Are there any proper vitality retaliation builds? With counter strike etc.
I saw there are some new interesting sets and so on for it but haven’t seen any build guides.
couldn’t find any on a quick search, nor have i ever attempted it myself
my guess would be this, regardless of item support, or rather; there would need to be a ton of item support
because vitality dmg is weak, and retal was/used to be preferred as converted phys dmg, but even then, when you did do fire or acid, you wanted a ton of retal dmg
this wouldn’t then be “awesome”(potentially) for vitality dmg where you need a lot of RR to make it do anything, and the skill that primarily support it is in Soldier, which would make you a mono RR class retal build for a highly resisted dmg type ,which probably wouldn’t be fun
which then aside from “back then” brings us to partially the same issue “now” where/when overall retal has seen some dmg dialed back to bring it into balance, which would then make full vitality based retal with soldier “weaker”
that is, unless it was like a “secondary” focus and not a main/pure focus, like ex on blood knight via counter strike, or maybe some other X retal dmg converted to Vitality and then utilizing RATA
ex on how bad vitality retaliation itemization is itself Search - Grim Dawn Item Database
which means whatever you do you need either phys fire or acid converted to vitality, while making sure you get %all retal not just %acid retal or %fire real (which those items often came with)
Yes I understand. Thank you for your response.
I was specifically thinking about the Blood Knight set which converts all of physical damage on Counter Strike to vitality damage. What are your thoughts on that?
works nicely, isn’t really much need to focus super much in retal to boost it, but you can get “crazy” and use the cooldown shield for counter strike, tho you will kinda sacrifice overall dmg not just going 2h offensive or dual wield with regular flat dmg focus
but it can be done, i have a really stupid vitality warlord somewhere (using the shield)
i’ve seen several bloodknight Death knights that went harder/“weirder” focus on the counter strike part than the bone harvest part, using siphon souls for extra RR etc, so lots of options/variation potential to experiment with; if your criteria/endgame performance expectation are reasonably fitting with what you’re attempting to build ofc
Here is one of theorycraft build from my “2021 Retaliate Warder Performance”: Warder, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I think you can take some notes.
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curious, did later retal patches hit it hard or did it always look in such rough shape dmg wise? 
As I remember torso, lost both flat Vitality and % retal.
Thank you for the response and I will definitely take some notes and have it in mind if I ever try a full vitality retaliation build!