Question for SR players : How do you deal with Moosilauke as a melee character?

It seems like any melee build I do Moosi is a run under on high shards. And no, it’s not my freeze resist, I always aim for a good amount. The problem is damage, I just get blown up the moment I jump in no matter what I’m building. With ranged he’s doable since you can clear his adds easily and then kite him. Zantarin is a similar situation, although not as severe. Idk I’m losing hope in pushing high SR with melee, it seems like such a big disadvantage. Would like some experienced player advice.

Welcome to game and forum.

What do you mean by “high shards” ? Around SR 35 it starts to get really hairy with Benny and Moosi, they can one tap glassier chars especially if sundered. A GT link to your build would be the best. What kind of melee build is it? Some DW cold spell breaker may deal nice damage with colourful effects, but will be on the glassy end of the spectrum. Whereas a physical Death Knight or Warlord will have much more survivability in higher shards.

Thank you, I just joined moments ago. I was thinking 36 and beyond with this current build : Witchblade, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator . It’s my strongest melee so far, however the problems I described start even earlier with my other weaker melee builds. I feel like I would need damage absorption to be relevant higher, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been one shot. Currently I’m trying to clear 38 without dying but it seems like the build hit its limit. Excuse my formatting while I figure it out.

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Honestly it looks pretty good, I made some small component and devotion changes but overall it’s looking tanky and decent damage. Although SR 38 is extremely difficult for even the best builds. Some can’t even do it.

Ok edit; I’ll explain the changes a bit more. Dropped tree of life in Devos cause I wanted to grab Azraaka. The skill applies fumble, lowers enemy OA (so they have less chance of critting you) and some physical damage as well. More defensive layers, right! I also dropped Turtle because all around, Solemn Watcher is better. (Watcher also provides reflection resistance so we can drop Titan plating component or whatever the fuck it’s called). Also, bind Maul to warcry, cause it’s just the best way to apply it for this guy.

I also used 2x Runebound topaz, soul shards aren’t needed here because we run 2x Sacred plating for the health and resists. And medal component, well you will definitely need Disruption resistance, plus it’s more OA at the cost of worse resistances and less Crit DMG.

I had Azraaka originally but I changed it to Tree since the sustain just wasn’t good enough without it. I was also thinking about swapping Turtle and Watcher but decided to keep Turtle since usually if I died it was in a split second and I feel like it helps with that, and with 2900 DA only Iron Maiden would crit me sometimes so I’m not sure if the tradeoff is worth it.

Thanks to Scars of Battle 100% armor absorption is reachable with only 2 components so I wouldn’t add another one. I also notice your link has only 20% vitality overcap, I was under the impression that 40% is needed, am I wrong?

I’m also unsure about swapping to Seal of Ancestry since I didn’t have problems with aether or chaos enemies. About disruption resistance, I actually don’t know much about it, I thought it’s only relevant for channeled abilities?

I’m probably going to call it a day with the build clearing 36 consistently. I just need to test it against celestials now and I might post the build here on the forum, since I feel like it’s pretty unique.

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It’s definitely unique and I am not an expert in high SR (or in general lol) as my main playing ground is SR 30-31. Yeah there’s honestly not much you could do to the build it’s already pretty well done.

Can you share the save file please, I’d like to try it.

36 ain’t bad at all. :smiley:

It looks pretty good, there’s probably just some small improvements possible.

I hope maul not being bound to anything is a bug in gdtools and you actually have it bound to something in game. (I wouldn’t put it on war cry though, you want to proc it more often than that imho).

Why not just the main melee attack? Chaos Strike?

I’d also put assasin’s mark on something else that hits more often, like the deathstalker.

Not sure if tree of life is worth it or if you should try to get some more adcth (and attack speed). :thinking: Probably would mean dropping scythe as well. But I’m not sure what will work well here without trying it myself.

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Maul on warcry has a 100% chance to proc. It’s very reliable. Still, with non CD warcry it probably isn’t worth, you’re right.

It just triggers on your character in a small circle though, right? So maybe it triggers 100% it’s still less than on any auto-attack I’d think.

btw: On my phys char I put Ulzaad on war cry

I have no idea how to share it. After your advice I also went back and tried Azraaka again and this time it somehow feels better, I probably changed something else too after last time using it, I’m definitely keeping it now.

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Ok no you’re right…

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Maul is on Touch of Chaos, and I put Assassin on Doom Bolt because it has a small aoe and it’s been pretty good at applying it so far I feel. I didn’t invest much into adcth and attack speed since I focused on Doom Bolt pretty much, and when it comes to SR I also like to kite a lot when I can.

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Ok. I usually feel these on crit things are better on things that have a better chance at landing a crit, but might be Doom Bolt is good enough.

Ok, yeah then health regen makes more sense. In that case I’d definitely get Lizard instead of either Hound or Eel.

Welcome fellow deep SR enjoyer :sunglasses:

Improving your build is always great, but IMO to survive deep SR consistently you also need to learn some “piloting” maneuvers; there are some attacks that you just need to evade or avoid somehow (even on melee chars), and not just expect your build to facetank everything.

In that department, Moosilauke has one NASTY skill: his water-wave attack. He slowly lifts both of his arms in the air and then slams them hard into the ground. This creates a large blue wave attack that slowly travels towards your character and then debuffs you with “330 Reduced target’s Defensive Ability” AND casts extra ice shards from the sky. This attack is DEADLY, and the debuff can easily get you one-shot if you get crit afterwards. If you’re in melee range, the slow-moving wave hits you instantly, so you should be using evade before he slams the ground and dodge this attack every time, if possible.

Just pointing this out; maybe you are doing this already.

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I never noticed a wave, good to know. Fights with him usually go like this : I jump on him and die in 0,5 seconds approximately. I’m not sure if that’s what kills me, I will have to test it. I definitely did notice the shards from the sky killing me while I was trying to kite him, absolutely absurd damage.

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The wave I was mentioning can only be cast 2 seconds after Moosi awakes. If you’re dying that early into the fight, then maybe it’s all his skeleton archers “shotgunning” you with arrows and dealing a huge burst of physical damage? That can happen if you use a displacement rune to quickly teleport into him to start the fight: it causes all the minions to fire at you in sync. If that’s the case, then starting the fight by evading into him might help.

Edit: in general it’s hard to tell exactly the cause of death in Grim Dawn, but there are 2 things that can help with that:
1 - recording video of your gameplay, and after you die checking the footage frame by frame
2 - Install DPYes. It shows you what types of damage you are being dealt, and also your DA which helps understand if you are being crit or not.

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Zantarin has a multi projectile shotgun that is used when you’re a certain distance away so closing in can be dangerous like if you’re a Shadow Strike Nightblade, so that might be what’s getting you.

If you dodge Moosi’s wave then the priority targets are the ice crystals - as long as you can keep those off the board that helps a bunch.

Use movement skill to close on him, destroy crystals, bash him, destroy crystals, bash him. Never run away or if you do run really far away to avoid his long distance attack.

I also think that your damage and sustain is low. You have one one-handed weapon only + Doom Bolt. Doesn’t look like a great damage dealer and thus sustain is poorer also. And due to armor being a thing Sigil won’t heal you much.

These phys builds were fun before the converted damage armor change but now…

Dodging the wave definitely improved my performance with every character, I feel like it needs to more noticable - the visuals for it are not very clear. Raising his hands is obvious now that I know what I’m looking for, but the wave itself is barely visible, I wouldn’t know it exists if you hadn’t told me.

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The shotgun is easy to dodge and he doesn’t do it in melee range anyway, what usually does it is when he summons the tanky revenant, and if both of them and a few other skeletons hit you at the same time you explode. It’s manageable when you have good aoe though, and on ranged builds its no big deal.