[1.1.9.6 - 1.2.0.3] Doom Impending - Rahbinger Witchblade [sr+][vid]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hello! :slightly_smiling_face:

Are you ready for another strong Chaos build? Are you ready to spell doom on your enemies? If the answers are “yes”, then welcome. If “no”… Ah, nevermind :grin:. Take a seat and hear my story.

Rahbinger (or Harzin) is an old, powerful build archetype that utilizes two full sets at once - The Harbinger’s Message and Rah’Zin’s Torment. They are good by themselves, but together present an astonishing combination. Heavy-hitting Doom Bolt, great Touch of Chaos as a filler, tons of Chaos Damage and RR, amazing procs - everything you ever need for a great Chaos build. You can kite and take enemies from afar if needed, or just facetank most of the encounters. No wonder it got my attention :slightly_smiling_face:.

I decided to make Witchblade because it is one of my favorite classes in GD and to fully utilize Rah’Zin’s set mastery combination. Nightblade is not suitable for Rahbinger at all, leave Witch Hunters for DW Melee playstyle.

The results are pretty good. Build feels comfortable to play, with great damage and decent survivability. Even my sloppy gameplay did not spoil endgame beating :sweat_smile:.

Here it is.

1. Grimtools link.

Abomination + Dying God destructive combination, Hydra, Kraken, Ghoul - the most enjoyable Devotion tree is possible thanks to flat RR and DR from sets.

2. In-game character stats.
1.2.0.3_RW_general_stats
general stats, only passive buffs and Blood of Dreeg are active. Damage Per Second is for Touch of Chaos

1.2.0.3_RW_DB_breakdown
DB damage breakdown

1.2.0.3_RW_magic_stats
magic stats

1.2.0.3_RW_defense_stats
defense stats

3. Gear/Build explanation.
Rahbinger sets fill most of the equipment slots, not much variations left, mostly mandatory items :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:. Because it is an AA build with DB as a nuke, I tried to make WPS skill pool full to the brim (99% only unfortunately :roll_eyes:).

  1. Core items.
    Set 1. The Harbinger’s Message. Massive DB support (heavy nuke with in-built flat RR), great procs, CC/Damage circuit-breaker, +2 to Occultist on top. Amazing, just amazing :astonished:.
    Set 2. Rah’Zin’s Torment. Great Chaos set for Witchblades that boosts already upgraded Zolhan’s Technique skill, provides RR for CoF, an AA replacer with even more %RR and DR, racial Damage to Chthonics (beware Benn and Grava). What else do you want for great Chaos build, huh? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
  2. Mandatory items.
    Rings. Voidheart and Combustion Band. Do not ask me what they are for, just take them! :angry: Chaos RR and some Fire-to-Chaos conversion
    Relic. Plunderer’s Talisman. Nice WPS skill with high chance to passthrough, some Damage, Health, %Total Speed. Bonus can be any. Big thanks to @RektbyProtoss and his HC SSF Tactician video series for pointing out that those relics work with 2H Ranged weapons as well.
    Medal. Markovian’s Stratagem. Allows us to hardcap ZT and gives some %WD to Markovian’s Advantage, skillpoints on top. Other than that - nothing useful, proc does not exist.
    Boots. Voidwalker Footpads. I took them over Timewarped ones because of DA, Spirit (our Energy regen sometimes can be tough) and nice defensive proc. Overall good Boots slot.
  3. Can be changed.
    Pants. Solael-Sect Legguards. In-built lifesteal and %Freeze Res. Can be changed to some good-rolled Dreeg-Sect ones. Look for %Stun Res, % Chaos Damage and DA (optional).

Craft with %Slow Res (bonus is provided by FG blacksmith near Azaleon shrine) and Reduced Stun/Freeze Duration (bonus is provided by Malmouth blacksmith in Steelcap District). My helmet has %Slow res and chest %Freeze res (low value on my pants :laughing:).

About Resistance Reduction. Total amount is ~133% (-25% from modified CoF, -20% from Harbinger’s Mark proc, -10% from Voidheart ring proc, -8% from Combustion Band proc, -35% from Solael’s Witchblade devotion proc and flat 35 from modified DB) plus 20% from Touch of Chaos, so it can vary. For Chaos it is huge :slightly_smiling_face:. No problems so far with Nemeses and SR bosses (except my playstyle :grimacing:).

4. Gameplay.
Debuff everything with CoF, nuke fat targets or tight crowds with DB, shoot. Uptime BoD, Amatok’s Breath for battlefield movement. Pretty simple :slightly_smiling_face:. Position yourselves properly so that our ZT and Volley pierce as many enemies as possible in one line (AoE is not the strongest trait of this build). Sometimes you will need Energy potions.

5. Videos.
Mad Queen.

Kra’Vall (its followers can mess our targeting, deflects our shots nicely).

Lokarr.

Morgoneth.

SR 75 full.

Avatar of Mogdrogen (old video) (potions and some Fire+Lightning augment swap, shown in video. The boss is blind, his minions are sometimes annoying. No Aether Clusters, occasional healpots)

Ravager of Minds (potions are in the video, no Aether Clusters, occasional healpots, kiting. Annoying totems :neutral_face:).

Callagadra (potions are in the video, no Aether Clusters, occasional healpots, kiting).

Since the build is great at single-target damage and not so much in AoE, why not kill Crate itself? :thinking: (potions are in the video, one tactical Aether Cluster, occasional healpots)

Clones of Bourbon (potions are in the video (left after Crate fight), no Aether Clusters, one healpot. Clumsy attempts to shoot them in line :grin:).

Another amazing Chaos build, I like it :grinning:. What about you? Feel free to comment.

Hope to make more build topics in the future. For now, though, have fun and thanks for your support!

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My post, nothing personal :slightly_smiling_face:.

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A question to HC enjoyers from a casual SC fan. Since the build has 0 deaths (shown in Crate and Bourbon videos), can it be considered as “hardcore-viable”? :thinking:

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I would say yes (with moderate HC experience).

Maybe not beginner HC but HC should be definitely viable in my opinion.

Edit :
Great build ! Nice to see Chaos build capable of beating all endgame bosses ! Congrats

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I would love for this build to have a leveling guide I found it very interesting I’m a beginner in the game but I really liked it to try to go HC

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How far on sr can this build comfortably go? Looks awesome

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I was trying to theory craft a melee Rah’Zin Witchblade, never thought of going ranged. Makes sense tho as ZT got passthru. Good job on the build!

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Glad you liked it :slightly_smiling_face:. However, this is an endgame build and its core items must be 1. Obtained and 2. You need to reach lvl 94 to use them. Use the guide of @RektbyProtoss linked by @tqFan, that is a good starter Chaos build to farm dungeons/totems/low SR levels.

Get at least 4 items of Rah’Zin set and 3 of Harbinger, so you can transmute them into full sets after completing this quest. If you are lucky, blueprints can drop so that you can craft them.

Rest of the items are farmable (pants from mobs mentioned here, relic has two lower level versions - Gunslinger’s Talisman, blueprint buyable at the starter area, and Marauder’s Talisman, sold by Hyram after completing this quest) or drop randomly (in this case just fill empty slots with whatever you find valuable: items with Chaos damage, resistances etc).

Good luck!

I farm SR 75-76 only for loot (if the build is weak by my standards - 65-66). It can beat SR 80, but I only visit it once to unlock farming range. Not interested to go higher, there are no rewards except for bragging.

You can make early Chaos FW? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: Was it Physical maybe?

Melee Rah’Zin WB is also great (but I doubt it can beat Crate, or even Callagadra, the rest is manageable). Deceiver may be another option for Rahbinger because of RR and ranged support.

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Yes, Physical from the start, switch to Chaos after reaching Bastion of Chaos. Not recommending, just listed as a possibility.

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You mean Obsidian War Cleaver? It does not have in-built Physical-to-Chaos conversion, just some flat. Also, with Consecrated Blade modifier of Solael’s Witchfire, Chaos component and Void-Touched prefix you can get 78% maximum conversion. Up to 12% can be found on some Legendary amulets, but they drop randomly. Unless you get lucky Obsidian Juggernaut, this method is not as effective as usual Physical FW or melee Chaos, be it S&B or dual-wielding. Playing memes from the start can be fun though :sweat_smile:.

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Add conversion from Abomination to that and you complete the meme. Maybe you could vendor farm Obsidian War Cleaver for some good Chaos affixes.

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Yeah, forgot about that :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

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or using this guns to make some kind of ranged chaos dw Witchblade with Doom Bolt focus (who needs resist reduction …)

Witchblade, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator (not fine tuned at all, just as some kind of initial prove of concept)

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You won, that seems to be the most suitable leveling for this build. Also the weapon are accessible early.

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Pretty nice build. Just did sr 65-75 in ultimate to unlock the 75 checkpoint. Strong bosskiller. I haven’t tried it in crucible yet. Need to level up the devotions more. Does it matter which skill i link to the devotions? That make any difference?

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Main RR devotion is usually bound to your main attack skill to have better uptime. For this build - since you shoot most of the time, Eldritch Fire is bound to Touch of Chaos. Abominable Might synergizes well with Doom Bolt. And CoF is decent enough for Hungering Void. WPS skills are not great for devotion procs (except for Inquisitor’s Storm Spread) and Amatok’s Breath requires you, the ranged build, to charge in crowds/bosses. Even though 99% of the time Ranged = Melee in GD :grimacing:.

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Hi @Willnoword , I was wondering if you’d be kind enough upload a save file for this build. I don’t have a lot of time these days so it would be nice to see how the build is before assembling one myself.

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https://ufile.io/4wvdj441 i got a save file here.

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Thanks mate !