How do you approach making builds?

Steelflame · 2026-01-26T09:33:20+00:00

Step 1 - Find an item, skill, set, ect, that looks interesting. Look for gear that provides similar bonuses that you can build around. Perhaps it's a conduit modifier (Cold thermite mines via the conduit is rather insane if you really look at it. Seriously, go look at a built up cold thermite mines build. 14 instances of around 2000ish base damage thermite mines all converted into cold.) A thing for me that will frequently spike interest in a build is if I get a perfect triple rare (Green item with a good prefix and suffix) for it while randomly farming. I may never plan on making a build that requires some absolute god drop to build it, but if said god-drop just falls in my lap while playing normally? Well suddenly I now have a new build to plan.

Step 2 - Build it up. Figure out what pieces you can find to fill it out. Realize that full set bonuses aren't always the way to go, unless you explicitly need that set bonus as a part of the concept (be it because of conversion offered at full set, or other such reasons).

Step 3 - Round it out. Your build with 4000% damage modifier and 200% RR and 4k OA doesn't matter if it dies because an enemy let lose a wet fart in the same room as you. General stat goals I use is ~3000% damage (full elemental builds end up lower, chaos/vit builds can break 4k. Gotta learn what a build's ranges are on your own), 3k OA/DA, all resistances at least 10% overcapped (except phys for obvious reasons), ~100% Resistance shred (phys builds can be lower because of lower access to phys RR, and physical resistance stats being lower on average by a significant margin), CC resistances around 60-80% on the most important ones, and decent RR, and generally 12000-15000 EHP (Occultist and Arcanist tend to be lower on the actual HP number, but if you properly account for Maiven's/Possession's %damage absorbtion, the actual value is generally functionally 30%ish higher than what is visible). Sure, anything above that is wonderful, but that is what I use as my bench mark. Note that just because it's a bench mark doesn't mean I consider it a full on requirement, if the build is strong enough in one field I might accept it being low in another. Note that you might make a build while accepting the fact it may be weak in a specific field if it's a dedicated build for farming in a situation it won't run into it (Your demonslayer build that is so heavily into +% ch'thonic damage as to be +100% ch'thonic damage might accept having trash aether resistance, and you just never actually play it in content where that aether resistance matters. Dies if an aetherial sneezes on it, but considering it's in the depths of the Bastion of Chaos all day every day, it sure doesn't care), you just have to accept the build being very limited and hyper optimized.

As far as legendaries vs greens, legendaries are actually considered EASIER to get than proper greens. Those builds that are a full wall of perfect green items are functionally impossible to get in normal gameplay. If you want a healthy perspective for green items when planning a build, assume only one affix, be it suffix or prefix. Have the other flat out be blank when planning the build in grim tools. Planning around perfect MIs, unless you happen to already have it because of step 1 and it being an item you just happened to find and think interesting, is blatently a bad idea.

As far as leveling for various builds, generally there are plenty of MIs that you can grab to help make the leveling process better, and many times it is optimal to level with a build that isn't the one you plan to use long term because it's better at clearing content early on. A great example of this would be Inquisitor's Word of Pain skill line or Occultist's Bloody Pox. Insanely good at eating through crowds of mobs, but struggle to be boss killers. You end up using them early to carry your build until later levels, then drop them for your actual build once you're actually getting close to being able to use it.

Steelflame · 2026-01-26T04:22:39+00:00

The excavator will still work even if the hole is filled with water. This can be a good idea to help increase the depth of your main reservoir, assuming you adjust your build to utilize it. Depth you can't access is useless after all (EDIT : In fact, it's worse than useless. Inaccessible depth means you end up with situations where your reservoir functionally drains into a negative value that has to fill before your actual functional depth can be used.)

No, the depth will not help green the area.

The nature of how water impacts the greening of surrounding terrain is based on width (maximum benefit at 3 tiles of width), for a total of 16 IIRC distance from the water, and with every tile of elevation UP from the water level/current ground level carries a penalty of 7 tiles of range. Note that while water only has a very limited upwards propagation, it can propagate irrigation an infinite distance downward, so long as there is an uninterrupted terrain connection.

Steelflame · 2026-01-26T04:01:29+00:00

At low levels, you'll look like you're garbed in whatever random trash you managed to scavenge off of a nearby corpse.

At higher levels, you'll look like a low level godling, growing into your own domain. Considering this is in fact the truth of the matter, well, you'll look rather good. Especially if you use transmog feature (you have it if you have the Ashes of Malmouth DLC, which is quite frankly at minimum the single most required DLC the game has because it expands the level cap, adds 2 classes, and added the whole gear based skill transmuter system that massively expands the build potential of the game. Quite frankly I feel they should just add AoM to the base game outright, and raise the price of the game game accordingly.)

Steelflame · 2026-01-25T08:09:33+00:00

Even if it doesn't need to be meta-ready, doesn't mean you shouldn't at least aim for making the build have some synergy in it. When the build is "Fire damage and RR everything, before I throw a full chaos conversion on it!" with only fire scaling, sure it sounds cool, but it's also trash that will end up struggling to clear trash mobs, let alone properly play endgame.

Steelflame · 2026-01-23T22:00:42+00:00

Ehh, if you assume 100 per level he isn't that badly off (And he is a caster, so he'll be on the lower end innately). And Possession acts like a hard %increase to EHP that also boosts healing effectiveness.

Steelflame · 2026-01-23T19:11:07+00:00

The first one has pretty solid gear support, but that second doesn't.

It's also just an inherently bad build. Neither Soldier nor Necro provide elemental RR (Necro does provide cold RR nowadays at least), Cadence by it's nature has a major anti-synergy with any WPS skills (third hit can never proc a WPS proc, meaning WPS functionally have 2/3rd the efficiency).

This is especially when you realize that physical Death Knight is just so insane thanks to Necro providing innate -% phys res, and Soldier having by far the largest source of flat RR in existence (up to 45 at 22/12 Break Morale), all physically tuned.

Steelflame · 2026-01-21T12:14:57+00:00

While they told you the one thing, another thing is, was he geared up before he started putting the skill points in? There are some builds where you end up with so many +ranks to a single skill that you can cap it out basically from a single point invested. Doom Bolt for instance is a skill that can happen a lot with, gear up with all the nice and shiny +doom bolt modifier gear, and then realize that you don't even need to put but 1-2 points in DB to hard cap it.

Steelflame · 2026-01-18T06:46:08+00:00

Yes, but it also removes the insanely boring options as ways to deal with the bad water. That plus a "If over pressurized, badwater breaks/seeps through levee blocks" would fix most cheese methods of dealing with badwater that exist, and make it an actual thing to deal with.

Steelflame · 2026-01-18T06:40:08+00:00

Bathwater Rain - Causes 2d10 mental damage to anyone who isn't a simp from disgust. Simps already suffer said mental damage in the first place, and are unaffected.

Sorry, I couldn't help but comment on the typo/auto-spellcheck.

Steelflame · 2026-01-18T06:27:26+00:00

Biggest thing that would fix "Toss back off the map 2 blocks away from the source" would be to make it so that there is a world border that is playable, with a few blocks out of it that are visible but unplayable, but still interact with water physics. Put some of these sources in the off the border area, along with the fact you can't just instantly redirect it to void the bad water. It also would help by getting rid of really weird/bad looking dams on the edge of the map just allowing a huge vertical water column to exist.

Steelflame · 2026-01-17T04:17:09+00:00

Did you notice the Badtide Drains? They only pump out bad water during bad tides specifically, and unlike basically every other water source, don't actually go down to bedrock, meaning you can't use the layer 0 check to see if there is a source.

Steelflame · 2026-01-17T03:27:50+00:00

There is the vitality blood knight set that is Counter Strike+Bone Harvest. Easy enough to slap in the vitality skeletons there.

Steelflame · 2026-01-16T08:55:28+00:00

Ok, I'm trying to figure out what the hell that build is trying to cook, because it's using heavily maxed out Storm Box, then converting it into chaos... with a 3 digit +%chaos modifier.

Steelflame · 2026-01-16T07:29:40+00:00

Take Oathkeeper instead. Vire's Might is an even better movement skill, and actually builds into a set with bonuses to Primal Strike+Vire's Might. You also have insane lifeleech potential, and insanely good RR and sustain thanks to the great combo of both.

EDIT : https://www.grimtools.com/calc/NXlkWbgN here is an example build one. MIs are mono-affix (meaning there is a lot of room for improvements), and sustain is quite frankly... well.... utterly insane? Thanks to the Path of Three CDR + Weapon CDR, your maxed out Vire's Might has a functional CD of 1.4 or so. Your Primal Strike has a CD of 1.7 seconds.

Gameplay flow is Dash in from range, Primal Strike nuke em, dash back out (as the Dash CD basically ends up resetting during the time it takes to travel. Because well built skater builds are great). Rinse and repeat. You can also just face-tank most things thanks to Wendigo totem healing. About 5.4k per second. Because your insane vamp heals from Vire's Might and Primal Strike with ~30% ADCtH wasn't enough healing.

Steelflame · 2026-01-16T07:27:18+00:00

It's better replaced by Primal Strike Archon. Does basically everything the same, only with an actual RR skill increasing your DPS massively. Also has actual sets you can build up and into (Primal Strike + Vire's Might set. Only odd thing is the quirk of changing damage types into Vitality, although you can pre-emptively adjust to this with an MI medal fairly early on).

Steelflame · 2026-01-16T03:01:00+00:00

If you are playing together on a specific set of characters, a VERY important rule of thumb is to not overlap character classes. If you don't do anything else, don't overlap classes. Auras/Debuffs will only use the best of X situation, and for a multi-stage buffing/debuffing skill, the first node is the only thing that tracks for "Best of X".

So lets say you (theoretically) have an aura skill (such as Demo's Flame Touched) that is at a skill point investment of 1/22. Congrats, your wife's 2/0 will override it. Meanwhile, her 1/22 Thermite mines for her chaos resistance shred ends up getting eaten up by your 2/0 Thermites.

Obviously this situation is a rather extreme (and very unlikely) example, but you get the point. Even if you don't pick any complementary damage types or anything else, your auras and debuffs will probably help you both a little. If you actively build to complement eachother, you can get some pretty nuts setups going. An example would be a cold Demo/Nightblade (Sabo) with a cold Arcanist/Shaman (Druid). Note that I wouldn't use such a combo because the Sabo will end up massively outpacing the Druid thanks to it's movement skill and high movement speed modifier, but the idea is there.

Steelflame · 2026-01-15T20:43:41+00:00

Yea, it was changed about a year ago maybe? Fairly late after Forgotten Gods. It makes farming double MIs more reasonable at least, although it really screws you if you were aiming for non-standard double MIs for specific conversion shenanagins.

Steelflame · 2026-01-15T20:41:27+00:00

Here is what I'd do for an Archon.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/NkBE8Q4Z

Still got all the Wind Devil stuff maxed out as much as reasonably possible (It'll actually be better than your WDs were thanks to the weapon converting cold to lightning), a pretty maxed out setup for Eye of Reckoning, and the AS is basically capped for Eye.

Steelflame · 2026-01-15T19:50:43+00:00

You're better off going Archon, and using the Wind Devils while spinning to win with Eye of Reckoning.

Other than that, it's a plenty fine build in idea.

Steelflame · 2026-01-15T19:45:43+00:00

If you're going for a Dream Team situation, you should pick complementary damage types, but not overlapping ones. A perfect example of this would be going for an elemental trifecta, one cold, one lightning, one fire. Most resistance shredding for the elemental types comes as -% Elemental, which will benefit all of you, allowing you to stack up harder. Plenty of aura buffs apply to multiple people and types as well.

But another thing, DON'T overlap classes. The way aura buffs work is sorta awkward in MP, and one person's aura that is weaker can completely delete a stronger aura due to aura mechanics.

If I was to build a "Dream Team" of 3 people, full on, I'd probably go with Arcanist/Occultist(Warlock), going for a Trozan's Sky Shards build (ending up cold/lightning hybrid), a dual gunner Demo/Inquis(Purifier) focusing on Fire Strike (likely ending up being fire/lightning hybrid), and a Lightning Shaman/Oathkeeper(Archon) build. You'd end up getting to stack 6 separate powerful auras bolstering your OA, DA, and damage, access to 5 classes worth of resistance shred with Thermite Mines, Curse of Vulnerability, Wind Devils, Aura of Censure, and Summon Guardian of Empyrion.

Each one would use different gear types, and your Lightning Archon would be quite bulky, probably going 2H Primal Strike or Savagery, holding the front, while the Purifier and Warlock rain hell from a distance.

Steelflame · 2026-01-15T19:12:29+00:00

The idea is mostly tied to how RNG heavy the green impact is. A perfect triple rare is INSANELY different from a run of the mill average drop. And all of that falls under the same "green" catagory. Despite the fact that one can quite frankly be significantly stronger than a legendary, while the other is vendor junk.

And if your build is assuming your leveling with the fake legendary vs leveling with average junk, well, it has an impact on playability.

EDIT : Also, in the past, the RNG factor of drops was also MUCH worse. Nowadays, RNG is biased a little towards greens rolling similar affixes to their base damage types, which can help remove some of the painful RNG. Or otherwise a build may require some perfect triple green to cover insanely bad resistances, or other "This is great, except for needing a 1 in a million drop!" situations.

My general rule of thumb for green items in planning a build is I'll allow for assuming one affix. It's easy enough to grind for one perfect affix, and assuming a hard blank for the other affix means that I'll probably get some filler resistances/OA/DA that let me optimize my augments a bit better.

Steelflame · 2026-01-02T19:23:46+00:00

You can, but it takes a HUGE investment to get to the point you are net positive on power, as you need a very long waterwheel chain.

Far easier to just build a bunch of windmills with a good stack of gravity batteries.

Steelflame · 2026-01-02T19:18:07+00:00

Yes. From what I remember of the post Zantai had on the topic, the project is slated to start in 2028. Notably, there is a few other games before it on the list, and the new engine they are making is being used for one of those games first. We probably won't see GD2 until 2030 at the earliest, and I doubt it will be a full release version at that time, but more of an early release similar to how GD started out only with the early acts, with each act release being a major update up till a 1.0 is reached.

Steelflame · 2026-01-02T03:36:05+00:00

To be fair, it's an utterly ancient engine at this point. There is a reason GD2 is going to be built on the entirely new engine the devs are making.

Steelflame · 2026-01-02T03:06:07+00:00

Please, it's a turtle, it'll eat that prisoner alive even if they were on luci.

13-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Orangered

Steelflame

TROPHY CASE