Build Introduction
The ColdWord Paladin is a rather sturdy cooldown caster, capable of both face-tanking and kiting, that uses a rune as one of its main attacks. If that sounds familiar, then you probably already know of the Beginner Lightning Rune Paladin made by Crab_Turtle_2112. When leveling my very first character, I was inspired by that guide but realized two things early on: 1) I did not want to give up Word of Pain, and 2) I wanted to focus on Cold damage if possible.
With those two in mind, I came up with the ColdWord Paladin - which combines the sheer Cold power that Rune of Hagarrad has with the ease-of-use Word of Pain offers. This build is great for a first character:
- It has great MI and faction support, with its key budget equipment being guaranteed and some of its best legendaries acquired from factions
- It can acquire its most important MI extremely early on (early Act 2)
- It easily takes out totems
- It can be used to clear campaign on Ultimate
- It can be used to clear roguelike dungeons on Ultimate, even with some Ascension Altar modifiers active
- It can handle SR 30-31 on Ultimate (equivalent to 75-76 before the change) with both budget and endgame setups
- It can defeat The Dread on Ascendant difficulty
- It has options for converting most or all of its damage dealt into Cold damage
- It is controller friendly (I did all my leveling and testing with this build on controller)
- It can attack both in melee and at range
Note that some of the key equipment for this build requires the Fangs of Asterkarn expansion.
Playstyle / Main Attack Skills
Main Attack Skills
This build has 3 main attack skills:
#1 - Rune of Hagarrad
This build’s main damage-dealer. It sets a rune on the ground that arms itself after 1 second; once armed it will explode when an enemy gets near it, sending a number of icy projectiles from its center out in all directions. Due to the sheer number of projectiles (it’ll have 11 at end-game), it has great single-target damage and can easily trigger devotions. It also has a large spread and inflicts Frostburn, giving it great crowd-clearing capabilities. Its main drawbacks are its split damage (almost a 50-50 split between Piercing and Cold) and that it’s not the easiest ability to use. The first drawback is fixed by our gear, while the second is fixed by a mix of experience and our other attack skills.
#2 - Word of Pain
This build’s complementary skill to Rune of Hagarrad. We utilize a 1-12-1 spread (1 point in Word of Pain, 12 points in Word of Agony, 1 point in Death Sentence) in this build, causing Word of Pain to tag a large group of enemies and deal significant Lightning damage over time to them. This damage is devastating in the early game, a nice addition in the mid-game, and is rather limited late-game. Once we hit our endgame build, our endgame legendary weapon converts all its Lightning damage to Cold damage making it rather significant again. Word of Pain can easily trigger devotions against groups of enemies, and also does okay in this regard when used against lone bosses.
#3 - Chillspikes
This build’s spammable attack skill, it serves as a replacement for your default weapon attack to fill the time between Rune uses. It rapidly shoots a shotgun-like spread of icy projectiles that can pierce enemies, making it perfect for triggering devotions and piling on damage. It also has a split between Piercing and Cold damage, so any Piercing → Cold damage conversion you gain for Rune of Hagarrad also buffs Chillspikes as well! The Chillspikes skill is acquired from the Seal of the Night component, which requires level 75.
Playstyle
General gameplan for this build:
- Keep yourself buffed with Word of Renewal & potion effects
- Cast an Inquisitor Seal on the ground for defense and stand in it
- Set up any Rune of Hagarrad on the ground beforehand for tough fights / bosses / totems
- Tag bosses or groups of enemies with Word of Pain
- Cast additional Rune of Hagarrad for more damage, attacking enemies with Chillspikes or default weapon attack in-between uses
- Heal when needed with Word of Renewal and/or potions
- Use Ascension for extra damage & defense against heroes, bosses, and big pulls
- Regain energy & damage absorption shield through potion use (see Potion Setup)
- Reposition with Vire’s Might / dodges as needed
- If you encounter an enemy/situation you cannot face-tank, utilize Word of Pain and Rune of Hagarrad to damage enemies while kiting. Place runes in front of you so they are armed by the time enemies have chased after you
Controller tip - you do not swap weapon sets with this build. Consider changing “Weapon Swap” with an additional action skill use, so you can use all active abilities in this build without having to switch bars mid-combat. (Summon Guardian of Empyrion and consumables can be put on your second action bar.)
Leveling Setup
Grimtools link for an example Leveling setup: Paladin, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Leveling gear & information
Gear while leveling doesn’t really matter too much outside of some key gear (mainly Monster Infrequents, or MIs) we want to keep up on, and making sure you have high enough armor and resistances to survive. Use what you get along with the key gear mentioned below and you should do fine.
Here are the locations & availability for the key gear for this build (pieces to keep up on in bold):
Act 1 -
- none
Act 2 -
- Spectral Longsword & Wradlith’s Bulwark (Baros Wradlith at Spined Cove [Arkovian Foothills Rift], and undead vendor within Steps of Torment [Broken Hills Rift])
- Ulraprax’s Sting (Ulraprax at Swarming Hive [Twin Falls Rift])
Act 3 -
- Spectral Longsword (Benevald vendor at Blood Grove [Blood Grove Rift])
- Death’s Frost Seal x2 (Order of Death’s Vigil reputation)
Act 4 -
- Mark of Nacrathan (Nacrathan at Lost Tomb of the Damned [Fort Ikon Rift])
Act 5 (AoM) -
- Coven Lethal Waistguard (Coven of Ugdenbog reputation)
- Ugdenbog Waistguard (Naxen Shade at Barrowholm Mine [Barrowholm Rift] & spikeshell enemies)
- Living Ring (plant enemies, and plant vendor within Ancient Grove [Coven’s Refuge Rift])
Act 6 (AoM) -
- Malmouth reputation equipment (Head, Chest, Shoulder, Relic)
Act 7 (FG) -
- Gargoyle Gaze (gargoyle enemies at Astral Fields [Eldritch Gate Rift] & Basalt Crags [Vanguard of the Three Rift])
- Magi Mantle (Magi bosses in Tomb of the Heretic [Lost Oasis Rift])
- Nightstalker Pendant (Cult of Bysmiel reputation)
Act 8 (FoA) -
- Glacial Defender (Glacial Defiler at Glacierbound Cave [Aurora Pinnacle Rift])
- Prismatic Plume Crest (Avinnia of the Western Winds at Bitter Wind Pass [Aurora Pinnacle Rift])
- Kurn Arcane Band x2 (Kurn reputation)
- Anum’fol, the Cutting Wind (Kurn reputation, level 94+)
Early MIs that have later upgrades can be ignored after you have their upgrades:
- Wradlith’s Bulwark → Glacial Defender
- Mark of Nacrathan → Prismatic Plume Crest
- Ulraprax’s Sting → Nightstalker Pendant
Farm MIs every 10-15 levels or so to keep them up-to-date. Do not worry too much about prefixes & suffixes until level 94, where we can transition to the Budget setup of this build.
Budget Setup
Grimtools link for Budget setup: Paladin, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Budget Setup details & tips
Note - the gloves and boots are just placeholders; replace them with anything better you find.
The Budget setup is our intermediate step between our Leveling and Endgame setups, using mostly gear that is guaranteed or easily farmable. We can continue to use the Spectral Longsword until we have enough other pieces of gear that give us Piercing → Cold damage conversion. Once we have a few good pieces that can do that (particularly some chest and gloves), we can transition to this build’s Endgame setup.
Since several MIs in the Budget setup are still used in the Endgame setup (Gargoyle Gaze, Glacial Defender, Magi Mantle, Ugdenbog Waistguard, Prismatic Plume Crest), we can farm good versions of these and reroll their prefixes & suffixes after you unlock that function. Getting Double Rare versions of each (where the MI has a rare prefix & rare suffix) can be a big boost to your stats and resistances. Consider using a single Frozen Aster at the Ascendance Altar with each play session, as the enemy stat increase isn’t that much and the voidmarked ambushes are a great way of getting the Ashes of Awakening you’ll need for rerolls.
Endgame Setup
Grimtools link for Endgame setup: Paladin, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Endgame setup details & tips
Our Endgame setup requires multiple items that are only acquireable via random drops. The most important ones are those that provide Piercing → Cold Damage Conversion, so we can make the swap from our Spectral Longsword to Anum’fol, the Cutting Wind without reducing the damage of Rune of Hagarrad. See the Gear section for a list of your best options for getting this damage conversion from random drops.
We should be hitting at least +8 in the most relevant offensive skills for our build. Since we already get +3 to all skills in Inquisitor from our amulet, belt, and relic, we can get the rest (at least +5) from:
- Rune of Hagarrad - Gargoyle Gaze (+3), Prismatic Plume Crest (+3)
- Biting Cold - Glacial Defender (+3), Mythical Chilling Grip of Hagarrad (+3)
- Chillsurge - Magi Mantle (+3), Mythical Shadeleather Leggings (+2), Mythical Amatok’s Step (+2)
- Word of Agony - Anum’fol, the Cutting Wind (+3), Living Ring (+3)
Additional points in other skills are nice bonuses, but not strictly necessary. Additional points in Vigor (often from a ring) can be quite good for further improving your health and armor. Additional points in Word of Pain (from the “Scorched Runes” suffix) is okay, but that suffix is primarily used for its good stats in this build (Elemental Damage, Frostburn Damage, Health, Pierce Resistance, and Elemental Resistance) so any other suffix with good stats for this build would also work.
Factions
Faction choices
Order of Death’s Vigil vs Kymon’s Chosen: go with Order of Death’s Vigil. It has more gear and consumables focused on Cold damage, including guaranteed blue rings that are great for our build early on and Ice-Blood Oil (a long-lasting consumable we can use the entire game that provides +80% Cold & Frostburn damage).
Outcast: be friendly, they have a few pieces of early gear you can consider.
Barrowholm: be friendly, they have some health armor augments you might want for this build later on.
Cults: go with the Cult of Bysmiel. They offer the blueprint for the best-in-slot legendary amulet for this build (Nightstalker Pendant).
Attributes
Attribute spread
Only put points into Cunning and Spirit as you need to in order to equip gear. Usually this is 0-5 points in Cunning and 0-20 points in Spirit.
Put all remaining points into Physique for more health.
Skill Explanations & Order
Skill Explanations
Rune of Hagarrad - our main attack skill as explained before. Its main node and each of its upgrades (Biting Cold and Chillsurge) are all worth maxing out. Biting Cold helps considerably by shredding enemy Defensive Ability (making your chance to crit more likely), while Chillsurge provides more Frostburn damage and grants an extra projectile at the 15/12 and 20/12 breakpoints.
Word of Pain - as explained before, we have a 1-12-1 spread for this skill (1 point in Word of Pain, 12 points in Word of Agony, 1 point in Death Sentence). The lower points in Word of Pain and Death Sentence keeps the skill’s energy cost down and saves us points we can spend elsewhere.
Word of Renewal - we hit the 13/12 breakpoint for Word of Renewal, max out Vigor for additional defenses, and get enough to hit 10/10 for Steel Resolve. All of these are good and we would max all three of them out if our points weren’t needed elsewhere.
Inquisitor Seal - as our main defensive skill, we want this maxed out; its high damage absorption makes you significantly tankier while you stand on it. Arcane Empowerment just gets a single point to give us some extra damage.
Aura of Censure - an amazing skill that simultaneously reduces the damage enemies deal while also lowering their elemental resistances (which includes both Cold and Lightning resistances). You’ll want to be somewhat close to enemies so they’ll be affected by it.
Artifact Handling - makes Rune of Hagarrad easier to use and buffs its damage; max this.
Deadly Aim - a single point skill for a nice buff to our damage. It’ll trigger off basically any critical hit so it has fairly good uptime.
Presence of Virtue - a nice aura primarily useful for boosting our Offensive Ability and being always-active (so it’s a great choice for a defensive devotion). We’d like to max it out, but it’s one of the last things we’ll put a lot of points into so it’s not likely we’ll do so. Haven has some great defensive stats so we push it up to its 6/10 breakpoint.
Vire’s Might - one point for mobility, and one point in Tectonic Shift for extra range. Useful for crossing distances quickly and dashing through groups of enemies.
Resilience - one point here for a small defensive buff that triggers when your health drops below 66%. Decent on its own, but has good synergy with your other defensive skills and devotions.
Ascension - one point in both Ascension and Clarity of Purpose will provide a good mix of offense and defense on-demand for only 2 points of investment.
Summon Guardian of Empyrion - the guardians themselves are invulnerable and we don’t care about their damage, so they are fine at one point. Celestial Presence is amazing for reducing the elemental resistances of enemies so max it.
Skill Order (which order to get skills while leveling)
- Start with Inquisitor
- Grab Word of Pain
- Put almost everything into the Inquisitor bar until you unlock Word of Agony
- Put ~4 points in Word of Renewal while maxing out Word of Agony*
- After Word of Agony is maxed, invest into the Inquisitor bar until you unlock Artifact Handling. You can put 1 point in everything our build uses in Inquisitor along the way (Rune of Hagarrad, Biting Cold, Chillsurge, Inquisitor Seal, Arcane Empowerment, Vigor, Steel Resolve, Death Sentence, Deadly Aim)
- Max out Artifact Handling
- Put points into Rune of Hagarrad as you also work towards maxing out the Inquisitor bar
- Once the Inquisitor bar is maxed, max out Aura of Censure and Rune of Hagarrad
- Begin investing into Oathkeeper bar as you continue to put points into Chillsurge and Inquisitor Seal (max out both of them)
- Invest into the Oathkeeper bar until you unlock Celestial Presence. You can put 1 point in everything our build uses in Oathkeeper along the way (Presence of Virtue, Vire’s Might, Resilience, Ascension, Haven, Summon Guardian of Empyrion, Tectonic Shift, Clarity of Purpose)
- Max out Celestial Presence
- Max out Biting Cold
- Invest into your defenses by putting points into Word of Renewal (10), Vigor (10), Steel Resolve (7), and Haven (6)
- Put all remaining points into Presence of Virtue
*At any point after maxing out Word of Agony, you can swap to Oathkeeper to unlock a few good one-pointers (Presence of Virtue, Vire’s Might, Resilience) if you want a movement ability early. Otherwise we’ll grab them later
Devotion Setups
Balanced Devotion Setup
The default devotion setup for this build, it has useful tools for leveling early on (Tsunami) as well as a lot of offense (Blizzard, Elemental Storm, Rumor, Whirlpool) and defense (Wayward Soul, Giant’s Blood, Hyrian’s Glare) for use in Ultimate. All testing in Ultimate (clearing the campaign, SR 30-31, etc.) was done with this devotion setup.
Devotions:
- Blue Crossroads
- Tsunami (Tsunami → Word of Pain)
- Green Crossroads
- Quill
- Amatok the Spirit of Winter (Blizzard → Rune of Hagarrad)
- -remove Blue Crossroads
- Wraith
- Chariot of the Dead (Wayward Soul → Chilling Weapons)
- Hyrian, Guardian of the Celestial Gates (Hyrian’s Glare → Aura of Censure)
- -remove Tsunami
- Rhowan’s Crown (only up to Elemental Storm → Word of Pain)
- Red Crossroads
- Murmur, Mistress of Rumors (Rumor → Summon Guardian of Empyrion)
- -remove Red Crossroads
- Behemoth (Giant’s Blood → Presence of Virtue)
- Owl
- Leviathan (Whirlpool → Summon Guardian of Empyrion, change Rumor → Chillspikes)
Offensive Devotion Setup
If you want additional offense, you can give up Chariot (Wayward Soul) and Amatok (Blizzard) in order to get either Blind Sage (Elemental Seeker) or Ultos, Shepard of Storms (Hand of Ultos).
Devotions:
- Green Crossroads
- Quill
- -remove Green Crossroads
- Toad
- Rhowan’s Crown (only up to Elemental Storm → Word of Pain)
- Blue Crossroads
- Eel
- Red Crossroads
- Jackal
- Murmur (Rumor → Rune of Hagarrad)
- -remove Jackal
- Hyrian (Hyrian’s Glare → Aura of Censure)
- -remove Blue Crossroads
- Behemoth (Giant’s Blood → Presence of Virtue)
- -remove Red Crossroads
- Owl
- Hawk
- Leviathan (Whirlpool → Summon Guardian of Empyrion)
- Go with either Option 1 or Option 2
Option 1 (Cold Damage & Physical Resistance; grabs Cold node in Blind Sage):
Scholar’s Light
Blind Sage (Elemental Seeker → Word of Pain; change Elemental Storm → Chillspikes)
Option 2 (More Resistance Reduction & Lightning Damage):
Viper
Ultos, Shepard of Storms (Hand of Ultos → Chillspikes)
Gear
Here I’ll go over some of the key pieces of gear this build uses in more detail.
Entire game gear
Spectral Longsword - a farmable & guaranteed MI sword available as soon as early Act 2, it provides an enormous amount for this build (good stats, +2 Rune of Hagarrad, a Frostburn bonus for Rune of Hagarrad, and extremely valuable Piercing->Cold damage conversion). It can easily be used all the way until level 100 and is the go-to weapon option for the Leveling and Budget setups for this build. Guaranteed from a few vendors (Blood Grove & Steps of Torment vendors), but also very worth farming from an early boss as that boss also drops a good shield to use early on for this build. You can continue to use this weapon until you have enough other sources of Piercing->Cold damage conversion to swap to Anum’fol at endgame
Early game gear
-
Wradlith’s Bulwark - a guaranteed MI shield that drops from a boss in early Act 2, it has good Cold stats and can be farmed at the same time as a Spectral Longsword. Quite good for this build early on, and we can use it all the way until the end of the Fangs of Asterkarn expansion where we’ll get an upgrade (Glacial Defender)
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Ulraprax’s Sting - a guaranteed MI amulet that provides +1 to all Inquisitor skills and has some Lightning stats to buff our Word of Pain/Agony. A solid, reliable option for an amulet until we can replace it much later (Nightstalker Pendant)
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Death’s Frost Seal - guaranteed rare rings with good stats for this build, we can acquire them from the Order of Death’s Vigil faction at Honored reputation. If your luck with rings is terrible like mine, these will be your go-to option until we find better replacements later
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Mark of Nacrathan - a guaranteed MI medal with some decent Cold stats that buffs our survivability. It’s a good guaranteed option to use until we get a better option later in the game (Prismatic Plume Crest)
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Coven Lethal Waistguard - a craftable belt available through the Coven of Ugdenbog faction, it provides +1 to all Inquisitor skills. Since it only crafts with either a prefix or suffix (never both), we can replace it far later once we care about those more (level 94+)
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Vendetta - a craftable relic available through the Malmouth Resistance faction, it provides +1 to all Inquisitor skills and is our go-to guaranteed relic option
Late/End game gear
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Anum’fol, the Cutting Wind - the signature weapon of this build, this dagger replaces our trusty Spectral Longsword at endgame and is accessible by maxing out reputation with the Kurn faction. It comes with huge Cold & Frostburn bonuses, fully converts the Lightning Damage from Word of Pain/Agony into Cold Damage, causes Word of Pain to inflict Frostburn, and reduces the Cold resistance of enemies by another -8%. While it is a huge boon to this build, make sure you have other sources of Piercing->Cold conversion (see below) before replacing your Spectral Longsword with this dagger
-
Glacial Defender - the signature shield of this build, this guaranteed MI heavily buffs Rune of Hagarrad and gives it a second charge. The second charge actually does a lot, making it easier to use, smoother to use, giving it better burst damage, and making it easier to set up bigger traps for totems and bosses. Although the Diremane Horn is a tempting option for this build’s off-hand, the Glacial Defender gives us plenty of offense and the defensive utility of a shield while not requiring a large amount of Spirit investment
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Gargoyle Gaze - a farmable MI helm that heavily buffs Rune of Hagarrad. After you can hit the 20/12 Chillsurge breakpoint without one, replace your Malmouth faction helmet with one of these to buff your rune’s damage even further
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Magi Mantle - a farmable MI shoulder that gives us +3 Chillsurge, allowing us to meet the 20/12 Chillsurge breakpoint with just another +2 in Chillsurge elsewhere (typically from the Malmouth faction helmet, Shadeleather Leggings, or Mythical Shadeleather Leggings)
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Ugdenbog Waistguard - a farmable & guaranteed MI belt that provides +1 to all Inquisitor skills, similar to the Coven faction belt. Unlike that faction belt, this MI belt can roll with both a prefix and a suffix, giving it a much higher potential for stats and resistances (especially after you can reroll prefixes & suffixes endgame). In addition to farming one, you can also buy 1+ of them from the plant vendor inside the Ancient Grove
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Kurn Arcane Band - guaranteed rare rings from the Kurn faction at Honored reputation. If you have no luck with getting other rings as random drops, these are your go-to option as they boost your elemental damage, health, Aether Resistance, and provide +2 Vigor
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Living Ring - a farmable & guaranteed MI ring that provides +3 to Word of Agony, it becomes much more valuable after swapping your weapon to Anum’fol. While you can farm plant monsters to try and get one, the easiest way to acquire them is actually running the Ancient Grove; the plant vendor inside seems to be guaranteed to have 1+ of these available for purchase, and their prefix/suffix can be rerolled in the end game giving them great potential for stats and resistances
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Nightstalker Pendant - the best-in-slot legendary amulet for this build is also from a faction (Cult of Bysmiel), making it incredibly accessible. It provides good stats for this build, +1 to all skills in Inquisitor, and provides extra crit damage & Frostburn application for Rune of Hagarrad
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Prismatic Plume Crest - a farmable MI medal that is best-in-slot for this build. It has good stats, +3 Rune of Hagarrad, and provides Rune of Hagarrad with a unique +1 projectile bonus (improving its single-target and AoE damage even further)
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Vengeance - a craftable relic that is a straight upgrade to Vendetta for this build. Its blueprint is a random drop, so craft it as soon as you have & can use it (level 60+)
Best sources of Piercing->Cold Damage Conversion for this build
- Sword - Spectral Longsword (40-60%, adds +2 Rune of Hagarrad & Frostburn bonus)
- Chest - Mythical/Awakened Cortosian Chestguard (24-36%)
- Hands - Mythical Chilling Grip of Hagarrad (20-30%, adds +3 Biting Cold)
- Ring - Nightscorn (12-18%, adds +2 Biting Cold)
- Ring - Alkamos’ Touch of Anguish / Dread (12-18%)
- Ring - Mythical Dawnshard Band (6.67-10% for Cold, as it has 20-30% Piercing->Elemental conversion. Adds +2 Vigor and grants Dawnshard skill which reduces enemy damage dealt by 10%)
Note that 100% Piercing → Cold Damage Conversion isn’t necessary for the build to clear content in Ultimate (I’ve found 60%+ is sufficient, but more is better). My personal favorite mix is using the options for Chest, Hands, and one Mythical Dawnshard Band (for the extra survivability from +2 Vigor and the Dawnshard skill).
Potion Setup
Tonic of Mending & Elixir of Spirit
I’ve found the following potion setup works extremely well for this build.
Tonic of Mending:
- Flask (+2 uses, longer recharge)
- Sansochromatis (restores health over time)
- Ventorus (30 second movement speed buff)
Elixir of Spirit:
- Vial (+potion modifier potency)
- Menhirus (33-50% of current health gained as Damage Absorption)
- Navitochromatis (restores energy over time)
Tip - potion use this in the build pairs really well with Word of Renewal. Vigor will boost your max health, so Word of Renewal followed by a quick Tonic of Mending will buff your tankiness and speed without losing any constitution. When already buffed, Word of Renewal (to heal you) followed by a quick Elixir of Spirit will typically allow you to gain the full value of Menhirus, which can reach upwards of 10,000+ damage absorption at end game with this build.