Awesome new expansion news recently, I got quite a bit of inspiration from it, but there is still a while to go. I recently came back to Grim Dawn after a long break. I decided to delete all my old characters (most importantly a lvl 67 Occultist) to start something new. Some (probably weird) questions:
Are there viable fire-mage builds out there? (Probably with the Pyromancer mastery?) Same question for Lightning. Is a pure caster Shaman viable?
What would be a durable dual-wield guns build? I remember I enjoyed this style, but it remains very kitey. If I make one, it better be survivable and manouverable.
How much investment does the Hellhound need in order to be a somewhat viable skill? Hellfire seems like it would add quite a bit to any fire-based build? I really like its new design, back when I played it had the rifthound look.
Lastly, is there some viable Pet-build that doesn’t go into the Shaman mastery? I don’t really like any of the pets that that mastery offers, but the Occultist’s Familiar and Hellhound do appeal to me, thematics wise.
I’m eagerly awaiting the expansion, because a Necromancer is really all I need in this game. Even my old Occultist spent most of his time pretending to be one, using the Revenant of Og’napesh and the Haunt relic all the time(survivability and clearing speed be damned).
Added to that, I’ll probably finally make a Soldier once Inquisitor comes out, because that combo sounds quite thematic to me. Even though Soldier is highly viable as a primary/secondary mastery, it has always felt a bit boring to me, especially when taking it on a non-melee character. But I do love me that heavy armor.
I have a HC cold-lightning Druid oriented on a Trozan Sky Shard and Wind Devils. I don’t have all resists maxed (have even -bleeding and piercing around 0). Now it’s in a Homestead on Ultimate and feels good. Sometimes need a good timing for Mirror (mostly vs lot of ranged piercing attacks) and Nullification (yeah, bleed) and sometimes some kiting but overall very fun. Most shit dies to one cast of TSS. And your wind devils make damage till you kiting around Wendigo Totem.
I saw also nice Elementalists caster builds oriented on Stun Jacks but haven’t tried myself.
What would be a durable dual-wield guns build? I remember I enjoyed this style, but it remains very kitey. If I make one, it better be survivable and manouverable.
Still squishy still need kiting if you wanna have some good damage. Or you can simply go to the Tree of Life and pick some of Menhir Obelisk to feel yourself as a rock.
Lastly, is there some viable Pet-build that doesn’t go into the Shaman mastery? I don’t really like any of the pets that that mastery offers, but the Occultist’s Familiar and Hellhound do appeal to me, thematics wise.
I saw crazy Warlock summoner build. Dude invested heavily in a Hellhound and IEE transmuter for pet ele damage. Haven’t tried.
Thanks for the reply.
My old Occultist ended up going with Trozan’s Sky Shard too, because I looted so much +cold dmg gear. It certainly felt strong.
I’ve decided against going Arcanist as a second class specifically because Maiven’s Sphere of Protection looks too cheesy for me. Sometimes there are these little things that can turn me off of a class.
Perhaps a Shaman+Pyromancer with Stun Jacks could work! I wonder where I’d get my survivability from though, except for Blast Shield.
You mean Demolitionist i suppose as Pyromancer is a Demolitionist+Occultist. Check this out then.
Shamans have Wendigo which is huge boost to survivability. Also that build represents very defensive devotion setup compatible with almost any Lightning build.
It sounds like what you’re looking for is a dual guns build with good tankiness. This is a tough build but definitely possible and performs very well at the end game. Pyromancer is a great choice using fire strike and either exterminus or deviltongue pistols with the ulzuin’s set or the infernal knight’s set. Another option is to do a soldier build with dual deathdealer’s sidearms and the warborn set. Commando or witchblade make the most sense for that, but you could probably swing a blademaster or a battlemage with this setup as well.
Pets-wise, you basically either go all pets or no pets. Dabbling in pets can sort of work, but effective pets require that your gear grant pet bonuses which preclude player bonuses so it’s really either/or. Hellhound is an important exception because you can take 1 point in hellhound, set it to passive attitude, and then pump hellfire to max for another buff to player damage.
You are quite right. I’ve always liked the dual-wield guns type, fast moving high damage character. I just wish this game had some kind of blink or side-roll ability or whatever!
Options I’m thinking about, some of which are probably ridiculous:
Although, after closer inspection, there doesn’t seem to be a nice high-end poison revolver beyond either the Slime Bolter or the Plagueborne Revolver.
Other than dual-wield gun builds, I’ve been considering:
Chaos-based Witchblade using Chaos Strike (I love gapclosers in melee builds.) If I make this it would probably be a tanky character using a shield.
Poison-based dual-wield Nightblade. Now this is something that appeals to me, but I’m not sure if it compares very well to options such as Cold or Piercing Nightblades.
Lastly, I was considering an AAR Warlock, but I can’t stand Maiven’s Sphere of Protection, it looks too derpy. I want something I enjoy looking at! And I think going deep into Arcanist without Maiven’s is a bit of a sin, isn’t it?
You don’t necessarily need to invest a ton of points into the hellhound itself to be viable, but it’s hard to keep it alive outside of a pet-centric build. Hellfire is definitely one of the most useful pet abilities.
If you like the familiar and hellhound thematically, here are a couple of themed warlock pet builds:
Pretty interesting! I’ve been theorycrafting a bit, came up with a Lightning-based caster build. (I have quite a few lightning-legendaries for some reason…)
Curse of Frailty + Wind Devils to debuff movement and resistance, and tons of AoE. I wonder whether Mend Flesh adds enough sustain though, or whether I’m better off going for some Shaman aura.
At my experience mend Flesh is one of the most inconsistent heals in this game. Better place this points into Wendigo Totem, this is the real drug especially for melee builds. Once you try it, you are on it
Acid/Poison Witchhunter (Nightblade+Occultist) has a lot of support in terms of items, skills (strongest resist reduction through Curse+Night’s Chil aura) and devotions (Manticore comes naturally with additional RR and for full screen AOE you use Tainted Eruption from Abomination). Defenitely viable (and lot of fun) though could be a bit glass-cannon’ish, depending on a build. You can build it through poison alone and going hit&run tactics (with maxed Shadow Strike+Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends, lack AOE without Tainted Eruption so better for endgame) or invest into acid (Lethal Assault+Nidalla’s Hidden Hand+some dual wield procs, starts to be something at lvl 20+) and melt enemy faces standing in front of them (and run away screaming like a sissy if things gets tough).
The build concept I linked was “designed” to be a caster. Wind Devil, Lightning Storm(from relic), Storm Totem, and the Familiar’s lightning damage would, I thought, combine to make an interesting build, especially when I get some Ultos pieces.
Especially the synergy between Wind Devil and Curse of Frailty seems interesting to me. Do the slows and resist reductions stack?
Edit: and oh yeah, Mend Flesh really does seem kind of meh in testing. Blood of Dreeg or the Shaman-aura both seem better.
Ultos is more oriented for melee Savagery/Primal Strike, it doesn’t have any pet bonuses built in. Though you can skip Primal Strike transmuter making it “autoattack” and “cast” from a distance with a crossbow like Chosen Bolter changing it to Ulda’Jax and later Raka’Jax.
Curse of Frailty RR stack with all others (including Widow constellation). Wind Devil RR doesn’t stack with the same type RR (like Manticore’s or Rhowan’s Crown RR).
I’m not sure about stacking slow but it definetely stack with a slow from Grasping Vines.
Wind Devils, Storm Totem and Primal Strike all depends on your own bonuses while Familiar depends on Pet Bonuses. Usually this doesn’t ends well, you’ll end up with a useless raven or lack of damage on your own.
You can also try some badass trick with a conversion of Lightning to Chaos using Blood Orb of Ch’thon but I’m not sure if it viable. It can be worse than pure lightning.
Actually most synergy between Shaman and Occultist is in a Vitality Damage and Bleeding.
I just built some quicky (Devotion included), should be tanky enough: http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-PXyVzC
I was trying to make maximum use of all the lightning/electrocute epics that I’ve found so far. Yesterday I looted a Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth which buffs Primal Spirit (does it still look like a Manticore btw?). But it turns out to be really difficult to make it work.
I just love the idea of being a Lightning-based Caster with a raven flying around… maybe the expansion will make it work, because I remember one of the Misadventures showing an item modification which raised Storm familiar summon limits… 2+ ravens should be hilarious.
Most difficult part is to make a real hybrid caster/summoner as summoner items usually doesn’t have any bonuses for the caster and caster items lack pet bonuses. So you either dedicated full caster with some bonuses from pets or full summoner. You can try to raise your damage on Devotions and Skills and wear pet-based set (or the opposite), maybe it will work. Anyway you can always relearn skills if your build will suck (I did it to my trickster who was my 1st char and sucked hard cuz of full investment into Piercing damage and no synergy).
