DISCLAIMER
DISCLAIMER
Retaliation builds might be a bit slower for leveling but that’s one of the less demanding playstyles in Grim Dawn also the safest in terms of mistakes . You can easily facetank the whole campaign if you upgrade your gear on the appropriate level milestones
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
SInce the new Top 20 chart drops recently we have a big surprise on the rank 1 spot and that’s Dawnbreaker Warder. I manage to predict some of the builds involved but was huge surprise to me when I saw a tank setup as a rank 1 in current Grim Dawn meta.
PROS AND CONS
PROS AND CONS
PROS:
- Very easy to build
- Nearly Immortal during leveling (you have to mess it up really bad to die with )
- Very cheap setup (all items are campaign drops)
- This playstyle requires zero skills and zero piloting
- Very easy to master (3 buttons playstyle)
- Very cool visuals and procs
- Fantasy of heavy plate equipped brutal frontliner
- That’s probably the cheapest Rank 1 so far
- We have a very fun and strong budget option - Champion of the Light
CONS
- Retaliation leveling is slower
- Building tanks requires patience
- Difference between leveling setup and endgame setup is very noticeable ( endgame setup is just beast when leveling is pretty mid)
LEVELING
LEVELING
Faction and Blacksmith choices (CLICK ME)
- Vigil vs Kymon - Kymon offers the best leveling shoulders so I stick with them
- Outcast - we need her weapon augment so I go friendly with her
- Barrowholm - I want to kill Ravager so I stick with them
- Cults - We need Dreeg augments so that’s the pick here
- Angrim - better endgame crafting bonuses
Attribute points and Devotion Path: (CLICK ME)
Physique - 16 points
Cunning - 85 points
Spirit - 6 points
You gonna ask why we stack cunning on a tank ? Very simple we want to control our DA (Defensive Ability ) , on retaliation setups we want to get hits so we can proc our passive damage and destroy the enemies . High DA is very controversial for Rata setups , avoid this mistake
DEVOTION PATH:
- Purple Crossroad
- Anvil
- Yellow Crossroad
- Lion
- Blue Crossroad
- Eel
- Targo
- Autumn Boar x 5 points ( skip the front leg and the nose)
- Green Crossroad
- Raven
- Phoenix
- Shieldmaiden
- Messenger of War
- 3x Points Rhowan’s Crown
- Widow
- Remove Blue Crossroad
- Remove Purple Crossroad
- Hyrian, Guardian of the Gates
[PROGRESS STEP BY STEP (CLICK ME)]
Level 1-10
I want to level prio to the endgame setup so I go with sword and board approach , I don’t want to cheese every Soldier leveling with Forcewave (most boring leveling ) , in this case I used Forcewave for the first 30 levels but the cooldown version with it and use my shield to cast it. Nothing much can be said for this bracket is just equip what you got and look for higher base shield in the shops cause damage on the shield matters here.
Level 10-20
This bracket involves some interesting items like Milton’s Casque , this is huge boost to any SnB Soldier early on . Most important thing this bracket is the Blacksmith be sure you grab every crystal available , if you have to make one extra run on the first cave cause after we unlock the Blacksmith we have to craft 2x Wardstones for the amulet and the medal (check shop at level 14 very cheap and effective medals start to pops up ). Shambler’s heart is best in slot amulet for Forcewave leveling and Mutant Bludgeon is best in slot for SnB Forcewave leveling (this is guaranteed drop from Balros and Hagra’s quest before Burwitch Village) . My build looks like this at Level 15 . I use Shield bash component ( Battered Shell) as a filler between Forcewave casts . Soldier has zero problems clearing Act 1 and Warden Krieg is zero challenge , you just hug him and it’s a matter of time he falls. I like to run last riftgate for easy crystals and basically hitting level 20 , this build will craft a lot so this little farms are very important.
First Crating and Component Session:
- 2x Antivenom Salve - Boots + Belt
- Serrated Shell - Shield
- Purified Salt - Weapon (not good physical components that early )
- Scaled Hide - Torso
- Silk Swatch - Shoulders
- Helm - If you don’t have Ectoplasm at this point use w/e you have (don’t left empty comp slots)
- 2x Corpse Dust/Frozen Heart - Rings
- 2x Wardstones - Medal + Amulet
- Calamity or Equilibrium relic - if you have Elemental res problems craft the last
Note:This is standart comp setup at level 20, this setup provides vital sustain tools
Level 20-30
Act 2 here we continue leveling Soldier just this one of the best solo masteries especially for beginners . Before level 35 it's mostly random drops , don't try to copy exactly my links apart from guaranteed MIs ( monster infrequents ). Real customisation starts at level 35 , stuff that you want before that need to have just resistances , life , OA (offensive ability) , life regen , movement speed on boots etc . Damage stats make zero difference that early when getting flat stats and resistance is just better deal , also stats scales better early than 15 % damage for example . Your skill tree , Devotion map and weapon slots are more than to supply your damage needs for the most leveling process. Watching video section you will notice at this point our build is immortal , there is not damage capable to kill well build level 30 soldier. Most important resistance for this act is Pierce cause Cronley's gang and Skeleton Archers hurt a lot. I do every single quest available , tank leveling is very chill and casual so I just go with the flow.
Level 35 Retaliation Transition
Ok big moment in the guide , we go for full retaliation transition and now I will explain what we need:
- We need Respected with Homestead and Devil’s Crossing
- We need Ikrix medal from Mountain’s Deep
- We need 2x Gollus Rings from Royal Hive
- We have to buy Harvest Footpads ( Homestead) , Harvest Grips(Homestead) , Craft Devil’s Cord (Devil’s Crossing sell the blueprint) , Harvest Guard ( Homestead) , Devil’s Shoulderguard ( Devil’s Crossing)
- Farm Mogara in Pine Barrens
- Farm outside Homestead and Croplands for Fleshwarped Platemail (BiS for leveling Counter strike)
- Mark of the Myrmidon is random world drop , run Serrated Shell until this drops
- Buy Fervor relic from Homestead and craft it (amazing leveling relic with very useful completion bonuses cause is not biased to any mastery)
- Unlock your Hidden path quest so you can farm for Dreeg’s Sect pants ( be sure your poison res are 60 at least , ideally we look for a cap)
You will notice this a bit slower at the beginning compare to our Forcewave but that’s fine , retaliation is not the best leveling playstyle but it’s the easiest. Homestead is huge zone for this build cause more than half of the items are farmed here and you have to come back every 10-15 levels for better bases and affixes. Warder at this point is just ridiculously overpowered we run nearly 7 k life , 500 armor rating , high block chance and recovery and 1300 - 1500 life regeneration per second (there is no damage at this level range that can kill this)
Level 35-45
Time to step into first really dangerous zone - Blood Grove. This area is very heavy on vitality and chaos damage, couple of deadly bosses lurking here like Bolvar and Zaria. Zaria and Harbringers are one of the first enemies that can shred your resistances, that’s why is not recommended to step here before level 35, if your resistance page is not on par you can be debuffed even to negative values and get one shot from Zaria’s Obsidian Shards. Harbringers on the other hand look harmless, floating and slow enemies but they cast one of the most nastiest debuffs in the game - Spectral Miasma, you can see what this debuff is capable of in this short crucible video. Blood Grove on the bright side is very rich on side quest, also very easy ones so be sure you fully explore the zone cause there is secret vendor as well that sells some useful items and blueprints. Final boss for this act also summons Obsidian Shards but they are not even close to the power of Zaria ones, however his chaos pools deals significant amount of damage if you stay inside for too long( secure next riftgate after you kill him, don’t teleport to finish quests ,shop etc cause is very easy to forget and displace your rift and then you have to run whole Darkvale fortress again-happened to all of us ). Asterkan valley is prob the most poor area in Grim Dawn (no quests, no NPCs), but there is a very special Tomb (best place to farm Chthonic Seals of Binding). Necropolis is another easy area for this setup keep in mind there is a tomb with Devotion Shrine and extra boss encounter so pay visit to it you wont regret it. Loghorrean as a final boss of the original game is very disappointing (he is steady ,slow and big mass with tentacles ), I really hope they buff this encounter a bit in the future , however he rarely triggers retaliation and this prob the slowest fight for this setup. Coven is the next very good place cause you can farm Caraxus Foul for the best leveling Soldier belt , also a bit south/east from Ugdenbog rift there is a secret path which leads to Bargoll ( a tree boss) , he drops Bargoll’s Root very good leveling weapon cause this will make our Blitz more impactful and also this weapon comes with serious amount of Poison resistance
Level 50
Malmouth offers a lot easy quests and apart from bad navigation through the mpas is very enjoyable act cause huge density . Most important thing here is to rescue Hyram , he is one of the most important vendors cause he sells all class specific relics and all level 35 ones (apart from faction blueprints ) , also he sells the shield that I am going to use for the rest of the leveling process. We are looking for Fortress , hands down amazing tank relic with such a powerful cooldown , pressing Living Fortress doubles your regen at this point , gives you 20 % physical resistance and max out your life pool by 50 % , stats on this little beauty also very desirable. This level bracket is ideal to get higher level bases on the MIs so I go back and farm a bit Gollus , Bargoll , Dreeg’s Guardian , Caraxus foul etc
Level 60
Honestly nothing special about Forgotten Gods apart from several enemies can shred resistance you may finally notice some minor damage spikes . Unfortunately this act being flexible quest rewards (mainly EXP) are designed for low level approach so at this point we questing mainly for the reputation cause we need Dreeg’s augment when we hit level 90 . Good thing I like about FG is very rich on Devotion Shrines which is huge power up at this point , be sure you grab all of them Grim Tools map can help with their locations. I fully facetank Korvaak but some attacks can be devastating if your gear is under leveled and you neglect farming , apart from him this act offers zero challenge to this setup.
Level 70
A lot of players skip Elite which is fine , me on the other hand I like (easy quests ,easy shrine and reputation on the way to Homestead). However if its not your first character or you don’t play SSF like me feel free to skip Elite if it feels too easy. My goal usually here is to reach Homestead and level 70 so I can have full scaling maps to farm my MIs of choice , next goal is Revered status with the basic factions ( Devil’s Crossing , Rovers and Homestead) this unlocks augments which is huge for our gear progression. Elite is very chill questing as well cause this mode is not exactly hard and gave you a bit more playtime to develop properly your setup.
Level 80
As I said after I reach 70 and the desired reputation status I am ready to move to Elite. Nothing I can say or stretch about Ultimate , be sure you farm for higher bases again , since you have access to augments now , you can be more flexible with the affixes on your MIs. Don't let your gear to be 20-30 levels behind your level ( rings , amulets , medals and belt slot are fine as lower level if the affixes are good) . Try to not skip quests cause you don't want to farm bounties or grind for reputation if you can simply get Revered by questing (some factions will require a bit of a grind though).
Level 90
This bracket involves mostly questing and its one of the hardest brackets cause between level 80-90 it’s hard to get proper base range cause your character is in a range that mostly higher level bases drops and your gear slowly goes behind. You can notice a bit more damage spikes but that’s totally normal for this level bracket.
Level 100 Budget Setup
Between 90-100 is basically getting final bases of your gear so you can start grind for the budget setup . I mostly grind out all the important reputation for this setup so I can have access to all augments . This is the right way to progress , don’t jump to early to endgame content before you get your setup steady. My gear of choice for this budget setup is 4 piece Dawnguard , absolutely cheap and effective epic armor , also very common drop from totems and random heroes around the world . I will leave as usual my farming strats bellow
FINAL SETUP
FINAL SETUP
Rank 1 Dawnbreaker Warder - absolutely beast of a build by @mad_lee and @KingRed_424 . Most important thing here is this is the cheapest rank 1 setup so far , everything can be farmed entirely from totems , Nemesis troves and general campaign maps
Champion of the Light Warder - absolutely budget and interesting setup by @GSAsylum . I personally test this setup and I would say absolutely love it , being that strong on the price of a epic set is really fun
FARMING
FARMING
I would leave a link to my personal farming strats and what I do as a SSF player (I use completely fresh save folder for all of my runs ), I do a lot of farming tests when simulating beginner starts
FAQ
FAQ
Why you pick the slowest approach for the leveling process?
Well I like to level prio to the endgame setup , this way I build proper muscle memory on the keybinds and on top of that retaliation leveling guides are non existent .
What makes final setup so strong and why is considered rank 1 in the current meta ?
This playstyle requires zero piloting skills , gear needed can be farm on the easiest possible content and the synergy between the class and the set is on another level . Windows for mistakes are plenty , it the least punishing playstyle in the entire game
What about the Champion of the Light spec listed is that so strong as well?
GSA did incredible job on this one cause giving life to an epic set in a game that most of the epics are considered absolutely useless is always welcome. Might be not strong as Dawnbreaker but still can do whole content and it’s absolutely capable endgame farmer , also aesthetically better for people that prefer this two hand weapon Barbarian type of fantasy
VIDEOS
VIDEOS
Dawnbreaker Warder vs SR 30-31
Dawnbreaker Warder vs Ravager of Flesh
Dawnbreaker Warder vs Callagadra
. I respect your feedback a lot