Cold DW Dervish – From Campaign to Endgame (WIP/Blog Style)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Disclaimer: This is not a guide for complete beginners.
There are already many excellent beginner guides out there — I’ve learned a lot from them myself.

Shoutout to RektbyProtoss and all the amazing guides that have been created, especially this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE5Hrxin5z8&list=PL-7HuL5PyGEJ6EUWJgMEGSA2HMez4ogbO&index=9

These guides inspired me:
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-6-2-beginners-shadow-strike-infiltrator-cruise-through-endgame-in-faction-gear-and-without-keyboard/97612
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-2-1-4-the-cold-assassin-hc-beginner-cold-ss-trickster-from-the-scratch-to-easy-endgame-farming/143455

I just want to share how I built my cold dual wield Dervish.
This character is meant to be the foundation for a top 20 Deathmarked dual wield Dervish build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV7PykOZ

Since there’s no detailed Dervish guide available, I had to experiment on my own.

Leveling

I leveled partially with ABB and partially as a pure Shadow Striker.
From level 50 to around 80 I tried playing as an auto-attacker, but it didn’t feel great — so I went back to full Shadow Strike using Loxmere daggers.

Weapon Overview

Here’s a quick look at possible weapon options before transitioning into the Deathmarked set.
In my opinion, Loxmere daggers are the best, whether you play as an auto-attacker or a Shadow Striker.

Why?

  • Pure cold damage that fully scales without physical conversion
  • Very high cold damage potential — Chillstrife daggers don’t reach this level
  • All our attacks scale with weapon damage

That said, I’m happy to hear feedback from other builders, planners, or theorycrafters — I might be wrong.
RektbyProtoss uses an auto-attack build with Malkadarr’s Blades in his playthrough and it works well.
However, he plays a Reaper and gets double benefit from the weapon (Execution proc + Spectral Binding). We Dervishes only benefit from Execution.

My Level 100 Starter Setup

This is my basic level 100 build made with target-farmable MIs and faction gear:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbRxX3V

maybe this one is even better: Dervish, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Even without affixes on the MIs, I’m happy with the base setup.
Boots and gloves can be replaced with craftables — focus on physical resistance and attack speed.

Preferred rolls on the MIs:

  • Cold Damage
  • Attack Speed
  • Offensive Ability (OA)

Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions!

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I’ll be posting updates in this thread as I go — kind of like a blog.

every now and then I reset my grimdawn save file and play a build from the scratch, just for fun, cause the game is fun and i dont like other arpgs that much.

Right now, my character is in the final stages of the campaign. After that, I plan to tackle the roguelike dungeons one by one, then Lokarr, Shattered Realm, and maybe even Crucible. Stay tuned!

Thats the hero right now - called coldbomb - on his way to finish the campaign. Not min maxed

I changed some stuff - now i am broke
I did Lokkar - more Stun resistant would be nice

This would be the new Basic Build Dervish, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

This is the Hero I did Lokkar with

Sadly I cant facetank him and I am not the best skilled gamer, but I can kill him on repeat. All you have to do is dodge the Sunder, and/or the attack after the Sunder, if you get sundered, you have to run like chicken

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Leveling Weapon Comparison & Rationale

I wanted to determine which weapons perform best during leveling, so I built 4 separate Grimtools setups using:

  • Loxmere Blades
  • Chillstrife Daggers
  • Malkadarr’s Blades
  • Spectral Longswords

My focus was on two key stats:

  • Weapon Attack
  • Weapon Damage

All other variables were kept as identical as possible between builds.

Results: Endgame DPS Snapshot (with and without Lethal Assault)

Weapon Weapon Attack Attacks/sec DPS Weapon Damage Notes
Loxmere 10101 2.44 24646.44 6734 Loxmere Number 1
Chillstrife 8599 2.44 20981.56 5732
Malkadarr’s Blade 7782 2.6 20233.20 5188
Loxmere + Lethal Assault 13688 2.44 33398.72 9125 Loxmere Number 1

Loxmere blades clearly had the best performance both in raw weapon attack and damage scaling — especially with Lethal Assault active.

Physical → Cold Damage Conversion

Source Conversion %
Coldstone 1 10%
Coldstone 2 10%
Ellena’s Necklace 8% to 12%
Weapon 1 10% to 18%
Weapon 2 10% to 18%
  • Best-case total: 48%
  • Worst-case total: 68%

This conversion plays a big role for weapons that deal partial physical damage.

Weapon Comparison (Leveling DPS Focus)

Weapon Weapon Attack Attacks/sec DPS Comment
Loxmere 2053 1.93 3962.29 1 – Pure cold damage, fully scales
Chillstrife 1469 1.93 2835.17 2 – Pure cold damage, fully scales
Malkadarr’s Blade 1101 2.11 2323.11 3 – Includes physical damage component
Spectral Longsword 1197 1.91 2286.27 4 – Includes physical damage component

Conclusion & Build Direction

Based on this comparison, Loxmere Blades had the highest weapon attack and cold weapon damage scaling. The natural next step was to fully commit to a Shadow Strike build rather than investing in auto-attack replacers like Righteous Fervor or Shard of Beronath.

If you’re leveling a Cold Dervish, I highly recommend keeping an eye out for Loxmere Nightblades — they seem unmatched in raw scaling and synergy with cold damage and Shadow Strike.

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Looks really cool. nice job :clap:

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Progress Update – Gear, Thoughts & Dungeon Clears

I’ve managed to farm even better gear — mostly through dungeons and totem runs.

I have to say, it’s been really fun playing something that’s a mix of self-made ideas and inspiration from existing guides.
That said, I do feel like this is one of the weaker “beginner” builds I’ve played. Over time, I’ve definitely had builds that performed better with less gear and fewer mechanics to manage.

What’s the issue with my build?

I can die if I’m not careful.
Unlike builds like Blackwater Cocktail or Storm Totem, which naturally play more safely and constantly kite, I have to make quick, confident decisions:
Can I facetank this, or do I need to kite?

Most of my deaths — or rather, my only real deaths — so far were:

  • Against Lokarr:
    I got hit by a stun + shotgun combo. I honestly don’t know how to push my stun resistance higher without giving up too much elsewhere. I’ve tried different devotions, but then I lose way too much armor and damage.
  • Against the Undead Nemesis (2nd Phase):
    He stuns or slows (not entirely sure), and then crushes me.

Other than that, every fight becomes a constant check:
Can I facetank this? Or is it time to kite?
If you can read the fights well, the build actually performs pretty decently — but again, I believe there are other builds out there that simply do this better.

Video & Progress

Here’s another video showing recent progress:

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Nice to see a cold version of a beginner Dervish.

Couple ideas:

  • Test a devo map with Yugol instead of Levi. Not having Damage Reduction applied to monsters means you take 17-18% more damage, than you should.

  • More HP. Less than 17-18k means you will eat dirt more than necessary. Lots of boss monsters are capable of dealing 10k+, so at 14k you constantly have to be worried about chip damage and eating unlucky bursts.

  • Boots are a good source of stun res. Try Elite Legion Greaves, when in doubt.

  • Silver Sentinel set seems to be a perfect fit here. It’s easy to transmute into it, transmuting blues is really affordable. Give it a try, all it takes is 3-4 random blue set pieces and ~1 million iron.

  • Maybe Galeslice’s Mark and 1 Spectral Longsword to convert the flat pierce? I saw you did some math on the damage issue, but I find timing it on a dummy gives more accurate results.

  • 40 second Lokarr isn’t bad for a starter build, by any means. Just sayin.

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Crucible Run – Surprisingly Easy

I gave the Crucible DLC a try — with just 4 tributes — and it was an absolute faceroll.
Either Crucible has gotten easier over time, or this build is genuinely strong in that specific format.

Here are the YouTube videos:
:arrow_forward: https://youtu.be/sPm4qtaHQEM
:arrow_forward: https://youtu.be/-D1lN8ETiy8

What’s Next?

At this point, the only real long-term goal left is the grind:

  • Finish collecting the full set
  • Upgrade Monster Infrequents with better affixes

I’ve already found part of the set and also picked up the matching Conduit of Divine Whispers, so the foundation is there.