometimes lose most of their health before they were even able to attack.
Boilerplate Avenger Warder loses a solid amount of phys res, still keeps an OK value even by pre-patch standards. Also doesn’t even need that phys res because it has like 5 more defensive layers on a 23k HP chassis. Still unga bungas its way through SR80 like it should.
5 phys res, no regen LD vindicator, lost 13 phys res (switched boots because no phys res no anyway) Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
clears 75-76 with more comfort than it did before - tho you really don’t wanna get blitzed by Maiden since low base HP making aether cluster handy if baboon evading the initial charge
*died to her first blitz because i didn’t wait out steward’s sunder before aggroing her
used to keep this at 65-66
**full disclosure i use a perma wind devil mod meaning i don’t have to keep casting it/rotate it in, - whenever i compare with/without it does not seem to benefit my performance in any noticeable way the way i pilot (and results in less dps on target dummy)
Gnomish, glad your doing the Light’s Defender Vindicator.
Quick question did you notice you changed the way you play the char?
One aspect this highlights and I have mentioned in a stream is this is probably going to force builds like this to go with Ghoul now (mine had Turtle instead on Elementalist)
Its the best general source of phys res when needed, along with its other main properties.
aeh, probably couldn’t care about Ghoul in terms of phys res as such, i feel the issue it had was, low base HP; low sustain
the later becomes even more evident when playing LD elementalist, that has a zillion regen.
The low base HP means it’s “oh sht” can happen territory, like missing Maiden blitz is dicey if not ready for it, and definitely don’t wanna take multiple debuffs (like the steward sunder into maiden blitz i mentioned)
If it had higher base HP it would be more comfy - the elementalist has 5k more HP but only 2 phys res, and no inquis seal passive absorb/only proc absorb from Turtle/Crab, but it feels 3000x more comfy in terms of base hits/burst dmg taken.
And ofc since it has crazy renge means it heals up from anything super fast, where this vindicator was greedy in terms of sustain pre 1.2, and perhaps a bit optimistic post 1.2 lifesteal nerfs, basically clutching pearls on wendigo totem WoR and heal pot
Well health regen Light’s Defender Elementalist was using Myth Tinkers Ingenuity, so my health regen is now lower.
I guess now it makes more sense farming a really good affix belt MI with health regen related affixes.
And remove Turtle for Ghoul.
this one lost more phys res than the vindi, but it aint dying to anything in SR
*side note, this thing, (among couple other strong builds), was actually one of my main notions for putting out an idea on 1.2, that regen might need a nerf, and sunder to be buffed
To be fair,
try this on Elementalist Light’s Defender without regen affixes on Gollus and you will find the health regen is somewhat lower; just in 1.2 a bit over 3k without Giants Blood proc (5.6k with) and I am using Dreeg Sect Leggards due to formidable of thunder dropping.
Build has scythe but no lizard or Ghoul for last bit of health regen, I cannot remember what the regen was in 1.2.1 and now back to standard 1.2
Ah k, i didnt see the build linked earlier and not realise your using Salvation, so assumed the extra regen coming from rings.
Where as I went for a somewhat circuit breaker belt in Myth Tinkers combined with dmg relic.
With the 1.2.1 changes there is now even less reason to go Myth Tinkers Ingenuity over Salvation as it is affected more IMO and has less uptime than Salvation.
custom Blazerush EoR shieldbreaker, deliberately used setup with 2x formidable that was impacted the most Shieldbreaker, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator - phys res got cust almost in half down from 45 to 23, has 1850 avg sheet armour at 92%absorb
1.2 hurt it more than 1.2.1, survived Maiden blitz on multiple occasions, including in chunks fighting trash,
survived benji bomb into benji stab (dont’ ask me how if this patch is the doom for us),
incoming dmg doesn’t seem to be the issue; survives several different enemy sunder attacks, (i’m still on incrased Sunder patch)
it’s slow to lifesteal back up so healpotting a lot after 1.2 leech change
cold butts devas binder Spellbinder, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator down from 29 to 12 phys, more than cut in half - up 400 armour from 2300 to 2700
i’m beginning to get the feeling that basically most arcanist included builds is gonna trivialize any and all changes in this patch, Mirror/Nulli is just so handy
^but it still survives Maiden blitz and Benji stabs tho, didn’t even have to preemptively cast Mirror, armour and HP once again likely carries a lot.
