(Caster) [1.0.5.1] Cold Flames of Ignaffar - Mage Hunter

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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I’ve been playing Grim Dawn for (too) many hours on DAIL and Grimquest mods. Since AoM, I came back to the « real » game and fell in love with the Inquisitor mastery. Mage Hunter was my first toon past expansion and I never really found a build that suits me. I tried many variations though : WPS Dual Pistols, Elemental AAR, Panetti, Trozan/Storm etc. And then the Farath’s Cubedropped and I gave it a try. And I loved it.

GRIMTOOLS:

Defensive Set-up without the Mageslayer Set:

GRIMTOOLS

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Offensive Set-up with the Mageslayer Set:

GRIMTOOLS

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GAMEPLAY:

Roaming around the worldmap and in dungeons, Word of Pain + Storm of Elgoloth get rid of trash mobs. Flames of Ignaffar finishes the remaining foes off.

In boss fights, put an Inquisitor Seal under you and the boss, apply your DoT’s and cast Flames of Ignaffar. You can face-tank Valdaran and Fabius without any sweat for instance.

For defensive purposes, you have no passive circuit breaker but many active tools at your disposal : World of Renewal, Horn of Gandarr, Mirror of Ereoctes, Nullification.

Kitting is not this build’s strong suit because (1) no gap closer, (2) relatively short range of Flames of Ignaffar. With a little correct positioning, you can easily take down Kuppa and the Mad Queen.

Energy issues : none.

EQUIPMENT:

The only mandatory item is obviously Farath’s Cube.
Not mandatory, but strongly recommended is the Relic : Ignaffar’s Combustion.
And of course, the Cold Flames of Ignaffar Set, the Mageslayer.

DEVOTION:

Defensive Set-up:
Full Green and Purple to get all the powerful elemental constellations from the bottom.
Wayward Soul (Chariot of the Dead) for some sustain.
Elemental Storm (Rhowan’s Crown) linked to Word of Pain.
Elemental Seeker (Blind Sage) linked to Flames of Ignaffar.
Arcane Currents (Attak Seru) linked to Storm of Elgoloth.

Offensive Set-up:
All RR constellations possible. Harp and Ultos for some good OA damage.

LEVELING:

Inquisitor has really easy leveling with Word of Pain/ Storm of Elgoloth for damage and Word of Renewal/Inquisitor Seal for sustain. Rune of Hagarrad is a boss killer.

The Devotion path is straightforward, no twist. Rush Elemental Storm and Wayward Soul. Then fill the constellations from North to South.

When reaching Ultimate and level 94, you can switch to Flames of Ignaffar.

CONCLUSION:

PROS
*Visually appealing (all blue and white, cold and lightning, storm and freeze);
*Smooth gameplay;
*Good overall defence and damage;
*All campaign content doable.
*Lokarr fight is hard but doable.

CONS
*No circuit breaker;
*No burst.

I hope you’ll like it !

Edit 04-22-2018:
Devotion path: Oklaine’s Lantern over Whirlpool.
Masteries: Mental Alacrity maxed.
Items: more OA/DA and Cast speed oriented.
Edit 05-13-2018:
New offensive set-up, equipment and devotion path.
Edit 05-23-2018:
Offensive set-up: new weapon and aura.

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(reserved)

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Hey, I am by no means an expert on ignafar builds but isn’t your OA/DA too low? I mean you have decent crit damage but with that low OA you barely crit at all. Increasing OA by few hundreds should disproportionally increase your overall damage output. You can afford to sacrifice a lot of HP in order to achieve that.

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You’re completely right. The 4 slots in jewelry could be changed in that view. I don’t have much of a choice though, regarding my collection now :slight_smile:

And, as a former MMORPG player, I’m tend to trust the famous “a dead DPS doesn’t DPS”.

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I don’t know why you’re using FoI without cast speed focus. Max mental alacrity. Restless remains on gloves. Probably a devotion change. Also, on OA issue, Survivor’s ingenuity/sylvarria’s essence on ring/amulet. Use augments with bleed res to cap with loss of ring/ammy augments. Chains of oleron on chest. Once you get blueprint for ugdenbog leather put it on belt. Also runebound topaz on rings, seal of annihilation on amulet once you get them.

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Because I’m stupid and didn’t check if it scaled with casting speed. I was under the false impression that it had the same mechanics as DOT.

Also, on OA issue, Survivor’s ingenuity/sylvarria’s essence on ring/amulet. Use augments with bleed res to cap with loss of ring/ammy augments. Chains of oleron on chest. Once you get blueprint for ugdenbog leather put it on belt. Also runebound topaz on rings, seal of annihilation on amulet once you get them.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll try that tonight.

About my devotion: is something like this more adequate ? There’s only 2 nodes with casting speed apparently (Oklaine’s lanterne and Jackal).

devotion link

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Today i started my own magehunter and like you i got the idea by the dropping of Farath’s Cube.
I ask myself if cast speed has an impact on ignafaar but seems to be not the case. Which way i am able to see ingame which abilitys be influenced by casting speed. There is nothing written in the game guide about that?

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With AAR, you stack casting speed. For FoI, I wasn’t able to find the answer but logically it would work the same as FoI and it seems to be the case from my testing the past week. Maybe an FoI expert (Chthon ?) could make a comment.

I made some minor changes in the build (devotions and equipment) focusing on OA/DA and casting speed. I was able to take down Lokarr without dying but it wasn’t a walk in the park! (I don’t understand when I have the -DA debuff on me).

I have now 11K health, 2900 OA, 3100 DA and 180% casting speed. I’ll update the thread after testing some other equipment set-ups.

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AAR link
Proof of AAR and casting speed. and both AAR and FoI have “0.3 Second Skill Recharge”, so …

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Don’t want to sound offend, but why it is a proof if an info is written on a wiki in the internet? And why isn’t the description on FoI the same?

I want to believe it and it sounds comprehensible but for me this isn’t a proof.

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AAR of FoI both scale with cast speed. With AAR it’s really important to cap it because the majority of its damage is flat. FoI has some flat damage but relatively much more dot, so cast speed is not as important but still obviously very useful to have.

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Thanks for the confirmation.

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The grimtool has been updated to what I’m playing now. About 3200 OA and 3500 in fight.

The only encounter I can’t bear is Lokarr (killed him a bunch of times but the fight is long and hard). Nemeses (what’s the plural of Nemesis ?) and normal bosses are a walk in the park.

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I’m trying a new Devotion path, more RR oriented. As soon as my new Devotion procs are xp maxed, I will compare with Mad Queen, Nemeses and Lokarr encounters and update the guide if needed.

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Guide updated with a new Set-up: a more conventional devotion path with Harp and lots of RR.

I got the Mageslayer Set and with the 1.6.0 slight buffs on the set, Lokarr is now doable. Not in easy 20 second mode but doable with care.

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I edited this guide a last time. I made a few changes thanks to TzTz and his FoI Vindicator.

I came to the conclusion that, even with the buff in 1.0.6.0., the Mageslayer Set and FoI builds are OK but not powerful ebough. Especially with the huge investment in Mastery points needed.

I’m trying a the Runebinder Set now (WPS 2H ranged). Not even optimised, it feels way more efficient and Lokarr was surprisingly easy to take down.

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It’s nice to hear if FoI build can take down Lokarr easily :slight_smile:
I never tested my FoI for fighting Lokarr yet.

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Lokarr with this FoI build isn’t so difficult but long, not efficient and not fun.
WoP, Elgobox, then FoI; use your emergency abilities and kite/run waiting for the CD to comeback; kill the clones on the way; rinse and repeat.

I tested Lokarr with the Runebinder set and a 2h ranged WPS build + Rune of Hagarrad. And it’s pretty good compared to FoI.