Theorycrafting: 2H Ranged Discord Battlemage

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Had an idea for a Discord gunner…basically, just a Cadence sniper that uses Elemental damage instead of Physical (and the other cunning damage types):

http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-q3S7rT

Has anyone tried this? If so how well does it function?

Not even going to begin to attempt to work out all of the conversion…

2

No, but I kinda want to. This looks interesting and I always liked Battlemages (fight me irl if you don’t).

What kind of gear are you planning around?

3

Tried it with a melee build, it doesn’t work.

Things that look nice in theory:

  • 100% conversion, awesome
  • A lot of flat damage from Oleron Rage, awesome
  • 500% multiplier on cadence, awesome

Things that it really is:

  • Severe lack of attack speed makes cadence a pain to use. Unless you get 2x Godly-rolled Cronley’s Signet of Voracity/Alacrity or something, it just doesn’t work
  • Severe lack of overall RR. Elemental storm alone isn’t enough. There are gears that help elemental RR, but I don’t remember anything for 2h build. And even then, you still need those gears
4

I haven’t worked that out yet! Definitely would use fast (elemental if possible) 2H rifles and crossbows (Boltspitter, Silverbolt, Hellborne, stuff like that). I’d probably focus on attack speed and greens with elemental projectile procs (like Fireball and Ice Spike).

For devotions…I’d likely rush Blind Sage (plenty of offensive green and purple constellations leading up to it), then go for Kraken and some defensive constellations. I’d pick up Rhowan’s Crown for the skill, and attach it to one of the WPS skills. Not sure if I’d have enough points to attach another elemental devotion proc onto the other Soldier WPS, but that would be ideal.

Because OFF reduces Fire Resist, I’d likely end up focusing on Fire…

5

Will Of Fate might help. The Empowered one, obviously. It pierces just like VoS does, so it should be pretty sick. I’ll slap together a Grimtools and see what can be done.

EDIT: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZe7Gd28 Eh… Maybe passable? Probably needs better Devotions, I just slapped that together. Thankfully the Cadence DPS should be much higher than the Weapon Attack DPS it’s showing. Definitely a little lacking on attack speed, but WoF should keep that from harming your AOE too much. Overall, respectable-looking, even without components and augments. Inquisitor might change this up some though, might be better to go Discord Cadence with that.