SSF Lightning Elementalist - a simply diary -

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Goal of the topic:
A blog for me to record my path and maybe it will help new players to see what is possible - even without endgame gear.
And later the community can help me to min/max :smiley:

Goal for this hero:
From level 1 to rogue like dungeons playthrough. Level as a caster. Later switch to Primal strike melee possible. But first I will and want try the caster style.

Step1:


https://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zQlE9N
The Shaman is a level beast. Easy start. Equipment doesn’t matter.

Step2:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2mmOpo2
Respec. Devouring swarm out. Wind Devil in. Wind Devil should also be the main skill until further notice.

Step3:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1eq1wV
The off-hand can be farmed on Yetis in Act 3.
An alternative is also possible: grobe sky effigy - but I like the wind devil offhand a lot more.

Step4:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDmwoWN
Gear doesn’t really matter. Offhand should be farmed. Devotions for leveling: I definitely prefer the Viper, Turtle and all the movement speed stuff first.
Later we can change the devotion for damage procs and resistance reduction.
But first we dont need this and want to speed through normal and elite.

End of my day1:
Finished Act 4 and Forgotten Gods in normal. Day 2 I will start AOM content.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNY1X94N
Hero is a beast. Zero Death. Damage is great. Nothing more to say. The offhand and mainhand are farmable. Here a link to the items: https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/skill-modifiers/1290
I dont care about compoments etc… for me normal difficulty is just a pure speedrun. On Gear I look for strong procs, +skill and hp/resi and movement speed.

End of AOM / Start elite I will craft a little. Stay tuned :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

End of normal / start elite

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2M1alb2
The main skills are maxed. The second classbar is maxed for my goals and now its time to get support skills for the mainskill and OA/DA/resistance for the Hero.
Devotions: I am on my way to ultos. For Healing as a caster I dont take the bat/ghoul/dryad stuff. I will try life regen this time.

Died once at larria. she shotgun killed me?

Finished the whole campaign. Got my secred path skill points, farmed new mi weapon and craft some stuff.
This is how I usaly level my heros.
Go full damage skill and gear wise, full speed/support wise with devotions and compenents until mid/endgame.
Eye of the storm for the relic.
2x antivenom salve - for acid resistance
wardstone in medal. Other compenents will work too. I like the big resistance and speed
unholy inscription in gloves for OA and Resi
2x scaled hide for armor absorption
imbued silver and
purified salt for more resistance
2x mark of illusions in rings for energy regen and DA
sanctifided bone in head
attuned lodestone the only offensive compenent
chains of oleron or hallowed ground for chest
— Thats my way to go compenents in the level phase.

End of Act 2

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2Bm9ykN
faction vendor shopping done (chest and shoulders from the bysmiel faction) and craft a +1 shaman skill belt. I am happy with the heavy hp regen approach and no leech. Damage is still great. AOE is great. On Bosses and Totems you can stack easy multiple wind devils and totems and facetank.

Start AOM Content, Forgotten gods still to do

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2G1OmlZ
nothing much to say. From now on until ultimate its all about getting levels and faction reputation. Gear will not change much beside lucky drops from bosses/totems. The devotion part its done until ultimate. 55/55. Maybe in Ultimate I need the aether bomb for more resistance reduction and/or some other stuff for more or other defense beside high hp pool and high hp regen"

Finished AOM and FG before start Ultimate

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZemR4vZ this the gear/build I finished Elite. Now I upgrade gear/augments/compenents get the secret quest and start Ultimate. Still only 1 death on this hero so its tanky and damage is good enough. Not beast mode anymore but good enough.

already finished Act 2 Ultimate - level94 now

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQ1kkvN
its a Beast. The life regen Idea works out.
Funny is: I dont have the reputation to get the level94 faction gear. So its possible that I will find better Item on my way to max reputation and never need faction gear.
From now on. We could easy farm Totems to level 100 and realy good gear, recipes etc…
but I will play the campaign to the end. And then start farming the totem/dungeon stuff.

Level 100 ultimate campaign not finished yet

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrmgR3V
Not much changed. I farmed Devils Crossing reputation in cronley hideout and progress further in the campaign. Next goal is all faction on revered get a faction gear setup and finish the whole campaign

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Here we go. After reaching ultimate and hitting a wall with the caster setup it was time to change gear and respec.

Here is a progression route you could possible go ssf:

-> https://www.grimtools.com/calc/xZyQgwmZ ->
full faction gear,
cheap compenents
the MIs have no affix/prefix in this grimtool link, so the setup in real life should easy be stronger.
Pants are from the secret quest guardian and the weapon is best to farm in the temple of ateph -> https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/rifts/8633

-> possible craft able upgrade if you got the blueprints:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2M18x12
most of the blueprints here can be bought at different vendors -> medal is from a faction vendor! - and the gloves/boots/pants can roll REALY good stuff.

-> you got the AOM Blueprints and enough ugdenbloom? -> https://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVAmDnBV

-> this is what you can easy farm after all in full faction gear and what I farmed: -> full ultos set. -> https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQ166vN
IMO fastest way is to farm totems until you get the helm recipe and enough materials to craft 5 helms and transmute the helms into other set pieces.
For me: I got enough craftings materials before I got the recipe.

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Faction Gear? This was my farm route. That route I use for all new / not good geared Heros. MAYBE some other routes are more efficient, but this route is easy to “learn” and for me its fun to run and fight in the open world and at different places and not to run crucible / shattered realm.

  1. https://gyazo.com/238847ed3e8a21ddd9ebc45cc929428e -> aether crystal and look for the totem
  2. https://gyazo.com/2756e2ab21b49c1769b7570dc92e2e35 -> run straight to the totem, do the totem, next rift!
  3. https://gyazo.com/3849bc74f22e86f3be6a826d76c344fc -> I only look for the totem, if its not there I port to the next rift
  4. https://gyazo.com/0869be397cb14a1e537469870d6ca316 -> Do all the cultist for the seals and do the Totem
  5. https://gyazo.com/92e134626267880bd4431f6ed78b3176 -> I only look for the Totem, if its not there I port to the next zone
  6. https://gyazo.com/3b8dba4ecb09d6578c8c7610d75ac77f Big map this time. I look for all the totems and kill all mobs that can drop ugdenbloom
  7. https://gyazo.com/3c1f90618068a8273116d3e487b6401f -> check for the totem, If you want / I did this run the halls and kill the guardians at the end for rare crafting mats and MIs
  8. https://gyazo.com/fcbf4822712e1f0c2d38c1d8a9ee8f8d -> I only check for the totems
  9. https://gyazo.com/6e0f996e822ddd2b3b3726027ad19c21 -> totem. If the Totem is not there I check in the Halls and kill the guardian. I did not run the tombs with faction gear setup.
  10. https://gyazo.com/d50a015d8741f44d6d07b1d2a5b034fe -> last step! Do the totems in the south and run the step of torment dungeons. Finish! repeat everything.

With all the different totems and zones you will get a lot of crafting mats / recipe / and legendaries. All I do is to kill Hero mobs / Totems / Mobs that can drop good crafting materials (seals, ugdenbloom, aether crystal) or mobs for repuation if needed.

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Nice work, I will follow this diary. Very nice luck to get both dawnshard chest and shoulder :slight_smile:

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Dawnshard Chest/Shoulders are gone. :frowning:
My damage is now a little worse. The skill procs are sooo strong in this game never underestimate this. But now its to late. I sold the stuff and bought the faction gear. But Damage is still good enough.

My plan is to rush to ultimate. Ultimate will be the first Challenge. Most of the Time I end in ultimate with a melee build that can leech. Not a Caster :smiley:

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you can leech with casters too. For this one, get MI shaman belt and get bat + tip of scales.

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With bat you only leech the %weapon dmg part or not? The last time I played a Storm totem build it was not enough.
So try something new :slight_smile:

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No the entire damage that it deals. That is why you need the MI shaman belt that has vitality to lightning damage conversion to make it worth (also works with wendigo and tip of scales devotion).

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AHHHHHHHAAAA. Good to know. Thank you. I learned something new.

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But before you can run Port Valbury and farming belt, having turtle is good. Or just play as vitality caster up to that point.

you can also have pierce to lightning conversion of course, but only exists in the blue storm serpent set which is a later thing to consider.

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Hey, this build looks exactly like a build that i enjoy playing, with totems and stuff dealing damage, do you think you could do a step by step on this? Im new to the game and just got a spellbinder to 90 on ultimate (doing AoM and FG atm) and I wanted to try some build that use the storm totem and wind devil. I’ll probably make this build once i got more rep on my main to buy the mandates and would be nice a more detailed build for beginners like me!

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Did you look at the various GT links in the OP?

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Perhaps this could be an interesting “goal/Budget” version https://www.grimtools.com/calc/JVlma0xZ
or just use dawnshard gloves for defenses (physical res) :slight_smile:

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All the Steps are in the spoiler. My whole journey to level this char to 100 and beat the rogue like dungeons will be there

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Is this for me?
I gear up on the fly. A living process. This should be “my build and journey” without looking for guides by other people :slight_smile:
But thank you. Maybe we will need something like this to do a showcase what is possible with faction gear.
Right now I farm cronley hideout for reputation and the twin falls for exp and the totems. Like I said before, I think i will not need a faction gear setup. Nowadays you can easy grind good stuff with the totems.

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Faction gear set up is always nice because it becomes 1) like minimal version, everybody should be able to get to such point even with bad luck 2) more powerful than just playing with random crap that drops because of + skills 3) can minimize what resistances and stats you need on the “free” slots and make it easier for some one who has not phd to figure out what to get and look for.

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Level 96 grinding reputation and totems: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDm9ozN some pieces are still from elite, some pieces from ultimate. Build is 100% strong enough and fast enoug to snowroll into endgame gear -> https://www.twitch.tv/videos/788642711?t=0h4m26s

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Holy shit, how many hours spent? You have one point too many in wind devil.

ah you are playing grim internal with speed up game. Cheesy :stuck_out_tongue:

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That is true. When I got the reputation up, I will do some dungeon runs with a faction gear setup to do a showcase what you can do without getting lucky drops.

BTW: I came up with something like this now: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1elpBV
full faction gear and MI without affix and prefix - easy farmable
you get: 17183 hp / 2357 OA / 2666 DA / 2032 Armor + 19% phys resis / 1700% lighning damage / max wind devil / +50% crit multiplier
or savagery support and no bwc -> you end with: 2522 OA

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yeah i looked, but i was asking in question of items that i should look for, components that are good to use and etc, like this build that i’m following [Caster] Beginner's Nephrite Spellbinder