Best Arcanist HC melee build?

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Hi

I was going to go battlemage as I love soldier.

Does spellbreaker trump battlemage ?

Leaning towards BM but I’m unsure.

Any feedback,

Not in touch with the meta

any thoughts welcomed

I’d like to play with a shield so does that mean auto-Battlemage?
TYVM

Turnip

2

I’d say Battlemage is more tanky, Spellbreaker is somewhat squishy. Spellbreaker does more damage. Battlemage is somewhat item dependent regarding his damage department, a spellbreaker does steady damage even with green items.

I leveled a spellbreaker, and he crushed normal and elite. Got to the last waypoint in ultimate with pratically very little to no farming at all, in HC. However in ultimate I needed to start using hit and run tactics with hard hitting enemies.

This is my experience after 3x lvl 85 Battlemages and 1x lvl 85 Spellbreker.

There is a battlemage build in the forums that cleared gladiator in the Crucible.

3

for hardcore definetely a battlemage! This charconcept provides
you with the necessary safety-limits when things go out of hand/
not according to plan. The soldier-skill tree is like a life-insurance which
pops up, when you made a mistake during your gameplay or when you got
very unlucky with certain monster-constelations.

regads Arkon

4

Thanks for both replies.

I did go for BM in the end because I’d love to go up the soldier tree.

PRM works better for leveling than Cadence.

When should I start moving along the Soldier skill line and is there a link to a build/ devotions for sword+board?

Should all points go into phys or some into cunning?

TYVM

Turnip

5

I actually recommend a full elemental conversion sorcerer with dual fire strike since IEE and flame touched add damage to both hands… Flame touched boost to OA works very nicely with inner focus. I made one based on nex and ortus and for the most part he kills stuff just a little slower than a deathmarked spellbreaker but he is much less squishier (granted I went with more defensive devotions on the sorcerer: I took tree of life and empyrions light whereas I could’ve gone with blind Sage) this gave me an excuse to pump spirit up to around 1200 since all my damage is elemental without the piercing component that spellbreakers have. Sorcerers have the option of letting thermite mines do the work for them on some tough bosses for melee like moosilauke while they hide behind a corner but can melee stuff just fine if they want to.