Why is my Warborn physical DK's defense performance so bad

Grim Dawn Public Test Discussion
1

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNk4pMl2

In game I have 3000 DA, 21 physical resistance and 4700+ armor, that’s literally the most armor I’ve ever built. However I can’t even win a solo fight with Iron Maiden at SR-38. I think she’s the most ‘physical’ nemesis in the game?

Compare it with some other of my recent builds that are capable for SR-40, Deathguard Dervish, Diviner Spellbinder, and Ember’s Calling Pyromancer. So, what do they have on defense side respectively. Dodge chance and the ability to move during fights, CDR and damage absorption, Blast Shield. Not so sure these are exactly the reasons work here, but they all can beat a SR-38 Iron Maiden very very easily.

Then, how about 4700 armor? Why is it not helping me very much?

As to other types of damage, it’s even worse. Some little bugs spit a poison pool under my foot, then somehow I died suddenly, that really happened. I guess the Arcane Barrier from Crab can’t help me with it very well. And the Avenger of Cairn amulet, I give up some offense stats to wear it, hoping it can make me tanky, but not really.

Maybe it’s better to have Turtle shell as well. I just don’t want to give up offense stats further.

I realize that, for a long time I’m much more willing to play a Mage-like build, which can move, can poke, rather than those melee dummy-attackers. I don’t know how to make them tanky enough. And if we regard a retaliation build like Dawnbreaker Warder a melee dummy-attacker as well — what’s the price of having the Tire-1 tanky rating in the game? Lower damage at single target, maybe (actually it depends), but in many cases I can easily pull all the four bosses together to speed up, at least at SR-37, 38.

2

I don’t see anything obvious to me, but it could be a combination of trauma damage and lack of reflect resist? Your trauma on gdtools doesn’t look too high, but all the wps have extra trauma damage, so it still might be possible that this is an issue.

3

There’s something wrong with your first link. I was able to see the build by copying the code though.

You’ve got no regen. That means you will die in 1 hit to any damage over time. Drop Necro down to 15 and get Veterancy and Menhir’s Will. Also get some regen devotions. Maybe Scythe and Lizard.

4

I mean, it’s SR 38, you already well beyond what the devs expect from a build.

3 Likes
5

Checked database, didn’t find she has reflect abilities, does have some pierce retaliation.

Every time it’s like, my health up&downs dramatically, then a Forcewave sec-kills me at about 75%.

6

Yeah that’s true.
Personally I hope my builds can go through 36-40, which is not a realistic goal to achieve for many builds at the moment.
But 36-37 is getting more reasonable as a standard nowadays, I think, but still a struggle for this one, even with a high armor up to 4700, which confused me.

7

not an sr 38-40 expert, but 2 small things stand out to me on the general side, low res overcap on some chaose/acid(rolls could be different ingame), and “low”'ish lifesteal

I didn’t check if the hotfix fixed sunder multiply stack bug, but if it wasn’t maybe that’s something?

aside from that, others already mentioned game it remotely balanced with that high SR in mind, so might simply be devs snuck in a sneak sr 40 scaling increase to make things rougher after phys dmg reducts and maintain the limit by murder :sweat_smile:

edit, i checked the crit calc, under “peak” circumstances, ie maiden has fighting spirit active and DA shred debuff on your, she gets 13% crit chance on you, the other chars seem to have a bit more effective da via having some OA shred, but the DK has none, resulting in the lowest DA against maiden of all them (aside from the extra safeties like mirror etc), so maybe it’s “just” RNG spike dmg? :thinking:

8

My guess is that armor becomes worthless after a certain sr shard because the single physical damage sources from enemies far exceed your armor value. Seems % physical resistance becomes better the higher the sr shard is and you only have 21%.

1 Like
9

I think that your lifesteal is just not enough for it. You also have no low life circuit breakers… Also DoTs will be problematic for your build due to pracitcally no heatlh regen or flat absporption.

And mainly your only damage reduction or absorption is on War Cry and that is not enough for SR 38.

1 Like
10

It wasn’t fixed, you can still get stacking sunders and other debuffs. Saw a screenshot of 71% fumble and the like, hilarious but broken.

1 Like
11

a lot of enemies dont’ just do a single source of phys dmg, specially not if weapon attacks are involved

12

Your first problem is throwing that kind of melee against SR 38.

Your second problem is that currently Sunder and debuff values are still higher than what they should be.

Your third problem is not cooking that DK correctly. Here is how you do it:

You can swap amulet to your retal one for max res but in principle this medal is a must while wps pool should not include both Reaping Strike and Necrotic (they have awkward interaction).

You should also go for Soul Harvest and Glad belt.

1 Like
13

I really hope not. :sweat_smile: First it was 65 (26) was the norm, then 75 (30), I certainly hope not we’ve creeped up to 90 :see_no_evil: Poor campaign monsters getting steamrolled ever faster.

What do they do to each other?

14

Well someone from our discord tested them a lot and apparently there is some awkward animation thing happening. But I am not sure this is like 100% researched and known truth, might be just a superstition.

1 Like
15

Ah ok, I wouldn’t be surprised either way :smiley:

16

i don’t think it’s just superstition, since mi0 analyzed it for Cadence interactions too, and wps “numbers” def are all over the place

节奏充能表格1
节奏充能表格11709×332 21.2 KB

1 Like
17

The answer is simple, your build is lack of defenses needed for higher SR except armor, war cry and pys res.

Iron maiden have deadly bleed damage (used to have massive IT damage but i guess Zantai removed it), high armor and phys res wont help you for that. I think the only way to counter that with your DK is outheal her DOT, either by investing in health regen or pumping your life steal.

IM also have 225 DA shred, you can pump your DA for lesser chance to get crit. Your Dervish have OA shreds from Veil and Murmur, your Pyro have higher DA, OA shreds from BWC and dmg absorb from phoenix.

Just saw Mad Lee’s link, you can use that too. Better DA and better DPS (roughly 30% more phys damage = 30% more life steal)

18

why is that. War Cry under Warborn set can cover all the time, can’t it?

Lifesteal could be an issue. Maybe it’s Iron Maiden’s armor is too high to leech for a dual physical build. Health regen, to my opinion, is too expensive for most cunning-based builds, except for Nature’s Avenger maybe.

19

I think sunder is not the issue here, in a melee solo fight with Iron Maiden there won’t be second Blitz.
I’ve heard about the wps things. It is said Necrotic Edge is much better than Reaping Strike, but I didn’t know they have interaction problems. Actually I build this one for the new Corruptian…

20

They had interaction problems when icd is 0.5 seconds. But I suggest to do more tests as icd is 0.35 seconds now.

1 Like