[Newbie nightblade] best glasscanon build?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
#1

Hello,

in rpgs I have a tradition of liking super high melee damage with absolute no survavibility (e.g. rogues in wow).
I had seen a youtube video about a glasscanon nightblade centered around cold and bleeding damage, which is what I am with now. It’s decently fun, but I think lacks a little bit of punch. It’s also very old, and apparently outdated.

Looking for more recent builds is kind of frustrating: many forum links on reddit or steam are dead, and on this forum what I found is this: [1.1.3.0] Beginners/budget DW cold melee Trickster, but because it has 1.2K physique and only 500 cunning, I’m afraid this is not exactly what I am looking for: in a true glasscanon, I would expect the opposite :slight_smile:

I am questing on normal difficulty for now (first time I play a hacknslash), currently level 37, no second class (pure nightblade).

Could you please point me towards the build that I am looking for?

#2

You could do Shadow Strike Spellbreaker with Loxxmere daggers and focus around getting SS to lowest possible cooldown with Star Pact. Also it’s possible to use for leveling Spectral Longswords that drop in Steps of Torment. So basically fast&furious style. Here’s my end game version, I didn’t take any defensive devotions here, just the way you like it :wink:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4Vx7Ed52

Link to the topic: [1.1.5.2] Silent Assassins - Deathguard Acid Dervish + Cold Morgo Spellbreaker Shadow Strike glass cannons There’s also Dervish acid version.

#3

There are tons of fast builds with night blade




Just for example

#4

I second @nery’s reply. Also regarding that phys/cunning ratio, cold builds want spirit regardless of whether they’re melee or caster so look for builds with high spirit instead of high cunning. You want cunning on physical, pierce and bleed builds, spirit for everything else and physique for defenses and armor requirements.

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#5

Someone please make a setup with a ridiculous offensive Devotion tree (not Ghoul, no life leech) and items so that OP has to dodge zombies farts in order to survive. And blades of grass because an accidental cut and bleeding from it could kill him.

#6

The 10 non-legendaries cold reaper is one of the most satisfying glass cannons to go with. Gear is easy to obtain (except for Alkamos’ touch of dread ring), and it brilliantly performs even with non-bis affixes on green items.

If you want to glassify it even more, go for spirit and keep physique at minimum for gear requirements.

#7

Hey guys, thank you very much for your answers! (wow, this forum is way more active than I expected)
Unfortunately I will not yet be able to test all of them, because I only have the base game (although I am monitoring sales)
But it already gives some ideas, I guess I can still progress towards them, and also thank you for pointing out that spirit is beneficial for cold damage. I somewhat imagined it was just caster stuff.

#8

up: I have tried this build [1.1.5.2] Silent Assassins - Deathguard Acid Dervish + Cold Morgo Spellbreaker Shadow Strike glass cannons, away from the variation I was making from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXKKxpYMlM

I am a bit surprised: I can’t complain about the damage output, it is just that the damage input is insane lol. Basically everything dies in 2 hits, whether it’s me, a boss, or a random creep. So I die a lot just… farming mobs in the open. I am wondering if this is how it should be, because my old build was also very cannony, but a little less glassy

I am here looking for advice, considering that I am still leveling/my gear is ill-adapted (it’s mainly bleed, cold, physical, and pierce stats in that order). Should I wait until I have the appropriate gear and max level to try this build? Should I look for a pure physical/pierce/bleed DW melee build? Should I suck it up and learn to play with it? (From what I found to survive, it’s mostly engaging with SS, backing up, SS, backing up, which is not the epitome of fun imho. I would maybe prefer a fast right click build combined with SS and PB as tools, but not the only saving grace)

ps: also I guess because I don’t have the expansion, I do not have the same devotion map as you. I am still making my way to leviathan though