Hello all,
I’m fairly new to Grim Dawn and loving it so far. I have built an acid dervish based on a guide form this forum. I was hoping that those with experience would help me optimize the build. I’m currently short on crafting supplies and thus am missing a component(s). I seem to die most often due to stun/freeze/etc. Curious if a kiasan amulet would be the way to go? anyway here’s the build so far. Any advice would be great! https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoax4E2
Hi, welcome to the forum! 
Kaisan is a good choice since Dervish require a lot of skill points and you missed a lot of important skills. You have some extra skill points on RF and Merciless Repertoire. You overlooked presence of virtiue buff, blade spirits and smite which are worth it for atleast one pointer.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZwoeEqZ Check this. You need to hardcap ABB and LA so I changed gloves and shoulder accordingly. Boots for slow resist and kaisan for skills/CC resists. Didn’t add any affixes on MI’s so you can fix the resistances with those easily.
Made some devotion and skill change aswell, didn’t touch augments since you can fix those accordingly your amulet and shoulder MI’s. I don’t think Revenant is better than Manticore here, I compensated the %6 lifestea loss with Restless Remains component on gloves. Plus get the last node of Yugol, %100 Acid damage shouldn’t be ignored.
Anyway you lost some attack speed but gained ton of a damage, gained health, physical resistance and some DA. Try to get Consecrated prefix on Shoulder, slow resist is important. You might think removed consecreated points cost some armor but you had more important skills to hardcap and most others are one-pointers.
Thank you for the input. I’ll start working on some of those changes. It also gives me an idea of what MIs to look for. Two questions:
Is shattered realms the best method to farm MIs or should I grind nemesis status and specifically target that monster?
Also, is raven devotion good for this build? I picked it following the guide. The spirit may be needed to equip 2nd weapon, but otherwise it provides a little energy regen which I don’t need and some OA. Are there better options?
You’re welcome
Yes, SR is the best way to farm nemesis MIs. Except Kaisan amulet, you need to target farm that nemesis to acquire that. But some other MIs, especially that can be acquired by one monster can be target farmable in main campaign. And also you can’t get some roguelike dungeon MIs from SR.
Best and fast way to farm SR is doing two shards then get reward like ultimate 65-66 and repeat. You can also farm SR in normal/veteran or elite to be faster and higher levels. Shattered Realm Loot Table Check here for efficiency.
Yes energy regen and spirit bonus is no big deal but you need OA and that 5 green affinity bonus. Other options cost you second node of ‘‘Ulzuin’s Torch’’ which provides %5 OA and %15 Chaos Resist. So you’ll lose %8 OA in total which is huge. But if you reach 2900ish OA or something with the MIs; then you can get ‘‘Scholar’s Light’’ + 1 Green Crossroads which grant you some elemental and aether resistances or ‘‘Fox’’ for extra %4 lifesteal.
So it depends on the amulet and shoulder rolls you’ll get. As I said slow resist is crucial and try to craft another serenity for different rolls; %attributes does not grant you much. Resistances or even stun/freeze resist would be much better.
Awesome thanks! Serenity is just random rolls right?
Yes, all relics’ crafting bonus are random.
These are the updates so far. https://www.grimtools.com/calc/xZyG6de2
I haven’t tested this, so I haven’t changed the devotions and the gloves component (yet). I plan to do so when I have more time. Thanks for all the input.
I seem to be 3-4 skill points short. I used the merit on this character so I thought I had all the skill points but I’ll have to do some digging.
You have extra 3 points in RF and another extra point in Merciless Repertoire so probably those are the ones you’re looking for. https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/quests/ultimate but if not check here to see if you overlooked something.
Other than shoulder all looks okay. Though I suggest you make devotion changes before farming for shoulder/better amulet since you gonna have to level it from the start.
I’ve finally had some time to test this build out. I’ve switched the devotion to manticore and started SR. WOW! What a difference. My first character struggled to do SR 50. I was able to do 55-56 no problem. Now I’ll have to unlock 60+. Thank you for all your help.
No problem, pleasure to help and glad you’re having fun. Good luck on 60th shard and more!