[v1.0.0.2] PureIce Spellbreaker - Do You Even Falconswoop? Ultimate Fabius kill 30s, 5min BoC, etc

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Update - this version may actually be better than the trickster version even though its less tanky but mirror is such a huge value in bursting shit down and just ignoring incoming dmg. 3secs is enough to loldps your way out of almost any situation…arcanist does end being higher on dmg and i overestimated the power of wendigo totem.

DQfBTBN.jpg926×628

This build is based off the ability from the helm:

t5MlRBc.jpg839×699

Ok i’m gonna stop referencing Frozen, since Zootopia is better anyway.:rolleyes:

This is a build using Crown of the Winterking’s ability which shotguns in close range and is very similar to Obsidian Juggernaught. Thats the end of the similarities to my previous guide however. This build focuses on only a single damage type, cold, while stacking a massive amount of -cold resist from Necrosis,Night’s Chill,Blackstar of Deceit.

Falconswoop devotion ability shoots 6 projectiles for 65% weapon dmg each, and shotguns at close range just like Winterking’s ability. It has a relatively low proc chance but only a 1sec CD. If we can proc it consistently, it does massive 390% weapon dmg per proc at close range every 1sec. However, it is based on weapon % so needs a big 2hander, while most 2hander skills suck at procing, winterking ability being multihit like PB, is the prefect solution. This also requires physical damage converison to cold. We are able to obtain ~100% weapon dmg conversion to cold/elemental, from Iskandra’s necklace + Star pact+ elemental exchange.

In essence this is a double shotgun build.

Video: 5min Ultimate BoC, full hero clear. 16s sharzul kill, facetank 100-0

Video: 30sec Ultimate Fabius kill, facetank 100-0


Grim Calc with +skills, devotions
http://grimcalc.com/build/oj3Rwm
Gear has +1 all skill and a couple minor +skills. last few points can be moved around between Elemental Balance, Shadow Dance, Anatomy of Murder, Depending on what you are farming.

Devotions:
Deovtions really took a 180 this patch. the Tier3 offensives devos receiving massive buffs while defensive ones massive nerfs. I feel like offensives ones are better now. To this end, we spec offensive devotions, and gear defensively to compensate.

Gameplay:
RMB - Winterking’s might (devotion ability Falcon swoop)
LMB - shadowstrike (devotion ability whirlpool)
Mid mouse - healpot
mousewheel up -pneumatic burst
mousewheel down - necrosis
keyboard 1 - Olexra’s flash freeze

Buffs: Winterking buff, iskandara’s elemental exchange, maiven’s sphere of protection, starpact, pneumatic burst, Veil of Shadow, voidward aura or coldstone aura

Basically shadowstrike onto people face’s, flashfreeze+necrosis debuff and double shotgun their faces off with winterking’s might+falcon swoop.

The point in nightfall makes shadowstrike an AOE ability which can consistently proc whirlpool on every cast when theres multiple mobs. whirlpool is helpful for aoe fights, but overall falconswoop is much more powerful in this build and so is bound to the main skill. Shadowstrike shares a CD with whirlpool which is convenient.

Gearing:
Since we devotion offensively we gear more on defense with 3pc iskandra to get +20% physical resist and lifegiver signet+blackstar of deceit for lifesteal which is very effective with big aoe builds like this.

Head: Crown of the winterking - leatherhide or sanctified bone +15psn resist augment
Shoulder: Iskandra’s pauldrons - silk swatch or scaled hide +15psn resist augment
Chest: Iskandra’s Vestments - chains of oleron +15psn resist augment
leg: Empowered legplates of valor - silk swatch of scaled hide +15psn resist augment
Belt: Phanthom-Thread Girdle - antivenom salve, +15psn resist augment
Boots: Golemborne Greaves - mark of mogdrogen or mark of the traveler +15psn resist augment
Relic: Necrosis
Ring #1: Time-flux Band - Corpse dust + mogdrogen’s sancitity
ring #2: Lifegiver Signet - Ectoplasm + mogdrogen’s sancitity
neck: Iskandra’s - arcane spark + kymon’s -enemy damage augment
medal : black star of deceit - black tallow or wardstone
gloves: Wyrmbone handguards - spellwoven thread +15psn resist augment
weapon: Bane of the Winterking - coldstone or imbued silver + chtonic dmg augment or human dmg augment

This class combo and offensive devotions naturally have low hp, but good mitigation with maiven/nights veil/evasion chances, so hp from gear is hugely valuable.

Leveling Guide:
you can literally do anything here, trozans, prm, CT+devastation, or phantasmal blades+devastation. just pick something you like. I feel like PB really starts to fall off in late elite though. u can switch to obsidian juggernaught at lvl 58 since winterking stuff is 75, if you happen to have one.

In closing:
incoming update at somepoint.

2

Winter King’s Might scale with attack speed right?

Nice build. Saw you looking for Bane of winter king in trade thread, thought you will make a hybrid pet build, lol.

3

Hi Jajaja, thanks again for another great contribution.

Just wondering if this follows the usual stat distribution meaning all phys? Thanks!

4

super cool build

could be totally off here, but as winter king’s might scales with casting speed i’m pretty certain temporal arcblade with its massive 24% cast speed would outperform bane of the winter king.

arcblade has 140% elemental and 140% aether as opposed to just 160% cold from bane. the conversion on arcblade is to aether instead of cold, but with your moderately high spirit stat i think arcblade will still come out on top, especially with the +2 to arcanist and +1 to inner focus

also, having tested arcblade a bit on my CT character, the proc does a pretty massive amount of damage, hits every .4 seconds with 66% uptime.

you should consider aethereach over wyrmbone due to the 20% casting speed as well.

also, reckless power might outperform star pact even without the change to arcblade, and almost definitely outperforms after the change. 160% cold and frostburn is pretty negligible compared to the casting speed, the fire + aether boost with the arcblade also helps a fair amount. you also have like 15% fire conversion just from 1/3 of your elemental conversion already. the flat frostburn is also pretty useless since it can’t shotgun and only benefits from one spire from the winter king skill, and only 1 out of the 6 falcons, whereas the flat aether applies to every hit

i could be off here, but i think i’m correct. would help to see a damage breakdown on your character sheet as well, so i can see just how much of your damage is being boosted by the resistance reduction from night’s chill. if i’m wrong, it’s due to misjudging the impact of night’s chill.

further, if it turns out that night’s chill isn’t doing a whole lot, it might end up being the case that spellbreaker isn’t the best build for it, and we should instead look for other ways to add as much flat weapon damage as possible.

5

Cool, pardon the pun. I always laugh when people say Falcon Swoop sucks.

6

I figured it wouldn’t be long until we saw a new build from you based on the new devotions.

I was thinking about a 2H cold build too after the huge buffs to %damages (dat kraken), looks like you’re just in time to hook me up. I was trying to figure out the best way to do it, and I was also trying to avoid nightblade. But pneumatic burst (along with the -cold res from the aura?) is just too strong.

I’m also missing a couple pieces of your recommended gear, include Bane of the Winterking. So I might farm a bit more on my Sab before switching over unless you think this build is workable without it. I have a level 40ish pure arcanist sitting around that I might work up to winter king level.

Anyway, thanks as usual for the great build.

7

DAMN,m id try this asap if i had more than 2 of the items u have lol

8

Well, this is lane, bane of the winter king has attack speed bonus but the skill from the crown scale from casting speed? Then maybe no need to invest in kraken as well?

Zantai fix please.

9

The fact that the meta game is pretty much entirely about -resists right now seems to suggest that enemy resists in ultimate need a nerf. I’m sure I’m not the first to make that observation and I hate to call for difficulty nerfs but I’m starting to feel a little bit pigeonholed.

Don’t mean to complain, still loving the game, just a thought.

10

Hey, all of your videos have an awful background sound which I cannot even stand for a minute, what is that and why don’t you fix it?

11

Hi, I apologize if it’s already been said but what attributes should I be allocating? Phys/Cunning/Spirit.

12

The legs have a huge physique requirement so you have to make sure you meet that. With all the devotions and other gear equipped, the legs require something like 870 phys. I dumped everything past that into spirit.

13

Thanks Tristrix, I’ll keep that in mind.

14

Bloody amazing. So there exists a viable build based on nightfall, star pact and leviathan.

15

i dont think reckless power outperforms starpact all:
just the bonus dmg itself. if im sitting at ~130% cast rate, another 13% is 10% dps increase. the bonus cold dmg on starpact is like ~150% i have around 1500% i think, this is a 10% increase and pretty evens out. then starpact has CDR and cold conversion instead of the less useful aether conversion. most of my spell dmg is from devotions, rather than spirit.

on arcblade , not sure on this, need to test. due to devotions my cold % is so much higher than everything else, just that might make winterking outperform with the cold conversion, the flat cold dmg is huge also. winterking does have other useful stuff. like the 16% armor. the attackspeed isn’t useless. shadowstrike makes u AA at end, with a slow 2h it actually saves u alot of time on shadowstrikes with faster ias.
my cold is 1800%+ my aether is like 850% heh

i think shaman might be better than arcanist. actually probably. i’m workiing on that variation, which will likely end up being Elsa 2.0

i started that char from and old char halfway. if i were to redo this i will probably go all physique.

16

This is so damn weird haha, I love this game’s variety.

17

i dont think the meta is all about -resist, this build is about -resist.
i think -resist is in a pretty good place now tbh.

before you just picked a gear that had -resist over something else without even thinking. now you gotta weight the stats of the two. i chose not even to use band of eternal haunt even tho it gave -resist.

18

I’m doing my first character (just ended Veteran), which is a Spellbreaker I wanted Cold specialist, and my skilltree is totally different. It makes me a bit afraid indeed.

Edit : for example I totally removed the points in Iskandra, because I thought 1/3 cold damage is not worth.

19

Uh, stacking -resist has been the best way to gear since the very beginning of the world. And they keep nerfing the items and skills so -resist is at its lowest point right now. Your complains are like half a year late.

20

Uh ok then thanks. Uh.