WTF do I do with these legendaries? - Havoc

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Thanks for the participation so far in my previous thread. I got my first character to 50 a couple weeks ago, and I recently started to document my struggles to make peace with the RNG gods.

Today’s post is about Havoc:
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8154-Havoc

That was my reward for finishing Normal (Veteran). Grim Dawn is awfully weird about its legendaries - hey, you need to play a pistol soldier now! Look at these weirdly specific bonuses that scale only off of physical/bleed/trauma!

I’m tempted to go pure Soldier just to wait and see if Vanquisher will be the optimum 2nd class. But Demolitionist seems to be pretty obvious choice, two, together with Gunslinger’s Talisman or whatever dual-pistol unlock is lying around.

Some more items in the stash:

https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/8142-Empowered-Slugger
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/2334-Warpath-Girdle
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/1193-Obsidian-Plate-Cuirass

Occultist:
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/7972-Empowered-Doomforged-Breastplate

It seems like the dual pistols (Havoc and Empowered Slugger) don’t leave much room for Occultist shenanigans because of damage types. The attack speed on Witchfire might be nice to have, but probably not worth giving up Demolitionist (or Vanquisher, depending on how that shapes up).

As much as I would want to just hold off, there aren’t enough point sinks for a dual-pistol Soldier. Somewhere around 30 or 40, the Cadence line should be all maxed out already. If you crank up all the passives, this only gets you to level 65. Of course, I could do that and respec into a second class later, but it doesn’t sound very efficient after 30 or so.

I’m somewhat concerned about efficiency against hordes. A pure single-target DPS build would be great in a party, but with no tank and no AoE, it could be painful trying to clear mobs. Some kind of trap or totem might be necessary, or at the very least, some CC.

I’m not sure what the best devotions are, either. Do I try to stack more physical/trauma, or do I want to go for some radical AoE destruction procs, or is there a cool path that accomplishes both? More defenses are always welcome, too.

2

could i trade you for that pistol?

3

Looks like a good gun to me. Sure, not every build will use it, but that can be said about every single legendary. So if your criteria is ‘every legendary my build cannot make good use of is weird’, then you will find plenty…

4

Havoc is a bit of an oddity.

Its granted skill is pretty bad because it only lasts 1 second and you don’t need +100% Attack Speed to reach the attack speed cap anyways, assuming you’re properly built. The % OA is nice but you’re likely to already have a ton of % OA already from Oleron’s Rage/other skills/devotion/other gear, so it’s not quite as impactful as one would first think.

Having said that, it remains a very powerful pistol, especially when dualwielded. My Havoc build has overcapped Cadence and Deadly Momentum and tons of raw power behind it in general. Definitely very strong.

Interestingly, it’s single-target where the build struggles. It absolutely shreds mobpacks due to the 100% Pierce Chance on Fighting Form.

5

I’m not really looking for trades, but my top character is a Repeating Missile Warlock. She’s 60 right now.

6

It’s amazing how many important details one can miss. That’s a huge difference. Still, with it being linear, I would want some devotion procs shooting out sideways, I would think.

Curse of Frailty is pretty compelling. I do have that Doomforged Breastplate. +Chaos/Vitality and +Cadence on the same item is pretty silly, though.

7

I wish it also had +% to Pierce. This also goes for the other Soldier Pistols, which are quite a few actually.

8

This was also my reward for finishing Normal last week on my first char. Unsure what you have available for a trade

9

i’m levelling a gunslinger cadence withcblade right now, he is supposed to wield 2 deathdealer’s sidearms but you could do one with 2 havocs.

I’m using 3/4 warborn on this guy, if you want to build something similar and looking for someone who might share build/devotions etc… just poke me.

edit : i called him Dirty Harry : isn’t the coolest name a GD character has ever had ???

10

Ranged Cadence works pretty well IMO, even without Devotion procs. It takes a little time to learn where to stand, as it’s different to most other GD builds, but it works well for me. Doorways are your friend, stand just outside them, and shoot inward, and everything is forced to walk into your Cadence shots. Once you get used to finding that best fit line between your enemies, it’s actually really fun.

11

At the moment, I’m building toward Unknown Soldier, mostly for all the offensive stats. I’m lamenting the lack of CC, and I almost wish I had gotten Mirror+Freeze or Tempest. But lowering resistance to physical was really tempting, and I had an Empowered Doomforge plate (+cadence, +witchfire, good stats).

Cadence is a pretty awful “on crit” skill, so I’m sort of suffering with Assassin’s Mark. I really wish it proced devotions on charge-building attacks too. Alas.

I might pick up Turtle later. Maybe side-track for Behemoth instead or something. I’m just not feeling that great with only a slow for cover.

12

Cadence does proc devotions on the first two hits. Only time it doesn’t proc on those two hits is if a WPS like Markovian’s Advantage procs on either those two hits.

13

I thought it proc’d devotions like ABB.

14

And it does. Either of the three Cadence hits can proc devotions. Only time it doesn’t proc or has the chance to proc one is if a WPS proc in either first two hits.

15

What? If a WPS procs in the first two cadence hits, a devotion proc assigned to cadence still has a chance to proc as well.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

16

Wait, so any of the two charging hits can still proc whatever devotion attached to Cadence even if a WPS procs on either those two charging hits? So Assassin Mark attached to MA and Acid Spray attached to Cadence can proc at once? Cadence has to be the most confusing LMB ever.

Can this thing just be consistent for once?

17

I don’t see what’s inconsistent about it.

A Devotion proc assigned to MA and one to Fire Strike can both proc at the same time too.

The only inconsistency is that WPS cannot trigger on the third strike of Cadence. Pretty simple.

18

Weird, it really feels like my Assassin’s Mark is only procing on the 3rd hit, but it could just be coincidence.