Witchblade - The "Voodoo" Warrior (melee/caster hybrid)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

The “Voodoo” Warrior

UPDATED 27/10/2016: Successfully tested against Ultimate Fabius
UPDATED 18/10/2016: Added used equipment.
UPDATED 11/10/2016: Rearranged some skills, added Falcon devotion

Hi to all, who decided to check out the following unorthodox build. Before I begin I must be excused for some things:

  1. I am not experienced in build writing, so feel free to ask if some information is not listed;
  2. English is not my native language.

So – the concept:

I keep very fond memories of Titan Quest`s Champion class, blasting trough everything using melee attacks and Plague. I tried to implement this concept in Grim Dawn and the result was extremely satisfying. The following guide represent a Witchblade melee/caster hybrid, relying extremely on curses.

Warning: Definitely not a beginner friendly build – can be quite hazardous in some situations.

So without any more words, the final build:

http://grimcalc.com/build/I91f6qS

(Grimcalc link includes extra skill points from quests and devotions, no bonuses from equipment are included)

Gameplay: Cast Curse of Frailty and Blood Pox on monsters and explore the map while they are dying in pain :slight_smile: Melee with those, who manage to reach you and feel free to run a while if outnumbered. For boss encounters use Curse of Frailty, Sigil of Consumption and Doom Bolt plus melee attacks. If you are brave enough you may cast Bloody Pox on bosses (it works on them!) but be prepared to run :slight_smile:

Core damage dealing skill is Bloody Pox, which reduce enemys health by percentage so it scales very well with increasing difficulty of the game and respectively greater health bars of enemies. Its modifier increases damage done even more but turns enemies into frenzy state, which result in increased speed and increased damage done to you. With latest updates Bloody Pox is even more deadly. Its damage consists of primary Vitality damage (health reductions counts as Vitality damage), some Bleeding and Poison damage, so it is reduced by relevant enemys resistances. This is where Curse of Frailty moves in – vitality resistance reduction.

UPDATE: Despite the fact that this is a melee/caster hybrid who deals very good damage to whole screen of monsters, it does not go near to a tank build, due to increased damage of monsters, so you must be prepared for this. Survivability is covered by huge life steal and defensive procs, which slows enemies - at upper levels character will be able to tank several hero monsters at the same time.

Leveling tips:

Start Occultist and unlock Bloody Pox ASAP. Be careful not to increase its damage fast – the power of the skill is its transition to other enemies. So if you notice that targeted enemy dies on first “click” stop investing skill points in this skill. By level 10 your build should look something like this:
Level 10: http://grimcalc.com/build/SD0bQn3
Start rushing Occult mastery in order to unlock Doom Bolt and Possession – Blood Pox is already quite powerful
Level 20: http://grimcalc.com/build/IXK7tvk
When you finish with Occult mastery and all core skills are unlocked, continue developing Soldier mastery, while slowly maxing Bloody Pox and Curse of Frailty plus their modifiers.
Level 30: http://grimcalc.com/build/uAZxRY4
Level 40: http://grimcalc.com/build/yLplmhr
Level 50: http://grimcalc.com/build/aKC9N41
By now you for sure won`t be fighting in close range at all, only in very rare situations.
Level 60: http://grimcalc.com/build/jm4qnrK
Level 70: http://grimcalc.com/build/0YkGuiZ
The final build at level 85 you can find in the beginning.

Stat points should go almost all in physique since you have to be prepared to take hard hits while investing in cunning and spirit only a few to cover item requirements

Devotions order:
Crossroads – Eldritch
Bat – assign Twin Fangs to Bloody Pox
Crossroads – Primordial
Gallows
Remove Crossroad – Primordial
Crossroads – Chaos
Viper
Remove Crossroads – Chaos
Wendigo – assign Twin Fangs to Sigil of Consumption, assign Wendigos Mark to Bloody Pox Behemoth – assign Giants Blood to Possession
Remove Crossroad – Eldritch
Manticore – assign Acid Spray to Curse of Frailty
Falcon – assign Falcon Swoop to Cadence
Affliction – assign Fetid Pool to Field Command
Chariot of the Dead – assign Wayward Soul to Solael`s Witchfire

Used equipment:
Full Marcovian set
Hands - Voidsteel gauntlets,
Boots - Boneshatter Treads,
Pants - Demonbone Legplates or Pretty Great Pants.
Weapon - Damnation axe
Medal - Black Star of Deceipt
Rings- Open Hand of Mercy & Signet of the Fallen

Procs:
Fast clearing of wide areas
Very fun to play
Huge life leech - very tanky in upper levels
Not so gear dependant (life leech comes from devotions and skills)
Unorthodox build, different from the rest

Cons:
Quite hazardous if not careful
Takes some time to develop necessary skills
Enraged Obsidian monsters in BoC hit very hard!
Not so good (but reasonably doable) against large single targets (Nemesis and Boss monsters)

Cheers!

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Reserved for more space

3

Why no Aspect of the Guardian? This is a very nice add-on to Blood of Dreeg, and gives you massive poison resist and some physical resist as well, and you do put 10 points into Vulnerability, which lowers acid, vitality and poison resist. Since AotG gives you acid vit and poison damage, it seems to synergise well there.

4

Because of two reasons:

  1. My core damage is vitality - 12 skill points for only 50 % vitality damage does not worth it. Bleeding and poison damage are extra. Besides I hate to constantly recast this skill every 30 seconds. As character grows up I find myself using Blood of Dreeg very rarely.
  2. Not enough skill points - maxed skills are essential to the build to work.
5

Well, it looks to me that you’ve picked Soldier just for squad tactics, the rest are 1 pointers. And you went 40 mastery points just to get 1 point counterstrike? You said that you focus on vita dmg, why not max second rite? It gives huge amounts of flat vita dmg. Or aspect of the guardian, it gives you %vita dmg, like the last modifier on bloody pox, but also tons of psn RES and a lot of phys rez. From what I’ve learned so far, if you go max sigil, that’s another build (I might be wrong, but imo its not worth the points otherwise).
Anyway, let us know how you handle in ultimate, curious about your progress.

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Crazyfroggg, thanks for constructive criticism - after all the build is still under construction.
> Small update: Soldier mastery goes to 32, Counterstrike and Anvil constellation are removed, maxed Military Conditioning.
> Max Sigil helps me to successfully tank bosses and hero monsters.
> Regarding Aspect of the Guardian i have already explained that i do not like to constantly recast bufs and I am short of skill points.
> As far as i understand game mechanics flat vitality damage from Second Rite is transfered to melee attacks only. With character progression i find myself to go melee in very rare occasions. Anyway this might be reconsidered if I am wrong about Second Rite.

7

More of a question but does bloody pox really work well at upper difficulties (specifically ultimate)?

I thought those kinds of skills which take away a % of current enemy health become increasingly less effective over higher difficulties, like there was a nerf or something to prevent it from working as well somehow (maybe like static field in Diablo 2 where it couldn’t take enemies below like 66% health in hell or something like that after they nerfed it, since it was too easy to spam to the point where like 90% of a boss’s health could be taken away with just super fast casting speed in seconds before the nerf).

Asking because in early Diablo 2 before they nerfed static field, I loved that skill. I combined it with super fast casting speed to drop boss health down to like 5% and then kill them in one hit even in hell difficulty. After they nerfed, it ruined that whole build. :frowning: They made it so you couldn’t drop more than like 33% of the health of a boss using it.

Maybe those kinds of skills being OP isn’t a problem in GD because of cooldowns.

8

Well, %reduction enemy health it’s good when the mob is full health, obviously. Coz the dmg afterwards decreases, considering it’s %nt based. Second of all, bosses have a great deal of resistance to this, so, imo Blood Pox shouldn’t be picked for that thing mainly. Warcry reduces also %enemy health, but it’s best used for it’s other debuff, x% reduced enemy dmg, it helps a lot in mitigating the incoming dmg in higher difficulties/nemesis etc.
The “hit-and-run” tactics work best with Bloody Pox when focused on bleed dmg, not vitality.
I’ve read up in the thread that you dislike using buffs like Blood of Dreeg, but every GD player knows this: phys resistance it’s VERY important, and you get very little from gear, that’s why ppl using Occultist usually try to get some levels in AotG. Anyway, if you plan to go mostly ranged, than i guess 1pt wonder will suffice. But, the buff itself, BoD, gives you: Heal (very important, you will see. A healing skill it’s desirable for every class), OA( actually a lot of flat OA, you’ll love it).

9

But u maximize BoD…for what? Heal?
Mind if I ask how you fight something like Fabius or BoC boss?
You are short of points because you overcap some unnecessary things. And this build seems lack of focus…

10

On the second thought maybe it will be necessary to max Aspect of the Guardian for tough situations. Most probably will drop Blood of Dreeg to level 1. Anyway i will see what needs to be changed with character`s progression. Much thanks for your constructive opinions.

11

Well, have fun with the progression, most things you will figure them out later on, when you’ll hit ultimate, or some tough nemesis/bosses.
Anyway, maybe you’d say that we have a fixation on Blood of Dreeg with Aspect of the Guardian, but sadly it’s one of the best duration buffs in game.
Again, good luck and keep us in touch on how things go on ultimate :slight_smile:

12

What?! This build isn’t tested in ultimate yet??
No wonder…

13

It is written that it is still “under construction” :slight_smile: I am trying to incorporate the Bloody Pox skill because there is no build using it. All of us are well aware of “ultra” successful builds - i am trying to achieve something different :slight_smile:

14

Which is really cool and by no means was I trying to shit on that. But AotG is just so good as a skill and sure looks like it would synergize with your build, which is why I mentioned it.

15

Huge thanks to all of you for advises - I have reconsidered the Blood of Dreeg and Aspect of the Guardian (1:max) skill and will update the build within some days :slight_smile:

16

I am happy to announce current progress - character is level 72, just started Ultimate difficulty, epic Loghorrean fight was a piece of cake :slight_smile:

17

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18

I don’t think it’s worth maxing Witchfire if you’re literally only using it to buff your Vitality damage. I also find it questionable to max all three components of Bloody Pox when you only capitalize on Wasting’s portion of damage. You should either move those points into Blood of Dreeg/Aspect of the Guardian, or into Cadence and Second Rite imo.