Just wanted to thank Primeval for what I would consider the greatest non-melee build I’ve played, and give a summary of my take on his build, and some leveling instructions.
So far I’ve played through Ultimate with Vitality Conjurer, Warder, Summoner, Commando (rifle & sword+shield), Stormzerker, and Pyro and I have to admit Starcaller is my favorite of them all. Its a skill-based build, so it requires some level of thought and reaction, but you end up with 2 skills that render you invincible for 3 seconds each, a healing skill that will restore 30+% HP and give an insane amount of health regen, auras that will slow and damage enemies & reduce incoming damage by some 15%, debuffs, AOE and single target spells, and lastly, some of the highest CDR you can probably attain in Grim Dawn. Lastly, this build is definitely friendly for self-found gear (which is how everyone should play IMHO), and I’ve expanded on the various legendaries and epics you can use towards the bottom.
Leveling up is really fun but can be frustrating early on since you have little hp and very few spells to deal single target dmg. I do recommend the method Primeval mentions where you max OFF for crowds and use TSS for bosses, but you need pretty good items to not get one shot against certain enemies if you don’t pay attention to your kiting techniques. I never understood why a lot of players assume going purely into one class till level 50 would be beneficial. I find that is rarely the case, and would recommend going for nightblade at level 30 just to get PB so you don’t burn through pots and get a slight speed boost.
Here’s the leveling progression I used till 50:
|-VETERAN-|
LEVEL 20---------------------
1pt in IEE
Max OFF
Max Absolute Zero
1pt in MoE and Maivens
10/16 TSS and 1pt in FC
LEVEL 30----------------------
(Lvl 40 Arcanist)
1pt in IEE
Max OFF
Max Absolute Zero
1pt in MoE and Maivens
10/16 TSS and 1pt in FC and 1pt Shattered Star
(Lvl 5 Nightblade)
6/12 PB
LEVEL 45 (youre going to want imbued silver for the chaos resist and soul shards for mana regen at this lvl)
(Lvl 50 Arcanist)
1pt in IEE
Max OFF
Max Absolute Zero
1pt in MoE and Maivens
Max TSS and 1pt in FC and 1pt Shattered Star
Max Star Pact
8/16 Devastation
(Lvl 10 Nightblade)
9/12 Pneumatic Burst
1 pt in Shadow Strike
1pt in Phantasmal Armor
|-ELITE-|
The craziest thing about this build, compared to others, is that it gets more and more powerful all the way through Ultimate. Commando and Pyro melt through Elite, but Ultimate becomes much tougher. Vitality conjurer is pretty invincible until mid to late Elite when you find that your life steal isn’t as strong, and in Ultimate requires high level gear or it is insanely frustrating and slow. Stormzerker sucks in Elite (unless you go full Shaman), and does OK in Ultimate (only lightning dmg so very on and off). I’ve found the Starcaller to be unique in how it progresses: its quite hard in Veteran and the beginning of Elite, but after you get max Devastation and hit lvl 58, you literally blast through the rest of the game with little difficulty due to the immense amount of lifesaving and AOE skills at your disposal. A great weapon to get for Elite is Shard of Asterkarn since it can be equipped at lvl 50 and you get another aura that slows movement and deals cold and frostburn damage. You will probably want to hit Elite at levels 45 - 50, only because it is essential to get Honored with both Rovers and DC so you can use the augments. The best augments to get are Troll Warts Powder, the +ice and frostburn one (cant recall the name), and the +poison resist. Troll Warts will boost your health regen to ridiculous levels which is very helpful during the first bit of Elite when your desperately trying to reach level 58 to equip Eastern Gloves and Spellsage Boots which are leagues above anything else you can get at that point. At level 50, you should probably respecc since OFF is no longer the insane room-killer it used to be due to higher enemy base resists.
LEVEL 50-----------------
(Lvl 50 Arcanist)
1pt in IEE & 1pt in & 1pt in Elemental Balance
4/12 OFF & 1/12 Absolute Zero
1pt. in MoE and 4/12 Maivens & 1pt in Conversion
Max TSS and 1pt in FC and 7/12 Shattered Star
Max Star Pact
8/16 Devastation
1pt in Inner Focus
1pt in Mental Alacrity
(Lvl 20 Nightblade)
9/12 Pneumatic Burst & 6/12 Shadow Dance
1 pt in Shadow Strike
1pt in Phantasmal Armor
1pt in Blade Barrier
From level 50 on its really up to the player and what items they have. It should be pretty obvious what skills you will want to max. I went straight for devastation because I had enough legendaries for high mana regen, and then for veil of shadow/shadows chill for the debuff. It gets really fun at level 58 when everything comes together and the build begins to shine due to item buffs, and when aura bombs gets to a decent level. I wont get into my devotion setup since it is very close to PRM’s linked in Primeval’s post.
Some notes on items:
Fateweaver is pretty ridiculous on this build, though requires quite a bit of augment tinkering. It isn’t as protective as Valor, so you will need to pay special attention to your bleed resist. It does have an OK skill that essentially makes the game go to Veteran mode for 12 secs. Too bad CDR doesn’t effect item skills, but I guess that would be too OP. I tried Deathwhisper and Arcane Harmony. Deathwhisper is simply not protective enough, and you really don’t need the extra +30% cold and frostburn. Harmony was OK, nothing great. Since most enemies mis-hit/are frozen you don’t really end up proccing the arcane blast much. Also, +elemental resistance is super common, so you don’t need it. Legplates of Valor is definitely what you want until you are at level 75 and can start equipping other lifesaving equipment. Wish I had the Tranquil Mind legendary. It looks like it could work, it does have better resists than Fateweaver and a pretty awesome skill that procs 100% chance on enemy hit.
Ive been playing around with trying other focus, besides Valdanar’s. Iskandras, Codex of Storms, work fine, though the +1 to all Arcanist skills is sorely missed. Tome of Arcane Wastes is hilarious, because you kinda can become a Aether Ray type arcanist and I find it to be equally as effective as Valdanars, and you get the +1 to ALL skills, which is very nice.
Trozan’s Starkeeper is definitely BIS. Olexra’s scepter works ok too, but skill isn’t nearly as good. Beacon of the Winter’s Veil actually doesn’t work too badly either. Shard of Asterkarn would be my second pick after Trozan’s Starkeeper, just because it looks sick and has a low level req, so its super useful.
Ill post some picks of my build and the specs when I get off work.
And once again, a big thanks to Primeval for this awesome build.