Help me out a bit with my DK?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

So, I’m just coming back to the game after a pretty hefty break and starting out with a Death Knight. I want to try sword-and-board Aether melee.

I know that this is supposed to be a very weak class combo right now due to lack of items, etc. I’d still like to try it out.

My questions are:

1) How should I distribute my stat points?

2) Devotions? Looking at +aether damage constellations, the ones I catch within striking distance of each other are:

Phoenix (70%)
Wraith (39%)
Imp (39%)
Widow (120%)
Toad (24%)
Typhos (90%)
Rattosh (180%)
Attak Seru (180%)

I haven’t really been looking at Spear of the Heavens just due to how far away it is from the other big aether ones.

The “best” configuration of those constellations I’ve been able to find gives me +622% aether damage. This leaves out Widow, though, which has a proc at the end that reduces aether resistance by 35%. I know that resistance reductions are really important in later stages of the game. How valuable is this really?

If I make sure to keep Widow the best I’ve been able to do is +613% – but that leaves out Typhos, which also has a ton of +vitality damage in it, which seems like a DK’s most natural secondary damage type. The skills I have already give me a lot of +vit damage, so it makes me think I might really want that constellation?

If I need to keep both Widow and Typhos, the best config I’ve found gets me +594% and also requires that I leave out the Will of Rattosh proc at the end of that fatty constellation. That’s a lot of flat aether and vitality damage, so I’m really not sure.

Which one of these devotions setups would be optimal?

Thanks in advance. :smiley:

2

This might help you

3

Thanks for the reference… this is flat out the most optimal path, then?

The devotions confuse me a bit. There’s a ton of aether damage left un-grabbed, and these ones aren’t particularly defensive either. What am I missing with Oklaine’s Lantern… those points won’t count since you don’t use a dagger/scepter/caster off-hand?

And definitely go full physique for the stat points? Is there any situation where this isn’t the best option?

4

Ah sorry, I had made the concept based on Warpfire but then realized the flat damage on Cadence could use more conversion and Mindwarp in general offered higher RR

Should be fixed now

I think stat distribution is a little flexible but stick to Physique. There might be some errors there in the GT link but your main focus should be max physique

The only aether devotion i skipped was SoTH, as much as I like that skill I noticed Rattosh constellation has the ability to reduce enemy ADCtH resistance which means you can life leech them better and hence improving survivability.
There’s also Imp, but I never liked it so I picked Flame Torrent due to presence of %WD on it

The two DK setups have their own benefits, one focuses on Life leech and the other on Damage absorb. Naturally Damage Absorb one is more tankier, but the former isn’t to be underestimated