I’m fairly new to the game, but am playing a Warder and like this build idea. However, I don’t see any mention of the skill tree and where to allocate points for shaman/solider. Did I miss this somewhere? You mentioned “in-game Grim tools saves…” previously, so is that some kind of skill calculator? Thanks!
Wow did not realize you navigated the build page with the same keys as in game. Thanks!
Follow up:
So again, a brilliant build, and just an incredible, in-detail, and pretty much perfect leveling guide.
I am new GD person and a D2 guy that did tinker with everything from Nox and D1 to all recent stuff (except cartoonish things. I cannot do cartoonish ARPG).
GD is a great happy medium right now if you are looking for same feel (not PoE, dynamic is different and RPG part is not what you want. I was very good at PoE and even made builds for original one). But, DO NOT level your own stuff. It is mostly dead end. Use this build. It is going to be viable after the patch (apparently there is a patch coming and there were viability questions)
It is similar in some respect to Hammerdin (quirkiness, hammers flying around, pace) but much more relaxing. I thought to switch to Primal Strike to level, but this is too satisfactory.
If you are busy like me, you can AFK with this build and just enjoy the flow. Easy to pick up and easy to stop. Even to fall asleep with (huge thing).
Here are my takeaways given my background:
- Do not use Forcewave leveling. It is an ultimate buzz-kill. Use PS and switch either when you get first Tonic of Reshaping from the beginning of Malmouth Questline, or whenever comfortable.
- Do not turn on Veteran until you get about 15k damage. It is a terrible, unsubstantiated slog with an unnecessarily high chance of death.
- It is not very evident where the damage is, to understand what you need, in terms of gear. Third tab on Character screen, scroll down to Retaliation and sum the values. Skill points are tied for first with Resistances (you will die quickly if you are not capped), then Retal increases.
- Do not stand on Aetherial, poison, lava, or similar ground. Or pause near it (on Steam Deck, your joysticks might glitch and you will drift into it).
- As a pragmatic good, do not help Barrowholm. Those travelers do not deserve to be eaten, and Ravager should not be summoned. Augments can be easily substituted.
- Making a character to rush through to Ultimate and buy Merits for this one is a good idea. You can mostly half-follow quests, skip Elite, and quest and enjoy things in Ultimate (as long as your resistances and damage is comfortable) for real on this one. Because some quests have more branches and it is a fuller experience. Originally I said that rep gain yield is higher, it is, but only because there are more Hero mobs.
- If you can get and equip better gear early, do it. Pay attention to the specific -xes in this guide. Those things change gear drastically.
- Alternative gear, example. Head: Better Milton’ Casque (I grabbed Elite one around 60). Shoulders: Resonant Imperial Spaulders of Thorns. Boots: Resonant Imperial Sabatons of Thorns.
- Finding things is a nightmare here. Use Grimtools and don’t apologize. This will cut down on going in circles for two hours trying to find what it is you are trying to find.
Hope this helps someone jumping in!
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For lore reasons, yes. For gameplay reasons, no. (at least on one character)
The Ravager is one of 4 celestial bosses in the game and can be a fun challenge for your character to defeat. Also The Ravagers helmet that it drops is very good and useable in some many builds.
As for augments, the faction vendor sells augments that give +4% health which makes it (imo and probably others) the best endgame augment.
Absolutely loving this build in HC. Awesome guide too btw, tyvm. Question: Is it ok to change from the recommended greens to blues/purples if they appear to be better in some ways? For example I switched from Bargoll’s Root to Totally Normal Buckler for the +1 shaman skills & + %shield block chance… I kept the Root just in case.
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You can make shifts during leveling , I just simulated the worst possible scenario and use guaranteed stuff cause I don’t like to include random drops in the guide for obvious reasons . Glad you like the setup and good luck
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Thank you for your engagement.
But I am not sure I see the point in this response.
As I said, pragmatic good, and if you are, or more good aligned, do not help them.
They have nothing useful for this build except +4% life augment which I can manage somewhere else (easy to get). It is not worth having blood on your hands from leading innocent travelers and their families to be dismembered and eaten. Ravager is an easy kill. But once this malicious ancient god is summoned, it cannot be unsummoned.
Additionally, if leveling some other build requires it and you are okay with this faction, by all means.
In fact, after learning what I learned about Kymon (who was not only false but helped to another terrible deity to come to the game world), I am switching to Death Vigil. Since you do not really have a way of knowing before FG content, Death Vigil guys can freely get each other from death, and you can just avoid killing Death Vigil until after the Revered status, I can buy everything I might need and switch. Also Death Vigil is useless for 99% of builds out there and Kymon’s Chosen 99% very useful. So that is a bit different story. But after leveling and stashing their augments, it is not a big deal. And in final version they do not offer anything of much use to Retaliation Warder.
Rsnoomak is wise. Listen to him.
I found that doing quests for reputation is a great use of Elite. And getting to level 94 to jump into Ultimate and just enjoy questing with Dawnguard armor.
- Make sure you max out resistances and do not try to jump into SR30 on a new difficulty (or even Normal without enough damage and defense).
- Markovian’s Defense is worth it. Yes, -10% damage, but from what I see, it is mitigated by near constant Overguard uptime with retaliation from Ikrix. And there are enough extra skill points to max out Shaman and Overguard.
Edit: I am not that good in theorycrafting so I might be wrong and Mogdrogen’s Pact, Squad Tactics, and Scars of Battle may be better. Especially vs extra points in Shaman. I did not see that until I looked at the final final build. To me it feels like Markovian’s Defense + Squad Tactics + Scars of Battle might actually be better than leveling Overguard. Because only the chance for 1.5 seconds stun retaliation increases and not much else. Mogdrogen’s Pact adds flat health regeneration, so that one is fungible IMHO.
Edit Edit:
No, Overguard gives +100% more health regeneration. All other listed skills do not help retaliation. So I would pick Overguard, Markovian’s Defense, and Scars of Battle. Field Command/Shaman points for the rest.
Edit Edit Edit:
Nvm. Too much DA will gimp retal. So just points in Shaman then or something else I did not think about.
Maybe Fighting Spirit. Straight OA.
Amazing guide, RSnoomak! I’d like to know how much of this guide I could reuse to level the top 5 ranked character, the Shieldbreaker. They also use retaliation, so maybe there are some similarities? There aren’t any retaliation Shieldbreaker guides out there, especially for HC 
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Unfortunately you have to level the Shieldbreaker either as SnB auto attacker or bomberman . Hellbourne is what unlocks the build , it’s very hard to level Shieldbreaker as Rata this guide Guardians of Empyrion Shieldbreaker is done on HC and comes from trusted member in the HC community and can help you gather all the gear needed for the rank 5
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I know i’m a bit late for questions about this build, but there is 2 things i dont understand…
the 2 points in Zolhan Technique and the 8 points in shaman just to get 1 point in Maeltron
This 11 poins shouldnt be in a better place?
like, markovian advantage can reduce the enemy DA for more dps, or any other passives that increase survivability
anyone can explain the logic behind this plz?
Markovian DA shred doesn’t stack with Blindside (and would be minor offensive benefit)
Zolhan gives aoe which is always good (aside from decent ST target dmg still/more %WD+ dot)
Maelstrom gives devils a good extra skill that gives them extra dmg, stackable dmg, aoe, and makes them an even better devo proccer; always worth 1pt
WPS does nothing here , main damage comes from retaliation and Rata skills . Maelstrom is a must have,it turns Wind Devils to better Devotion procers and helps with the trash clear , there is no better place for this 11 points cause we need the stats from Shaman so we don’t run a 300 energy Warder and spend points in spirit . Guides are not rule books , you can do changes if you want ,but in this case will make the build worst not better ,cause this is the optimal setup. What more survivability you need it’s unkillable , you have to mess it up really really bad to die on this
I sincerely don’t get what all the fuss about retaliation builds is, but maybe it’s just me. If I look at the final setup of the one with the Dawnbreaker set, I see a total average retaliation damage of 200k lightning. The application (or RATA) through Savagery is 20%, which means 40k. This is a very small amount of damage per attack, when compared with how augmenting your normal damage with Savagery is. I just don’t see the gain after struggling to raise retaliation damage with all kinds of bizarre choices for skills, gear and devotions. The normal damage bonus of the build is small as a consequence (+1200% lightning) and Savagery is also not fully augmented as a skill. So, what you gained from retaliation you lost from normal damage. 40k gain in damage after all the effort seems very little to me.
Also, the build with the Dawnshield set doesn’t even have a constant application (or RATA), like the other one had through Savagery. It just adds some retaliation damage to some attacks every once in a while. This makes the whole retaliation investment even more fruitless, when it comes to dps.
Is there anything I’m missing? Because I for one don’t share the excitement for generic retaliation builds.
Only the fact that this Dawnbreaker Warder was chosen as the number one build because of how easily it crushes endgame content.
You look at the wrong multipliers , also you apply some rough math , but I think you lack experience in general and understanding of the game mechanics . Multipliers at the third page are important ones and all the Procs that boost the third page , watching nature lighting multipliers is very wrong . Judging the build without even make the effort to test it or watch the videos is a bit silly to me , play the game don’t play Grim tools
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One obvious thing is Counter Strike and the crazy scaling it has going on with this build.
I agree with what others have said just before: try inferring your conclusions from playing the game in addition to theorizing on grimtools. Sometimes “sheet” would look bizarre but when you play it it turns out to be an annihilation station (or vice versa).
Then you start figuring out what makes it that way.
Whatever you say. So, how much damage is actually added to every Savagery strike, just from retaliation, so I can agree that it’s a worthwhile path?
Savagery here is not attack , it’s a steroid buff with Tenacity of the boar and Storm Touched . I think is pretty obvious is not direct damage source when just 1 point is added in the main node , it buffs globally lightning retal when stacks are up