Secondary class and other dilemmas for Calidor's based Arcanist?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

I have very little experience using Arcanist as main class and I have too many items for him lying around collecting dust si figure i’d make one.

Here are the dilemmas…

Secondary class?
A) Shaman - Wendigo totem for healing, Mogdrogen’s aura line for health and armor, wines/swarm for any additional procs i may need (probably not)
B) Demo - Massive bonuses to OA and fire dmg speed, extra dps from retaliation procs (from my experience with the sorc who had +1100% fire dmg, this is not that good), flashbamg because it’s insane

Secondary skill? For fights like Shar’Zul when getting into melee may not be an option.
A) AAE - higher skill point investment, higher dps, can kite with it, drains a ton of mana
B) Devastation - needs few skill points to be good, low dps vs single targets, can’t be solely relied upon.

Stats?
A) 100% physique - defensive ability is good now.
B) 25-ish points into spirit - more dps, base mana regen gives me more gearing options

Items?
A) Iskandra’s set + Warpfire - great defenses, a lot of +aether and +fire dmg, addition source of resistance reduction.
B) Clairvoyant set + Peerless eye + Aldanar’s vanity - a ton of +skills both for main and secondary class, extra OA, cooldown reduction proc (is it still good after nerf?)

Devotion proc on Callidor’s?
A) Aetherfire - decent dps, confuse is awesome, no cooldown
B) Arcane bomb - resistance reduction, more reliable dps

If anyone has any experience with any of those decissions, I would really appreciate your input. The options A) are the ones I’m gravitating towards. Especially on the Druid, I just can’t imagine how you could tank the endgame content without a spammable heal. But I loose so much damage…

2

Dunno. Personally I play sorceror with Aldanar’s Vanity, Devastation & Aetherfire, but I had not even considered druid. Currently mid-elite, so can’t say anything about ultimate, SoT, BoC, nemesis and other scary stuff.

3

How do you tank? Does lifesteal give you enough regen?

edit: holy fuck, just read the discussion about blast shield and tried it on my pistol sorc. It actually works! Someone explicitly told me it no longer works like it did in Titty Quest, so i never used it. Fml.

Another socrcerer it is…

4

I’ve only just started playing, about 13 hours game played (12 of those were streamed), and im playing a Warlock (Occul/ Arc). im finding it pretty fun, and Dreegs Evil Eye does so much damage.

Even though im still levelling, still learning, I have also screwed up my master bar, which I did not realise you cant unlearn your masteries bar, but making the best of a (bad?) situation.

Only thing is using DEE uses a lot of energy, but I was thinking with Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange the Energy Regen would be worth it?

But as I mentioned before, im still a noob lol.

5

Like that: run up close, cast devastation, cast mirror, spam CT, see who survives, usually it’s me.
Haven’t tried blast shield yet, but I will.

6

Wrong thread probably, but i can’t imagine you screwed up that much. You need full occultist mastery and up to mental alacrity on arcanist (32 points??).

Max mental alacrity early. Put one of the components that reduces spell cost into your amulet and put ectoplasm into the rings and medal. You shouldn’t have mana problems.

7

Update:

6qbClFs.jpg688×857

  • Went sorcerer for blast shield and the speed/oa passives. Maxing flashbang with the rest of my skills because it is also quite stupid.
  • Iskandra set is horrible compared to Clairvoyant.
  • Both of the aether procs are horrible, went with fiend. It’s hard to judge how effective it is, but I’m assuming it works the same way as Agrivix?
  • Went full physique because i get so much aether and fire dmg on my items/skills, the dmg bonus from spirit is useless.
  • 2000-ish DA means even endgame bosses don’t crit me
  • Healing solved with Tree of life and Targo procs, no problems whatsoever
  • Went Devastation because it’s much easier to use and, frankly, ridiculous

Conclusions:

  • Blast shield is bullshit, i could tank BoC at lvl 71 (got killed by Shar’Zul though)
  • This build has comparable clear speed to the blademaster when monster resists aren’t an issue. Don’t let the displayed DPS fool you, procs and Devastation give at least twice the shown number on top of it.
  • Lack of resistance reduction hurts me, not sure how to fix it
  • Devastation combines nicely with Clairvoyant completion bonus and Aldanar’s skill
  • Blink from riftstone is a must!
  • Chaos to aether dmg mechanic is a silly gimmick, especially since it comes on items which give both aether and chaos dmg bonuses
  • I need a +5 Calidor’s BoM so I can replace my boots, and I ran out of ancient hearts, anyone wants to trade? (I have +5 phantom blades and +5 primal strike)
8

OFF gives you plenty of fire resist reduction. Also Warpfire is better for you then Clairvoyants Wand

My Sorcerer (would have been done leveling it but decided to finish my BWC Sorc first) Hopefully will get better gear before finishing it.

9

yeah this is basically what i’m doing, originally had a battlemage but switched to sorcerer in b31 and it’s a lot better

have yet to update the OP with the sorc build, but here’s what i’m using

still testing the helmet, maw of despair is still probably better. both are better than clairvoyant’s hat though.

also, use eye of the guardian on callidor’s tempest, it seems counter intuitive because it’s neither aether nor fire themed but it stacks quickly and hits so many times per second that it triggers agrivix very reliably, ends up dealing substantially more damage than any other devotion skill

10

I have a Battlemage that is very strong in hardcore!
I will post two links depending if you need resistances or not.
Keep in mind I have at least +5 to arcanist skills, and the following DO NOT include + skills from gear (like Empowerment Legplate of Valors that also give + 1 to war cry skill for exemple).

With resist -> http://grimcalc.com/build/D9hxrX
Without resist -> http://grimcalc.com/build/GmAeU7

I’m currently trying the second one ‘‘without resist’’ because my gear allow me to do it! For those wondering ‘‘why manticore constellation?!?’’, it’s because it reduce resistances of both fire and aether resistances on monsters And I assign it on callidor’s tempest skill!

Also, The outcast hood is way much better than the Maw of Dispair helm.
Futhermore, not maxing Devastation for the ultimate rank 26/16 (considering + skills) is reducing your damage by a lot!

11

Destruction skill??? Do you mean Devastation as destruction is in Occultist :slight_smile:

Edit As much as I would like the Outcast Hood Legendary, I will never get it as there is zero chance I will ever farm her that much to get to Nemesis :frowning:

12

Haha. oh yeah, Devastation that does destruction :rolleyes::p:D

13

the outcast helmet clears trash more quickly but the 50% resistance reduction from maw of despair is better vs bosses. i’m still not sure which one i prefer.

14

I tried Eye of the guardian and got similar results, but ended up worse defensively because i couldn’t take both Behemoth and Tree of life anymore. I’m not lacking ways to trigger Agrivix and dps in general, I’m lacking ways of reducing the resistance of mobs (I have a weapon switch for bosses).

I like Clairvoyant because +2 to all skills improves Blast shield. 10% chance of instant refresh is just an added bonus. I guess I only end up with BS that is one level lower if I use Warpfire and Maw, will try it tonight. I don’t have the outcast helm, not due to lack of trying though. Do you need nemesis status to get it? Farming it atm.

How did you end up with such high life? I have all 3 flat life nodes (Behemoth, Targo and Scales) and all important %life nodes (+12% tree of life, +8% Targo and Behemoth), as well as more physique than you. What am I missing?

15

an extra 1 point to blast shield is irrelevant compared to either constant devastation procs or 50% reduced resistance from the maw of despair proc. even with like 14/12 blast shield you’re nearly invulnerable with it active.

you should definitely be using warpfire, the proc reduces resistance to all your damage by 33% consistently, it’s too good not to use.

outcast helmet took me like 12 hours of farming to get, it’s way too rare. it’s nemesis-only, and it took me about 60 kills to get it to drop. only saw 7 of the epic versions in that time as well, even they’re needlessly rare.

this screenshot was when i was using behemoth over eye of the guardian, but i’ve since switched back which puts me at like 12500ish (still with 24 stat points unspent). i have health/ele resist augments on my jewelry if that’s a factor, but i’m going to cut one for the kymon augment that reduces enemy damage.

i also have 50 points into the demo mastery as well, not sure if you have that.

16

I just relized that the difference is 1 point to demo, so it’s no big deal. Crafting Maw right now, will give it a whirl. The reason Warpfire proc was unappealing to me was that it’s single target non-spammable and i need something vs mobs. Maw proc is good, but %-based res reduction is not very efficient with this setup.

Demo levels explain the health difference. Is it worth going over 32 only for the stasts?

17

I was completely wrong, the resistance reductions from Maw and Warpfire are noticeable. This build is officially stupid.

The setup i’m using right now (I also have Behemoth and Hawk):

sVF6TtT.jpg655×1008

The rings are a subject to change, and I still don’t have the Outcast mask to test. I use aether mines with flashbang (switching to Blackwater coctail in the morning) to further reduce enemy resistances, so no more weapon switching. I’m thinking of going to 40 in Demolitionist for the Blackwater coctail synergy (Demon Fire??) which gives even more resistance reduction.

So farm, this build feels highly overpowered. I’m facetanking Fabius and Shar’Zul without ever backing off or using Mirror (note I have 44% pierce resistance, negative bleeding and under 10k health). This is thanks to amazing synergies:

  • Obelisk, Solemn watcher and Flashbang (defense)
  • Golemborn Obelisk (armor)
  • Behemoth and Tree of life (healing)
  • Blast shield with Aldanar’s vanity and Maiven’s (dmg reduction)
    They all work perfectly together making me almost impossible do damage. I still don’t have any lifesteal. The clear speed is insane with Agrivix procs alone critting for 9k and devastation for almost 20k.

I suggest to anyone to try this nonsense out before it gets hit with nerfhammers from all sides.