Updated the build a bit. The Fallen Arcanist has become a little bit more beefy and debuffy. I’ve added bloody pox to the build on top of peerless eye of beronath.
Gaze of Beronath - Used to decrease enemy OA reducing their chance to hit/crit
Bloody Pox - Another OA debuff that stacks with Gaze of Beronath
After some PVP testing with PlasmaPal we made that stacking debuff discovery, enjoy!
Great build! I love this aether & chaos damage types combination. But I want to ask: why do you use Star Pact? It gives bonuses to the elemental damage which is not your main damage type. I guess Reckless Power would be better for this build because of its aether damage bonus. Or maybe I’ve just missed the explanation?
It’s because of CDR, which has increasing returns the more you invest into it. Especially works well for TD.
That ^
I’ve found that I’m now able to Devastate > Doom bolt x 2,3,4,5 > Devastate (almost with no lapse between Devastation uses) > Doom Bolt > and then by the time doom bolt is off CD again, Devastate is nearly or already off so I can recycle the same strat.
I used to use Reckless Power but this turned out yielding higher dps.
Just updated the Guide for v1.0.4.1 as my old Warlock died and the approach has changed quite a bit 
The new one is even better!
Added final boss fight of Ashes of Malmouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5hCfggTzwE&feature=youtu.be
You can squeeze a lot more potential out of this build even when using Clairvoyant set. Your OA/DA should be higher, your devotion setup needs to be more offensive
Of course I personally prefer to use mixed gear setup with MIs 
I’d most screens or GT links but am feeling too lazy, besides you have the build figured out so I doubt you need it.
The devotions could definitely use some work now that you mention it. I’ll have to try out something besides shield wall, I think I can do without it looking back on some encounters.
MIs I’ll have to be a little more thorough
Thanks for the wake up call.
edit: However, I worry about the HP debuff that you get sometimes in the new chthonic rifts. I’m thinking I’ll change up the devotions to something more offensive after I find an MI with a nice health pool bonus.
Really liking this build so far 
I’m probably missing something, but how are you able to put devotion points into Jackal, Vulture, Aeon’s Hourglass & Manticore without at least one point into Chaos in Crossroads? 
Thanks
All you need to do is complete the Jackal or Vulture and that will give you a completion bonus. With that you can take points out of crossroads. Vulture + Jackal = 8 Chaos points which is sufficient enough to then spec into Hourglass and Manticore.
Ah, of course! Thanks!
Hey Twan,
Do you have a leveling guide for the devotions? To know with which one do I start and the following ones?
Hi, I am new to Grim Dawn and I want to play a caster build. Do you think this build is decent as a first character in HC?
I am having a rather hard time finding a build.
This one can be done in HC, however, this specific build uses Clairvoyant’s set. You can manage this build without it though. I personally recommend starting off with the Occultist tree and dealing vitality/bleed damage and using bloody pox; 1 point in the first node, max the 2nd and last node. Also work on Blood of Dreeg + the aspect of the guardian node. Eventually you can make the change into aether damage but early game I’ve never had much success with going pure aether.
Then start filling in with arcanist support skills: Maiven’s Sphere, Olexra’s Flash Freeze, Iskandra’s elemental exchange if you need energy regen, Nullification etc.
It’s a kiting game but effective, even more so if you use the enhancer node Fevered Rage on bloody pox (wouldn’t recommend to a new bro until you get used to the game, it’ll kill your characters).
You could even get a little adventurous and perhaps try out Dreeg’s Evil Eye too by adding gear with poison/acid damage.
If you’re planning on going purely aether right off the bat then you’ll want to alter your devotions a bit from what I’ve provided so you can get the best bang for your buck.
I’d prioritize getting Compass (for move speed, phys res, general defense [personal preference here]) Imp, Widow and Manticore first so you have some damage and debuff. If you have the opportunity to craft the Haunt relic, then do so immediately. You can aquire the sword that’s needed in the recipe by going to Spined Cove in Act II or Steps of Torment.
Be careful going full aether at the beginning, you’ll need Devastation to deal good damage and Olexra’s Flash Freeze to keep them immobilized to get the most out of the skill.
I realize this build is old, but you say in the OP the build requires the expansion but you don’t seem to be using BiS Expansion Components/Augments.
Here’s a few tweaks to consider. I removed Targo the Builder in favor of Solemn Watcher and Behemoth. This does mean the peak armor from procs is a little lower, but I managed to increase the DA by 425 and the OA by 220, so that should more than make up for it.
I also removed Gaze of Beronath from the hotbar in favor of Aether Corruption from Seal of Corruption. You already have 210 OA reduction from Bloody Pox, and I’m pretty sure different sources of OA reduction don’t stack.
They do, unless both are “reduced by”.
Let me preface that I based most of my defensive decisions based on the game’s difficulty pre-beast nemesis debuff patch so physical damage was a serious issue, Mark of Divinity proc’d so much I stopped playing the character entirely. Let me also preface that I play purely vanilla, meaning no mods, so I’m more prone to aim for a more defensive play-style (my previous Warlock died and this is my new one).
That being said, I’ve been a little lazy on updating my components, I don’t think I’ve got them all yet tbh. I like the OA/DA boost but dislike the -600 armor and -14% absorb.
I think I’d prefer having Purified Salt over Seal of Resonance due to losing +15% damage to aetherials but -8% on everything else also sounds great. I think the OA increase would supplement the 15% loss towards aetherials just fine, not to mention the other debuffs that follow.
The other components/augments I think were chosen nicely, I sorely want Survivor’s Ingenuity, I actually have a stack in my inventory for just the occasion lol.
This is pretty excellent, I’m curious how well it would hold up against bosses and specific mobs. The kill speed will be a definite increase but are we risking too much defense with the hp/armor+absorb loss? The huge boost in DA may take care of that but it’ll need further testing.
Lastly, I used peerless eye primarily for cleansing waters because the two work very well together. It’s like having two nullification’s except this one also weakens OA.
I’ll be playing around with this, I really appreciate your feedback.
TIL, thanks!
The armor loss was from me removing Targo from devos. We can actually get the absorb back by having a bit less overmax on pierce/chaos resists. I think the higher DA will provide more value than +600 armor, because it’ll be preventing physical damage crits.
Hmm. The only reason I’d really want to use Purified Salt is when trying to fight Ravager of Minds (for increasing max aether resist). I personally don’t find Aetherials to be problematic for most of my builds. The only aetherial that’s even remotely challenging for well-built characters is Archmage Alexander, and it’s only his meteor attack which you really have to watch out for (which MoE handles pretty well).
Having higher stun resist, on the other hand, makes you less susceptible to getting locked down in challenging situations. Getting over the 66% stun resist breakpoint seems very pertinent to HC builds, from what I’ve seen.
I can do some testing if you’d like.
Ah, that does sound really nice actually. I suppose to get the hotbar less cluttered we could replace Haunt with Agrivix’s Malice or something. Agrivix’s Malice seems like to would synergize pretty well, and with Aether Corruption providing -8% Aether Resist we aren’t losing much RR by removing Haunt (just some Fumble/Impaired Aim, which is nice to have but not strictly necessary)
Here’s some additional tweaks: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWyMQeN
Sure thing, I love messing around with GD builds.
Dude I’d love for you to test out some of the new content with what you’ve come up with - poison zones and the rifts preferably. My major concerns are HP and Resist debuffs. I’ve never really had too much of an issue with stuns but you never know what can happen so I like your reasoning on that end.
I created a cheated character with GDStash purely for testing purposes. I used the build I linked in my previous post: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWyMQeN
I successfully soloed Kubacabra, Gargabol, Ulgrim, and Lokarr. Each fight was completed first try (0 deaths) using no consumables other than health/mana potions, so the build is definitely hardcore viable. The build is very strong!
I’m putting some videos together and will edit this post with it once they’re ready.
EDIT: Here are the videos~~
I also cleared lots of trash leading up to these bossfights, nothing gave me any trouble worth mentioning. The hardest fight was Ulgrim I think, and that fight is optional (don’t think anyone would choose to do it on HC unless they had really high health and overmaxed pierce resist, it doesn’t give anything so it’s only worth doing for style points)