You’re still using Mistborn Talisman at level cap? You don’t feel that upgrading to a top end relic like Belgothian’s Carnage or Oleron’s Wrath would be worth the skillpoint cost of switching to a new LMB skill like Cadence or ABB?
Not saying you’re wrong but I’d love to hear your thinking…
Thanks.
Well, when i started i felt lack of damage, so i put 1 point in cadence and 1 point in fighting form, then i had some +cadence gear. And i don’t have Mistborn talisman, i’m using Guile relic.
First of all: I updated the guide a bit, so that you find all changes in the OP and do not need to read the whole thread.
I have not played this char in months, because I have started leveling a few others and completing Elite difficulty with them. Partly because I love to try out new builds and partly to collect better gear. When I played this char my collection of mythical relics was very limited, and the Mistborn Talisman was just the best option.
Sometimes I feel high level relics do not turn out as the great upgrade as you first expect. The other day I crafted The Scourge for one of my other chars as my first mythical relic. But it did not make the cut. However, it seems to fit this WPS BM better. On the other hand the mechanic of Troll Rage boosts all of my weapon attacks and does not interfere with the WPS mechanic.
One option is to switch to Beronath’s Fury (from Shard of Beronath), which only recently dropped. Will think about this more, when I resume playing with this char.
I am not so fond of Oleron’s Wrath, as I would prefer more pierce damage. And Belgothian’s Carnage is one of the blueprints I have not found yet. But the cooldown reduction does not seem to be that interesting, or does it work on celestial skills, too?
Using an extra attack skill goes against the WPS approach of this build. As a workaround to boost my damage, I would put a few points in Shadow Strike line, but I feel that should only be a temporary measure. I choose Shadow Strike over Cadence as it matches better with the primary damage types. And other than ABB it supports dual wielding.
At level 81 I have Soldier at 40 and feel I should not spread my skills any further. If I had skill points to spend, I’d rather fill up the mastery bar and invest in Oleron’s Rage. But that won’t happen until the expansion.
I underestimated how difficult it would be to keep up with my damage output in Elite difficulty, until I it occurred to me that the Mistborn Talisman was the perfect addition. I realize that not every new player finds it at once, but the blueprint is one of the few things you can farm for specifically.
And if you prefer to use an extra attack skill, then I suggest to switch from Cadence to Shadow Strike as explained above. I think this build has sufficient crowd control and AoE damage, but could do with more single target damage.
Thank you! I’ve already used 1 point Blitz and Shadow Strike for mobility and unlearned Cadence but i didn’t think i could put Shadow Strike on LMB. I had blueprint of Mistborn Talisman, i got Bonecrusher today, i try different relics - Equilibrium, Bladesworn Talisman, Glacier.
After Scorpion you suggest going to ghoul next, but you can’t because you have 0 chaos affinity at that point. Do I just grab the 1st point in bat and then grab ghoul? Or the crossroads node? I’m new to Grim Dawn. It’s probably obvious to just grab crossroads before heading into any affinity tree.
Yes, just activate and unlearn nodes in Crossroads as needed. If you just put one point in Bat, you still lack any Chaos affinity, and Ghoul will not become available.
In the end you will have no devotion points in Crossroads and still lack 2 to complete all constallations. But you only need to get to the celestial skills. You can leave out one node in Manticore or Huntress, unlearn one in Akeron’s Skorpion (once you have sufficient Eldritch affinity), or leave out up to 2 points in Amatok the Spirit of Winter.
Alternatively you can keep one point in Crossroad’s Chaos node and only activate Behemoth’s three top nodes. Then you can complete all other constallations. This depends a bit on your char’s strengths and weaknesses, and what you value higher.
Do you have a level 85 grimcalc for this?
For the guide you only seem to have one for level 20 and then you have your character at 56 but it’s missing some abilities like you are missing Blade Trap at 56 but your guide implys you should already have that well before then.
I’ve unlocked everything in your further progression section at least to 1 point and am level 42 and still in Veteran and find myself unsure where to put the new points coming in.
I myself am only level 42 and have been concentrating on the auto skills. I was slowly starting to wonder if I was going to hamstring myself later on but the fact you’ve made a guide based on that very idea makes me a happy person.
I’ll continue with my own vision but should I start to hit a wall I know where to come to get some new ideas.
This is my first time playing Grim Dawn, and when I was looking for tips to optimize my character, I realized that I was building something very close to this so I started to trend towards this build. I’m 85 now and although I’ve made a few departures from the suggestions here, I am basically a WPS Blademaster.
I have only one question: how the hell do you kill The Sentinel in Ultimate?
I’ve killed the Loghorrean, I’ve killed Rashalga (that was a really nasty fight for melee), but I can’t even scratch The Sentinel. Yes, I know the crystals heal and buff him, I kite him away from them. Yes, I know the meteors hurt, I do not get hit by them. Yes, I know that you should stay mobile in the fight, but of course that’s only so easy to say when you’re melee and there are constantly spawning adds. I’ve found that there’s a debuff he applies that cuts my DPS by 75~80%. If I engage him for more than a few seconds I get bursted down.
I have max resists in every category, I am overcapped in the elementals, bleeding, vitality and chaos, what else can I bring to this fight?
Sentinel deals significant poison/acid damage, can reduce your resistances with his 5-way fissure attack, (especially poison/acid resistance), can reduce your damage by ~50% with his acid breath, and he regenerates HP fairly quickly.
If you have significant overcap on acid/poison resistance and decent DPS, he isnt a treat. I just facetanked him, that’s all… It’s wierd that you killed Rashalga, but couldnt kill Sentinel.
If he deals to much damage to you, overcap poison resist, by 50-70.
Ditto - I actually made significant changes, as I was not happy with the performance on the last difficulty.
Let’s see … starting the game … turns out I have not tried yet. 
I got distracted by other builds, and have not resumed playing with this char.
I mean, I appreciate the advice, but he’s taking 1/3~1/2 of my health with his regular attack and I’m overcapped on poison by 49% (and looking at my character sheet, my poison never dips below 80% while he’s hitting me). I think my DPS is lower than it should be, but I don’t really know where else I can improve that without a few particularly lucky drops. Basically I have a ton of healing abilities, but when they’re all exhausted I’ve still not done enough damage to him to outdamage the momentary heal he gets until I drag him out of a crystal, let alone the heal he gets from killing me.
Obviously I can always try executing better, clearly I am new to this game and not fantastic at it, but given that Loghorrean and Rashalga both presented a moderate but reasonably beatable challenge, I feel like there’s gotta be something I’m missing, here. Also both Aetherial and Cthonic nemeses don’t bother me one bit. I found an Empowered Alchemists Belt tonight for +6% max poison resist, and while this allows me to live a little better, I’m just doing no damage to him that he can’t heal in the short time he’s in his crystals. That acid breath is just such a strong nerf and so hard to avoid as melee.
Any chance at an update to this build? Seems to be the only Blademaster that focuses on the WPS which is what I want.
I was not satisfied with how the build performed towards the end of Ultimate and decided to revise it. The result has been an improvement and enabled me to beat Benn’Jhar, Moosilauke and Valdaran. Fabius has been my bane, though.
Looks pretty good but always hard to tell what the actual level of each skill should be.