Ultimate Bleedmaster - Semi-facetanking dualwielding bleedbased lifegaining lazy-build

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

[b] Ultimate Bleedmaster - tanky dualwielding bleedbased lifegaining lazy-build.
Updated 2016-05-31

The quest
This is my quest for building a Blademaster focused on bleeding damage, dualwielding, lifegain and lazy playing. A quest I have completed, or should I say almost. Almost because I am only lvl 79 at the moment. What I can foresee however, is that it is viable in the very endgame. Beeing over lvl 75 I have obtained all the items I need, but offcourse a build is always prone to change.

The focus
What this build focuses on, as mentioned already but clarifyed a bit here, is to be able to stay in melee combat as long as possible, using a main attack (left mouse button) as the main damage dealer, all the while sustaining itself in life gain.

The why?
Why focus on bleeding?

  • I could not find any other guide or build that focused on bleed damage and dual wielding at the same time as a Blademaster.
  • Bleeding is DOTS (damage over time) which means you can run out of combat if needed and still do damage.
  • I like to make controversial builds work and especially when I have figured them out on my own.
  • I like the gritty feeling of bleeding damage in this game. I mean, the more gore the better. Right?

Why do this when there are builds that are considered the best?

  • As I mentioned I like to make controversial builds work and this is, in my opinion, one of them.
  • Why play as everyone else and not try something new or different?
  • This build suits my playstile very well as this is a more or less lazy build (although you need to keep track on your HP every now and then).

Pros
Lazy gameplay

  • Most of the things happens as a consequence of you hitting stuff, or stuff hitting you. This makes the build very uncomplicated for the player who don’t like to keep track of to many things at once.

Bleeding is lazy

  • Many times all you have to do is run in to a large group, hit a few times, and then run to another cluster of enemies and repeat. The ones you leave behind all bleed to death in a few seconds anyway. Even though this build makes it so you can tank most of the time (like you want to do on bosses that you want to drain of HP as fast as possible), you don’t have to.

Escape friendly

  • When in trouble you can easily escape or make yourself invulnerable (while the bleed DOT’s keep rolling)

No set items needed

  • This build currently uses no set items, which makes it somewhat easier to obtain all the items needed (in my experience).

Cons
Leveling can be tricky

  • Sometimes leveling can be a bit tricky because you can feel squishy or lack resistanced midgame. Don’t be afraid to adjust skills to better suit your needs.

Lazy gameplay

  • If you don’t like it, you won’t like this build either.

Active skills
Cadence
Yes, cadence! In all its glory. Many would argue that this skill sucks. And I agree to some extent that it would be nice if we could use something else entirely with this build. But I have tried everything, including the Mistborn talisman, but the one that works best is actually Cadence. This is our left mouse button, our main damage skill. Fortunately this hits very often because we are dual wielding and hitting pretty fast, which also procs attached devotion skills.

Shadow Strike
Shadow Strike is our main engage/escape mechanism. It has a short CD and can be used to jump forward in dungeons etc. A self explanatory choice really.

Pneumatic Burst
Main healing skill, besides proc’s from all the items and devotion skills offcource. It’s really good, so we use it. Simple as that.

Blade Trap
This is the crowd control skill. And a bonus is that the associated skill Devouring Blades gives us a nice heal. This is always good to use when initiating a group of mobs or when escaping and what not. I always use this when fighting in the midst anyway because it gives such a nice heal that I can just stay and fight no matter what.

Blade Barrier
This skill makes us invulnerable and it heals us while we are. It has saved me many times and its awesome and a 1 point wonder, which makes it so worth to pick up. It’s a must.

Passive skills
Veil Of Shadow
I have spent 1 point in this. I think this is worth the point for the reduction in movement speed and offensive ability of the opponents. And you can offcource attach devotion skills to it.

Field Command
Another aura, which I like and adds to my prefferred playstyle in that it offers stats/boost without having to press another skill. Also the associated skill Squad Tactics is actually more valuable than Field Command since it offers attack speed and a damage increase to everything. And offcource it can be used to attach a devotion skill to it.

Items
Weapon 1: Bloodsong offers a fantastic proc with bleeding damage.
Weapon 2: Butcher Of Burrwitch offers bleeding damage and a great proc to healing.
Head: Whisperer Of Secrets for the bleeding damage and proc (and stun for that matter).
Chest: Divinesteel Hauberk gives us awesome resistances and even avoidance. A pure protection item.
Pants: Chausses Of Barbaros gives another nice proc that also affect alies. It also gives offensive ability and avoidance.
Feet: Golemborn Greaves has a proc that gives armour. It’s another tanky item that I find hard to replace with this build.
Shoulders: Vileblood Mantle gives us a proc that is up almost constantly. It has amazing -33% bleeding resistance and procs 100% on critical attacks. The poison and acid resistances are also a bonus.
Hands: Grasp of Unchained Might for the proc, naturally.
Belt: Tinker’s Ingenuity is a super survival kit in its own. I like it a lot.
Amulet: The Peerless Eye of Beronath is what I use at the moment. Another option that makes somewhat sense is Thread of Mortality. You go ahead and choose what is the best option here. I like them both.
Medal: Badge of Mastery with +5 to Cadence is probably the best in slot. I don’t have that so I use Direwolf Crest which has a bleeding proc, and it lets us save one skill point since it enables us to dualwield.
Ring 1: Lifegiver Signet for the awesome life gain.
Ring 2: Belgothian’s Sigil for the proc and the pure dps increase.
Relic: Aegis is the only option I would use as of now because it offers great protection and a healing proc.

Skill build
This is the skill build you should aim for. When I am max lvl and have tested it thoroughly I will update it with my findings. I find this very solid for now however.

Devotion
Here is the constellations I have used. Feel free to experiment. I feel this build gets me the most defense and damage at the same time. Unfortunately I can’t remember in which order to take these, but the more the fun for you to find out, right!
Tortoise - 5/5
Lion - 3/3
Falcon - 5/5
Fox - 4/4
Harpy - 4/4
Assassin’s Blade 5/5
Blades Of Nadaan 6/6
Empty Throne 4/4
Oleron - 6/7 (leave the head node)
Berserker - 4/6 (leave the stomach node and left axe node)
Sailor’s Guide - 3/4 (leave the top right node)

Components
Weapons - Imbued Silver and Purified Salt for chaos and aether resistance.
Medal - Arcane Spark helps solve energy issues.
Rings - Frozen Heart for cold resistance.
Amulet - Focusing Prism helps solve energy issues.
Head - Molten Skin for fire resistance.
Shoulders - Rigid Shell for lightning resistance.
Pants - Rigid Shell for lightning resistance.
Boots - Mark Of The Traveler for movement speed.
Chest - Hallowed Ground for elemental resitance.
Belt - Dense Fur for cold resitance.

Current modifiers
Bleed duration: 196%
Bleed: 905%
Pierce: 500%
Physical: 520%

TO BE CONTINUED (images and videos will be uploaded).

2

Have you tried Shard of Beronath?

Also, why not shaman over Soldier, you get Savagery and more or less the same amount of defence? Savagery >>>>> Cadence.

3

Yes I have, but I haven’t decided if I want to use it since Deadly Momentum that is connected to Cadence gives awesome % to bleeding damage on all attacks following a cadence strike (it is almost always up). Also Shard converts physical damage to elemental damage which is a direct negative effect in this build. And it doesn’t hit multiple enemies either.

See the “The why” section in the guide.

4

Nice guide! Do you have a devotion set up?

I’m working on a 2H Bleeding warder (only lv 55 in act 1 elite). I keep switching between savagery and Cadence depending on my weapon at the time. Typically only use savagery when I’m using something like the Troll Bonecrusher (+3 savagery). From pure bleed damage point of view, I think I like Cadence as well as the bleed from Fighting Form is really nice!

I also mix in blade arc/laceration, devouring swarm (rend) and grasping vines (swoop) and I find myself killing everything but bossed before I can even build up the charges on savagery. Without being able to build the charges, it feels as if I’m not fully utilizing savagery so just another reason why I like cadence…

My question with chosen Soldier over Shaman would be missing out on Devouring swarm as the - to blood res is huge for bleed build.

I’m surprised that you’re not maxing Fighting Form on a bleed build. Wouldn’t that help out a bit more than maxing the base of Cadence? I messed around with that on my warder and found I got more dsp from adding points to fighting form over cadence. I know your gear and bonus are different so maybe it won’t work as good for you.

5

I will upload a guide for that in the days to come. I have been doing this guide while at work today so I couldn’t make it all at once.

Good thought there. I will try it out again, even though I spontaneously feel that Deadly momentum is more worth maxing out as that proc is on at all times when having hit once with Cadence, whereas Fighting Form is a proc that procs off of Cadence and has a lower Chance activating. As for the AOE I get from Fighting Form, I feel I already have a lot of AOE so that is not an issue.
However, interesting point of view. I will check it out again.

6

I’m pretty sure Fighting Form proc’s on every Cadence, same as Deadly Momentum. The only % something on Fighting Form is % to pass through an enemy, which I assume means it will add an extra target? I could be confused on how that works…or what you’re saying…

I plan on maxing both fighting form and deadly momentum and cutting a few points back on Cadence to put else where. My build currently has about 650% bonus to bleed damage but only 200% to physical. so for my build, the bleed from fighting form helps out a lot more than the weapon damage/flat physical from Cadence. Like I said, depends on your build…

I wasn’t worried about the AOE from fighting form either, as (for me anyways) Blade arc/Laceration covers that. It is just that Fighting Form is one of the best bleeds out there, if not the best… So was curious to see it not maxed in your bleed build.

How does your build handle the undead/obsidian mobs without the extra - bleed res one would get from a shaman (DS) or conjurer (CoF w/ In)? It does look like you have bit of physical and piercing damage worked in as well which probably helps.

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What I meant was that Fighting Form has a chance to trigger of of Cadence and that the proc is on every Cadence. Sorry for my bad explanation there :slight_smile: But if the bleed gets applied every time anyway and if the proc only concerns if more targets are hit at the same time, I am not sure. I took for granted that the proc was about everything included on that skill. Need to check that up.

My modifiers look like this (which perhaps I should include in the guide):
Physical: 520%
Pierce: 500%
Bleed: 905%
Bleed duration: 196%

My best bleed I figure is actually from Bloodsong, the weapon. But I aggree that Fighting Form has a good proc. You make good points, will have to check that out.

Well with this build, currently at lvl 80 with all the items required, I have 87% bleed resistance, 14% dodge chance, 11% deflect chance and 17% physical resist. So I basically fight them as I do everything else (in their faces).

8

Updated the build with devotions and components.

9

I’m not expert about bleed builds, but Rend (Huntress) and the Mogdrogen constellation are reported as crucial things to have on every similar build on this forum. Expecially Rend for the reduced bleeding resistance…

10

Yes, I have tried that actually. I felt that when speccing that way the build didn’t support the way I wanted to play this character, i.e. tanking as much as possible. That said, it would probably be a bit better if your plan was to run in, apply bleeding, and run out again - to play like that. I feel that this constellation route is the best of both worlds when it comes to tanking and doing damage. Also it gives me more physical damage which is awesome for my auto attack. So to sum it up I think its a better way to go for this particular build. I might try it out again in the future though with some new items etc.

11

Is Lifegiver’s signet really worth the slot? I feel the no-cooldown lifesteal proc from Butcher of Burrwitch is more than enough on my Trickster. I can crit almost all the time with ~3000 OA though, and since you haven’t posted any pics yet it’s hard to tell how effective it is on your toon :D.
Huntress to bleeding is like Blades of Nadaan to a piercing build, man, and since you didn’t go Shaman you’ll need all the debuffs you can get (and it’s hard enough to clear BoC/SoT with Devouring Swarm + Rend already!)

12

I feel lifegiver Signet is really worth the slot. It helps with the build, to be able to face tank almost all the time. As a tanky build I am rather safe than sorry.

Promise I will post vid and pics when I have the time! Might not be untill next week though.

In regards to needing all the debuffs I can… I really feel I don’t need more than I have since everything is running smooth and everything dies pretty fast. The one proc to negative bleeding resistance on enemies I have is (which is up almost all the time):
Vileblood Mantle: -33% Bleeding Resistance on proc (5sec duration, 3sec cd)

Other than that I have the negative proc from the Assassin’s Blade devotion which is not in regards to bleeding but never the less very important in this build.

13

No offense, but I really don’t see the advantage of soldier in comparison to shaman in such a build. You don’t even use much soldier skills except cadence, and savagery would be MUCH better as attack skill for the build. Furthermore you are giving up on primal bond and devouring swarm, and you get almost nothing for it.

I like strange and controversial builds, too(running a bleeding caster trickster with blade spirit atm, and it’s a blast :D), but taking soldier instead of shaman for a bleed build honestly seems like voluntarily gimping yourself a lot. Just saying…

14

This was the point I was getting at by asking how well this build handled undead/obsidian mobs without the devouring swarm/rend or CoF/Rend debuffs as they have high bleed resist with some having over 150% on ultimate (so I hear). 16/16 DS (-50%) with max rend (-33%) can reduce bleed res by 83%. If you throw on the Vileblood Mantle, could bump that up to -116%… As you won’t have access to DS, the -33 from rend should still be useful.

Your guide is written calling this out as a bleed build. You have a lot of bleed in there, but it doesn’t look like it is your primary source of damage (or if it is not by much). Seeing your devotions and bonuses, I can see you have a lot of physical and piercing damage built in with the bleed (your tear 3 provides +0% to bleed with a lot to + physical/piercing although the proc does have a bleed, you’re also using skills that add more physical and passing some with bleed) . I think a lot of people make the assumption that a “bleed build” will be doing mostly bleed damage. That is the reason why DS/rend and CoF/Rend are so important. Personally, I find focusing on only one damage type can be problematic when facing high res mobs (like undead/obsidian are vs bleed). Your build looks like it has a very nice balance of physical, piercing and bleed. This, along with the assassin’s mark (nice phy/piercing debuff) is probably a reason why you don’t struggle vs undead/obsidian as much as more “pure bleed” builds do. Undead are probably a bit slower just because you’ll lose most of your bleed damage, but not grinding to a halt slow as more bleed focused builds will (especially without DS/rend).

As far as Howl goes, I don’t think that fits your build well. Would give you some more bleed (and some resists) over Oleron but the physical/piercing looks like it helps you more. Only one that would probably help provide you with more bleed without hurting you as much would be Unknown soldier. You’d basically be switching out some physical for bleed as they both provide piercing. But again, without a lot of bleed res debuff, the physical should help you more. But the great thing is, you can just take the 4 points out of berserker (and should probably) and put them in Unknown Soldier anyways and gain a ton more DPS. It also has the 3% ADCTH so you’d be switching 50% physical for 160% piercing and more bleed, attack speed, HP and crit damage. If you don’t really need the 15% cold from Sailor’s guild, you could take those 3 and use them to complete Unknown soldier more OA, Bleed, HP and the living shadow proc (another nice bleed source).

15

Cadence, well Fighting form, is awesome in a bleed build and so it deadly momentum. And can be better than savagery depending on the build… But not having PB and DS can definitely hurt. That is why a Warder is better choice! :rolleyes: :smiley:

Seriously though, I’m actually running a bleeding 2H warder now and am using cadence over savagery. Mostly because I clear things so fast with DS/rend + GV/Swoop and if not a simple blitz + blade arc/laceration takes care of the rest. The only time I would actually use savagery/cadence would be a boss and some heroes. I typically don’t have time to build the charges on Savagery to take advantage of the skill. I can get three attacks off vs a boss quick enough to trigger fighting form (awesome bleed) and deadly momentum (boost other skills) in between rounds of abilities much easier then building charges on savagery.

16

^ Yup, I ran a pure bleeding build with Vileblood, DS/Rend and still struggled in BoC/SoT due to mobs immunity, Fabius is a joke though, lol.
I need to see OP’s vids, this build definitely looks more like a hybird physical/piercing/bleeding build than a “pure bleeding”.

17

None taken. As I mentioned in the guide I like to make weird things work. And this works. A lot of the people that writes here wonders why chose Soldier and not Shaman. Well that’s not what this guide is about at all. It’s a bleeding focused Blademaster guide.

18

Videos will come.

19

This was the point I was getting at by asking how well this build handled undead/obsidian mobs without the devouring swarm/rend or CoF/Rend debuffs as they have high bleed resist with some having over 150% on ultimate (so I hear). 16/16 DS (-50%) with max rend (-33%) can reduce bleed res by 83%. If you throw on the Vileblood Mantle, could bump that up to -116%… As you won’t have access to DS, the -33 from rend should still be useful.

I can totally aggree that I call this build a bleeding build, but it is primarily based on the fact that it is not a pure physical build, nor a internal trauma build, or a piercing build. It is more bleed than anything else. And also because it is bleed it stands out as a weird Blademaster build. So I think the name is pretty fiting still.

Good call, will try it out!

20

yeah, I’m not saying you shouldn’t call it a bleed build…just trying to point out people’s confusion. Some people just see Bleed and think, “oh, this much be all bleeding”. Not everyone reads all of a post… I’m mean, anyone should know that right off the bat with fighting form not maxed on a “bleed build” (joking around) :D:rolleyes:

Seriously though, I love your build idea of mixing in the bleed on BM. Especially since you lose the synergies of debuffs! The only way to make up for that is to put in other damage types that make up for lack of debuffs. You can’t make them take more damage from lowering the res, so have them take more damage form a difference source! It works great!

There is no try! There is only doing!! :rolleyes: I’m mean…just look at the numbers!:cool:

Berserker…Unknown Soldier
15 OA…15 OA
50% Physical…140% Pierce
80% Bleed + 15% chance for 100%…160% Bleed
3% ADCtH…3% ADCtH
+5% Crit…+0% Crit (only real “loss”)
…18 bleed/3s (base in grim calc)
…5% Attack Speed
…+150 HP

Is it just me or is the 15% for 100% bonus seem kind of bogus, especially when an earlier node is a flat 80%? But with that, I guess you’ll be also missing out on 20% damage (although when you’re over 900%, 20% isn’t much) 15% of the time, but gaining 80% for the other 85% of the time. I think the 18/3sec makes up for the 15% of the time you’d lose out on 20%…

Then the three from Sailor’s guide…
10 Physique and 15% Freeze/Stun/Cold traded in for 4% HP, 40 OA, 15 Flat Pierce, 10% crit and the living shadow proc… Just stay away from Moose or use a pot… :rolleyes::smiley: