Dual wield pistol builds

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Hey guys,

so I’ve been trying to theory craft a really good farming dual wield pistol build but not having much luck. Might be my lack of game knowledge but is there a disparity between the damage melee and casters can get compared to dual wield pistol builds? Is there a pistol build that is on par with the damage out put of the stronger melee and caster builds? Should I just wait for the expansion before I try? I have tried several times to make a build using the marauder set but it just seems terribly under powered from my understanding.

Attachment: MarauderSorc.jpg

2

I tried 2 pistol builds an they were both fairly good, 1 was using ulzuin set (without rifleobviously) and barrelsmith set as guns. Bread& butter skills were firestrike and grenado. It was solid i could farm nemesis, roguelikes and all. Note that using barrelsmith allows dual wielding, leaving your relic slot free.

The other was 3/4 warborn witchblade cadence with 2 deathdealer sidearms.

The first one was more fun in terms of gameplay.

Edit: First one was a pyromancer

3

Pyromancer is the way to go. There’re more support in fire and chaos with good gears.

I use general setup with Exterminus and Devil Tongue + Infernal Knight set (but need some good MIs from Crenley Signet and Exalted Treads to fix resistance). Can facetank with Fabius.

4

Marauder’s set is OK, but slightly harder to maximise defences and resistances, and has less synergy with resists reduction so less dps overall.

Not impossible though if the rest of your gear is up to scratch:

I’ve posted a couple of builds on the forums myself, which were much improved by discussion / contributions from other forum members, and you can also find many other DW Pistol builds for different classes in the builds compendium. It would be worth hunting down and reading through those threads to learn more about their pros and cons.

You can find my two build threads here:
Gunslinger Sorcerer - Fire & Chaos
Warborn Gunslinger Commando - The Pistolier

The Warborn build above sounds very much like They Live’s Witchblade build. I also made a Witchblade version of this build which was pretty much identical in terms of gear and devotions to the thread above, the only difference of course being the skill choices in the 2nd mastery. They performed very similarly (after CoF was nerfed anyway, before that the WB version had much higher dps) but I personally prefer the Commando, just because I’m more used to Demo than Occ.

JoV has posted a Pierce Blademaster Gunslinger as an alternative set-up in his Crossbowmaster build. You can also use his gear set-up with a Commando build instead of Warborn for more dps / pierce synergy.

Chthon has posted a few DW Pistol builds:
DW-Pistols Ranged Cadence Aether Battlemage
DW-Pistols Pure Cold ABB Spellbreaker
[Lightning Conjurer] Dual-Wielding Gun Build

There are also a few other Sorc and Pryo builds out there which I didn’t manage to find in my cursory search.

I’ve also tried a Lightning Warder, with almost identical gear and very similar skills/devotions to Chthon’s Conjurer. It was very tanky (13k HP) but lacked a bit in dps and just wasn’t as much fun as Sorc or Commando to me (or DW Melee Trickster which actually played very similarly!).

I also made an Elementalist, which was probably the most tanky Gunslinger I’ve played. He was almost impossible to kill due to Demo’s defensive skills + Wendigo, but his dps was somewhat lacking :slight_smile:

DW Pistol builds are definitely viable, but you are right in saying that the damage output is not on a par with the top Melee / Caster builds. The game simply doesn’t support ranged DW at the moment like it does DW melee, for instance. Hopefully the Inquisitor will change that.

So…you can make it work, but you’ll get better results (fingers crossed :)) when the Inquisitor comes out.

5

really? If there’s no one post it yet. I may post mine. Though, It need sometimes to polish.

I remember someone post a small guide few months ago.

6

Yeah, that was the one I was thinking of…found it now, it was feelgodstoya’s [1.0.07] Gunslinger Pyromancer mini guide.

7

Oh wow, except for your vitality and aether resists that build looks pretty awesome.

Yeah, I was trying to make a build to maximise conversion of chaos to aether damage but there seems to be a discrepancy between the damage I am seeing in game and the damage out put shown by grim tools. For some reason the discrepancy is quite a lot of DPS loss and I am nowhere near 40k damage like your marauder. In game I am only 19,000.

Appreciate the replies guys. I enjoy playing dual wield shooty builds most of all, hopefully the expansion will help close the gap in terms of power of builds.

8

I am making a dual-wield sorceress. Got all the gear and most of the skills figured out, level 51 right now. As soon as I figure it out completely I will make a guide.

9

Sounds great. I’ve been trying to improve my cadence build because it is so much fun. I had some suggestions on it but must be a way to push the damage even higher. Maybe if I switch classes? Not sure. Don’t think my knowledge of interactions in game mechanics is good enough to get the most out of my builds yet.

10

Here’s a summary of the dual-pistol builds I’ve been using over the years (with sample grimcalcs). All of them use Fire Strike, because the AoE from Explosive Strike greatly improves clearspeed and Savagery just doesn’t compare in that department (unless you’re just using it to supercharge Wind Devil or Storm Totem which have good AoE). You also want Flashbang for the debuff/CC, Vindictive Flame for defenses and speed, and Flame Touched for power (always max Explosive Strike and Flame Touched immediately):

Commando: Physical & Fire gunner
http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-t3dImk
> Focuses on dealing physical damage with fire damage as extra. Also works well with a shield. Feel free to use Grenado if it’s your style (good damage type synergy); I just prefer to toss flashbangs and fire away.

Pyromancer: Fire & Chaos gunner
http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-zjh7xA
> Deal as much magic damage as possible, use Vulnerability for slow/debuff utility. Also works well with 2H guns.

Sorcerer/ess: Elemental gunner
http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-M2zkEK
> Deal as much magic damage as possible, use Mirror for protection. Also works well with 2H guns.

Elementalist: Fire & Lightning gunner
http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-sJhtG6
> Deal as much magic damage as possible, use Wind Devil for resist reduction/support. Storm Totem = moar damage.

I’m only running the former two of these builds currently because they just seem to perform better than the latter two and fill their niches well; the Sorc tends to be too fragile (even with Mirror), has to compete with PRM builds that essentially do the same thing, and I’m hoping that the Inquisitor will be a much better subclass for (elemental) gunners anyway. The Elementalist isn’t bad per se, Primal Strike is simply far superior for ranged Fire & Lightning elementalists, so it’s a bit on the redundant side. The Commando and Pyromancer kick ass and don’t really have much competition in their damage types (Cadence Commando is similar but…not that much).

The upcoming Inquisitor mastery should open up more dual-pistol build possibilities, since we’ll (finally!!!) have a mastery that enables dual-pistol wielding and grants innate WPSes. I’m planning to make a Demolition+Inquis first thing when the expansion releases because obvious synergy is obvious. Inquis + Shaman might be okay (Savagery for primary attacks, Storm Totem/Wind Devil for elemental support & damage) but the lack of AoE might be a problem.