[Elementalist] Light's Defender - Quick Jacks/Storm Totem Build [V1.0.0.6 HC]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Update : Remove Wind Devil, Change a few devotion points to get elemental resistance from Elemental Storm. Crucible Gladiator video uploaded!!

It’s Tower Defense time!! As the title suggest, this is a build based on Light’s Defender set. This build was originally played as Quick Jacks, Storm Totem and Mortar Trap back in v1.0.05. Eventually after I got full Light’s Defender set dropped, I tested the set and respeced the build and cut out Mortar Trap for Wind Devil and Wendigo Totem.

The set itself is pretty defensive, it’s a heavy armor set with a lot of defensive bonuses. So I decided to go all the way to be super defensive caster by choosing a lot of defensive devotions and items, as a result it ended up with 2K armor and 2.3K DA, with defensive and healing skill from Demolitionist and Shaman, it is more than enough to facetank most bosses and nemeses. Enjoy the sparkling!! :smiley:


ELEMENTALIST THE LIGHT’S DEFENDER
VIDEO
ELEMENTALIST THE LIGHT’S DEFENDER GAMEPLAY [ULTIMATE LOGHORREAN]
ELEMENTALIST THE LIGHT’S DEFENDER GAMEPLAY [VS BOSSES/NEMESES]
ELEMENTALIST THE LIGHT’S DEFENDER GAMEPLAY [CRUCIBLE GLADIATOR 131-150]

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[LEFT][INDENT][INDENT]GRIM CALC[/INDENT][/INDENT][/LEFT][LEFT]

[INDENT][INDENT]Base skills http://grimcalc.com/build/kJ5TLru
Base skills + Bonuses http://grimcalc.com/build/MvGih9o

**Try to max out Stun Jacks at 26/26 and Full Spread 15/22, there’s no point in going above 15/22 as it’s only go from 4 to 5 projectile at 22/22 which is not worth trying.

**I chose 2/3 Quick Jacks for -% skill energy cost, this stacks additively with -% skill energy cost. This helps mitigrate energy cost of Stun Jacks greaty.

**You can get Storm Totem to 26/26 if you use Wyrmscale Footguards instead of Golemborn Greaves, but you’ll lose some armor and pierce resistance.

**Mogdrogen’s Pact below ultimate level(not over capped) is not really make much different but in ultimate level it’s scaling accelerate quickly, giving that the set is heavy armor, this helps mitigrate energy problem significantly.
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[LEFT][INDENT][INDENT]CONCEPT OF THE BUILD[/INDENT][/INDENT][/LEFT][LEFT][INDENT][INDENT]-Full Tower Defense Mode!! Lightning Caster build, using totems and traps while throwing out Stun Jacks
-Tanky caster with heavy armor and defensive ability

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[b]

[INDENT][INDENT]SKILLS[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[INDENT][INDENT]- Stun Jacks + Quick Jacks + Full Spread (Single Target/AoE)

  • Flashbang +Searing Light (CC/Debuff)
  • Blackwater Cocktail + High Potency (Debuff)
  • Flame Touched + Temper (Buff)
  • Blast Shield (Damage Absorption)
  • Thermite Mine (Debuff)
  • Vindictive Flame + Ulzuin’s Wrath (CC/Buff)
  • Storm Totem (AoE)
  • Wendigo Totem (Healing)
  • Stormcaller’s Pact (Buff)
  • Mogdrogen’s Pact + Modifier (Buff)
  • Aether-Ward Aura from Purified Salt
  • Lightning Aura (Buff) from Hell’s Bane Ammo (For % lightning conversion)
    [/INDENT][/INDENT]

[LEFT][INDENT][INDENT]ITEMIZATION[/INDENT][/INDENT][/LEFT]

[INDENT][INDENT]Head
-Light’s Defender Helm

Shoulders
-Light’s Defender Epaulets

Chest
-Light’s Defender Plate

Hands
-Light’s Defender Gauntlets

Legs
-Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind/Dreeg-Sect Legguards

Feet
-Golemborn Greaves/Wyrmscale Footguards

Weapon
-Empowered Storm’s Edge/Elite Chosen Skysplitter/Weapon with affix Skyfallen/Stormcharged and suffix with casting speed

Focus
-Tome of Names/Groble Sky Effigy with affix Sandstorm/Thunderstruck and suffix with casting speed/%lightning damage
Where to farm Groble Sky Effigy

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Amulet
-Celestial Stone of Halakor/Avatar of Mercy/The Peerless Eye of Beronath/Green Amulet with resistances and OA/DA or casting speed

Medal
-Mark of Divinity/Badge of Mastery with Stun Jacks/Wendigo Totem bonuses

Rings
-Time-Flux Band/MI rings with resistances and OA/DA or casting speed

Waist
-Ulzuin’s Torment

Relic
-Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm
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[INDENT][INDENT]

Augments

Jewelry : Overseer’s Gaze/Survivor’s Ingenuity

Weapon & Focus: Creed’s Cunning

Armors(Head/Chest/Legs/Shoulders/Hands/Waist/Feet): Demonbane Powder

DEVOTION[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[INDENT][INDENT]As if the defensive of the set is not enough I ensure this build’s tankiness by choosing a lot of defensive constellations. If you want extra fun stuffs, consider taking Spears of the Heaven and Tempest.

Devotion Route

[ul]1 point in Eldritch Crossroad
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[ul]Complete Spider
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[ul]Remove Eldritch Crossroad
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[ul]1 point in Primordial Crossroad
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[ul]Complete Sailor’s Guide
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[ul]Complete Widow (Arcane Bomb assigned to Stun Jacks)
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[ul]1 point in Ascendant Crossroad
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[ul]Complete Owl
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[ul]Remove Ascendant Crossroad
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[ul]3 points in Rhowan’s Crown (Elemental Storm Assigned to Storm Totem)
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[ul]1 point in Order Crossroad
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[ul]Complete Tortoise
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[ul]Complete Lion
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[ul]Complete Solemn Watcher
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[ul]Complete Eel
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[ul]Complete Tree of Life Crossroad
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[ul]3 points in Obelisk of Menhir (7% Armor/5% DA/150 Armor)
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[ul]1 point left I put it on Empty Throne for Stun reduction
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[INDENT][INDENT]ATTRIBUTE DISTRIBUTION

15 points in Spirit, the rest goes to Physique, If you want to use high level focus (requires 675 Spirit) then put 20-25 point in Spirit or use Mark of Illusion to gain some spirit. Reduce too much points in Physique, you might have trouble equipping the set (Chest piece require 970 Physique). :eek:
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[INDENT][INDENT]LEVELING[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[INDENT][INDENT]Pick up Stun Jacks and quickly get 1 point Quick Jacks (pun intended)
Level 20

Level 40

Level 60

Level 70

Level 80

*Skills that should be at max level regardless of the bonuses you have, are Flame Touched, Blast Shield, Mogdrogen’s Pact
*Skills that can leave at max level after + skill bonuses (not really worth getting over capped), are Flashbang(12), Hearth of the Wild(10), Wendigo Totem(12) worth over capped if you can reach level 15+

[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[INDENT][INDENT]PLAYSTYLE/FIGHT SEQUENCE

Place your [Storm Totem>Storm Shard>BWC], then throw Flashbang and Stun Jacks, Repeat the [placing totems] step as fast as possible to keep totems up before the ones before expire. If you wish to facetank, place Wendigo Totem down at where you want to be standing at and when fighting heroes and bosses use Thermite Mine to reduces resistances.
Blast Shield is great defensive skill, keep an eyes at it for timing your fight or flight, if you use Mark of Divinity, you can use its granted skill as another escape skill if you want to go all out without worrying you HP for a moment[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[INDENT]CLOSING STATEMENT [/INDENT]

[INDENT]This is mad fun build, nothing else to say.[/INDENT]

2

Hi there, i had something similar in mind too bad i’m stuck at 3/4 light defender pieces.

Few things i was wondering : 1) storm totem : i used it back in the times of trozan build and even with lightning damage buffed to the stars the damage of this skill is so bad. I ended up using it just to proc devotions and then i just removed it in favour of OFF. So why don’t use those 16 points of storm totem elsewhere? 2) weapon choice : why not https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8512-Spark-of-Ultos ? It seems to fit perfectly in and it also has some semi decent toggable buff.

I will try this out when is drop (or trade if i’m desperate) the last part of the set.

3

Storm Totem’s strength come from its numbers and its durations in relation to its overall damage output. If you take a look at its damage from tooltip, you’ll find it underwhelming but when you have 3 of them out in the field at the same time, it becomes devastating damage overtime. If totem can hit for 4K per totem for second, having 3 out at the same time mean, extra 12K DPS with AoE, they live for 12 seconds, with some cooldown reduction you can have 3 out easily. The downside of it is that it needs a time before you can have 3 totems, so totems won’t do much in a short fight because mobs dies before you reach maximum potential of totems. That’s why these totems are actually good for boss and nemesis fight as you can stack all of them in one place.

Ultos’s Spark suck for a few reasons, first it gives no lightning conversion, a very big deal for Quick Jacks, the more physical to lightning the better. Second it has no casting speed. In order to reach 200% casting speed, you need casting from weapon and focus, or you’ll have to search for casting speed where else, which is likely going to be a sacrifice for resistances and OA.

4

i see, all good points. I will have to keep my eyes open for that MI wand/sceptre/dagger then…

5

It’s not possible to jump to Widow directly from Spider. You’ve missed a step.

6

I misstepped Sailor’s Guide!!

7

Very nice! I myself am trying out this set as well. Have you tried taking this build to Crucible? It looks tailor made for Crucible (tower defence).

8

Yes, I just did it on gladiator, uploading video now. It requires a lot of potions and almost all kinds of buff from crucible to beat it. Mark of Divinity is another item that I don’t think I could beat without it.

I also changed a few devotion points in order to remove Wind Devil from my build. I take all the points in Wind Devil + modifiers to BWC and Stormcaller’s Pact instead. I took Elemental Storm for resistance reduction but lose %HP/flate HP node from Scale of Ulcama and Chaos Crossroad. So my HP after Mogdrogen’s Pact is now at 13K, down from 13.9K.

9

Wind devil is not effective in Crucible?

10

It’s not that effective in general, with a lot of mobs in Crucible, Wind Devil just wandering around endlessly from mobs to mobs, with its debuff only apply at 1 second, often time it leaves most mobs un-debuff. I think Raging Tempest should apply at least 2-3 seconds to be effective, it should be buff IMO.

11

Can you play this build without having the set ? ( until i find it )
I am so in love with storm totem :stuck_out_tongue: reminds me of Path of exile

12

No, because this is a non-WDM build and the only way to raise the base damage is by overleveling the main damage skills.

13

I play stun jacks build similar to this one without set, I have less defensive devotions and overall less defensive setup by far. Also i’m not using totems (wasn’t impressed by them) but maybe will give it second try. In my experience main chunk of damage comes from procs (stun jacks have huge proc potential) so you need only Kymon faction gear with lightning barrage skill and other procs - the more the better. Even can keep stun jacks at 1 point but shurely max out full spread, flashbang and mine. Also ulzuin’s relic was huge upgrade for me. I use Elemental storm on stun jacks so there’re damaging and debuffing clouds all over the screen.

14

What about the following:

https://grimcalc.com/build/eIknWpg

I`m going to follow this build, but character is only level 36. I know that Wind Devil and Elemental Storm do not stack for - resist, but Elemental Storm does good damage on its own. Devotions will be linked as follows:

Stun Jacks + Arcane Bomb
Wind Devil + Reckless Tempest
Storm Totem + Elemental Storm
Flame Touched + Giants Blood Stormcallers Pact + Wayward Soul
Mogdrogen`s Pact + Turtle Shell

15

Im leveling a lights defender elementalist aswell. Around level 53 atm. Dropping wind devils in favor of thermite mines seems like a good idea. Did you consider trying mortar trap with heavy ordanance? I dont have enough levels to try yet. Of weapon + offhand slot I considered using exonorator+skybreach. The physical to lightning conversion works for jacks, mortar trap and even wind devils. The problem is not having the cooldown reduction and component on shield so tome of names could be better :slight_smile:

Edit: sorry did not read you tried mortar trap already. Im doing a dumb scrubcore build so I will try it. :wink:

16

i am wondering do you guys have the set before leveling the char ?

17

I only have 1 piece of the set so far. So no. I leveled from scratch with shaman using primal strike with the transmuter. This proved very effective vs. Both trash monsters and bosses. Use melee weapon for trash and ranged in weapon swap for bosses when you have to kite (warden for instance). Buy these from the vendor if you must. Remember to evenly level main ability and aoe ability for primal strike this will h3lp alot.

If you are lucky and find stormcallers spellblade or lvl 23 lightning doll offhand (cant remember name) that would be very good. Only respec to caster at 23-25 range if you have this.
Otherwise go with kymon faction in a3 and buy the sword. Respec to storm totem + wind devils around lvl 30. Max stormcallers pact after you have maxed totem and the last ability for wind devils (cant remember name again). Craft a squall relic as soon you can (this one is really good).

Go demoliotionalist after this and pick what you like. Personally I will drop wind devils later and pickup thermite mines and mortar trap with heavy ordanence.
I had a really smooth leveling experience so far its really good since you can kite so much - shaman caster is really strong in itself but it starts to struggle in early ultimate without proper item support.
Gl leveling your elementalist

18

Thanks for the guide mate. Trying it out now - tons o fun!

19

I leveled this char back in late v1.0.0.4 a week before v1.0.0.5 and finished ultimate in v1.0.0.5. It was Quick Jacks, Mortar Trap/Storm Totem build before as it is now. No any kind of set item were needed.

This was the build that finished ultimate http://grimcalc.com/build/IY4G15y

This is how it was dealing with Fabius.

20

I find that BWC with transmuter is essential if you want to facetank bosses effectively. The 25% physical damage reduction is needed against enemies like Fabius and Iron Maiden.