Hey community! Thanks for all the awesome content and guidance. I humbly seek your help on my favorite and first GD character.
CONTEXT:
I have four lvl 100, end-game softcore characters with a combined 664 hours of game play. Three are builds based on Grim Dawn community guides. I am now returning to my first build, which I would like to push through as much end game content as possible. But I cannot figure out how to go further.
REASON FOR BUILD
The character is a Cold DW Ranged Infiltrator using 2x Mythical Hagarradian Enforcers and a variety of mostly legendary, cold-based infiltrator gear. When choosing my first class, I desired a ranged, cold build, which I had loved in other ARPGs. From forum posts, it seemed that Infiltrator was the way to go and DW pistols is fun. And indeed, I have thoroughly enjoyed finishing the main campaigns, icing up dozens of trash mobs from a distance, and generally turning the screen into a wash of bright blue/white.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The build can kill all end game bosses, all in-world nemeses, Mad Queen, Morgoneth, Kra’vall, and Lokarr (in ultimate). I have not been able to defeat Mogdrogen, get past 55th shard on SR ultimate, or 150th lvl of crucible (gladiator). (I haven’t tried Ravager, Cala or JB Clones.)
PROBLEM STATEMENT
My first observation is that DW cold ranged infiltrator may not get enough gear support to be truly end game viable. In general cold-based infiltrator, even DW melee, has a bunch of good gear, but when it comes to the two Hagarradian Enforcers (pistols) – which seem to be tailor made for infiltrator – there are no sets or elite green MIs that really compliment them. I think it is primarily an issue of DPS – I can’t do enough damage fast enough to last out the high-end bosses, their debuffs, and crits. (I’d be OK if I could just tank or kite long enough to whittle bosses down. But beefing up my defenses has seemed to work either.)
So, over the last month, I have been tweaking skills, devotions, and gear. No matter what I do, the tradeoffs between DPS (cold damage), OA/DA and resists, end up making it too weak or too squishy. For example, I have tried 60th shard SR with two builds 1) one with the 2x enforcers and 2) one with Watcher of Erulan (a shield made for pairing with a pistol) + one of the enforcers - neither set cut it and I got squashed in the boss room. (And with the Watcher, I get 36% phys resist!) I have also tried the cold-based, Mythical Northern Wyrm (2h ranged) which on paper has a lot more damage, but seemed worse overall. The same goes for two dozen other pieces of gear, components and augments – I just cannot find the secret sauce.
THE BUILD
Here are two versions of the build, one with 2x pistols, the other with the Watcher:
Dual Enforcers: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWw30eV
1 Enforcer + Watcher: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2JA57gN
Combat tactics: to increase DPS, I use Shard of Beronath in one of the pistols – it gets to stage 7 quickly. Shard of Beronath + default weapon attack is assigned to the left mouse button and always pressed, and I cycle ABB, Storm Box and RoH to proc devotions, get shred, and get additional damage. My cold damage gets a 2300% boost from skills, devotions, and gear (I know, on the weak end).
However, the GT stats don’t tell the whole picture. I am almost always in an inquisitor seal, with pneumatic burst and word of renewal up. With those up, I have the following stats with 2x enforcers:
Health: 13,158
OA: 2,549
DA: 2,688
DPS: 36,894 (Shard of Beronath, not ABB)
Armor: 1,780
All resists are overcapped by at least 30%, in most cases 50%. Only stun resist sucks, at 70%.
However, add to that:
Deadly aim: almost always up, adds 19% OA, putting OA at 2,980.
Storm box of Elgoloth: another -45 DA, pushing effective OA to 3,025
Biting Cold: shreds DA by 340 for 5 secs, pushing effective OA to 3,365 (debuff is constantly up when face tanking).
Veil of Shadow: -154 OA, making effective DA 2,842
Inquisitor Seal: 392 damage absorption (level 21 in DW version – I have 22 when using the Watcher)
Nights Chill: -33% cold resistance
Murmur’s proc, Rumor: -88 OA (now effective DA is 2,930) and -23% cold resist
Aura of Censure: 17% reduced damage, and -28% elemental resist
Elemental Storm: 32 reduced elemental resist
Rimetounge Pendant proc: -10% cold resist
At any given moment, my cold resist shred is likely 94% combined with the -32 from Rumor.
I know armor is low – but I’ve tried different gear to get the armor up, and then I lose too much other stats, buffs and shreds. Every combo I try ends up being even less viable.
Devotions: the main story here is that I have switched back and forth between a more defensive, circuit breaker set (Ghoul + fully leveled Behemoth and Turtle) and a more offensive set (Ghoul + Hydra and Puma). Going more offensive seemed to help with survivability, especially with several devotions giving me attack damage converted to health (Hydra, Toad and Ghoul). Leviathan is my main cold damage tier 3 devotion – it seems better to me than Amatok. I thought about adding Ultos, but it would require me to lose to many other things to get both tier 3 devotions.
THE BOTTOM LINE: I think there are a few possible reasons for my build limits:
-
I am totally missing something in my build. I have tried to follow end game standards of overcapped resists, high effective OA, and high cold-resist shred. Perhaps I am misunderstanding how one or more of my skills, buffs, devs, debuffs, etc, really work?
-
The game’s premier Infiltrator DW cold pistols, Hagarradian Enforcers, just suck and need a lot more flat damage to be end game viable. There may be no viable ranged cold DW infiltrator build.
-
I have chosen the totally wrong set of skills to go with DW raged cold pistols. Maybe only a full elemental build is viable (with use of all Inquisitor WPS)? Or maybe I should be dumping into cunning?
Any help, advice or observations would be much appreciated. Maybe the build is far as it goes and I’ll just keep farming lvl 50 SR for fun. But I’d love to push it further.
