[1.1.9.0-1.1.9.7] Blitzer Physical Warlord: The Tank Who Hits Hard and Fast

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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UPDATE: I have fine tuned this build for internal trauma damage with Blind Fury and Bull Rush. It can now consistently clear crucible 150-170 in less than 5 minutes.

I theorycrafted this build a while ago but the first time I tried it, it sucked. Then I tried to build a Blademaster that also sucked and went back to Grim Tools to see if I could make this Blitz Warlord viable…

…and that’s exactly what I did.

Blitzer

Behold the Blitzer Physical Warlord, one of the most simple yet satisfying builds I have ever played:

OVERVIEW

The Blitzer Physical Warlord, as the name suggests, uses Blitz as its main source of damage. Blitz into your enemies, use Cadence to activate the buff from Deadly Momentum and trigger Shattering Smash for flat Physical RR. By the time you’re ready to hit Blitz again your enemy will have 370 reduced DA and 76% + 33 flat Physical Resistance reduction.

When the second Blitz lands, if it crits, it’s gonna hit for up to 73% ADDITIONAL Critical Damage.

HOW IT WORKS

  • Blitz is the main source of damage and enemy debuff: a disgusting 370 DA shred that will make it even more likely for you to land a critical hit.

  • Critical hits from Blitz receive +15% critical damage bonus from your amulet. On top of that, you’ll have critical damage bonuses from your amulet (+4-6%), medal (+4-6%), Tainted Heart (+5%), and Divine Mandate (+35%), adding up to +73% crit damage bonus for Blitz. If you are fully buffed and your enemy is fully debuffed when you land a critical hit with Blitz…
    damage-thats-a-lot-of-damage

  • While you wait for Blitz to cooldown, you’ll keep dealing lots of damage from several other smaller sources activated on attack, on block, and when hit.

  • Blitz will also proc Maul that reduces enemies armor by 33%, which will ensure that some physical resistant enemies like The Iron Maiden will consistently suck your d*ck.

  • Your 2 Guardians of Empyrion will proc Blind Fury and Shattering Smash will proc Bull Rush for extra area damage

  • With up to +3400 OA, you will be dealing critical hits all the time.

  • All of Blitzer’s attacks deal Area Damage, which means that the more enemies surrounding you, the more damage you deal to all of them. That’s perfect for Crucible and Shattered Realm.

  • Additional damage sources are: Ground Smash (boots, active skill), Doomforce (relic), Targo’s Hammer (devotion, 33% chance on block), and Tip the Scales (devotion, 33% chance when hit).

This build is very simple to play and doesn’t require many buttons to be pressed. For trash mobs you will only need to use Blitz, Ground Smash, Doomforce, and Cadence. For heroes and bosses you activate Ascension and Overguard for additional damage and defenses. Finally, use Violent Delights for mobility and to disengage combat when needed.

TANKINESS

This build can facetank almost everything, except Mogdrogen and Callagadra. It’s possible to facetank Ravager if you’re lucky. If you are unlucky with your critical strikes and can’t kill Lokarr fast enough then you’ll also have to kite once, but that’s all.

Here are the main sources of tankiness on this build:

  1. Stats: +14k life, +2900 DA, +4000 Armor
  2. Up to +53% Physical Resistance
  3. Circuit breakers: Resilience, Menhir’s Will
  4. Healing skills: Tip de Scales (when hit), Maul (on hit)
  5. Consumables: Aetherward Oil (Malmouth’s Resistance), Cursed Tincture (Coven’s Refuge), and Hungerer Oil (Barrowholm).
GEAR

This build is defined by 5 MI items:

  1. Bloodbriar’s Thorn (amulet): -1 seconds skill recharge to Blitz, +15% Crit Damage to Blitz. Drops from Ol’ BloodBriar in a secret cave not so next to the Pine Barrens rift.
  2. Milton’s Casque (head): -0.4 second skill recharge to Blitz, 128 physical damage to Blitz, 15 Physical Damage, +50% Physical Damage and +100% Internal Trauma Damage to Shield Training. Drops from Milton Hart, north of the Wightmire rift.
  3. Warden’s Fortress (shield): -0.5 second skill recharge, 100 Physical Damage to Blitz, and 540 Internal Trauma damage over 3 seconds to Blitz. Drops from the Warden Krieg, northwest of the Warden’s Laboratory rift.
  4. Wendigo Glare (medal): 140 Physical Damage to Shattering Smash, 180 Physical Damage to Blitz. Drops from Wendigo champions, Vollarius, Waraplius, Anaxius, and Ravagrad, spread throughout Gloomwald and Ugdenbog. The hardest item to farm for this build.
  5. Bargoll’s Root (mace): 40% Weapon Damage to Shattering Smash, 40% Weapon Damage to Blitz. Drops from Bargoll, the Mouldering Mound which spawns randomly in Ugdenbog.

You should target to overcap your resistances and get bonuses in OA and DA. Here’s a list of some good affixes:

  • Prefixes: Relentless, Formidable, Tempest, Menacing, Agressive, Impervious, Resistance.
  • Suffixes: of Attack, of Ruin, of Readiness, of Vengeance, of Fervor.

Rings: Mythical Ring of the Black Matriarch and Bladetwister Signet for the Physical Resistance reduction (20% in total).

Gloves: Mythical Colossal Grasp for its passive shield bonus and modifiers to Overguard.

Pants: Mythical Chausses of Barbaros for its stats, proc, and skill bonuses.

Boots: Mythical Earthshatter Threads for the Physical Damage bonuses plus the Freeze and Petrify Resistances.

Belt: Tempest Ugdenbog Girdle of Attack or Aggressive Ugdenbog Girdle of Supremacy. If you don’t have this exact combination of affixes, go with Mythical Reforged Chains of Oleron while you farm the belt (fastest way to farm it is to kill Carraxus Foul in Ugdenbog Crossing.

Shoulder: Gargoyle Spines for stats and 24-36%% of Vitality damage converted to Physical damage.

Chest: Mythical Myrmidon Chestguard for its bonuses to both Physical and Vitality damage and 24/36% of Vitality damage converted to Physical damage.

Relic: Doom is BiS.

COMPONENTS
  • Weapon: Seal of Blades
  • Shield: Seal of Might
  • Head: Runestone
  • Rings: Bloodied Crystal
  • Medal: Tainted Heart
  • Chest/Shoulder: Living Armor
  • Pants/Boots: Ugdenbog Leather
  • Gloves: Restless Remains
  • Belt: Ugdenbog Leather
DEVOTIONS
  1. Crossroad Primordial
  2. Bull (Bull Rush bound to Shattering Smash)
  3. Remove Primordial
  4. Assassin’s Blade (Assassin’s Mark bound to Cadence)
  5. Anvil (Targo’s Hammer bound to Field Command)
  6. Sailor’s Guide
  7. Dire Bear (Maul bound to Blitz)
  8. Shieldmaiden
  9. Hammer
  10. Owl
  11. Rowhan’s Scepter
  12. Oleron (Blind Fury bound to Summon Guardian of Empyrion)
  13. 4 points in Scales of Ulcama (Tip the Scales bound to Divine Mandate)
SKILLS
  1. Hardcapped skills: Blitz, Field Command, Decorated Soldier, Blindside, and Deadly Momentum (Soldier); SafeGuard, Shattering Smash, Divine Mandate, and Celestial Presence (Oathkeeper);
  2. Softcapped skills: Scars of Battle (Soldier); Presence of Virtue, Haven, Rebuke (Oathkeeper);
  3. Other skills: Cadence, Fightning Spirit, Menhir’s Will, Military Conditioning, Overguard, Shield Training, Fighting Form, Veterancy, Squad Tactics, and Counter Strike (Soldier); Resilience, Ascension, Summon Guardian of Empyrion, and Clarity of Purpose.
ATTRIBUTES
  • Physique: enough to wear armor
  • Spirit: enough to wear jewlery
  • Cunning: all remaining points
FACTIONS
  • Side with Barrowholm them to have access to their consumable, Hungerer Oil.
  • Side with Kymon’s Chosen for the Kymon’s Blessing augment.
  • The Outcast: whatever.
CELESTIAL BOSSES

This build can kill all celestials: Ravager, Avatar of Mogdrogen, Lokarr, and Callagadra.

I haven’t tried to kill Crate of Entertainment but I assume it can be done if you just evade the exploding crates.

The strategy is the same for all celestials: facetank as much as you can. If you notice that Menhir’s Will is triggered, start kiting. Hit with Blitz and disengage with Violent Delights. Finally, use Aether Cluster to gain some precious seconds of invulnerability and unleash hell for a faster kill.

SHATTERED REALM

You can farm SR 76 consistently without dying unless you get really unlucky with the mutators. Since patch 1.1.9.0 the boss room is much easier. You’re more likely to get killed when surrounded by mobs in the normal shards. If you find a Shrine of Oleron, take it, it’s going to make it much easier.

Finally, always keep an Aether Cluster ready. It has saved me from death plently of times.

Blitzer%20SR%2076
Blitzer%20SR%20761366×768 574 KB

CRUCIBLE

You can do Crucible 150-170 four times using one round of blessings (Ulo, Empyrion, Amatok and Ulzuin) plus 3 Stormcaller Beacons.

The secret for fast clearing is to attract all the mobs around you. The more mobs surrounding you the faster you’ll kill all of them. Just be alert and don’t save on consumables.

When I first wrote this guide my computer was so slow I couldn’t record my gameplay (below you can see what happened when I tried recording).

I now have a decent gaming computer and recorded this video demonstrating how you can comfrotably clear Crucible 150-170 four times in a row with a single round of blessings:

FINAL REMARKS
  • Before posting this build, I checked to see if anyone else had posted something similar and I found this build by Ceno. If you know of any other similar build let me know so I can link them here.
  • If you have any suggestions to improve this build, I’m keen to hear it.
  • I tried to use colors to improve readibility. Let me know If I failed to do so and I’ll fix it.

Cheers! :sunglasses:

11 Likes
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I agree, it is hard to believe. I play on my laptop that used switchable graphics (Intel HD + AMD Radeon). But the Radeon is busted so I have to play with the onboard Intel HD. All my settings are the lowest possible and I still can’t achieve 30 fps when playing. I could record my gameplay, sure, but the footage would be total crap.

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1366x768. Game runs smooth sometimes but especially on Crucible and SR it stutters terribly when the screen if full os enemies.

You know what? I’m actually gonna try to record it just to see how funny the results are going to be :laughing:

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Very well made guide, like the colors especially.

I am not sure with some of the itemization . Oleron relic lacks internal trauma and Blitz is long CD skill, so more trauma can help. Also will be helpful if you can farm piece of jewelry with Gildam Arcanum Suffix. For life steal complete Scales devotion and put Restless remains on gloves. That will free your weapon augments slots for either double Seal of Might or 1x Might+1x shield dedicated component. If you like to use Cadence, you can put a point in Fighting Form for extra targets.

About recording, I also have weak&old laptop. I am using Bandicam with lowest possible record settings, so I can have at least minimal FPS and reduce stuttering.

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I’d put a point in Break Morale. Shattering Smash isn’t very reliable as an RR source and Blitz is an AoE, you want to be hitting more than one target with your flat RR, which scales and SS aren’t that good at.

How does it stack up against the Markovian version?

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I agree, more Internal Trauma and cooldown reduction would help. I could try using Righteous Fervor instead of Cadence because of the huge bonus for Internal Trauma damage from Retribution. But at least on GrimTools when making that change the damage numbers are much worse. I also tried hardcapping Oleron’s Rage instead of Deadly Momentum but the damage is still worse.

I could try sacrificing some Elemental Resistance and replace the Arcanum Dust augment with Heart of Ugdenbug on one of more pieces of jewlery but I’m not confident it’s a worth giving up the Elemental Resistances and DA.

I’m still farming equipment for this character and I’m sure I can insert some “of the Gildam Arcanum” somewhere. Just a matter of time and luck. Right now it seems like better equipment would be the best way to improve this build even further.

I was actually thinking about going with no lifesteal at all with 2 x Seal of Might, since this build currently has only 5% ADCtH and it can heal on attack, on block, and when hit.

However, Whirling Blades can proc skills like Oleron’s Wrath, Venom of the Black Matriarch, and Mark of the Blade, so it looks like it would be a trade-off to replace Seal of Blades for anything else.

Also, to complete Ulcama I’d have to give up Viper and 3 points in Shieldmaiden in order to get Sailor’s Guide, which would reduce my Internal Damage by 8% without making my char that much tankier. Of course, there could be a better devotion setup for different purposes. My path is very defensive. It’s perfectly possible to use Shifting Sand or even Blind Fury if you’re not willing to go past SR 66.

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You can check my Markovian guide for ideas:

Since both Blitz and the set were buffed I would go now much more Blitz oriented.

I strongly advise you against going without life steal. Even 5% is is making huge difference.

Cadence vs RF is tough decision. Deadly Momentum will boost Blitz but RF grants attack speed, DA and armor. Also will not override your Shattering Smash unlike Cadence.

1 Like
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Interesting, I havent’d heard about Shattering Smash and Tip the Scales being bad a applying RR before. I wonder if it’s possible to use Grim Internals to check how often they are triggered. Anyway, 1 point in Break Morale certainly couldn’t hurt.

I haven’t played the Markovian version yet. Just by looking at Grim Tools it seems like it deals more damage but less often because it doesn’t have as many passive skills like the Blitzer. Especially, the Markovian build doesn’t use Targo’s Hammer, which is a very reliable source of passive damage that procs on block.

I can’t tell if Blitz is stronger in the Markovian build. Markovian has more weapon damage, but Blitzer has 2.7x as much flat Physical damage bonus to Blitz. I’m now curious to compare both builds :smiley:

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Cadence overrides Shattering Smash? That’s interesting… Is there any thread you know talking more about this? I’d appreciate it.

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To be more accurate, the 2 hits to charge up Cadence will allow Shattering Smash to proc but the 3rd big damage hit can’t.

Beyond that, Cadence and WPS interaction is a more bizarre subject.

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Just checked your build and the stats are impressive. I’m surprised that you skipped Solemn Watcher and therefore have no source of reflected damage reduction have only 11% reflected damage reduction from Rebuke. Can your character survive landing a big hit on a Reflective monster?

If I can survive without with just 11% reflected damage reduction I could drop Solemn Watcher and use a different devotion setup and see how it performs.

Thank you for the ideas :slightly_smiling_face:

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Yes, definitely bizarre :laughing: It would be much better if the 3rd Cadence hit simply applied a buff to whatever default attack is triggered at that time. But it is what it is :frowning_face:

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I’m interested in leveling in this build. What’s your opinion on that / what skills should I target first aside from rushing Blitz?

Thanks!

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You can start using Forcewave with a 2H weapon until you get the helm and the shield (Act 1) and max out Blitz and Blindside. You can farm the amulet in Act 2 and the medal in Act 3/4 Then you can respec to Cadence. Then switch to Oathkeeper to get Resilience and Safeguard, then finish distributing the remaining skills in Soldier, then back to Oathkeeper.

You can farm the amulet in Act 2 and the medal in Acts 3 and 4. Once you have the amulet you should try to get as much OA as possible to trigger the critical damage bonus on Blitz. Until there, get Physical Damage, DA and Armor for increased damage and survivability.

Once you reach Act 4, farm Ugdenbog Girdle for the juicy +1 skills in Soldier and increased armor bonus. Try to get one with lots of resistances and/or ADCtH.

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I’ve never used Forcewave before, but I’m assuming I want to pick up the mutator, maybe Rending Force, and probably Internal Trauma assuming I haven’t collected the gear by that point? Is this in the ballpark of correct?

Thanks!

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Yes, while leveling you want to pick all the nodes in Forcewave. Same for when you switch to cadence. Then later when can respec to make better use of your gear.

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Can we get a bit more leveling details.
I’m currently on act 3 level 34 with the amulet, helm and shield but I have issues dealing with large mobs that just overrun you while blitz is on cooldown

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I have the helm and shield so far. I find that I have to do a bit of kiting on bigger targets and I can’t simply facetank at this point. I Blitz, trigger Cadence, kite if needed in that 4s window and Blitz again. Rinse repeat. I’ve had one death because I chose to stand in something. Otherwise, it’s been a fun experience.

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OK, level 57 now and finished elite main campaign act 4. Tankiness has improved a lot and was able to tank final boss easy. Skipped most of the elective quests and didn’t even choose a faction at homestead.

Getting the medal was easy: Between the first and second rift gates in act 5 there are plenty of wendigos including 2 dungeon with wendigos heroes.

I’m using vire’s might for movement and disengagement

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I was just writing a reply to your last comment and I was going to recommend you to use Vire’s Might for disengagement, then I saw this comment. :slightly_smiling_face: Nicely done. Once you complete the devotions your tankiness will increase even more.