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

Any other bleed builds were tested besides #8 that didn’t make honorable mention but were still really good ?

Not a lot of bleeding builds close to top20, but a lot of builds that you can call viable.

Closest pure bleed to top20 was probably lee’s Trickster with BS shield. From the hybrids, Goredrinker Tactician scored well. And then about 8-10 builds a little behind.

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Which is appropriate placing because dots are for cowards

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Them be fighting words!

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So how does the harbinger conjurer compares to har’zin witchblade? Seems like witchblade would have more rr and be bit more sturdy.

Is the shoulder WPS that much better than ZT on steroids?

Or is it the savagery being much better than ToC ?

Any more chaos build that were relatively close to the list?

Thanks for the great list ! Much appreciated :+1:

Hard to tell, that Conjurer does not even use Upheaval :man_shrugging:. What gives it strength?..

Anyway, if someone wants to compare both builds, here is my Harzin Witchblade _Doomforger.zip. It is better to see with your own eyes than theorize :slightly_smiling_face:.

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This Cabalist is a work of art :two_hearts:

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Rah’binger Witch Hunter was my fav build for a long time. It didn’t hold up to the challenge, as well as Witchblade.

Harbinger set was tested for all classes - Pyro, Witchblade, Sentinel. Conjurer was the best. Fully converted Savagery for 2H is infinitely stronger than any other AAs.

Closest to top20 were the builds that Abuser linked. At first i tried Deceiver Doom Bolt but it also didn’t hold up. The DW gunner is one of the strongest builds that didn’t make the list. It has higher performance than a lot of the builds in the list. Just not as tanky as one would hope.

Also from chaos, Darkblaze Pyro, EoR Sentinel and RA Deceiver scored well.

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Is there any GT link to those Darkblaze Pyro and RA Deceiver builds ? Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=darkblaze+pyromancer&sp=CAI%3D

Reaping Arc Visuals - #12 by tqFan

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Thank you good sir

Not sure where else to ask this, hoping someone here has some advice. I’m finally running end game builds and trying to defeat the Celestial bosses. I’m using the vitality Demonslayer Reaper build and trying to defeat Ravager on Ultimate.

It’s not going well, even after using multiple resist/jelly potions and ugden potions. I’ve tried facetanking and kiting. I don’t think I’ve even got him to 50% health yet. He eventually 2 shots me. From the little information I’ve found about the fight he does a lot of physical damage. Is the armor on the Reaper build just too little to reliably kill Ravager?

It’s not the best at fighting Celestials cause they have exceptionally high vit resist, and this build has single rr source between masteries.

Generally you need to follow in footspets of the author:

If you match defensive stats of the build in the video and use the same potions you should be able to complete the same task (even if it’s not 100% winrate) because the fight itself isn’t mechanically challenging. In this case you need to get used to the rotation of extra heals/failsafes you have - Pneumatic, MoT, Health Potion, Cluster. Also you can bind Bat to PB for this fight to further improve your leech rate.

Thanks for the video link! Yeah that looks rather tough to rotate all those correctly. I had no idea he could be killed that quickly. I might just skip him for now and try on a different character later. Which build in the top 20 do you think can face-tank celestials the easiest? I’ve beat Mogdrogen and Clones so far with the vitality Reaper, but would like to eventually kill them all for the achievements.

banana did say the fight isn’t mechanically challenging, but there is some stuff that can actually be important, and that’s which Ravager version you pick, since for some builds Ravager of Souls can be a right PITA because you can’t purely facetank as it can make a lot of builds miss basically all their attacks via fumble or impair standing in his soul well pool
Ravager of Minds can also slightly alter the fight requirements since he has a different debuff that can potentially make him hit harder/slightly more RNG dmg depending on your defences/DA
a final thing that can sometimes make it a little easier if you can’t full facetank 24/7 on the other ravager’s is to start kiting when he uses his howl, and facetank when the howl debuff wears off, tho it ofc also draws out the fight time quite a bit

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The easiest would probably be Spellscourge BM, Avenger Warder, Harbinger Conjurer and vitality ranged Oppressor.

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Hey guys, I just want to propose a tankier alternative to the Diviner Spellbinder tested by @Retal_Abuser:

Notes about this build
  • Hold down RMB and, while it’s still held down, cast Reap Spirit when it’s available. Keep holding down RMB. This is the key to efficiently using both skills. Yes, I know cast speed is low but that was what was chosen to be sacrificed for tankiness.
  • Aetherfire is bound to Aether Lightning
  • Aether Lightning is part of the core identity of the build but of course you can always choose to go for Ascendant + Magelord + Chain Lightning instead, with whatever amulet you want (Example: Spellbinder, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator). It’s worth noting that with Decree, the cooldown of Devastation almost exactly matches the cooldown of Phoenix Fire, although you could always bind to Aether/Chain Lightning and have Aetherfire on Devastation.
  • Nature’s Guardians = Taunt + Nigh-invulnerable Pets + 25% extra absorp with ~60% uptime… You can cover the remaining 40% with MoE/MoT
  • Belt suffix can be anything; I left it out so it’s easier to farm
  • Transmute (intra-set) the rings and amulet for better rolls, especially for aether resist
  • Craft for slow resist then whatever else you want
  • You can try to fit in racial components if you want; it’s a bit awkward to do so and not sacrifice OA
  • Spirit Dump optional. If you do this, you can also relocate the DA point from Menhir and put it in Korvaak

Since it’s more forgiving to play and a bit easier to gear, I think it should get some consideration.

I don’t have much time to play GD so I would greatly appreciate others testing this build.

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Thanks to the builders for this post. I’m coming back to the game and its helpful to read after so long!

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Yeah, in HC you just run Challenger Crucible 150-170 with a bit more beefy setup of one of those top-tier build, and you NEVER die there unless you go AFK or something. With some of those builds, you dont die in campain even if you DO go AFK mid-fight.
If you’re skilled, have a decent beefy setup and keep Aether Cluster ready in case all start align against you, you CAN safely farm Gladiator 150-170 too (and it wont be slow either). It just isnt worth it probably because Challenger loot isnt really far behind, while your safety is literally guaranteed.

As for SR, it’s just too unfair for HC farming.

I agree most of those builds have far too low life leech sustain. But i believe you can just tweak a lot of them into far tankier, yet still pretty fast setups.
In MY build i have 35% life leech, 26k HP and all res overcapped with 40+. Try this one of you want to feel like a real man :).