The more time you apply the dot, the higher the effective crit chance. Or in other words the chance for a given tick to be a crit. How good it is, it’s not easy to say / it depends. But it’s not nothing. This is also the reason why Crit damage is more valuable for Dot builds
I agree with your point in general but when do you really choose between cooldown and casting speed? Aren’t they more or less independent because of how hard cooldown is to get?. I’d just say that in case of cooldown builds you can disregard casting speed to a large degree which gives you a lot of flexibility when building your character. Mad_Lee actually likes casting speed in cooldown builds because he speedruns a lot and it feels better for him. But maybe I’m missing sth since I’m tired at the moment of writing this.
I was mostly thinking when farming affixes on green items. Like the example beginner’s build here has “of the sage” on the weapon, which gives casting speed, but you could also look for a “seer’s” or “magi’s” that gives more cooldown reduction.
Arcanists can also choose between Reckless Power and Star Pact for their exclusive. I’ve seen builds that took Star Pact even when it did not otherwise help their damage just to get the cooldown reduction. (Though admittedly I never tried that myself.)
But otherwise, it’s indeed pretty hard to get CDR higher if your build and items don’t naturally support that. So it indeed makes more sense to say that cooldown builds have 1 less stat to juggle in general.
Hello I want to start off by saying I’m absolutely loving this build; currently, I am about halfway through Elite. However I was wondering what the deal with Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange was though? It seems to only proc off of weapon attacks so what is its purpose in this build? I’m thinking I may be doing something totally wrong so I wanted to reach out. Thank you!
The big deal here is the helm I am using during leveling which gives me % Offensive ability(OA) and %Defensive ability(DA) when Iskandras is up , Overload on the other hand is even more OA and free Aether resistance add Elemental balance at the end for more DoT damage and crit damage . Fleshwarped Casque is hands down one of the best if not the best leveling helms for Arcanist cause percentage stats scales with every level up. Some buffs in this game works as a 1 point wonders due to insane item support I spend for the most part just 3 skill points in total in the whole line but got massive boost
And note that in his “final budget setup” Druid, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator he could just have one point the main skill, the first modifier “overload” (and still have insane OA and aether res), the second modifier, and have more points to put elsewhere - like more into mirror for shorter cooldown (rank 7).
Also note the build uses an amulet that also boosts iskandra skill.
So to summarize, the “flat” elemental damage and burn/frost/electrocute damages and the energy leech only applies through weapon damage - but the other stuff like %OA, aether res and %crit damage applies to all attacks - which is why caster arcanists “always” pick the iskandra modifiers.
Ahoi - as a total noob in grim dawn i am following your build letter by letter and am like level 81 now - i still do not really understand the weight of stats so my question:
i had the Set offhand drop (the one that gives +3 to the main spell trozan) - now i give up -0.4s cooldown reduction from your leveling offhand - yet damage is higher.
You mean Iskandra’s text? (@RSnoomak I think this is what is being refered to here).It is good for sure, but loosing the cooldown and target area will net less damage per second (dps). How did you evaulate your damage anyways? The skill tool tips in the game are quite crude (as in all ARPGs…) so the only way to evulate is clear/kill speed etc. Anyway, optimizing damage is not something you would do until end-game. You are probably just fine with random yellow off-hand hehe
Yep ,well rolled Rolderathis tome is better especially if Iskandras Text is bellow 16 % cooldown reduction ,just Rolderathis is pretty flexible with the affixes and -0.4 is big QoL on top of the good CDR roll
Ahoi -yes it is the Iskandra → i was killing the same boss with the “leveling offhand” and the “iskandra” - granted a very little samplesize but the second one felt quicker.
However i guess i guess i wont worry much more as it seems that everything is more or less pointless up to level 94
Hello! I am still learning about how damage types in the game work and since this is a dual damage/hybrid type caster, which element should I lean more towards in when it comes to item prefixes and suffixes?
Should I get gear prefix/suffix that lean more towards Ice or Lightning? Recently picked up a Thunderstruck Rolderathis’ Tome of Thunder. Should I continue farming and get Ice prefix and suffix?
It’s fine mate , as far as you get ok affixes during leveling should be alright doesn’t matter which element you bump more during leveling , cause weapon and off hand they comes mostly with both so it’s well balanced even if you have heavy cold affixes for example . I mean difference is almost minimal cause I designed skill tree to do the heavy lifting so gear affixes is flexible . Endgame setup by Grey ( I level prio to his setup) is more strict cause every piece of gear there is BiS ( best in slot). Most important mod for the off hand is to be at least 16% CDR ( 19% is ideal but not necessary)
Whoa that was a fast reply! Thank you so much for the information!
Thats awesome to know! Less things to think about while playing hehe, then i’ll try going the Ice route, its probably my favorite damage type in the game. Just looks so cool. I am really enjoying the build!
As RSnoomak said, don’t sweat it during levelling.
But for dual or tri-elemental builds in general, do note that the affixes that say “x% elemental damage” help BOTH cold and lightning, so those would be the best pick. Stuff like “Runecarved X of Y” or “X of Arcane balance/of the sands/of serenity”
Flat elemental damage (“+12 elemental damage”) is not quite as good as cold or lightning, because it will be 1/3rd cold, 1/3rd lightning, and 1/3rd fire. And fire doesn’t help you. But % elemental (“+50% elemental damage”) damage boosts all types equally and so is best.
This also applies to skills and devotions, of course.
Aren’t they more or less independent because of how hard cooldown is to get?. I’d just say that in case of cooldown builds you can disregard casting speed to a large degree which gives you a lot of flexibility when building your character. Mad_Lee actually likes casting speed in cooldown builds because he speedruns a lot and it feels better for him. But maybe I’m missing sth since I’m tired at the moment of writing this.