Is there a pure Phantasmal blades build?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
21

I’m leveling a PB Witch Hunter vita/chaos and I think it is OK for the moment.
I just reached Ultimate but Elite was quite easy.

I’m lvl 72 and already have more than 1000% in chaos/vita damage.
It is almost impossible to find good stuff to increase PB, HS or NE though.
It will probably be a problem later.

At lvl 65 I equipped a Blood orb of Ch’thon and it increased the damage of my PB by at least 30% since the Cold part is more or less the same % as Vita or Chaos parts.

It is better now but I had hard time with mana management during a while.
I crafted a Terror relic at lvl 35 and it helped me a lot to progress.
I’m not so squishy thanks to all the life leech I have.

This is the build I’m doing, few points may change at lvl 85 following my leveling in Ultimate.
http://grimcalc.com/build/430dxv
The points in PB are only here to increase the number of projectiles.

22

Why would you convert cold to chaos, when you have a natural debuff for cold resistance, and chaos is notorious for being often resisted and hard to debuff?

I have a weird idea for a PB trickster I’m working on, will probably be crap but i won’t know unless i try.

23

So noone tried 2h sword phantasmal blades?

24

The transmuter does not give you 30% weapon damage, you forget to deduct the -75% to all damage which further reduces that 30% to 7,5%

25

Oh, transmuter damage bonuses are multiplicative? I didn’t know that, lol.

Does the same apply for skill “upgrades” that add additional damage % to the base skill? Like Grasping Vines and Entangling vines - does Entangling vines double the base damage of Grasping Vines before other increased damage bonuses apply?

26

I convert to Chaos because I have almost no % Cold damage but more than 1000% Chaos damage.
Here the PB damages without and with the Orb of Ch’Thon buff:

So actually it is 20% more damage with the buff according to the dps displayed (2500->3000).
I have Terror to decrease the resistances and I hope to find soon a Fang of Ch’Thon to decrease automatically the chaos resist.

27

I’ve been theorycrafting this with shared files on witch hunter and trickster.

Using “of the oracle” green focus, focusing prism and owl devotion for a total -28% energy cost allows pb spam on any build. It is even possible to use Korvoran’s chestguard with occasional potions though that chest is just horrible in any case. Using this-is-stupid-pistol, 1 signet of the fallen, deathbound amethyst or peerless eye, clairvoiants hat, spellbreaker waistguard.

Witch hunter looks good on paper but has some survivability issues and modest clear speed. Despite physical resistance and huge %vitality damage boost. I also detest having two temporary toggles to always press, p-burst and blood of Dreeg, they constantly confuse me.

Trickster looks like a mess, but plays much better. I didn’t expect it, but he facetanks much better with wendigo totem/mark than witch hunter. Clear speed is also better. The downside is that masteries do not provide any useful OA boosters, so he needs lots of OA gear to use that stormcallers pact. This takes away from defenses and %damage.

Still, it does not make me want to try level up either, even if trickster can get ~100% crit multiplier with max hungering void. The itemisation is very poor and it does not feel rewarding.

28

You are much better off using the Clairvoyant Set with Tome of Arcane Wastes if you have them. This set-up is far and away Best in Slot for any Frenetic Throw build.

29

You are probably right but:

  1. I don’t have any pieces of the clairvoyant set.
  2. I’m a Witch Hunter, not a SpellBreaker, so it would be probably not as good as Nine build.
  3. I wanted to do my own build from scratch and so I didn’t check before what could be the best option to mount a PB character.If it doesn’t work when I reach 85, well I will find another viable build on the forum.
  4. I am lvl 78 and reached the end of act2 ultimate and so far I’m still happy with my build. It may change when I reach the chtonic mobs in act4 though. I hope I can find enough reduced chaos resistances stuff.
30

Witch hunter lacks some crit damage, but with Clairvoyant and Tome of Arcane Wastes I had 6K DPS on Frenetic Throw before I died :frowning:
I definitely recommend making the switch if you are ever able to get the 5 Items. Nothing wrong with using Blood Orb of Chthon as I used that first also until I got the Tome of Arcane Wastes :slight_smile:

31

I’m 85 now and almost finished ultimate.
With my luck it will take ages to get the clairvoyant set.
Even with 6k damages on PB I wonder if it is really a good build.
I was quite happy with the build until I played with a friend pyromancer.
His damages were so high compared to my Witch Hunter.
I maxed almost all my resists and got 10k HP so I don’t die but some heros or bosses are very long to down.

I saw some videos of frenetic throw/clairvoyant builds doing Loghorrean in 2 or 3 mn.
I think I’m going to take my decision depending on the time it takes to do it.
If it is too long I will switch to my Saboteur who is lvl 59.

32

My saboteur is my fastest Frenetic Throw Log Kill build I have. Once I get Falcon Swoop maxed out I’ll probably be able to kill him in about 1 minute 30 seconds. Obviously my builds aren’t the absolute best builds, But I think frenetic throw is a solid skill still even after all the nerfs.
Then again I don’t really care about making uber clear speed builds, I just want to have fun while playing the game.

33

Two maxed out masteries always make me shiver.

I’ve always like the idea of PB though.

34

I have a few questions to General Cash.

  1. You have PB Spellbreaker and CT Sorcerer build for aggrivix/devastation, and I would like to know from yours expierience which build is more efficient at farming ultimate Fabius and BoC. Also could you post your devotion setup for that PB spellbreaker?

  2. In one of your posts you mentioned that in 1.0.0.2 it is probably better to roll battlemage instead of sorcerer to negate lower HP. Do you think that equipping Wyrmbone Handguards, Empowered Legplates of Valor and boots for Stormtitan Treads or Boneshatter Treads would be a good idea to negate a loss of OA from Demolitionist and further increase HP pool.

3.I’m also interested if soldier doesn’t have bonuses to fire dmg would it be more beneficial to change proc skill from CT to a PRM for a battlemage and exchange Warpfire for a Wrath of the Ascendant?

If anyone else have experience with those build I will be greateful for his/her answer to those questions.

35

Currently going even further into aether, swapping the scepter/book for Temporal Archblade and using the Falcon. Swapped Rover gloves to Aetherreach as well.

Since i changed the devotion setup, I do not know if it’s better yet, as they are not max level, but even at lower levels (lvl 11 Falcon swoop, lvl 3 Tree of life) the build is not slow or squishy. Considering using the Iskandra 3-piece for extra survivability and physical->elemental conversion.

I’m surprised at just how amazing the Temporal Archblade proc is.

The aether-PB build with Silvercore bolts and Imbued silver clears BoC faster than any other char I have (including the blademaster), especially if the goal is to clear everything (when power-leveling someone for example). He struggles with Phabius to the point that there are times when his weapons are too good and i simply can’t tank him in between mirror/barrier cooldowns. The main problem with Fab seems to be that he knows to save his barrier for my devastation. Could be that i need to change the gear/spec a bit before trying to farm him, but I have a Warder and a Blademaster than can find him and kill him insanely fast, so I don’t need another dedicated nemesis hunter.

The CT guy has been a disappointment since the new patch, but I haven’t played him much. Could be that he needs further tweaking, but it seems that no matter what i do, he’s slow and squishy.

  1. In one of your posts you mentioned that in 1.0.0.2 it is probably better to roll battlemage instead of sorcerer to negate lower HP. Do you think that equipping Wyrmbone Handguards, Empowered Legplates of Valor and boots for Stormtitan Treads or Boneshatter Treads would be a good idea to negate a loss of OA from Demolitionist and further increase HP pool.

3.I’m also interested if soldier doesn’t have bonuses to fire dmg would it be more beneficial to change proc skill from CT to a PRM for a battlemage and exchange Warpfire for a Wrath of the Ascendant?

If anyone else have experience with those build I will be greateful for his/her answer to those questions.

Making a Battlemage right now, I was thining the same thing about PRM being better. With the change to Aggrivix and defensive devotions, things need to die faster than CT can manage and no point in going full melee since the proc is nerfed.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how well max cast speed PRM triggers Falcon, because I just might feel crazy and go Druid 2hander PRM with Falcon.

36

Hi guys, not sure if you’re dtill interested but I have a build I’ve been working on which is pure PB as damage source.

I max occultist mastery with max in possession, sol witch/second rite, max into PB line, max into pneumatic burst/dodge skill, and 1 points into blade trap and/or ring of steel, with a couple points into blood of dreeg line, and viel line.

a big issue with this build is damage spread across too many damage types, mana cost, and optimal gear for this build.

devotions = i specd towards hp regen while also getting undying god for damage and OA.

in the end, i have maxed tree of life, giant, and 6/7 of undying god.

i always considered clairv’s but, i dislike the conversion from chaos to aether since i have no skills to benefit from this as a wh.

main gear consists of chaos vit gear. but my char is not full resists.

covenant of the three for helm
2z sigil of the depraved for doombolt procs, resist and +2 to poss.
doomtouch for cast rate and doombolt proc,
girdle of stolen dreams for oa and +1 all skills,
speaker of the dead or blood orb of ch’thon off hand with solael’s component
devil’s cage for proc,
golemborne for resists, and fang if ch’thon in main hand.
also, peerless eye for amy with focusing prism.

mana regrn negates the skill cost of PBs, and single target damage for bosses is helped by the procs.

it’s tanky enough as is for ultimate with 8k hp and close to 2.5k oa, but resists are not there yet due to my shoulders which are bloodfury spaulders.

i also use a +5 pb badge of mastery.

damage is okay, but like i mentioned, tons of problems clearing the problem of resists, starting hp, damage, and lack of good gear for the build.

lmk fibu guys want SSs