Nightblade-Oathkeeper concept and build wandering

[walpurgisnacht]

(see TL;DR below)

So, I tend to get bored with tanky-mundane builds in GD, not sure why. The soldier, demolitionist, and shaman make me wanna do something else. While nightblade, arcanist, occultist, and so on interest me.

Ive been experimenting with diff builds without really consulting the grim dawn build calculator or anything - a necro/arcanist with mostly passives using a 2hd is the most OP one so far but I just came back to the game and theyre only level 14 atm.

I also made an inquisitor-nightblade who mostly uses two pistols but right now I have this epic shotgun so Im using that for a small stretch unless dual mutinies turn out to be better. Theyre also at 14. Theyre fun because I feel like its the wild west. They dont kill as fast as the necro-arcanist (who only has that bone AOE as a dmg spell) but they kill at a range so its fun. pow pow pow.

I had started trying an Oathblade but my boredom with tankiness came along even though I made them an oathblade-occultist and didnt try the shield powers so I could 2h. I made another oathblade and yeah this time using the shield powers which are nice but generally their dps was comparatively low at the onset. I realize this may increase later, so its not like I deleted them but I'm keeping it at 9th for the moment.

I made a straight up arcanist who is mostly spirit at the moment, just putting a few pts into phys to wear armor. Ive always read you need to dump most everything into Phys and used to only really like playing Hardcore but Im on Veteran non-hardcore this time so Im seeing what other stats do if you focus on them. The inquis-nightblade Im probably gonna start focusing on cunning now.

I also made a straight up nightblade who Im gonna leave at 9 along with the arcanist and oathblade until I figure out whats gonna complement that. If I get a good drop then Ill level one of these backups some more.

TL;DR

So, after working on all these experimental builds I was like, huh. Still cant figure how how to like tanks in GD. But Oathkeeper kinda has its merits with the whole thing where they can worship the three so I go, why dont I go, nightblade-oathkeeper for the nightblade attack passives and the oathkeeper resist stuff?

So, thats a plan maybe - the active skills I would go for would be pneumatic burst and shadow strike (nightblade) as well as righteous fervor, ascension, and path of the three:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m236koBN

[andrew.thiele]

Without knowing the gear it's really hard to ascertain how many points to give to each skill but this looks a bit better:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NOvXePZ

Each class has a Poison & Acid resist debuff that you should use, I personally 1 point the bottom NB skills as plus to skills generally increases them enough, and if OA is a concern you could get ABB's Lethal Assault to boost it.

Also, you need to pick the mutators of the skills to switch the Physical + Fire to Acid + Vit damage and debuff (on the Oathkeeper side).

[walpurgisnacht]

Ah ok, I see what youre saying: the debuff skill for the NB is Night's Chill off Veil of Shadow and the Oathkeeper's is the Summon Celestial of Empyrion's Celestial Presence.

Is there not much use to Petrify duration reduction via Phantasmal Armor?

Otherwise, with your advice I think Ill try this:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKJokjZ

[mikeydsc]

Such low levels of builds. You really have no idea how they will turn out til mid 30s. By then you will have your better skills which can drastically change a build. 9 n 14 is nothing to base an opinion on imho. Ive got several dozens of toons between 20 and 40. At least get to homestead before making assumptions as the higher tier skills are generally better than the starting ones.

[walpurgisnacht]

Ive been higher level than 16 before. But basically only mid-30s. Even so, why should I put off thinking of my build? lol

[andrew.thiele]

Originally posted by walpurgisnacht:

Ah ok, I see what youre saying: the debuff skill for the NB is Night's Chill off Veil of Shadow and the Oathkeeper's is the Summon Celestial of Empyrion's Celestial Presence.

Is there not much use to Petrify duration reduction via Phantasmal Armor?

Otherwise, with your advice I think Ill try this:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKJokjZ

I personally don't see the need for a high Petrify reduction (or any most times) because the more threatening enemies don't do it, that I can recall, but reduced Stun and Slow resist are more worrisome as generally more enemies do these things. Also, some of the badder enemies do these things so I personally wouldn't increase Phantasmal armour too high. With + to skills it's usually at 5 points anyway.

And if you actually ever get killed from being Petrified, then sure, increase it. Though, if that were the case than the build would likely have more problems than just Petrify resist.

But as I said, it's really hard to give advice on skills without knowing gear. So my skill selections are only general advice. I would likely even 1 point some others based on how many + to skills you had for Oathkeeper in the end.

Good luck with the build.

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by walpurgisnacht:

Ive been higher level than 16 before. But basically only mid-30s. Even so, why should I put off thinking of my build? lol

Im not saying not to think about it. Im saying playing only 30 mins of a toon is not giving you ots of info to go on. The couple low skills available generally arent that build defining. Its the latter tiers that will define your build unless it firestrike or cadence. Both are so so until you develope the ancillary skills needed to make them shine.

[walpurgisnacht]

All righty then.

[Aria Athena]

Do be honest I had a hard try combining the two of them, but I don't think you can plan out a build without considering the end game gear you will aim for. Especially with a skill point hungry class like the Nightblade.

For example with gear you can convert all you piercing damage to fire and all the physical damage in Righteous Fervor also to fire, which changes everything.

Alternatively, I'm certain there is a Vitality / Acid build somewhere in there, even though I can't really see it.

Or if you like like Shadow Strike and stuff you can come up with an very gear dependent build like this https://www.grimtools.com/calc/1NXo9z3Z (where you even need Conduit of Whispers to have a specific prefix) or even https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p253aMmZ which buff fervor, enables you to level up judgement more and even has somewhat more acceptable health.

Gear is everything.

[walpurgisnacht]

Yeah, its a loot-themed game. At least you've whetted my interest to go further and find what I can find. This was the original point of making some level 9's so I don't have to wade through all the stuff prior to choosing your second "class" thing if I should find some special item later since I've heard stuff like what you're saying before. Plus, I find it hard to throw good items to the maw of the vendor so they're also like mannequin-mules.