DW Blademaster help needed

i am playing the [1.1.9.0] Beginner's Forgotten Blademaster guide, lvl 59 right now, a bit different on the armor items because i have a lot of items stashed but skills, devotions ,main build weapons are the same. difficulty veteran, my resis are mostly 80+ , only aether and chaos are 52%. the problem is that i am dying so often when i get into mobs. i guess that the devotions are way to much on the damage side and not defense, can you give me some tips for a better devotion path? ( i am asking here because i saw that the guy who created the guide already wrote 2024 that he has not played the game for a while now and can´t give tips anymore)

without seeing your char it would be difficult to guestimate where your specific issue lies

Normally if you’re “insta” dying just running into a pack it’s often basic defences lacking, from items/skills, not devos. - which can be resists, armour rating, low hp etc.
If you’re having survival issue “over time” it can be lack of sustain, like not enough lifesteal or regen.

End devo example from MadLee’s end setup, Blademaster, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator no real defences there, and this devo setup could/should be able to be more than comfortably levelled as, and Dragon’s is way more levelling conservative even having Ghoul and getting Revenant later for extra leech too

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Upload and share your char here Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Will be easier to give you help

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This is my pierce DW Trickster. It’s built with easily obtainable gear, and I defeated Hardcore Lokarr by facetanking with it (video).
The class is different, but the devotion setup is defense-oriented and might be helpful for reference.

Turtle Shell acts as a circuit breaker when your health drops.
Giant’s Blood offers both an instant heal and increased health regeneration.
Behemoth, Harvestman’s Scythe, and Scales of Ulcama all help contribute to survivability through bonuses to max health, health regen, and more.

Just for reference, I also once leveled a character to 100 using a devotion setup similar to MadLee’s in softcore (not on Veteran), and I didn’t die a single time. That works well too.

short question, is there a way to export skills into a grimtools link so i can post it?

To upload your character to Grim Dawn Build Calculator click the ‘import’ icon in the upper-lefthand corner. If you have cloud saves enabled (enabled by default) your save file will be in \Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata########\219990\remote\save\main_{character name}\player.gdc

Otherwise it will be in \My Documents\My Games\Grim Dawn\save\main_{character name}\player.gdc

Then click on the ‘share’ icon and copy the link shown to paste here.

thanks, here is my char right now:

at a glance
low sustain
low effective armour because you’re not using a scaled hide
not sure why there is no Ghoul devo when Dragon had it in his? aside from base lifesteal it also adds a circuitbreaker
no solael pants/lifesteal comp in gloves so lesser lifesteal potential from that too
go buy Black Legion boots, likewise you can use them to upgrade helmet and shoulder too potentially
It might not seem like a big deal, but somewhat level relevant armours can have an impact on survival in the early game when you don’t have a bunch of stats to otherwise fall back on (and they can help with stat holes too/faction items come with guaranteed stats)
Not quite sure why using bladesworn talisman? - you can use a nightblade relic or be a bit cautious and use Soldier Juggernaut relic

as for “next” devos, assasin mark should be taken real soon for extra rr dmg

1pt fighting spirit and anatomy of murder; 1pt Blade Barrier can give you a potential safety (but personally it can feel uncomfortable because it roots you for 3secs, tho worth trying out)
ring of steel dont’ need 3 pts, you either use it for proccing devos or for circle of slaughter fumble, neither of which you’re relying on atm which in either case is (1-1)
*defence wise you can pump up shadow dance to 8+ and max Phantasmal Armour and Veil fo Shadow, - and tho you have no devos or items for it maxing Pneumatic burst and Veterancy can be a regen avenue for passive sustain, with Military Conditioning to 8 also boosting your HP making PB flat heals better

HP isn’t technically bad even if a bit lower for what it could be at this point
If you’re Honoured with any factions you can buy augments to slot on weapons and jewellery

The first thing that jumps out at me is that you have 0% life steal (“attack damage converted to health” as the game calls it). Some easy ways to get it are to put an Unholy Inscription on your gloves and get some Solael-Sect pants (which are dropped by the second boss in the Hidden Path secret quest). Also, you could respec some devotion points (maybe only temporarily) into a devotion with ADCTH, such as Ghoul or Fox. If you are leeching back health as you fight you won’t get ganked so easily.

hi, thanks for yout tips, i will test them directly, i already put voidvine powder on both weapons so i could switch the consecrated wrappings for the unholy inscription and et voila: i can hack through regular mobs an minimini mob bosses like a hot knife through butter.

now i will consider some of your skill and item changes

here is an example with some extra conservative consideration Blademaster, Level 59 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
*resist technically isnt’ fixed because there are items without affixes
main thing to note is just the solael legs, MI ring be a possibly avenue to fix/fluff stats(resist/speed etc), ancient plate in legs, scaled hide in shoulder(can just use 1 scaled hide in legs and resist comp in shoulder cover absorb with Scars of Battle), antivenom/“not using fur in belt”, and ofc Mogdrogen in boots for additional stat bump (it’s cheap to craft these days)

It’s possible to switch eel for lizard for slight extra regen, but shouldn’t really have a huge impact without ex veterancy and ex some mending suffixes
and as mentioned earlier it really shouldn’t be necessary to go this defensive on blademaster when it’s just softcore. If it was hardcore doing ghoul/turtle/juggernaut +regen combo might be ok but not “mandatory” for safety.

at lvl 65 you get access to expansion faction’s Quartermaster items, so remember to go take a look at their armorus then to see if they have stuff that’s an improvement or helps your stat holes
**faction items aren’t bad and shouldn’t necessarily be underestimated just from being green/shopped, they are there for a reason and can have decent utility potential.

oh yea, the reason for not filling out Ghoul completely is, unless you actually need the red affinity points(which you don’t) the final node isn’t actually good, and 5% hp from Crossroads is in many cases just better statwise.

ok, i tested it and i realized my main issue really was the missing lifeleech in the gloves, now with the attack speed etc my life goes up all the time, so i won´t switch to ghoul etc right now.

relicwise i switched to belgothians carnage.

on skills i added the passives you named and will now put some more points into already existing defensive ones

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ghoul is nice because it gives you 5?% global lifesteal too aside from the circuitbreaker
But you also have other lifesteal options in devos that does fit pierce devo map like scales or potentially toad.
It’s just important for chars to have some “constant” healing outside heal pots and class heal like Pneumatic Burst, and lifesteal is just easy/simple for weapon attackers since it scales tremendously well.
At 10-15% lifesteal in char page 2 you should be able to handle pretty much most things comfortably with basic stats in terms of resist sorted regular hp da armour etc
Solael legs and glove comp then is neat to get there outside devos

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ok, i followed your tips and the char is looking like this right now:

any tips for the further build, should i change some things / items or should i stick now to the guide?

and an item question, i got the blind assassin set , standard and mythical, can that be used with the build? ( or maybe another not mentioned set)

i wouldn’t use blind ass because the weapon has no attack aspeed and is aimed at inquis/blade spirit, derma slicers are just better for AA

items look fine, i’d get around to upgrading boots soon tho
should really max out cadence soon
get assassin’s blade devo going so it can start level up
(what you could do is take 1pt out of Ulzaad, put in Assassin, remove Owl and spec into Assassin’s blade, remove purple crossroad/potentially the final point you put in to Assasin to spec back into 3pt Ulzaad)

*idea mostly being both it starting getting XP soon and will quickly be an overall dmg gain. If you don’t feel that’s necessary just take it step by step as Dragon suggests if that makes things simpler, and only remember to upgrade items and shuffle comps once in a while/later/every 15 lvls or so
(next item interval will be base game faction greens lvl 70, MIs lvl 70/75, MIs lvl 84, expansion faction items level 90, end MIs lvl 94 - with potential rng epic/legends around same)