DISCLAIMER
DISCLAIMER
Despite current patch being unfriendly to most melee classes I decide to go anyways for some very interesting approach - Fire Werewolf. I have tons of fun building this bad boy completely from scratch. Few players pop in to teach me how to sustain in Grim Dawn so I want to say guides are not rule books ,everybody is free to change my augments for DA ones and some of the affixes but I wouldn’t change my setup to someone’s liking because I showcase my setup and my results ( pretty happy with both ). I have 10 K hours in HC Grim Dawn , my HC Grim Dawn league profile is public with all my achievements and all my Celestial kills under SR 20 scaling achieving one of the best timers in HC ladder( vanilla Ravager has 32 mil life , league one on the highest shard 64 millions ) , teaching me how to sustain in Grim Dawn is like teaching Anthony Joshua how to do left hook or Gordon Ramsay how to cook , so please if you can’t show respect to my work and my time ( I need 6 hours just to format the post ) that’s fine ,but don’t teach me stuff that I know for the past 10 years if I can beat the game under this rules Badge of Perseverance challenge CLICK ME I already know thing or two about sustain , thanks
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
What exactly is Apocalypse Werewolf , this build relies on pack of fire wolves (thanks to Gryphon medal secret mod now Guardians of Empyrion transform into this sick wolves from the picture above) , visuals that Crate adds with this expansion worth every penny spend , these fire wolves alone is huge upgrade in terms of role play fantasy (because being werewolf and running around with some ghostly knights makes zero sense) . Build relies on high burn stacking from up to 6 wolves and massive cleave damage from Feral Claws
PROS AND CONS
PROS AND CONS
PROS:
- Simple leveling ( no respecs )
- One on the fastest way to level Berserker (if not the fastest)
- Very good mobility
- We can use Evade augment in the medal because Werewolf has two movement abilities (thats huge plus)
- Insane cleave potential from level 2 (very few melee classes can do that from the beginning)
- Very tanky during leveling
- Very good progression and item support
- FInal set is target farmable
- Controller friendly (you don’t need Aim and build is just 1 attack , 2 moving abilities and 1 buff)
- Can clear all content
- Ascendant viable
- HC viable if you don’t touch the Altar in Ascendant
CONS
- We have to level as chaos Werewolf because weapons are quite late into the campaign
- Werewolf is quite repetitive playstyle
- No fashion dawn
- Struggles with some Altar combinations but naked Ascendant is totally viable
LEVELING
LEVELING
Faction and Blacksmith choices (CLICK ME)
- Vigil vs Kymon - Kymon Sacred Oil is huge boost to fire damage so Kymon is no brainer pick
- Outcast - this build receive nothing from here , so I go hostile but you can go friendly if you like more quests
- Barrowholm - one of the best augments in the game so I prefer to be friendly with them
- Cults - I go Dreeg because their augments are elemental build friendly (but it ends I don’t need em )
- Angrim - better endgame crafting bonuses
Attribute points and Devotion path: (CLICK ME)
First 30 levels I put all in Physique , after that put 15 in Spirit . I switch back to Physique and make it 70 and I spend rest in Spirit (if you hoover my stats you can see how I spend my attributes ). Final result was 70/30 Physique/Spirit. Grim tools now records automatically every point spend but I will leave a written path just in case:
- Pink Crossroad
- Fiend
- Purple Crossroad
- Empty Throne
- Fox
- Remove Pink Crossroad
- Remove Purple Crossroad
- Chariot
- Purple Crossroad
- Hyrian
- Rhowans Crown
- Magi
- Solael Witchblade
- Remove Fox
- Berserker
- Pink Crossroad
- Green Crossroad
- Ulzuin Torch
- 2x Spider for the attack speed
[PROGRESS STEP BY STEP (CLICK ME)]
Level 1-10
We start as pierce/bleeding Werewolf , on level 2 I put 1 point Mastery bar , 1 Point Implements of War , 1 point Werewolf and its just mad start I have charge and I have cleave damaging attack via Feral claws and I can dual wield - its just broken start. Every next level I put 1 point mastery bar and 2 points Werewolf , simply to push this extra damage from ranks so I can destroy packs faster and speed up the game for me. Weapons don’t matter that much but most swords comes with Pierce ratio which means physical damage is converted globally , we not gonna stay as pierce wolf anyways so don’t stress too much about it. Items up to level 35 are completely random , you cant have same items as me but most important stats for leveling a melee toon are resistance , offensive ability , life , attributes , movement speed on boots , attack speed on gloves . You gonna ask what about damage , damage comes from your weapons , skill tree and devotion map - this is more than enough and there is no point to stack damage early because damage modifiers are extremely low and any damage affix means you have one utility affix les just to do slightly more damage . Utility during leveling is king , because having high damage doesnt matter if you spend 70% of the fight running in circles because you are out of energy or you take big slaps. Here is my Grim Dawn School series that explain most starting choices and whats the essentials to build your toon properly Grim Dawn School CLICK ME (don’t forget to put your phone on silent when in class)
Level 10-20
In this bracket I progress slowly doing my shrines and questing, brawlers scales very well with skill tree and devotion tree. Most important for this bracket is to fill all empty slots with rare items and around level 13 medals start to pop up in the vendors stock, be sure you buy one with nice resistances, I track my first shoulderguards as well Isaac Spaulders this can be found west from Foggy bank rift if you cross the river (grim tools map is your friend). Don’t forget to finish your Sith Primal Ring quest this ring is amazing for SSF or beginner start. Angrim is my blacksmith of choice immediately after I send him to Devil’s Crossing I open a rift to craft 2x Wardstones for my medal and amulet (huge boost to bleed/ele res and movement speed). Playstyle is very simple I use Feral CLaws as main attack and I use Rip and Tear as a nuke. My next stop is Caverns in Foggy bank , boss there drops one of the most OP amulets for leveling Putrid Necklace hands down 200 HP + and up to 30 poison resistance just from the base is just nuts , with good affix combo this can go up to 450 life and other goodies . You shouldn’t have any problems with Krieg , I keep Milton casque for this fight and just hug him (he doesnt use his most dangerous attack when in melee range) , if it’s your first character is good to do few runs in the last rift for some AEther crystals (Crate finally upgrade aether formations so now they have chance to drop 2 crystals ).Act 1 provides 7 shrines so the moment I get my last node in Fiend (I attached this to Feral CLaws) , I grab the Blight of Chthon mutator for my Werewolf and switch to chaos damage ( chaos has better support and Riftstones are miles better than any bleed or pierce weapon components) . Don’t forget to recast your wolf form to see the new chaos visuals
NOTE - its good to open links in separate tab so you can stay on the right paragraph of the guide
First Crating and Component Session:
- 2x Antivenom Salve - Boots + Belt
- 2x Riftstone - Weapons
- Scaled Hide - Shoulders and Pants
- Silk Swatch - Torso
- Helm - If you don’t have Ectoplasm at this point use w/e you have (don’t left empty comp slots)
- 2x Corpse Dust/Frozen Heart - Rings
- 2x Wardstones - Medal + Amulet
- Ruination - relic (attack speed , flat damage and steroid button when fighting bosses and heroes)
Note:This is standart comp setup at level 20, this setup provides vital sustain tools. Be sure you rescued your Inventor NPC so you can destroy or safe components in your gear for easy swaps when you find upgrades ( take the quest from Kasparov and he will mark the location with a star on your mini map
Level 20-30
I repair the bridge and it’s time to deal with Cronley and his goons, first and very important thing to do is to save Steven Skinner family - he gives you an amazing ring in return. Second important thing to do is to be nice to Isaah Reddan (pick top dialogue option after you take the quest from his ex business partner).Act 2 offers some decent upgrades so my advice is to explore every corner of it cause Werewolf is good exploring class and you can use that as an advantage. Old Arkovia provides really good weapons at its last level and really good unique component (Killrian soul) . Killrian maces are really good simply because they come with attack speed and high damage from the base , he on other hand is quite deadly because lacking of vitality resistance at this point so approach this fight with care . Cronley is also worth to be farmed for his insane rings , they come with pierce resistance and attack speed ( top rings because attack speed comes with the base and everything else is just a bonus). Take your time and explore , even if you end up higher level than me dont worry , this is totally normal because I have some of the fastest times in the community when it comes to leveling from scratch.
Level 35 Faction Gear
Very important milestone for every class in Grim Dawn, you unlock DC and Rovers faction gear. You have to spend some time killing Cronley’s gang members and some Undeads to reach Respected status with both faction but trust me every minute spend worth it. You should be respected with both factions after all the grind for upgrades and all the quests
Shopping List:
- Devil’s Cuirass - hands down amazing armor (500+ life, OA/DA and pierce + chaos res)
- Devil’s Shoulderguard - OA/DA, physical, aether and pierce res
- Harvest Grips - Attributes , OA and %OA at this point we run high crit damage build so we sacrifice some attack speed for big slaps
- Harvest Footpads - amazing boots (triple res, 200+ life and movement speed)
- Blueprint for Rhowari Cord - Chaos damage and Doom Bolt proc (this proc will delete one enemy instantly)
- Blueprint for Runestone (Rovers) - hands down best leveling helm component
- Fervor blueprint from Homestead - crit damage , vit res, attack speed and massive OA proc
Don’t worry if you are higher level just come back to this shopping list when you get the reputation levels , if dont get this naturally you might have to kill few bandits ( for Devils’ Crossing) and undeads (for Rovers) - that gives reputation per kill
After shopping and reputation is done it’s time to get new pants, be sure you stock some dynamites cause we go back to act 1 and open Hidden Path quest ,just few steps east from Hevil’s corpse there is hidden path with detonation site (be sure your poison res are 60-80 ideal cause this is very acid/poison heavy area), here we face Guardian of Dreeg and this rat will drop this amazing Jeans, this pants provides tons of sustain and also good offensive ability. My personal advice is to grind and finish Pine Barrens quest lines ( you have to detonate some detonation site in Prospector’s Trail to reach this zone) before you step into Blood Grove you need decent Chaos and Vitality res for this zone of the game, everything so far is breeze but this area can catch you off guard so paid attention. I do every quest in Homestead (keep in mind Conflagration quest is not recommended if you are on HC mod). Everything can be facetanked at this point just don’t overstay on top of aether/acid pools this type of damage ramp up really quick when you don’t leech life back from enemies.Homestead and Pine Barrens shouldn’t be hard in general especially when most of our resistances are maxed out and we running heavy plate armor brawler.
Level 40
Time to step into first really dangerous zone - Blood Grove. This area is very heavy on vitality and chaos damage, couple of deadly bosses lurking here like Bolvar and Zaria. Zaria and Harbringers are one of the first enemies that can shred your resistances, that’s why is not recommended to step here before level 35, if your resistance page is not on par you can be debuffed even to negative values and get one shot from Zaria’s Obsidian Shards. Harbringers on the other hand look harmless, floating and slow enemies but they cast one of the most nastiest debuffs in the game - Spectral Miasma, you can see what this debuff is capable of in this short crucible video. Blood Grove on the bright side is very rich on side quest, also very easy ones so be sure you fully explore the zone cause there is secret vendor as well that sells some useful items and blueprints(Kymon’s medal can be bought from here and its really good crit damage + chaos resistance medal for this setup). Final boss for this act also summons Obsidian Shards but they are not even close to the power of Zaria ones, however his chaos pools deals significant amount of damage if you stay inside for too long( secure next riftgate after you kill him, don’t teleport to finish quests ,shop etc cause is very easy to forget and displace your rift and then you have to run whole Darkvale fortress again-happened to all of us ). Asterkan valley is prob the most poor area in Grim Dawn (no quests, no NPCs), but there is a very special Tomb (best place to farm Chthonic Seals of Binding) and here you can farm easily Bloodsworn scepters which are really good Chaos Werewolf weapons. We go forward up to Fort Ilkon and here we have to abandon main campaign and jump immediately to Asterkarn because we need our fire cleavers.
Level 50
You have to discover every corner here , there are few of important NPCs that have to rescued , especially Yurgryn from Ulo Springs - this NPC unlocks reroll mechanics for you and having this in Normal difficulty is essential because its not necessary to finish the campaign in Ultimate before you start grinding for the final setup (in fact I still have entire expansion locked when I finish the build). Next important NPC is Nokturaki , here is a video of the location Secret Faction Location CLICK ME , this is the moment when you have to start grind his reputation , its very important faction (you have to grind this just once but this unlocks higher tiers vials for your potion crafts) , just avoid Port Valbury quest and Tomb of the Heretic quest , rest of the dungeons are fine . You can leave this grind when you finish Normal you don’t have to do it now , but it’s much easier to grind this on lower difficulty and your character directly benefits from the last tier vials because they are not locked behind level (for example I pick short cooldown potions and mine are on 7 secs cooldown ). You can refresh a bad quest by leaving to the main screen and go back into the game (sometimes he offers the same quest again so you have to restart the session again). Apart from that I don’t want to spoiler too much if it’s you first run , just be sure you have a good time here and discover everything.
Level 60
Here after I finish with the new expansion I go and finish the entire Normal difficulty . Altar is such a power creep I just boost my reputation gain and I unlock my EXP potions in Malmouth resistance in no time ( Normal altar is not that punishing and you can reset it everytime you leave to the main screen if its too strong) but making 4 k reputation running random maps is just insane power creep (bounties just died in dirt at this point completely useless the moment you unlock the Altar) . I grind out Black Legion , Malmouth resistance ( I just run Galakros + Council members at Malmouth ant this is like 3 k reputation with Writh per run - just insane) . I farm Pine Barrens to finish Homestead and this net me level 70 and I unlock some of the most important augments in the game and also EXP potions for Ultimate. Abusing the Altar in Normal difficulty just eliminates the need to step into Elite - no point at all , you going to waste your time. This bracket is a good place to finish Forgotten gods as well , but if I have to be fair I just reached Sunbane Oasis so I can farm for my Gryphon medal (can take some time but this medal turns Empy bros into wolves - huge role play and morale boost) and don’t bother to go further. I just grind a bit more for better gear and finish the basic reputations with Malmouth , Black Legion , Homestead and get my vials upgrades. I stay in Normal abusing EXP + EXP altar to hit level 70 and move directly to Ultimate. I grind a bit reputation for the cults as well because Dreeg sells Venomspine Waistcord blueprint which is 1 to Oathkeeper craftable belt which is essential for stronger wolves. This is video from Normal difficulty explaining briefly my choices Normal Showcase CLICK ME
Level 70
At this point even if it’s your first run , you understand that you have to do the same things for this difficulty and I am not going into much details , just remember to go back to normal for weapon upgrades if your weapons falls off , better pants and rest of the gear should be solved if you do the same thing as me to hit level 70 and get Revered with basic factions so you can unlock Elite faction gear for Black Legion and Homestead .Ultimate should be breeze don’t forget to apply your EXP potions so you can power level a bit since Elite faction gear will carry on up to 90 when you can grab Elite gear from the superior factions like Coven and Malmouth.
Level 80
This bracket involves mostly questing , again take your time don't push the game , pop up in Normal to upgrade your MIs and get better weapons if you noticed your weapons falls under 10+ levels gap. I recommend full clear in Ultimate , a lot of quests rewards important materials or consumables and this is good opportunity to build your Blacksmith and Stash.
Level 90
This bracket is like Christmas for this build , level 90 means directly pop up into Normal difficulty and do some shopping in Malmouth , you have insane rings via Malmouth Arcane Seal and insane amulet via Malmouth Defender Pendant , these are huge upgrades . Rings have all the important mods you looking for , don't sleep on them before their nerf these rings used to be best in slot on several builds.
Level 100 Budget setup
Between 90 -100 is just finishing the campaign and start grinding totems for the budget version of the build . We are after Blazeseer set and we can start hitting totems in Ascendant for Awaken materials (don't click on Tempest totems yet before you finish your budget setup we need just the awaken materials from normal totems). Budget setup can handle Tempest totems with a bit of repositioning and kiting and we have to farm them because Apocalypton set drops only from Tempest totem(check my totem route will help you to grind more effectively ). Tempest totems have a chance to replace a regular totem so my route is still one of the best out there.
FINAL SETUP
FINAL SETUP
Apocalypton+Blazeseer Endgame setup - we lose the visuals with this double set combo but we get one extra guardian and this spec is cheaper but less damage than the Gryphon spec
Gryphon and Fire wolves Endgame - high dot ticks and high direct damage spec , I managed to kill Ravager of Flesh under a minute , full facetank Lokkar , facetank Mogdrogen in both phases but was a bit dicey so I decide at one point to kite . I would say very potent spec that I build under 30 hours completely from scratch and I am sure it can performs better if I reroll and put some ascendancy bonuses
FARMING
FARMING
My personal route on this one was:
- Totems in Ultimate to get Blazeseer set
- Crafting good Plaguegrips glloves and Stoneplate Graves (game prioritise this blueprints so you probably already have it after all this totems)
- Farming in Normal for the final weapons and medal
- Crafting Iskandras balance you didnt already
- Nomal Totems in Ascedant to get awaken materials to awake Blazeseer set in the Secret faction
- Tempest totems to get Apoclypton
- Getting Nemesis with the Vanguard so I can get Aleksander pants ( any pants will do but this ones comes with tons of life) and eventually reroll them
- Rest of the items are random drops
This videos explain the budget setup and endgame setup , also contain important information and some footage against the hardest content and Celestial bosses
I would leave a link to my personal farming strats and what I do as a SSF player (I use completely fresh save folder for all of my runs ), I do a lot of farming tests when simulating beginner starts
FAQ
FAQ
This setup can’t kill Ravager in 7 secs , why I should play this ?
Because this build is completely safe from potential nerf (in fact might get buff ) , also very good role play fantasy and honestly 55 secs on Ravager without Ascendancy bonuses and some really crap rolls on the gear is not that bad
Can I fully juice the Altar with this build and destroy content?
Short answer is no , long answer is you can do some basic altars and combinations but melee builds are not very good for fully decked out altars (I expect some nerfs to Ascendant altars , because some enemies are ridiculous )
How much time final setup would take as a begginer?
Took me 30 hours completely from scratch , not hard to get this setup online. This is very good starting class as well , because simple playstyle and simple leveling
My first char barely needed a minute here - both in ascendant of course.
Another item which is going to be huge is the Magi Visage because of the +1 spawn and +3 to the skill - which will actually net you +2 spawns because when combined with your other items you will land on 26/26 which will net you a bonus spawn, so its actually well worth giving up the innate elemental rolls here.
