Cabalist - build tweaking help for Crucible.

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hi.

I am struggling heavily in Crucible , no problem at all with any boss in the main game.

Can’t even finish Challenger , always die to wave 160 never get pas this, so gladiator is out of the question.

Not sure what’s wrong with my build apart from not having max resistances for chaos and pierce, but that is another thing I want to ask you how to do that as I used all the slots for components and augments.

Advise and suggestions welcome.

As a first time poster I am not able to post links here it says that my post count is low. Please attach this to grimtools dot com to get the link to my build.

/calc/a2dvnxdZ

2

Succeeding with a skele cabalist in crucible is often a matter of skill. That aside, grab a Beastcaller helmet and get your devotions in order (it’s a WH chaos build so Dying God + Aeon, not Mogdrogen, drop Manticore as Witching Hour gives you flat rr, etc.). Get rid of nonsense components like Mutated Scales or Bindings of Bysmiel and maybe put something on your belt? You can’t just succeed in the hardest challenge in GD if you slip like forgetting to put a component in one of your items…

Also, Mogdrogen Blessing is the to-go augment for jewelry. Try Mogdrogen Ardor relic instead for pet resistances. Try Eldritch Mirror Augment for head/chest. Get some Decay for damage reduction.

Anyways, a skele build has to be perfectly fine tuned for max damage or you’ll die in crucible for sure.

3

As ya_ said, Dying God + Aeon’s Hourglass is a better devotion setup for Witching Hour pet builds. Time Dilation gives you better uptime for Witching Hour’s active skill (and the actives on Beastcaller’s Cowl and Sovereign Ruby of Domination), and Dying God has extra chaos bonus damage (the non-pet bonuses apply to pets too because it’s an aura). Time Dilation also helps you resummons skeletons faster when you need to.

Manticore’s resistance reduction doesn’t stack with Witching Hour. Things that say “X reduced target’s resistances” don’t stack, where as things that say “-x% resistance” do.

I disagree with ya_ about the augments. Mender’s Powder is really good for helping keep skeletons alive. Aether and Chaos resistance are really important.

Eldritch Mirror is the preferred component for both helm and chest armor on pet builds, they do stack when you have two of them. Probably use Silk Swatch on the pants, and Sacred Plating on shoulders, and probably use Black Tallow on the medal (if you still need more chaos after changing devotion setups). Also use Seal of Ancestry on the Amulet if you can.

If you have it, Mythical Fiendflesh is really really good for that kind of a build. It provides massive pet resistances which will do a lot to help keep them alive, and also provides you with good resistances and some absorption.

I would recommend heavy investment into a second pet, either Familiar or Blight Fiend (or both). Use Circlet of the Great Serpent and Unstable Anomaly if you want to go Blight Fiends (Blight Burst is the most important skill in the Blight Fiend tree, btw), or use Mythical Will of Bysmiel if you want to go with Familiar. There are a lot of skill points you could free up, here is an example of where you can take them from (your build with unnecessary points removed): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLDmqLV

Mogdrogen’s Ardor is probably the relic you’d want to use, the resistances are pretty important.

I don’t know whether you’re using them or not because you didn’t say, but the crucible buffs make a HUGE difference. It’s very very difficulty to clear Gladiator on a skeleton build without them.

You can look at these threads for some ideas of how to balance all of what I mentioned above.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77518
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80282

4

Thank you guys.

The belt dropped today and I just replaced it, didn’t played since then.
Unfortunately I did not found the recipe so far for Mogdrogens ardor nor the Mythical version of the Beastcaller helmet ( have only the low level version ) and no lucky drop for the Fiendflesh shoulders.
Mutated scales I used because I always felt I have very little hp pool. What do you suggest instead for gloves ?

5

Small thing, it seems that you have overinvested in Will of the crypt.

Also, even the non-mythical Beastcaller helm is very good.

6

Whatever fixes your resists. Default would be Ugdenbog Leather or Spellscourged Plating. For hp Enchanted Earth is often better than Mutated Scales.

As for Mender Powder, it’s hard to disagree with pet king but I think with Mog Ardor and additionally Fiendflesh shoulders - once you’re less desperate for aether res - this slot is better used to boost offense. But until then Sigatrev is right ofc. Those res are critical.

7

Are you certain? I was under the impression that item and most devotion cd durations are not affected by Time Dialation - only skill cds. (except maybe Hungering Void, as that may be considered an activatable devotion skill).

While CDR affects devotions and skills, but not items.

8

Pretty sure. That’s how Witching Hour’s been played since forever. But I also heard something about item procs not being affected by TD, Belgothian and Eternity relics but the talk was about procs like Battlecry from of Kings or Barbaros pants. I’m not sure that’s true, never checked. But item skills that you activate yourself as well as devotions are affected for sure.

9

Well, WH has 15 uptime and 30 sec cd. The cd may start right after activation. Beastcaller Cowl has 12 and 20.

Has anyone seen a 30s uptime on WH, for example; has anyone actually timed it? (assuming ~30%cdr and TD, and cd starting upon activation)

I have read so many conflicting opinions on the forum and it would be nice to confirm. :undecided:

10

Watch the icons on the skill bar in this video. You can see Time Dilation applying within the first 10 seconds. It affects both Witching Hour and Call of the Beast.

11

Thanks!

I watched the first minute or so.

Definitely can see TD slicing into WH. The 6s difference is distinct there.

Call of the beast is harder to tell: cd was looking like 14,12,12 - which I suspect is TD kicking in each time (or bad concentration on my part).

So item-activates must be applicable to TD. Item-activates meaning skills that activate from the skill bar.

Edit: By logical extension then, Item-activates likely work with cdr, too - but that build has only 4% so I couldn’t say with certainty (~1s of difference is a bit tight for the eye).

So thanks again.

12

Active skills from items are affected by TD, eternity and similar cdr types. Passive procs are not affected. Both skill types are not affected by %cdr (star pact, offhand etc.)

Witching hour skill is active so yeah TD works with it, same with beastcaller.

13

@sigatrev

Hi there. I was kinda lucky today and dropped the recipe for both the Mythical Beastcaller helmet and Mogdrogen ardor so now I am trying to recreate your build, but found a few issues with it.

I don’t really like the Blizzard skill on the Raven so is there any other place to invest those 4 points ? Going this requires to switch the neck as well in order to summon a 2nd Familiar which means 1. ) I give up the Ruby of Domination. I really really love that amulet and boost and by going TD it’s even better and 2. ) I need to invest skill points in to Raven. Raven does lightning dmg and this is a chaos build right ? Also blizzard is cold. I don’t see the synergy here.

What is the point of going Ulo ? You have poison rez from Blood of Dreeg and ele rez is not an issue, all I see there is the chaos resistance for pets. There is also no skill assigned. Is Ulo just for the devotion points ?

I binded Reap Spirit to Dying god as I am very used to have that on my right mouse button. I use it for Shepherds call and really liked it. Thought Hungering Void can be binded to Raven if I skip Blizzard and I find a way to keep the Crook but nope, it has to be a spell which pretty much sucks for me because having lots of active skills is really not what I want and it is also against my lazy playstyle. I just want to spam buffs.

I was running CLaw of Hagarasz with Eye of Domination, both crafted until I finally get my hands on a Witching hour. What do you think of this 1h + offhand combo ? I had 95 % pet ele rezist with that off hand which was really nice.

The spell bar is my last question. You mentioned something in your build post that you have your mana pots binded to W in case you need it. I run out of mana pretty quickly now and will be adding Beastcaller buff soon which will be even worse. Looking at your bar it looks like you have just the buffs there, what do you do when your pets die ? Is it possible to do custom button bindings for different spells ? Let’s say I want my skeletons on R and Fiend on T etc. ? Does the spell needs to be in the skill bar in order to use the button ? If my pets die I have to switch the bars with Y and then press the correct number to summon it and then switch again back with Y to the main skill bar which is really inconvenient especially in a messy situation with lots of mobs around like in the Crucible.

Can you please shed some light on this please ?