[Something Clever about Halberds]: Lightning Stormreaver Savagery Warder (SR80, controller friendly)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Part eleven of my controller friendly build series: Lightning Stormreaver Savagery Warder.

Grimtools link.

There are moderately similar builds, using Ultos’s set with Primal Strike, or Stormreaver with Cadence, but I don’t see any Warders using Stormreaver and Horns of Korvaak for Savagery.

This build is pretty similar in playstyle to my Physical Leviathan Death Knight, so I’m going to start with the comparison to that.

Cons vs Death Knight:

  • lower health

  • lower resists

  • lower enemy damage reduction (higher CD on war cry, fewer points in it, and no absorption form Menhir’s Bastion)

  • despite much higher DA, is a lot less tanky.

  • struggles to survive SR80

  • can easily die in SR75 if you’re not careful

  • Death Knight cruises through SR80, and can definitely go higher

  • has to cast Wind Devil and Wendigo Totem

  • probably harder to gear (Horns of Korvaak)

  • hard to see what’s going on against groups of enemies due to all the lighting and Wind Devils and Cinderwinds and Elemental Storms

Pros vs Death Knight:

  • more OA

  • more DA

  • huge crit damage boost from Stormcaller’s Pact

  • Savagery’s sheet dps benefits more from WPS than Cadence’s sheet dps does

  • Warder’s sheet dps doesn’t take into account the 8% attack speed from Horns of Korvaak

  • just realized the devotions are probably not ideal since Horns of Korvaak grant 25% elemental resist reduction

  • overall, the raw damage is higher, as long as the content is easy

  • 91% lighting resist makes Mogdrogen easy without modifications

So, with all that having been said, I’m going to make this build guide short, since this Warder is the inferior build. Still, it’s a fun build, and has the strength to clear SR80, so perhaps some people will use it.

In game stats with Savagery stacks active:

Warder
Warder776×491 67.2 KB

Video proof of clear

Fight tips

  • Offense: make sure to keep your Wind Devils active.

  • Defense: you have a ton of lifesteal, especially in Wendigo Totem, so keep attacking. When you’re getting overwhelmed, run away, cast a new Wendigo Totem, and wait for your enemies to come into its radius.
    Be careful of the pull radius of War Cry, since it can bring in unwanted enemies
    Be careful of the duration of War Cry, since there is substantial downtime between casts
    Be careful of everything, since this build is surprisingly non-resilient

Gear

 As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR. The 3pc Ultos bonus is good. The weapon and helmet aren’t worth it. (Initially tried this build with 5pc bonus, and it wasn’t great.)

Essential Gear:

  • Stormreaver

  • Horns of Korvaak

  • 3 pc Ultos’ Tempest bonus

  • Korvaak’s Brand (even though you can’t benefit from the passive)

Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:

  • Storm Shepherd

  • Eye of the Storm

  • Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth

  • Cindertouch.

Other stuff:

  • Glyph of the Storm Witch. I really wanted the OA, but in hidsight the Glyph of Kephat’Zoth is probably better

  • Stormcage Legguards

  • Windshear Greaves

Devotions Kraken, Widow, and Rhowan’s Crown are essential for offense. Almost everything else is essential for defense.

Viper is probably a mistake, since Horns of Korvaak have (higher) % resist reduction anway. (X% target resist reduction is normally not very good, since, unlike X reduced target’s resist and –X% resist, X% resist reduction is multiplicatively applied after the other two (which are flat, and –X% reductions stack with other –X% reductions, while only the highest X reduced resist is applied), and few enemies will have substantial resists after those are applied. That said, this build seemed to be lacking damage until I added Viper, so maybe it wasn’t a mistake.

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