Heh - Theorycrafted a Deadly Stormserpent Melee Sabo Build - SR75-76

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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So, was adjusting the lightening sabo build mad_lee made years ago and was messing around with armour options that weren’t just using the Shattered Realm set, which works very well :3 and started thinking about the Stormserpent set. But it was difficult to use for mad_lee’s gear build as Stormserpent lacks 1 very, very vital thing - added health. And playing whack-a-mole with resistance holes was getting me down.

So I restarted the build, starting with Stormserpent set + 2 Myth. Stormhearts and Myth. Korvaak’s brand and came up with something that looked bloody fragile on paper and probably doomed. Cue rolling good rolls via GDstash for most items (Stormheart being the most important), setting everything up and rolling into SR thinking this was going to be painful with only 12700K of heath… Of course, I forgot to GDstash modify the devotional procs to highest levels, so I died. A lot. It was pure glass, even with 160K of DPS on the sheet and plenty of life steal. Even after I fixed the devotion levels.

And this was with both Turtle and Ghoul…

And so I swapped Seal of Skies weapon component for O’s Blood and and used the Barrowholm one that gives health plus DA and went straight back in thinking this is going to be painful. As the changes dropped sheet DPS down to 140K. Buuuuut, despite being tired as hell, suddenly things clicked and the Reckless Serpent was borne to carve through SR with absolutely not fluffing right on paper to do so.

The Build: Saboteur, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

SR75-76 run:

Clear times are uneven due to me not knowing mob densities off by heart, but once the momentum starts, 9+ minutes of time becomes easily available :wink: Deaths mainly down to healer bs (I keep forgetting to run away lawl), ground effects and in the boss room - fluffing Korvaak. Can’t facetank his 3rtd phase due to a lack of health + more adcth. But did defeated him after 3 deaths working out the right way to deal with his bs.

Anyhow, feel free to tell me I’m nuts/provide feedback I may ignore because I’m trying something weeeeird once again :stuck_out_tongue: Though I’ve probably gotten something wrong lawl.

Also, this is totally my ADHD’s fault, because I did this instead of clear out various build’s stashses and sort out teh mules stashes + finally get the last bits done on my elemental gunslinger build
/ADHD-procrastion-ftw

And yes, GDstash is required to get good conversion/attack speed for Myth. Stormheart, because sadly it still doesn’t drop outside of the quest.

Right, it’s nearly 2am NZ time and I need to a) eat and b) sleep already.

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Oh and that devotion pathway is a) nuts b) was a pain to create and c) surprisingly works lawl.

Because I managed to sort out how to Turtle, Ghoul, Crown and the T2 and T3 blue lightening devotions through some trial, error and this-might-just-wooooork elbow grease. On fuck all sleep and no-dinner.

And yes, I am now a #TurtleMeta fan!

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SR80 cleared:

Of course I died, expecially with the reduced health mutator, because I’m a poop pilot and do stupid things, but SR80 is doable with smart play and lightening quick reflexes. And Kupa is facetankable too :3 Which I was not expecting lawl.

Otherwise Grava is garbage to fight due to his high lightening resists, even with cursed tinctures, so he takes ages, but that’s to be expected. Interesting a certain rotting high priest has to be hit and run because he hits hard as hell. While the Temple stone griffin, well, definitely can’t face tank that fucker. As it’s aether pools seem to debuff resists + reduce your damage, so can’t sustain off hitting it to death.

Salazar though is entirely facetankable, which I was not expecting.

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Results of continued SR testing:

  • Game play style is equal parts laughing while factanking everything vs running away because healers/nemesis/fucked up/in utter terror because all the CB’s are on fucking cooldown

  • Surprisingly tanky in the boss rooms though, deaths have mainly been down to me not hitting blade barrier fast enough.

  • Can eat Alex’s meteor even with the Afflicted mutator, was not expecting that lawl

  • Divide and conquer works well when facing certain 3-piece bosses in the boss room. If more health was available could probably tank them.

  • Can usually recover from a death

  • Elemental resistance mutator isn’t a death sentence due to the obscene damage this puts out, which was a surprise.

  • Can do AAA+++ trolling with blade barrier while Reckless Tempest kills things off.

  • So far can facetank every boss bar Korvaak, Grava, Father Abbadoth and Theodin. Kupa is completely factankable lawl.

  • At one mad point the sheet DPS was 220K, blessed are procs and mutators I guess :person_shrugging: Could get that by stacking lightening damage sources, but the build would be made of paper then.

  • I cannot serious think of any tweaks this build needs, could change pants and boots, since Runeguard or Golemborn boots might work out good, but unfortunately it needs more aether/chaos resist and I don’t see quite how to pull that off at the moment…

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The Trickster Savagery version: Trickster, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Initial SR75-76 run was goooooood. Not as much damage potential, but it crits like crazy. Probably going to change the amulet to “of Readiness” to get more DA since it’s low, and move points back to Pneumatic Breath because the added damage and physical resist isn’t quite worth it I think.

I thought the Trickster version might have needed a different sword due to the loss of multiple targeting vs Firestrike, but daaaaamn, the constant procs mean it’s not needed.

Anyhow, did the usual copy to zip and rename thing, so yet another build to the test thingy, though just got an elemental gunslinging Deceiver up to scratch though and need to finish putting it through it’s paces + record a run. All it took was a medal change, using the dev pathway that gives both T3 elemental devotions and investing in WPS MOAR. Which I keep finding out works really bloody well for DPS.