Introduction
Sup guys, as some of you might know already there’s a community league that begins today, and I decided to participate in the HCSSF part of it so that I could, you know, snap “league starter” on my build, which would be quite badass. 
I’ve chosen this Battlemage to be my starter character. Battlemage isn’t a particularly good class and this build is expected to have mediocre single target damage, but as I’m not going to use it to clear high end league achievements it doesn’t matter. It’s simply a build for farming on Hardcore half-asleep – layers upon layers of defense, with playstyle dumbed down to “blitz in, hold a button”.
The diary format is not how I normally do things, but I’d like to promote the community event a bit. You can still sign up!
Mechanics of Callidor's Tempest
Most skills in Grim Dawn have either high %weapon damage or no %weapon damage at all, and the approach to building differs between the two. Callidor’s Tempest (CT for short) is a rare example of a middle-ground skill with %weapon damage being lower than 100%, but at the same time too high to ignore completely - 60% at 26/16.
Practically this means two things.
The first is you can effectively raise the skill’s “base” damage with that %weapon damage part. Because of this the meta way to build around CT is actually using a two-hander, which have a vastly bigger base damage compared to caster weapons. Flat damage buffs like Reckless Power or Fabric of Reality, while not very efficient due to being scaled down to 60%, also add up to your total base CT damage.
Second is how lifesteal works with it. Builds with skills that have high weapon damage usually stack %attack damage converted to health (lifesteal for short), while builds without weapon damage try to solve the sustain issues somehow else, e.g. by adding devotion procs with built-in lifesteal or looking for skill modifiers that directly add lifesteal to their skills. Due to it’s significant %weapon damage Callidor’s Tempest can and should utilize the first way, moreover it’s quite efficient. It’s easy to assume that stacked lifesteal, if it’s not added to the skill directly via skill modifier, will only work on the %weapon damage part of the skill. This is incorrect, the way it works is:
- Stacked lifesteal is scaled down due to %weapon damage being lower than 100%. If you have 10% attack damage converted to health and 60% weapon damage, then your actual lifesteal would be 6%.
- The calculated scaled down lifesteal is then applied to all damage that skill does.
There’s a misconception that Callidor’s Tempest is a “melee” skill, which I find very misleading because the skill has range of 5.5m at 16/16. Just because it’s quite short doesn’t mean that you need to hug enemes and facetank them.
There’s a concept of “strong”, “carry” skills among the buildmakers, which are the skills that have enough potential to carry the build on their own. Callidor’s Tempest is hard to call as one because single target damage it does is very mediocre, so you have to find more single target damage elsewhere. If it’s an aether build it could use Agrivix’s Malice relic, which got a very strong proc. Other damage types aren’t so lucky, which is the reason why you won’t see an abundance of different CT builds on the forum.
Levelling
As said in the introduction, test character was levelled as a first, “starter” character in of Grim Dawn HC SSF league. League has some special greenhouse starter conditions (with exp potions and difficulty unlocking merits), and while I did use it to my advantage a bit to save time, I still been mostly keeping up to my normal progression.
The initial game plan was to start on veteran (fool’s difficulty, but I wouldn’t be Stupid Dragon if my builds weren’t foolproof), rush it with classic Soldier Forcewave levelling to the end of Ashes of Malmouth campaign and get Fleshwarped Core there, then switch to Callidor’s Tempest, go Elite and reach Malmouth again in a speed I’m comfortable with, farm Krieg set there. After that it’s just grind levels and reputation.
The considered alternative was levelling early on with Lightning Nova and Empowered Lightning Nova instead of Forcewave. While it has some allure because it’s very similar to Callidor’s Tempest I didn’t like that I’ll have to look for lightning two-hander to make the best out of it (which means visiting Forgotten Gods campaign for Korvan Storm Halberd, which is quite a detour in the original plan. In contrast for Forcewave pretty much any two-hander is good enough, and Obsidian War Cleaver could be commonly found along the way. There’s also that it makes more sense to push Arcanist for Star Pact when playing with Lightning Nova, while the goal - Fleshwarped Core - means I want to push Soldier instead for Menhir’s Bulwark.
In the end I decided that some extra similarity isn’t worth the hassle and it’s better to just use the superior levelling method so that I can play the real deal sooner.
Callidor’s Tempest is unfortunately still an absolutely garbage skill when it comes to early levelling. While it’s available early on it’s energy cost is pointlessly prohibitive until around level 30 at the very least, making it a classic example of a noob trap.
Levels 1-20
Start with Soldier. Early on you can level by just picking a random rifle and shooting everything, but you should prioritize getting the 2H melee weapon and rush Forcewave with Tremor. A good pickup you can do even at level 1 is Hevill’s Greatsword (map, it’s lightning-biased sure, but at this point it doesn’t matter, you just need any two-hander. Suggested by-level path:
| Level | |
|---|---|
| 2 to 5 | 1 point into Soldier Mastery Bar, 2 into Forcewave |
| 6 | 3 points into Soldier |
| Kasparov | Tremor, assuming you’ve already got 2H Melee stick |
| 7 | 3 points into Forcewave |
| 8 to 11 | 2 points into Forcewave, 1 point into Soldier |
| 12 | 1 point into Soldier, 2 points into Rending Force |
| 13 to 17 | 2 points into Soldier, 1 point into Rending Force |
| 18 | 3 points into Rending Force |
| 19 | 2 points into Rending Force, 1 point into Internal Trauma |
| 20 | 3 points into Soldier |
This is an optimal variant tested many times, same one I’ve been using in my Deathknight guides. To rush veteran difficulty I need high AoE damage capable of obliterating enemies, which is why skill progression looks like that. It balances out damage and defense, which comes in the form of health from mastery bar, just right. And when it comes to Forcewave it’s better to focus damage because lack of defense can be easily compensated with piloting techniques, such as stutter step.
There’s a stone golem boss (Ancient Shambler by name) in the Flooded Passage that drops Shambler’s Heart. It boosts Forcewave quite a fair bit. Chance to drop is 50%, so it’s probably a reasonable time investment to farm this one so that the rest of the levelling was more smooth.
Once you rescue the Blacksmith craft a couple of Scaled Hides and Wardstones. Unfortunately there are no weapon buff components for physical damage, so if you’re looking for what to put into your weapon I suggest Purifier Salt.
Levels 21-35
Work your way to 50 points in Soldier’s mastery bar and get Oleron’s Rage maxed. Yes, Oleron’s Rage for now. Menhir’s Bulwark is a totally inferior exclusive skill unless it’s boosted via skill modifiers. After that invest into Field Command. Field Command is an amazing source of stats, especially it’s armor increasing part is very welcome. I don’t want to be keeping a close eye on my gear updates when levelling, the extra armor serves just that.
Level 35 is where you get access to your first faction gear, usually Devil’s Crossing and maybe Rovers. Devil’s Crossing is more or less guaranteed as I’ve never failed to reach Respected by 35, whereas for Rovers it’s possible but will require some detours to ensure, which I don’t think is necessary as Rover’s gloves and boots get outdated really fast.
Overall Devil’s Crossing chest, shoulders and helm are all decent stepping stones if there’s nothing better so far. Devil’s Shoulderguard will provide extra damage via +2 to Forcewave while Devil’s Headguard provides %damage and an interesting proc. As for the chestpiece I usually prefer Devil’s Cuirass because the second half of vanilla campaign is all Chthonic, so chaos resistance is very welcome. Last but not least, a Devil’s Cord blueprint can be bought, craft one for easy +1 to all skills in Soldier. If you have Respected reputation with Rovers already then you should also get the Restless Remains blueprint from them and craft one. It’s very good for Forcewave especially and will serve you well once you switch to Callidor’s Tempest too.
Boosted by Field Command this gear should be enough to get one into late 40’s safely, provided adequate piloting skills.
Levels 36-50
Transition levels, since the first tier of Fleshwarped Core is level 40 and it’s very much possible to reach Malmouth before 50. The most reliable way of getting a Fleshwarped Core is to rescue Hyram and use the shop reset gimmick. You need one with casting speed and preferably non-detrimental prefix.
Open Arcanist and push it to 32. The goal is to have Mental Alacrity by the time you’re switching to Callidor’s Tempest. It’s a very energy hungry skill and Mental Alacrity is de facto one of it’s enablers.
The reason Mental Alacrity is so good is not only -% energy costs helps you directly, which is even more efficient if you use Arcane Lens to get more of it, but extra energy pool also helps you with energy management because you have a larger buffer so to speak, and it also makes your energy potions more efficient since these recover a percentage of your maximum energy.
The respec procedure itself is very simple.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| 16 points in Forcewave | 16 points in Callidor’s Tempest |
| 12 points in Oleron’s Rage | 12 points in Menhir’s Bulwark |
| 12 points in Rending Force | 12 points in Inner Focus |
Devotions
- Crossroads (blue)
- Eel
- Remove Crossroads (blue)
- Crossroads (green)
- Scholar's Light
- Kraken
- Imp
- Hawk
- Remove Scholar's Light
- Widow
- Jackal
- Ghoul
- Revenant
- Sailor's Guide
- Spear of the Heaven
- Aeon's Hourglass
- Dying God (3 points)
An oldschool-ish aether devotion setup, getting Imp because a global 100% fire to aether conversion is just too juicy to pass up. Not completely sold on Hourglass proc because it doesn’t seem to me like this build will need it, but we’ll see, after all the build does have a quite noticeable layer of cdr defence.
Proc bindings:
WIP
Endgame Items & Farming
Weapon - Fleshwarped Core (GT Link)
- By far the easiest way to get it is to shopfarm Hyram using shop reset gimmick.
- Must have %aether and casting speed. Ideally “of Shattered Reality”.
- The absolute fantasy version would be Aetherfire Fleshwarped Core of Shattered Reality.
Chest - Krieg’s Chestguard (GT Link)
- Drops from Fleshweaver Krieg
- Player must be level 75+
- Can farm on Elite, Ultimate and maybe Normal as well (didn’t test). Recommended on Elite.
- Ideally max roll on physical resistance (4%)
Head - Mythical Maw of Despair (GT Link)
- Craftable, blueprint is a random world drop, farm totems or SR.
- Budget placeholder is Krieg's Mask
- The closer to max rolls the better, can recraft for better rolls. Craft with Angrim, probably.
Shoulders - Krieg’s Shoulderguards (GT Link)
- Drops from Valaxteria
- Player must be level 75+
- Can farm on Elite, Ultimate and maybe Normal as well (didn’t test). Recommended on Elite.
Gloves - Krieg’s Grip (GT Link)
- Drops from Valaxteria
- Player must be level 75+
- Can farm on Elite, Ultimate and maybe Normal as well (didn’t test). Recommended on Elite.
- Ideally max roll physical resistance (4%)
Boots - Krieg’s Boots (GT Link)
- Drops from Terrnox
- Player must be level 75+
- Can farm on Elite, Ultimate and maybe Normal as well (didn’t test). Recommended on Elite.
- Ideally max roll on physical resistance (4%)
Leg Armor – Mythical Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind (GT Link) or Mythical Arcane Harmony (GT Link) or Mythical Wraithborne Legwraps (GT Link)
- All of them random drops, all have their pros and cons. Arcane Harmony looks slightly better because the build is short on Defensive Ability a bit, also it's craftable so can be made even better with crafting bonuses.
- Budget placeholder is Solael-Sect Legguards . Drops from Guardian of Solael.
Belt - Chains of Ygraad (GT Link)
- Drops from Watcher Ygraad who spawns in [Port Valbury](https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/bosses/11733)
- Got nuts farming these. Ideally with Dread Lord's prefix.
Rings - Magelord Signet (GT Link) and Magelord Band (GT Link).
- They make up a blue set, so you can use Transmuter and provided you have a great deal of Iron (like 3-4 millions) you're pretty much guaranteed with them.
- Moreover, because that's a two-piece set you can use same-set piece transmutation to convert one into another, until you perfect out the rolls on them. But that procedure is going to be quite a bit more expensive because it requires Eldritch Essence.
- A more budget alternative would be Malmouth Aetherblaze (GT Link), which is a faction gear piece bought from Malmouth Resistance quartermaster.
Amulet - Malmouth Warped Pendant (GT Link)
- Faction gear, bought from Malmouth Resistance Quartermaster once you have Honored with them.
- Mythical Arcane Shard of Agrivix as a less budget alternative.
- Another alternative is some variant of Conduit of Arcane Whispers, any would be fine as long as it's conversion won't mess up your build.
Medal - Mythical Mark of Anathema (GT Link)
- Standard CT build medal, is craftable and blueprint is a random drop.
- Craft with Angrim to make it even better.
- A budget placeholder would be Wendigo Tainted Mark ([GT Link](https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/7554))
Relic - Agrivix’s Malice (GT Link)
- Blueprint is a random drop.
- Completion bonus doesn't matter that much. Ideally the +1 to Overload and Inferno one, but no point to sweat over it.
Conclusion
Once done.
