been luring around a couple years and playing grimdawn since start, i got hooked up again by crate’s announcements for the next dlc! I started another char and have to admit, this one is my strongest so far…I do not follow meta, even if i like to read your builds and get inspired by them and also search around grimtools!
So without any futher words, here is my build:
I am not a min-maxing type, i just see something i like and change my build to it. But i comes out, i do like this build really a lot…It is just some good old hitting right in the face and doing some nice lifesteal!
But as you can imagine, i really want to reach moaar and finally been able to do some unique bosses and maybe the tomb of the heretic in ultimate. Soo, if anyone has some ideas how i can improve, i would really like to hear about it! I am open for changes in my Armor, devotions, skills and attributes…but my mainplaystyle should stay the same!
To elaborate, these abilities do NOT work on Primal strike. In fact, the tooltip on Thunderous Strike explicitly says it does not trigger abilities like Feral Hunger.
This also means that your Wendigo devotion is never even triggering, since you bound it to one of these skills…
Anyway, in addition to FlamingX’s good advice above, you can also get much better gear.
Specifics depend on what you have, but consider:
Additional parts of the Wildblood set is possible. Gives more OA, but not really recommended it’s mostly for bleed or boosts skills you don’t use.
Rotgheist set, or at least the helm (which is craftable) → Shaman skills and lots of vitality damage to Primal Strike. Rest of the set supports Oathkeeper/Occultist more, but it’s still a great choice because it adds a massive 18% life steal to Primal Strike.
Rings that reduce vit res, like (mythical) Cursebearer, Signet of the Fallen, or Voidheart.
Oh, and one more thing: I see you dumped most of your points in Cunning. That does not help your damage, Spirit does. Worth resetting if you can get your OA up elsewhere
Yeah, that’s always the tricky part about completing a character. Your best bet is probably to get some greens “of attack” and also some resistances.
You can try crafting a belt. Your current belt is rather bad, and the Trollheart Waistguard (yellow craftable belt) would be good for this build. (+1 to all Shaman skills & damage conversion.) Fortunately it’s pretty cheap to craft, but if you’re looking for good affixes (like +OA) you will still need a lot of scrap and iron.
Crafting some gloves is also helpful. Your current gloves aren’t very good. Plagueguard Grips are also pretty cheap to craft, come with innate + attack speed, and have a high chance of rolling +attack speed affixes. Again, if you really want an “Aggressive of (something that gives attack speed)” you’ll need a bucket of scrap and iron, but just getting a decent one with good attack speed (“of alacrity”) should be easy.
Craftable boots are also a nice option, Intrepid Warboots are very nice to boost CC resists. (You really want some slow resist before heading deeper into the Shattered Realm.) But your current boots are pretty helpful already, so I’d leave that until last.
Build looks much better now, and I’m sure you’ll improve it more with some additional farming. A few more cheap and easy things to fix:
You really need to fix your skillpoint allocation. Remove those points from Bone Harvest node 1 and 2 and Storm Totem, keep just 1 point in each of those nodes.
Use the points to boost the Devouring Swarm (more RR) and the Primal Strike nodes. (More targets, more damage.)
Could also move some points from Mogrogen’s Pact and to the second node instead for extra health, you’re not a regen build so the first node is marginal. (Though the damage and energy regen on node 1 are still nice.)
You removed the WPS skills as adviced, good move. But you also removed the points from Brute Force. That is not a WPS, and does NOT require default attacks to use. It’s a massive passive buff that just requires holding a 2 handed weapon. Should be maxed out. Use those points from Storm Totem and Bone Harvest.
Your elemental resist looks pretty bad. I’d try crafting a second piece of Living Armour for the shoulders and swap the leg armour augment for Scaled Hide, that should max out armour absorb and boost resistances.
Also, swap the augment in the boots for the homestead fire/lighting one, since you currently have too much cold resist and not enough fire/lightning.
Your resistances are still too low. On ultimate you have to have them at least at 80% and hopefully overcapped by 30%
Vitality damage is the most resisted damage type in the game so not maxing devouring swarm is losing out on damage.
Storm totem is kinda useless on this build since it’s lacking skill modifiers. I would take the points out and put them elsewhere.
After fixing those issues, your attack speed is still a little low. At some point you should try and put a consecrated wrapping in your glove spot and crafting a set of plagueguard grips with an “of alacrity” suffix
Does the item skill modifier actually convert torrent and storm surge? Or are they secondary skills akin that of soul harvest that need global conversion to actually work? bc if not that’s wasted points
Yes, it does. There’s only a few nodes that are not covered by item modifiers. (Soul Harvest, Deadly Momentum, Vile Eruption, Lethal Assault, etc.)
But even if that hadn’t been the case, second node adds additional targets and additional weapon damage, which always helps. And flat damage on the second and third nodes would still have been converted with global conversion items like that crafted belt I mentioned.
You can check for yourself in-game. Buy some points in the nodes and check the damage tooltip on the second character tab before and after. You will notice there’s no lightning damage listed.
Edit: Or check in a mod that measures actual damage dealt, like DPS yes. This is a cooldown PS character using that same amulet.
it does not convert Torrent, it is a secondary effect
*technically Torrent has an additional caveat, but generally only relevant for spam PS; only 1 Torrent can be out at a time
Torrent is a separate chain lightning, unrelated to PS itself (ie not usual modifier that adds on top of PS/you don’t get PS dmg on Torrent or vice versa) - you only get the Torrent dmg/stats listed as is on the Torrent chain zap hit.
Whether or not Torrent is then worth probably “kinda” depends, legit never bothered to measure it in detail.
My default approach is, if i’m using PS for DoT like CD, i 1pt Torrent, more is meaningless(no dot added/dot wont stack)
if i’m using PS for flat dmg or spam dmg, i max Torrent since it’s extra dmg regardless.
If i were using it for flat dmg mixed with flat dmg support skill, totem/sigil/VM/DEE etc whatever ala rotgheist, while not being spam/using CD version, i might still consider low invest Torrent to max the dmg of the support skill, assumption being those would simply scale better.
Ah, in that case thanks for correcting me, and apologies for the misinformation.
Checking… ah, I was testing on a character that also had 100% lighting-vit global conversion. That explains.
Testing more carefully with a completely unequipped character (except ammy) shows this:
So to the OP: the third node, Storm Surge, should definitely be maxed, while the second node, Torrent, is more optional… but still helpful for this specific character, as it’s a spam character, especially once you craft this belt…
side note, since i was the one posted the list as retort
Dragon retired from GD some time ago so the list is not 100% uptodate anymore,
Blood Burst in DEE got changed couple patches ago and is no longer a secondary effect, rest should still be accurate tho (for now )
bonus caveat being Maelstrom is… “special”… it’s technically a pet skill, which means it’s not really a secondary effect in the same manner, and will for instance be converted when using the Wind Devil acid conduit, but not with other/regular item modifiers (Z opting for maelstrom to not have “Devil’s” modifiers applied as such)
So Maelstrom is really one to keep an eye out for with DPYes depending on itemization/conduits or not (can’t slap skill on LMB/RMB to check in char sheet page 2)
-rest on list is as usual secondary effect, also even if FX might imply changes (eg VM modifiers changingcolour on Volcanic stride but not actually dmg)
after reading all your comments and trying to understand , i changed the build again.
It costs me mostly all my scrap and iron (on 3 characters ) and some materials to craft rotgheist helm, nice gloves and belt, but i need to say i am very pleased with the result!
If you want to optimize even further then i suggest farming for the rest of the rotgheist set, nightbringer, and a good pair of reaper legguards .
Like GnomishInquistion said earlier, torrent is a secondary skill that can only converted by global conversion which the above mentioned gear have. Also, both the set and nightbringer give a ton of skills to shaman. The reapers pants are for the +3 to soul harvest.
In the mean time, as long as you’re hating fun with your build, that’s what counts.
Mostly agreed, but while Nightbringer is a great weapon, I don’t think it works well for this build because it comes with 0 attack or casting speed.
I’ve tried making a PS character that used it, but I found it impossible to get my attack speed up to snuff. Nightbringer also has far less flat damage on it, and because it’s so rare it’s much harder to get a good roll.
Bottom line: Nightbringer works best for cooldown DoT primal strike, I find. The current weapon is much nicer for spam.
You cna definitely optimize it further even talking about augments:
I see you took 18% venomguard and 15% voidward, where you can combien two and instead use 12% venom + 10% chaos, called fiendward or smth along those lines.
Enchanted Earth on boots seems like a waste of not picking resists or even movement speed, so Mark of Mogdrogen could definitely be better.
Honestly you have so many skills now and I don’t blame you, i been there too, however sicne u spam that main skill I suggest removing some and invest in other more, like getting rid of totems - thye only slow you down at this point, healing already happens from primal strike imo.
it also seems you forgot to finish dying god devotion which is very important for damage output, so rather remove “Wendigo” add “Bat” and finish that Dying God.
Add Diamond on head too while at it if you can, but overall it already looks neat. Perhaps finish “Wildheart Vanguard” set if you can’t find all the Rotgheist parts yet. That’s all for now.
)
, i changed the build again.
) and some materials to craft rotgheist helm, nice gloves and belt, but i need to say i am very pleased with the result!