Of course, i have to thank the community for being fast and reliable traders as well :D.
I actually started a forcewave character for fun ( On Hardcore no lessā¦ ) to try something different. I didnt go commando like the guide ( Kinda wished i did but worked out none the less ). I admit upfront I never play hardcore since I work alot and time investment into something you could lose at any time is wellā¦yaā¦lag and BAM!
Anyhow i made the character in hardcore for fun and liked the overall build and i kinda over time wanted to see how far i could actually go with it. I started the character maybe 2 weeks ago ish? Iāve played grim dawn alot off and on but trying hardcore seriously for the first timeā¦what a experience,lmfao!
I had alot of close calls and had no prior eq to work from so started from scratch as i dont have HC characters i use as previously started.
I saw this guide pop up a few days after i started my character and it kinda inspired me to take it more seriously and gave me a groundwork to start from and i took some of the ideaās listed and used them and patched together what items i could and slowly worked thru the game.
Overall, I gotta say hardcore was a exciting experience and wanted to share my end result with the build ( Tho i went witchblade and invested in honestly just Blood and COF, nothing fancyā¦most my skill points went into solider ). My attributes were mostly physique ( for HC reasons ) but some in cunning to help the dmg aspect later on.
Equipment wise you can see i had hot garbage mostly but againā¦was starting completely fresh with nothing to work from so i simply crossed my fingers and prayed! Haha!!
Fighting the final boss was a bitch to say the leastā¦by far i can say it was the most challenging thing ive done on Grim Dawn so far given the eq i was working with and dps i could do; Also a special shoutout to the avatar of mercy saving me once during the LONG fight and saving me from ending my character! lmao
Overall, Iām proud of myself trying something iāve never done before and accomplishing it and wanted to share on the thread as a way of saying thank you for giving me the rough ideas of how to progress with the character and a plan to work with as it helped alot. To say the least my hand was shaking so much after that fightā¦but i lived,lolā¦
The build overall i found from my experience is solid more or lessā¦the aoe is decent for better parts of the game but the single target is mehā¦it kills but is slow so its more a attrition thing i found ( least for meā¦lol )
So Thank you and iāll likely call it a career in HC accomplishing my goal and go back to SC for awhile and try something else, lmao!
I have started the process of updating my guides. The Grimtool link for the updated version has been added
Please notify me if any of the links is broken in any way
For now itās only the GrimTool Links. I donāt have too much time at the moment but will update the write-up at some point. I have around 20+ other build guides to tend to so I am sure you guys can understand
Update:
Level 100 GT Link for Commando added
i canāt believe you will using that āmassive sex toyā for a weapon change. thatās a massive -100% reduction to fashion statement. :rolleyes:
glad weāll be having illusions!
btw nice gear setup once again. letās get physical! 
Sorry about it but the GrimTools link was wrong again (happened with a bunch of my other builds, totally my fault)
Letās not :eek:
EDIT:
Added faction gear version for new players
Was feeling a little too lazy to post anything new so decided I should atleast bother myself by updating this guide with stuff from other build authors
Links for Fire Forcewave Commando by Baka and Thrash have been added
I switched to this build from a dw pistol firestrike commando, when mythical stonefist rebuke dropped and I absolutely love it. Easily mowing through basically everything on ultimate without having to kite, even without the BiS gearā¦ Thanks so much for the build! Lots of fun!
I have 2 questions regarding devotions. Iām a fairly new player, so perhaps Iām missing something obvious 
- Whatās the appeal of Quill? Why not take the last point in Chariot of the dead to get the necessary eldritch affinity and Hammer instead?
- I was thinking to get Stag instead of Panther. Or is there a reason Iām missing that panther is obviously superior?
Huh
I just realized this build isnāt using the setup I am using. Donāt know how I missed it
Well, the changes only pertain to BiS setup so itās not a big deal to new players
Anyways,
- Quill has DA, Resists and other stats which makes it much better than Hammer
- Stag adds nothing here. Itās primarily a Bleed constellation (donāt quote me on that). Panther on the other hand has crit damage, total damage and OA
Thanks for the feedback! Iām still experimenting a bit to find out which stats are most important for this build, so that helps. I guess Iām a little too focused on getting the +x% physical damage stuff instead of the other statsā¦ 
Would be interesting to see which devotion setup youāre using now though, since the faction gear build has the same setup as the BiS build and all the other links are pre-expansion setup with only 50 devotion points instead of 55.
https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8952
any particular reason not taking this medal?
It has cast speed apart from other useful stats such as:
+3 to Internal Trauma
+2 to Rending Force
+15% Crit Damage to Forcewave
+150% Internal Trauma Damage to Forcewave
why black star? you might be saying resistances and life leech. but is reduce target resistances really that good?
thanks
Quoting myself
I plan to update it last along with Pierce S&B Blademaster which also needs an update
Right now I need to post 5-6 more builds. Sorry for the delay so until then any itemization question would most likely be answered by that post above
cool! all the best then!
looking forward!
edit:
I see using that bear king medal boosts my dps over 10k so it must defeat black starās RR powers!
I hope you dont mind me posting here Chthon! :rolleyes:
some small update to your physical commando forcewave!
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eZPmqklN
*ultimate sc with devotion procs on! (base damage with normal buffs 124k)
I wanted to test octavius but I realized I am building an elemental fw tac in the future so I scrapped the idea.
its pains to me see forcewave not in ultimate rank mode thoughā¦ 
really enjoying this so far! one of my fave builds for sure. now gotta update my sj build next time!
Real cool, man, what do you think about Dreadrune Legguards for maxing FW??
I was contemplating the sameā¦ but sigh less armor, no proc and cant cap cast speedā¦ ultimately defeats it as a replacement.
edit- guys what do u think of mythical eternal band as a ring option?
Youāre too tanky for main campaign though
Nice ring for fire/elemental FW
not sure. but Id rather be a tactician for that.
regarding tankinessā¦ gotta still need to max rep for other nemesis but madqueen and others are just pure face tank:eek:
this better be gladiatpr crucible ready! :rolleyes:
Octavius update:
I decided anyway to replace 3 piece Justicar with the Octavius variantā¦ all items, devotions stayed the same. ( with devotions procs too)
OCTAVIUS version
now letās put Justice version along with it:
JUSTICE LEAGUE Version
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eZPmqklN
both setup can facetank mq just for reference with no problems. but octavius is faster.
Octavius hits harder for sure and with higher physical resistance.
Justice on the other hand has better armor and hp and easier to cap resistances.
which version is better? not sureā¦ since I did not test very long but so far I am liking octavius moreā¦ but have a feeling justice is better due to better resistance overcapping.
^^^ open spoiler
Those pants ā¦ :rolleyes:
Nice job
Our setups are similar gear wise. Only minor devotion differences, different suffix on the MI and me using Blitz as a nuke
Otherwise the overall build is the same
I initially wanted to make Octavius work on Commando but then I tried 2h Spam Tactician and it got me better results so went with Justicar on Commando. I am not surprised Octavius kill times are better. It has a lot more flat damage/DoT potential than Justicar
I plan to update this Commando and Blademaster (S&B) last. A lot more builds are in need of renovation. For instance the Non-Devastation PRM is finally getting an update
Thanks for doing this Prince and great job with the theorycrafting. On a side note Iād recommend you try Octavius 2h Tactician if you havenāt tried one yet.