Dual Pistols Blademaster?

Hello everyone!

First, I would like to apologize for my english wich is realy bad…
Second, I am a newbie to Grim Dawn and I was wondering if it was viable to play a dual pistol build with a mix of Soldier and Nightblade.
My goal is to aim for high difficulties content.

I was planning to rely on soldier’s Cadence (Fighting Form/Deadly Momentum) + Oleron’s Rage skill as main source of damages mixed with nightblade’s Ring of Steel (Circle of Slaughter), Pneumatic Burst (Shadow Dance), Blade Barrier for survivability and retaliation damages.

Like you can see, this build would focus on:
• Physical / Pierce damages
• Bleeding damages
• Internal Trauma damages
• A lot of survivavility tools.

What do you think about it, bro?
Any comments, advices, changes to make?
Do you think “Hey! That’s a good idea guy! Could work in hardcore mode.” or “What the f###? Do you have gelly in the head? It can’t work.”
=)

Unfortunately, cadence only uses main-hand damage.

Is it that bad?
Using dual pistols have higher attack speed, so you may have lesser damages on Cadence, but it’ll trigger more often, doesn’t it?

I don’t have a lot of experience in this area, but dual-wielding pistols is all about procs. And Cadence flatly denies 33% of your procs.

I don’t know, because I haven’t tried it.

You are right, It’s why I was planning to not use passives procs abilities like Markovian’s Advantage, but only rely on Cadence “piercing shoot” to AoE/DoT multiples ennemies at once every 3 hits (with great attack speed).

It does both main and off hand. Source: looking at my dw pistol cadence witchblade right now :smiley:

@OP there is 0 reason to go nightblade here unless you want to go like super piercing pistols or something and use night’s chill for that. Sounds awful to me tbh :stuck_out_tongue: Witchblade however offers much more support with a huge phys/bleed debuff on top of all the other goodies, demolitionist is nice too. Side note that I don’t think this build is very good =x

Yes, witchblade looks good with Curse of Frailty and Solael’s Witchfire, but i do not see others advantages since I do not plan to play with pets or dealing magical damages. May you highlight what could be good? :slight_smile:

Since my idea is to make a “physical”-focused damages dealer (physical/trauma/bleeding/pierce), my goal was to max out bleeding damages and Cunning using Nightblade’s passive Anatomy of Murder.
On the other hand I was expecting to use Nightblade much more for survivability than for damages purpose.
Using Pneumatic Burst’s passive Shadow Dance for evasion, Blade Barrier and Ring of Steel’s passive Circle of Slaughter for the 5 sec “fumble” debuff.
What do you think about it?

Here is a quickdraw of the idea of the build (now I can use links ^^):

http://grimcalc.com/build/3w7DaId

Points are not all spend, I just maxed skills that I think are “must” for the build and put a single point into skills that could be good. :wink:

For Devotion I was thinking about rushing the Unknown Soldier and Oleron or a mix of Hydra/Huntress/Mogdrogen The Wolf.

Markovian’s Advantage is a WPS (but Cadence nerfs those just as well). Proc is what you get from equipment. Without a lot of procs (and WPS), you’re better off with a rifle.
I have started a 2h pyromancer thinking about going dual wield once I get enough procs, but I’m at Fort Ikon in Elite and I still don’t have enough procs to make switching worthwhile. I think this is the key to dual-wielding pistols: you don’t do it from the start, you switch when the time comes.

Thanks for the explanation. :slight_smile: I was thinking that procs and wps were the same thing.
I was wondering what’s the meaning of WPS in all the builds i was reading. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you for the advice too, I think I’ll do the same, currently I am using a rifle.
In fact, I am working on this build since I have seen the Deathdealer’s Sidearm on Grim Dawn item database wich looks badass.
That’s why I absolutly want to play a dual pistol soldier. o_o

edit: I have read somewhere that Cadence overwrite WPS but not procs items.

Tbh, that pistol looks kind of weak. See here how a proper dual wielder looks like: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31535

It’s not the only way to dual-wield pistols, obviously, but a peek into how a good build looks like.

Haven’t actually tried Cadence, so I really don’t know. My memory tells me it overrides everything, but I’m not an authoritative source by any means.

I am a huge fan of the Barrelsmith Pistols for dual wielding. 40% wps off a set is nice.

Witchblade is your best bet for DW pistols Cadence. CoF alone is worth taking Occultist as secondary mastery for now. CoF slow enemies so they reach you slower meanwhile you hit them more reliably (less missed shots, prevent them from running away) and Cadence shot become easier to pierce through enemies.

Nightblade can work but I don’t see anything in Nightblade’s arsenal the can compare to CoF performance. SWF + BoD are also nice to have.

You can DW Havoc or Havoc + Deathdealer’s Sidearm both are good but Havoc proc is what make the build fun. :slight_smile:

You’ll also need Ring of the Black Matriarch for -%physical resistance and to reach 26 Cadence

I made one myself, here’s my char fighting ultimate Loghorrean.

My char at level 81 (without + skills)

Thanks for the advice. :slight_smile:

I have read the build but I realy do not like Demolitionist class. :undecided:
Yeah, with some good guns and a mix of elemental damages & WPS you can have a great build, but I was hoping to make a more Soldier oriented build… :s

Thank you!
I watched your video and it s far more my vision of the DW soldier I am looking for.
I think i’ll follow your advices and go for Witchblade… And reroll a blademaster to try my idea. ^^
(If it doesnt work, i can still respec to melee DW)

A last question;
Have you any advices about stats points?
Should I max physical or cunning? or mix both?

I think the consensus on that one is: enough cunning to meet the requirements on your weapons, the rest into physical. Preferably with a constellation that reduces cunning requirement for weapons, so you can pump physical even higher.
Why? Because cunning gives a mediocre damage boost which can be had from equipment, while physical gives you health and DA which can’t be substituted as easily.

Okay, thanks.

Now I have a solid base to work on my DW pistols builds (as for blademaster than witchblade) thanks to all your advices. :wink:

Thank you all.

Enjoy. And feel free to experiment. Even if a build turns out bad, it can still be fun to level if you play it your way. And you’ll still get some equipment for your next build at the very least.

i’m sorry anybody have considered do go for demonslayer set with a witchblade build similar to the one suggested above? Could use demonslayer gun+deathdealer sidearm.

I know that set doesn’t give proper +skills for that build but grants some nice passive bonus, resistence, piercing dmg, OA and a survivability tool…

What do you guys think?