I’m hoping to create a necromancer gun-based build. Note that I’m not looking for a fully optimized build, but at least something that can clear Ultimate and Challenger Crucible. I just like the idea of the lifesteal of a necro on a gunslinger.
Here are some routes I’m exploring: Necro/Inquisitor (Apostate)
This tries to reduce the different damage types it deals by getting 100% elemental to aether conversion from Diviner’s Raiment, Diviner’s Mask, Magelord Band, and Magelord Signet. This means, if I understand correctly, that all the WPS from Inquisitor will deal aether damage, and the build can concentrate on the necro’s staple damage types: aether and vitality.
Necro/Soldier (Death Knight)
This tries to focus on physical damage and uses dual Mythical Deathdealer’s Sidearms to transform Reaping Strike into physical damage. I feel this is the weaker of the two since necromancer brings other forms of vitality and aether damage which this build struggles to make use of. Still, it has Cadence, whose power is just ridiculous.
Your ideas don’t have to be along these lines, and I’m eager to hear what your ideas are. How would you make a decent gun necromancer?
It can’t hurt to try it out. Worst case scenario is you end up wasting a few hours on a build that doesn’t pan out. That’s one of the best things about Grim Dawn, being able to make more unique builds with the ability to convert one damage type to another.
Just need to experiment around in Grimtools then use GD Stash to make a char, give him the gear then go try out Crucible or some of the end-game dungeons to see how it does.
Sadly I can’t really give any advice as the only gunslinger I have is a Pyromancer focusing on Chaos and then Fire damage.
Try combining the procs from necro and inquisitor. and then throw in whatever defensive and utility skills you think might help. find a good aoe skill to use when needed as well.
I’m working on it right now. The problem is that I’m just not terribly good at balancing the different things you need. You need attack speed AND damage AND resistances AND OA AND DA AND damage to health. This is what I have currently, but I have a feeling it’s just going to fall over and die. I know I’m not done with it, but balancing it is a nightmare. Especially trying to get all the resistances in order. Any suggestions?
I’m playing an Apostate now. So far, up to level 35, it’s extremely powerful.
I started with Inquisitor, which has extremely good passives on the top row.
Then I added Necromancer, and also added passives from the top row, and added Spectral Binding, which makes your base damage very high. You’ll find the damage from Spectral Binding and Ranged Expertise makes it so the only stat that matters on your guns, at least at first, is attack speed.
After my base auto attack damage started to cruise, I added Bone Harvest. The spell is pretty good for AE damage. It mostly one shots non bosses. It’s a little awkward to use, as it seems to want to walk up closer than needed to hit the target spot, but you can learn to just target the ground in front of your targets.
At level 25, add in the Mistborn Talisman. At level 50(?) I’ll add “Shard of Beronath” and then I can use another Relic (just checked, it’ll work). I plan to push to Aura of Conviction for my exclusive skill.
The rest will be played by ear, as I get to test them out. I really had no idea if this would work when I started, but I wanted to test out both of the new classes, and it appears it will.
I have been playing a necro gunslinger in Normal and so far it seems viable even though I am not very good at min-maxing. After some helpful advice from these forums I invested in Word of Pain, Word of Renewal, Ranged Expertise, Bursting Round, and Deadly Aim, then I took Reaping Strike and Spectral Binding from Necro.
I haven’t found any decent gear yet, but even so I have only died twice, both times due to me fat-fingering the keyboard (I didn’t drink a potion fast enough while running through Aetherfire and I got overwhelmed in the 4th level of Steps of Torment).
I am level 38 so far and I am enjoying myself. I have yet to finish the game but I think I may make it with this character, he is fun to play and not too fiddly.
As an update, I added in Inquisitor Seal, and level 41, it’s surprisingly effective with 5 points in it. I no longer have to kite, unless it’s a boss with a big move.
My DPS with mostly random gear is showing over 5K, which doesn’t count the procs from 4 skills with a 20-25% chance to go off. I think this may be the highest damage character I’ve ever had at this point, other than maybe my Aether Ray build.
His HP is also super high, as a result of Spectral Binding. His only weakness, at this level, appears to be a lack of an “Oh Shit!” button (I died once due to the aether environment while trying to pick up an aether shard).
This is a low level character, so it might not pan out, but everything except the oh shit button is present in this build. Damage, offense, defense abilities and resistance debuffing will all be there. The question is how well will those skills grow at higher level.
You might be able to find a good panic button in either Siphon Souls or a constellation (turtle comes to mind, but I’m sure there are better). Let me know since right now I’m futzing around with leveling stupid builds for fun while I try and figure out the end-game resistance and damage balance for the completed build.
Siphon souls is something I’m probably going to look into, but I didn’t think it stopped damage from hitting you, only that you try to siphon vitality from mobs. Unfortunately, some mobs are very resistant to vitality, so it might not be reliable.
Point taken. I need to stop fantasizing that I’ll have a leeching machine capable of outhealing everything. Seems our panic is going to have to come from constellations, then. I’m seeing two constellation abilities that trigger when hit below a certain health threshold (making them semi-automatic panic buttons): Ghoul and Turtle. The Ghoul one seems to be mostly leech, so I think the turtle is our only chance there. It’s saved my butt enough times on other characters that I assume it’ll work well here. If you happen to try it, let me know if it solves the problem.
Sorry to double post, but I think I have the right balance! At least I hope I do… I don’t actually know where the OA and DA should be for these builds, but this seems to have all the resistances and decent damage. I’ll start playtesting soon. I’m guessing this will be able to clear challenger and ultimate, but not gladiator, which is about where I wanted it.
As long as I stay away from MIs, I’ve noticed that I can get the legendaries I need pretty quickly through trading once I can start running the crucible. I’m not too worried about getting them. But that’s what this thread is mostly about, just how good we can make this build in the end game.
Speaking of, I tested this and its damage AND tankiness feel low. I’m just not good enough at making builds, it seems.
From my experience, you can kill the enjoyment out of the game when you min/max to that extreme. While I get it once you’ve played the game for so long, but we have a new expansion, try to old school it a little. You may find it fun.
I don’t have the elemental to aether conversion gear, so I’m playing my apostate as a cold/vitality gunslinger, because I wanted to try both new masteries at the same time :D. Right now I’m only 70 though, playing thorugh Elite and it feels really good
Most of the damage comes from Soul Harvest flat damage bonus, which scales great with % increases and multiple attack procs, which I leveled until max proc chance. Bone Harvest does pretty good aoe dmg, Siphon Souls procs Wendigo’s Mark and gives nice survivability combined with the Inquisitor Seal
The approx build I’m currently looking at - /calc/nZoXrxQN (can’t post links because don’t have enough posts lol). Not a theorycrafter at all, just playing the game for fun, also the gear is not in the build because I’m wearing random crap and don’t have any 100 lvl gear
I find most of my enjoyment in these kinds of games is trying to optimize and make builds work. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. My only frustration is that I can’t seem to get a straight answer on actual advice on what defines “good” which is important when optimizing. Otherwise I’m having a blast trying different stuff. I think I can replace Krieg’s gauntlets with something more in line with our interests…
Just level up, and experiment. Figure out what is best. There is no answer, as everyone has different ideas of what a character should play like. Rather than looking at build sheets, go in game and find out.
I have noticed a few skill choices that also might affect what you need, such as Siphon has a big -offense debuff, which will reduce the defense needed while it is up.
The difficulty is that there are answers. Certain builds work for certain goals and others don’t. I’ve had to scrap characters before at maximum level because they simply don’t work. I’ve played the build and it doesn’t perform like I’m hoping, which means it needs tweaking. I’m not above hacking in a character with certain gear to try it out before I level it.
Don’t worry about me having fun. I am. I’m leveling fun characters. I’m trying to get this build to actually function at a high level because the lower levels of it are so much fun. I’d hate to see it go the same way as those other characters that lose steam and end up unable to kill regular bosses.
Well, I’m up to level 60 atm. I’ve made a few adjustments. I dropped Bone Harvest, which while a good AE, it wasn’t necessary, as I have plenty with my Auto attacks (Shard of Beranoth attack). I picked up Horn of Gandarr, which has a confuse 100% if they don’t resist it. It’s all a pierce attack, which is my primary damage type.
I have Inquisitor Seal and Arcane Empower as a good defense (so far anyway), and it boosts damage a ton as well. While on its own, it may seem weak on defense, but I’ve also made sure to get my armor up, armor absorbtion to 98%, and 23% physical resistance with armor and Aura of Conviction. I should get to 29% once I hit level 68 or 75. Aura of Conviction also adds a lot of pierce damage to the build. Steel Resolve also gets my Chaos and Aether resists up a lot, and a bunch more damage.
With 23-25% ADCTH, and all my resists at 58% (chaos) or better, there have been very few problems atm.
I could imagine if I had picked up Demolitionist, I could use BWC to get an addition 15% physical resists, making my current 38%, and 44% waiting as level. That would go a long way to face tanking most mobs.
While using gear I already had, I’m up to 18K DPS on the char sheet, with buffs, and seal down.
Edit: I’ve also noticed there are a few physical resist devotion points. I can easily hit 50% physical resists. That would go a long way to reducing the big hits, which is usually through physical. At least in the past.
For your defense, try another approach. Inquisitor Seal is not a one stop ability, but it may be a lot more powerful than you realize, it just won’t do all the heavy lifting on its own.
The ability is like a shield. On its own, a shield is not very good, but with a lot of resists, which means max most everything, and get as much physical resists as possible, it becomes very powerful. The awesome part of Inquisitor Seal, is it is like armor for spells and stacks with armor for physical damage. Add in Aura of Conviction, which give 15% physical resists, and any armor you can find with +Physical resists (I found a few green shoulder and helmet pieces today), and you’ll take a character which takes a steady stream of damage, and take almost no damage once on the Inquisitor Seal.
Now, I’m not on Ultimate yet, so I can’t test that for you, but you don’t seem to have issues hacking a character out to test.
I’d say you need 2000 defense or higher to prevent crit overloading. Max out all the major resists, and get physical resists to 30-50% (test this out) after Aura of Conviction. Through devotion points and gear, you can add in some ADCTH to heal up what ever gets through. You’ll also want to look for high armor numbers and make sure to get armor absorption to 95% or better.
