[Shield Caster] Aether Tempest - CT Battlemage

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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This is a poll i made to get more support for shield casters. This build doesn’t need it. But you’ll notice there aren’t many items that support shield casters, using the same items feels a bit boring. - http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50031

Okay, i’ve been trying to make a “signature” Battlemage for a while.

Basically i did the same thing i did with my PRM Spellbreaker, i.e use conversion to increase the single target damage of the main skill so that i don’t have to rely on devastation.

Now, devastation isn’t bad or anything. I just don’t like that every build lazily relies on it for single target and AoE (reason why it got the justified nerf hammer since it’s too good at everything). Which is why neither this build nor my spellbreaker rely on Devastation.

Build Concept:-

1. Callidor’s Tempest -

This is like the PB of Arcanist. Only i find it better than PB due to its radial effect and also because unlike PB which triggers Rashalga’s periods this skill plays much more safely around her.
Although do note this, PB and CT are pretty much equals even after getting the nerf hammer for being the skill that was used to put down Mogdrogen the first time (Credits to forum member Nine).
Now since we don’t want to use devastation, we increase CT’s own flat damage by converting 90% of its fire to aether. We achieve this using two items:-
> Arcane Shard of Agrivix - 30-35%
> Decree of Aldritch - 50-55%

Also, because Decree’s base damage is that of Aether and we get flat aether damage from different sources this provides great support for the skill’s %weapon damage component.
All this gives us our very own Aether Tempest.

2. Resistance Reduction and Racial Damage -

Firstly, working with this build i realized we really need more sources of %damage to chthonians. Aether seems to have it easy.
Now, we know most of the non-aetherial enemies aren’t highly resistant to aether. To deal with aetherials we have to things - Resistance Reduction and %Damage to aetherials.

We get RR from:-
>Arcane Mark -33%
>Band of the Eternal Haunt -15%
>Corrupting Touch of Aldritch 16 reduced resistance

Racial damage is high as well:
>Agrivix’s malice 15%
>Mark of Anathema 15%
>2x Outcast’s Wrath 2x 6%

This helps us a lot vs. Aetherials

3. Shield -

Now this isn’t here just for cosmetic purposes, going with Shield does gives us extra tankiness. With Overguard up our Block recovery is 80% which is decent against the hardest of hitters. Using a shield also gives us access to Targo’s Hammer which is useful in boss fights (except against Rashalga that is). Targo’s Hammer proc goes nicely with Overguard.

4. Extra Tankiness -

If you want extra tankiness then put 1 point into Maiven’s, the plus skills should get you up to Level 8 or so. I don’t do it cause i hate that skill, or anything that reduces my damage. You don’t need Maiven’s but i thought i should mention this.

This is the Level 100 GrimTools link. Please refer to this from now, the rest of the guide will get updated at some later point

Non-Devastation Setup - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YNnaJjwZ (1.0.5.0)
Devastation Setup - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQR0rp2 (1.0.5.0)

-Devastation Shield converts 100% Aether to Physical on the skill, this is countered by 100% Fire to Aether conversion
-Both setups can use Ulzuin’s Torch - Meteors, I just wanted to stick to a non-meteor theme so this works for me
-Magelord rings are usable but I prefer to use Haunt for the RR and AD for chaosconversion
-Agrivix’s Malice is good here, I prefer Haunt for more RR
-Non-Devastation Setup is the one I prefer btw :smiley:

GrimCalc (w/ plus skills and devotions)-

http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-Fme1iv

GrimCalc (w/o plus skills and devotions)-

http://grimcalc.com/build/1008-dIYqsn

Keybinding-

LMB- Callidor’s Tempest (w/ Arcane Bomb)
RMB- War Cry
Keyboard 1- Blitz
Keyboard 2- Overguard
Keyboard 3- Mirror of Ereoctes
Keyboard 4- Nullification
Keyboard 5- Bloodthirster

Maxed War Cry and Nullification are nice to reduce enemy’s damage. Note that Nullification only reduces enemy’s elemental damage. So know thy enemy.

Screenshot (Contain only toggled buffs)-

Cast Speed - 191%

Rashalga kill-

j6MbaQP.png1024×768

Items-

Weapon- Decree of Aldritch
Shield- Will of the Living
Helm- Maw of Despair
Chest- Vestments of Agrivix
Shoulders- Stonehide Iron Maiden’s Mantle of the Flesh Hulk
Legs- Stonehide Dreeg-Sect Legguards of Potency
Gloves- Aethereach
Feet- Stonehide Exalted Treads of Kings
Belt- Phantom-Thread Girdle
Ring 1- Band of the Eternal Haunt
Ring 2- Albrecht’s Duality
Amulet- Arcane Shard of Agrivix
Medal- Mark of Anathema
Relic- Agrvix’s Malice

Bosses-

Most bosses are easy to kill, you do need to kite for a second or two to get some breathing room. Overall you’re fine. Special Note on three bosses.

1. Rashalga-

Nullify her shotgun aura, if you miss the timing use Mirror and Overguard to deal with the projectiles. You’re fairly tanky so she can’t hit too hard. Even if you do get shotgunned Menhir’s Will + Will of the Living save your arse. So you don’t die immediately and can back-off.

2. Log-

He’s easy, but be careful of his acid/poison shotgun. That’s nasty. Even if you do get shotgunned Menhir’s Will + Will of the Living save your arse. So you don’t die immediately and can back-off.

3. Valdaran-

He can’t reduce your RR at close range, but when you get shotgunned and menhir + will of the living proc and you need to back-off be careful of his Lightning Bolt that reduces your resistance by flat 40 (look for the broken shield sign over your head).
Besides this he’s fairly easy since you can easily cycle b/w War Cry and Nullification to reduce his damage output. Both work since he’s an elemental type enemy.

It’s hard for you to die against anyone to be honest since there are two circuit-breakers that save your arse. Plus by the time you back-off when one or all of these trigger and then reposition yourself, either Overguard, Mirror or Tonic of Mending or maybe all three of them are off cooldown. Making it easy for you to re-engage the fool who dared trigger your circuit-breakers and piss you off even more

I won’t do Valbury tests, sorry i don’t like that area. Running it gives me a headache. But you have plenty of RR and Racial damage, coupled with the radial damage of CT that can tank all three of those idiots.

In Conclusion-

Firstly,
I’d like to thank Superfluff and Norzan. Interactions with them enabled me to achieve nigh-perfect shield stats.
And to Sobertooth for running some tests on my request that helped me put the finishing touches on this build.

If you want a non-devastation dependent Panetti’s Replicating Missile build then check-out my Aether Spellbreaker.

Similar concept can be used for Grenado, BWC, TSS, AAR and any other skill with elemental damage. Melee Aether Build using Decree are also possible.

I think i have finally made a signature battlemage build. This build combines the strengths of a shield with the radial damage of CT, giving you nice staying power to spam kill most of the enemies. This turned out to be surprisingly well.
I hope you guys enjoy this build.

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Reserved for future use

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reserved for later

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Wow, was thinking about shield caster CT bm too recently. Do you use Will of the Living?

P.S it’s really insane how you could post 2-3 builds in a week :rolleyes:

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Yeah give me a moment i’m uploading the screens.

Yeah most of my forum only builds were near completion, so i gave the finishing touches and posted them. The rest of them while being a lot better than the builds posted here are pretty straightforward to build so i don’t bother making any efforts to post them.

I think i have one more build to post but not really confident it’d work out that well.

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This is something I was toying with to see if I can get a caster that can safely do Crucible (actually, I just want a char that has fast trash clear, most of them are casters…).

Tbh, loss of Devastation ended up being too much for me. In the end, I had much better results with a Stun Jacks Commando. My attempts at BM were farm from perfect, I don’t even have the new scepter.

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Imo if you don’t like Valbury then you should farm for the scepter in the Crucible

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It’s not so much that I don’t like it (I prefer it to BoC, at least visually), I’m just incredibly busy and don’t have time.

I have to ask, how does this build compare to one that uses full Argrivix set (BM or Sorc)? The wisps you get when completing the set seem op as fuck. Plus, Devastation is still broken, even without Albrecht off-hand.

Edit: Also, Does Mark of Divinity gimp you too much?

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Complete Agrivix gives you a caster off hand. Meaning you get devastation, so i’m pretty sure you can do the math. I’m frankly tired of seeing that skill in every arcanist caster (except TSS) so i made this one.

No idea about those wisps, complete agrivix feels kinda underwhelming imo. I’d rather go Iskandra (even though i hate that set)

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Updated guide and added a link to poll to gain more battlemage support

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Nice one :slight_smile:

Tho CT is not even close to PB in any case :wink:

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Thanks:)

Plays much more safer than PB. PB should be stronger due shotgun and innate life leech. But when the build has much more staying power CT isn’t inferior in any way.

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It is, in so many ways that its not even comparable, only thing that you cant facetank with PB is MQ. And personally I highly doubt that you can bring her down faster with CT than any PB build even tho they require some kiting.

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The kill speed might vary but quality of life play is more or less the same for both skills. And i think MQ kill time with CT should be greater than PB since it triggers her periods

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Not by far, CT has to low range to be good quality of life spell.

I could put her down with my PB spelbreaker before the devastation nerf in 30 secs. Didnt check it now but highly doubt that more than one min should be needed.
PB WH needs bit more than 1 min.
PB Trickster 1 min.

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I don’t think we can agree here :slight_smile:

I always thought the spell was a little too good at everything. Right now where it required one devastation i need two roughly. I don’t think it’s a big nerf. What are your opinions?

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We tend to disagree on many thing :slight_smile: Anyway I just find CTs range to be something like: When I have to get this close maybe it would be better to go melee.
Only quality of CT is that is the best spammable/low CD spell arcanist has, and that’s not so hard cuz all of them pretty much sucks (AAR excluded cuz just recently made AAR build so cant compare yet).

Tbh always thought that Devastation is way OP, but since it was only actually useful attacking skill in arcanist mastery it was ok. Now with devastation nerf and w/o some mayor improvement in PRM, CT or TSS pretty much only useful way to use arcanist is to go AAR (not counting when you are using it as support).

P.S. Actually its a huge nerf cuz most of arcanist based casters were heavily relying on devastation as by far strongest single target (yes, single target not aoe) dmg skill.

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Also, a major “nerf” to adjusting the damage output of such a long CD ability, the difference between 1 cast and 2 is absolutely massive, or 2 and 3, or such.

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True it’s a single target skill. I haven’t ever used it in main campaign for trash mobs. Not even in Plains of Strife. Yeah i guess when you put it this way it is a huge nerf.
Also, while AAR is very strong for single target damage. Devastation gives you the liberty of kiting. But true, the marginal improvement for PRM, CT and TSS isn’t enough to compensate the nerf.
It still felt like it was too good at everything.

Imo, one of the major reasons for the the nerf is because one forum member cockily bragged about how easy Valbury was with a CT Sorcerer on Ultimate.

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And do you know why Valbury was easy to her?

Not because that build was super op dmg dealer, super tanky or so, but because agrivix casters naturally have vastly over caped aether resistance and all power of Valbury lies in aether resistance shred (-30% or smth) if you overcap aether resistance Valbury is a joke to any decent build.