Doesn’t have to be 1.5m for 2 Shards, so that’s fine; just didn’t know if you tried it or not - thanks!
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I don’t think this build is overpowered by any means, as the realistic road to obtain all the ascendant affixes legitimately for a NON-GDStasher is VERY long. And given the effort invested, the players should get adequately rewarded. The GDStash min-maxer perspective is too pigeonholed into the artificial endgame performance mindset. Artificial, because those who actually play the game (the vast majority) will never reach that endgame.
We have several very strong builds right now that can down celestial bosses in less than 10s, and all of them require hundreds if not thousands of hours grinding before you can reach that damage potential.
The game is finally getting its proper balance which doesn’t just look at the endgame benchmarks but accounts for the effort it takes to assemble a build.
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I’m a bit new to the game (coming back after many years) and I’m not understanding what Onslaught is used for. We get charges, but what are charges used on? Doesn’t look like word of pain uses them.
Thank you for this guide, this will add to my to do list later haha
I have the same opinion as you, but we both know that these kinds of builds will be hit by the nerf hammer. The problem is always, legit players get hurt because by the time you have that thing online, it will be nerfed already, while GDstashers will hop on the next great build in a matter of hour and they will have fun again.
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Its an auto attack build, not a Onslaught+x build. Onslaught is a great DAR too
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Yes this build really rewards effort put into the game, it has such great power progression with each piece of upgrade. I do hope Crate sees this and dont spoil this build. In fact they should work towards having such great power progression in more builds.
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This build took me <15 hours to reach level 100. Farming out this build from a level 100 character to what you see now will not take triple digit hours. This build also don’t have a ridiculous amount of ascended affixes, its not every possible slot with storm spread.
I’m very aware some fantasy builds get posted, but what I linked is not one of them. The only tedious parts would be the rings, but -rr pierce provide very similar results, hence why I linked 3 different versions. Also, on the version that has 0 reliance on ascended affixes, still cleared Ravager in <20 seconds, and still melts through content from extremely high single target damage. Its not ascended affixes, its the weapon.
What makes setups like these is that its extremely flexible. My “best in slot” items are crafted. You can mix and match different rolls and ascended affixes as long as the end result is similar, you don’t need a 1 to 1 copy replica.
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I’m aware of the effort it takes to assemble your gear. But I’m also predicting the absolute minmax GDStash setup that does much more damage and will definitely prompt “adjustments” across the board. I have all the speed run gear and was able to create a stronger version due to strong farming builds FOA ready in less 40 hours. But to an average GD player, reaching my stats takes 10 times longer at least. And the problem is the people in charge of using the editor to tweak the numbers don’t actually play the game. So, as always, we can expect a nerf across the board, killing most of these rta builds instantly, regardless of how hard they are to make.
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100% mate, sad but true. On the flip side, we aren’t forced to play the nerfed version. I’ve been using two methods in my 10 years and 20k hours of Grim Dawn:
Method 1: Block my game from auto-updating. You can do it both for GOG and Steam versions.
Method 2: Use the very same editor which is shipped with the game files and change those settings back or tweak the balance the way YOU see fit.
After all, we didn’t buy a beta version of the game. We paid for a final product, so from my point of view, we can draw the line wherever we want. Just saying, this is basically a single player game, so it’s your choice how to play and what balance to accept.
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The Japanese version which I saw on YT that had 100% stormspread proc chance is much more fantasy. This weapon will very likely see nerfs, however the specs I linked at least are very much realistic to obtain
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Yes, that version would require a few hundred hours of efficient farming. I agree, yours is very realistic to obtain and further optimizations are possible without fantasy rolls at all. But I wonder if your build will ever make to top 20 given a somewhat lackluster AOE.
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Thank you for the guide! It’s been real fun to play this build.
Quick question on the rings - I’ve got two Cutthroat Cronley’s signet rings, can I use these instead of the crafted ones? I’m assuming these MIs will be able to get the ascended affixes as well.
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Yes, that is perfectly fine. Aim for “of landslides” as well.
The reason we do crafted rings is because they give 5% weapon damage, MI’s and above only give 5% proc chance. 5% weapon damage x 10 shots or 50% weapon damage, it’ll be usable but its recommended to get crafted rings if possible instead
I was using Silverbolt and it looked like I was doing more damage on paper; is there something super special about the boltthrowers or how they operate? I may have missed it in the intro…
They add 2 projectiles and 20% chance to use your storm spread. Because of how ranged two-handed weapons work, that 4+2=6 projectiles actually turns into 12 instead of 8. The exact math is outside of scope here.
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Ah, thanks, that makes sense. So you essentially have to “shotgun” everyone from close range for maximum effectiveness, then.
Been leveling this build and feeling good so far. About SR, how far you have pushed with this build?
I always wondered this. Is it not +2 at the end for 10?
To my knowledge, the “doubling” happens after it adds +2. Can always use DPYes or other tools to test.