Some heroes wrestle elephants. Some heroes have magic tricks up their sleeves. Some heroes are swift like a mongoose. Some heroes have dominion over Nature’s elements. Some heroes make dark pact with forbidden entities.
But you, well… you are just pretty darn smart.
Hi and welcome to one of the very few single mastery build. If your ultimate ARPG fantasy is to play a regular dude kicking the butts of titans, sorcerers and eldritch beasts, this guide is for you !
The demolitionist mastery is perhaps the strongest one to play with no other mastery support. It indeed contains all of this very desirable things:
-: AoE
-: Single target damage
-: Control
-: OA manipulation
-: Resist manipulation
-: Damage debuff
So you might ask: Why isn’t there more demoliotionists out there ? Because they are not as smart as you are, ahah ! That or maybe because Demolitionist doesn’t synergise easily with the other masteries. And mixing masteries is one of the most fun things to do in Grim Dawn. When you want to mix Demo with another mastery, you end up 90% of the time with some sort of firestriker.
Pros
-: Very agressive.
-: Control freak. If it can be CC’ed, it can’t touch you.
-: Best area coverage in the game. Except for the Nuclear Scientist custom mastery with the infamous Nuke Current Area Map skill.
-: Ranged.
-: EXPLOSIONS !
Cons
-: Low stats due to only 50 points invested in mastery bar.
-: 6 buttons to press.
-: Energy intensive against strongest bosses.
-: Can’t cap every resistance with BiS gear. (Still at 50% min)
-: Motion Sickness due to permanent screen shaking.
Core idea of the build
Invest points into the “lob” skills and use your devotions defensively.
Grimcalc for absolutely necessary target with skill bonuses
Grimcalc with bis gear (no skill bonuses)
Stats
Be very careful with your stats since you only have 50 skillpoints in mastery. The gear I suggest asks for ~600 physique and ~500 spirit. You have way enough attribute points to reach this so you can put points where you want. But don’t put 30 points into cunning or equipping item will get difficult.
Gear
-: Does this build work if my gear mostly consists in Ferocious Sewn Sweater of the Badger ?
Yes, it does ! This build can be used as your first character evar ! However, I do suggest you put aside your grandmother Christmas gift and work toward finding:
-: Ulzuin’s Precious
-: Ulzuin’s Fancier-than-your-grandmother-one Sweater
-: Ulzuin’s Stove
-: Ulzuin’s Eye Poker (particularly powerfull against Dreeg)
-: Ulzuin’s Champion Belt
-: Aldanar’s Useful Stick
-: Devil’s Talking Gun
-: Ulzuin’s Bauble
-: Golem’s Feet
-: Wyrmbone gloves
-: Tranquil mind legss
-: Mark of divinity
-: Time flux ring
-: Entropic ring
Is this the absolute best gear setup ? Maybe not. But it should be close enough.
With terrible gear, you need BWC + CB to clear an average pack. With good gear, you can have BWC clear one pack while CB clears another. You will also need to kite a bit more with weak gear. (While I am mostly facetanking in SoT with good gear).
Video
A video of Madam Science indulging her hobby for archeology.
Skills review
Stun Jacks
Your first contact with lob skills. I suggest slowly leveling Stun Jacks as soon as possible as it provides enough damage to be your main damage skill up to level 30 as long as your smack your opponents’ face with a big enough weapon while they are stunned. However, leave Full Spread at 1 until very late: your main element while leveling will soon become fire.
The transmuter is useless for us: Stun Jacks has a very long stun duration and shotguns way easier without the transmuter.
1.0.5 update: more damage. Free of charge. I guess we can deal with it.
Flashbang
IMO the strongest skill line in the entire game. Huge control. Huge DA debuff… Only 22 skill points (even less with +skills since Searing Light ultimates are meh). Everything this skill does, it does it very well. And it does do a lot of different stuff. However, Stun Jacks is enough control for a long time so don’t feel pressured to invest in this before lvls 40-60.
Push one button. Half the screen is (as good as) dead. Neat !
Black Water Cocktail
This skill is only useful as a huge AoE strong damage heavy debuffing skill.
That’s it I guess ? Lvl this skill after Cannister Bomb. Or before. Doesn’t matter.
Vindictive Flame
The damage is ok-ish. The speed is nice-ish. The control is cool-ish. Overall, a very nice skill that sadly suffers from lack of skillpoints. I like it but it must remain a one point wonder.
Grenado
Targeting is horrible. Flies very slowly. Radius is abysmal. Mana cost is humongous. But it does crit for 40k on average so I guess it’s ok.
Lvl this one last. You can’t handle the mana cost until very late. Actually, you can’t handle it late game either… But you use it anyway because big crits are cool, wouhou ! 1.0.5 update: mana cost was significantly lowered ! While energy is still an issue when multiple UC procs happen, it has become manageable. Also a slight damage buff with the conversion change.
Canniste Bomb
This deals huge damage in a huge radius. Why does it deal that much damage ? I am not sure. Somehow this shotguns a lot more than the raw stats let’s you think. You don’t need the trasnmuter because you already have way enough control. Stun jacks is a stronger stun anyway. Lvl this after Stun jacks or BWC.
Mortar Trap
One point for fun every once in a while. It’s good, but you are better.
Thermite Mine
One point to say: “I am a super min-maxer who gets the best out of every single skill. This -% res is awesome !”
Only actually use it one end act bosses and Nemesis. You don’t need the strong but clunky debuff.
Blast Shield
Automatic weaker Mirror of Ereoctes. It even has the same cooldown now ! Before ultimate you only need ~5 points in it to nullify dots. Max it when you reach ultimate and mobs actually start landing some dangerous hits.
Ulzuin’s Chosen
Alternative build name. It’s the strongest ultimate in the game because it doesn’t reserve/cost any energy ! Or it’s the weakest. I don’t know. One or the other. The only ultimate that costs 50 skillpoints minimum (since you kind of need at least 2 skills it boosts) !
It’s objectively bad. But it’s fun. So it’s ok.
Well… Actually it would be ok if the fun provided wasn’t severly diminished by the constant energy issues it creates. I am serious when I claim all this skill needs is a serious energy cost reducer. It would still be niche (since it’s the epitome of unsynergistic), but a very fun niche !
1.0.5 update: the lowered mana cost of grenado did some real good on the energy consumption issue. It could still use a boost to flow perfectly but a noticeable improvement nonetheless.
Attachment: BOOM.jpg
