Advice on 2H Forcewave devotions

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hey, I’ve been prowling the forums quietly for a while, and been playing GD on and off since it’s release. When AoM hit a jumped back in and wanted to try a new class - Long story short i ended up stumbling upon Forcewave tactician (i thought it was so original till i got back on the forums and realized there were tons of forcewave builds out, haha).

Anyways, on to my question - I’ve been playing this character a while, still looking for a lot of the end game pieces but it functions well enough already. My problem is i keep getting caught up trying to figure out which devotion path to take. I have 3 options laid out so far and was hoping to get some input on them. The only things i feel are absolutely required in all 3 is assassin’s mark (for RR), and Harp (for slow res, DA/OA, and of course the energy management it brings to the table. it feels required), kraken’s 15% crit damage is pretty stellar for only 2 points too.

Option 1:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlk1Xo2

This one is (in my opinion) the most basic. Taking Oleron, and trying desperately to find any casting speed available (hence the extra points thrown in spider). It still ends up lacking at only 169%, though it has more %physical and the oleron proc works great on seal. It also has noticeably less life steal than the other options, but still manageable.

Option 2:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDWwaQV

This one is inspired by MortalKombat’s Witchblade variation in that it takes dying god for crit damage, and total speed. Overall that side of the tree (oddly enough considering it being a physical build) has more useful stats. I reach 106% crit damage and 186% casting speed with dying god proc up, at the expense of slightly less OA and DA, and having to take giant’s blood (which i find less reliable, but need the health regen to support dying god) instead of chariot. I’m using this right now and it FEELS a little faster farming BoC (that’s all i’ve been doing as i was looking for world eater for a firewave commando) but doesn’t feel as tanky, despite having more life steal, and may not be much of an actual dps increase.

Option 3:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V0w7YR2

This is the weird one… It feels like an interesting middle ground at 86% crit damage, same 18% life steal as dying god option, and manages a consistent 181% cast speed as opposed to the dying gods less consistent 186% plus i get to keep chariot over giant’s blood. It ends up with less DA but more OA than option 1. It utilizes the conversion on octavius set + 1 bladetwister signet (same gear as other options but more prevalent here) to convert 95% of meteor’s damage to physical/Piercing. This is the only one i haven’t tested yet because i don’t have all the gear needed for the conversion so it would automatically feel lackluster by comparison.

Sorry if this is long winded. Hopefully y’all can give me some interesting insight or advice on perfecting the devotion path. Thanks in advance everyone!

2

I prefer 3, mostly because your OA is suffering in the other 2.

Here is what I did with mine which would give even more OA. It’s mostly a copy from MortalCombat’s Witchblade build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2MEaRb2

3

You checked with the deadly aim buff up, yeah? it reaches 3k+ in all 3 with it up. It’s actually the worst at 3089 with procs up in the dying god set up, which is ironic given it’s immense crit damage. Do you think that’s that too low?

I’ll check your devotion path. Thanks for responding.

4

Hmmm. I like your use of aura of conviction. especially since i forgo a good chunk of internal trauma damage, and flat OA may benefit me more than the %OA on oleron’s rage… and that phys res!

Crap… now i got a new decision to make as well. Hahaha.

Edit: Checked real quick, everything else the same i end up with a tiny bit less OA after that change. The added phys res may be worth it though.

5

The problem with Deadly Aim is that you need to Crit in order for it to proc. If you can’t crit to get it going, it doesn’t matter much. And it can only be up half the time. The cool down doesn’t start until after it wears off.

6

Say what?! I thought it had 100% up time if i continually crit. Thats a bummer. I didn’t notice other cooldowns having that behavior. Am i just daft?

7

There are not a lot that behave that way, but Deadly Aim is one of them. You’ll see after it wears off, a recharge icon shows up with your buffs. There are a number of devotions which do similar things.

I just noticed that Arcane Will does the same thing.

8

Thanks for the info, and the link to your build for reference. I stuck some mythical barbaros on my guy - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GPKrnV -Which is actually what i’m wearing in game right now and also wouldn’t require any other gear changes since the resists on arcane harmony leggings is just overcapping me further. That item is the single biggest difference in our OA. I was gearing more defensively, partly because i suck and die sometimes when i shouldn’t due to mistakes or not paying attention. But also because MortalKombat stressed the necessity of disruption resist so much in his build, and it certainly does suck standing in a disrupt pool for any amount of time. Do you not experience that without some disrupt protection? looks like we both took a lot of influence from his build. Which reminds me - what is the purpose of going all the way to dying god but not picking up the proc? isn’t there better sources of OA that would yield better results overall if you’re not getting that speed and crit bonus?

This - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZor7gQV - is probably what i’ll work towards once i have the rest of the gear… Which i’ll probably end up farming with my shiny new firewave commando since i finally got Shar’zuls world eater. Maybe i’ll post that planned build here for advice too. I have more gear for that than the physical one i’m playing now.

Do you think 2620 (without procs, now that i know i shouldn’t bank on deadly aim being active all the time) is going too low?

9

That looks a lot better. Generally speaking, people around here are recommending a minimum of 2700, though 2620 isn’t that bad. At least it isn’t your DA that is lacking.