Hello everyone, today I would like to share a slightly non-standard and not obvious build based on the Shaman and Berserk class (and this is my first build on a new class), which was assembled in an attempt to find a balance between damage and protection for a fairly reliable hardcore game (including softcore) with high survivability and not bad damage. The idea came by accident when I was looking for things in the inventory and found an old Awakened Ravna’s Guard, which after being elevated to legendary became the basis of this build.
G e a r S e t u p
Grim Tools [Main Setup]
Grim Tools [Legendary Setup Only]
V i d e o
Ravager of Souls [2m]
Wolf of Mogdrogen [3m]
Callagadra [1.5m]
Beronath [2m]
Nerfatal [7m]
Crate [20s]
Crucible 180-200
SR 37 Boss Room
A b o u t B u i l d
Among the advantages of the gameplay, high stability on the main content, a good supply of health regeneration and high resistances, including physical resistance, good AOE and a large pool of resistors, bleeding damage that allows you not to stay in battle for a long time, but only to make a few casts. Essentially, this is a caster build for medium and short range bleeding with high protection. All defensive layers bounded to lowering health on 50% at the most of highest pressure of damage and Sunders where Untamed Rage buffs other defensive mechanics giving a breath stability (it compensates lack of shield mastery) - this gives good advantage like to facetank Ravager of Souls with his Sunder-Spirits and keep it somehow stable.
Of the minuses, since there is no direct damage as such, the main damage is only through dots - which makes the final result of the battle according to the speed of dot ticks - not the highest indicators of speed in the battle, rather average. Shield itself due to both classes that aware from shield mechanic’s is a secondary defence layer, not the prior one. High demands on the quality of items that require a certain amount of resources for crafting and obtaining high values of additional flat damage from bleeding, physical resistances, and health and regeneration bonuses and to few important affixes or suffixes (to roll).
The build is quite easily assembled on legendary items, which is not much inferior to the rarer green versions of the items, but still, I would say globally the option with MY is better. Leveling will also be in the text below, I pumped the character from level 1 to 85+ on streams directly playing from the start of this assembly on those items that fell from the floor on hardcore - which showed a fairly good stability of the game as a whole (even with the transition to Hardcore Ultimate from level 58), but it was somewhat slowed down in the set level due to the nuances that I will explain below.
G e a r
Scion of Crimson Wakes axe is the best pair for Ravna’s Guard Shield as it gives a synergy of bleeding damage as well and makes possible to use Berserker devotion. Mark of Dreeg is used to get flat RR as well as Haunted Steel component used to boost both bleed damage and lifesteal. The belt is crafted with a Physique bonus to free up a number of points for Cunning. Since I’m going through the basic setup here and using MI’s items, it’s also important to get at least one affix on boots or shoulder pads: an eagle, a boar, or a wolf - which will allow you to free up even more attributes to increase the value of Cunning. The choice of a belt, two rings and an amulet creates a general synergy and plays around the passive regeneration of both Mogdrogen’s Pact skill and Devotions and the items themselves - which creates a very strong synergy. For even greater strengthening of the mechanics of regeneration affixes for rings is better to get of Natures Bounty. For boots, it is not bad to get resists and a high physical resistance, as well as affixes or suffixes that give bonuses to slow resistance. One of the key items here is Nyrlathon’s Gaze, which plays the role of strengthening resistors and a larger set of skills, the sum of your suffixes and affixes should keep the level of OA, DA and resisted in a fairly high zone, here I do not give universal advice, I just put on a helmet that fell from a monster and in my opinion the affixes and suffixes here are quite good, but I think you can find a better option. As an alternative to the helmet, you can take the Ravager’s Dreadgaze, but the passive RR is better than the active button in my opinion. MI’s medal is perhaps the most difficult craft, because the availability of a good suffix “Spiritualist’s” with +2 to Bonechilling Cry and additional 3 Onslaught stacks, give a pretty good damage boost.
Required ascendancy list for items: +40 OA [4 items], +12% Armor [1 item], +2% Max Aether Resist [1 Jewerly], +3% Physical Resist [2 or 3 Jewerly], 5-4% Crit Damage [2 item], Amatoks Pact chance to refresh Battle Surge [2 item].
G a m e p l a y
Use (RR) Devouring Swarm few times on enemies from range, use Bloodthirster skill (to boost bleed), use Rip and Tear to pass through enemies with added to skill (Rend devotion proc) that will reduce resistances a lot, use few seconds melee Claws attack to get 3 Onslaught stacks and Bonechilling Cry, and last Leap Skill to spread tons of bleeding around (that will release 3 onslaught stacks) - skill rotation. directly affects the degree of the dot effect, it is enough to use the entire series 1-2 times to hang on the enemy for a long time dot from 400 to 900k and you can leave the battle if you are not comfortable, and wait until the death of the enemy. It is important to monitor the work of your defensive mechanics on hardcore, especially Unstoppable Rage, which essentially works as a defense in extreme situations. The build is very durable and forgives mistakes in battle, it closes the main content quite confidently, but requires a little attention to the rotation of skills and mobility on the battlefield. Yes, he can quite stably go through super bosses at the Ascension difficulty level, and even withstand a direct blast from Zantarin’s vitality shotgun, but he still prefers to avoid prolonged or direct contact with sunders from Callagadra (although the build can forgive a couple of mistakes), and he is definitely not the best choice for a fight with Crate of Entertainment or Nerfatal. There is a separate conversation with the last boss, accidentally falling under two water waves is always a roulette, there are no guarantees of complete success, for these purposes, shooters or pet build are better than this build. And actually I felt weirdo with Nerfatal as he just began to spam on me only water waves attacks, dammit I never go there again on HC… The rest of the bosses are quite easy or average.
D e v o t i o n s
Conventionally, the constellations play three main roles here, support for defensive mechanics, health regeneration, high resistances and a set of a large pool of health, and support for flat damage with bleeding, as well as resistors. Surprisingly, the constellations and items themselves complement each other perfectly in this regard, and the number of constellations is, in principle, quite standard for different bleed damage builds.
F l a s k s
Chromatorum modifier makes health potions over time and that gives good synergy with a passive over time health regeneration overall and fits nice to this build, Menhirus also gives large shield due to fact that this build can have 34-38k HP and from that 33% is quite nice extra layer. Geliodis is also important modifier due to fact that build not covers perfectly Freeze, Slow, Petrify, Trap - resistances, it can truly be useful in critical moments when you immobilized, for same reasons sometimes I’m using Hoarfrost Ointment. Terrobullum can compensate shield mastery as well, Sanso and Draculus less useful alternatives as build already has lots of lifesteal.
L e v e l i n g
LVL 20: Primalist, Level 20 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
LVL 40: Primalist, Level 40 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
LVL 65: Primalist, Level 65 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
LVL 86: Primalist, Level 86 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
LVL 90: Primalist, Level 90 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I started leveling from the first level with access to the general stash and components, so it made it easier for me to level on hardcore in general, mainly only the things that fell from the floor, no Lokarr set, a simple and straightforward leveling game and playing from the concept of a build from the very beginning. Passing was quite stable, I used Merit on a new character and played normal until level 58, then switched to Ultimate. After the transition, I pay attention to my resists, keeping the balance, adjusting them accordingly to the campaign fragment and the types of damage inflicted by the monsters. The walkthrough is on Streams if someone needs to get certain details. Until level 65, the focus was essentially on defensive and attacking skills, between level 60 and 70 I was a little late with adding the second RR, which caused a slight slowdown in walkthrough, especially in battles with undead spirits (spirits do not bleed : ) after level 70, I began to actively increase the scale of attributes to select an exclusive skill. Temporarily took Primal Bond as it provided more protection, but eventually switched to Beast Form and Bloodborn in the final setup.