Spitballing: Archon Vit PS spam

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
#1

Revised devotions: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlbO5XN

I’m a new player, and still working on my first high level character. I just made the build in Grimtools; I don’t have the character anywhere near this point yet, but I’m working in this direction. I also didn’t have any prototype for a Vit-based Archon build, since most of them are EoR spin, so I fished around and found some Oppressor builds and built off of that. I’m still iterating and probably will be for a while; the best one I’ve found is a crack at Vit PS, which apparently others have tried and written off as too energy hungry. I made an unconventional devotion build that uses Bull, Viper and Lotus to support the energy consumption of spamming PS plus the active ability of Dying God.

I put this down purely on paper to see if I could make this build that I’ve enjoyed leveling up work at endgame, or if I’d end up having to reset all my devotions because I have to retool for a different build. I think I can make it work. I don’t know how well it might perform, but 123 Vit RR and infinitely spammable PS seems promising to me.

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#2

yeah some cool ideas. Do consider the devouring swarm skill its one of the reason shaman is so good for vitality builds.

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#3

For the Vit RR I assume? It doesn’t seem like it does much on its own but I haven’t tried putting a lot of points into it.

#4

yes for the RR, look at 20/16 what the RR is.

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#5

Wow, the amount of Vit RR that Archon can achieve is bonkers… between Devouring Swarm, Celestial Presence (when paired with Scion of Dreeg) and the various legendary items you can get way over 100% Vit RR. There’s all kinds of potential there. And I’ve seen items that support builds with PS, EoR, AoM, and RF like the initial build I made, so if one build doesn’t work there’s several other possibilities.

Throwing out bees with DS and then charging through the line I just debuffed with VM seems pretty fun and effective.

Edit: Death’s Reach has EoR Vit Archon written all over it. I’m going to have to explore that when I have more time to sit down with GT.

#6

Look at the rattosh devotion as well way in the south

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#7

Rattosh is interesting and might be a good way to make this work with a set other than Blood Knight. The devotion tree will have to change completely because I have to stretch to get that point in Old God.

Edit: OK, I retooled this as a Vit PS build and completely redid the devotions to make sure I had enough energy regen to support it. By changing around some components/augments and incorporating two copies of Signet of the Damned, I was able to overcap resists without any devotion points… so that allowed me some leeway to take a different path. I included Wendigo, Kraken, Rattosh the Veilwarden, and also managed to squeeze in Scales of Ulcama by taking some unusual devotion choices along the way. I had to give up the point in Old God to do so, but along the way picked up some really nice defensive bonuses. The build runs with almost 23K HP!

However, OA and DA seem to be on the low side and armor took a big hit.

Re-edit: from what people have tried before, seems like energy gen is the major issue here, and I don’t know if I’ve really solved it. Energy drain should help somewhat but I have no idea if it will be enough. Anyone tried Rotgheist?

#8

I’m not very experienced but

  1. From what I’m reading it seems people only have problems with energy in non-PS Rotgheist builds
  2. Devotions: Why Bull? It doesn’t seem to give you anything. You should take Dying God and Revenant (instead of Scales of Ulcana which reduces resists only to a single target) because they are amazing (even nonvitality builds take them, i.e. my lightning PS Warder at the moment). Don’t drop Rattosh and Kraken. I would say these 4 Constellations are mandatory for you.
  3. Why not putting much more points into Torrent and Storm Surge? Every Primal Strike build I’ve seen has these maxed
    Here’s a toon one of the guys from the Anyone tried Rotgheist? made. Look at his Devotions and Shaman skills https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2m6MomV (I would probably take Spider/Korvaak the Elidritch Sun/Ghoul/Bat instead of Ultos/Rat/Scholar but it’s just my preference)

[edit] I’ve found Rotgheist PS Archon on GD Discord improved by @Evil_Baka https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2pbg3KZ
https://discordapp.com/channels/119758608765288449/282754266123206657/657579779624534019

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#9

Thanks, that looks good on paper and has better stats than mine. The biggest difference is that it doesn’t use Thunderous Strike, so Primal Strike has a cooldown - I take TS and increase energy regen to support it. My build has 110 regen/sec plus 60% drain which should be enough to keep up Wendigo Totem, debuff with Devouring Swarm and spam Primal Strike.

That’s the reason why I take Lotus and Scales of Ulcama - it’s for Energy regen. Bull is important for the -Physique requirement to armor, which allows me to dump more points into Spirit. The fact they also happen to synergize with the build (+healing and +Vit RR) is icing on the cake. But I’m compromising a lot of stats. The Rotgheist set takes up the spaces where you normally get energy regen, so I had to beg, borrow and steal it from other areas. I’ll have to play around with it and see if I can reconcile it a little better.

#10

Some people take Bard’s Harp for energy regen, you could test that too if energy regen is a problem. It requires 6 Purple though…

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#11

Yeah, there really isn’t any room to get 6 purple and also get full points in Revenant, Old God, Rattosh and Kraken. Even the 3 purple to get Harvestman’s Scythe might be too hard. If I take Owl and Bard’s Harp maybe? Panther, Lotus, Viper, and Owl are all possibilities, but it’s a tight squeeze and I really need at least 3 of them to make it work - since Dying God’s ability has an active energy cost as well.

#12

Well, I have a solution. Bull, Viper, and Lotus can all fit. Bull for the -Physique requirement on the pants so that I only need 932 and can dump the rest into Spirit, Lotus for +energy regen and Viper for energy leech. Revenant also serves as an additional source of energy leech as well. I had one free point left over, which I used to pick up the first point in Wendigo for an extra +40% Vitality damage/decay. But it’s very dependent on energy drain and leech, so on a dummy it’s going to run out fast. I guess that’s just what I have to live with.

DA is low at 2.2K but OA is up to 2.6K which is a little more competitive.

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#13

Running dry fast on a dummy is pretty normal I think.
My lightning PS dude does it too but during normal fights (campaign) he’s fine.

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#14

Yeah, I think it’s not really a problem. If you get disabled, you’re not using energy, right? You might die, but you won’t run out of energy. :slight_smile: Just don’t try this build in Hardcore unless you have a cardiologist ready. When leveling him up he has been very squishy.

#15

If you’re going for Thunderous Strikes then you want Wildblood Crusher for the attack speed I’d say - more damage output, more life steal because of it.

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#16

I think that’s a solid idea. Like I needed another reason not to sweat farming Morgoneth, right?

But, I am starting to see why you might not take TS. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get enough energy regen. You can just tape down your left and right mouse buttons and when PS is on cooldown, you will use VM instead. I would also use that if I wanted to keep using RF stacks for defenses. That has served me well leveling up on Ultimate.

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#17

-% Skill Energy Cost seems to be doing great job in keeping the mana bar full
Most PS builds I’ve seen have -20% (and only ~30 Energy regen/s) and it makes a big difference, they would starve without it. Maybe you could get more than -10% you had in the last character snapshot you posted.

[edit] I’ve searched through the item database and unfortunately -% Skill Energy cost is really rare :frowning: I don’t see any good way to increase it. Lightning PS builds are lucky to have additional -10% from Eye of the Storm relic.

[edit2] Honestly, you can try taking Eye of the Storm for that -10% Skill Energy Regen. The damage loss shouldn’t be too big and you’ll notice a big difference in managing mana.

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#18

Stocking up on energy leech is also an idea for keeping up on energy requirements.

Worst case scenario, you can consider investing in Mogdrogen’s Pact for more flat energy regen and the flat Physical damage when funnelled through Primal Strike becomes flat Vitality instead so not a waste there either.

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#19

It’s too bad that PS requires a 2 hander, there are some options in the offhand slot but not for 2 hand weapons. A Vit based caster Archon is another idea with Storm and Wendigo totems but is lacking in item support for endgame.

Eye of the Storm might be enough to make the difference… there is a lot of Vit damage in other slots so losing the Vit damage shouldn’t be a big deal.

Edit: Saving this for my use: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YNnxngbV I have no idea actually if this will work and still convert PS damage to Vit, if not I can still use another 2 hander but it won’t have the same synergy. 51% crit damage is awfully tasty and converting it to a 2H ranged makes a lot of sense.

#20

I didn’t check the GT, but I’m gonna just put this out there: archon vit PS is going t be a nightmare to play.

You’re going to need to stack both RF and savagery charges to get sufficient AS, OA/DA, stats, etc.

You also can’t capitalize on vire’s might as the damage is negligible compared to PS spam. In other words, using VM = DPS drop, and is thus no more than a one-pointer imo for utility.

what’s wrong with the conjurer?