🔰 Beginner Build Compendium - 86 guides for AoM & FG expansions

[tqFan]

Added

Acid Aegis Sentinel - Leveling Journal	Acid	Sentinel	Brewshock84	1.1.9.7

[tqFan]

New build

Beginner’s 2H Ranged Lightning Savagery Vindicator (pre-Evoker)	Lightning	Vindicator	Nery	1.1.9.7

[tqFan]

New build. Also compendium adjusted to the recent disgraceful removal of HTML support.

Default Attacker
Budget Chaos Melee Dual-Wield Witch Hunter (with a Sigil)	Chaos	Witch Hunter	The_Coyote	1.1.9.7

@The_Coyote one more build and you will beat Stupid_Dragon

[tqFan]

A new build. Better late than never:

Ranged

DW Pistols
Budget Physical Ranged Dual-Wield Warlord	Physical	Warlord	The_Coyote	1.1.9.7

[tqFan]

Budget Physical Righteous Fervor S&B Shieldbreaker	Physical	Shieldbreaker	The_Coyote	9.7

[The_Coyote]

just leaving it here until @tqFan has time to update the compendium

[1.1.9.7 - 1.1.9.8] Budget Physical Blade Arc S&B Warder [SR80][Ravager of Minds]

Introduction Part five of my levelling with a shield guides. This time, it is a Warder (Soldier + Shaman) with a strong health regeneration focus. The reason for this specific build was more or less that I always wanted to find a sensible usage for this shield (Fleshwarped Bulwark), and I would say, the result is now acceptable. To add a bit more flavor, the build also uses Blade Arc as main attack instead of Cadence like my other Soldiers + something S&B guides. [promo_pic] There are alread…

[1.1.9.8] Beginner's Fire Pet Cabalist

The Necromancer is my favourite mastery in Grim Dawn and plenty powerful. My first level 100 was a Death Knight, my second was a Ritualist and my third was… not a Necromancer, but that’s not the point. I spent a lot of time playing Diablo II back in the day and my favourite character there too was the Necromancer. For the longest time, the Fishymancer build was my go-to and the ability to take your pets with you when you teleport led to hours days of fun, tele-stomping act bosses and farming loo…

[Defman]

Not related to the builds, but I wonder why this topic is not pinned in the Classes, Skills and Builds category as e.g. Build Compendium X? I know you can navigate to this topic through the Compendium topic, but it’s an extra click kekw.

[thepowerofmediocrity]

There is no Druid in the Beginner’s Build compendium so I tried to level one specifically for the forums, and it got HC deleted by Loxmere Nightmage. It was a Wind Devil Druid and it did fairly well right up to its death, but I won’t be able to take what I have and turn it into a full-on thread.

I do have a Grimtools as to what the character should look like, and I have pages of leveling instructions on farming the right areas and getting the materials needed for the bulk of the crafting you’re going to need to do for the character, so if anyone would like to take up the mantle and try and finish what I started, I can share all the information I have and make it a collaborative effort.

Here’s the Grimtools of what it was supposed to look like. It only has 2650 DA, but 7 open affixes (+ more if you want to make Stoneplate Greaves instead of using the Harvest ones) can easily fix that problem, either it be through extra Physique like “of the Boar” or through affixes that grant OA or DA. Having 4-5 of the items being craftable leads to some nifty bonuses as well. The sheer quantity of things you can craft with this build is what makes it so versatile and why I can’t just slap on a SC version and call it a day.

Druid, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

The playstyle itself is very dynamic - you’re constantly in motion allowing the Wind Devils to kill everything. It’s not meant to be a single-target juggernaut, but its AoE capabilities (especially when you get that 5th Wind Devil at Level 90) is tremendous. My original Grimtools had Wendigo Totem, but I had no place where it was better to just stand in the totem when I could be moving around to avoid the damage in the first place.

Anyone want to take on the Wind Devil Druid in my place?

[tqFan]

You’d have a more damaging build if you moved some points around into Storm Totems or TSS. You couold take points from IEE or MP.

[thepowerofmediocrity]

@tqFan

You’d have a more damaging build if you moved some points around into Storm Totems or TSS. You couold take points from IEE or MP.

My only gripe is that both Storm Totem and TSS require off-hand modifiers to operate at their maximum capacity, and the Wind Devil off-hand MI is absolutely necessary for QoL and having the extra Wind Devil for more damage. I guess if I take points from IEE, Stormcaller’s Pact and Mogdrogen’s Pact I can set Storm Totem to 18/16, but you get a breakpoint at 21/16 and there’s no way to get that without the aforementioned off-hand MI. Don’t get me started on TSS and how many points that would require for it to do damage.

If the equipment was there to support Storm Totem, I’d definitely do it, but the MI support is in direct conflict with each other. It would be interesting to compare 5 Wind Devils against 4 Devils + 3 Storm Totems, but as my character’s dead, I can’t exactly go out and test that.

[tqFan]

@thepowerofmediocrity

I can set Storm Totem to 18/16

I just meant this, taking from IEE and MP, don’t want to change your concept / gear. Your damage will be higher, on bosses you’ll be able to have 3 Storm Totems permanently. They actually stack in contrast to the first node of Devils

@thepowerofmediocrity

There is no Druid in the Beginner’s Build compendium so I tried to level one specifically for the forums, and it got HC deleted by Loxmere Nightmage. It was a Wind Devil Druid and it did fairly well right up to its death, but I won’t be able to take what I have and turn it into a full-on thread.

Please consider moving it to Softcore and continuing. Btw I personally have like 4 Beginner builds in pretty advanced state but not wanting to commit the time to finish them

[thepowerofmediocrity]

@tqFan

Please consider moving it to Softcore and continuing. Btw I personally have like 4 Beginner builds in pretty advanced state but not wanting to commit the time to finish them

I’m considering it, but adding Storm Totems to the mix would make it feel like nearly an entirely new build. When would I add them to the mix? Level 50? Level 60? It would certainly impact the level-by-level skill order and what would result could be entirely different from the playstyle I had been using up to this point. I’m not entirely sure what I will do with the character at the time.

P.S. Hope one of those advanced leveling guides is a Sorcer-er / -ess as outside of Druid that’s the only combination that hasn’t been covered yet.

[Maya]

Red Wisp - Walking Simulator Budget Pet Cabalist

Foreword: Cabalist version of my Budget Petwalker Conjurer :3 It is based around the Desecrator Covenant (Mythical Unholy Covenant) set which is Craftable. (Helmet blueprint is sold by Benevald). So… you will have to do a bit of Crafting and Transmuting… But unlike say, Bysmiel’s Trinkets, this is not some RNG drop that you might take ages to find. So, it is still “budget” in that sense. [Pet] [1.1.9.8] (budget) (L) (sr) Red Wisp - Walking Simulator Budget Pet Cabalist (Maya) Damage: P…

Another one for the list :3

[Maya]

And another one -

Dark Rose - Lazy Dark One’s Set Budget Pet Conjurer

Foreword: A Budget Pet Build using target farmable items including the Dark One’s Gift Set. Note: Requires both Ashes_of_Malmouth & Forgotten_Gods. [Pet] [1.1.9.8] (budget) (L) (sr) Dark Rose - Lazy Dark One’s Set Budget Pet Conjurer (Maya) Damage: Pets Active Skills: Summon Familiar, Summon Hellhound, Summon Briarthorn, Blood of Dreeg, Curse of Frailty, Wind Devil, Wendigo Totem Passive Skills: Bonds of Bysmiel, Mogdrogen’s Pact, Primal Bond, Ancestral Bond, Chilling Weapons (x2) WPS…

[Maya]

IceCream - Budget Forcewave Soldier

Foreword: I wanted to make a lazy Forcewave Soldier on a budget. It is built more for tankiness than damage and with the budget nature of the setup, do not expect much from it other than a relatively lazy build. Also, ideally you do not want to limit yourself to a single mastery, but this is just to show that even if you do, it will still work decently. For an endgame version of the build, look here - Creamy Fwuffy - Traumatized Warlord . [S&B Caster] [1.1.9.8] (L) (sr) Cream Force - Laz…

Idle hands make for the soldier’s workshop

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Cream Puff - Traumatized Witchblade (With Leveling Guide)

Foreword: I wanted to make a non pet build based on DoTs (Damage over Time). And I wanted to make it as lazy to play as possible. It is not exactly optimized and the concept and other things were indeed unapologetically stolen from others. This one, you can also level as either Soldier or a Pet Occultist :3 . [S&B Caster] [1.1.9.8] (g3) (L) (sr+) Cream Puff - Traumatized Witchblade (Maya) Damage: Physical, Internal Trauma Active Skills: Forcewave, War Cry, Doomforce, Blood of Dreeg, …

[Skelemental]

NVM… need a guide.

[Crab_Turtle_2112]

A beginner guide for Rune of Kalastor, at last: [1.1.9.8-1.2] Beginner Lighting Rune Paladin - With leveling guide, budget setup, end game version

[The_Coyote]

With the last two additions, for each class a levelling guide should now be available, or?
(until the next expansion drops)

[tqFan]

Yes, I didn’t know that but your observation is correct

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

highly suggest builders/guides take advantage of this awesome new feature Dammitt just added to GT

[GrimTools] Build Calculator

Build Calculator now supports skill / devotion progression. This could be a really useful feature, because build creators will now be able to include progression paths in their builds and people viewing character builds will be able to check the order in which skill / devotion points should be spent. Here’s how it looks like for skill trees. P.S. Please note that if you want to provide translations for this feature, tags_gt_calc.txt contains new strings at the end of the file. P.P.S. Currentl…