The skills nodes directly attached to the skill will factor in before the conversion. Everything else will factor in after.
I highly doubt the “full spirit investment” part (i.e. 90 points into spirit ?!!). Can you pls provide the link to that ? I am asking because I did that around 3 weeks ago and sure as hell was not full spirit investment…
Still can’t decide on a second class for AAR. Putting all those points into demo just for some CC feels bad. Putting all those points into occultist just for devotion procs and elemental debuff feels bad.
Take this if you really must go AAR (though I encourage you not to do it): https://grimcalc.com/build/3xjdcYH
This is the build with which I soloed Gladiator…15 s Mad Queen/ Fabius, bla bla bla. If you have the gear you will reach 100k+ dps at 3000 OA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkRuMiQpUN4
It’s not AAR. He is probably refering to ABCbarbecue’s Devastation/Doom Bolt build with full Spirit.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45838&page=2
On topic: DW Blademaster, DW witchunter (This combo is good at everything), DW Spellbreaker, Firestrike DW Saboteur, Pierce/Bleed DW Trickster
Its not just about kiting, I incorporated your advice’s into my WH build and its tanky as hell. Ofc you could make that build to be a glass, you can make any build to be a glass, but that would be gimping in purpose imho.
A bit of topic, Im making 50+ cunning blademaster, dual wielding pierce dmg, but its cadence and will have around 12 k hp and I see one upcoming problem: low DA. Is there some way to counter it with skill setup or its just gear dependent?
I really dont get this topic, any class combo can be a Glass Cannon. Just depends on how you build the character. Ignore defense and stack nothing but offense and boom you have a glass cannon. Just pick a skill or skills you like and go from there. Try to avoid the defensive skills and Devotions. Don’t stack tons of Health on gear and you are good to go.
What DO you recommend then, if not AAR? I want to play something that actually has a significant reward for being skilled at ARPGs
It’s not AAR. He is probably refering to ABCbarbecue’s Devastation/Doom Bolt build with full Spirit.
Oh, that makes a lot more sense. Cooldown burstiness.
Being skilled at ARPGs usually means you understand the system, the items and you know by heart what resistances and stats to prioritize and in which specific areas. You might say that doing Gladiator solo with an AAR build requires some skill… but is not like you are playing Super Meat Boy or Ninja Gaiden. It’s still a massive gear/devotion/stat check wall. As such, if you follow blindly my build (items, stats, devotions, etc.) it will still be my achievement in the end, not yours, unfortunately !
If you want to feel that you are skilled at ARPGs you better do a Gladiator solo Druid build that trashes Fabius in 15 seconds or less. To my best knowledge, no one ever produced a tier 1 Druid.
Now, don’t get me wrong, man… playing an AAR build to the fullest does require some skill. However, that skill has to do more with you memorizing some patterns and timing your abilities. For example, if you try to do what I do in that retarded “facetank” video vs. the Mad Queen you will die 9/10 times.
Challenge Accepted! 
PS: Crucible Fabius in 15s or vanilla Fabius in 15s? I see some builds today boasting Gladiator Crucible as the ultimate proof that thir build works and don’t bother with vanilla videos anymore when in reality it would have to run screaming from Vanilla Shar’zul or Fabius
Vanilla OFC ! I never post videos of trashing nemesis in the Crucible. Why ?! Because they have much, much lower stats there, especially in the HP department.
PS: I am looking forward to your Fabius-trashing Uber OP Mega Druid ! I am not even joking. I never actually tried to build one…my struggle/challenge was with AAR in 1.0.0.6.
Challenge accepted
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-XdOalc
Primordial
Imp 5/5 AAR
Eldritch
Scholar’s Light 3/3
Hawk 3/3
Wraith 4/4
Widow 6/6 Vines
Chaos
Jackal 3/3
Kracken 3/5
4/4 Raven
5/5 Oklaine’s Lantern
5/5 Vulture
7/7 Ulzuin’s Torch AAR
Imp Aetherfire to Calidor’s tempest for enemies that resist knockback
-3 crossroads
3/6 Hydra
Edit
maybe more Heart of the Wild, less Oakskin, depending on my gear.
^ Shall I point your mistakes there or let you build that character and hit a giant brick wall in Ultimate ?
-
Too many points invested in IEE and not enough into Elemental Balance - i.e. a skill that greatly amplifies your damage output (especially on something that ticks 5 times /second).
-
Kraken + Hydra are almost mutually exclusive unless you are using a rifle. If you would use a rifle, however, you couldn’t use AAR…or…devastation. So, pls explain to me what is Oklaine’s Lantern for then ?!
-
Even if you convert all the residual physical damage of Meteor Shower into elemental by using IEE + Iskandra’s Focusing Prism, you debuff 0 elemental (except a minor -15% lightning). No Raging Tempest + No Elemental Storm + No Manticore (pick one) = massive mistake. OFC, you could argue that you will be using Black Star, but that would be a suboptimal choice given the fact that you do not benefit from the +skills, nor do you deal any chaos damage.
-
Fabric of Reality should be at 1 (at most). You have no weapon damage component, you will be leeching s**t with it.
-
Your HP is enormously low (no Targo, no Behemoth).
-
You have no fail-safe mechanism and no HP/regen proc. You will probably die to an IM crit.
-
Maiven’s Sphere and Conversion have arbitrary points invested into them. You either put the sphere at 1, at 7 or max it. Arcane Will should not have more than 1 point into it.
-
You have no totem, no Dryad, no Behemoth, no Chariot. How exactly would you heal ?!
-
10 points into Oak Skin instead of Heart of the Wild = WOW ! So not only do you have low hp and no heal, but you want to die faster to DoTs…
-
Too many points into Entangling Vines and Mogdrogen’s Pact. What exactly do you want to do with that enormous amount of energy regeneration…power all Cairn ?
Oh my goodness. 
Changed some things around, and added gear to it. How does it look so far?
http://grimcalc.com/build/1006-5hDICc
Devotion
Primordial
Imp Totem
Eldritch
Hawk
Widow Vines
Scholar’s Light
Oklaine’s Lantern
Solemn Watcher
Dryad IIE
3/6 Targo
Lion
5/6 Scales Reckless power
Harpy
Crown AAR
-Crossroads
3/3 Lizard
Gear
Wrath of the Ascendant
Aldanar’s Vanity
Outcast’s Secret
Clairvoyant Robe
Clairvoyant mantle
Aetherreach
Wraithborne Legwraps
Wraithwalkers
Phantom-Thread Girdle
Iskandra’s Focusing Prism
Empowered Aetherlord’s Signets
Iskandra’s Balance
It;s not that the build won’t work. It’s that it won’t be at least close to Tier 1 build. I m working on it currently. The big challenge with Druid build is getting good debuffs.
So ~25 secs for vanilla Fabius with druid is not ok, damn it 
I was building elementalist and druid in same time few months ago, elementalist turned to be quite powerful mele char while druid developed into caster very similar to sorcerer but less powerful so i quit it. There wasn’t much equipment to support shaman/arcanist build except for torzan set, idk how would work with some of new sets.
Edit: Only thing i really liked about druid was the fact that he was pretty unlikable, with reged devotions and totem coupled with judis signets.
Personally I think ~20 seconds with or without his blade barrier time, is pretty good.
Idk, it was like a bit weaker sorcerer but I was struggling with low OA, run speed,… Best result I got was with prm build druid, using 4 pc of iskandra, tome of arcane wastes and warpfire but even that wasn’t satisfying. You can try it with clairvoyant full set and peerless eye of Beronath, you become somewhat more offensive but squishier. Also i couldnt find any synergy so at the end only thing I was using from shaman tree was mogdrogen line and wendigo totem.
I can post my build if you want, maybe it will help you.