Apostate Build Possible?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

One that actually works well? I really did not want to do meta/traditional stuff with the Inquisitor and tried an Apostate but really could find little to no synergy. I ended up settling for a compromise with a Mage Hunter but I really wanted to make the Apostate work. Any ideas or are any builds with that just subpar as a rule?

2

I have an Apostate I’m currently leveling. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqmBgMZ

“Hold the mouse” attack:
Drain Essence + transmuter.

Hotbar:

  • Siphon Souls for healing and damage.
  • Rune of Hagarrad for damage and coolness.
  • Word of Renewal and Inquisitor Seal for survival.

Devotion:

  • Wendigo’s Mark for healing and damage.
  • Elemental Tempest for damage and resistance reduction.

High level gear will be:

  • Current off-hand for vitality > elemental conversion.
  • Blazeheart for vitality > fire conversion and +1 to Necromancer.
  • Possibly Blazeseer Signets for more vitality > fire.
3

My first thoughts on an Apostate without gear support (i.e. no conversion from items) would either be Aether or Cold. Cold would probably be more versatile, Aether has a limited amount of options until you start pulling together gear with Fire/Element/Vitality converted to Aether.

4

I’d say yes.

Here’s an extreme example of how well it “could” work

https://youtu.be/wpKU7svObtc

Granted, even if the affix system gets fixed, those are perfect MIs and you know the build is probably going to lose whirling blades flame torrent on the next patch but it’s still one of the better proof of concept apostate builds I have seen.

5

Now you lot have gone and done it. I already had one Apostate build, but now I’ve come up with a couple more - so I’ve got 3 Apostates on the go. :smiley:

6

7

Oh I intend to reapersgaze. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Pets with gunslinger backup:
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/RVvPkMpN

Devotions:
Fiend (Raise Skeletons)
Jackal
Raven
Manticore (Blight Fiend)
Solael’s Witchblade (Necrotic)
Shepherd’s Crook (Chilling Rounds)
Rhowan’s Crown (Storm Spread)
Bsymiel’s Bonds (Bursting Round)
Wolverine
Remove Chaos point from Crossroads
Hydra
Ulzuin’s Torch (Reaping Strike)

Hoping I’ve got a good mix of pet and toon devotions there.

Other one is a Runecaster:
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVb14YE2

Devotions:
Sailor’s Guide
Lizard
Rat
Ghoul (World of Renewal)
Spider
Point into E in Crossroads to access
Magi (Rune of Kalastor)
Ultos (Rune of Hagarrad)
Manticore (Ravenous Earth)
Remove E point from Crossroads
Empty Throne
Rhowan’s Crown (Bone Harvest)
Behemoth 3pts to access the proc (Spectral Binding)
One point left over you can put into Behemoth as you like.

No idea on gear/weapons as I just use what I find along the way and don’t know how well they’ll work out, but I’ll have fun trying. :smiley:

8

Not sure how well it could synergize but Witching Hour might be worth a consider for the gunslinger. Would at least bump the skeles flame torrent and adds a nice flat boost to all summons. If you wanted pet support from your gun instead of boomstick.

9

i started playing a pet apostate build. worked quite well, but only played her through vanilla campaign on vet so far. didn’t finish the expansion areas yet (or take her to higher difficulties).

basically a skeleton-only summoner that uses word of renewal, aura of conviction and inquisitor seal to buff the minions.

don’t think there is any specific gear for such a build in the late game, but i guess one could use stuff with generic pet stats and some necro items that give extra skill ranks to the skeleton skills (mostly the baseline Raise Skeletons, that seems to be the most powerful one with the best scaling potential).

it worked surprisingly well. at higher ranks, Raise Skeletons produces mostly ranged versions. i think i had the skill at 20/16 or so and usually 6 or 7 of the 8 skellies were archers/arcanists and only 1-2 were warriors or revenants.

which is good, because you can use the pet attack command to order them into the inquisitor seal and the ranged ones will also stay inside the seal for the most part (if you plopped it close enough to the “frontline” so they don’t have to run out of it to shoot).

fun build to try out.

10

Aether Apostate, totally

11

12

So quick guide to how I’m doing an Aether Apostate I really love so far.
This is besides the fact that there is VERY little end game gear made for an Apostate let alone an Aether Apostate (PLEASE ADD SOME!).
Build still works great but its disheartening to find epic and legendaries over and over that just have nothing to do with this build.

I initially started this build by following the ideas of “Ceit” on reddit here:

Here is his explanation (then I’ll share what I think should be changed or I’m playing with):

Here is my current setup which deviates some:
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BoAKzV

I would show all the equipment I have but I just added quickly the unique stuff or things that affect +skills (and that hat=). The rest is “green”. I just go for Aether Damage, Needed Resists, Health mostly.

Devotions:
The other biggest change is I dropped Twin Fangs/Bat devotion.
It’s tricky but essentially I started like Ceit mentions above. Then once I had almost all my devotion points you can drop Spear of Heavens and then add Chariot of the Dead and Alladrah’s Phoenix. Then you can drop bat and put Spear of Heavens back in.

I just didn’t find bat was all that useful in this build and the Attack Damage converted to Health didn’t really do all that much.

Skills:
I haven’t really gone after Steel Resolve.
I realize I should have maxed Deadly Aim already and will do that ASAP in future levels.
I don’t think Hungering Reach is all that important (i gave 1 point so far)
I think decomposition should be MAXED.
Ill Omen isn’t really needed at all but does help sometimes.

To start with this build I relied on Storm Box, and then Siphon Souls, I maxed Necro all the way and filled up Harbringer. The last damage spell I actually put points in was Drain. Until you have that bad boy maxed out it seems really weak… then suddenly you are a facetanking mage.

Specteral Binding/Wrath is also really good to get early. Stuff just dies near you.

I have not put anything in mark of torment yet but think that should help a lot on extra hard baddies in ultimate. Gonna play with that. I also got two of these 5 minutes apart at the end of elite I can try out:
http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8987

You can see I currently have drain essence fairly well bolstered. Thats your bread and butter. I just finished elite and am starting Ultimate. I pretty much face tanked all of elite.

Random Shield Note:
The other fairly important thing I just started playing with is using a shield. That shield just happened to drop with really good prefix/suffix. So I figured why not… so far it seems to make me MUCH more tanky but at the cost of energy. I have energy absorb at 75% so on the right bosses / mobs I’m fine. But on some bosses (especially some aetherial which take longer to kill) I have to make sure I’m using pots judiciously.
If I get a better caster off hand I’ll switch it out and do some testing.

Super fun so far. I wade through baddies and trash mobs pretty much kill themselves just touching me.
I run into in the thick. Drop a seal. Hit siphon, storm box, maybe Ill Omen if its a “tough” crowd. Then you just start draining… and suddenly everyone’s gone.
I have enough oh shit skills that if there is a spike in damage the game normally saves my ass before I have to pot or hit word of renewal (which I normally keep up for movement speed).

Any questions please ask.

Again JUST started ultimate but kicking ass so far. The few times I played in crucible the build did really well.

p.s. seriously I want more fun blue/purple gears for this build! =)

Once through ultimate and once my gear isn’t all low level mostly crap I’ll try to update =)

13

I shared! in previous post!