A hardcore SSF challenge: AAR aether spellbinder, AAR chaos mage hunter, or vit/cold DW melee reaper

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

I’m intrigued by three possible hardcore SSF builds to play through AoM with the aim of reaching level 100. I’m comfortable with all aspects of the builds I’ve been able to put together except for itemization, which I usually find to be the biggest challenge. I’ll need to rely on crafts, faction gear, MIs and RNG to put together each of these builds.

The builds I’m looking to choose between are as follows:

Aether-based AAR: Key active skills include AAR, ill omen, mark of torment, siphon souls, plus spectral binding, harbinger of souls or master of death, mirror, maxed maiven’s, and the other usual suspects (inner sight, mental alacrity, etc)

Chaos-based AAR: Arcanist skills the same as above, except only one hard point in mental alacrity and select chaos transmuter for AAR, Inquisitor skills include aura of conviction, word of renewal / pain, maxed inquisitor seal and arcane empowerment, and a point in Horn of Gandarr for celestial proc / CC / indirect reference to Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Cold / vit DW melee reaper: It’s pretty much what you would expect, with Execution, Reaping strike, and Necrotic edge supported with various flat damage adders. Harbinger of souls will provide a foundation for strong sustain, for this build. Bone harvest is a key means for attaining wide AOE, while soul harvest further buffs damage.

For the reaper, I’m not certain whether SSF favors supporting both cold and vit damage, vit damage alone, or cold damage alone; that’s an itemization question for which I don’t know the answer. And, I’m a bit lost for how to do SSF AAR in general, as I’ve always hit a wall in late elite hardcore with both aether-based and chaos-based SSF AAR in the past because energy management and/or defenses just don’t seem to want to come together well.

2

I would say Aether-based AAR would be your best bet for SSF. You’ll need Devastation and maybe CT to pump out reasonable dps as AAR is something of a dumpster fire atm, so unless you get a way to convert Devastation/CT’s damage to chaos a chaos-based AAR would likely not work out well.

For reaper, I’d say either way you’d have squishiness issues more than anything. The only tanky Nightblade builds I recall use fairly specific stuff.

3

for Aether AAR, you can go with Necromancer and use Siphon Life transmuted to Aether to heal, and do some damage. You can also use Ill Omen and pets to proc offensive devotion abilities, which is super useful. They include an Aether and health buff, and Aether and fire resist debuff retaliation. I’m personally using ill omen with twin fangs as a source of healing. It fires off more than 1 time a second in crowds.

4

Aether-based AAR: Key active skills include AAR, ill omen, mark of torment, siphon souls, plus spectral binding, harbinger of souls or master of death, mirror, maxed maiven’s, and the other usual suspects (inner sight, mental alacrity, etc)

Probably the easiest on HC. Keep aar as onepointer till you have the gear, use Devastation+Siphon souls+transmuted CT combo . MSoP + Decay should keep you alive. Use haut relic to maximise sustain from siphon souls.

Chaos-based AAR: Arcanist skills the same as above, except only one hard point in mental alacrity and select chaos transmuter for AAR, Inquisitor skills include aura of conviction, word of renewal / pain, maxed inquisitor seal and arcane empowerment, and a point in Horn of Gandarr for celestial proc / CC / indirect reference to Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Dont do it m8te, just dont.

Cold / vit DW melee reaper: It’s pretty much what you would expect, with Execution, Reaping strike, and Necrotic edge supported with various flat damage adders. Harbinger of souls will provide a foundation for strong sustain, for this build. Bone harvest is a key means for attaining wide AOE, while soul harvest further buffs damage.

Forget about vit, go cold SS+RS =)

5

+1 pretty much. I think reaper is very doable on hc just can’t play like a nutjob even if it’s a lot of fun. Even with safe setup damage will still be fine

Just ignore the vitality aspect of reaper it’s entirely worthless. Cold all the way or acid all the way if you’ve got the all the needed conversion goodies

6

Thank you all for your replies.

On reflection, I agree that the chaos-based AAR mage hunter would have been challenging. Instead, I ended up deciding on an aether-based AAR mage hunter. I’ll add in devastation and put a point in CT + the transmuter, partially for damage and partially for CC, as per suggestions given here.

Aetherwitch of Mamouth (AoM) started her adventures this morning. So, she’s still just a wee nub of an aetherwitch, temporarily relying on Word of Pain and fireblast to make her way forward. I’ll begin using use the aether / vit damage skill provided by the specter relic after she can equip it, which will take four more levels. She’ll transition to also using AAR when she’s ready.

The reaper build also sounds viable and I’ll probably try it out after I’ve finished up adventuring with AoM.