[Cold Caster] The Dreadweaver - Cold based Rune of Hagarrad/Bone Harvest Apostate

“… the scourging of this land… begins.”
~Kel’Thuzad, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

This build especially in terms of kill times turned out to be better than I had originally expected. Bosses get deleted fairly quickly. It was a surprise to be sure but a welcome one.

Grimtools-

Apostate - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1PlvM2

Video-

//youtu.be/g4vnY9u5Qrs

FAQ-

What can this build do?

Well, you delete stuff.

[spoiler]

*Screen is from the treasure room opened after killing Lokarr. It’s not the crucible[/spoiler]
In a lot of boss fights you would be left wondering if it was an end game boss or just some trashy hero. Of course we still have good and healthy challenges but most end game bosses die quickly.
For the challenging fights one needs to remember some tips about bosses like avoiding Gargabol’s fissure, luring Aleksandr under a roof and engaging lokarr kiting lokarr by making him run over your runes.

Are Alkamos Rings usable here?

Nope, you’ll need that extra DA for safety otherwise you’d be sent to the moon by even shit mobs (low armor).

Does this work with Reaper as well?

Definitely should work with Reaper. If you pick Phantasmal Blades instead of Shadow Strike then you will have a nice ADCtH source.

Why not use Speaker for the Dead?

Investing into spirit even for that Ill Omen RR mod is pointless since we have plenty of RR atm. You also loose out on plus skills and loose out on flat Cold damage mod for Bone Harvest

Why use Silver Sentinel set?

Both our main damage sources contain a lot of Pierce damage. So we use Silver Sentinel and Hagarrad’s Gloves for the Pierce to Cold conversion. Full Silver Sentinel Set also grants us valuable RR along with plus skills to Rune of Hagarrad.

What about the low OA?

Biting Cold’s DA shred takes care of it.

In Closing -

I loved this build as someone who enjoys the idea of playing a Cold based Necromancer I absolutely loved it. I ended up doing a video as this one is an absolute favorite of mine.

I hope you guys enjoy this build as much as I did.

(_Reserved)

(Reserved)

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Dem nukes. I bet those saying Apostate is the worst class will take back their words now.

Btw, why Ill omen instead of something like word of pain?

Video or riot!

I’ve always failed to understand the soldier part in this weapon (unless a new set makes sense of it) or what the advantage is over 2h cold harvest. I gues adding Haggarad evens things out nicely :slight_smile:

Chthon, cool build as always. :slight_smile:
BTW, did you test the build with Sigils of the Executioner set? We will sacrifice 10% RR and % DA bonus, but get additional flat cold damage, +30% piercing damage convertion to cold and nice proc.

Nope, Apostate has the shittiest support even now :stuck_out_tongue:

Ill Omen’s plague like template is something i find much more preferable over Word of Pain. Although the latter’s reduced health regen is pretty good

In about 15-20 minutes depending on the internet speed

The soldier part is for fanboys like me who want to role play as Arthas Menethil or Anub’arak or Kel’Thuzad outside the Warcraft :stuck_out_tongue:
Speaking of Arthas he used to be a Paladin, now I am on board the Paladin train :smiley:

That’s one of the things I forgot to mention. The DA loss is not worth it even the least bit. Heck I am contemplating switching to Vengeance over Ignaffar since we are made of paper in some fights

I see. Looks like Reaper can use these rings compensating DA loss by enemies OA reduction from VoS. BTW, I am not big fan of consumables, but for such “paper” builds I use Courageous Tincture in some hard fights.

It’s not made of glass so not needed. I have an aether cluster on my hotbar on all my builds when I am farming but boss fights generally aren’t hard. Well except for Lokarr and Gargabol

Cool Build as always!

I think you didn’t have any errors for embedding that video like I did with yours :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw Nice MQ kills :wink:

I’ve been eager to see this posted, since you had referenced it in my 2H cold apostate thread. I’ve been pretty happy with my character so far, but I have to admit that I’m tempted to consider switching over to your side of things. I’m mostly impressed with that weapon! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your thought process was that the additional damage and skill bonuses are so large, that there is no two hander or offhand that would compete, compared to dual wielding. Even to the point of partly (with pierce conversion the dire wolf crest does provide some assistance) having to sacrifice your medal spot to allow dual wielding?

And if you don’t mind me asking, what is your “highest damage dealt” statistic for this character? Just wondering how far behind the mark my character is :slight_smile:

Thanks for giving me food for thought/comparison!

Actually I went with Dual Wielding because for Apostate this is the best possible approach to make sure you have enough plus skills. The skill mods alone make the scepter BiS

If I were playing something like a Reaper then a 2h version (Alkamos’ Scythe) or 1h + Off Hand (Dreadweaver + Speaker for the dead) would be solid contenders

My highest dealt isn’t impressive tbh, it’s merely 230k. I was expecting more. Rune of Hagarrad being a shotgun skill and Bone Harvest being a fantastic nuke are the real reason for the kill speed

Thank you

Use this
[youtube] (Video ID) [/youtube

“tdeueWbTr3s” is the Video ID in this case

Is this build beginner friendly? I have played a few builds but never maxed them out and never completed AoM yet.

Well, that’s exactly what I was wondering. I was going 2H to try to get huge numbers on bone harvest. My highest damage right now though is only about 202,000. Granted, I just hit level 94, and haven’t really killed many bad guys with maximal gear… But if I can’t at least get above yours, then there’s no reason not to go for dual wielding. And that looks like further evidence that the plus skills from the scepters make even more difference than 2H damage

These are the only two Beginner friendly guides I have

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52683

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49754

My highest damage dealt is low imo but yes the plus skills specifically to Rune of Hagarrad are a big factor to our damage. Also there’s the skill mod to Bone Harvest

I hated arthas, such a weak brat. Was eeeasy for Ner’zhul. Shames Paladins Like Lothar or Uther. All else are fine.

Also want cold cadence

How do you dual wield without any DW skills? Which item/ skill enables this?

The medal Direwolf Crest allows me to dual wield.