Some build ideas - reduce all cooldowns, dual-wield everything

here are some build ideas i implemented that might be not too obvious but are pretty fun to play. they should all be able to do campaign in ultimate but beyond that i can’t guarantee anything. some seem reasonably strong, maybe a few can do endgame, i hardly ever do that stuff…

disclaimer: none of these builds are min-maxed. the devos are usually just going with my first idea/path. i don’t try to stack all resist reduction types. the gear is usually selected to hard-cap certain stuff over other needs or utility. conversions are never perfect. there are energy issues. i’ll happily go with several damage types. and i don’t look at crowd control resistances at all, only playing softcore.


biggest surprise


after freeze res reduction went from items to olexra’s flash freeze itself this build was obviously born wanting to utilize the fire res shred on itself i.e. fire off. so riftclaw slicer was the first idea and with a spellbinder i thought why not use all the aoe spells centered on the caster that i usually dont use and thus also a set i’d never used before. (wound up really liking the set and my subsequent callidor’s tempest agrivix sorc.)
damage types: fire
main skills: olexra’s flash freeze, cooldown callidor’s tempest, siphon souls
items: riftclaw slicer, rage of agrivix set


low cooldown & dual-wielding


usually i try to get low cooldown aoe/nuke spell or look at 1-handed weapons that would be interesting to dual wield. and sometimes you get both, made before the bonescythe cdr change.
damage types: acid/cold
main skills: low cooldown bone harvest
items: 2x dreadweaver, ghol’s reach, 3 piece deathguard set, deathbound amethyst, dreadchill mark


since breaking all the furniture with maxed war cry and some damage is so satisfying and dreadweaver is right there we get a cold shout blademaster.
damage types: cold
main skills: war cry, cadence
items: 2x dreadweaver, fleshwarped casque, executioner’s judgment, mark of harvoul


iirc there is some crazy elemental spam doom bolt build out there. when trying to somewhat recreate that it occurred to me that leaving out fire doom bolt we have a set the pairs nicely and ofc casters should also dual-wield. surprisingly this works even with subpar %-damage and basically no casting speed.
damage types: lightning/cold
main skills: doom bolt, sigil of consumption, wind devil
items: trozan’s skybreach set, cold doom bolt conduit, storm herald, rylok mark


other stuff


at some point i just wanted to make the cyclone set happen but not in melee with eye of reckoning so the result was the mine field + max wind devil elementalist (it can summon all wind devils in one cast and therefore was easy to use even before they were made permanent).
damage types: lightning (some cold?)
main skills: thermite mine, wind devil
items: cold thermite mine conduit, the cyclone set, stormsurge pistol


lately i’ve taken a liking to doom bolt, especially trying to max its area of effect. as it so happens you can get all the increased target area (without damage conversion) paired with both chaos grenado and chaos canister bomb.
damage types: chaos
main skills: doom bolt, grenado, canister bomb
items: voidsoul set, chaos canister bomb conduit, mark of ulzuin, riftwarped grasp, clairvoyant’s wand


dual-wielding


and to prove that even pet builds can be fun - twin familiar shotgun conjurer (with fake mi’s, not using these in game obviously).
damage types: elemental
main skills: familiar
items: 2x bargoll’s core, bysmiel’s trinkets set



i don’t have blurbs for these yet, might come later:

low cooldown & dual-wielding

ring of steel infiltrator

can also be done as dervish with basilisk mark i guess but you’d want acid affixes on the slicers.
damage types: pierce
main skills: ring of steel
items: 2x servitor’s slicer, bloodbriar’s thorn, whisperer of secrets, gutworm’s mark
Infiltrator, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

low cooldown

doot doot purifier

doot doot
damage types: cold (some elemental)
main skills: low cooldown horn of gandarr, grenado
items: rimetongue set, codex of truths, empyrion’s mercy, chilling grip of hagarrad, kymon’s badge
Purifier, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

aether jacks elementalist

damage types: aether (electrocute)
main skills: low cooldown stun jacks, wind devil
items: scion of celestial portents, wyrmbone mask, spark of ultos, aether stun jacks conduit
Elementalist, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

spam judgment shieldbreaker

moar furniture destruction goodness
damage types: fire
main skills: low cooldown judgment
items: judgment of empyrion, justicar guard set, cinderscorn, herald of the apocalypse, mark of ulzuin
Shieldbreaker, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

chaos aegis sentinel

pretty sure something similar made some list, this definitely is powerful.
damage types: chaos
main skills: low cooldown aegis of menhir
items: spam (pierce) aegis of menhir conduit, the voidsouls set, ugdenbog repeater, lagoth’ak’s voidbinding
Sentinel, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.7) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

lightning retal warder

i know it’s not purely retal, i wanted on-hit devos, also that blue crossroads point is obviously going into finishing messenger of war…
damage types: lightning
main skills: low cooldown counter strike, retal savagery
items: dawnseeker’s light set, blood knight’s visage, korvaak’s brand
Warder, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

dual-wielding

aether gunner paladin

this works pretty well, one of the first builds i used to farm sr (forgot how far).
damage types: aether
main skills: righteous fervor + multishot weapon pool skills
items: 2x rutnick’s blaster, 2x jaxxon’s lucky bullet, bonemonger set, mark of the dreadblade
Paladin, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

vit caster vindicator

totems leech, aura leeches, leeching devotions on the rest.
damage types: vitality
main skills: corrupted storm totem, word of pain
items: 2x decree of malmouth, radaggan’s folly set
Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

vit/acid oppressor

damage types: vitality/acid
main skills: guardian of empyrion, ravenous earth
items: 2x pandemic, magi visage, bolvar’s pendant, basilisk crest
Oppressor, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

lightning caster vindicator

what if word of pain and curse of frailty were combined, easy leveling with bargoll’s heart, damage output seems really good.
damage types: lightning
main skills: word of pain, storm totem
items: 2x temporal tempest, gildam arcanum commendation, heart of malmouth, light’s guardian set
Vindicator, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

melee death knight

one of the most fun dual-wield melee builds even when i don’t have the set equipped yet.
damage types: vitality
main skills: cadence (reaping strike, markovian’s advantage), counter strike
items: 2x edge of death, the blood knight set
Death Knight, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

other stuff

acid retal conjurer

before bramblevine provided adcth to vines
damage types: acid
main skills: retal grasping vines, retal sigil of consumption
items: bramblevine, okaloth’s visage, acid grasping vines conduit, 3 piece sentinel of the three set, mark of lethal intents
Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

cold devastation spellbreaker

best devastation
damage types: cold
main skills: devastation, phantasmal blades
items: cold devastation conduit, arcanum frigus, outcast’s secret, terrnox’s aether tome
Spellbreaker, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

phys caster sentinel

inashkor already converts half of evil eye to phys so…
damage types: physical
main skills: judgment, doom bolt, dreeg’s evil eye
items: inashkor’s corrupted head, targo’s craft set
Sentinel, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.2) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

acid bomber pyromancer

dreeg is actually a pyromancer and can do sr 65/66.
damage types: acid
main skills: cooldown dreeg’s evil eye, canister bomb
items: corruptian, wretched tome of nar’adin, acid canister bomb conduit
Pyromancer, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.2) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

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Quite a few gems there, great!
But boy, you really don’t believe in acid resist, do you? xD

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hey thanks, last time i checked acid was just fancy water that tickles and my chars were immortal demigods. :stuck_out_tongue:
but yeah, gear/components in the game can differ a bit and i don’t apply augments in grimtools.

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