The sprawling grim dark fantasy ARPG Grim Dawn has seen quite a few changes both to existing masteries and loots drops in recent patches, but also with the addition of whole new masteries in the latest expansions.

With those changes in mind, its time to update our guide to the best Grim Dawn builds. If you want to take a look, our previous version of the best buildstill has some solid tips if you want to try out a Warder character, although some of that info is now outdated.

Before diving into specific mastery combos and skill load outs, first let's clarify what we mean by 'best'. Our best builds have these qualities:

All links to the builds in the compendium have been updated to the new forum plattform. If you are using the compendium, please drop by and give Stupid Dragon a big hug and thanks:) Enjoy! Leveling Guides for End game builds in Grim Dawn almost never work. Often because the end game skill setup you'd be using is highly. Apr 02, 2019  Grim Dawn Forgotten Gods HC: Ravenous Earth Acid Oppressor Build Overview & Levelling Guide StupidFatHobbit. HC Grim Dawn build highlight - Bonemonger's Screaming Veil.

• Less squishy and more survivable in most situations
• High damage output potential
• Ability to make it to later waves of Crucible or the Shattered Realm
• Can tackle the sealed dungeons
• Have the potential to defeat secret god boss Mogdrogen (with the right equipment and at level 85 - 100)

Up until the release of Forgotten Gods, one of the top damage dealing classes was easily the Cabalist (Necromancer + Occultist) with a focus on pets and chaos damage. Unfortunately, the latest patches have heavily nerfed chaos damage and items that boost chaos pet damage.

While that's still a potentially viable build just for fun, we can't recommend it as an actual 'best' build anymore at this point. Instead, we're going to look at three classes focused on melee attacks, undead pet summoning, and poison / acid damage.

Ritualist (Shaman + Necromancer)

Based on personal play style preference, this is my current favorite build, although your mileage may vary if you don't care for melee combat or using a ton of pet summons.

There's a dual focus here, first on summoning creatures to keep the enemy busy, then on two handed weapon attacks with internal trauma damage. It may seem strange to have two caster classes focused on physical attacks, but trust me, it works wonders.

Internal trauma damage bypasses armor and continues dealing damage over time, making it very helpful with big tanky bosses. In terms of devotion points, Hammer gives you bonus internal trauma, while Shepherd's Crook is a must for the bonus to pets. Be sure to pick a devotion constellation tied to whatever 2 handed weapon type you end up using (Rhowan's Scepter gives a ton of internal trauma damage for maces).

The goal with this build is to always have 8 skeletons, a briarthorn, a blight fiend, and a primal spirit to thin out the enemy while you go to town with a 2 handed weapon.

Ritualist Skills

These are the preferred skills out for the Necromancer side:

• Reaping Strike 10 (bonus main hand damage)
• Necrotic Edge 12 (bonus default weapon damage)
• Raise Skeletons 16
• Undead Legion 12 (upgrades skeletons)
• Will Of The Crypt 12 (upgrades skeletons)
• Call Of The Grave 4 (upgrade all pets for limited time)
• Summon Blight Fiend 16
• Rotting Fumes 1 (upgrades Blight Fiend)
• Blight Burst 1 (upgrades Blight Fiend)

These are the preferred skills for the Shaman side:

• Brute Force 12 (increase internal trauma damage with main attack)
• Feral Hunger 10 (heal yourself on melee hits)
• Summon Briarthorn 16
• Ground Slam 4 (upgrade Briarthorn)
• Emboldening Presence 4 (upgrade Briarthorn)
• Primal Bond 12 (additional internal trauma damage and upgrades pets)
• Conjure Primal Spirit 6

Of course there are ways to tweak the skills if you want to focus more on pets than melee attacks, as Reaping Strike and Necrotic Edge can be swapped for maxing out the Blight Fiend and Briarthorn upgrade skills instead.

So long as you buy faction items or equip items that that increase poison resistance, you'll even do very well in the harder Ashes Of Malmouth content like the Ancient Grove sealed dungeon.

There are really only two main weaknesses to pay attention to here.

First up, the only place you are really going to struggle is with Father Kymon near the end of Forgotten Gods, who will be difficult to overcome with this build on epic and ultimate modes.

Since Kymon can one shot many players with melee hits, you want to stay far away and let your pets do the work, or equip an item that gives you an extra ranged power to use while you hide in the area's entrance.

Second, while this build will see you surrounded by a horde of pets, unfortunately it doesn't have quite enough summoning potential to actually unlock the Pet Hoarder achievement.. unless you manage to find a significant number of loot drops that give you bonus summoning powers.

Dervish (Oathkeeper + Nightblade)

As a brand new mastery, the player base is still trying to figure out the best secondary class and skill load out for the Oathkeeper, and many players are convinced only Soldier or Demolitionist are viable options.

They are dead wrong (at least for the moment before any future patches).

The Oathkeeper has excellent synergy with poison and acid when paired with the Nighblade mastery. To get the most use out of this build, obviously you are going to want to equip any items that increase your overall acid damage.

In terms of devotions, make sure you pick up Rat, Eye Of The Guardian, Scorpion, Manticore, Murmur, Abomination, and Yugol The Insatiable Night for maximum acid damage output. Ghoul also works well, since it gives you some healing while attacking capability for survival.

Dervish Skills

These are the preferred skills out for the Oathkeeper side:

• Righteous Fervor 16
• Dreeg's Reproach 1 (converts physical damage to acid damage)
• Consecration 12 (bonus attack speed and defense)
• Retribution 5 (adds internal trauma damage)
• Presence of Virtue 12 (bonus retaliation, bleed, and internal trauma damage)
• Haven 2 (bonus health and shield block chance)
• Rebuke 2 (bonus damage reflection)
• Resilience 2 (increase resistance when low on health)
• Ascension 2 (bonus to all damage for limited time)
• Clarity of Purpose 2 (reduced debuff time and big resistance bonus)
• Summon Guardian of Empryion 2
• Scion of Dreeg 1 (convert Guardian's damage to acid)
• Celestial Presence 12 (Guardian gains big acid damage bonus)

These are the preferred skills out for the Nightblade side:

• Amastara's Blade Burst 16
• Lethal Assault 12 (bonus acid damage)
• Dual Blades 5
• Belgothian Shears 3
• Nidalla's Hidden Hand 8 (bonus acid damage)
• Shadow Strike 16
• Nadalla's Justifiable Ends 12 (bonus poison damage)
• Veil of Shadow 10
• Night's Chill 10 (bonus resistances)
• Merciless Repertoire 12 (big bonuses to acid and poison damage)

Switching between Amastara's Blade Burst and the Righteous Fervor attacks can result in crazy damage to just about any enemy as poison and acid eat away at health. Don't forget to summon your Guardian so he can also go out and perform area burst acid attacks!

The main downside here is a lack of crit percentage, but with how much poison, acid, bleed, and internal trauma damage you will be dealing, it isn't that much of a weakness.

For maximum damage output, don't forget to grab those Dreeg-focused faction items that add in additional poison/acid damage to whatever dual wielding weapons you are using.

Conjurer (Occultist + Shaman)

A lot of the pet builds were sadly diminished with the Forgotten Gods expansion, but this one remains viable if you play it right.

A counterpoint to the Ritualist, this mastery combo is mostly about summoning creatures and letting them do the damage, while then lowering enemy resistances so your summons can tear at them with damage types like acid, cold, lightning, etc.

For devotion points, Ulzuin's Torch is a great idea that can be bound to any of your summon skills, as it eventually gives you the chance to randomly call down a high damage meteor swarm with any basic attack. Other than that, Behemoth, Jackal, and Rhowan's Crown are all critical for the bonuses to pets.

Finally, don't forget Modgrogen the Wolf, as the final star on that devotion constellation gives you Howl Of Mogrdogen for a big bonus to your pets.

Conjurer Skills

These are the preferred skills out for the Occultist side:

• Summon Familiar 16
• Storm Spirit 10 (grant area elemental attack to Familiar)
• Bonds of Bysmiel 12 (big health and energy buff to all pets)
• Manipulation 12 (big damage buff to all pets)
• Summon Hellhound 16
• Curse of Frailty 5
• Vulnerability 10 (greatly reduce enemy resistances)
• Blood of Dreeg 16
• Aspect of the Guardian 12
• Dreeg's Evil Eye 6 (extra attack option for poison / acid damage)
• Focused Gaze 1 (increase poison / acid damage)

These are the preferred skills out for the Shaman side:

• Summon Briarthorn 16
• Ground Slam 4
• Emboldening Presence 12 (this is critical for upgrading your other pets)
• Modgroden's Pact 4 (increased healing opportunities)
• Heart Of The Wild 7 (extra health and resistance)
• Oak Skin (retaliation damage)
• Wind Devil 5
• Raging Tempest 12 (Wind Devil deals cold damage and reduces elemental resistance)
• Primal Bond 10 (bonus to all pets)
• Conjure Primal Spirit 12

Your focus here is on getting as many pets on the screen as possible that all deal elemental damage, while you then use your Occultist abilities to lower the resistances of any enemies.

The main weakness is that your character won't be directly dealing a ton of damage, and of course you don't have a ton of defense. Just make sure to always be on the lookout for any equipment that gives pet bonuses, elemental damage bonuses, or debuffs the enemy.

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Want to see what builds other players have come up with? The Grim Dawn build compendium over in the game's official forums are a great place to start.

However, keep in mind that many of those builds revolve heavily around using very specific equipment, which you may not be able to get since loot is random.

You can also check out our other Grim Dawn guides here:

Welcome!is an action role-playing game for the PC, developed by veterans of Iron Lore Entertainment, the creators of.Enter an apocalyptic fantasy world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, iron is valued above gold and trust is hard earned. This ARPG features complex character development, hundreds of unique items, crafting and quests with choice & consequence.Released in 2016, it currently has two expansions: Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods.

Official Links.Unofficial Links.Sub Related.Questions / Comments? PM a moderator. Topic Filters. I'm a pretty new player but I've played through act 1 with my Druid and I'm at the point where I need to make important decisions with my build but don't know what's important. I want to take this build to end game or close enough. I understand most of the basics by now and having played tons of PoE and D3 in the past is making the learning curve easier.I like the Callidor's Tempest and Olexra's Flash Freeze abilities.

I also like being 'melee' and face tanking if I can. Doesn't need to be a top tier build, just something that a new player can achieve and reach end game with. I like the play style of having an aoe slam/explosion ability that clears trash and CCs nearby enemies and a single target attack for bosses and elites.Also, how do you usually proceed through the map?

I tend to go in zigzags since I have no idea what is where. I also tend to backtrack a lot since a side quest could lead me quite a bit ahead into the map and leave large parts unexplored. I even had to use the wiki for the last part of act 1 since I didn't want to fight The Butcher Brutus The Warden too early.

I don't have experience with druids, but I can tell you about the map:.for most of the time, follow the road or what seems the most obvious way in order to progress in the main quest. If there's none of these (usually in act 5), going north is a good bet. You can also check the world map to see the names of the areas and get a rough idea which direction to take.look at your minimap somewhat frequently to see if there's any star there (you can make the minimap bigger using a button in the HUD). Also useful for checking shrines and caves/'POI' (some optional caves won't show in the minimap though).sidequests take a little bit of memorizing (and sometimes it's even at random locations), but since every character goes through the whole history 3 times (one for each difficulty), doing sidequests optimally will become natural eventually (except act 2 where sidequests take some insane detours).if you like to rush (seems to be the case), don't bother doing every single sidequest, they don't add that much; if you don't like to rush, just take your time and explore, it's fun too;). Few ideas:If you like melee, a really solid combo is Druid and Soldier(warder).

Very tough, very self-reliant. Here's my current Warder build:I have a few peculiarities, but the essentials are there. It's a very heavy physical and bleed based build.If you want a more lightning based approach (very easy with druid), here's Jajaja's guide for a storm warden:both very fund and interesting builds to play. They are both 2h, but if you want a DW build instead, here's an interesting and fun one I put together based on an older build:Fun and busy as well, Though it's an elementalist (Druid/Demolitionist), very solid build. The weapons themselves are quest rewards, so they can be relatively easy to get ( I suggest researching the quest chain so you can get them easily). It's more of a caster/melee hybrid like Jajaja's.If your looking for a starter or leveling build, I'd suggest something similar to my warder at the top.

All the end game gear isn't necessarily needed, just stick with a nice big 2h'er and your golden. Here's my last link:It's the current build compendim for the game. Use search (ctrl + f ) and seach for Warden, you'll see plenty of builds to check out. Warden is a very popular starting setup due to it's inherent defensiveness and melee damage output.