W.I.P. AertherFire Sorcerer

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hello all, working on a build and I am looking for some feedback.

Little background, I played TQ and had fun with Grim Dawn in early access. Stopped playing right around the devotion patch (other games and whatnot) and have come back and would like some help with this build especially around the devotion lines and for what changes to the gameplay/mechanics I am missing. For example Rifles seem to be viable now? And YAY blast shield is better! In the past I played a commando, a blade arc witchblade, and the vitality totem conjerer, and decided on my comeback to try something different.

the grim calc: http://grimcalc.com/build/I3fmlV

Now I was setting this guy up to be a dual pistols build as firestrike + IEE seems to work well… and like the mad sorcerer build which uses the Elemental storm ability to help with the dot (burn/frost/electocute) playstyle.

One of the things I was looking for while doing this build was to build it without the need for specific gear, or at the very least free up gear options as I got higher level as I really dont have the higher level farming toons like others do. So I was hoping that my devotion lines could fill in some gaps on resistances to help me in the long run. but being a dps char cant resist reinforcing that side of things :slight_smile:

So the progression I decided on was:

Imp - Aetherfire
Scholars light
widow - arcane bomb
Kraken
vulture
solemn watchtower
panter
ulo the keeper - cleanse
wraith
spear - spear
last couple points into hydra?

Aetherfire goes onto firestrike
Arcane bomb goes onto flashbang
Cleanse onto calidors tempest
And then I was thinking of using the spear on a skill gotten from something like aethersteel bolts for making my own sort of mini nuke.

The result with All of this + Reckless Spellpower is a lot of aether damage conversion and bonus damage. Someones sig from awhile back pointed to on average the firestrike line having more lightning damage than fire, plus a lot of extra lightning damage would be a secondary gearing option with fire third.

[b]Looking at the build now should I drop that 1 point in brimstone and put it into searing strike and switch to being a two handed ranged user?

The Arcane flashbangs are really my only debuff route… is this enough going higher level?

Vulture devotion gives me some lifeleech but the build overall doesnt have any good heal without getting more order into the mix… any suggestions?[/b]

2

reserved for possible future update

3

The current meta is to max Devastation and bind Aetherfire to it. It will shit out these aether patches like there is no tomorrow. To max devastation potential you’d have to drop the whole DW idea though and maybe go for something like Aldanar’s Vanity + Empowered Soulflayer.
EDIT: Aether Tendril is not very good nuke skill, for some reason its resistance reduction doesn’t work against most of aether-immune enemies.
EDIT2: Also Kraken is a 2H-only, why did you pick it?

4

You’ll lose a lot of dps by not maxing Brimstone. If you really want to go for reckless power, which I guess is the main difference between your build and the Mad Sorcerer, I would lose Overload and Elemental Balance to make up the points instead as they don’t add as much.

I have a sorcerer very close to the Mad Sorcerer spec and I re-skilled him as per your build:
= hp from 9k to 6.6k
= sheet dps from 43.8k to 40.8k

(bear in mind that none of the devotions from your set-up are levelled on my char, so not sure if that affects the sheet dps).

I like the Reckless Power idea though. I went back to my normal sorcerer spec and juggled a few skills around (but kept the Mad Sorcerer devotions):

  • Flash Freeze
  • Mirror
  • Arcane Mastery & Reckless Power
    = OA from 2264 to 2376
    = dps from 43.8k up to 49.2k
    = hp from 9k to 9.7k

I’d probably want to keep Mirror maxed though, so the other option would be:

  • Flash Freeze
  • Overload
  • Arcane Mastery & Reckless Power
    = dps from 43.8k up to 47.5k

I might have to re-do my devotions as per your build and level them up to see how it works with them maxed…

Btw, from this last spec at 47.5k I dropped Brimstone to 1 point (11 with gear) and added Overload, dps went to 41.8k. Adding 8 points into Elemental Balance only takes it up to 42k, so those 2 skills really don’t work well for fire sorc (or your Fire/Aether sorc I would guess).

Edit: testing against the target dummy to include Elemental Storm procs; Overload and EB reduce kill time by around 5% - 6% in my tests, and that’s with a stationary target that doesn’t move out of the storm. Against moving bosses the increase will be less reliable. I still think it’s better to drop them to take Brimstone and Reckless Power for a more reliable dps increase.

5

thus becoming a whole different build…
good to know for Tendril… any suggestions for how to bind spear of the heavens to something? - nullification was the only other idea I had but I would think stacking the two damages together would be better and null has a long ass coolldown.
Did not know kraken was 2 handed only… that makes the drop of brimstone to searing strike and going 2 handed a bit easier - Thats why I am asking these things!

but Ving seems to be telling me to max brimstone over overload and elemental balance…

what aboout droping the elemental balance to one and moving those points over? brings brimstone halfway while keeping the searing strike? I do kind of like this idea as its adding more flat damage and less +%… overload still adds on +80% elemental damage so I would think it is the better choice.
grim calc with minor changes