Aethereal Storm - Iskandra Druid build

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Aethereal Storm

[SIZE=“5”]Iskandra Druid Build[/SIZE]

Spread the storm and discover the secrets of Iskandra with the new Druid guide. High mobility, good defense and a lot of damage. The weapon is interchangeable, and the build works excellently with two weapons, two-handed weapons, weapon/off-hand, even with 2 ranged weapons.

Grimtools Link

Grimtools Link (no-keyboard version)

The following is a guide on how to use Iskandra’s set for a druid character. I’ve noticed that most of the builds that use iskandra set do not fully exploit its potential. Furthermore, I am a smoker. This means that I can only use one hand to play, and I have to do it (I swear, it’s because I’m a smoker, mischievous). Finally, I love druid as concept, but I prefer hand-to-hand combatants. So, I tried to create a single-button character that could deal with even the highest levels of the crucible in close combat

150-170 Crucible run (link).
165-170 Crucible run (link).
No potions No Keyboard run (link).

Note: The objects used in the videos were created with GDstash. I’ve only been playing for a few months and I still have to find different items.

Not a Druid concept

This is a Druid (Shaman + Arcanist) build, but the concept can be applied to other classes too. I choose shaman because of the high elemental damage and resistance debuff (savagery, wind devil), and high health-regeneration increase (savagery, oak skin) offered by shaman skill tree (false, is that I love the shaman). Other good options are Necromancer, Demolitionist, Inquisitor.

Attribute Allocation

26 Physique (for a total of 601)
0 Cunning (470+)
78 Spirit (1674 which corresponds to about 800% magic damage bonus)

Fortunately, the cunning needed to use Mythical Mindwarp (best weapon choice) comes from one of the best generic items, Really Great Pants. The physique is just enough to wear the set and the other pieces of the armor (thanks Heart of the Wild).

Note: I usually drop bleeding and acid resist (i just don’t care that kind of damage while Crucible) to raise Spirit or Atk Speed (over 200%)

Skill Points

As you can see from the link, I decided to maximize Iskandra Elemental Exchange, Overload, Maiven’s Sphere of Protection, Fabric of Reality, Star Pact and Arcane Will from the arcanist skill tree. At 12 Inner Focus, Elemental Balance and Mirror of Ereoctes. A few points on Conversion. From the shaman skill tree I recommend maximizing Savagery and Tenacity of the Boar, and putting the necessary points to get to 12 on Raging Tempest and Maelstrom, the rest on Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin.

Equipment

Obviously, the set of Iskandra is essential, apart from the tome (Trozan’s set can be used too, changing much gamestyle). Another piece of armor that I recommend is
Really Great Pants. In addition to giving good resistances, life and statistics (if you play the arcanist you know how important the spirit is, and this character has so much), gives a priceless 10% avoid melee attacks, which for a character with so little armor is very good. For the same reason I prefer the
Mythical Phantom-thread Girdle to other options (Arcanoweave Girdle for +1 to all skills in shaman, Tinker’s Ingenuity for excellent resistances).
A skill point for the shaman is taken from the relic
Eye of the Storm. The aura increases the damage of this build in a crazy way.
As gauntlets the best choice is that of the
Mythical Iceskorn Talon, for the attack speed, frostburn damage and +3 to Overload.
Since the weapon is interchangeable, so are some objects. In principle the
Mythical Direwolf Crest is used as a medal.
I find that the best boots are crafted ones, i use
Survivalist’s Intrepid Warboots of Kings (+1050hp, movement speed and stun resist).
The rings also may vary, I recommend using two crafted rings,
Lich’s Gollus ‘Ring of Alacrity (Spirit, hp, res, atk speed) and
Incorruptible Gollus’ Ring of Gildam Arcanum (hp, res, skill disruption protection, % skill cd reduction).

Note: This is a build with a very high CD (37-50 depending on weapons and buffs), even if it does not use any skill that requires cd (except for wind devil, but for that 25% cd would already be enough).

Note furthermore that the Iskandra set is only apparently so defensive. In addition to giving good hp, it offers high damage, especially the helmet, the best piece of the set (17 aether, 55 elemental flat damage) along with the amulet (+15% total damage to Mirror, 30 elemental flat damage). The sum of the skills allows to maximize Overload, from which much of the melee damage comes.
As bonus crafting, best are armor increase (5% each is really good) and critical damage. I mixed them for a balanced character.

Devotions

it is at this point that the secret of Iskandra is revealed. If the choice of equipment is almost obvious, that of devotion is not at all. Some constellations are absolutely necessary for the build to function. it is a very precarious equilibrium, and only the combination of all makes it possible to dare without risking to die for a simple mistake. This is a build with high cooldown reduction, and no active skills that really need cooldown. But there are different skills to benefit from it, and almost all come from devotions. Almost all are tier II ones. This makes it difficult to find the Iskandra path. To each class skill combined with the set corresponds a constellation, and those of Iskandra are all of tier II

iskandra_deffff.png879×759

This should be the complete Iskandra Path (all Tier II) with associated skills

*For dual wielding/2handed version

Direwolf Claw in place of Devastation dual wielding Mindwarps

Upheaval and Feral Hunger in place of Seal of Corruption and Devastation with Temporal Arcblade

Note: This is a path that can be used by all the characters who use the iskandra set, but not only. It has some potential, try it with other build combinations, and let me know if something good comes out.

Let’s start with Defensive Devotions

Tortoise (Turtle Shell)

It is the only constellation of a lower rank, but increases the possibility of surviving (especially if played in hardcore mode) exponentially. Good statistics (hp, def ability) and a very synergistic power with the build: every 25 seconds (about 15 seconds with the reduction of the cooldown) absorbs 4200 damage of any kind. He saved my character an infinite number of times.

Bard’s Harp (Inspiration)

Elemental damage, a bit of defense and a skill that does a bit of everything. And above all, 45% Slow Resistance, which combined with Tenacity of the Boar and Conversion, maximizes resistance to slowdowns. It is a wonderful feeling to run free like the wind (devil).

Crab (Arcane Barrier)

My favorite one. Elemental damage (also flat damage) and a barrier that heals 2260 hps every 3 seconds (1.7-1.5 with cooldown reduction). And without using any skills. Wonderful.

Behemoth (Giant’s Blood)

If you see the videos, my character reloads his life as if he had a high lifesteal, which is at zero (and I always forget to drink the potion :furious:). This is because the Behemoth’s ability is active almost half the time, and regenerates more than 1100 hp for second (1500+ with “of the Dranghoul” suffix to rings). Under normal conditions it would not be enough to keep a character alive, but it is along with the rest of the skills.
Note: attach Giant’s Blood on Arcane Will (activates when Health drops below 70%), so you will be sure to not waste it.

Chariot of the Dead (Wayward Soul)

Tons of offensive and defensive ability.

Alladrah’s Phoenix (Phoenix Fire)

The skill is worth almost nothing, but on the other hand the bonuses are excellent (elemental and ethereal damage, and more). If you use the version of the build with the two-handed weapon, attached to Upheaval can however make the difference. Otherwise, it’s not worth that much. Add a point on grasping vines to proc it for sure, or link it to Direwolf Claw as i do (with max atk speed and high offensive, you can keep it up it even with low chance to proc the technique)

A good Alternative to Alladrah’s Phoenix (or to Solael’s Witchblade, for a more defensive build) is

Targo the Builder (Shield Wall)

The skill is good, and Targo offers tons of health. Or

Ghoul (Ghoulish Hunger)

Good stats and great lifesaver skill.

A valid alternative for the Tortoise is the

Dryad (Dryad’s Blessing)

Heals (with high cooldown reduction) about 5% total life per second, but requires an active skill more (to choose if you do not smoke). If you exchange Direwolf Claw (decent for 2handed build version) with Mythical Crimson Heart, you get immunity from bleeding damage (95% bleeding duration reduction).

To recap main Defensive Capabilities of (the offensive version of) the build (without crucible buffs)

14000+ hp
84% resistances
21% Dodge Chance
16% Physical Resist
1550-1800 armor (depends from craft bonus)
23% Damage Absorption
80% Slow resistance (with high Entrapment, Freeze and Petrify resist)
60% Skill Disruption Protection
2260 dmg absorption (Arcane Barrier, 3 seconds cd)
4200 dmg absorption (Turtle Shell, 25 seconds cd)
1100+ hp regeneration (Giants Blood, 30 seconds cd)

Note: skills cooldowns are showed without cd reduction

Let’s move on to Offensive Devotions.

Widow (Arcane Bomb)

Damage and debuff. For a character focused on electric and ethereal damage, there is nothing better.

Rhowan’s Crown (Elemental Storm)

Damage and debuff. For a character focused on electric and ethereal damage, there is nothing better.

Solael’s Witchblade (Eldritch Fire)

Damage and debuff. For a character…no. But, combined with the next skill, yes.

Fiend (Flame Torrent)
Damage and damage and damage and damage and damage and damage and damage and damage and damage

A good balanced option is

Murmur, Mistress of Rumors (Rumor).
3% chance to avoid projectiles/melee attack, -96 offensive abilities and a good resist debuff spreading easily. Maybe better than Solael’s Witchblade too.

Summing up the Offensive Capabilities (Typical build)

Savagery + Elemental Storm
Wind Devil + Fiend
Seal of the Void (main hand) + Arcane Bomb
Seal of the Void (off hand) + Eldritch Fire

The main source of damage is, after savagery, the combo between Wind Devil (and Maelstrom) and Flame Torrent, a skill without cooldown that propagates weapon damage across the map. The remaining skills serve to amplify the damage of the main ones. This build, like 90% of damage builds, removes most of the most useful resistances (both Eldritch Fire and Rumor added)

-90% Cold
-90% Fire
-102% Lightning
-49% Aether
-49% Chaos

Note: with Olexra’s Flash Freeze Freeze is possible to get over -190% fire resistance. It’s okay but olexra’s casting time is slow and I prefer sparing points for passive damage (false, i don’t want to add any buttons). Try it with Blazerush.

These are the devotions that I currently use. I gave up on Eldritch Fire for Ghoulish Hunger, it makes me feel safer.

devotions_def.png1127×767

Weapon choice

The choice of the weapon is not obvious. Imho best one is double

Mythical Mindwarp

Certainly one of the best choices because it has almost everything, +2 total to all skills to arcanist, attack and casting speed, cooldown, physical damage conversion, decent flat damage and the ability to lower resistances.

Let’s start to see the possible component combinations using two Mindwarp (I’ll add the version with two-handed weapon and off-hand/weapon later).

Typical Build - Seal of the void (x2)

Seal of the Void grants a decent melee technique, Burning Void (good for spreading Reduced target Resistance from Mindwrap and spam devotions). Easy to master, few active skills (Savagery and Wind Devil). Lack of mobility beside Slow resistance.

At the 1 and 2 key of the mouse I put Savagery and Wind Devil. They are the only active skills, apart from Mirror of Ereoctes, that are used. The damage of savagery is obviously the best against single targets, but only until the complete storm arrives. Storm that I recommend to command with the mouse wheel (above or below, as you prefer). I recommend, it is very important to direct the storm on the most appropriate point. Other options

Hybrid Build - Seal of the Void + Riftstone

Balanced, good mobility and AoE damage. I don’t like it. This is a 150-160 Crucible run.

Shooting Star Build - Riftstone (x2)

Check this 150-170 Crucible Run (with happy ending). The video is self-explanatory. Highest mobility, a bit hard to master (but i’m just a bad player).

Levelling

Soon I will post the levelling guide along with the other versions of the Crucible build if you care about it. SPOILER: the two-handed weapon is the
Temporal Arcblade (who would have never expected it).
In the meantime, here is the link of a short level 80 run (no legendary weapons). A dual wield version of the levelling build is this (i didn’t farm nothing, and weapons can be obtained by carrying out a simple quest).

Thanks to those who arrived up here, and sorry for the bad English. I wish everyone a good apocalypse!

Edit: in the meantime I made some changes to the build, I will update the thread as soon as possible

2

great i like ur build :slight_smile:
it needs more attention

does it perform nice without all those tinctures?

thumbs up

3

I am a bit confused what dmg type do You Focus on? 50%of physical dmg is converted in to Aether thanks to your weapons, 29% is converted in to elemental thanks to IEE and 15% is converted in to cold thanks to Star pact. Isnt better to pick up Reckless Power for flat aether dmg and even higher physical to aether conversion? You also overmax fabric of reality which has non efect on Your elemental attacks.
You got huge elemental rezist reduction which on other hand has non effect on enemys Aether rezistance.

Is there something I miss?

4

hey im not the author, but i hope i can answer u right

there is 66% phys to aether, 20% to chaos, 29% to elemental, 15% to cold
so
~55% aether, 15% chaos, 20% ele, 10% cold

he gets some flat elemental dmg with equipment and devotions

savagery deals lightning dmg

so i would say, his focus is aether / elemental / elemental-burn / lightning

to fabric of reality: but it deals tons of aether dmg

5

This is the Savagery damage sheet (pic taken from the game)

The build does not focus entirely on elemental, or ethereal, damage. More than anything else the build focuses on the Spirit (800% Bonus Magical Damage) and on a mix of damage that includes almost every kind of magical damage (especially Lightning/Aether), except acid/vitality.

Consider then that the physical damage available (to be transformed into magical damage) is quite low, and most of the damage (including weapon damage) comes from the combination of Overload, Elemental Balance, Inner Focus, Arcane Will and Fabric of Reality with Savagery. This allows me to use two Seal of the Void (Physical to Chaos) without losing much. Consider also that Flame Torrent activates dozens of times per second, and inflicts fire and chaos damage.

One of the priorities of the build was to condense everything into just two abilities (Savagery, Wind Devil). If you want to add a few keys, the overall damage increases significantly: Olexra’s Flash Freeze (with some changes to focus more on fire), but also Seal of Corruption (best spreading damage spell along with -16% Lightning/Aether resistance) or Seal of Resonance (Elemental conversion, health and freedom of movement).

The damage mix is ​​optimal for this type of build. I did several tests with almost every possible combination, and the greatest damage output is given by a mix of the various types of damage (the Damage Per Second during the Crucible comes to touch the 200k dps). Just think, the damage increases even if you add, perhaps in place of Storm Touched, the vitality damage of the Blood Pact (along with good lifesteal and healing), thanks to the high spirit and the possibility of reducing almost any type of resistance, even 30% Reduced Target (all) Resistances from Mindwarp.
Obviously you can make a thousand changes to the build. For example, it is true, as Vdova says, that Reckless Power increases the overall damage, but to the detriment of survivability, since lower Cooldown translates into a lower frequency of Turtle Shell - Arcane Barrier - Giant’s Blood.

To respond to Benx, this specific version of the build is designed for high levels of Crucible, and you can not give up anything (tinctures) without consequences (you need to get 30/40% overcap to all resistances if you play hardcore). But it is enough to change a few things to make it much easier. Tinker’s Ingenuity, for example, greatly increases the resistances and makes it much easier to maximize the damage (lower) along with the resistances, and so no longer needs most of the tinctures. Or, it’s enough to use crafted pants instead of Really Great Pants (you lose a little damage from Spirit bonus and 10% chance avoid melee attacks), or still changing Ring’s suffixes. Of course, the Crucible can also be finished with this build and without tinctures, but with the risk of dying a little more or proceeding more slowly.

6

iskandra_deffff.png879×759

I was checking the devs and i think that this should be the complete Iskandra Path (all Tier II) with associated skills (Iskandra Full Set, Off hand added)

*For dual wielding/2handed version

Direwolf Claw in place of Devastation dual wielding Mindwarps

Upheaval and Feral Hunger in place of Seal of Corruption and Devastation with Temporal Arcblade

The Magehunter version is with Runebinder’s Spellthrower (2h ranged) and Arcanum Electrollis (dual wielding ranged weapons and with off-hand) for sure, but i don’t know Inquisitor skills

7

Extreme Potioning - The Game :stuck_out_tongue:
That list of potion buffs reminds me of a Blackberry keyboard or something hehe.

8


No-keyboard No-potions run (link)

Grimtools

This is a 150-160 run with 0 (zero) potions, and no (never) keyboard. No healing potions too. Toughened Spawns (+40% hp) mutator. I tried to go over 160, but i need healing potions to do it

p.s. This is a no-active skills build, it CAN’T be as strong as other complex builds . Add some skills, and u don’t need nothing at all.
But when I play, I want to see the screen, and do not spend all my time doing tip tip on the keyboard. To tell the truth, in making the videos I tried to use all the consumables just to be faster and cooler.

Edit: Added grimtools link

9

Interesting build, different than the meta builds. I like it.

Question, when you have bonus magical damage +800% from spirit, is this included in page 2 of the character sheet of the +fire% +burn%, etc damages? Or is it on top of what is displayed there (in grimtools)?

I would have though it is included, but I do see your +frostburn is 653%, but bonus duration damage is +837%, so must not be included. So burn damage is really be +1490%. That is pretty good! So you have actually like +2700% lightning damage?

Edit: also, i dont know why you posted your build videos with so many potions, it looks like it works just fine without them! Good job!

10

Exactly, about +2600% Elemental Damage, along with +2400% Aether, +1600% burn/frostburn/electrocute (with +800% Bonus Duration), even +1400% chaos damage. Spirit bonus damage is not showed

11

hi i want to know how u can put or what its ur order to put ur gear for 27 in physique and 78 in spirit cuz i make the same thing but its doesnt work i cant put the pant sword and Etc sorry for my bad english !!:undecided:

12

You are right, i have updated my link with the last version (i thought -% armor requirement belt bonus would have affected the belt itself, i was wrong).

This is the link Grimtools Link v.2

You need 28 points on physique, with Ghoul constellation giving you 30 physique to get 634 physique (belt gives -10% armor requirement). Really Great Pants will give you the cunning needed to use Mindwarps. You can replace the Tinker’s Ingenuity belt with the Phantom-Thread belt, adjusting the resistances with the crafted pieces/components.

13

Looking at Grimtools and scratching my head. How does this work again? All key stats seem really low. But you seem to have made in Crucible 150-170 Gladiator.

14

I do not understand why instead of talking about the build you keep hoping it’s all wrong.
So, I try to explain it again:
Both Tinker’s Ingenuity (15%) and Phantom-Thread Girdle (10%) have the bonus -% armor requirement. The piece of armor that requires the most physique is the Really Great Pants (662). With 10% (596) or 15% (563) removed, only about 15 physique points are needed to wear all the equipment. In addition, the Iskandra Vestment (chest) has the -15% Cunning Requirement for Melee Weapons bonus. The Mindwarps therefore require 511 (434) Cunning, which is achieved thanks to the +112 cunning bonus of the Really Great Pants.

Indeed, thanks to this reflection, I created an aggressive version of this build, adding Bull Rush (connected to Savagery) that further reduces the physique needed to wear the armor. With Tinker’s Ingenuity, I have to spend only 5 points on physique, and I get to over 2100 Spirit (+ 1000% magic damage) losing some hit points. On the other hand, up to 250,000 damage per second (not counting Wind Devil damage).

This is the link of the new build

This video explains how it works

15

No, man, I understand you can equip those items or how you have huge magical damage boost from Spirit. What I don’t understand, is how you make it work in melee in toughest setting possible with that DA/armor and no Time Dilation on Mirror.

also how did you get 1k of each potion but I am not gonna judge

16

I wrote everything in the initial thread …The defensive devotions allow this sustain

Turtle Shell + Ghoulish Hunger + Giant’s Blood (huge heal) + Arcane Barrier (i would die in 10 seconds without this) + Phoenix Fire

This build get over 35% cooldown reduction, and this exponentially increases the effectiveness of these powers

I use GDstash, I also wrote this at the beginning of the thread

17

thats really interesting idea, thanks for sharing this with community bro

18

So i was wondering the same thing as you mad_lee. I was trying to replicate his defenses as it seems from the video to be very good (as good as someone with 4K DA). I been studying his no potion crucible run to try to replicate defenses on another build im trying out.

I thought originally it might be his dodge/chance to evade melee attacks from pants/belt, but thats not really it.

In his no potion run he has:

2253 armor (which is not bad)
2.4k DA (this is very low)
18% dodge
34% phys res (pretty good - with ghoul)
1,700 hp/sec regen (very good)
21K hp with crucible buffs (very good)
38% CD reduction (below are reduced recharge times)
-tinker 8 sec uptime / 15.5 sec recharge (52% uptime)
-targo 5 sec uptime / 5 sec rechage (100% uptime)
-turtle 15.5 sec recharge
-ghoul 6 sec uptime / 15.5 sec recharge (39% uptime)
-chariot 7 sec uptime / 11.2sec recharge (63% uptime)
-giants blood 10 sec uptime / 18.6 sec recharge (54% uptime)
-phoenix fire 7 sec uptime / 7.4 sec recharge (94% uptime)
-crab 2 sec recharge
-bard 6 sec uptime / 7.4 sec recharge (81% uptime)
-prismatic 8 sec uptime / 15.5 sec recharge (52% uptime)

So not exactly sure if I can answer your question (since i’m still trying to figure it out myself), but it seems he basically has a lot of different CD buffs and different forcefield type skills to absorb + hp regn with pretty good uptime.

19

Taken individually, they are all discrete. Taken three to three, they are strong. Taken six to six, they are even more, mathematically it is not a simple addition, it is difficult to analyze but actually works

20

If you want I try to put in order of importance the constellations/powers according to my experience (based on trial and error)

-giants blood 10 sec uptime / 18.6 sec recharge (54% uptime)
-crab 2 sec recharge

-bard 6 sec uptime / 7.4 sec recharge (81% uptime)
-chariot 7 sec uptime / 11.2sec recharge (63% uptime)
(both only if the contribution to damage is also considered)

-turtle 15.5 sec recharge
-phoenix fire 7 sec uptime / 7.4 sec recharge (94% uptime)

-ghoul 6 sec uptime / 15.5 sec recharge (39% uptime)
-targo 5 sec uptime / 5 sec rechage (100% uptime)

Most of the work, I am convinced, is given by the health regen. Because, if in a pool of normal hit points it is already excellent, it is even more so in a pool where the hit points, prevented rather than treated, are worth much more. But on the other hand it would not be so if there were no damage mitigation powers (crab, phoenix fire). They are all strictly interdependent, which is why I had said that it is an ‘unstable’ balance… And all this is combined with ‘when health drops 40%’ powers (Prismatic Rage, Turtle Shell, Tinker’s Ingenuity) and Mirror of Ereoctes (when they are on cooldown), which block incoming damage giving the whole scheme the time to start again at full potential

Edit: In my No-keyboard run i get also 7% lifesteal (3% Restless Remains, 4% from Ghoul)