[Melee Aether] Sword & Board Aether Cadence Witchblade

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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[b]FOLLOW THESE BUILDS-

BUILD HAS BEEN ABANDONED. ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE CONCEPT SHOULD FOLLOW THE BUILD LINKED ABOVE
[/b]

This is a pretty straightforward setup, i respecd an old Chaos Cadence WB (one of my oldest characters) into an Aether Cadence build.
This build is tanky and has high damage o/p. With two CB skills (Menhir and Will of the Living) it invites reckless play.

Build Concept-

1. Conversion-

There are two types of conversion happening here-

>Chaos to Aether-
Pretty easy to do with two Albrecht’s Duality rings. You get 100% Chaos to Aether Conversion.
One can go for Clairvoyant Robes and Shoulders, i can’t say how well it’d work cause most of my attribute points had already been spent in the original Chaos version of this build.

>Physical to Aether-
Wrathstone (10%), Mindwarp(18%) and Will of the Living(18%) give me a total of 46% conversion.
Furthermore, we have Mindwarp on 100% on crit proc that boosts our physical to aether conversion further.

2. Racial Damage and Resistance Reduction-

%Damage to Aetherials falls under the classification of racial damage. Purified Salt and Outcast’s Wrath powder help a lot.

Resistance Reduction isn’t an absolute must since not many enemies besides the aetherials themselves have significant aether resistance. Arcane Mark tied to CoF and Black Star of Deceit helps.

3. Battlemage vs. Witchblade-

-Occultist brings attack speed to the table which is the bread and butter of most melee builds (not all).
Higher attack speed ensures Cadence charges build up more quickly.
One of our primary source of Chaos damage for conversion is Possession, this is a more practical melee aura than Arcanist’s Reckless power. Mainly because Possession has %Damage Absorption while Reckless Power has %Cast Speed (only useful if i decide to make a hybrid melee/caster).
Even though the individual Cadence hit is higher in an arcanist your attack speed helps you finish off your enemy pretty quickly. And your in practice comparable if not better than a BM.

-Arcanist brings some decent %Crit damage to the table (although we can get that using Dying God on our Witchblade).
But it truly shines in the 3-second God-mode known as Mirror of Ereoctes. Mirror is a nice addition but not really needed. The only boss who requires something like Mirror is Rashalga.
Also note despite being slower you’re individual Cadence hit should be stronger in an Arcanist.

GrimCalc w/ Plus Skills and Devotions-

http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-klE9WN

GrimCalc w/o Plus skills and w/ devotions-

http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-E90g2J

Keybinding-

LMB- Cadence (w/ Flame Torrent)
RMB- War Cry (w/ Hungering Void)
Keyboard 1- Curse of Frailty (w/ Arcane Bomb)
Keyboard 2- Blood of Dreeg
Keyboard 3- Overguard
Keyboard 4- Blitz

Screenshots (Contain Toggled Auras)-

1. With Deadly Momentum and Dying God proc-


2. With Deadly Momentum, Mindwarp and Dying God Proc-


Items-

Weapon- Mindwarp
Shield- Will of the Living
Helm- Warborn Visor
Chest- Warborn Chestguard
Shoulders- Warborn Pauldrons
Legs- Stonehide Solael-Sect Legguards of Kings
Gloves- Voidsteel Gauntlets
Feet- Stonehide Exalted Treads of Kings
Belt- Girdle of Stolen Dreams
Rings- 2x Albrecht’s Duality
Amulet- Empowered Essence of Beronath
Medal- Black Star of Deceit
Relic- Oleron’s Wrath

There exists an alternate non-green setup for you guys presented to us by Kolonel-

Bosses-

I didn’t explore too much since S&B melee is tad too boring for my taste since i am more into dual-wielding melee. Anyways, you’re pretty tanky and good to go and you can faceroll most bosses.

1. Shar’Zul-

He hits like a truck mainly cause block chance on shield is a little low. I managed to faceroll him, he can trigger your CB skills depending on the weapon he spawns with. Mine spawned with Shar’Zul’s Incinerator. He’s not too hard but he’s the hardest hitting boss.

2. Fabius-

You can kill him easily don’t worry. Just watch out for his blade barrier.

3. Alkamos-

I killed him w/o Hoarfrost, the only boss fight besides Shar’Zul that i personally enjoy in any profile is this guy.

4. Archivist Thelon-

I don’t know if it was some yellow weapon he spawned with but he energy leeches you. But he’s glass canon.

5. Overlord Van Aldritch-

I know i said i won’t do this area, but i needed to farm his scepter for another build (got it btw). He takes some time since i have a bad tendency to attack him while standing in his poison cloud. It causes you to fumble.
My aether resistance is highly overcapped so i don’t take much damage, the meteor he drops on your head can’t stun me since my stun resistance is overcapped as well. I do recommend kill Van Aldritch first our of three and Councilman Garl the last.
I went in with Mark of Divinity when i entered the Throne area and yes my CB did get triggered.

6. Rashalga-

I didn’t attempt her with my Aether setup but i used Mark of Divinity and had a Serrated Shell in my shield with the original Chaos setup to kill her. She’s pretty hard because of her ridiculous aura. I recommend doing the same with aether for her.

In Closing-

Firstly, credits to Tz Tz for posting the first non-Arcanist Melee Aether Build.
Secondly, to JoV whose tests with Battlemage helped me rectify my previous opinion for the Battlemage.
Thirdly, to Kolonel for presenting an alternate less gear dependent setup for the new players and his setup also helped me optimize this build even more

This is a good build, i didn’t spend too much time playing with it mostly because Cadence, Shield and Resistance Reduction usually mean OP, faceroll non-edgy play and i don’t like that. I am more of a DW fanatic :stuck_out_tongue:

This build is meant to prove a concept that Aether Melee works greatly Occultist. Indeed Arcanist has it’s own specialties and with a similar setup Occultist wasn’t too far behind i noticed. The in practice performance felt comparable to me if not better.
Arcanist also has Mirror which is pretty OP and can help a ton in tight spots. Unfortunately since we already use a shield, have two CBs, have back-up healer this build rarely gets into tight spots.

If one wants to play Melee Aether they can opt to go for Arcanist but Occultist has its own unique playstyle which i recommend highly. This build also works when dual-wielding.

Anyone interested in Chaos Sword and Board the concept is similar to this

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Reserved /10char

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Reserved for later

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It’s quite sad to think that Battlemage isn’t even the best at the Aether/Melee thing.

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Yes, let’s hope this build says something about this problem.

Waiting for updates:p

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Wait what is this head in your inventory?

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Guessing it’s the item for the Valbury quest from the outcast.
Not 100% sure, because I never bother with her quests so I don’t have to do bounties for the black legion and her reputation is maxed the most easily out of all factions.

Also nice build, I wouldn’t have thought of skipping Reckless Power even though it’s not needed so much with the proc from the sword.

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yeah that’s it :wink:

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Ah ok, I haven’t done the quest yet. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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I highly recommend you do her questline on elite and ultimate, because of the reward of her final quest. It’s a legendary accessoire.

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Guide updated. My 10 minutes were up :slight_smile:

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With all do respect that is straight up wrong conclusion.

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But what about a Warlock?

FH5rCbV.png881×984

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Im testing with it and it has highest potential for aether dmg but what is gimping it is lack of auto attack replacer, you are forced to use shard or smth :undecided:

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how do you convert physical except for weapon proc ?

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i have a melee chaos-aether Warlock with more emphasis on chaos, but as you stated, using shard straightup sucks, the damage output is horrible but survivability is decent.

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Why no Fighting Form 12/12 for a extra target ?

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With all due respect you’re the one who is mistaken. Occultist is better in melee support, a battlemage is only slightly behind so most won’t notice the difference but a witchblade is definitely better than a battlemage

Pretty much what JoV said, it has a got great potential but a melee aether warlock while doable is a real pain in the butt to build cause neither masteries have a default attack replacer.

Btw, JoV have you tried Troll Rage? :rolleyes:

Sometimes i wonder why it’s even in the game, it’s like the turtle of relics.

Thin on points, AoE isn’t a big issue i noticed since Flame Torrent + Malice clear trasg

Interesting i have pure melee fire based warlock and i feel the same. Damage o/p isn’t the greatest.

I don’t, if i wanted more physical to aether a battlemage would be the way go. Here the majority of conversion happens from chaos to aether.

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Ok, I dont want to argue so I will just leave this here.

DM and mind warp proc on:

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Dont forget that this setup has 10 flat (manticore) and -15% (BotEH) more aether rr :wink:

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I am aware of your Iskandra’s BM.
I tried a Warborn BM myself, while the individual Cadence hit was stronger the difference in performance was minimal in practice. Higher Attack Speed makes a great deal of difference due to Cadence charges building up more quickly

Wait is that Discord? :eek:
Why go for Discord? (because of Arcanist’s innate elemental support?)

Btw, you’re right no point in arguing :stuck_out_tongue:
Highly unlikely we’ll ever agree on anything. You’re the Offensive Ability whore i am the Attack Speed whore :slight_smile: