Ring of steel - Reaver

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Bleeding reaver, hopefully attainable affixes. Will update accordingly as I approach spec. I did have a devotion path including assassins blade, but I gradually reduced pierce damage, and shamelessly couldn’t think of better than Mad lee’s, Trickster.

Some other variants I may test out include;

and lastly something around this item; Chillheart - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database + chillheart spec

Some ramblings on testing;

Damage feels good, I think the interaction between cooldown (skill recharge + onslaught is interesting) and a puzzle worth solving. I’ll get a better grip on this as I approach max attack speed, but right now it feels awkward to try and cap onslaught for the perfect RoS.

It pays to precharge it and hold it where possible, but this limits your ability to gap close.

Whilst leveling I have relied on dryad’s blessing for sustain (the build whilst I levelled is very glassy - (I didn’t optimise much); But as Dryad’s cooldown is 2 seconds, you can’t maximise sustain + onslaught.

I’ll have a think and update accordingly as approach endgame.

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Looks good, but why so many WPS?

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Just trying to reach cap I think it leaves me at 108%, AQC i guess could be removed for fairly minimal change.

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So after a lot of faffing around; I’ve got this far - Reaver, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Its a cold/bleed hybrid. I’m looking for the night’s embrace amulet still and Amatok’s step boots, I may attempt to roll chilled some more on my offhand axe. I’m still looking for crimson blood trousers too but these rolled so well they’ve just stuck but better skill buffs can be found.

So far cleared shattered realm shard 30.

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I’d swap one of your weapons with a TYRANTS servitor cleaver.

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Hey, think the cleaver is the wrong one, I tried the slicer and it was fun - having charges on leap is really fun and mobile. Tyrants would be nice as I could not invest in ‘Open wounds’ but this is already granting 27% reduced damage (I fully invested here), but because of the direction of this build I need as much physical to cold as I can get.

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Cleared shards 32/33 with this, just found my trousers but still no amulet or boots. Added augments to my jewellery. Build feels like it might die but has largely avoided it in SR with the devotion swap (felt similar before) but this offers more dps. Sheet dps with most buffs active excluding battle rage.

This is my ‘fantasy build’ although I guess I could look at rings again… Reaver, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator - although I lost turtle and crab…

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interesting approach to RoS usage. i’d love to see how the build performs against superbosses


I think the interaction between cooldown (skill recharge + onslaught is interesting) and a puzzle worth solving

if my math is right, +6 max on onslaught stacks only raises the cap. you still get 1 stack per cast. at 149% AS and 2s RoS you’re getting 6 stacks vs 11 cap, so you’re not fully using it. hitting max would need 5 APS (not realistic), so just aim for 7-9 stacks with higher AS or lower CD, or accept partial usage since 5-6 stacks is strong


Sources:

  1. :link: Understanding Onslaught, Onslaught Stacks and +X charges
  2. :link: Additional reference for knowledge enrichment
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Thank you for your kind words and feedback.

I’ve never been that good at the super bosses but I will definitely try and I’ll update accordingly.

The attack speed is a little deceiving as the buffs actually cap it off pretty reliably at 212% when its important but there is downtime. With this in mind it’s whether investing elsewhere offers a bigger payoff compared to fully stack - I could have a look at bring it down to 8-12 stacks and see what investment that leads too - thanks!

The cap is currently at 16 (5 +6(item mods) + 5)

Flipping some points from endless rage to onslaught looks like a decent payoff on its own - think I was a bit to focussed on stack ‘breakpoints’ - big thanks!

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201F15~1
201F15~11920×1080 151 KB

20427B~1
20427B~12560×1440 472 KB

Ultimate - does that count? Ravager was very easy mog was very tough (no pharma)

I’ll try ascendant when I get the other slots

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Afaik ascendant mode does not change celestials

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thanks for the update. yeah, ultimate definitely counts. and nice to hear ravager felt easy

good luck with ascendant, curious to see how it goes once your setup’s complete

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I am currently trying out this same concept but instead of bleed I went full Cold and grabbed the skill passive that converts ring of steel to cold damage. I have been rocking the longswords from the ghosts in Act 2 that convert pierce and phys damage to cold and its been clearing really easily so far.

Went down to the leviathan in the devotion tree and once I got that I have been auto attack aoe clearing with all the nightblade auto-attack passives and avalanche triggering everything. I quite like the build.

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Nice one! GIJW is doing a cold focussed one too if you need inspiration and a more cohesive plan than the shambles I’ve mustered here! [1.3.0.5] Beginner build guide Cold Ring of Steel DW Melee Reaver

I must admit I had the intention of focussing on RoS cold/(bleed) or pierce(bleed) more but it gradually became more focussed on Onslaught ^^

Ring of steel still ticks very high and very much has a place but it wasn’t the star in what I’m currently doing if that makes sense.

If you have any questions I’ll try my best to answer!

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Looks like Onslaught just got hit super hard with nerfs. Any ideas for workarounds now?

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Oh ye just seen, it’s pretty late here so I don’t have time to look tomorrow. First glance I’ve gone from 15 to 7 stacks, so will need to look at that although it matches cd more now. I guess this increases the value of flat damage over dot/duration as we will be refreshing cooldown more.

The most obvious is going to Korba but I don’t really want to do that

Not properly looked at change log but chillheart is probably better now

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So having now digested the patch notes Korba’s axes aren’t the solution / Korba set.

There actually isn’t too much change: If you wish to keep existing identity, what I would recommend if you wish to min max it is to build up your onslaught then weapon swap to Chillheart to dump RoS on bosses (I think this is why it’s been nerfed). Pit master’s axe skill points are incredibly valuable. If you wanted to look at moving stuff around you could try to support leap or shadow strike rather than RoS, or hard pivot pierce/bleed with the Dranghoul savage blade if you are unhappy.

Chillheart - Legendary One-Handed Dagger - Grim Dawn Item Database

Chillheart swap for bosses on RoS cast will probably give similar speed, we don’t lose too much because we can cast onslaught every 2.5 seconds on trash (fully charged) capping it was overkill, on bosses the CD moves to 4s which will over cap onslaught.

I haven’t tested this yet but I don’t imagine performance will noticeably change. Lastly I’ve added titan plating over sanctified bone, I don’t know if this will save me killing myself on reflects.

Alternatives:
Mythical Direwolf Crest - Legendary Medal - Grim Dawn Item Database
Dranghoul Savage Blade - Rare One-Handed Sword - Grim Dawn Item Database

  • change everything but class
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My bet is that soon ™ they will make onslaught stacks vanish when you wpn swap

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It feels like a PoE mechanic - I haven’t even looked how comfortable weapon swapping feels, I’ve just put something together in Grim tools which takes what I like from your posting and some of my original idea’s and its a buff; (the axe is never going to roll, but for any grimstash fans) or those with too much time

into witch moon/chillheart

I’m not going to spend to much more time thinking about this now though with onslaught a bit up in the air. Time to make my winds of Asterkarn zealot me thinks!

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This is the Bloodlust setup I’ve been using since the expansion dropped. Well, since I took one of my old chars and farmed out the set and made my new Reaver, anyway. No weapon swapping (it instantly removes your Bloodlust buff anyway if you do), no Pit Master’s Axes. Max hit so far 2.8m, bleed also ticks for ~1.2m, so it has a mix of instant and dot damage.

Fantasy setup for the ascended affixes. Without them, you can still overcap your resists via augments, you just have like 150-200 less OA and 2-3k less health. The MIs were easily attainable when I set the altar to double MI + pierce/bleed and crafted them, though it seems using the altar in conjunction with crafting was either nerfed or broken since. I tried to make some backup copies for seed rerolling, and couldn’t even come close as of yesterday.

Not entirely certain I picked the best option for all slots:

Direwolf Crest might be better for the Onslaught buff/conversion, in which case you’d take the point out of Execution since it gives you a WPS also.

I initially used 2x Malmouth Blade seal to cap the Blade Spirit and get extra points in Bonechilling Cry. I’ve recently been trying out the Bladetwister Signet for the proc and some conversion on the cold dmg we get from Onslaught, Blade Spirits, Execution.

There are several other potential options for weapons as well, I was looking at Sincarver with big ele->pierce conversion for example. I’m just not sure if there’s all that much cold damage that it’s worth sacrificing other things to get conversion for it.

Initially the setup was 5 Onslaught, 9 Endless Rage to hit exactly 8 stacks, which you can exactly reach with your capped 225% attack speed in between the 2s RoS cooldowns. With the nerf, I’ve had to change that to 4 Onslaught, 10 Endless Rage to hit 7 stacks.

You have to press your energy potion a lot, thus I put the reduced cooldown modifier on it, along with damage absorption (try to press it with your health full!) and the cc resist maxer thing, allowing it to be a timing-based-skill-shot-resister for some boss attacks, like the Dread’s ground stomp thing that petrifies you.

You’ll have PB, RC, Terrobellum, Ventorus, and Bloodlust as 100% uptime buffs. My armor in game is 3.6k, not sure why it shows so low in grimtools.

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This looks cool, I hadn’t really looked at the set before, definitely has a good chunk of pierce (I could never get enough) and was worried about just having a bleed for without enough flat. I’m only on mobile right now but I’ll have a good look again when I get desktop.

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