[1.0.6.1] The Nightshade WH - Up to 1.2m damage in ~1.5 seconds (170 viable)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

GT (cheaper crucible set up): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoD51zN <-- This setup was used in the video.
GT (ptir-improved BiS set up): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKW8jQN
GT (main campaign): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbD9XEN
YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZl9AKMh2hQ&t=146s

Shoutout to veretragna and x1x1x1x2 for taking the time to give me feedback on this toon, and HUGE thanks to cryoo, heatwave, gshock, and ptir for tolerating all my failed WH build ideas. Sorry I’ve been MIA, guys!

Preface
With my summer vacation coming to an end, and with Compendium VIII under my care, my guides (should I continue to post them) will be kept extremely brief.

With that out of the way, I finally did it! I made an acid based WH capable of conquering 170!

Playstyle
Hardcore nuker:
> 26/16 Shadow strike: +100 acid dmg, 100% Cold/acid, & 30% pierce/acid conversion, 22/12 NJE
> 26/16 Ring of steel: +40% WD, +120 acid dmg, 100% pierce/acid conversion, 18 RR
> 26/16 ABB: -0.3s CDR, +0.5m AoE, +150 dmg, 100% cold/acid conversion

Also does non-trivial DoT with…
> 18/12 merciless repertoire
> Potent ravager’s breath
> Devotions
> 2300% Poison damage + 60% Duration

Problems
> Low HP, low resists overcap, low DA
> Crazy energy issues in main campaign (use alternate set up)

Solution to lack of defense
> Haunted steel
> Ghoul (Thanks for the suggestion x1x1x1x2!)

Gearing options
Basilisk mark is obviously needed. Use anything which fixes resists, HP, DA, stun resist, etc.

Viloth ring can be substituted with another widow’s sting.

BiS shoulders would most likely be GG-rolled zantarin’s shoulderguard.

More defensive shoulders - Titan pauldron’s.

Avyctes has also suggested venomancer’s raiment for better energy management.

Devotion pathing
Not going to do it out. If anyone is having some serious issues with it, please just reply to the OP. :slight_smile:

A word on crafting…
The 2 widow’s stings, venomblade helm, and the amulet can be crafted. Ideally, we’d want to go for physique bonuses to bolster our crappy DA and HP.

With some luck, you can get up to +16% physique, easily adding about 75-100 DA to the build.

Hope ya’ll liked it.

2

So it does work, and not bad at all.

I had something like this theorycrafted in GT for a while but eh, can’t level everything :frowning:

3

GDstash beckons… :stuck_out_tongue:

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And you didn’t get Zantarin shoulders. Looks like our friend spanks is doing more affordable builds now :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw wouldn’t RoS conduit be better?

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<3

Would it be?
RoS = 3s CD, ABB = 1.5s

So…in my head at least, the conduit would need to give RoS 140 flat acid damage for it to be on par with ABB’s 70 damage.

EDIT: I could be wrong though.

2nd EDIT: Just realized that by dropping manticore, the build can be made even more affordable by using a 2nd widow’s sting.

6

Yeah I forgot ABB has good cd.

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Gratz on the build =)
You should try Golemborn instead of Venomspine - the proc is good. Also Seal of blades or Olreon blood instead of Haunted steel.
I don’t think BoD is worth 16 points intro. you barely gain 32 flat acid ?

8

I like the fact that you used m which means milli, instead of M which means mega :wink:

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@ptir: Thanks ptir! BoD for OA, flat damage, and heal. Is that not worth it? As for haunted steel, I’ll get around to trying it out one day if I have the time, I just really like bloodthirster on such a squishy build.

Also, shoes are needed for 22/12 NJE. I suppose I could GDstash a nidalla’s outbreak for a +1 to NJE/night’s chill bonus, and swap the shoes out.

@ malawiglenn: :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: Added you into the credits section, ptir. How could I have forgotten about you? :rolleyes:

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It’s still OA and a good heal

Poor Nightfall needs some love in FG. Cheers :slight_smile:

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You think it’s worth sacrificing points on merciless repertoire for 1 point in nightfall?

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You can check OA spreadsheet to see the benefit of BoD. If you want to clear faster go for 2 sanctified bones instead of Oa stacking. Nightfall is useles for this builf
Also General prefix for rung is BiS.

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I’ll check it out. Thanks for the great advice as always, mate!

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Dont forget to add DA debuffs for calculation. You have nearly 3500 effective OA.

15

The icon made me laugh.

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No, was a general statement, even for frostburn builds, where nightfall was nerfed after 0.2

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It played a looooot smoother with those changes ptir. I’ve edited the OP.

Still though, I just feel uncomfortable giving up haunted steel…Is it really that bad?

18

Anton is known OA hater =)

You already have decent ADCtH and the damage reduction always helps a lot.
Glad to see Nightshade’s reach build, keep it up, man)

19

look good build :D… last night since i didnt like how devastation idea going on, i was toying something like this

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2g4MDgV - 7 mt area RoS :slight_smile: since devastation range is even 6

1 thing is, i never combine melee and dot in arpgs… so went in all direct acid dmg

20

I was actually thinking of doing a build like this too.

But unlike the korba set where you have +125% WD to RoS, and -1.5s CD, the venomblade set only has +60% WD.

Seems to me that taking a 2H weapons might give more damage. Haven’t quite done the math.

The DoT is nice because flat DoT damage gets multiplied by %WD. And IIRC, the DoT applied from these skills count as separate sources.

So with SS, RoS, ABB - you can stack up to 845% WD worth of DoT damage. Might be something to consider.

Even though it’s mostly a nuke build, I’m getting DoT ticks of ~90k - 100k unbuffed/unbannered.

P.S. Your advice to break away from 2x Mirror was the motivation I needed to try this build out. I figured if I was going to do a caster build with no mirror, I might as well do the squishiest, highest DPS motherfucker I can think of. :stuck_out_tongue: