Best v1.0.0.5 Arcanist PRM build for Ult?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hi guys,

Let me start off by sincerely apologizing for perhaps asking this question for the billionth time.

I love this game and I love the concept of the PRM build but I’ve hit a rut and I’m just so confused.

I need someone to help/guide/or just downright give me the cookie-cutter build for a PRM arcanist that just wrecks Ultimate difficulty. I don’t mind guzzling down pots and kiting as long as I can kill bosses without problems. I don’t have a lot of time to mess around with builds, unfortunately, so I’m asking for help from you guys who are probably more experienced.

I’m looking for a build where:

  1. I just spam PRM (and maybe devastation)
  2. Perhaps use OFF to kite

Something similar to this - grimcalcDOTcom/build/IDjmeXQ (sorry I can’t post links yet)

My problem is that I don’t know if builds like this use Physique, or if I should I go full Spirit. I don’t know if I should take up a secondary mastery, and if I would will it be Soldier or Occultist or Demo.

I would also really appreciate if someone could give me the devotion path. I’ve seen builds that incorporate meteor shower or arcane bomb into PRM and I’d love that but this devotion system is just too complex for my stupid mind and I’m hoping someone can spell out the devotion path for me.

Thank you so much in advance.

2

Go mostly physique.
Definitely pick 2nd class. Demo or Occultist would go well. Soldier and nightblade are decent also.

3

Since no class defitinely synergizes with PRM, go for the one that has utility features you want.

Never go full spirit. You might have to throw a few points to hit the requirements for legendary offhands (~700), but it depends on the 2nd class.

As for devotion, I suggest to start by hitting Rhowan’s Crown and attaching it to your PRM.

4

Aetherfire is beastly on PRM, actually. It spreads everywhere very fast, and the confusion is nice.

Also, I’d personally recommend Occultist for PRM build, mostly due to access to CoF to amp most of PRM’s elemental damage.

If you want to invest in a Warpfire, you can also go Sorc, and convert the cold damage of PRM into Fire, and have PRM just do Fire/Lightning/Aether damage. Run with Flame Touched for more fire/lightning damage, and OA, use Vindictive Flame for more casting speed and a defensive self-proc, and rank up Reckless Power for raw casting speed, fire damage, and aether damage.

http://grimcalc.com/build/c4vyeV5

You don’t really get any Fire damage from devotions, but you do get Aether and lightning, two parts of the PRM, and you get a TON of durability via Tree, Lizard, Ulo, and Giant. As your masteries bring enough damage up front, it’s worth it overall.

You can also go the Fire double dip in devotions, for the maximum possible fire damage, via Blind Sage and Meteor Shower, but you will be made of paper unless your other class is bringing a TON of durability. https://grimcalc.com/build/CdJzaXp

Ignore the fact that that’s a spellbreaker mastery set (I have it for my fire/aether P-blades build), the devotions don’t care about that. You will have durability issues unless you find a way to get a ton of durability from other sources (Iskandra’s set would be a big boon here, possibly required to function even in endgame ultimate due to how squishy you are). Blind Sage gets the double dip on fire damage via warpfire, so that helps it’s damage output significantly especially with how much raw fire damage you have.

5

+1 to that

I’ve had the most success with Warpfire for the conversion + sorc second, sorc is just a really good support class and when you use warpfire you get rid the cold damage you now have thermite mines giving you huge -fire/lightning debuff. Works out very well

I could survive fine without the iskandra set (don’t go full retard though!), but chose to use the 3 piece which gives massive physical resist just to make life easy. Ulzuin’s head piece is really nice for the fire/lightning debuff though

If you lack any gear I’d probably go occultist

6

Thank you to all of you that replied. :slight_smile:

I have some follow up questions:

  1. Is warp fire a weapon that you can craft or is it a random world drop or is it some boss loot that I can farm? I’m just starting this game so I don’t have any idea where to get equipment like warpfire or panettis wand or the Iskandra set that I keep seeing being mentioned around here in the forums.

As I am a total noob, I’m leaning more towards the Occultist secondary right now just to get the heals and the slow. I’m thinking it might not be as high dps as Demo but it might help with survivability, but if warp fire is a weapon I can get easily (meaning I don’t have to depend on RNG too much) then the sorcerer route is looking very attractive as well.

  1. Regarding the attribute point distribution, what ratio would you suggest? 2:1-Phy:Spi or 1:1-Phy:Spi or something like dump all points in Phy until level 20 then go Spi afterwards?

  2. I’m still super confused by devotions. How do you guys know which devotions to get first, and then the next and so on?

7
  1. It’s a legendary weapon. Legendary weapons are quite rare, and getting the one you want is even more challenging. Don’t expect to get all of the items people talk about here anytime soon.

Actually, demo is better for survivability.

  1. Invest into Phy at the beginning, but then save around 15 attribute points in case you need some spirit for gear reqs.

  2. Experience

8

@OP: I would pick demo. I am playing a melee Quick Jacks build and I was surprised by how solid it is despite its low health.

Maxed flashbang and its modifier it great at proccing “on attack” effects from devotion and gear, it applies to almost the whole screen, works on bosses, and essentially prevents 40% of the incoming damage. And that is only from fumbling attacks, if you count the confusion (50%) and slowness effects (-30%) on average it reduces trash mobs dps by 80%.

Also the Vindictive Flame line is pretty awesome in my opinion. Every 1.5s a good amount of enemies will be knocked down by the lightning, and you get +%total speed.

On top of that, demo has a lot of fire/lightning damage which synergies nicely with your elemental damage from PRM. You can pick an Warpfire dagger to convert cold damage to fire. It will make OFF crazy strong as a damage dealer and debuff, and your missiles are now 2/3 Fire 1/3 Lightning instead of 3/3 Elemental.

9

It’s called Warpfire, not Aetherfire

10

Inattention mistake!

11

You might wanna take a look at this thread as well: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34478

It went for Battlemage instead of Sorcerer to get super tanky and be able to facetank anything. DPS is obviously lower like that, but you need to be much less careful about dieing.
Just to give you a different option.