[V1.0.0.3] Kymon's Champion - Melee Conjurer - Ultimate Complete

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

“Never once have you ran with the turf, yet in every verse you claim you used to do the dirt. But tell me: who’s a witness to your fucking work? So you never had no business. Save the drama, jerk.” Eazy-E, Champion of Kymon’s Chosen.


Credit to Ceno for half of this picture.

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Some Background

When I first picked up Grim Dawn, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I leveled a Conjurer because I liked the concept of the Occultist but thought Shaman abilities were fuckin’ sweet.

So I beat the game on normal, and then did what I’ve never attempted to do with any other ARPG: go to the next difficulty. You see, I’ve never seen much point in playing the same game over again, but harder; even Diablo II and Titan Quest didn’t rope me in enough to make me want to immediately play it again. But, because Grim Dawn is so fucking awesome, I decided to play it on Elite.

…and died right outside of Devil’s Crossing.

Pride wounded, I contemplated starting another character, but decided that wouldn’t be very cash money of me. And so, determined, I made use of the spirit guide and created this beautiful mess of a build. To my surprise, it worked, and I was quite proud of myself for beating Elite. I even made a thread about it, because I’m a gigantic nerd and no one in real life would understand: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37023

Having conquered Elite, I decided to give Ultimate a go, and after switching some devotions around and increasing my survivability, I beat Ultimate too!

Photographic evidence.

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Why The Name?

Over the course of playing Grim Dawn with this build, I noticed that Cthonic and Cultist enemies gave me remarkably little trouble compared to Aetherials. That, in combination with my siding with Kymon’s Chosen and using their shit (because they’re awesome #Korvaak2016, is what led to the name for this build: Kymon’s Champion.

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The Build
http://grimcalc.com/build/39nXvJ

Conceptually, this character is meant to absorb a lot of punishment while killing enemies with lightning and electricity. To that end, your main source of DPS will be Wind Devil with Reckless Tempest attached to it. Your secondary source of DPS will be Storm Totem. Your tertiary sources of damage will come from various procs, lightning retaliation, and wendigo totem with Tsunami attached to it.

This build also has great kiting potential; I’ve kited plenty of times with this build. Tsunami and Wind Devil with Storm Totem make it pretty simple.

As you see, you’re basically playing half a class. That’s why I called this character a beautiful mess. I shackled the concept, gear, and points together and somehow made it work in Ultimate on my first character on my first try. It’s not going to clear BoC in 15 seconds, but it will beat the game. It’s been hugely satisfying to play and I thought I’d share it with you all.

Attribute Allocation:

-Physique, physique, with some physique sprinkled on top of it. I added a few points into cunning and spirit because I didn’t know any better (which is reflected in the calculator). You need a shit ton of physique to wear the heaviest armor in the game.

I would have loved to invest enough points into cunning to wield Dahlia’s sword, but alas, I didn’t know about it until recently. I doubt it would make much difference, anyway.

Active Skills:

Wind Devil - Wind Devil is fucking awesome. Fully upgraded, it slows, lowers resistances, makes ranged enemies miss, shoots lightning (a lot of lightning with reckless tempest), and generally just slays everything in its path. Crit chance is naturally lower in Ultimate, but it still got the job done with minimal sweat.

Wendigo Totem - http://giphy.com/gifs/XOywjQnU8R89q/html5

Curse of Frailty / Vulnerability - The only useful fuckin’ thing in the entire Occultist tree for us! It lowers resistances even more so your Wind Devil can kill even more stuff.

Storm Totem - Your third most important ability; crucial for tickling bosses and heroes to death where Wind Devil has less than %1 chance to proc reckless tempest.

Auras:

Mog’s Pact: The base aura isn’t all that useful to us. But its modifiers (Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin) are most definitely useful–nay, CRUCIAL–to our survival.

Void-Ward Aura: From the Imbued Silver component. Get this.

Stormcaller’s Pact: More everything. Use it. You don’t need to invest super heavily into this because gear is going to comprise most of the +damage for us.

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The Gear

What follows is what I think is BiS, from my own personal experience / theory-crafting. Remember, you need to strike a good balance between armor and +damage.

Items are click-able.

Helm: Elite Chosen Headguard

Shoulders: Elite Outcast’s Sky Pauldrons

Chest: Divinesteel Hauberk

Tons of armor, plus a nifty aura and a fuck-ton of chaos resist make this chestpiece my personal favorite.

Hands: Touch of the Everliving Grove

Used these since forever and I don’t see myself giving them up. The healing winds ability has saved my ass in a lot of fights. The only viable alternative is Empowered Thundertouch Bracers, in my opinion.

Legs: Stormcage Legguards

Feet: Stormtitan Treads

Aesthetically they look like your character is wearing two lightning-themed cereal boxes, but they’re great boots.

Weapon: Elite Chosen Skysplitter or Stormtrap (more hot wind devil action!) or Spark of Ultos.

Shield: Skybreach Bulwark

Amulet: Ultos’ Gem

Rings: Honestly, I’ve used a lot of different rings depending on the situation. Figure out what gaps you have and try to close them. That’s my best advice. If you’re good on resistances, go for damage!

Waist: Skyreach Sash

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The Devotions

Here’s a brief overview of where your devotion points should be spent. How you get to these things is up to you; the calculator I provided is my own version.

Reckless Tempest: The most important of your devotion skills. Attach this to Wind Devil and watch lightning fill up your screen.

Tsunami: Useful because it causes cold / lightning damage in a wave. Attach this to Wendigo Totem to help clear smaller groups of melee (like 50% of Cthonic monsters).

Rhowan’s Crown: Adds electrocute and lightning damage bonuses. Its ability creates a stationary version of Wind Devil that further lowers resistances. Attach to Storm Totem.

Targo the Builder: You’re not going to survive in Ultimate without completing this constellation.

Shield Maiden: Wow. Much shielding. Such survive.

Obelisk of Menhir: ARMOAR (get it?)

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The Game

From my experience, your bare minimum stats for Ultimate is going to be about 1600 armor rating, 10k health, and max resists. You can get away with a low OA and DA because of Tenacity of the Boar (which passively increases those stats with more Savagery stacks). My current character has about 950% lightning damage and like 700% electricity damage. When gearing, prioritize the following:

-Armor
-Resistances
-Electricity
-Lightning

The rotation is pretty simple. Aggro mobs, drop wendigo, drop storm totem, cast wind devil, cast curse of frailty, rinse, repeat until done.

However, I will say that I’ve had more success fighting in doorways than out in the open; try not to get surrounded.

Of course, this build isn’t perfect (shit, it’s not even optimal), but it does work (see photographic evidence). If you see a way to improve it, let me know! But please, be polite about it. No one likes arguing about pixels over the internet.

Thank you all for reading! Hope you enjoyed!

Pictures of build in action coming soon.[/CENTER]

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The Video(s)

Additional videos coming soon*.

NEWhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17k9E1oJaxM

2

+1 for not posting a shaman’s build requiring Ulto’s set!

3

Dude, put points in Bood of Dreeg (max possible) and Armor of the guardian (12/12) asap!

4

The problem is that you’d need to trade points from Shaman into these abilities, and in my experience you either give up DPS for a once-in-a-while heal, or trade flat (read: constant) survivability for yet another button you need to press.

As for Aspect of the Guardian, the same is true. Physical resistance is nice, but what do you give up? That and the fact that nothing you’ll be using with this build has anything to do with acid or poison damage (poison resist will be maxed out after components / augments) makes these two abilities simply not worth it.

Yeah, I really wish that set had more armor. It’s technically okay after you invest some points into Obelisk, but it’s still squishier compared to the heavier pieces of gear.

5

any movies ? of the build in action

leveling guide ?

6

I’m currently taking some screenshots, and I’ll post a leveling guide in the near future. Videos will come later.

7

Added a short video to illustrate the build in action.

Edit: If anyone wants to see something specific (like a specific dungeon or something), post below!

8

Why Rhowan’s Crown may I ask? Elemental storm and Raging Tempest don’t stack together, in fact ES will always be overridden by a 12/12 RT, also I’d recommend having 10 points in Vulnerability (maybe you already had skill bonuses to cover that but it’s only 1/10 in grimcalc, so…).
Try to get the Widow somehow, she is almost a must have for all lightning-focused build.
No Blood of Dreeg/Aspect of the Guardian is weird, maybe you don’t need the healing with Shaman’s godlike regen, but physical resistance is just a no-brainer.
Your energy pool seems to drain real fast, maybe try putting an Arcane spark on you medal?

9

I hope you will accept some constructive criticism…

  1. I’m a big fan of the heaviest armor pieces, and in particular 5/10 of my HC chars wear Divinesteel… But, if you have it, you should also try the full Ultos set (or at least 4/5 for the +2 to shaman), even if everyone else is already wearing it and you wanted to make a more “original” build. Yes, the armor value is a bit low, but helm and shoulders offer up to 12% physical resist, and another 8% could come from the savagery modifier for wielding a 2h weapon. Aspect of the Guardian could give you another 12% at 12. That’s a final 32% (or less, your choice, and up to 38% if you want to keep the armor, and up to 44%++ with other items like Empowered Legplates of Valor) physical resistance that can more than compensate for a lesser armor rating (but you can still pump armor from1400 to 2000+ with the proper items/components/devotion nodes if you truly want to overtank physical).

  2. Give a look to the Girdle of the Stolen Dreams. The damage bonus (vitality) is useless to you, but it also has +FLAT OA (up to 100+), +% OA (up to 4%), +% Spirit (up to 4%), +1 to occultist and +1 to Vulnerability. OA is a huge issue on these builds, so this could help a bit. Open Hand + Closed Fist are also rings that would give you a huge boost in both attack and defense, and that can somewhat free your hand slot with a similar healing proc. But a maxed Dryad will still be better on this regard.

  3. Blood of Dreeg mainly offer huge FLAT OA, and a bit of HP regen. The OA boost alone is worth the investment, as the bonus from savagery is not sufficient with the usual items. Also Aspect of the Guardian offer Poison resist. Ok, you actually do not need it, but if you pick this skill for the physical resistance, at the same time you gain way more freedom about your items setup (we’re talking about 100% pr at slvl 12). Also the Ultos’ set will give you the spare point needed, so there’s no compromise involved.

  4. I think your devotion is a bit of a mess. IIRC Elemental Storm’s reduced elemental resist do not stack with Raging Tempest, and have also a lower value. Better to go with Arcane bomb from Widow (-33% lightning resist at max level + dedicated flat lightning damage) and Viper (the final node also give a nice 3% bonus to OA, and another form of reduced resistance that this time stack, but not addictively, with RT). Reckless Tempest is BiS. Tsunami is one of the worst devotion procs IMO.

I have a hybrid Conjurer (melee/special summons) that is build basically on the same idea as yours. It not my best char, but with a bit of love you can hugely improve what you have already accomplished so far…

10

I’m on my way to work atm so don’t have time to reply point-for-point, but thanks for all the feedback! It’s definitely helpful since I actually don’t know what I’m doing lol.

How did you guys know RC doesn’t stack with Reckless Tempest? Am I blind and misread the tooltips or is this a mechanic I don’t know about?

11

some suggestions:

your current damage output and OA are quite low - and clear speed even for trash mobs are very slow based on the video you posted.

What you can do:

  1. max Vulnerability - this is one of the best skills in the game - and you need that -% resistance
  2. I will get Curse of Frailty to around lvl 5 or 6 for the range (up to you)
  3. max Blood of Dreeg - for the OA and instant heal and hp Regen, very good skill
  4. I will suggest at least 1 point in Aspect of the Guardian or max it if you need extra poison & physical resists
  5. Max Stormcaller’s pact if you have spare points
  6. I will go for 2H weapon - shield doesn’t help you much and will lower your damage too much; once you have changed to 2h weapon - get Kraken (devotion); alternatively, you can go main hand + off hand (I wouldn’t use a shield anyway)
  7. You must get: Widow -> for -% resist
  8. Try to get Viper too for the %OA and %reduced elemental resists
  9. If you are short of points - get rid of: Tenancity of Boar and Oak skin (these 2 skills are not very important)

Hope you find above information helpful

:rolleyes:

12

I’m on my way to work atm so don’t have time to reply point-for-point, but thanks for all the feedback! It’s definitely helpful since I actually don’t know what I’m doing lol.

How did you guys know RC doesn’t stack with Reckless Tempest? Am I blind and misread the tooltips or is this a mechanic I don’t know about?

You just have to trust us:D If you want to know more, there’s plenty on this forum or on the various wiki about obscure game mechanics…

Also what the post above says is more or less correct.

EDIT. And the full Ultos has a good proc that is almost always active. Also if you get your WEAPON DAMAGE to a good level. says from 5000dmg onward, you could also consider Falcon Swoop (devotion, 6 projectiles at 65% main hand damage each at max level) to aid your melee dps.

13

Hmm, all of these points are well made (and obviously made by people who are more knowledgeable / better than I), however, I would like to say one thing.

While there are certainly changes that could be made to the build that would make it more efficient or “viable,” I would argue that it would turn it into something completely different, a rehash of what’s been done, etc. I approach this game not from an efficiency standpoint, but a conceptual one; in RPGs, character concepts are what define a build moreso than number crunching (obviously my opinion).

From that perspective, this character is a sword-and-board user that likes lightning and walks around in the heaviest armor. I can see myself making changes (moving away from RC, investing in BoD), but not turning this character that I’ve invested a ton of time on into another 2-hander melee Ultos build.

Fact of the matter is, efficiency or min-maxing aside, this character is capable of clearing ultimate–beating the game, in other words–and doing so in an entertaining way.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this?

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If you like the way you’re playing - keep going. That’s what games are for. Some advices are still valid from any point of view, like resist reduction stacking optimizations.

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I approach this game not from an efficiency standpoint, but a conceptual one; in RPGs, character concepts are what define a build moreso than number crunching (obviously my opinion).

Sadly this is not an rpg as much as you might think, and, at least if you want to “roleplay”, there are better games out there. After you beat Grim Dawn 2-3 times with different toons i’m sure you will understand what I’m speaking about.

These are “competitive games” by nature and structure, only that in this case your main antagonist is not another human being but the environment itself (it is not a coincidence that other ARPG like PoE, D2, D3 also have leagues and ladders and even PvP).

16

Hi, I’m new at this game
Would it be a good idea to go for anvil instead of owl?

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Just started the game
I’d like to go for anvil instead of owl for the fun hammer proc effect, would that be a bad idea?

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Well, this fella’s build relies on casting damage - DoT’s and devotions, lightning and elemental damage for his offense. Melee damage doesn’t really do the work. As it sits, his offense capacity isn’t very large, so losing owl would be a significant sacrifice, particularly the DoT damage boost. Meanwhile, Targo’s Hammer ability boosts weapon damage, internal trauma, and physical. Weapon damage is just slightly useful, but internal trauma and physical aren’t any good here.

The stats leading up to Targos, though, are solid and welcome defensive abilities, once you’re in Ultimate.

19

OK thanks MOK for the answer

20

Posted a new video. Had a lot of real life stuff come up. I apologize for the delay. I started a new Youtube channel, so feel free to subscribe.

Also, tell me what else you guys would like to see! SoT? BoC? A brand new playthrough with a new character?

I’ll be doing about a video every week or so, so stay tuned! :smiley: