Mortar Trap Purifier [v1.0.6.1] - No Banner 8:58

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Welcome to my second build on the forum: Mortar Trap Purifier. AKA Mortar Proc Fiesta. AKA Mr Clunky.

No Banner Setup and YT

  • grimtools messes up numbers on this one: bleed res is 20% lower, pierce res is 10% higher, oa/da and armor is much higher even without minmaxed gear, etc.
  • unabashed I admit - had to use Courageous Tincture on this one
  • for best results with a banner change the amulet to Celestial Stone of Halakor (or Conduit of Destructive Whispers) and shuffle the augments to fix res (and skillpoints to remove redundant overcaps). Something like this.

Intro:

Mortar Trap has long been underestimated as a main skill… and rightfully so. Plain as day - it sucks. It is hard to build around it for the following reasons: 1) it’s slow and clunky, 2) it has no weapon damage, 3) its damage is broken down into 3 different types, 4) all its damage is direct damage, 5) gear support for both the skill and conversion of its damage types leaves much to be desired.

The main challenge when building around mortars is the fact that as soon as you start kiting all dps goes to shit - they simply miss moving targets - AND no weapon damage means no sustain for facetanking. So how did I make a crucible farmer out of it? Haunted Steel + Fiend + Bat + EB rings + as much armor as possible + a little help from Courageous Tincture. Haunted Steel paired with 4 weapon damage procs and Stormfire spam allow for brief periods of facetankability during nemeses waves and other waves are trivialized by the seal.

I experimented with Eye of the Guardian as well as Ghoul and Revenant to max sustain but this current setup turned out to achieve best balance between dps and sustain.

Gearing options and FAQ:

Q: I don’t have that amulet! What can I do?
A: Glad you asked! The amulet slot is heavily contested. I spent hours trying to figure out BiS and I’m still unsure. The conduit and Celestial Stone of Halakor are very close. The Stone had best results with a banner.

Q: I don’t have that green off-hand. What can I do?
A: Put a point in Ranged Expertise, double wield the gun and use the conduit to make up for the lost summon.

Q: I don’t have the conduit either. What can I do?
A: This or this or or maybe that or that. 4 mortars just won’t cut it.

Q: Are there any non-green options for the boots?
A: Stormtitans.

Q: I’m having major energy issues…
A: Yes. I know. Another Arcane Spark on the amulet might help.

Q: <in a hushed voice> I gdstash, okay…? What’s the BiS?
A: Should be Sandstorm TT of Scorched Runes and maybe Stonehide SG of Kings (which would allow to drop one Bloody Crystal) or Formidable SG of Kings. As for the medal, maybe Infiltrator’s (+2 to Censure) Wendigo Eye of Scorched Ends. Also maybe some Solael-Sect pants and Living Rings with %fire, oa and spirit.

Thank you for checking this out and as always all comments, criticisms and advice welcome.

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How about Light of Empyrion in your devotion setup? Instead of going toward the green and Torch, you could go more toward blue and get some more defensive constellations. Plus LoE does weapon damage for life steal.
Just an idea.

3

I’d take SBoE + LT 1/1 and bind Eldritch Fire to it, that’s way better proc skill than thermite mines.
Nice build overall, I like it

4

That’s actually a very good idea… Honestly I never thought about it. I take it you have sth like this in mind?

The only problem is that it would get banner-dependent and I personally don’t like it. Besides that, yeah, it looks very solid. 3400 armor/3300 da, better health, damage intact, just that oa…

Thanks. I agree about that mines. WoP would even be better, I think. But it’s already a mad pianist build. Having to cast the box every 1.6s… I dunno

5

Against horde, not solo target. Against solo target (any nemesis) SBoE is superior due to 4 ticks per second

6

So lighting and electrocute counts as separate ticks and the box and the tether are also separate? But BWC has 2 ticks regardless of Demon Fire, not 3, as its flat is not a separate but becomes a part of BWC’s direct damage, is that right?

I also considered Rune of Kalastor as this gear makes it and Artifact Handling very cheap but I wouldn’t be able to pilot it with so many buttons.

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Lightning Tether hits 3 times per second, it’s a hidden stat of this skill. SBoE hits once per second in AoE and LT hits 3 times per second on a line between you and target, including target.

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Does it mean that flat lighting on the tether is worth 3 times what it says?

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Yessir. Storm box does more damage than people think and the extra ticks make it an insane proccer vs single targets, works wonders with low chance things like attak seru or guardians gaze

Solid build btw! Glad someone else made a gladiator worthy mortar build, such a fun skill even if it kinda sucks :smiley:

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Thanks for a warm welcome. Real nice to hear. I guess I could’ve squeezed an extra button in for better procs. Would’ve made it full 12 active buttons.

Actually, I hoped to get an expert opinion on the amulet. I felt like my tests were inconclusive. The conduit looks most attractive but actually I had slowest results with it. Halakor doesn’t look like much but gave massive crits with the banner (up to 200-250k!). I chose the Apocalypse only because it was the fastest run I managed and the skill is cool (as long as there’s energy)

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Damage type of MT： Phy：Fire：Lightning=111%：100%：42%
IMO，Beronath sword can convert all the ele/chaos damage to phy, I will select this weapon for MT build. In addition, the converted damage will neglect armor, only the phy res counts.
Think you can give it a try.

12

It won’t neglect armor unless it’s trauma. Being converted from other damage types doesn’t matter. The end result is physical so it goes through armor.

13

Thanks but no. Physical MT is a different build - commando - and I highly doubt it can do better than this (prove me wrong!) for multitude of reasons (scarce rr, phys gear not supporting mt, etc.). Plus who told you that phys dmg, converted or not, neglects armor?

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Physical caster builds suck ass, can confirm. Tried physical Grenado/Stun Jacks/Canister Bomb Defiler and physical Flames of Ignaffar Apostate. RR or no RR, those were some of the most awkward slow and clunky builds I’ve tried.

I think only half-decent physical caster is Spellscourge Battlemage, that’s about it.

15

I mean, I will select that sword for Mortar Trap build. But the class combo, Pyromancer is obviously a better choice for that. The converted physical dmg will indeed neglects armor reduction, but the not-converted part cannot.

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The converted physical dmg will indeed neglects armor reduction, but the not-converted part cannot.
What I meant is,for instance:
phy dmg(converted):1000
phy dmg: 1500
Actucal dmg(200 armor for example): 1000+1500-200=2300

17

You kinda lost me there. Conversion has no impact whatsoever on how armor affects damage received.

Anyways, I don’t think it’s possible to make Beronath MT crucible viable let alone make it a crucible farmer. Yes, it converts everything to phys. But:

  • no %phys gear supports MT and hardly any %phys gear supports +all skills demo so MT and its nodes could hardly be overcapped (or %phys modifier would be pathetically low if to stick with MT-friendly gear)
  • MT is all about multiple low dmg hits so enemy armor would make a difference
  • low RR
  • probably a hundred other issues.

But ofc this is all speculation as I have never tried to build phys MT. You welcome to try ofc and post your results here.

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First, I like your BD, I think it is an AMAZING BD for sure, I LIKE IT.
Second, explain the conversion: for instance, Beronath converts all the elem and chaos damage to physical damage. FLAME TORRENT will do only physical damage, the damage will NEGLECT ARMOR value, only phy res counts.
Third, I kinda hate phy builds too. I think it is the worst damage type along with poison/acid.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av28466577/?p=1
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av28466577/?p=2
4:59 RAVAGER and 9:08 170EX with 3 buffs and 1 banner; someone just did the phy MT build before. As I said, I kinda hate phy builds too so I don’t wanna try it. All the builds I play I can do 170Ex 3 times in a row, so I know how weak phy BD is；but, it is still viable.

19

I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t work like that at all. I don’t have a link to the thread but if you’ll search around you might be able to find the thread in which a player discovered/revealed that each individual source of flat physical damage (every ring with +11-20, that +2 bonus from some random item, and so on) has armor applied to it separately. On hit/attack does not have all of the physical damage added up before being reduced by armor.

This is part of the reason why flat physical damage bonuses tend to be bigger than you’d see on the same slot for any other damage type - and yet physical still isn’t overpowered.

The thread made quite a stink when it came about. IIRC even Zantai was surprised - but since balance was more or less okay there wasn’t really enough need to ‘fix’ this.

20

Hey Bro，
Beronath converts all the elem and chaos damage to physical damage. FLAME TORRENT will do only physical damage, the damage will NEGLECT ARMOR value, only phy res counts.
SO ,FLAT ELEM AND CHAOS dmg will neglect armor value in this scenario because they have been converted , FLAT PHY dmg cannot neglect armor for sure.