Feedback request: HC player-scaled pets archon (pre-nightbringer)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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I was fascinated by the unique approach to the Nightbringer Archon in the Top 20 builds. One problem: I have neither an Archon nor a Nightbringer.

So I tried to reverse engineer a leveling and budget build to self-farm Nightbringer. It probably would have been easier to just follow @S.E.P_Ralf’s Vitality Primal Strike guide. However, the playstyle was what intrigued me about the Nightbringer build, and 2h primal strike just wouldn’t feel the same.

So I tried to recreate the vibes of the endgame build for leveling and budget setup (bearing in mind I haven’t played it, yet). The conversions aren’t really there for vitality/acid, so instead I went for tri-elemental DoTs triggered by player-scaled pets. Electrocute is doing the heavy lifting, but frostburn isn’t far behind (and burn is still decent), all supported by X, %X, and -X% elemental RR.

Here’s my current build (all self found on hardcore, manually entered from Xbox): Archon, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

So far, it comfortably farms all totems, Benn’Jahr, and competed a trial run of Tomb of the Heretic and Morgoneth. So far, so good!

Anyway, though this is a budget placeholder build for the endgame, I did want to solicit feedback to see whether there are additional improvements I can make. I expect I’ll be using it for a while acquiring Nightbringer (if I survive that long). Since there’s no useful sheet DPS, so it’s been hard to gauge improvements.

Some obvious upgrades:

Some open questions:

  • I think ascended diadem beats Magi Helm for now, since burn is the lowest scaling DoT here.
  • Yeti Horn vs. Sky Effigy. +1 wind devil vs. hard cap on raging tempest and storm totem. Using horn since I have a decent one and it’s more true to the endgame build.
  • Any better sources of DR than Mythical Stormtitan Treads - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database that would suit this build?
  • Not sure if the devotion bindings are ideal, though they’re working alright?
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I’ve competed 13 runs of Tomb of the Heretic, so regardless of anything else this build is a success for my original goals!

After 6-7 runs, I got nemesis with Eldritch and could start farming Kaisan while running the tomb. Here’s the updated spec: Archon, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Changes:

  • Kaisan’s Eye replaces Zaria’s Pendant.
  • Swapped gloves to Emberguard
  • Upgraded some more components and adjusted augments
  • Based on a comment from @banana_peel on the recent livestream about the endgame version of the build, moved skill bindings around to include pet attack for bosses

Running the tomb is pretty comfortable now, and I’m able to speed farm it focusing on the mages and morgoneth, clearing Kaisan and any Scions along the way.

Still waiting on Celestial Stone of Halakor and a better medal to drop. I wonder if I’ll find Nightbringer or Ring of Basti first? Onwards!

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Lightning pets are a viable choice for leveling. If you happen to find the Celestial Stone of Halakor or have enough crafting materials to get yourself Conduit of Divine Whispers with the cold Guardians prefix, you can increase your pet dmg, although the latter requires cold/lightning duality in dmg. Also lvl84 blue shoulders - Stormscorched Shoulderpads - give bonus points to Maelstorm and Guardians, keep that in mind.

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I got my Nightbringer after around 40 runs

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