Absolutely loving this build. Just hit 94 in HC ultimate. What’s your process for reflect monsters? Thanks for all the hard work; this scratched my poison itch.
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Ty for the reply!!
Just take care to not throw your DEE when their reflect aura is active 
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Hey, I love your build. I’m level 95 now and I’ve even beaten Lokkar already.
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Would you say this is your strongest “beginner” build?
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What do you think about switching even more to the eye damage spell in the endgame as an alternative to the Dreeg set, and maybe even to the non-CDR version?
Maybe as a stopgap until you have a complete set?
The beginner setup is more of a mix of Dee and Ravenous Earth Focus.
- But there’s Mark of Lethal Intent, for example, which makes Dreeg Evil Eye even stronger.
- I could also craft Rotgheist Mask.
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Hey there. Thank you for the reply!
Yeah I think this one is one of the strongest beginner builds i ever theorized.
With the nice update on the RR in spectral wrath this build absolute melts down things very very fast… I even felt like I was cheating sometimes 
About the endgame options, unfortunately I don’t have this char anymore, lost a lot of my archives and saves 
it would be nice if you can try these setups and post results here so we can improve this guide
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I’m sorry about the lost heroes.
I lost some with the 1.3 test patch. 
How does the Bomber Saboteur compare? Similar strength? Or noticeably weaker? That would also be an interesting build for me. An interesting mix with the class choice. its not a normal demo+arcanist, or demo+oathkeeper.
I experimented a bit today. Sometimes without cooldown on DEE, sometimes with, sometimes with less Ravenous Earth, but apparently RE really does account for a lot of the damage, and playing DEE without cooldown reduction feels a bit sluggish. I think the choise as a cdr caster is the right one.
The strongest opponents against our Cabalist seem to be the Reflect mobs.
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i think the causticabalist is stronger than the saboteur.
i mean, defeating celestials was very easy with this one.
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Hi everyone,
I’ve made some changes to the “basic skeleton template” and would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Link: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Note: The link above does not show my actual character. It is a slightly modified version of the basic template provided by the original build creator to illustrate my suggested changes.
Gear Changes:
- Rings: I found it very difficult to get a Living Ring with decent Acid damage rolls. I switched to a Creeping Ring instead, as it seems to have a higher chance of rolling Acid damage and provides useful skill points for this build.
- Shoulders: Swapped to Korvan Pauldrons. They offer better Acid rolls and more armor. Plus, being a Monster Infrequent (MI), you can hunt for specific prefixes/suffixes, whereas the faction shoulders are “set in stone.”
- Medal: Changed to Basilisk Fang for even more Crit damage on Dreeg’s Evil Eye (DEE).
- Belt: I’m considering switching to a crafted +1 Occultist belt for more armor, but for now, the Rhowari one provides a solid Acid roll and the Doom Bolt proc is quite strong.
- Stats: I moved some points from Physique into Spirit and a few into Cunning.
- Filler: The gloves and boots are just placeholders for now, so feel free to ignore them!
Skill & Playstyle: The build is already “piano” enough (high APM), so I made the following adjustments:
- Removed all points from Call of the Grave.
- Invested in Second Rite (8 points) for the 2% extra Crit damage per point.
- Maxed out all nodes in the Dreeg’s Evil Eye line.
- Reduced points in the Ravenous Earth (RE) line. I realized Foul Eruption only triggers on kill, so its usefulness is situational.
The Goal: After playing on Ultimate for a while, I’ve realized Ravenous Earth works best as a support spell for the 25% Damage Reduction debuff and some extra damage. The “big” damage actually comes from the DEE nukes (my highest hit on the character sheet is close to 790k).
I’m curious if someone more experienced with build-making could refine this into a full DEE spammer (no cooldown) while keeping RE as a support/debuff tool.
Funny side story: I’m level 100, have finished the campaign, and already cleared Lokkar. I’m starting dungeons now, but I still haven’t seen the Dreeg’s Affliction blueprint drop—though I have plenty of set items and blueprints for builds I’m not even playing!
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About the dreeg’s affliction… That’s the GD curse… Probably you’re gonna get the BP when you do not need it anymore
I liked the changes.
Obs:
I do not recall if spirit gives bonus to acid damage??
Obs 2:
Just 1 point on foul eruption?
Obs 3:
The belt is good, but just one affix available is a pain 
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I’m following a hybrid of this and main build. Working pretty well - thanks for the insights.
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I wound up throwing Titan Plating in helm for at least something. I was proccing turtle too damn often when a reflect was in the pack. Seems to be helping. I also threw one Basilisk gaze in ring to get to 99% armor absorb.
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OK, so I am trying another one of your builds and I have to admit, I was drawn to the “green” of it. I’m thinking, an HC build using faction vendors? Using Homestead and Rover vendors? That’s ballsy.
Evaluation - it does do a ton of damage, but I consider it less survivable than say, Sabotina. No circuit breakers, and less health regen; both are cooldown casters, although the DoT nature of this one is stronger. The biggest difficulty I found (just completed Ultimate SR 20 as a test) is that DEE, by its nature, can miss, or worse, be intercepted by something moving in the way. That’s probably the biggest weakness of the skill. OTOH, I tried a Dreeg’s set back in my SC days, and while it was fine for main content (and the interception is alleviated by the Dreeg set passthrough) it was simply too weak for SR, and was definitely in the lower tier of my builds. This one - I am not sure. I’ll have to see how it works for the celestials, and I will probably risk the HC death vs Crate. There were a couple of things I changed along the way - I’d been lucky enough to get the Miasma set / Empowered Miasma, so I used those for leveling. I also had a pair of Shuroth rings, so I wanted to integrate those and they are great at moving through trash while DEE/RE are on cooldown. I also (since I don’t yet have the blueprint for Voice of Dreeg) suggest Dark One’s Hood since it has mastery in both necromancer and occultist, and actually adds a bonus to Bloody Pox damage (which is going to be fully converted to Acid due to all the item conversions, I think???). Build here .
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Hello! Thank you for the response and the feedback!
This must be one of Crate’s greatest achievements with this game: balance!
Even though the Saboteur has very good health regeneration and considerable damage, it still doesn’t come close to the total damage dealt by the Causticabalist, which is generally more fragile in terms of survivability but can melt stronger enemies much faster as a trade-off.
That leads me to think the Crate devs need to rethink melee/channeler builds, since with these two caster/DoT characters I was able to complete the hardest challenges in the game, while the last melee characters I leveled don’t seem capable of surviving against some celestials.
Caster gameplay, to me, still has a clear advantage over melee/channeler/skater and other hybrid styles.
The suggestion of the Dark One set helmet was very good too ty vm🤝
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I might also suggest a Seal of Blight in the weapon slot. The flat Vitality damage will get converted, and it gives a channelled trash-killer, and some life sustain, while on main cooldowns. For SR 32/33, I did a respec to 4/5th of the Dreeg set, which loses a small bit of DEE (since no Ronaprix amulet) but in return gives a single circuit breaker with the hood, a trash collector with the amulet’s eyes (along with those from the Shuroth rings), a tiny bit of extra phys res - always appreciated - plus, finally, some extra skill points since you are getting +1 occultist / -1 necromancer. I still think I go with your original build with the Voice of Dreeg which absolutely maximizes the boss-killer version of DEE, but until I find the blueprint, I’m kind of stalled. And even the not-quite-maximized DEE is still pretty lethal for the SR nemesis, as long as you have room to kite a bit while they are dying to DoT (I find it pretty funny when Fabius is chasing you and his corpse materializes out of thin air). I don’t know if that would be enough for a Celestial, though.
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