Finally, my HC character died - now what? (Looking for a fun active build)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hi all!

So I finally, for the first time ever, had a character die in HC. My level 62 Elementalist kicked the bucket, as I was playing him too lazily and didn’t really bother to take my enemy seriously. The end result - expectable.

That was indeed the first time I’ve ever died in HC, though I haven’t yet finished Ultimate on HC which I am looking to do.

My Elementalist was a bit of an easy mode, so to speak. Between Alchemist’s Belt, Sanctuary, devotions like Ghoul, Shaman’s passives, Demolitionist’s Blast Shield and so forth, there was more than enough health regen and circuit breakers. As a result I ended up playing quite lazily and not taking most encounters seriously.

I want to change that a little and get into a more active build.

What do you guys suggests? I’m looking for something that would require a bit of active situation assessment to get the most out of its damage potential. It’d be nice if there was more active skills in use than my Elementalist, which was primal strike + flashbang + thermite mine + wendigo.

Something based around shadow strike could be fun. But I wonder if the Dervish and Inflitrator builds weren’t a bit heavy on specific gear due to needing to convert damage types?

Might Forgotten Gods mobility skills have something to build around of that was relatively easy to get?

Spellbreaker could be interesting, too, but then, it’d be nice to try out one of the masteries from AoM or FG, which I haven’t played with yet.

So yeah, TL:DR; looking for a moderately active build, that isn’t too gear-bound, with nice damage potential and some circuit breaking/other survivability for HC.

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Best topic name of the month!

Now you can try a caster or a DW build. Some of then requires some nice piloting skills.

I’m playing this one: [1.1.7.1] Sonya The Devastator - vital devastation spellbinder SR110/superbosses

Lots of fun and challenges!

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I have a level 50 Blademaster that will keep you on your toes. I died 14 times. It was my second character so I really had no idea what I was doing. That and I didn’t look up any Builds. Also, her gear is really bad. I am using two green swords for crying out loud and I only have 3 blues equipped. I am really thinking about deleting her and starting all over again now that I have more experience playing the game. Anyway, the build as it is now…

Soldier:

50 points in Mastery
12 points in Oleron’s Rage.
1 point in Cadence. w/+9 from items, mostly greens.
1 point in Fighting Spirit. w/+2 from an item.
1 point in Deadly Momentum.
1 point in Counter Strike.

Nightblade:

50 points in Mastery.
16 points in Dual Blades. w/+3 from items.
16 points in Shadow Strike. w/3+3 from items.
1 point in Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends.
1 point in Nightfall.

Devotions:

2 points in Crossroads, Yellow and Purple
3 points in Lion.
4 points in Harpy.
7 points in Assassin. I used Cadence.
2 points in Blades of Nadaan. Not finished of course.

Basic tactics:

Shadow Strike as my first hit.
If I can stay long enough for Cadence to proc on the third swing, then so be it.
If I can’t, then I run away till I can use Shadow Strike again.
I have Slam (from the Chipped Claw component) on my right click and use it when I can.

My toggled skills are:

  1. Guile, from the relic of the same name.
  2. Impaling Weapons, from the Serrated Spike component.
  3. Oleron’s Rage.
  4. Counter Strike.

I figure since you are more experience at playing the game, you could make that build (or something similar) work a lot better than I could. I hated dying, that was a real bummer. But I have to say that this character really kept me from lazy play, that’s for sure.

I have a Fire Build Rifle Commando in his early 60’s. That was my very first character. Talk about active play. I had to move around and position myself at the right spots just to get a few shots off. That was really fun too. I only stopped playing that character to play a melee one. Enter Blademaster.

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Thanks for the suggestions y’all!

I quickly tried out some core skills on a Nightblade and a Necromancer. I really liked Necromancer’s Bone Harvest, would be a fun skill to learn to use to maximum effectiveness.

But, I think I’m going with Nightblade and branch out to Inflitrator. Shadow Strike is just too much fun. Core build I’m planning is Shadow Strike + Inquisitor Seal + Word of Renewal. Then all the usual support skills - Veil of Shadows, Lethal Assault, Pneumatic Burst, so on. Given that I mostly play in a duo or a trio, I’m wondering if I want to go Aura of Censure or Aura of Conviction… Latter might be fun with other players, but I think former really is the stronger choice in solo?

I wonder if Word of Pain is also worth it? I’d like few more active skills, only 3 is maybe too little for how I like to play.

And finally … Cold or Piercing? Or both?!

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Btw you can also have 2hander Shadow Strike Infiltrator: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYoLxlV
And Shadow Strike builds can (and usually do) have more active skills. This one has WoR + PB + Shadow Strike + Amatok + ABB + RoS + some item skill which is 7 in total. Maybe sometime Storm Box / Inquisitor Seal

The 3 active skills variants are just specially made to have fewer buttons.

It’s from this topic: [1.1.6.2] Endless Winter. Bane of the Winter King family: SS Infiltrator, CT Spellbreaker, pseudo-pets Trickster, PS Trickster, BA Blademaster