New player looking for feedback on a couple builds. Witchblade/Druid

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hello, I’m currently lvling two characters. They are:
1- 2h Chaos/Vitality Witchblade
2- Cold damage heavy Druid

Witchblade: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-6Z5RO3

For the Witchblade I focused on getting as much damage as possible and will be focusing on leech for sustain. At Normal Veteran lvl 35 it’s doing pretty okay in terms of survivability. I’m putting all points into Physique.

I’m going to take sigil of consumption primarily for devotion proccing. Devotion ties will likely be as follows:

Eldritch fire - Sigil of Consumption
Twin Fangs - Zolhan’s technique
Abominable Might - Cadence
Hungering Void - Warcry

The overall goal of the build is high enough damage for lifesteal sustain.

Any feedback from more experienced players is appreciated.

Druid: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-59cgNZ

The Cold Druid I just started. The focus is cold damage.

I’ve seen based on the constellation layouts that you are kind of forced into going crit as a Cold focused build. I can’t see how I can go for Levithan and Elemental Seeker without wasting points on useless constellations for cold build. Specifically, it’s difficult to get the 18 green without wasting points as the green area seems to have a lot of fire damage constellations.

So, I went to blue to get Blizzard which only procs on crit.

Getting Briarthorn was kind of an afterthought. I figured the Shepard’s crook proc is good for a crit build, but since it gives nice bonuses for pet, might as well get briarthorn.

I did not get Flash Freeze as it is difficult to fit into my rotation and I noticed that I don’t find opportunity to use it frequently. I primarily spam Grasping Vines and use Sky Shard on cooldown. I really like Grasping Vines both as a CC ability and a devotion proccing ability.

For attribute points I’m thinking either 10 or 20 into Cunning for more offensive power for more crits and then rest into Physique. Don’t really need Spirit at all because the base value and devotions give enough to satisfy gear requirements according to the calculator.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Build Revisions:

Witchblade: (on hold temporarily)

Druid:
Druid Revision #1: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-kb8AfZ
Druid Revision #3: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-vDercP
Potential Major Revision Lightning/Cold: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-5n0XMl

2

Anyone have any critiques?

While I was lvling the Druid I realized that the Druid’s devotion tree is intentionally pretty good for pets. Eventhough it doesn’t show it in the calc, Raven, Lion and Panther give some okay pet stats.

3

I have an 85 chaos 2H Witchblade. So here are some comments:

Menhir’s Will 16/16 is not useful in my opinion if you are going for a life steal build (sigil + attack damage converted to health). Those points can go elsewhere. War Cry 12/12 is a very useful attack damage debuff so I’d pick that one up.

As a weapon you most definitely need an Obsidian Juggernaut. I have it and before procs I have 45k DPS, with procs something around 65k DPS. I’ve completed Ultimate and with some 10-12% dmg converted to health my heals are pretty large (I crit up to 100k). I also have the Kilran’s shard on my chest which brings some extra heals and a specific legendary belt that procs an AoE lifesteal every 5 seconds or so. I can post more comments tomorrow and gear recommendations as now I have to head to bed.

Hungering Void isn’t worth it in my opinion as the -275 health regen is a pretty big hit if you get into a troubling situation, but you can give it a try. Goulish Hunger and Fiend are nice devotions that you can consider for your build.

P.s. Get as much attack speed as you can.

4

WB - No!

You will start getting screwed as soon as you get to Elite, IF you don’t get frustrated and quit in the last part of Normal (Bastion, Log…).

Chaos damage is very hard to gear for because resistance reduction is so hard to get effectively. Moreover, you don’t have enough sources of chaos damage in your skills, even with a 2-hander and 100% conversion (which you will not reach). Finally, 2-handers are generally only good for Shamans and Blade Arc, and Blade Arc is kinda weak right now. Adding in vitality damage, which also requires special considerations for resistance reduction just dilutes your build even more.

Possible solutions:
a) Switch to Pyromancer. If you want to do a ton of chaos damage, nothing beats Brimstone. As is the case with most Fire Strike builds, you want to dual wield (use one of the relic in the Bladesworn Talisman line to enable it).
b) Go retaliation/reflection. Collect the Perdition set (there is also an empowered version), later use Dawnbreaker (legendary), grab all the relevant constellations (Messenger of war, Targo etc.) and invest heavily in the shield and regeneration skills. You can use Cadence as your main attack, but Shard of Beronath is just as good.

Druid - looks good, just add lightning as well.

Generally, you want to combine lightning and cold, that’s what most items that are good for you give. Eventually, you will use the Trozan’s set. There was a guide a while back, the build can pretty safely demolish everything in the original game (dunno about Crucible). Skip Briarthorn, however, you do not get any pet bonuses. Especially don’t get points in Ground Slam, that’s a waste even for dedicated summoners. Grasping Vines doest do anything for you, it doesn’t work on bosses, which are the only enemies you have to worry about. Besides, you have plenty of slow/freeze already. Get Storm Totem and max Maelstrom at one point, use Empowered Lightning Nova (from the Amber component in your weapon) as your main attack. Also, get Wendigo Totem, not for damage, but because it’s the best healing option you have. As far as devotions go, I don’t know how good Blizzard is, probably fine, but you want Widow and Spear of the Heavens asap. Also 4 points in Dying God. As far as cooldown-casters go in this game, this is the strongest.

5

Actually druid also don’t look good - no wedigo totem, useles point in ground slam, pointless crab

6

Thanks so much for the feedback guys.

Druid:
Based on playing the druid for a little while I’ve found the following:

-Grasping Vines’s enhancement Entangling Vines is likely not that necessary. Against non-boss mobs the slow seems to be more than sufficient CC. Given this, I can just go 20 points into the Shaman tree as going further is pointless for me.

-I haven’t tried Wendigo Totem yet but based on what you guys are saying I might as well try it out.

-I agree that Ground Slam is not that great.

I’ve editted my skill build:
-took Wendigo Totem
-removed Entangling Vines
-Leftover points put into Overload for the +elemental damage and a few into Shattered Star, 1 into Mental Alacrity

Instead of those new point investments I could opt to go Olexra’s Flash Freeze. My question is: is Flash Freeze worth it to get just for the damage? I don’t really need the CC element as CC prone mobs never reach me anyway.

I’m not that keen on having to use another active skill, but if the damage is worthwhile I’ll definitely try it out.

I understand why Grasping Vines seems like a really odd pickup for a Cold build. This skill really jives with my playstyle. I’ve always loved persistent slowing areas. The Vines’ ability to proc gear procs and devotion procs is really good.

I could also opt to go Maiven’s sphere of protection instead of Overload if you guys think it’s worth it.

Devotions:
The key constellations in the devotions are:
-Amatok’s Spirit of the Winter -for Blizzard
-Rhowan’s Crown -for Elemental Storm
-Leviathan -for Whirlpool

Everything else can flex. It was already pretty difficult to get those constellations without wasting a lot of points on useless stuff.

I admit I don’t love crab, but it is the only defensive proc that I could feasibly get. It gives purple affinity which I need for Leviathan.

The node bonuses in Crab are not too bad comparative to Owl and Harpy.

Any devotion tree recommendations will be much appreciated as long as I can get the above 3 key constellations.


Druid Revision #1: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-kb8AfZ

–
Putting Witchblade on hold for a little bit, but I’ve read the above recommendations.

7

I looked at GeneralCash’s suggestion to go Lightning/Cold and played around with the devotion tree calc a little.

I found out that it is possible to go both lightning/cold focus in the devotion tree.

This kind of build would likely do a lot of damage, but the concern is that this build would have lower survivability.

I’m not sure if Wendigo Totem is better defensively than Briarthorn. From what I’ve seen from playing for a little while: Briarthorn is incredibly tanky and can tank bosses for a fair duration and soak up projectiles. Then again I haven’t tried Wendigo Totem. Maybe someone who has played with both can give an assesment of which is a better survivability boon between the two.

Potential Major Revision Lightning/Cold: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-5n0XMl

I think I’ll continue with the Druid Revision#1 above for now and then see how survivable I am late game to see if I can go with the Lightning/Cold build.

Since the Cold focus build has less points into Shaman I can always change it, but I can never change it back from the Lightning/Cold build to the Cold focus build because you can’t refund class points.

8

My 45k sheet dps (+70k with OA buffs etc.) 2H WB would like to have a word with you! As long as you can get the Obsidian Juggernaut a 2H WB is really good, but you basically need this 2H for it to work nicely. My DPS could still be a bit higher with small changes to my rings.

Devil’s Cage Hauberk + Soalel’s Witchfire proc already gives -40% chaos resistance. CoF gives a nice -25% to physical and if you use e.g. open hand of mercy you get another -8% to all resistances. With a Necrosis relic you get an additional -33% to chaos so overall you can get -81% to chaos resistance which is pretty significant.

Item procs + devo procs with 2H = enough damage to plow through elite and ultimate. I have +1307% chaos dmg on my WB.

2H witchblade works really well, but it is quite item dependent.

9

Wendigo totem is much better.

10

Hi Gyeff, I’ve run a similar lightning/cold druid but I am new to the forums so I cannot post a link xD

I’ll list off my skill and devotion choices here.

Arcanist 50, Shaman 40

Physique 60, Cunning 0, Spirit 25

Mirror of Ereoctes 1/12
Flash Freeze 1/12
Sky Shard 12/12 12/12 12/12
Star Pact 12/12
Inner Focus 12/12
Arcane Will 1/12
Mental Alacrity 10/10

Storm Totem 16/16
Wind Devil 16/16 12/12 12/12

Tsunami, Viper, Tempest, Spider, Scholar’s Light, Hawk, Owl, Throne, Lantern, Crown, Sage ABCDE

This build has cleared all the regular ultimate areas including the roguelikes without dying but can’t make it through gladiator in Crucible and will occasionally encounter issues after being rooted multiple times consecutively.

You need the full Trozan’s set for this build to work because the sky shard proc from the starkeeper and the comet proc from the full set are crucial for clearing durable mobs or chargers(boars for example) who are chasing you.

Your current layout is…not bad? I really dislike your devotion choices and you have a few questionable skill picks as well (maxed briarthorn??) but it could probably carry you through ultimate on sheer damage output from sky shard.

If you are seriously concerned about survival, I’d say get maiven’s sphere over briarthorn. The damage drop is problematic but the damage reduction is wonderful and can really help you last in tough spots.

And as for witchblade! Kenodoxia is correct that a chaos 2h witchblade is possible and quite potent, in fact downright powerful! I personally prefer the markovian’s witchblade but if you want to focus chaos you can use damnation or the obsidian juggernaut and still be a beast.

11

Well, a physical dmg WB will out-dps you with a 1-hander, meaning it also gets all the benefits of a shield.

Chaos 2-hander WB is about as useless as the strongest class combination in the game can get.

Also, your resist reduction calculation is wrong. Necrosis is -18, Devil’s Cage Hauberk doesn’t work on bosses, you don’t do any significant physical damage for CoF to be worthwhile. Open hand doesn’t work that way, it take off a percentage of their resistance after every other reduction has been applied. Besides, it doesn’t stack with the Essence of Chthon augment, which is simply better, those rings are useless.

Lightning Warder gets 33 from Widow, 15 from Ulzuin’s hat and 20 from BSoD at the total cost of 2 devotion points and the Ultos completion bonus (everything else is stuff you want anyway). Oh and it’s tankier, has the same OA and double the sheet DPS, not that it matters. It has better procs, better healing, better lifesteal, more aoe… Pick any metric you want and the chaos 2hander build loses.

Don’t suggest shitty builds to new players, it’s the easiest way to fuck up their game experience.

As for the Obidian hammer, make a Pyro and use the skill on it along with Fiend proc and Meteor+Mine. You will have much more fun and pretty much stomp any content.

12

You don’t need 16/16 in wind devil, resist reduction from raging tempest and krown to not stack (chose 1 of them)

13

Chaos dmg WB can use shield also :slight_smile:

Tho I do agree with you, for new players is much better to chose phys dmg route.

14

Use Untouchable, the proc combines well with Overguard, makes you indestructible almost 100% of the time.

15

Thanks so much for this! This helped me out a lot.

I was worried that going very damage heavy would not be a good idea because everyone keeps saying that the defensive devotions like giant’s blood and tip the scales are essential. You put my concerns at bay.

I changed my skill build to make it closer to yours. My question is: how important is Mental Alacrity? Did you take it primarily for the cast speed or the cost reduction or both?

I put points into Heart of the Wild in Shaman. Would Maiven’s Sphere of Protection be a better defensive boon instead?

Now that I’ve familarized myself with the devotion tree a little more, I can see how I wasted some points. I changed it. Unlike your tree I opted to go with Leviathan and Amatok Spirit of the Winter instead of Sage.

I didn’t get Tsunami so an issue arises: The only thing that can proc Viper is Blizzard which might happen inconsistently. I could take Tsunami instead of taking Viper, but that might be too many procs and not enough skills to proc them.

Please look at it and tell me what you think and what I can change. Thanks :slight_smile:

Druid Revision #3: http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-vDercP

16

Untouchable is nice, but would hate to lose +1 to soldier beside this build has no survivalbility issues.

17

The only person against whom i used Untouchable was Mogdrogen. Just to see how high his OA is. Seems pretty fuckin’ high :slight_smile:

18

Hi Mate,

I just wanted to inform you in case you hadn’t noticed, that in your Witchblade Devotion setup, you didn’t put any points in any of the crossroads nodes, meaning the devotion build is invalid.

I noticed because I tried for a long time to make a setup with Giant’s Blood, Eldritch Fire, Abom Might and Hung Void and it wasn’t possible with only 50 devotion points.

19

you can have devotion set-ups with nothing in crossroad.
Didn’t look at his set-up so not sure if it’s valid, but you can re-spec out of crossroads if you have more then you need to maintain a constellation.

20

I am leveling a Cold/Lightning caster Druid at the moment. Its far from finished yet and only about level 60 at the moment but I like it a lot.

But this is how I am sort of planning for it to finish up (no doubt it will change somewhat) with a few devotion points to spare

http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-B92q5u

While leveling I am using Tsunami on Wind devil but that will have to go once I switch over to Leviathan as I definitely want Whirlpool on Wind Devil

I really want Widow for Arcane Bomb (which I am currently using) as well but are 2 points short. I do think if you are going Leviathan and are worried about survivability later (I am) you could consider taking Chariot of the Dead and at least up to the proc in Behemoth.