– I am the chosen one…, – you, lying on your sofa with a wireless mouse in one hand and a bag of chips in another, while playing this build
Infiltrator is one of the few melee-friendly classes. 
It’s probably not as versatile from the beginner’s stand point as Blademaster. But it’s a little stronger in it’s best version and it certainly deserves to have a strong build for beginners (same goes to one of two best dmg types for melee - cold 
).
The majority of the builds posted on the forum are meant for experienced players with all the items in the game. 
But it’s a fast-paced world we are living in, people come and go. Not everyone is ready to soak hundreds of hours into the farming (or to get into 3rd party tools and obtain the items “illegally”).
Now, i will not get into the details of early levels gameplay and reputation farming too much simply because i don’t have enough experience in that. I’m sure you’ll find other, more generic guides on the forum. What i personally know is what makes the build work in endgame so i’ll focus on that.
What do you need for this build:
- General grasp on game mechanics
and some knowledge about bosses: their resistances and the most deady attacks. Highly recommend this thread: 🤯 malawiglenn’s guide on game mechanics for beginners Also make sure to study bosses in “Monster Database” tab on grimtools.com
- Appropriate level of faction reputation to get the required items and augments
- One hand
or it’s equivalent to you (the build is friendly to people with disabilities)
The Build
dps is in Shadow Strike
The concept is as simple as it can get: you invest into Shadow Strike (SS) line, get two Loxmere’s Frostblades with any affixes and use SS as an autoattack replacer effectively reducing the number of buttons needed for gameplay to a minimum while maintaining one of the highest mobility values in the game.
By minimum i meant literally minimum, two active buttons: [left click] for SS and [right click] for your movement rune.
Both healing abilities are long duration buffs and can be bound to other mouse buttons or even be pressed at the toolbar. 
Gear-wise the endpoint of this build looks like this: [1.1.5.1-1.1.5.2] MORGO (sr+) (Crucible Champ)
That build doesn’t rely on fantasy items. Morgoneth’s set is target-farmable as well as Loxmere’s daggers and Gargoyle’s belt. The set, the daggers and the belt with decent rolls alone will net you one of the strongest builds in the game even if you don’t have other non-faction gear. How about that!
Gear
We need:
- Two Loxmere’s Frostblades. The hero who drops them can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t0qj0De6pw - Trusty Fettan Mask found in the chest in the hidden area to the right of Korvan Sands rift.
- 2 faction rings and faction chest to your liking and faction shoulders from Barrowholm
- Legendary craftable faction amulet and medal from Cult of Bysmiel
- Craftable gloves, boots and Nightblade’s belt (but easily farmable Gargoyle’s belt with good rolls is better). Look for stun res on boots and attack speed on gloves
- Any relic with +1 to Nighblade
- Any piece of gear with +X to Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends. Best choice here is blue pants but if you don’t have any epic/legendary item to cap NJE, farm yourself a Basilisk Mark. It’s a common drop in Ugdenbog
- The best damaging rush-type rune you can craft
Best augments for weapons and jewelry are sold at Cult of Bysmiel and Malmouth Resistance, same goes for items.
Revered status with these two factions is mandatory, luckily it’s a very easy farm: Cult’s rep is farmed naturally by farming, for instance, Tomb of the Eldritch Sun; Malmouth has a daily quest with a relic craft which gives net zero on valuable materials, basically reputation in exchange for money (aka corruption).
Barrowholm rep is not as easy to farm. But you can replace the shoulders with easily farmable Ascendant Shoulderguards for +3 to SS.
All the items in the build are bare minimum, you’ll have some better replacements for sure. I suggest to farm yourself Morgoneth’s set right away and use this base as a starting point for the build.
+% attack speed affixes on Loxmere’s daggers will help a lot too but don’t spend too much farming them. Daggers have a lot of affixes.
Skill and devotion progression
Inquisitor’s Seal is not used in the final setup but it’ll help you get through all steps of campaign and leveling (needs another button though). Combination of Veil of Shadows and Aura of Censure produces a very strong aura with 60%+ resistance reduction and 15%+ damage reduction to all the surrounding enemies.
For early levels i suggest to cap the Seal, both auras and Word of Renewal 
line. Use SS as your autoattack right from the start and make sure to get the rush rune from Conclave of the Three as soon as possible.
With these two movement abilities you will be able to relocate yourself quickly to get out of any trouble.
For devotion i suggest to take Amatok 
and constellations with “attack damage converted to health” 
stats first. Blizzard is a very powerful proc. Bound to Blade Spirits it will munch your opponents even when you are running away from them.
If you find yourself struggling with survivability it might be due to low armor and phys res. You can bump phys res by 7% using Dual Blades. Sacrifice some points in Merciless Repertoire. You can also max out Vigor for more health.
All in all, it’s a gimp to the build to not take Ring of Steel or Lethal Assault. Both of them will improve the survivability and overall performance significantly thanks to fumble and more flat damage to leech off of. But they require two additional buttons so it’s up to you.
Performance
As advertised, here is gameplay with one hand. Crucible 151-170 was used as a stress test to ensure farming capabilities for 101-150.
Crucible 151-170, under 7 minutes with 4 buffs and 3 storm beacons:
Shattered Realm 65-66 with bad mutators:
As you can see in 66’s bossroom, Fabius can be a trouble if you have -15% health mutator.
All the content from the main campaign is easier than Crucible 151-170 and SR 65-66 and will be joyful experience.
I hope this helped some folks to get into melee in Grim Dawn. Feel free to ask any questions about the present build or it’s possible upgrades.
Cheers! 
I am not that keen on testing it in every aspect and fine tuning them and grinding SR and cruci. I am more of a build collector rather than perfector (is that even a word?)
