I was intrigued by the Ugdenbog Bilelauncher and decided to design a build around it. I’ve gotten a few characters to 100 SSF HC following guides on the forum, but this is my first real attempt at a homebrew build!
(Note: I play on Xbox and don’t know of a way to import directly, so I had to manually recreate and may have some mistakes particularly on prefix/suffixes.)
Overall the build plays pretty nicely so far. Early leveling was okay, using ABB and auto-attacks with Pusquill’s Tail and Rift Scourge Slicer, but of course really came online with the Bilelauncher.
Gameplay is fun! The pairing of curse of frailty to debuff then nuke with ranged ABB is quite satisfying. The ~1s cooldown makes for a nice rhythm, especially while running through campaign content. Bosses aren’t quite as smooth, but when you land a crit it has a huuuge impact. Survivability is also great, lots of stacking sources of both sustain and enemy debuffs.
Anyway, I’d love feedback on the build! Anything I should consider as I continue progression? A few things to call out:
I went back and forth a bunch on the devotions, before settling on the chosen path.
I’d pick up eternal curse, but it is 50% drop chance behind a skeleton key and long way to go. So I would not bother until level 94 with that.
Make sure to grab Solael’s witchfire for attack speed, I’d remove points from merciless repertoir for that etc. Like this Witch Hunter, Level 60 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
and try to get that weapon with attack speed affix, and gloves with attack speed too.
i don’t think i’d switch merciless there for witchfire speed , there’s no DAR, there’s no WPS/nothing to really super scale that slight speed bump, meanwhile Merciless is scaling “everything”
*not saying dont’ take PB/Solael “eventually”, just saying maybe don’t trade direct build dmg for little lesser used speed
(also get PB, and more points in Veil unless full close range facetanking)
@bernerd you’re using a pet augment on your weapon, when you see “bonus to all pet”/stats following that line it never applies to player, has to stand alone/before
build already has about +1900% acid damage. Loosing 100% of that to get 12.5% more attacks/second is worth it for me for the sheer feeling of not being stuck in attack animation for being able to react and kite quicker. I hate feeling like a slough xD Also increasing the radius of Veil of shadows would be a priority if playing ranged.
Similar with movement speed, even if I’d loose 10% dps for getting max movement speed it is worth it xD Especially if HC.
And it just a few iron bits, can be worth trying out. If OP does not like the extra attack speed, just put the points back easy peasy. I think most people are too afraid of respeccing skills in this game. No need to be optimized at level 60 anyway, and again it is just a few iron bits.
that’s my point
you gain 12.% blank shot attacks, but lose 7% total build dmg
meanwhile that tiny 15% speed also shouldn’t impact your kiting(not that i personally would want to) or being stuck in ABB or AA animation
It might however impact how you feel your survival and clear speed from now dealing less overall dmg or direct dmg. (less aoe/dot etc)
ye it wasn’t actually even an optimization consideration until after the fact, but just the good ol levelling consideration of “moar dakka simpler/better” MC/levelling probably one of those areas where just stacking direct/raw dmg is fine and not worrying about those finer % details (when it’s not a spam attacks skill)
aye, but from my experience without wps/dar those inbetween attacks are tiny, more so when we’re than lowering the cd of our CD attack
So for me it’s just the basic "max RR, max dmg/passive boosters"approach, because filler stuff is just going to have the smallest impact (if not extra scaled like DAR/WPS). Similar base style for most other CD skills when i level/direct dmg over speed if not speed scaled main skill
i don’t wanna have to attack thrice if i could kill it in two
edit. sry i’m having a brain derp, where are you getting 2000 from?
it’s 1825/1935, no? 1935 being the total dmg we have, 1825 being the dropdown
I’d say replace boots immediately. If you have scrap to spare, just craft some yellow boots, and hope for a skill bonus. Get pneumatic burst, it gives, speed, regen and OA. I would consider 1 pt witchfire and 12 points second rite, for the crit. I’d also consider elemental awakening, the frostburn damage should get converted on ABB hits.
Nights chill is doing nothing whatsoever without veil of shadow.
Devo wise, I’d drop turtle and raven and try to get hydra. Not sure how to get there exactly, maybe get lotus for yellow points. You can remove 1 point from Yugol(80% cold damage).
Thanks for all the great discussion and feedback! It’s way more than I had expected
In general, my plan is definitely to work on Veil and PB nodes next! From there I think the biggest question will be whether to introduce a filler or focus on buffs/debuffs and maximize ABB. I’m interested to see how play feels as I go and adapt.
@Gnomish_Inquisition great catch on the weapon augment, since there aren’t any low-level acid weapon augments I went for the first one that had all damage without noticing it was for pets. I’ll replace ASAP.
@Gnomish_Inquisition@GIJW Thanks for the discussion about default attacks and fillers. Default attacks are so small right now, like 5k per hit vs an ABB crit for 130k that I didn’t even really consider them. However, I was considering solael’s witch fire as one of my last skills–even just for the DA. With enough attack speed I could see the default attacks being interesting if I don’t go for a filler!
@tqFan I love that idea for scorpion on a move skill (and pet option). I’ll have to give it a try.
@MagpieMcGrawReally interesting observation about second rite, and I do have 33% vit conversion from chosen raiment. For the devotions, yeah, I explored a few options to try to fit hydra but wasn’t happy with any of them. I am definitely a devotion newbie though!
Oh, I forgot to call this out! I tested in game and it does indeed get fully converted to poison. I think that’s quite interesting as well, since I think DoT could go a long way as a filler
Looks like my advice about Yugol was wrong. The cold damage point is the first one so it can’t be removed. Oops. If you drop Turtle for Lotus, and Spider+Raven for Scorpion, you can then get Hydra. The important thing about Hydra is that it makes you run faster.
I think Second Rite gives 30% crit at super max level. That’s kind of a lot. Not sure if the build has points for this though. If you like crits, you should absolutely max out Blood of Dreeg and Pneumatic Burst. I would max those very early in leveling, because it’s really annoying when ABB misses and does nothing.
Is it though? With 3000 OA vs 2500 DA enemy that’s 5% more damage on average. Similar to 125% global damage if you already had 2500% Ok, I guess it’s not bad
, there’s no DAR, there’s no WPS/nothing to really super scale that slight speed bump, meanwhile Merciless is scaling “everything”
MC/levelling probably one of those areas where just stacking direct/raw dmg is fine and not worrying about those finer % details (when it’s not a spam attacks skill)
(though in this case ABB rate does not scale with attack speed)
(especially if you can find some more vit->acid conversion)