Does Phys/Shield Warlord only come good late game?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hi guys

Just a quick Q. Are warlords (physical, shield, retal) totally lackluster until late/end-game? That’s the sense I get from searching this question, but I’ve been building it as such because I like to level a character in the form it will take end-game.

I’m currently building a number of characters (I jump about a lot), my Warlord is currently lvl 71. However, he is garbage compared to my other builds, especially Caster Druid / 2H Ranged Purifier, who are in ultimate and are absolute monsters.

I’ve read that shield builds tend to lack damage but make up for it in insane survivability. However this build, while definitely lacking in damage, also has no better survivability. Wendigo Totem + Giant’s Blood + Wayward Soul + Maiven’s/Mirror (plus caster cooldowns) on my Druid, or Blast Shield + Giant’s Blood + Inquisitor Seal + ADCtH + HP regen on Purifier, greatly outclass Overguard + Stone Form. Stone Form, for instance, with a 100% block recovery and 60%+ chance to block doesn’t seem to proc nearly as much as I expected. There seem to be a lot of magical & AoE attacks that you cannot block.

I’ve also read that this build is quite gear dependent, and unfortunately I don’t seem to have come across much by way of suitable weapons or other specific gear. Should I shelve the build until I find some equips, or maybe it is necessary to spec into a 2H soldier-heavy build until late game?

Thanks!

2

4-5 things are always going to be better than 2 things.

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3

It depends entirely on how you’re levelling it. 2-handed Forcewave or 2-handed Blade Arc should manage fine on the Soldier side or Vire’s Might on the Oathkeeper side for your standard strong levelling skills.

Melee Cadence is going to have issues, especially if it’s 1-handed. It naturally lacks good AoE when compared to skills like Forcewave/Blade Arc (as mentioned above) or Primal Strike as examples and relies on skill modifiers or gear/devotion procs or WPS with AoE to cover it in those area - things you’re not going to have for a significant amount of your levelling experience, thus Cadence is going to clear crowds slowly. Not ideal.

Retaliation is in a similar position to Cadence but mainly because it is reliant on gear to provide the bulk of it’s damage bonuses, especially end game gear. So again, a lot of your levelling experience is going to involve clearing or killing things slowly.

4

He looks something like this skill-wise (i’ve set the numbers to include equip skill bonuses) + devotions

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NOGDWYN

Equips are mainly blue / greens, Praetorian, Royal Exuberance rings, Juggernaut relic, standard stuff.

So all in all my defensive circuit includes Overguard, Stone Form, Dryad, Juggernaut Heal, ADctH (though small), and of course Shield Block. But it seems quite underwhelming and damage output is pitiful… only around 10k DPS. If he killed faster, I don’t think there’d be a problem. But unlike my other builds, whose damage increase came quickly & naturally at this level, usually with the introduction of more powerful devotions (with spells to attach them to), I see no straight line to big DPS increase, except a complete rework and reequipping…

I did start this char in Elite though, which is obviously quite a bit harder than levelling Normal, though I’ve done this with quite a few characters without much problem

Thanks for the input!

5

Hi.
My first build was a Warlord. He surely cannot compete at damage with my follow up builds like my DW Infiltrator/Dervish/Shieldbreaker/Blademaster.
Well, its the shield which cuts off alot of damage, so you have to try to squeeze every damage where you can.
So here is some suggestions i will try to explain on behalf of my own Warlord build which is only my opinion of course.
My actual build for comparison or to give some ideas:
Features:
Permanent Overguard = -100% Block Recovery @ 70-80% Block Chance
200% Attack Speed most of the time
Good OA/DA (2800)
High Armor (4200)
Moderate Phys Res (27%)
High RR (-122%)
Good ADctH (17%)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1vEMLZ

  1. You could drop Menhir’s Bulwark for Oleron’s Rage for more damage and massive OA and another flat IT damage which ignores enemy armor.
  2. You could go Markovian Advantage instead of Jugdement for DA-shred, its a WPS instead of active skill, so thats quite a improvement.
  3. 10% more RR and a significant damage reduction on enemies if you would switch Shattering Smash with Warcry, which can compensate somewhat the dropping of Menhir’s Bulwark for Oleron’s Rage.
  4. If you go Warcry instead of Shattering Smash for RR and skipping Jugdement than you still have the same button gameplay.
  5. Give Zolhan’s Technique a try to increase total WPS %
  6. Although Obelisk of Menhir maybe strong, you could go Shieldmaiden only and then go down to get Ulzaad/Rhowan’s Scepter/Oleron which in total gives significant damage.
  7. Counterstrike 1 point is very good investment whatsoever
  8. One thing i did try and is something which i am still considering to go for is high Cunning instead of Physique but then there is Military Conditioning, well…

As a sidenote: This Warlord build was able to get me deeper in SR Ultimate than all my other DW builds so far besides Shieldbreaker which is not there yet.

I hope you can find a way to make your damage smoother.

6

sorry, i missed that one, so as my suggestions are not based on retal, you can ignore it.

7

The correct question is why you need that amount of tankiness during leveling?

Going for retal or shield based character will help you defeat super bosses and delve deep in SR but fortress type of character will slow you down during leveling with very little upside.

Physical characters are easy to level with Blade Arc or Forcewave 2H spam. There are few shields with nice mods that can help you during leveling. Like Blitz one or fire shield that will enable Aegis. Or Sigil shield, but it’s basically bigger off-hand.

2 Likes
8

I’m using Ford Prefect’s 2H Cadence Warlord as a rough guide for levelling, using extremely meh self-found gear, and kicking the snot out of elite (am mid level 60s).

It’s quite good fun, am using the jumping movement rune (the one that does phys dam) and squishing mobs like bugs, it’s not subtle, it’s just a 2H soldier with a little Oathkeeper to support, but it’s a pretty cool levelling experience if skating all the way to level 100 isn’t your bag.

oops h/t @fordprefect

9

You can use this setup if you like when you reached 100 https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j48rvZ, or this https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2dzYP5Z . I’m using a tankier version with serenity relic but these ones can do serious times in crucible 150-170 with buffs and banner.

1 Like
10

Thanks for the input guys. I’ve think I’ve fixed the build. I really cocked it up before. I started by speccing out of Menhir’s Bulwark and taking Divine Mandate. Swapped out Dryad for Bull, put more points into Judgement’s DA shred. This alone made killing power much stronger.

However solider was at 50, which I no longer needed, so I’ve quickly re-rolled and rebuilt the build with a focus on phys/internal trauma, moving away from Retaliation. What I was trying to do before was basically a focus on phys/retaliation, since there appeared to be a lot of juicy synergy between things like Menhir’s Bulwark & Stone Form with lots of retaliation bonus in addition to damage absorb. I thought this would give great survivability and good damage - but it didn’t work, I guess it’s more of an end-game setup.

I’d overlooked the strength of internal trauma, but now with Divine Mandate (great crit damage), Bull Rush on RF left-click, and big DA shred, the character is a real killer and at lvl 50 doing more damage than before.

I notice the 2H builds above, but I’m loving the shield. This time I didn’t try to maximize shield efficacy straight away - I’ve only started working on it now.

I think I will settle for Divine Mandate over Oleron’s Rage. Obviously it’s a tossup between the OA bonus and the crit damage (though I think the slow resist from DM is stronger than move speed), but taking the former means Soldier can be left at 40. And the strength of the defense (shield, Overguard etc) hopefully means I can stack some offensive / “of Attack” gear to get that precious OA.

I unwittingly violated the golden rule of GD - balance out your defense & offense. It’s amazing how having too little offense can actually harm your defense, since you take more damage from packs that you can’t thin out quickly enough.

EDIT: Quick Q –

I am choosing to focus mainly on Oathkeeper for this build, with Solider supporting mainly with Overguard & Shield training. That means I’m taking the Oathkeeper shield passives. The build is too point hungry to max all the passives offered.

However, out of curiosity, how do the Oathkeeper shield passives work alongside the Solider passives, i.e. Markovian, Zolhan’s? Do the latter “interfere” with the former? As I say, I won’t have the points to max all, even with +skills, but I’m thinking 1 point in each of the soldier skills as a 1 point wonder might be worth it still.