- [melee] [1.3.0.8] Lobão Sangrento (Ralfhskz)
- Damage: Pierce, bleeding
- Active Skills: feral claws, rip and tear, inquisitor seal, word of pain, bonechilling cry, rallying cry
Hello my friends! First of all, I hope you’re all doing great!
I’m going to share with you a brief leveling guide for a very interesting class that came with the release of the new DLC.
The Runekeeper is the combination of the Inquisitor + Berserker masteries, bringing together a lot of great synergies in terms of both damage and enemy resistance reduction.
The leveling process here was designed to take this character all the way from scratch to endgame, allowing you to quickly and dynamically farm your gear, blueprints, and whatever else you’re after, even with a very modest setup.
Speaking of a modest setup, I only used gear that can be farmed from specific monsters (Monster Infrequents, also known as MI’s), faction gear, and/or items that can be crafted at the Blacksmith.
As for the gameplay: if you prefer a more relaxed playstyle, you might want to skip this one 
. We have two buffs that need to be constantly activated (Word of Renewal and Rallying Cry), we deal heavy damage and debuff enemies with Word of Pain, protect ourselves inside the Inquisitor Seal, and tear our enemies to pieces with Feral Claws and Rip and Tear.
As for the leveling itself, it’s very fast-paced and exciting, since we’ll be focusing on Word of Pain early on. And don’t worry about the affixes on your MIs during this first stage of the leveling process.
Let’s get into the leveling guide:
I started this journey by choosing the Inquisitor mastery. During the first few levels, invest points into Word of Pain and the mastery bar until you unlock Word of Agony. From there, keep investing points into Word of Agony and the mastery bar until you reach Death Sentence. Put a few points into it as well.
Once you reach level 10, choose Berserker as your second mastery and start investing points into Werewolf.
Lvl 10-20 Runekeeper, Level 20 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
After restoring your first 6 shrines, invest one point into Order (Crossroads) and complete Assassin’s Blade. Attach its proc to Feral Claws for now. Keep investing points into Werewolf.
As soon as I defeated Warden Krieg, I headed straight into the Forgotten Gods expansion. You’ll need an item from the Cult of Dreeg, so side with them first.
The main reason we’re coming here this early is to farm the primary weapon we’ll be using, which will make the leveling process extremely fast and satisfying. You’ll want to farm Messenger’s Repeater
from Okaloth, the Messenger in the Pit of the Atonement, shortly after the Korvan City Riftgate.
If you’re lucky enough, you can farm the build’s medal from the gryphon enemies, they appear in various places throughout the DLC.
Once you’re done with the DLC, it’s time to head back to the vanilla campaign.
Lvl 20-30 Runekeeper, Level 30 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Back in the vanilla campaign, while making your way through Old Arkovia and Four Hills, you can already farm a Murderer’s Breastplate
and Murderer’s Epaulets from Cronley’s Gang members (I forgot farming the epaulets on early levels, but I recommend farming it sooner than I did).
The chest armor will be useful until around level 65, while we’ll be using the shoulder armor all the way into the endgame, so remember to keep farming upgraded versions as you level up.
Start investing points into the Berserker mastery bar, and begin putting points into Voracity. Also invest a few points into Battle Surge.
For devotions, complete Tortoise, remove the point from Order, then put one point into Primordial, Chaos, and Eldritch at the Crossroads. after that, complete Bat and bind its proc to Word of Pain.
Lvl 30-40 Runekeeper, Level 40 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Continue following your normal path through the vanilla campaign.
For your skill points, put 1 point into Amatok’s Pact and bring Bloodfrenzy to at least 10/10. Invest a few points into Ranged Expertise, and max out Werewolf.
For Devotions, complete Behemoth, then remove Bat. Complete Lizard and Hawk, then remove the points from Eldritch and Order in the Crossroads. After that, start investing points into Kraken.
Lvl 40-50 Runekeeper, Level 50 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
After defeating Loghorrean, once you reach Ugdenbog, there are two items we want to farm.
The first is the main amulet we’ll be using all the way up to the budget endgame version of this build: Sylvarria’s Root
Farm it from Sylvarria herself. She will be in the undergrowth, that can spawn in three different locations throughout Ugdenbog.
The other item is the Ugdenbog Waistguard. I made a quick stop at Ancient Grove to buy one from the most capitalist plant in all of Cairn — good old Vinelton 
After finishing the Ashes of Malmouth DLC, I moved on to complete the new Fangs of Asterkarn (FoA) DLC.
For Devotions, complete Kraken, then remove the points from Primordial and Chaos in the Crossroads. Remove Lizard, complete Lotus, then remove Hawk. After that, complete Empty Throne, Bard’s Harp, and finally Wolverine.
Lvl 50-60 Runekeeper, Level 60 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
At this level range, you’ll probably be starting Elite difficulty. First, check your resistances and your reputation with the factions. Make any necessary upgrades to your MIs and other pieces of gear.
Invest a few points into Deadly Aim. Then, start investing points into the Berserker mastery bar until you reach Bonechilling Cry. From there, alternate between putting 1 point into Bonechilling Cry and 1 point into the mastery bar until you reach the end of the mastery.
Bring Bonechilling Cry to 12/12, then start investing points into Bloodborne and Form of the Beast. If you want, you can also start putting a few points into Inquisitor Seal at this point.
For Devotions, put 1 point into Ascendant in the Crossroads, then complete Unknown Soldier and bind its proc to Feral Claws. After that, start investing points into Azrakaa.
Lvl 60-70 Runekeeper, Level 70 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Check your reputation status with the factions, and remember to buy the Writs from any factions you’ve already reached Honored reputation with.
I left Deadly Aim and Battle Surge at 12/12. Put 1 point into Word of Renewal, then start investing points into Vigor.
Once you reach respected status with the Kurn faction, don’t forget to buy the armor you’ll be using all the way up to level 94: the Kurn Earthen Chestguard.
To finish up the devotion setup: complete Azrakaa and bind its proc to Word of Pain. Put the remaining point into Assassin.
And don’t forget to keep upgrading your gear whenever necessary as you progress!
Lvl 70-80 Runekeeper, Level 80 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
From this level range onward, I’d say you should be wrapping up Elite and getting ready to move into Ultimate.
One tip: I grabbed the Elite version of the helmet we’ll be using in our budget endgame setup—the good old reliable Fettan Mask.
You can find breaking an urn right at the entrance to Maw of Ehnat, near the Korvan Sands Riftgate.
Lvl 80-90 Runekeeper, Level 90 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Once you reach level 90 and beyond, it’s time to start spending a few hours farming the gear for your budget endgame setup.
Remember when I mentioned the Cult of Dreeg earlier? Head back there and buy your pair of rings from their faction vendor. Since you’re already in FG, go ahead and grab the Ultimate version of your helmet as well.
Now—or later on—don’t forget to farm a decent version of your weapon. Ideally, look for affixes that provide Pierce Damage + Attack Speed. Prefixes such as Puncturing or Heart Piercing, and suffixes like of Alacrity, are good examples of what you should be looking for.
If you still haven’t dropped a level 94 Gryphon Eye, this cheap and efficient medal can easily fill the gap until you get one. You can buy it from The Black Legion faction vendor. Speaking of that vendor, I used these cheap and very useful boots throughout almost all of my endgame testing. My final planned upgrade for this slot is Mythical Windshear Greaves or crafting a Stoneplate Greaves.
Get a decent lvl94 piece of your shoulder armor on old arkovia/four hills area.
For your chest armor, use the Elite version of Kurn earthen chestguard, purchased from the Kurn faction vendor.
For pants, I used what I consider one of the best and most commonly used MIs in the game: the easy-to-farm Dreeg-Sect Legguards
If you manage to get affixes that provide Pierce Damage, that would be fantastic. But if RNG isn’t exactly on your side, just farm a version that covers the resistances you need and provides at least a decent OA bonus.
Suffixes such as of Attack and of Readiness are fairly common and very welcome here. 
.
For gloves, you have several options. You can use a very common drop such as Mythical Shadow’s Grasp, a rare or double-rare drop that provides some useful resistances and Attack Speed, or even craft Plagueguard Grips with affixes that benefit your damage while helping cover any resistance gaps. One last—and cheaper—option is to use Elite Rhowari Grips.
While you’re in Ugdenbog, take the opportunity to farm good level 94 versions of both your amulet and belt as well.
My build when I hit Lvl 100, after some hours of farming:
With this setup, you can already comfortably farm all kinds of Monster Totems, run Skeleton Key Dungeons, and take down the DLC bosses without much trouble.
You can even complete Shattered Realm Shards 26–27 and farm this range pretty quickly and consistently.
Here’s are a few videos showcasing the performance of this setup:
Pierce runekeeper X Rashalga
Pierce runekeeper X Kra’vall
Pierce runekeeper X Korvaak
Pierce runekeeper X Theodin Marcell
Pierce runekeeper X Beronath
Pierce runekeeper - Steps of torment run
Pierce runekeeper - Bastion of chaos run
Pierce runekeeper - Port Valbury run
Pierce runekeeper - Ancient Grove run
Pierce runekeeper - Tomb of the heretic run
Pierce runekeeper - SR26
After finishing the DLCs, I upgraded some of the components to give the build a slightly overall boost.
This is the final budget version of the build before making the full transition to the final endgame setup:
Runekeeper, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Well, now it’s time to move on to the final endgame version.
(almost all buffs active)
Runekeeper, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
For this character, I decided to use the Fenris set—almost the entire set, except for the weapon.
This is also where we’ll change our weapons. Initially, I thought about using a Mythical Sincarver in one hand and a Noctirn in the other, but in the end I decided to go with dual Mythical Sincarvers, and I was really happy with the results.
Changed the belt and leg armor to some better legendary options.
I also changed the rings. You can purchase the blueprint for one of them from the Noktukari faction in Elderveil.
Changed the medal too, if you didn’t dropped the mythical mark of kalastor or its blueprint yet, there’s no problem keeping your gryphon eye.
About the green craftable boots and gloves: I know these are very far from perfect affixes, but my iron bits literally ended while crafting a lot of those and I simply decided to use one that at least covered some important resistances.
I also made a few changes to the Devotion setup. Since we’re moving away from a 2H weapon, I removed Kraken and added Harvestman’s Scythe for some extra HP and an overall boost to survivability.
I also completed Blades of Nadaan for the additional Pierce damage and Attack Speed, further improving the build’s overall offensive performance.
This build can stand its ground for quite a while, even against some of the tougher Celestials like Callagadra. However, if you’re playing HC, don’t push your luck too far—know when it’s time to jump out of incoming damage and debuffs! 
You can improve even more this build by investing some time and effort farming the ascendant mode for soul echoes and fragments to get some nice ascended affixes, as you can see, this one didn’t used any ascended affix.
Here are some videos showcasing the build’s performance against a few Celestials:
Pierce runekeeper X Lokarr
Pierce runekeeper X Bourbon clones
Pierce runekeeper X Mogdrogen (used a stormshroud ointment)
Pierce runekeeper X Callagadra (used an HP regen potion)
Pierce runekeeper X Ravager of flesh
Well, after defeating those Celestials, I decided to try my luck against the new Mogdrogen rematch and… damn, got trolled by this mf again
This new fight is absolute madness—the kind of thing Crate designed specifically to make HC players lose their minds.
There he was, with about 9 million HP remaining. I was standing inside my Inquisitor Seal, at full HP, with none of his minions anywhere near me and… suddenly, he just walks right through me and…
BOOM! HERE’S YOUR ONE-SHOT! Now go to bed pissed off!
!
And so, my lobão sangrento (big bloody wolf) now rests in peace at Aurora Pinnacle. 
I guess that’s pretty much what you should expect when you decide to challenge a God twice while only having one chance to win… Hahaha.
To wrap things up, the build is really fun and strong overall, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Werewolf gameplay. If you’re playing SC please try the new mogdrogen and that nasty beaver fight for me and tell me he’s capable of beating the shit out of those bastards
Cheers, everyone! See you soon with some new stuff from the next patch! 
