Build Theory : Blood Orb

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Got a Blood Orb of Ch’Thon earlier…Looks shweet. I was already farming to try and get the Outcast’s Secret, thinking I would try and make a multi-devastation build. Looking at Blood Orb…Well, now I’m wondering how a combination would go, maybe Arcanist/Occultist for some Warlock action.

So I did some digging, and I made a little theory craft…But it kinda seems like I’m missing something. So I thought I’d post it here and check, before I went out of my way to be looking for gear for this.

Obviously would be using Outcast’s Secret, and Blood Orb.
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8888-Outcast’s-Secret
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8280-Blood-Orb-of-Ch’thon

Also thinking three pieces of the Clariovoyant’s Set, can’t use four because the last is a hat.
http://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/The_Clairvoyant

I did spot the amulet that acts similarly to the Secret helm, Arcane Shard of Agrivix…With the Blood Orb on, that WOULD be converted, right? Even though it’s an item skill?
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/9064-Arcane-Shard-of-Agrivix

I thought about trying to do it pure caster, but with Blood Orb, and scaling Chaos/Aether…Aether Ray was the only thing I saw where that would really work out on Arcanist, and nothing stuck out on Occultist. So I thought perhaps maybe a melee style, when I wasn’t casting Devastations. Solael’s, the Transmuter, Reckless Power, Iskandra’s, and do Aether/Chaos mostly.

That did raise some questions there however, namely…Can anyone see a better casting option, other than Ray? Can I even use a Scepter in melee, I’ve never tried it. I figured, since I didn’t have a melee attack on either tree, I’d use the skill from


Does that have a CD? Would the Phys-Elemental on Iskandra do me any good, or would it not chain convert? I didn’t think we could chain convert in Grim Dawn.

Assuming melee works, then I’d be thinking https://grimcalc.com/build/1007-Aqhp2z generally.
If it doesn’t, then Ather Ray seems to be where it’s at, and that’d be https://grimcalc.com/build/1007-at5dGM

Answers, suggestions, and opinions are welcome. I’ve not particularly made many casters so far in Grim Dawn, so I can’t say as I’m certain on all the ins and outs. Also, if anyone can think of another Devastation styled item skill/proc of any kind, or maybe a Devotion, that would go well with this build, I’d appreciate it.

Really, the dream here is I drop a Devastation, which triggers Secret, which triggers Shard, and then whatever hero/boss was under that mess just kinda dies before the rubble clears. Obviously I can’t just drop Devastations forever though, so I need something to clear the trash with when it gets in my way.

2

It occurs to me that I am perhaps too tired. I was skipping Sky Shard because it wouldn’t be Ather/Chaos…and I didn’t notice Callidor’s Tempest.

http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-Mz0pku

Maybe Tempest over Ray. IDK. Not tried either.

3

Using q blood orb with the clairvoyant set doesn’t do you much good. Outside the set scaling chaos and aether at the same time is difficult at best. Better bet is choose either aether or chaos and go all in. For working around devestation i belice callidors tempest to be a good option. Or AAR in which case a low cooldown devestation/AoE procs are your trash clearers and the ray (+devestation) does in bosses.

Melee with a spell blade and spell tome is pretty much dead on arrival though. Both figuratively and literally.

4

I’d avoid skyshard. It is rather lackluster even when your gear is set up for it. Using gear more devoted to devestation or whatever the blood orb supports with skyshard as an addon sounds painful. And not for your enemies.

5

Really, no dice on Clairvoyant? I’d figured with the damage on the pieces I was wearing, and all the plus skills on the skills I’d be using…Seemed BiS. What else would you use to get Aether/Chaos scaling late game?

Melee would be that bad, eh? Well, I suppose it’s not a surprise. Seemed a bit of a stretch to try and plan around an item skills anyways.

As for choosing entirely Aether or Chaos…Seems…Limiting. Going 100% either would be rather tricky as is, and then my ONLY option would be Ray, because that alone could become pure Chaos. Everything else would still be partly one or the other, as far as I can see, unless I went Sky Shards, which we both agree would be lackluster here.

I get trying to focus on mostly Aether or Chaos scaling, but wasting the other half of my damage by not scaling it at all seems like a bad idea. At least, in this game it does, where every skill seems to be doing more than one damage type for some reason.

Sometimes, you have to wonder if people in Grim Dawn do so many different damage types with everything because they’re all just awful at making decisions.

6

This item is the biggest red herring in GD. It looks awesome on paper because it gathers so many skills/items into a single damage type, but the problem is that it’s the worst damage type in the game, by far. You are much better off leaving elemental damage as elemental damage, because Vulnerability reduces elemental resistance, but not chaos (for some reason, even though it’s a major damage type for Occultist). Best part it, one of the rare items that has a 0 cd chaos resistance reduction also uses the same item slot, go figure.

I did find one use for Blood Orb though: If you find it, find a dynamite as well and give it to the apprentice in DC to blow it up. You will get a rare crafting component, then repeat that 7 times and use those components to craft a legendary that doesn’t screw up your char when you use it.

7

many people try it, and some of them seems to succeed at making builds at least decent. here’s one of the most recent thread

i’m not saying Silben and GeneralCash are wrong as i didn’t try it myself yet (and i don’t have any Blood Orb to begin with:D ). for my Warlock i’m tied between try the double conversion as above or go full Aether, so i’m happy to hear new advices in that regard :slight_smile:

8

Zars made it work: http://grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47227

However it was for 1.0.0.6.

I followed the guide and have all the items etc- however in current game version i dont like how it plays out - its not a weak build, you can finish all end-game content (maybe with big luck you can do Gladiator Crucible) but somehow i dont enjoyment of its playstyle.

Going to switch it to Chaos AAR build, courtesy of Jov, using Black Flame set.

9

The PRM version seems pretty interesting.

TBH, I do seem to find people listing Aether and Chaos as “bad” damage types, or saying that, if your build can’t resist reduce your enemies, it’s “bad”…Sometimes I get tired of waiting for multiple debuffs before I do damage, you know? I like my Chaos Cadence guy, but I get tired of having to wait for my devotion to proc, and me to slap Solael’s Flame on a boss, before the boss actually starts to take real damage.

Sometimes, I would rather just hit really hard and fast, and let things die that way. So I think I will try some Blood Orb shenaniganizing. Because why not?

10

There is an overabundance of efficiency focus on builds in this forum (although strangely very little detailed math to back it up at times), I wouldn’t sweat it unless you’re going for easy nemesis/uber/crucible kills.