Grim Dawn

Grim Dawn

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Aether Damage full mage build possible?
What would I use as a second Mastery?
No other mastery provides either boni to aether nor is any other able to support a mage playstyle.
Is Warlock really the only real caster class?
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Showing 1-15 of 18 comments
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:21am 
It is possible (with items) to play full aether, but damage types generally come in combos.

You can combine with Demolitionist for aether/fire and BWC adds great AoE and resist reduction support.

You can combine with Shaman for more health/regen and resist reduction, though tends to be more elemental focused. So for aether, not that great. In the upcoming expansion, there are items which convert aether to elemental though, so you can reverse the focus (Albrecht's Aether Ray ~> cold/lightning).

And yes, Occultist offers some interesting options. I have an aether ray warlock which converts the fire to chaos and have a lot of gear which gives aether/chaos damage.

This Inquisitor in the expansion also adds a ton of new options to support Arcanist. Though like Shaman, tends to focus more on elemental than aether.

And finally, the Necro has some interesting options. The base damage of Drain Essence is aether/vitality, but you can convert that to either full aether or aether/cold, among other things.

In short, no warlock is not the only caster option. What you want to use as a second mastery depends on what you are building around (I'm assuming Callidor's or AAR?)
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:30am 
So,...no. Good to know that no 2 masteries can really work on the back of each other unless you go hybrid.
Aether is the only ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mastery that makes any tradeoff for another mastery to be worth it. And that only on one skill (Aether to chaos)

I'm at the moment playing a Chaos/Vitality Warlock. Which to me still seems like the only viable option that can use big parts of both masteries.

If I play with Demo I suddenly have more fire, so why would I invest into Aether. If I use Shaman I get lightning, but that way I can only use one of the two exclusive skills. The only real option I see is playing him with the summons of occultist.

With Soldier I suddenly have to play a hybrid, same goes for nightblade.
Ech.
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:38am 
Well, not exactly. What I meant as "comes in combos" is in regards to gear. Very few items give only one element type, though they do exist. So yeah you go demo and pick up more fire (Callidor's and AAR both are half fire) but items give both aether and fire simultaneously.

So if you have say 1000% fire and aether damage, it doesn't mean you are going to get 2000% if only going aether. The itemization is built around boosting combos of damage types.

I suppose if you want to get technical, you can call that "hybrid", but most builds, skills, and attacks in this game are typically paired up with another damage type. If you are looking for pure 100% one type of damage builds, they are actually the exception and not the rule.
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:47am 
Originally posted by Matthew:
Well, not exactly. What I meant as "comes in combos" is in regards to gear. Very few items give only one element type, though they do exist. So yeah you go demo and pick up more fire (Callidor's and AAR both are half fire) but items give both aether and fire simultaneously.

So if you have say 1000% fire and aether damage, it doesn't mean you are going to get 2000% if only going aether. The itemization is built around boosting combos of damage types.

I suppose if you want to get technical, you can call that "hybrid", but most builds, skills, and attacks in this game are typically paired up with another damage type. If you are looking for pure 100% one type of damage builds, they are actually the exception and not the rule.
The problem is that masteries do not "come in combos"
If I want fire, boom. Arcanist+Demoman both can go fire. If they both buff fire damage, why would I, just as an example, waste my Devotion on aether? I could just go full fire and it would definitely be better. So there are in fact viable builds for all kinds of damage. Lighning can be played with shaman, fire with demo, cold with nightblade and chaos/vit with occultist, but aether damage does not make sense with any other mastery. There is no second mastery that allows me to buff aether damage. so the only option is to compromise to play a "mage" and focus on the kind of damage that i can get buffed instead.

Not even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Iskandra buffs aether.

Edit:
Even Poison/acid Mages are more viable because Nightblade and Occultist buff it.
Last edited by RhodosGuard; Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:50am
Azunai Oct 9, 2017 @ 7:59am 
you're right about aether damage - it doesn't synergize with any of the old masteries. i think the new necromancer will have some aether damage stuff.

the arcanist mastery isn't just about aether, though. tbh it's more about elemental than aether. there's only 1 skill that does aether as main damage source and 2 more that have some aether in it (which can also be ignored since there's a second damage type that can be focussed on instead). so aether is more of an afterthought, imo.

there are also some gimmick items for full aether damage builds - for example a melee battlemage dual wielding mindwarp or any elemental based class dualwielding decree of aldritch. such tend to suffer from the rather poor devotion support for aether, though. and of course there isn't much item support for such gimmick builds that use stuff like aether-shadowstrike, aether-cadence or aether skyshards.
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:02am 
Of course they come in combos.

Demo gives massive boosts to OA, some cast speed, and resist reduction to both fire and aether. That it doesn't have the word "aether" listed anywhere in the mastery is a poor argument for ignoring aether damage and the large number of aether/fire items.

By the way, passive % increases are typically of low value and only maxed if it gives something else useful. Fabric of Reality gives % increase to chaos, but no chaos build is ever going to drop 40 points into Arcanist to get it.

Nor is the chaos conversion Occultist only, as the chaos variant of aether ray gets just as much support from Demo, along with proper items to give chaos/fire.
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:04am 
Originally posted by Azunai:
you're right about aether damage - it doesn't synergize with any of the old masteries. i think the new necromancer will have some aether damage stuff.

the arcanist mastery isn't just about aether, though. tbh it's more about elemental than aether. there's only 1 skill that does aether as main damage source and 2 more that have some aether in it (which can also be ignored since there's a second damage type that can be focussed on instead). so aether is more of an afterthought, imo.

there are also some gimmick items for full aether damage builds - for example a melee battlemage dual wielding mindwarp or any elemental based class dualwielding decree of aldritch. such tend to suffer from the rather poor devotion support for aether, though. and of course there isn't much item support for such gimmick builds that use stuff like aether-shadowstrike, aether-cadence or aether skyshards.
What does the Damage-Type exist for then?
It seems more and more to me, that they needed a damage type for monsters and just put aether in there to simply co-exist with everything else. I mean, there are Aether-Constellations in there. Most notably the spear.

It's simply bad design, that you can create builds around nearly all damage types, but not aether cause ♥♥♥♥ that damage, it only exists so enemies can use it against you.
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:05am 
Originally posted by Matthew:
Of course they come in combos.

Demo gives massive boosts to OA, some cast speed, and resist reduction to both fire and aether. That it doesn't have the word "aether" listed anywhere in the mastery is a poor argument for ignoring aether damage and the large number of aether/fire items.

By the way, passive % increases are typically of low value and only maxed if it gives something else useful. Fabric of Reality gives % increase to chaos, but no chaos build is ever going to drop 40 points into Arcanist to get it.

Nor is the chaos conversion Occultist only, as the chaos variant of aether ray gets just as much support from Demo, along with proper items to give chaos/fire.
There is still no second mastery that buffs aether. Aether just exists for the sake of being ignored by all builds.
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:12am 
I honestly cannot tell if you are trolling.

CT and AAR sorc's are among some of the most popular builds. Even many people who go PRM end up converting the elemental portion to aether as to not deal with the split damage types. Nobody is ignoring aether damage.
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:15am 
Originally posted by Matthew:
I honestly cannot tell if you are trolling.

CT and AAR sorc's are among some of the most popular builds. Even many people who go PRM end up converting the elemental portion to aether as to not deal with the split damage types. Nobody is ignoring aether damage.
So first "Damage comes in combos" and suddenly people play aether only?
It doesnt matter. In the end, Aether comes up in 1 mastery. and has in total 2 abilitie that will buff it. Of which one probably is only skilled to get the Fire Damage.

There is no reason to focus on aether, when literally every other damage type can be buffed by way more abilities in the game and is more widely used in abilities.
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:38am 
*some people play aether only. With the items I already mentiond can convert and provide 100% aether builds. And yet there are plenty of other aether combination items in the game.

You are getting hung upon a single word without a basic understanding of how the game actually works. Cold arguably has less support than aether, despite the word "cold" existing in more than one mastery.

But it doesn't matter. I get the feeling you are only here to ♥♥♥♥♥ anyway. A simple Google search would have yielded several aether-based builds.
Kotli Oct 9, 2017 @ 8:48am 
Originally posted by RhodosGuard:
What would I use as a second Mastery?
No other mastery provides either boni to aether nor is any other able to support a mage playstyle.
Is Warlock really the only real caster class?

Necromancer in Xpack has Aether damage skills so get xpack and roll a Spellbinder (Necro/Arcanist).
RhodosGuard Oct 9, 2017 @ 9:28am 
Originally posted by Matthew:
*some people play aether only. With the items I already mentiond can convert and provide 100% aether builds. And yet there are plenty of other aether combination items in the game.

You are getting hung upon a single word without a basic understanding of how the game actually works. Cold arguably has less support than aether, despite the word "cold" existing in more than one mastery.

But it doesn't matter. I get the feeling you are only here to ♥♥♥♥♥ anyway. A simple Google search would have yielded several aether-based builds.
Your idea very well seems to be "if you already have 10 finished characters and access to a very specific set of items you can play it" assuming of course I want to farm these items and then play with non-selffound items.
Which I dont.
Also cold has 3 stun-abilities in 2 masteries, which I really wouldn't call "less support".
Mystic_Prophet Oct 9, 2017 @ 10:32am 
Good grief. I get your point, but not having other masteries give aether damage doesn't mean you can't play pure aether. There are plenty of ways to benefit your build other than boosting damage.

I play a pure aetherray/ devastation battlemage that focuses entirely on aether damage. I still get a decent chuck of fire bonuses from my "aether gear" which also helps because guess what. aether ray and devastation also do fire damage.

My subclass of soldier is there to give me extra survivability, but I could have just as easily gone any other class for the slew of utility skills they have.

Here's a suggestion. try nightblade for pneumatic burst and blade barrier. good heal/spell speed boost and another panic defensive button.
Last edited by Mystic_Prophet; Oct 9, 2017 @ 10:35am
Matthew Oct 9, 2017 @ 10:48am 
It has nothing to do with 10 finished characters. Gear affixes have certain combinations, including random regular green drops.

Aether/fire, aether/elemental, aether/chaos, and full aether have decent gear support. Cold, on the other hand, you have nightblade with cold and pierce or full cold. Anything beyond that, and you really need to get creative. Even cold/poison isn't that well supported, though that seems like an obvious option. There is also cold/lightning, though that is heavily shoehorned into Trozan Druid.

Anyway, the point isn't about which has more or less support, it is about getting hung up on a rather minor detail in the big picture. A build which uses fire/aether items, uses skills which are fire/aether, and utilizes everything else to scale damage (cast speed, OA, resist reduction) except for aether% doesn't in any way conclude it is best to just ignore aether.

Again, going back to my original post here. You can go full aether, but you are going to need conversion items to do so, because damage in this game overwhelmingly comes in pairs. Depending on what you want to pair your aether damage with, there are several combinations. With specific items and the expansion, there are even more.
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Date Posted: Oct 9, 2017 @ 6:08am
Posts: 18