[1.3.0.6] Beginner Big Bad Wolf - chaos dual wield melee Mystic

Werewolf chaos dual wield melee Mystic
(Berserker + Occultist), build guide for beginners & playthrough diary by me

The goal is to make a build from scratch that can do some end-game content like shattered realm (SR) as high as possible, skeleton key dungeons, ascendent mode etc.

End of guide build >>
Mystic, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (will update it, this is 23 h in)

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with blood of dreeg & rallying cry up.

Ideas for mega-super end-game variant >> [1.3.0.5] (Ascendant Mode) Chaos Mystic Werewolf Guide (UBER NERF, SR 32, Ravager, Callagadra, Crate) {WIP}

And I should also mention this video guide by Rektbyprotoss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjJ0tdJR0Y he does some thing a little different than me, it is ok it is more or less the same.

It is not the most high-end build possible, but it is rather easy to do and not so much RNG. See it as some kind of "league starter” in Path of Exile - good starter if you have no items and little experience with the game but will get you to a point where you can farm gear pretty efficient for upgrading this one or to make new chars later on :slight_smile:

There will be a build-diary with increments in about ten levels, you can view these as “loadouts” in Path of Building if you have played that game and followed league starters there. Do not try to copy me 100% but see it as “aha he did this I should probably have something similar”. The most important items to get etc will be mentioned and highlighted.

Factions: Kymons chosen or Deaths vigil = does not matter, Witch gods = Dreeg, Barrowholm = friends (#scorvbodypillow)

Gameplay loop normal: Base game, FoA up to Black citadel (farm wpn from Guldrir), AoM,
FG, finish FoA

Gameplay loop ultimate: Base game, FoA up to Black citadel (farm wpn from Guldrir), AoM (finish all quests in ugdenbog area), FG until level 94, Finish AoM, finish FG, finish FoA

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Build Diary Normal difficulty

Click on them to expand and read the text inside.

Note: The GrimTools (GT) Build Calculator always shows Ultimate difficulty by default automatically. You have to switch that yourself if you wanna investigate the GT-links.

Level 1-10

Go berserker first. We start with fooling around as a werewolf. Use feral claws for hitting and rip and tear for big kaboom/movement. Very simple gameplay.

Level 10 for me Berserker, Level 10 (GD 1.3.0.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 11-20

Take the werewolf transmuter “Blight of Ch’ton” around level 15

Craft 2 riftstones at lvl 20 and put in weapons.

level 20 for me Berserker, Level 20 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 21-30

After killing Warden Kreig you are invited by the Emissary outside Devils Crossing to go to the Forgotten Gods expansion area. We have no items “waiting for us” there so we will just progress in base game campaign.

For this part of the game, getting bleed, pierce and fire resistance will be important.

[color=“Red”]The goal now is therefore just to progress and getting a relic. This one is very good for starters “Bone talisman”
Bone Talisman - Empowered Relic - Grim Dawn Item Database
it is from the quest “The lost elder” select the option “no I did not find a talisman” and you’ll keep it for yourself.
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It can provide a small dmg and energy regen boost in combat.
Put the skill “mana infusion” into your skillbar so you can use it when you need. Like this:
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level 30 for me Berserker, Level 30 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 31-40

Time to get wardstones in amulet and medal

We are about to head out of homestead to bloodgrove, need to fix chaos resistance. Bought some yellow (magic tier) items from vendor to get it up to +50%.

Prio now is to get bloodsworn scepters with attack speed, you can buy them from the secret vendor in blood grove (also pick up a kymons medal for chaos res, we need that later) https://grimdawn.fandom.com/wiki/Benevald_-_Strange_Wares

level 40 for me Mystic, Level 40 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 41-50

Increasing armor: amatoks pact

Go to Ulo’s springs, get a +1 berserker belt from the crabs

When we get to Black Citadel we start farming Gruldrir, note you need high armor, max pierce res and max chaos res. He deals so much dmg and also his dogs… which you can not kill btw. Have fun!

Also go here and kill this mini-boss Gund Thorngut - Grim Dawn Monster Database
Go here first
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Then into this dungeon
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That mini-boss rops this helmet Wight Lord's Casque - Rare Heavy Helm - Grim Dawn Item Database at 50% chance with random rolls. You can only kill it once/difficulty. And the helm can be farmed by killing “wights” (in the “Ruins of Utak Kunur” area) but with low drop chances. I’d say if you get one with good resistances and stuff, keep it. We will kill that mini-boss in ultimate too. Keep the helmet and try to reroll its affixes later. I did not get a decent helmet from that mini-boss in normal, so I just sold it - its not important until later in the game but I wanted to mention it already here. Otherwise, just run that area a couple of time until you have one.

In ugdenbog, make sure to get a Sylvarria amulet with +1 berserker skills (Sylvarria's Root - Rare Amulet - Grim Dawn Item Database). Sixth time’s the charm for me :stuck_out_tongue: very unlucky since it is 50% drop chance. (have to wait to lvl 55 to use it tho but we got 13 ugdenblooms in the process will come in handy later for crafting endgame components!)

level 50 for me Mystic, Level 50 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 51-60

Do as many sidequests for Malmouth resistance faction as possible, we wanna get good reputation with them buy their chest and shoulder.

In Forgotten gods, try to get this medal Gryphon Eye - Rare Medal - Grim Dawn Item Database from the big birds in the oasis areas. It will boost our dmg quite much.

level 60 for me Mystic, Level 60 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

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Build Diary Ultimate difficulty

Click on them to expand and read the text inside.

Level 61-70

Preparing for ultimate:
honored with some factions to get ring, amulet and wpn augments
revered with homestead and black legion to get armor augments for resistances to wear at lvl 70
Chest and shoulder faction items from Malmouth
Farm two new good Gruldrir weapons
Farm other MI’s so with resistances (belt, amulet, medal)
Get a decent pair of Solael pants from the Hidden path secret quest
Make sure to have points in aspect of the guardian for “free” acid res
craft Terror relic (Hyram) we will not use its granted skill
get “menirhus” on life pot

level 65 for me, starting ultimate Mystic, Level 65 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

skill-wise, pushing for Possession skill. When level 70 augments for pierce resistance in armor and new weapons which will probably net 50% higher dps.

We can start to feel the energy becoming a problem a bit now… maybe craft an arcane spark component for amulet… we’ll see later. Don’t use curse of frailty and bonechilling cry on trash mobs, just waste of energy.

level 70 for me Mystic, Level 70 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (with the new weapons we farmed - should be around 40% more dps)

Level 71-80

Prio is to max aspect of the guardian for phys res and Possession for dmg and dmg absorb.

level 80 for me Mystic, Level 80 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 81-90

Now prio is to rush to form of the beast passive skill

The level 65 chest armor and shoulders are starting to feel… paper-like. HANG IN THERE level 85-94 is the hardest part of this build guide! You’ll get through!

Once we get the Black citadel riftgate in ultimate, we go back and start Ashes of Malmouth DLC.

level 90 for me Mystic, Level 90 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 91-100

We have the Black citadel riftgate in ultimate, but we are not ready to farm Gruldrir in ultimate yet for weapon upgrades. So, we will go back to normal/veteran and do that… cheesy but it works! Try to get four to five level 94 ones, where at least one of them has the rare suffix “of the abyss”. They are really quick to farm, so we do not need to reroll them - just farm new ones.

Now we are gonna get the helmet… in ultimate

In order to be able to reroll affixes, we need to find the inventor. Do this quest in normal …
where it is much easier (it will only unlock this inventor mechanic in normal, but that is ok)

This is what I get after rerolling it with 8 ashes of awakening (it is mentioned further down in the guide how to get ashes of awakening material)

We want resistances (not acid resistance) and about 1k health on it, or a crazy amount of resistances so we can use armor augments from Barrowholm that provides health.

It is mentioned further down in the guide how to get ashes of awakening. Remember the reroll cost goes up pretty quick…

We are about to go and fight Ekket’zul and save Ulgrim from the void at level 92.8
NO WAY we are gonna manage that without the helmet and weapon upgrades. So, we will go to forgotten gods and progress somethings there until we are level 84.

We hit level 94 pretty quick doing GF content, and we can now equip some upgrades: weapons, helmet, crafted gloves (common blueprint, I crafted about 15 pairs). We also took an attribute respec potion to put all points into physique.

level 94 for me: Mystic, Level 94 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
(about 70% more dps compared to level 90…)

This should be enough to complete the AoM and FG dlc’s. Main goal now is to get revered with Malmouth resistance faction for better chest and shoulder armor, and the Dreeg faction for ring/amulet augments.

Just keep playing playing so we can get revered with as many factions as possible, in the Noktukari faction (it is mentioned further down in the guide how to do that)

level 100 for me: Mystic, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Level 100 and end-of-guide-build

Now the serious upgrades can begin!

Farming for upgrades

Getting revered with Noktukari for their faction blueprints (ring) see further down in guide

Ring number 2
Look out for devour rings Devourer Ring - Rare Ring - Grim Dawn Item Database , they spawn around Necropolis interior riftgate (and other places too like ) Combine with “kill 200 chtonics” for noktukari.

Medal
korvan desert areas, Combine with “kill 200 eldritch” for noktukari.

Belt - ulo’s springs kill crabs, or craft faction belt from Kurn. Combine these runs with Kurn bounty “Kill corridius”. Also, make sure to check the spawn locations for the treasure troves which can give you the material “bloodbound totem” required for the ring craft.
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Legs - Solael, always useful for future builds too!

Amulet - sylvarria runs. You are gonna do these kinds of runs anyway to get ugdenbog blooms for endgame crafting of components etc so not time is wasted! Don’t stop these runs until you have like 100 or so ugdenbog blooms!

Weapons - kill gruldrir over and over again :stuck_out_tongue: normal/veteran or ultimate!

You also get bloodbound totem materials as reward in doing the quest given by Vessera Gulder. She is located in the east of Kurnhold and asks you to find a family shield - which can be found by killing a certain group of monsters inside a building in the east of Ruins of Utak Kunar (Utak Kunar riftgate). You’ll need 5 of them to craft the ring.

After a handful of hours farming for these upgrades and more faction reputation mostly for Noktukari, we ended up with this setup which will be considered the end-of-guide-build:
Mystic, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

With this, we can farm skeleton key dungeons, shattered realm etc to make the mega super duper build posted at the beginning of this guide, or just farm items for future characters!

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:sparkles:
Devotion plan

Red crossroads
Jackal
Refund Red crossroads
Wretch
Ghoul (bind to Amatok pact )
Revenant (bind to Feral claws, change to Rip and tear later)
Green crossroads
Spider
Refund Green crossroads
Solaels witchfire (bind to Curse of frailty)
Sailors guide
Gallows
Hound
Dying god (bind to Bonechilling cry)
Hawk
Korvaak (bind to Rip and tear)

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reserved tips and tricks, farming routes for monster infrequents, faction reputation for noktukari, farming ashes of awekening and bloodbound totems, etc and so on

reserved, future updates, videos etc

reserved just in case

Great work! Lets go wolves!

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LETS GOO BABYYY

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Ty for great build and guide :heart_eyes: I want to start this immediately, but I have a question, can HC be applied?

sure rektbyprotoss played it in HC, but you need experience with the game to play DW melee in HC what do avoid etc

Be very careful when you farm the weapons…

I have some details to finish writing like farming routes, good ways to get reptutation etc

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