Did it. My Grim Grinder finally achieved max damage output at 100k. We’ve seen the vids. We knew it was real. Replicating it is very doable.
So Happy I’m doing a victory dance. 
100k+ dmg absolutely achievable 
Still loving the spec!
Your damage taken is 8k–that’s a HUGE chunk. With 20k HP (as I have), that’s over 40%. My damage taken is barely 3300. I guess there must be a trade-off, eh? Still, your max (160k+) is more than my max (146k).
Nice. Your setup is way better! 100k may not be a big deal for some people but for me after pouring hours of long grinding stuck before with 40-50k dmg it’s such a big improvement. I got 3 retaliatory gear drops on the same day (after learning how to efficiently farm Fabius) It reinvigorated my excitement for the game.
Welcome to the 100k club! And doing so on your own grind.=Respect.
I’ve reached some crazy max damage numbers when I sacrificed survivability but unfortunately in HC that’s not such an easy sacrifice, and honestly for functionality it’s not needed. Clearing’s the same, it’s just for props at that point.
Nice! Fun to see those numbers come up as enemies explode.
Nice. Your setup is way better! 100k may not be a big deal for some people but for me after pouring hours of long grinding stuck before with 40-50k dmg it’s such a big improvement. I got 3 retaliatory gear drops on the same day (after learning how to efficiently farm Fabius) It reinvigorated my excitement for the game.
I must be doing something wrong… at Level 40… I have zero skill points left to put to Menhir’s Bulwark and Scars of Battle… I have all the skills at the right number but don’t have the extra 2 skill points…
This is because you haven’t done the side quests that grant you the extra skill points–you need to go back and check what you’ve missed.
I did sacrifice survivability as my max damage taken increased to 8k. Died from a nemesis because I was too happily focused looking at the retaliatory stat numbers go up on page 3 instead of watching the battle (I forgot I wasn’t farming in elite anymore and was back in ultimate). In the end it just made more sense to stick with better resists as the clear time’s almost the same like you mentioned. Then again the lure of seeing high damage numbers is too tempting as crafting blueprints become available. I recently crafted a Reckoning relic it boosts my retaliatory damage for an additional 55%, plus the chance of 50% 1269 piercing retaliation, enabled me to swap back my Avatar of Mercy amulet from my retaliatory amulet (empowered Bramblewood). I’m gonna do a test run in a few minutes. I hope my tankyness doesn’t get compromised because the drawback of the Relic is minus 30% physical resist. Deep down I know that’s trouble but no…I’m too stubborn. The balancing act in maintaining high damage AND high resists that’s what Grim Dawn is for me. Love it.
There is only 1 quest for skill point that I am aware of and it’s only 1 point… 118 total points… 75 soldier/shaman, 12 totem, 10 heart, 10 oak, 4 menhirs will, 1 pact, 1 field, 1 military, 1 veteran, 1 shield, 1 over, and 1 decorated soldier… What quest am I missing?
The minus 30% physical resist attribute of the Reckoning relic is not permanent. I have a better understanding of how it works now. Anyway, Menhir’s Bastion seems like a better relic to equip with it’s high bleed an pierce resist, 1 point in soldier and 50% buffs to elem and physical resist. A very huge upgrade from the Fortress relic.
I believe it is GrimCalc taking the 2 extra skill points from the skill point quest from Elite and Ultimate into account. In other words, you’re doing nothing wrong. It’s just a quirk with GrimCalc.
Grumple is correct. I made the guide well after doing the build and used the calc to identify the levels. Because it pulls 3 extra points for all 3 difficulties this was thrown off… I’ve made a minor correction in the guide now thus removing scars of battle at this point (but I left the point given from the quest as normal progression would allow you to have that by lvl 40). Scars of battle will be revisited between lvl 52 and 64 and during that time you should be going through elite and getting the 2nd extra skill point for it to level out. Scars of battle is the least needed right now as bleeding damage is DoT and can be more easily countered and bringing armor absorption to 75% from 70% makes a little difference in normal but a much larger difference in elite/ult.
Not to mention its near invulnerability when you need it. Damage absorb plus that phys resist. I’m using citadel at the moment (blueprint finally dropped) planning on sacrificing it for menhirs bastion if I can keep my HP up.
My suggestions to gear:
head - Maw of Despair, Mask of Infernal Truth, Iskandra’s Hood
Hands - Empowered Handguards of Perdition, Blacksteel Gauntlets
Feet - Stormtitan Treads
amulet - Avenger of Cairn, Dawnbreaker’s Beacon, The Peerless Eye of Beronath, Heart of the Mountain
Yes, but that’s from recent when I swapped some gear out and didn’t bother fixing resistances before going BoC or farming Fabius, now all resistances are up to 85ish again
Before this my biggest damage taken was 5k or so. I’ve circa 23k health
Oh and a disclaimer, about 10 of my 13 deaths was from the first desecrated shrine in ultimate… Holy cwap that shrine is overtuned.
As for gear suggestions, I found this helm to be of a big help for me:
Don’t know how to make pictures bigger, so click it…
Remember you can reroll faction vendor gear every time you log in, so keep at it till you get the best stats 
Sacrificing Citadel for Menhir’s Bastion is a good call in my opinion but if hp is an issue Citadel’s +45 Physique +14% Health is perfect. I opted out of hp in favor of the sweet 50% 8 sec boost in physical resist. For my build the struggle of keeping hp up in the 20k range is on again after solving the issue a couple days back. I’m running on 18k hp as long as my resists are high it’s a trade off I’m willing to take.
As for my experience with the other relics I never got to use citadel, juggernaut etc. Since Fortress was enabling me to survive with just good enough hp. Those relics just became a means to an end to craft Menhir’s Bastion. Spent a good amount of time making one relic after another prolly the longest crafting session in my entire gaming life to get to the one I wanted the most. Crafting came easy for me because from the very beginning I always loot everything I see. My primary character stash is littered with every material available not suspecting that these were gonna be integral in making rares later on. Did it pay off! The only time I struggled in crafting is when I couldn’t get Salazar’s blade to drop. Not a very good experience. So from that moment on I have a better appreciation for monster drops. When I see a monster’s name on an equipment I learned the hard way to stash it. Keeping stuff was a problem then I stumbled upon item assistant tool in the forum a while ago.
Avenger of Cairn is what I’ve been hoping for to drop. Actually My build is good enough as it is in my opinion it’s just that knowing that it can be improved upon is what keeps me going.