⭐ Top 20 Softcore builds in Grim Dawn (An Opinion)

Ouch indeed :rofl:

Btw you mentioned that some RF retal warlord could be included. I’m the only one who played it and tried to include it in the list (before I stopped) and I scored it perfect tens in all the tankiness measures (you kill ravager without pharma while literally closing your eyes) but the low damage and especially aoe dragged it down. Same with non retal versions of melee RF warlord/shieldbreaker

I agree with you. :grinning:

I have actually played many versions including the y838849864 build linked below.
It may be a little less fast, but I think it is an extremely high overall performance build in SR.

https://space.bilibili.com/402776676?spm_id_from=333.788.b_765f7570696e666f.1

I also think the bleeding trickster is one of the highest performing builds in SR.

The game version is a little bit old, bleeding trickster of the 姓柳名雨字云烟 SR75-80 19 min 42 sec.

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We all are, don’t worry. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I wouldn’t say it can solo SR205 with 50% success but nvm. Can you link sth, gt or some vids?

I’m interested because Mageslayer MH is one of my favorite builds in the game, and I sank many hours into it. I made some tweaks and runs with different setups hoping to submit it for this list but it’s just not on par with the top builds within the chosen criteria. With good rng, it can clear ridiculously high SR in some setups. In dmg setups, it’s somewhat competitive in Crucible and can still perform in SR 75 with decent consistency. You can also easily balance it for all-round performance. But that performance is not up to par. And the rng of enemies and muts always lowers consistency. Plus OFF is useless vs. celestials. And build has serious holes that have to be fixed with affixes (at least in my experience).

Great build concept, one of the most fun in the game imo. But I can’t argue it deserves a place on the list.

Surprisignly for me, Grey’s FoI paladin made it to honorable mentions. I would love to get some comparison between the MH and paladin.

Aeon can be used for minor kiting kills of every superboss with failsafe based gameplay. You still have to kite because in those small windows of failsafe downtime you instantly die. The build i linked facetanks Ravager but sacrifices made for it are too big.

Fan of his instagram. His builds - not so much.

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Video: Grim Dawn. Олехра+Игнаффар VS 200 Шард(максимальный скейл боссов) Архимаг Александр. - YouTube
GT link: Mage Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

As long as the bosses on stage can all be frozen (only few bosses with over 150% freeze resist cannot be frozen forever), it’s not hard to pass the boss room.

And the first 3 rooms? Pull monsters carefully and do the same thing as if in the boss room. No big deal. Just take longer time.

Thanks for your excellent work. @AlexGoldFish_322

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I used sth like this for deep SR Mage Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator which seems tankier with better OFF, and could not imagine myself ever going that far. I guess it’s patience. But this is worth noting that builds capable of that even if not consistently - and not necessarily bad in other areas except celestials - should be worth at least an honarable mention imo.

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why tho? (yes deliberately being a contrarian here :sweat_smile:)
if they are still slower, or much slower farming, than other builds, what does their deep SR meaning have? - since this is not a deep sr list, but an efficiency list of sorts.
if “all” other builds does SR 75-76 in 8minutes, but deep SR magehunter does it in 10mins, even if it’s safe farming 75, and even if it can do SR 130-150 or even 200, what does that matter, if it’s still 25% worse in comparison to regular content and efficiency, which this list addresses ? (numbers pulled out of thin air/made up for argument sake)
why does deep sr matter remotely for honorable mentions, here, if it confers no bonus attributes/qualities to the build/performance, for the specific metrics used here in this performance thread?

Honorable mentions are the builds that received any score from anyone, not necessarily “the next top 15 builds”. If we were making the lists with C-tiers as well, we would have a bigger range of “honorable mentions” and some of them would definitely have scores higher than some of the lower scored honorable mentions. There are very strong builds that didn’t make the list, Mageslayer Breaker was one of them. I will list them some other time.

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I’d love to see that, personally.
I guess you have ratings for them as well ? Just so we have a point of comparison.

Last but not least, it would be interesting to know if some of those builds didn’t quite make the list, but were particularly good in one specific area, like SR, crucible speed or ease of play, for example.

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There were few builds, which didn’t score any points but are pretty good. I kinda regret not giving Ultos Archon any points, cause the build isn’t even in honorable mentions and it’s really cool build to play!

About balance, I am disappointing at the performance of 5 pieces sets boosting single class with +2 skills.

Ultos is perhaps the best of the bunch but take look at the others. Markovian Warlord is inferior to custom Blitz. Virtue works better with MI shield and still doesn’t make the cut. Few Runebinders were tested and they weren’t top tier. Deathmarked fall of favor. Ulzuin is beyond bad, worse than the carrot set! Actually Demo spells are underwhelming, set is focused on Canister (overnerfed) and Grenado. Don’t want to comment even Stun Jacks.

About builds being tested and not making the cut, despite having quality in some of areas. I have few on top of my mind. Lee’s Invoker PRM Mage Hunter isn’t on the list, same as my Lightning AAR Mage Hunter. Cold DW Sabo is decent build for DW melee (how the mighty archetype has fallen) but doesn’t made the cut. Also Banana’s Stronghold Purifier, Afanasenkov’s Veilkeeper, Druid, DW pierce Cadence BM, S&B Bleeding Trickster (probably Lee’s), Grey’s Wildblood Archon was quite insane. Then there are multiple physical builds like Targo WL or physical shield RF and few ranged builds. Goredrinker should still be a good option any player.

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No pet builds in top 20… It is time to nerf non-pet builds

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do we really need to bring up this discussion for the 20th time?..

I would rather like to see them buffed instead of nerfing all the other builds tbh. :eyes:

But as afan just said, scroll up a bit… pet’s have always been discussed a ton.

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Well, I guess nobody would have something against a thread called “Top 10 Softcore pet builds in Grim Dawn (An Opinion)” …

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An even better thread than just “best pet builds” would be one with an objectively interesting broader focus that happens to be one of pet build’s strong suits : ease of play

Let’s face it: not everyone has good piloting skills, and not everyone will get good results from all the builds in this thread.

A thread where builds are evaluated by how EASY they are to take through SR75-76 without dying, regardless of time, would probably see a lot of pet builds shine.

I know this is a metric that has been evaluated here as well, but it wasn’t the main focus, and I know there are people who would be interested in that.

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I tried to be ironic. Pet builds get lots of nerfs. I dont want any build to be nerfed. Everyone plays the way they want.

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no,
did you not see the list?
you’re now only allowed to play one of these 20 builds in Grim Dawn, all other builds are henceforth banned
:grin:

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Most of builds are as easy to pilot as you want to make them. It’s all about passive defence layers and stat cushion.

Same applies to pet builds: you can tune them for dmg, you can tune them for sustain. But even if a pet build is absolutely tuned into defence as to let you stay away from the fight and “do nothing” - more often than not you still have a full bar of skills to press for your pets.

That raises the question: is that really easier to play than a build which needs holding a single button and pointing it to the enemy? If you look past a pet peeve of being touched by enemies, i don’t really see where this ease objectively comes from. It’s true that the closest to afk you can get is with a pet build. But those “almost afk” renditions have no dmg whatsoever and would only make their separate category of builds detached from any other “tops”.

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Some links to videos and posts in the descriptions are added.

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