Hello everyone,
So i’m new to the forums, i’m still working my way through my first play through of Grim Dawn and wanted some opinions on my current build and where i can improve.
I’m a POE/LE players, but wouldn’t considering myself an expert or even any where close to one. My buddy and I have wanted to pick this game up and play it for a long ass time and went back and forth for probably a few years.
Well a new expansion is a good enough reason to jump on in.
My buddy and I are on our first entire play through of the game. We never beat all of the DLC until we got Ascendant unlocked and then we jumped into that and are now on the more recent DLC and working our way through all of the quests.
Now this character initially started out as a DW Poison generic rogue type. figured Necro would synergize… Reaper, But then I had a dope ass weapon drop and decided if i was going to be a Reaper, the least i could do is be a proper one and stuck with a 2h build, and kept the poison/cold theme.
Grim Tools: Reaper, Level 100 (GD 1.3.1.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Now the idea is to Spam Shadow Strike and Bone Harvest with some Amarastas thrown in. I think adding an additional charge might push it to where there is literally no delay and almost all of my attacks could be shadow strike, i’ll be testing that shortly once i get the pieces i need for the test.
i’m not 100% familiar what the benchmarks for builds are in this game, but let me know and i’ll work towards trying them.
just a note, you’ve got conflicting conversions (likely doesn’t result in a decent split even if you’re aiming for DD)
You’re splitting gear slots on single focus, which means you don’t get a high Double Dmg boost if DD was the intention.
Charges don’t change cooldown or reset cooldown so doesn’t really give you direct spam, only temporary spam, (and then you need to roll through the charge CD individually)
Soul harvest is crap ton of dmg, and if you’re taking BH for dmg anyway, it’s better to take. Depending on your feel it’s possible that weaving ABB+BH+SS is going to feel a bit clunky, but, it’s probably better either way to max Lethal Assault instead as it will boost all your attacks similar like Soul Harvest, also even if it reduces points in ABB itself.
OA will probably want to find a way to get increased, smoll bump to HP for endgame comfort. Sustain/healing possibly could feel bouncy depending on your SS resets.
whatever you like/enjoy, you don’t have to follow others’ clear criteria if it doesn’t fit your desire.
Not exactly sure about the Double Damage thing, i need to read the link you provided (thank you btw) to learn more. i was just using what i either could Craft or had drop, this is the result.
What i meant about charges is with SS with 2 chargest by the time you’re done using it twice, bone harvest and ABB they’re damn near off cooldown and ready to go again, i figure if i add an additional charge i could potentially only use SS and BH and potentially get rid of ABB entirely.
As for OA, i’m not sure where to begin to start adding it, but my sustain is pretty decent, i’m either alive or 1 shot and aslong as i have something to attack i’m usually fine.
I was only curious about what folks use to benchmark a build because i really am enjoying this and i’m just wondering how it stacks up at the end of the day.
More advice/tips are appreciated and thanks again!
hmm, not really sure what you mean about charges being off cooldown, again they don’t “stack” cooldown like that, they don’t run individually but consecutively.
So the line of attack is something like
SS -SS (first ss now has about 1 sec cd after second SS)
ABB, (first SS has 0.7sec cd)
Bone Harvest (first ss has 0.4 cd)
wait 0.4 sec, - SS; cd starts over from 1.3 (2nd charge still not built up because it never got rolled over from 1st SS being used again)
^ABB still on 0.7 sec cd - boneharvest still on 2sec cd
This then leads to a fair bit of downtime in your skill attacks combined - but you might not notice this if you have SS on LMB (it will do auto attacks in between)
A third charge wont really “disrupt” your flow potential/go unused as such, because of the way charge CDs work/you’re getting initial burst dmg, not actually getting to spend the +2-3 subsequent charges again in combat, until the fight is over and they have fully recovered. (1.3sec+1.3sec+1.3sec cd for 3.9 sec to get the 3rd charge back for triple SS spam unload)
What you might be noticing at times in terms of SS “spam” is rng resets once in a while from Zakull, but, it doesn’t recharge the 2nd and potential 3rd charge you have, so those still only add to your initial/burst at start of fight.
Regular baseline endgame approach just seem to be peak content
5x Ashes Altar/3ashes+2asters Altar Ascendant for world farm potential, SR 36 (personally not a fan of this metric being used by some 
), Crucible wave 200 naked +extra spawn. - not entirely sure where community stand on Celestials yet if we’re just doing “regular” or dabbling in Altar there too “in general”/as standard content
Personally i think Mog 2.0 is tough even without Altar, so i legit don’t demand an Ascendant clear for him on every char i make