Spellbreaker
[Melee Dual-Wield] [v1.0.0.9] [hc] [u] [g#3] Elemental Stormbreaker
Main Damage:Cold,Elemental,Frostburn/Burn/Electrocute
Secondary Damage: Vitality,Acid,Poison,Physical,Pierce
Active Skills: Shadow Strike, Ring of Steel, Pneumatic Burst, Blade Barrier, Mirror of Ereoctes, Icechill(Night’s Embrace), Scourge Strike(Scourge Relic), Ice Spike(Item skill)
Passive Skills:Chill Aura (Item skill), Maiven’s Sphere of Protection, Veil of Shadow, Star Pact, Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange
Celestial Powers: Whirlpool, Elemental Storm, Guardian’s Gaze, Falcon Swoop, Turtle Shell
After many many deaths, more than 1,000 hours and more changes than the developers have put into Grim Dawn (heh, heh) I believe that I’ve mostly fine tuned my ‘glass canon’ spellbreaker.
Mostly due to the fact that I just punched out Loghorrean and made off with his sweet loot. While there may be some flaws, I would like to introduce the Elemental Stormbreaker:
Pros:
- Burst-Damage Specialist
- AoE Burst Damage Extrodinaire
- Easy button combos
- Excels at Hit-And-Run (It’s his entire sthick, really)
- Brutally efficiant at creating chokepoints
- Trash cleaner and boss killer all rolled into one
- Very little energy problems
- Is able to kill from range and thin trash mobs with Ice spikes and Falcon Swoop
- Considerably fun and powerful build to play if you like living on the edge
Cons:
- VERY fragile (To be specific, I actually finished the game with slightly less than 7,000 hitpoints D: )
- Poor sustainability (Don’t hope to tank with this guy on Ultimate)
- Has NO circuit breaker items
- Weapon dps is not on par with most nightblade builds out there
- Not recommended for people with stress / heart problems
About this build:
I only really need 2 words to summarize this build: Glass Canon.
For months, I’ve been struggling to find a balance between damage and survivability. I sought to achieve an acceptable outcome through devotions,items,skills and even stat distributions.
The last straw was when my character just felt softer than a block of tofu even with close to 20% lifesteal on mobs + An Avatar of Mercy item and then died as a level 85.
It was then that I decided to fully embrace this inherently dangerous side of a nightblade by drastically upping cold damage and taking the most destructive devotions I could think of without much regard for survivability…which turned out to be a most fruitful gamble.
Full Build (with +Skill points): http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-HM4put
Full Build (With normal skill points): http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-Omk7Sh
Key Skills and Celestial Powers:
- Shadow Strike and Ring of Steel (with Ring of frost modifier)- Lethal direct damage + AoE burst combo rolled into one. Works best with a high cold modifier, Physical damage to cold conversion and a high skill point investment
- Whirlpool (From Levianthan devotion) and Elemental Storm (From Rhowan’s Crown Devotion)- For maximum AoE killing power. Plus it cool watching the storm rip apart mobs while the whirlpool keeps them in.
-
Nightfall (Shadow Strike Modifier)- Your Frostburn damage should be pretty insane at this point
- Pneumatic Burst- Your only sustain skill, so be sure to max it out and use it often
- Veil of Shadows and night’s chill- A must have skill for slowing down enemy attack speed and move speed. You’ll find more openings to attack and the extra damage allows you to actually kite mobs to death
- Merciless Repretoire- Very important and crucial boost to cold/frostburn
- Star Pact- Drastically boosts damage output and decreases skill cooldowns
- Ice Spike- Spam it with falcon swoop to thin mobs and pull heroes to you if mobs look thick
Defensive skills:
- Maiven’s Sphere of Protection (with conversion)- To soften damage received and escape faster from disabling status effects
- Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange- Just a slight investment here for the mana leech
- Mirror of Eroctes and Blade Barrier- Because one emergency button is not enough for this character
Additional skills:
- Execution- Put in only a single point here, +skills will take it higher
- Nidalla’s Justifiable ends- Put in a few points to reduce shadow stirke cooldown
- Inner Focus- 8 points or more for additional spirit + Offense Ability so Execution procs better
Suggested Skill/power bindings and keyboard shortcuts:
- Bind Whirlpool to Shadow Strike and bind shadow strike to ‘1’ on the quickbar
- Bind ‘Elemental Storm’ to Ring of Steel and bind Ring of steel to ‘2’ on the quickbar
- Bind Pneumatic Burst to ‘3’ on the quickbar
- Bind Blade barrier to ‘4’ on the quickbar
- Bind Mirror of Eroctes to ‘0’ on the quickbar
- Bind Guardian’s Gaze to ‘Scourge Strike’ and bind ‘Scourge Strike’ to autoattack slot (LMB)
- Bind ‘Falcon Swoop’ to ‘Ice Spike’ and bind ‘Ice Spike’ to RMB slot
- Bind ‘Turtle Shell’ to Iskandras Elemental Exchange
- Passive skills should populate the 2nd quickbar (toggle with ‘Y’)
- Bind Iskandras Elemental Exchange, Maiven’s Sphere, Veil of Shadows, Star Pact and other passive skills to whichever slot you’d like on the 2nd toolbar
- Re-bind Health potion key to ‘E’
- Re-bind Energy Potion key to ‘R’
- It’s up to you on where you would like to assign other item skills that have not been mentioned here
Playstyle tips:
- Play as an exclusively hit and run character. Always make sure there is space to backpeddle.
- If things get dicey, run through the exit of the map
- Mirror makes is an amazing tool for shadow striking safely and unleashing all your combos
- If needed, run through the exit of the map or backpeddle and wait for your mirror to cooldown before engaging
- blade barrier should only be used if mirror is on cooldown.
- use a combination of pneumatic burst and your potion hotkey to retreat once blade barrier ends if needed
- full nightblade combo- Shadow Strike -> Ring of Steel -> Scourge Strike
- Partial nightblade combo- Shadow strike only OR Shadow Strike ->Ring of Steel
- Consider using partial combos vs fast bosses (like commander Lucious)
- Patience is key- Kill bosses by shadow striking if needed, while saving RoS and Scourge Strike for the adds
- Top up your health with Pneumatic burst BEFORE attacking
- Don’t rush with this build, or you’ll meet an early grave
- always enter a new area/ explore with a finger above the hotkey you binded Mirror to
- Use ice spike to pull a hero from their pack towards you
- Always pull 1 or 2 hero away from packs before engaging
- Retreating is always preferable than dying
- I suggest playing on normal mode, then elite, then ultimate
- Don’t fight Loxmere Nightmage
- You might want to avoid certain heroes like Sister Bravna, Boris the Butcher and Nathaniel Thorn)
- Don’t get full hostility so you won’t have to fight any Nemesis
- Kill EVERYTHING in Normal mode for best experience gain
- Tone down Aetherial kill count in Elite and above unless you want to fight their Nemesis early. Just kill whatever is in your way and ignore out of the way mobs
- I didn’t run a single rogue-like dungeon (Steps of Torment, Bastion of Chaos, Port)
- Farm pine barrens region, swarming hives and areas with wasps if you need levels or Grind for Legendaries
- Do your best to avoid fighting big trolls. They can often one hit kill you. Fight carefully if you must.
Equipment (Items mentioned in brackets are what I wanted to use but didn’t acquire):
Head:Deathmarked Hood with Runestone and Mankind’s Vigil
Neck:Night’s Embrace with Corpse Dust and Slith Venom
Chest:Deathmarked Jacket with Sanctified Bone and Mankind’s Vigil
Shoulders:Elite Devil’s Spaulders with Silk Swatch and Mankind’s Vigil
Ring:Empowered Chillsurge Ring with Corpse Dust and Slith Venom
Ring:Slith Primal Ring Level 70 with Corpse Dust and Slith Venom (in place of Band of Eternal Haunt)
Hands: Iceskorn Talons with Rigid Shell and Mankind’s Vigil
Waist: Phantom-Thread Girdle with AntiVenom Salve and Mankind’s Vigil (in place of
Spellbreaker’s Waistguard)
Weapon: Crescent Moon with Coldstone and Outcast’s Bastion
Weapon: Deathmarker Decapitator with Chilled Steel and Outcast’s Frostbite
Legs: Arcane Harmony Leggings with Silk Swatch and Mankind’s Vigil (in place of Deathwhisper Leggings)
Medal:Mark of Dark Dreams with Aether Soul
Relic:Scourge
Boots:Wraithwalkers with Molten Skin and Mankind’s Vigil
Stat distributions:
Everything to Physique
Leveling:
Normal/ Veteren / 1 to 50- http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-vlifum
Elite / 50 to 70- http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-Nh3c16
Ultimate / 70 to 85- http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-Ikl6fq
Devotion path:
Crossroads,Order+1
Tortoise
Crossroads,order-1
Crosscroads,Ascendant+1
Falcon
Eye of the Guardian
Rhowan’s Crown
Spider
Empty Throne
Levianthan
Raven
Blind Sage +5 (OA/Spr, OA/Elemental, DA/Crit/Disruption, Cold Dmg, Light Dmg, Fire Dmg)
Lion
Reviews and suggestions are welcome
