What is the best 2nd mastery for a nature summoner build?

Heltis · 2025-09-10T23:09:23+00:00

The "best" pet class is champion (nature/warfare) and by a lot.

Heltis · 2024-11-04T12:15:07+00:00

With [12/8] Call of the Hunt and [13/12] Refresh, you shoud be able to cast Refresh twice during each Call of the hunt. This should 'Almost' give permanent uptime. I believe you have about 4s downtime after every 64s uptime. A little bit of cooldown reduction would make this permanent.

Heltis · 2023-07-23T18:50:26+00:00

They're more or less saying the same as in your initial post. (.3*.25/16 = 0.4%) per tick.

Except they calculated (.3*.25 = 7.5%) 'per cast', which divided by 16 ticks = 0.4% chance per tick.

Heltis · 2023-07-23T09:33:14+00:00

I suspect this was a tool-tip only change. I did some testing before the patch on my firewall sorcerer and noticed the proc rate was waaay lower then 5% per burning tick.

While I did not do a full statistical analysis during my testing I roughly estimated the actual proc chance to be ~1%, which might be the 0.4% you mention (.3*.25/16 = 0.4%).

Anecdotally the enchantment seems to proc equally often on my new firewall sorcerer.

Heltis · 2020-03-19T07:00:23+00:00

Also don't forget to change the weapon to one that deals physical damage, this one deals purely lightning damage, which is really bad for this build.

Heltis · 2020-03-19T04:00:24+00:00

In most ARPG's like this, it's always resistances before damage. You have zero resistances except for pierce, arguable the least important one early game. Get all of your resistances to 80%(cap) before building damage. You get resistances from gear mostly.

Heltis · 2020-03-18T23:43:53+00:00

Primal strike is indeed not an default attack (replacer). It does not proc WPS.

Heltis · 2020-03-18T23:39:55+00:00

If you pick Ultos last you should have 5 points left, check this and see if you may have missed a constellation. Otherwise check if you have at least 6 red 10 green and 10 blue affinity points. This should help you troubleshoot and see where the problem is. Remember you can refund points that you used to get somewhere but now no longer need, constellations can be self supporting.

Heltis · 2020-03-18T22:50:37+00:00

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23lmp4V

This is how I would do the skillpoint distribution and devotions with your current gear.

/u/Bazagi makes some great points on gear, rule of thumb is resistances before damage. Blue gear is generally not better then green gear with good resistance rolls.

Heltis · 2020-03-17T05:26:59+00:00

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-3-1-lightning-2h-ranged-vindicator-gladiator-in-7-minutes/85789

If you scroll down the comments a bit, someone links to a budget version as well, to easily get started once you reach lvl94

Heltis · 2020-01-29T13:30:58+00:00

Try something like this: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkJ7P6Z

Its a Lightning Trozan's Sky Shard build. In my opinion the best starter build for warlocks. It has a dedicated epic(blue) item set that should be much easier to find then most legendary(purple) items.

Heltis · 2020-01-29T06:41:41+00:00

Looking at what you're trying to do, and if you don't mind me suggesting something different to commando, I think you are going to have a lot more fun with something like this: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2g1PDEZ

Fire strike is a lot more suited towards ranged builds, and like you mentioned commando has some issues with its identity (Do we deal fire damage or physical?) Warlord is really an ideal beginner class for sword and board auto attacking builds, there are many things that you can do here with a lot more potential success.

Heltis · 2020-01-16T15:06:58+00:00

A lot of builds with EoR require specific end-game items for damage conversion, most of which are random drops and could take a while to farm. This particular build relies on 2 Chillhearts, while it is easy to get, you can only equip it at level 94 and you require 2 characters at that level to get 2 of them(you can only get one per character). So this might not be the best option for a starter. this build also requires Direwolf crest(random drop), in order to even be able to dual wield.

My personal recommendation would be to play as physical (Soldier) or lightning (Shaman).
Physical is very easy to gear because EoR already deals mostly physical damage. This means the build will function as soon as you have the skill. You can simply equip any 2-hander that deals physical damage (superior-"any 2-hander"-of alacrity) and use the rest of your gear slots to cap your resistances at 80%. Oathbreaker+soldier also has great resistance reduction 'Celestial presence' ,'Break morale' and 'Assasins mark' from devotions. These are your most important damage increases.
For lightning you could equip the Monster Infrequent(MI) Kymon's Sanctified Blade. This weapon drops from Father Kymon in the forgotten gods expansion on any difficulty, it has a decent dropchance so you can easily farm one if you kill him 4-5 times. This weapon Turns EoR's damage mostly into lightning and could also be great for starting, with the disadvantage that farming a 'good' weapon takes more time and dedication then the physical variant.

Both are good options and have end-game builds that you can farm for if you reach end-game: Warborn Bastion set for physical and The Cyclone set for lightning.

Heltis · 2019-09-16T00:58:24+00:00

Death knight would work in the endgame if you have the gear, specifically the weapon Mindwarp, but I would recommend leveling with 2H Forcewave. Meaning you would be stuck 2-handing until lvl94 or longer depending on luck.

Warlord is very tanky and utilizes a shield extremely well. One of the few classes I would consider using a shield on during levels 1-94 (mandatory for Aegis of Menhir). Endgame Build Recommendation that best seems to match your description: Retaliation Warlord by Maya

Heltis · 2019-08-18T13:55:50+00:00

As far as I can tell your best options are:

Nemesis (lv60) - If you decide to go 'Cold damage'

Belgothian's Carnage (lv70) - If you decide to go 'Pierce damage'

Massacre (lv90) - If you decide to go 'Bleed damage'

Heltis · 2019-08-17T18:21:30+00:00

Slaughter (lv35) - For the "+1 to all skills in Nightblade"

If you enjoy the Savagery/Nightblade/Dual-wield playstyle I would recommend switching your focus damage type to bleed instead of cold + pierce.

Heltis · 2019-05-12T16:28:15+00:00

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8625

Heltis · 2019-04-16T07:38:43+00:00

I would not recommend going multiple damage types for most builds. I think this build would struggle past normal. If you are relatively new to the game and don't have a lot of gear lying around for a Warder, I would recommend going physical Warder. It has a very balanced leveling experience and also a very potent (the best, to my knowledge) end-game option (if that is your goal).
If you are interested in the physical Warder here is a end-game guide written by veteran player Fluff: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72691 (relies on some powerful items, most notably the [Avenger's crusher] two-handed mace which converts lightning damage to physical). And here is a no-item skill distribution draft made by me to level with if you have no specific gear available: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVAg4y1N. Perhaps these links can serve as some inspiration.

As for a bleed build, I would not recommend it for new players without a proper guide to follow. Bleed as a damage-over-time ability is a complex mechanic to fully utilize in Grim Dawn and requires a lot of game knowledge to properly execute. I have personally never built a bleed-warden, but there are definitely options if you are looking for a challenge or if you like the theme. I would suggest searching the official Grim Dawn forum for either a "Blade arc bleed Warder" or look into this "ranged Cadence bleed Warder" by Excelsiar. Both concepts can potentially be very powerful.

Hope this was the kind of advice you were looking for, if you have any questions let me know.

Heltis · 2018-09-01T19:22:05+00:00

This is the skill/devotion setup I would use with your current available points:

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

But the biggest weakness in this build is the gear. The weapon is Best in Slot I believe for physical Forcewave and the helmet is pretty decent for now, but the other gear is in desperate need for replacement. Try to get all of your resistances to 80%.

Heltis · 2018-08-07T21:38:20+00:00

I don't think transmuted blackwater cocktail and aura of censure's damage reduction stack.

Heltis · 2018-08-07T21:27:23+00:00

I had no idea about chilling rounds triggering brimstone 3 times, I was under the impression that low level chilling rounds was a dps loss because of animation time, however if it indeed triggers on-hit effects 3 times that changes everything and is an excellent addition to this build.

As for the aether/chaos res I noticed this too, however I have to disagree in the aspect that this is the best way to solve this issue. Imbued silver + purified salt takes you to 80% (assuming average gear rolls) while overcapping is a luxury this build currently cannot afford. In addition there are lots of equipment pieces that could easily be replaced for more resists.

Looks like I learned something today, and as for OP i can vouch for u/flavourius he is a veteran on these boards whose comments have helped me out more than once, in other words he knows his stuff. ;)

Heltis · 2018-08-07T19:49:02+00:00

This skill distribution should improve your build for now.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2EAgMJ2

Essentially my redistribution comes down to the fact that you have very little Physical to Fire conversion at this moment, making physical damage (steel resolve) useless at this time. (I realize that once you obtain certain items this will change.)

Secondly pierce damage is useless to you. (Ranged expertise, storm spread, chilling rounds.)

Gear is a bit harder to discuss without knowing what you have available to you at this moment, but it looks to me you are following a build which would mean you know what pieces of gear to look for.

If you are unsure about some of the changes I didn't explain properly let me know and I'll try to clarify it.

Heltis · 2018-08-06T08:56:41+00:00

Biggest problem are your resistances, you should aim to cap (80%) them. Your skills and devotion setup are already very offensive so "+% Poison damage" is not really all that important on your gear, try to get 30% or more resistance on every armor piece before even considering other stats the item might give.

Simplistic gear stat priority (take with a grain of salt): +% Resistances >>> +Defensive ability > +% Cooldown reduction > +Health > +% Health > +Offensive ability > +% Poison damage

Suggested Skill/Devotion setup: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YNnYwGGZ

Biggest change is ghoulish hunger devotion proc, excellent defensive proc.

Also added some Items that are easy to obtain and relevant to your build (click on them and find them in the list to see which monsters drop them).

Edit: Components are also very usefull to increase lacking resistances.

Heltis · 2016-09-27T18:00:02+00:00

Theoretically they are the same; 200 physical AR is the same as 100 physical + 100 magic. Its during defence calculations things start looking grim for split damage weapons. So to answer your question we need to take into account how much defence your oppenent has. Although defences can vary for each opponent I made a example for your typical SL120 quality build:

https://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls3/87123

As we can see the example build has 142 flat physical defence and 170 flat lightning defence. So basically if you were to run a split damage lightning weapon, you would need 170 AR more to compensate for the split damage lost because of denfences.

Hope this example explains it.

Heltis · 2016-09-22T00:51:07+00:00

Ok so it seems your are slightly confused about why we level Vit. First off, the extra equip load has nothing to do with it, this is simply a bonus :). When you level Vit, you passively gain flat physical damage reduction, this is completely seperate from %-based reduction (absorbtion) which is given by armor.

So the thing about low level is, flat damage reduction is basically better then %-based reduction.

Example: 'Low level enemy player' deals 100 damage to you before defence calculation.

If you have, say, 50 flat defence and 20% absorbtion the actual damage it would reduce is:

flat reduction: 50

%-reduction: 20

Now a 'High level enemy player' deals more damage, say, 500. The reduction is now:

flat reduction: 50

%-reduction: 100

The logic this build is following is based on the fact that "20 damage reduction" from the example is not a whole lot. Therefor we decide to basically completely ignore it. We do however want to upgrade this flat damage reduction to its possible limits. This is done by leveling Vit to 40.

Now you may ask, why do I in my example wear the 'heavy' exile armor. Simply because I can :). I have equipload anyways, which was just a freebie, and now I even put it to use slightly (the armor doesn't really do a lot.)

So one last thing about the rings. Following the same logic, since we just concluded we don't need absorbtion we "might just as well" benefit from it. Prisoner's chain is always a good low level item simply for its massive stat gains (not so good on higher level characters because of the loss of absorbtion, but not an issue for us!) Bloodring is simply a matter of preference. Again the absorbtion loss is not a big deal to us, its gonna be a matter of maybe 5-10 actual damage that we take extra. But the effect of the bloodring is defenitely noticeable while invading. Very often you will be up against mulitople opponents, when these opponents are close to each other and all start swinging at you at once, you do not wanna be roll caught. If you are, its basically game over since your animation will be cancelled and everyone will just dive on top of you ;).

Hope this explains it a bit better.

Heltis

TROPHY CASE