looking for new build

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hey all, im on my second day of searching for information…

I’m new to the game, but not new to ARPGs, looking for a simply frost/cold based, preferably tanky build in GD. I looked through the build compendium, however im seeing all high damage/speed clear builds at max, with only a handful of newb friendly builds, and honestly- i dont want to start multiple characters, i like sticking to one.

any suggestions on a tanky/cold based damage build that would be good for level progression and easily moved to farming higher end content later?

I have base game and AOM

2

Take Inquisitor
Use Rune Of hagarrad
With Word of Renewal, Inquisitor Seal & Aura of Censure you get some tankiness.

You can then take Nightblade for More -RR and a second heal
or You can take Arcanist for mirror and Maiven’s sphere for more tankiness
or you can go Shaman for Wind Devil, Heart of the wild and Wendigo Totem
or you can go Occultist For CUrse of Fraility and Blood of Dreeg
or you can go soldier and take it’s passives, Field Command , War Cry & Overguard (if you use shield)

3

You have a very good cold based build in the beginner build section, under Vindicator. Look again. I made that guide.

It can be made tankier, even with basic shit gear (just farm a shield with +20% physical resists)

4

Yes, Vindicator has easy to understand synergies, requires no conversions and is pretty safe with some good damage. Damn’, I want to play my Vindic’ again now.

5

Plus, vindicator offers many variations in gameplay-style/skills to use.

You can do traps with Haggarad and/or Kalastor

You can do Flames of Ignaffar channeling build

You can do Wind Devils, Storm totem, stormbox (I have a noob guide for this playstyle too)

You can do Primal strike melee, ranged

You can do …

well anything except pets (?)

So a very versatile choice in case you get tired of the cold damage

6

I’m giving it a shot now, the only thing i notice is that the CD on ROH is quite long making damage slow. does that change later on? Other than that its pretty enjoyable so far. Great guide too btw! for some odd reason i didnt see that when i was looking through. ( I was hoping for Frost based DK but didnt see any since my “DK” is 17)

7

You have artifact handling later. Also you can get off-hand, shield and other items with cooldown reduction. Plus you get wind devils and devo procs later.

For a faster leveling pace, go with Word of Pain as secondary skill until you can grab artifact handling.

The rune builds are the fastest killer in Grim Dawn, look at this beast of a build! http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81371

So despite you are not spamming the runes, they deal INSANE damage

If you wanna spam something, get seal of the night component and use the chill spike skill it grants. Similar to this build (but with shaman instead of solider) http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79715

Also/or you can grab a cold based gun and the Korba helm and shoot with Savagery between the rune casts/explosions.

As I wrote, you have so many possibilities with vindicator, especially when you are low on gear - AND when you get more gear, you can do almost whatever you want dude :slight_smile:

8

i think when i start unlocking more abilities to stack itll be different, im very much low level yet . this works perfectly because i love shaman type builds in every game ive played and really wanted to incorporate shaman into this game. Ty for the advice!

9

if you have more questions or so, you can comment in the guide thread in case more people have similar questions

Good luck!

10

i put a couple points in primal strike… my god is that ability monster. between that, the devils and rune its super fast

11

Yes, I do wish there was a way to convert all lightning damage on primal strike to cold damage… for endgame stuff you have to use storm totem, storm box and/or maelstrom from melee/rune hybrid builds.

12

This is a random question- but Ive been switching between my “death knight” and the shaman/inquis. if i were to stick with primal strike and take heals from sham/inquis would it be viable to get me through the tougher content? or am i better sticking with DK? I found out im quite the fan of the melee/aoe build more than caster/cold

to specify- i like primal strike and the forcewave equally… (been using force on DK) but i quickly scrolled through endgame builds and didnt see a primal strike one.

13

There are plenty of endgame primal strike builds, there are also quite much faction and budget support for that matter too.

What is better is highly subjective. Play what you think is most fun and what you think you will learn most of. Don’t expect your first build will become an endgame machine so to say regardless of what you choose anyway. However, you do have the Krieg set for the Death Knight (but even a cheap made Rune caster will own such Krieg Death Knight in terms of damage…)

For a 2H primal striker, I would just go for Stupid Dragons elementalist beginner build but with these modifications:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQJLDl2
(changed helm, skills, and devotions)

It took me probably 200 hours in this game (and 4-5 lvl 100 toons) to make myself think “hey I think I understand the basics of this game now”.

14

i guess i just like big smash melee more. i should’ve figured i did since i was barb d3, barb d2 and tech slam juggernaut in POE. lol always played the big smash lava builds

15

Hard to make big “smash” cold melee unless you have specific rare gear…

I play everything, I dont wanna limit myself to just one playstyle :slight_smile: