The Acid House - Acid based DW Witch Hunter (Venomblade Set)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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The Acid House

DISCLAIMER: This character is meant for Main Campaign (rogue like dungeons) use only. I have plenty other characters to farm Crucible with and tbh I’ve gotten bored of doing Crucible.

Originally the idea for this character was born when I found a well-rolled Rift Scourge Slicer. Lower level variants of that weapon helped me through the leveling process.

After I reached level 100 I realized that the items I chose didn’t really support SS all that much (besides the Slicer) so I decided to go full Venomblade set in order to buff Ring of Steel (which is an excellent leveling skill btw) and because I haven’t yet seen a build that uses the complete set. So my focus shifted from Shadow Strike towards Ring of Steel / Execution

The setup in my Grimtools link is still what I aim for (sadly, even after burning over 100 Ugdenbloom I still haven’t gotten the one with „Execution“ modifier yet)

So far, it feels “tanky” enough (I’m currently in Barrowholm (Ultimate) in a 2-player game with a buddy) and can deal good damage (sometimes it bursts, sometimes it doesn’t)

I’m actually quite happy with the way it turned out, it being my first real build that I planned from beginning to end.

That being said, I drew plenty inspiration from the 100s of great builds in this forum, I can’t mention them all but somehow the builds of Chthon, Superfluff, JoV and jajaja always stuck in my mind. (probably in part because I have been lurking in these forums' shadows for like 2,5 years now)

GrimTools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jOv6mV

Setup 2: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2Gpk0LV

Current (final?) Setup: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYRE7r2

If you have any suggestions, find mistakes (yeah, I went over the top on quite some resists there and then Aether isn’t completely capped)… as I said, it’s still a work in progress so I’m happy to get help, inspiration and constructive criticism.

PS What really bothers me is the fact that there’s no melee Acid Autoattack replacer, so I went with Beronath.

PPS At the time I decided to make this build and at some point post it on the forums to get it utterly destroyed by you lovely people there wasn’t any Acid WH build anywhere to be seen (at least no current one), so, of course, while I’m waiting to get a confirmation e-mail for my registration, one pops up. Be nice to me :wink:

UPDATED with actual clickable links and my current setup.

UPDATE 2: current final setup with changed rings and finally the correct amulet (cost me 140 ugdenbloom) - the build feels much more consistent in its damage now, but it’s still kind of squishy

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And a thank you to medea for helping me figure out the problem why I didn’t get a confirmation e-mail.
Well, not only helping me, but telling me exactly what was wrong :smiley:

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Hey there! Gratz for posting your first build!
The builds itself needs a few tweaks though. First of all, your DA is very low and allows strong mobs to crit you. Further more, your skill set could be improved, since you’ve invested too much skill points in some less useful skills, but completely ignored the potential of stronger ones. I ve changed your build a bit, moved around some skills, components and attribute points, think it looks a bit better:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqaQ1AZ

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Edited GT link: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YNnqvQwZ

Hey man,

Gratz on your first build, and welcome to the forums! :slight_smile:

Allow me to walk you through the logic of the changes I’ve made…

  1. Fantastic use of shard of beronath. I myself have been toying around with the idea of a vileblade WH, but never thought of using that component. It must certainly be a massive damage boost. With that in mind, your main form of DPS is going to be coming from attack speed. As such, ignoring solael’s witchfire is a HUGE no-no. In addition, judging by the amount of love you’ve put into ABB, and RoS, I’m guessing you use these skills as often as you can. Again, as ABB and RoS cannot hope to compare with the WPS line, and will interfere with attack speed, they should only be used to proc the very amazing buffs/debuffs they have to offer.

  2. Without going into the math, shadow dance is one of the best defensive skills in the game. As x1x1x1x2 (IIRC that is) pointed out, double dipping into both dodge and DA boosts your EHP substantially. Maxing it is ALWAYS a good idea.

  3. You don’t need that many points into CoF! You’re melee (and have SS to boot!)so the slow is kinda useless. You also don’t deal physical, bleed, or much elemental damage so to speak. You’re wasting valuable skill points in an already point hungry build.

  4. Whirling death is a dps drop. And from ABB, RoS, and shears, you have enough AoE to take care of trash mobs.

  5. Blade spirit is a must for manticore. Each spirit has it’s own independent chance of proccing it. So stacking 4, 5 spirits on a single enemy does quite a bit of damage.

  6. My biggest issue with the build - Shadow strike didn’t get the love it deserves! The iconic skill of the NB class which is one of THE BEST single target skills in the game, how can you not afford to max it? :stuck_out_tongue:

FYI, the flat poison damage in NJE is multiplied by the %WD from SS, and DoTs can crit as well! This allows you to CHUNK nems with poison ticks even while kiting.

  1. You also can’t afford not to hardcap Blood of Dreeg. Flat acid damage and OA - yes-fuckin’-puhlease.

  2. Devotion wise, you ignored way too many DA nodes. Also, Scorpion > Eye of Dreeg in my opinion due to the DA shred.

  3. Items - you forgot your prefix on your self-found (wink wink) kuba pants of kings. So I added in a stalwart prefix to bolster you abysmal DA. I’m surprised you can run ultimate with your original 2.4k DA. You must get one shotted incredibly often. With that in mind, I also changed the augments and components to better your DA value.

  4. Rings…I personally hate the judicator rings. I don’t like on-death procs. So I would use maybe a viloth ring, or a vine ring in place of them personally. I chose to leave them out as having 3 MI’s on a build makes it near impossible to replicate, let alone 5.

P.S I believe undying oath may be a better amulet option.

P.P.S Feel free to email me with any questions you may have! I may not be the most knowledgeable theorycrafter in the forums (far from it really), but I’m always willing to help. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi there, congrats on the first build.

I had leveled the same WH with almost the same skills/devotions but I dropped it almost as soon as I reached 94lvl and tried the full set. The damage output is meh (I got ~150k crits from RoS but not too often to make it worth).

Maybe I’ll return to this if they either buff the weapons or the skills to use both hands.

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Thanks for your input, I can see many changes that I can follow and that I will try out, I didn’t really think about the points in Whirling Death for example.

Both you and sir spanksalot commented about the DA, playing the character all the way to the Outskirts now, I can’t really say I have survivability problems. But - and that’s a big but, I’m almost permanently playing with a buddy so maybe I just get lucky. With timed and permanent buffs (no procs) I have 2,4k DA and so far I only died four times.

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Actually I didn’t really think of that. I only use ABB to proc LA to be honest. So I can probably do without many of the ABB skillpoints.

  1. Without going into the math, shadow dance is one of the best defensive skills in the game. As x1x1x1x2 (IIRC that is) pointed out, double dipping into both dodge and DA boosts your EHP substantially. Maxing it is ALWAYS a good idea.

Again, thanks, I’m not really versed in defensive mechanics :smiley:

  1. You don’t need that many points into CoF! You’re melee (and have SS to boot!)so the slow is kinda useless. You also don’t deal physical, bleed, or much elemental damage so to speak. You’re wasting valuable skill points in an already point hungry build.

That one actually came to mind! I guess I was just lazy :stuck_out_tongue:

  1. Whirling death is a dps drop. And from ABB, RoS, and shears, you have enough AoE to take care of trash mobs.

And it’s gone! Thanks :slight_smile:

  1. Blade spirit is a must for manticore. Each spirit has it’s own independent chance of proccing it. So stacking 4, 5 spirits on a single enemy does quite a bit of damage.

Will give it a try, though won’t I kind of lose damage on Blade Spirit as it’s not converted to Acid?

  1. My biggest issue with the build - Shadow strike didn’t get the love it deserves! The iconic skill of the NB class which is one of THE BEST single target skills in the game, how can you not afford to max it? :stuck_out_tongue:

Because I simply don’t want to. As I said in the original post, the build began by trying to push SS damage as far as possible with Acid and by using a Rift Scourge Slicer but I wasn’t really impressed by the damage so I’m probably going to take as many points from SS as possible, using it mainly as mobility skill.

  1. You also can’t afford not to hardcap Blood of Dreeg. Flat acid damage and OA - yes-fuckin’-puhlease.

Another tip that I can easily get on board with :slight_smile:

  1. Items - you forgot your prefix on your self-found (wink wink) kuba pants of kings. So I added in a stalwart prefix to bolster you abysmal DA. I’m surprised you can run ultimate with your original 2.4k DA. You must get one shotted incredibly often. With that in mind, I also changed the augments and components to better your DA value.

Here I have a little problem. Either you’re hinting that I cheated - which I haven’t done in any games for the last 15 years - or I don’t know what. I use GT to find things that would fit in well. If I don’t have them, they’re something to farm for. As I also mentioned in the original post, I don’t have the necklace yet. So, of course, the GT link is what it can or should look like. My character currently uses Runecarved… of Arcane Winds (not ideal but it fixes some of my resists). With MIs I usually go with what I have lying around and adjust the others so it works.
And I haven’t gotten 1-shot. Ever. Highest damage this character has taken so far is 5-6k and he has died four times.

  1. Rings…I personally hate the judicator rings. I don’t like on-death procs. So I would use maybe a viloth ring, or a vine ring in place of them personally. I chose to leave them out as having 3 MI’s on a build makes it near impossible to replicate, let alone 5.

We’re on the same page here. I don’t really like them either but I had a pair lying around and didn’t really find a good alternative offering OA/DA enough

P.S I believe undying oath may be a better amulet option.

The Conduit is actually what I hope to make or break the build by converting Execution to Acid… when (if) I finally get one, I’m going to report immediately :stuck_out_tongue:

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Thanks :slight_smile:

Actually it has been really fun to level and even after reaching 94/100 I’m pretty happy with it. RoS is great for clearing trash. My highest crit so far is in the 220k range but I can’t tell for sure if that’s RoS or something else :wink:

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220k was probably an SS crit. RoS shouldn’t have such numbers due to using one hand only.
It’s definitely decent in campaign, but it has the slowest boss killspeed of all my lvl94+ toons, which include mostly npn-optimized or unpopular builds.
I just really think this set needs a buff.

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I agree :smiley:

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Hey mate.

  1. Pierce and cold conversion occurs globally, so 25% (or was it 30?) of BS’ pierce and cold damage will be converted to acid. While it is not huge, what is awesome is manticore. With a 0.5s cooldown, you want to proc that bad boy as often as you can, and BS does that for you. For 1 measly skill point, it’s definitely worth it.

  2. I must’ve missed what you said about SS! Your build, your rules. Feel free to reallocate those skill points elsewhere! May I recommend hardcapping shears, and perhaps investing more points into solael’s then?

  3. I’m not implying you’re cheating at all! I apologize if i did. What I personally do is use GDstash to create a test lvl 100 toon with all the needed green items to see how it functions. If I’m pleased with the result, I then delete the toon to start a legit one from scratch.

In other words, I was implying that you were being efficient in your testing. I get how some people may be unwilling to admit to using GDstash for testing purposes as that may be the focus of their post, and not the crafted toon itself, hence my decision to use use the term ‘self-found.’ :stuck_out_tongue:

  1. I’m an idiot. Undying oath is a MEDAL. Not an amulet: https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8955
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While this set may require a buff (I honestly don’t know, never used it) I think the real problem is with ring of steel itself.

For example, I’m trying out a korba trickster that went all out to get ring of steel maxed out. With the set and grasp of unchained might, level 26 skill, it has 375% weapon damage and built in flat resist shred. That sounds awesome, but in practice it’s just mediocre. Random savagery hits deal more damage, and that skill is not nearly maxed out.

Ring of steel needs something to be competitive, be it damage from both hands or something else. But something, as it is I can’t make it work well even with all the toys in the game.

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Building dw sets around non-dw skills is very confusing.
Korba seems to have the same issue with damage type - it’s %WD is delusional because only fraction of weapon damage has effective damage type (cold for Korba and Acid for Venomblade). 100% WD will have ~25-50 flat acid/cold damage from weapon depending on component and amulet. So 375% WD will give you like 150 flat damage if you use set weapon, or around 550 flat damage if you use non-set weapon with full acid/cold damage. That does not include flat bonuses from other sources, so they will smoothen the difference, but still I guess that roughly explains why there’s no builds with full Venomblade/Korba sets around.

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I think RoS is fine the way it is. Use a 2H if you want to make the most out of it.

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Hey,

One of the problems with the venom set is that it has low AS. It’s also mostly a flat dmg build rather than DoT (venomlash etc)

So what i recommend is that you change venomgrip gloves with iceskorn. You will gain up to 10% more AS, % crit dmg. More spare points from AL (your calc has 2 LA points overcapped beyond 22 even with venomgrip that yiu can recuperate)

Even before AoM iceskorn were THE gloves to wear. Venomgrip are an odd mix of things

Devotions: Bind Murmur to nidalla outbreak. The CD it has + shotgun and pass through means instant proc on any mob or boss. Bind acid spray to SS cause with DW and nightfall it actually hits 4x, basically 100% proc chance vs single target or mobs.

Also bind Guardian gaze to CoF. way better vs mobs

Take 2 pt from revenant and put in jackal for more AS

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Wow, some nice tips. So is this SS tip universal for other skills that use both weapons? Each weapon will be a separate attack with separate devo proc chance?

Regarding aspd - my personal opinion is aspd is irrelevant for how I played my acid wh. I was basically playing piano of ss-abb-ros-outbreak and I noticed I didn’t actually autoattack that often. Hence I don’t use beronath, and have conduit with +pierce dmg and range to RoS instead of execution one. In this case for me viperfangs are good, as I’m using no MIs and they give crazy OA along with useful dmg bonuses.

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Yes, like blitz even with crits.

Let’s say you have 25% chance to crit and have blind fury bound to blitz. You can crit with either shield or main hand, and taht will proc it and double your chances basically.

Just don’t bind devos to wps much cause that’s not very effective in general

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SS is not worth maxing in this build. The only useful gain from it is the massive weapon damage bonus for multiplying psn dmg bonuses, but Execution already does that almost as well. Switching points from SS to Merciless Repertoire will give you a boost in psn ticks after SS.

Also, between SS, main attack, CoF, RoS and ABB, adding Blade Spirit both taxes your mana (another reason not to max SS, the mana cost becomes huge) and adds another button for you to press on each mob (even if you are an octopus, it uses cast speed so interrupts your char’s attacks for too long. AQC procs Manti often enough to keep everything shredded and Scorp goes on ABB. Bat should go on the main attack, you get reasonable vita and pierce bonuses anyway and the lifesteal at 0.8 sec recharge is too good.

Acid WPS builds need to stack lifesteal since there is no way to get decent DA or absorption.

Agree on Scorpion being the best psn-based proc, the rest are trash.

As others stated, 2x Venomlash is better than the full set, the set just doesn’t know what it wants to do. Physical dmg weapons would be fine enough for a psn stacking build, but then there is no point in going DW instead of sword&board. On the other hand, with the on-attack melee procs, it’s supposedly designed for WPS builds, but it doesnt give enough attack speed and it’s impossible to get 100% physical->acid with it, so daggers would give more flat damage. Not to mention a big part of the damage is wasted on piercing for some reason.

Imo, Untouchable or Aegis shield with Menhir’s + transmuted DEE + NJE for dot stacking, 2x Venomlash with Scorpion + Manticore + Bat + ABB + WPS for acid dps.

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Well actually I’m very inefficient in that I thought what I wanted to do and started a new character, just playing along and changing things whenever I felt they didn’t work out well :smiley:

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Thanks for the tips, so much to do, so much to try out and still farm for items :smiley:

But basically what you guys are doing is excactly what I’m looking for. Pointing out things where the build could be more effective (I do have a few hundred hours of GD under my belt but I’m still a noob when it comes to understanding the underlying mechanics completely), thanks for that to all of you :slight_smile: