[Melee Aether] Warped Striker - Aether based Shadow Strike build

[Chthon]

Hi,

I’ve been playing a DW pistol purifier, almost lvl 100 now. So I’m thinking about starting a DW melee class, and seems like the Reaper could be a good one to build.

A few question:

1. For the Reaper build, or just melee in general, is it active-skill heavy? Cause so far for my purifier, all I really do is default attack, with minimal active skill usage.
2. Is this build equipment specific heavy? or it’s okay.

Thanks in advance!

Both Breaker and Reaper require you to time some stuff

I’d say these three have much less active skills imo

DW Fleshwarped Strikes - http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66478

Maelstrom - http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48400

Chaos Cadence (just drop the shield) - http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67345

[polmed]

Thank you Chthon.
I just try the Reaper and finished Act 1. Took my time, and it’s really fun to play! And as you said, timing is required (for the ring of steel for aoe kill), but overall nice and easy.

For skills, I put in some to get the Reaping strike in Necro, then focus all in nightblade. Am I doing it right? or should I go spectral binding already? Or any skills I should get early on for leveling?

Thanks.

[Chthon]

Early on I never play with the build itself, I usually get Searing Ember’s granted skill - Fireblast OR Flintcore Bolts Granted Skill - Greater Fireblast. It takes me up to Homestead.

I’d say, Phantasmal Blades, Bone Harvest and Shadow Strike can easily carry you in normal

Get to Port Valbury and farm Overlord Van Aldritch for Decree of Aldritch. You can then easily spec into an Aether based Shadow Strike build

[polmed]

Well, I’m having a pretty fun time playing it, especially now I got 2 swords that boosts ice and aether attack, and total +4 on shadow strike, killing heroes is quick and painless

One thing though, for the exclusive skill, why Master of Death over Harbinger of Soul? Death is heavily pet-favored and self offensive ability, while Soul is aether/viatlity attack boost, life steal, and atk speed?

[crackerjack124]

cool build

[polmed]

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V04g7aV

Using the exact same equipment setup, I changed a bit of the skills and devotions. Because none of the resistance stats change, I’ll skip commenting on that.

Devotion

• Fiend -> Rat, 1 extra point, but lost Flame torrent
• Panther -> lizard, 1 extra point
• Take out Hungering void of Dying God – Not too sure about Hungering void’s HP loss per second, about 6k hp for the 20 sec duration, seems quite a bunch.
• Take the blue one from crossroad
• +4 points in Ghoul for Ghoulish hunger and bind with Pneumatic Burst for extra life leech and physical resistant (or can put to Revenant for 6% life leech)

Skills

• Master of death -> Harbinger of Soul
• Might take 1 point from dual blade and put to ring of frost for crowd control, quite useful in crucible and normal run.

Net

• -233 OA and -105 DA (about 5% each)
• +11% attack speed
• -5% crit damage
  [li]Around +1000 weapon attack and +700 weapon damage. [/li]These comes from the extra vitality, aether, poison damage from Rat, and vitality decay damage from Harbinger of Soul.
  
  Others
  
• +12% life leech
• +30% constitution
• +3% run speed
• Slightly more HP

I think this version has overall more survival, by hitting harder and leeching more. And there is less chance-proc skills, so more stable and less active skills to use to proc.

Gotta say though, totally having fun with this build. The more I play this build, the more I enjoy it!
Still slowly crawling around lvl 40, but will see how it goes toward the end.

One general question though: Does the life leech come from weapon attack or weapon damage!!! never seem to get that…

[Chthon]

Well, I’m having a pretty fun time playing it, especially now I got 2 swords that boosts ice and aether attack, and total +4 on shadow strike, killing heroes is quick and painless

One thing though, for the exclusive skill, why Master of Death over Harbinger of Soul? Death is heavily pet-favored and self offensive ability, while Soul is aether/viatlity attack boost, life steal, and atk speed?

You need OA and DA, they are far more important stats for a Shadow Strike build that has insane Crit potential
So master of death is better in this case

One general question though: Does the life leech come from weapon attack or weapon damage!!! never seem to get that…

Feel free to experiment but do know what you’re losing-

Fiend’s proc - Flame Torrent is an important contributor to single target. Since you can have multiple flame torrents up at the same time it can shotgun bosses at close range

Dying God’s proc - Hungering Void’s usefulness depends entirely on how you play. One or two hits with your main attack should be enough to negate the HP drain. The crit damage alone makes it a very useful

ADCtH/Life Leech is done through skills that have %Weapon Damage

[Chthon]

Guide updated with Acid SS setups

[thejabrixone]

No nightshade’s reach shadow strike?
Or is it still inferior in front of DG blades?

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

[Chthon]

No nightshade’s reach shadow strike?
Or is it still inferior in front of DG blades?

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

Nightshade’s reach is not worth it imo. It’s good since anything with Acid/Poison works well but at the end of the day it’d loose out to DG blades and I think it’s even inferior to 2x Basilisk Claw/Venomlash

[Sylvaen]

Hi !! I’m quite noob in the game and i’m trying to make a build quite similar to yours … The purpose is to construct a build around shadow strike maybe with a spellbreaker in order to get the maximum amount of CDR. I wanted to use Soulrend as weapon to get a good dmg input and cdr…

Here is my grim tool : https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZRlG4K2
Could you please give me some advise to finish this build ? Does it seems viable ?

Thx by advance

[klasperstanze]

Hey Chthon,

I´m surprised no one seems to have notices this so far:
You called your Spellbreaker SCHUTZSTAFFEL and have the nerve posting that here?