Grim Dawn Version 1.1.8.1 Hotfix 1

Dervish also wins for phys RF.

That build’s strength doesn’t come from RF and has a very unique style that one can be cautious while call it an melee AA build. And yes RF has better physical support than fire.

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very true, nevertheless, best phys RF is dervish. Banana made one similar to mine but AA oriented.
Oppressor is also really good, but a bit slower.

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I think RF bonusses could be improved if devs swap %Fire and %Burn multiplier with the last line, Retribition; so Burn focused builds can invest Retribition like Trauma focused builds.

I theorycrafted an DW Vitality Oppressor that haven’t tried yet, looks promising but requires certain MI’s which are hard to get without GDstash https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NK1eeJV

But the problem is there is no proper melee vitality gloves and why the hell Revenant is a caster helm?

i meant phys oppressor:


(changed DR axe for single rare, but haven’t tried it in CR yet)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbmDDk2

i doubt that vitality one will work fine.

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Oh, never seen that build.

The reasoning for the Ghol change aside, I noticed that if I wanted to stick with the acid temporary BF’s, the conversion on the Ghol medal is no longer available. Now I think there is only one other item that has vitality to acid conversion to pets.

@Maya would know if I was right or wrong.

So if right, we are requesting that some other options be given for vit to acid conversion for BF or universal.

Thank you.

Why not Omen binded Maul(haven’t tried the new version yet so not sure how it will work out), RF Assassin’s Mark, GoE Blind Fury. Certainly make the build tankier and saves some skill points. GoE should proc Blind Fury faster than RF with that OA. Only downside is AM is now single target.

because due to omen’s confusion effect it becomes really clunky to play in cruci.

they wont. theirs AS is terrible. 1 attack in 1.3 second, if i’m not mistaken.

Yes but they’re two. With 1 sec CD, they should proc more often even with lower speed. Without a cooldowned proc you’re right ofc.

Hmm, reasonable.

I would say this is a minor setback compared to the loss of the 4pc Ghol bonus. If you look over the Blight Fiend’s stats, the only source of Vitality damage is on Blight Burst. Its other attacks are all Acid/Poison or Physical (which you can convert with the Scorpius Pummelers). The loss of the additional BF, additional granted summon and its associated acid RR seems way more painful to me. That’s something a different source of Vit-to-Acid conversion won’t fix.

I think a cool way to rebalance Ghol BF spam without necessarily breaking up the Ghol set by forcing the CDR onto a Medal instead of the helmet would be to just add a -% total damage onto the Unstable Anomaly transmuter. Normal BF users would be unaffected and the spam wouldn’t be as strong if that was the reason behind the nerf.

I tested it once and I’ve tested it now and it’s 7 attacks per 6 seconds or rather 1.16 attacks / s
so slightly faster than once per second.

Their combined number of attacks per second is ~ 2.32 which is lower than the character APS so they proc worse.

[edit] I think you meant that if their APS was lower then 1 they would not “waste” their attacks while the 1s proc is on cooldown in contrast to the main character. I doubt this effect would be enough to give them advantage (with main character having more than 3 attacks per second) but it doesn’t apply here (the next attack of Guardian after proccing is while the 1s devo proc is still on cooldown because they attack slightly faster than once per second which is like the worst possible scenario for them).

For me GoE are only good if you have 4 of them. Then I may even bind Eldritch Fire / Rumor to them (because it also spreads).

You are forgeting that they have cleave with 5 targets maximum. Which each target being hit has a seperate chance of proccing and in crowded situations they probably proc with every hit. It’s even better with chance on attack procs rather than chance on crit but again it should be enough to proc more often If you’re using a single target skill like RF.

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Personally don’t care about the nerf or perceived nerf. It is what it is. On a side note my PB build(s) got nerfed into the floor (non pierce and unorthodox) and I didn’t see a point, regardless of how much evidence I have, to come to the forums to get it changed. I shelved them and moved on. I looked at reviving it this weekend. Still looks terrible, even on paper, but was still gonna try since there were some buffs that affected it. When time permits.

Also, I pointed out “universal” conversion too as a possibility and not just to BF. Poison reap spirit and the like.

I already know the point of view that too much conversion can be an issue but it didn’t hurt to ask. If no, no…I get it.

Phantasmal blades? Sorry just wondering cause i just remade my harra pblades breaker the other day and its so good

Permanent Blightfiends are terrible vs superbosses image

They are more than viable for SR and Cruci without Circlet tho.
But what to go now? M. Beastcaller? :3

Honestly, while Vit > Acid (and any and all kinds of conversions for pets in general) would be much welcome, it is not really something Blightfiends have to worry about regardless of the build.

Problem is what @lMarcusl said, mainly all that RR if you decide not to go with Ghol on an Acid BF build or an Acid Pet build in general.

So personally atleast, I would be looking to convert acid into something else rather than into acid.

Like for eg: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2mmqG02 (Diviner Blightfiends…)
Same thing with Conduit for easier conversions: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNY1JRgN

As I mentioned, unorthodox…unusual class combo with a odd gear set that was performing really well but has lost a good deal of power.

If you go by the forums, no one has posted a build like this because it was already not meta game but still could do high SR with good piloting and avoiding bad mutators.

I haven’t played it for a while and after I changed the build after the PB changes, I lost the character in a SR 56 boss room on HC so I would have to start from scratch.

@Maya yeah the rr is bad but that doesn’t mean it can’t do what we want it to with some tweaks and compromises.

Let’s be honest though, I realize the change is not popular (like the Cindertouch change) but as always I can’t figure out why it occurred which is why I always advocated for some small reply for the rationale.

I mean I view everyone on the forum as a sensible person (until proven otherwise) that can handle a good reason for a change.

It can’t in its current state. You need to give it more support outside of Ghol to facilitate that, which this patch fails to address.

If transmuted blightfiends (esp acid ones at that) were strong enough to exist as their own builds outside of ghol, we would have already seen it with builds that used Circlet but no Ghol set.

Easier when you take patches like seasons at this point rather than for balance.

Can’t argue any of this for sure as I don’t have enough experience with pets as you do.

I don’t know how much performance changes if you take gear with -rr on it compared to the options you would normally use.

Also a change in devo route but once again don’t know about performance loss.

Just another thing I would test if I had the time.

The other question is where do you expect non ghol BF builds to land on the performance scale?

As for seasons, I hope that’s not what’s occurring here, as much as it may appear that way.

Pet gear wise, you have Plaguebearer of Dreeg and Nightshard Shield. Plaguebearer also converts upto 40% Pet vitality into Acid.

You can get -40% RR from it and also take Manticore devo to make up for the flat RR from Ghol.

Now, assuming that someone is not taking Plaguebearer and Nightshard, you actually end up with 10% more RR than you get with Ghol set (20% on Swarm + 10% from Pet).

But if you are/were using them, you end up with -30% RR and having to take Manticore/Bysmiel devotion, both of which are kind of sub par. The Bysmiel pet is too weak and a single source of RR & Manticore’s area of effect is weird with the cone thing.

However, it changes if you were or are using a Pet Cabalist instead of a Ritualist. There, you will be taking Manticore/Bysmiel anyway and you won’t have Devouring Swarm. So the only loss in RR is the 10% from the pet, which does not break the build or anything.

Blightfiends, for all their power, do not do well against Single targets in my experience. Perhaps there is something I have overlooked, but against superbosses, their kill time is much slower.

Their strength however, lies in that phenomenal AoE dmg they can output.

Now, with the loss of 1/4 of the pet, it is essentially a -25% total damage nerf. But there is also more, since Pets are also supposed to shield & tank for you and now you have one less body on the field.

As for their performance, this was my non Ghol BF build: ScareCrow - Pet Cabalist. But as you can see there, it borrows the power of Bysmiel’s Trinkets to get the damage in with the Blightfiends acting as fillers.

One of my issues with the change is that you can’t even use the Medal alongside any other Pet Set other than Lost Souls (which has problems of its own) or… Diviner’s.
But at the same time, you don’t really have a reason to pair those sets with Blightfiends unless you want variety for the sake of variety.

Unless the options presented are equally strong, people will prefer the stronger ones and hence why personally I believe that forcing “variety” upon the players is a bad move, especially if it is done by taking away their stronger option(s) so that they are left with a number of weaker choices.

Now, @thepowerofmediocrity made this post regarding Pets and their Reliance on Sets. That is indeed an old thread and there have been numerous changes since then, but I would say that most of the core issue still remains in that most of the power comes from the set bonuses or individual items that make up the set even if you aren’t going for the full set bonus.

So, when you decouple Blightfiends from their dedicated Set, either you will be using them to support another Pet you are focusing on (like a Vitality Diviner Reap Spirit Ritualist) or you will need to find parts from different items to make up for the loss of set bonuses.

Can it be done? Yes.
Will it be fun to play? Sure.
Will it be able to compete with a build using a dedicated set and is not a meme-y one? I’d go with “No” and hope I will be proven wrong.


Now, there was a time when I judged a particular something in a patch rather harshly only to end up being completely wrong about it.

Enter: Gate to many worlds

It was a time when Cataclysm’s Eye lost its +1 to skills which was moved to Set bonus. I was naturally not happy with the change and it affects most of my builds even now, due to losing that +1 to skills.

And I was rather condemning of Gate off-hand as even though it was a Pet item and provided new pet(s), it was for some reason focused on Arcanist, pets had no way to benefit from flat dmg etc…

Then it ended up tremendously boosting the damage of my Fluffy Squishy that it ended up taking the place of Off-hand instead of Cat’s Eye and now, even if Cat’s Eye were to get its +1 to skills back, I would still be keeping Gate.

But unfortunately, nothing new was provided to Blightfiends to help make up for the loss of the Set if you wanted to take up Unstable Anomaly. That is what I take more of an issue with than the loss of the set bonuses.

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