Build: Blademaster ​b​uild description​,​ ​build in faction gear​ or​ ​Tactician​ ​(same concept)

Stats: Physique: 7​, ​Cunning: 69​, ​Spirit: 14

Read: Grim Dawn New Player Knowledge Compendium​, ​List of Shrines,
Devotion Constellations​,

“For new players this is a ​GrimTool Link​ that uses only faction gear (except the pants).” Remark by me: The
weapon in the Grim Tool Link is not the Dermapteran Slicer but the Redeemer of Malmouth. I linked both
weapons in the main hand slot. The following table breaks down the faction gear version.

Item slot Name Faction Blueprint needed? Component

Main Dermapteran Slicer Malmouth Yes Vicious Spikes​ (Lvl

hand alternatively Resistance 15)
Redeemer of
Malmouth

Shield Empowered Devil’s Crossing Blueprint: Mark of the

Defender of Devil's Empowered Myrmidon​ (Lvl 27)
Crossing Defender of Devil's
Crossing

Chest Elite Coven Coven of No Kilrian's Shattered

Combatant's Ugdenbog Soul​ (24)
Chestguard

Legs Empowered Scaled Hide​ (Lvl 7)

Swampdweller's
Legguards

Head Elite Malmouth Malmouth No Leathery Hide​ (Lvl

Defender Casque Resistance 24)

Shoulder Elite Malmouth Malmouth No Mutated Scales​ (Lvl

Vanguard Pauldrons Resistance 15)

Gloves Elite Rhowari Grips Rovers No Consecrated

Wrappings​ (Lvl 20)

Feet Elite Harvest Homestead No Mark of Mogdrogen

Footpads (Lvl 27)

Medal Mark of the Barrowholm Blueprint: Mark of Dread Skull​ (Lvl 32)
Voracious One the Voracious One

Belt Malmouth Bladed Malmouth Blueprint: Malmouth Dense Fur​ (Lvl 15)
Girdle Resistance Bladed Girdle

Relic Gluttony Devil's Crossing Blueprint: Relic -

Coven of Gluttony
Ugdenbog

Amulet Wendigo Vile Barrowholm No Dread Skull​ (Lvl 32)

Pendant
 Ring Coven Defender Seal Coven of No Corpse Dust​ (Lvl 7)
Ugdenbog

Ring Coven Storm Seal Coven of No Corpse Dust​ (Lvl 7)

Ugdenbog
Tips:
● Make sure you don't get a weapon that converts Physical damage to something.
● Armor = Go for anything with high HP in early game and cap resistances (in mid game)
● HC viable for​ ​beginner
● How to level up:
○ Pick Soldier, don't pick Nightblade for a while, Keep investing points into Military conditioning
and Veterancy, Preferably keep Spirit and Physique investment to as low as possible, 1
Point into Menhir's Will, Pick a two handed weapon, use Cadence to hit anything with a stick
○ Q​: So what this comes down to is this question: just how far do I expect 2H blade arc to
carry me? I'm a bit leery of the idea of going back to farm a Dermapteran Slicer in Elite - I
don't want to get SLOWER, you know? Yet the Malmouth sword you have listed is still out of
reach for me. So I'm at this funky awkward stage where I don't have enough skill points to
fully develop Cadence AND pick up Ring of Steel + Circle of Slaughter AND shield actives
and passives... I could drop a bunch of stuff, but I'd be sacrificing survivability most likely -
because I can't exactly justify sacrificing offense, as I'm already moving quite slowly.
Answer​: Cthon might be more suited to answer this than me, but when I leveled up his build,
I switched fully to Cadence by level 75. However, I had 2 pieces of the Warborn set already.
Still I feel the key point of what I did is to specifically farm for Derm slicer. It is great when
leveling and it drops really often. Took me just a few runs in the Homestead hive. A lot of
suffix and prefix which are good too (avoid conversion at all cost). I am not sure why you
think your survivability will be affected. IMO a 2-hander is never more tanky than a 1-hander
with shield. Even when you cannot max out all the shield passive. Also the dmg output for
2-hander will really shine if you grab yourself the Kraken devotion. If you already have
Behemoth and Falcon, then it should not be hard to get it. And don't forget to remove
Kraken! Happened to me once and I wonder why I was doing so badly
○ You can​ (and probably should) spec into the shield version at level 75, The shield version
shouldn't be slower at that point, in fact extra tankiness means better performance overall At
level 75 I am usually revered with all the factions I farm the fuck out of veteran/elite for
reputation by clearing entire areas whilst doing bounties Try getting a Writ of Malmouth and
Ugdenbog ASAP to improve reputation farming speed
○ If respec gets too costly remember to always farm bounties. Avoid taking bounties that
require you to turn over relics, materials (tainted brain matter, ancient heart) and definitely
avoid bounties which ask you to hunt down a specific enemy whose name you haven't heard
in your entire playtime. Just do bounties for enemies whose spawn points are known to you
○ Like Chthon says in his post​ - I basically used blade arc to get to around 75 before I
respeced back into S&B/Cadence/Ring of steel. IIRC, I maxed the Soldier tree straight off, all
the way through Oleron's Rage. Picked up some energy regen components because of the
blade arc spam. Grabbed Kraken, put Falcon Swoop on Blade Arc, Ghoul and Behemoth for
HP sustain.
○ Leveling as Soldier​: You can try transmuted Forcewave. For me that is the fastest way to
level a soldier. Max Forcewave, max Rending Force, max Oleron's rage. What makes it so
good is that you can kite with it and you don't have to be in melee range like with Blade Arc. I
made it to 50 with Forcewave alone, without a second specialization. You can pick up
nightblade on the way for Pneumatic Burst, the extra cunning and the health/DA scaling via
Military Conditioning.
 ○ Managing the transition from 2H to Sword and Shield:​ ​1​,​ ​2
○ How to level a​ ​Soldier​, leveling​ ​Dikkie's Builds​,
○ Tip 1
■ You are 100% wasting your time by full clearing btw, the ideal strat is to only kill
heroes and what is getting in your way
■ Kill heroes/bosses ignore trash
■ Only do main quest or side quests along the main path. Shit that makes you go out of
the way is a waste of time cause main quest gives so much fast/easy exp and lets
you get to next difficulty faster
■ GO ZOOM ZOOM. Stack movespeed from boots/devotions, rushing Sailor is legit as
fuck. If your class has a dash grab it asap, if it doesn't then put a riftstone on your
weapon immediately when you hit level 25 or hell even use two
○ Tip 2
■ Start the game and get lv3 or so and a weapon, switch to crucible. Play that until you
are about lv15. Use all crucible points for devotion points. You will now get 50 points
in the middle of elite.
■ Switch to campaign. On veteran you only put skill points in damage. Both devotions
and skills. Attributes you can't change so probably physique, but put your planned
spirit points FIRST so that you have more energy to keep clearing. I choose veteran
over normal because you get more exp and if you are melting everything it doesnt
matter how many hero monsters are there, you just get more exp and rep. Get
another character to buy you all the reputation boosters
○ Tip 3
■ quests not to miss that give bonus stats/skill points:
■ -Hidden path line in all difficulties
■ -minerva(ghost npc) near broken hills WP, all difficulties
■ -devils crossing aether crystal one - can't miss this one
■ -the other you, starts with killing sylvarria in A5 coven hub, +1 skill point ONLY on
ultimate. you don't have to even do a5 on other difficulties.
○ Ressources List of Bosses that can drop​ ​blueprints
● It is just a matter of trading defense with offense. Shieldmaiden helps a lot with tanking. Most of your
damage comes from standing in place and whacking the crap out of enemies, so if you end up
moving around or kiting a lot then you end up losing a lot of potential dmg.
● Q: Can i farm the slicer in elite? or does Heart-Piercing Dermapteran Slicer of Voracity only drop in
ultimate? A: it drops in elite with lower rolls. Not worth it considering rarity. Get piercing/superior until
then. Far easier
● Q: Hey OP, do you think this build will work if i put all points to physique instead of cunning? A:
Umm, sure. Physique is an evergreen stat after all. A2: Yeah, leveling with Cunning is kinda a major
PITA, so physique variant of this build is fine
● Devotions
○ First 16 devotion points:​ I'd definitely grab​ ​Assassin's Blade​ to start. Probably Wolverine after
and the crossroads Ascendant node to unlock Blades of Nadaan, then refund the Ascendant
node. That should roughly cover your 16 available points, you might need 1 or 2 more. From
there, i'm not certain, though I'd personally start going Primordial for some defense.
Simplified order: +Crossroads Order -> +Assassin's Blade -> -Crossroads Order ->
+Wolverine -> +Crossroads Ascendant -> +Blades of Nadaan ->-Crossroads Ascendant
○ Alternative​: Turtle, Behemoth and Falcon Swoop help new players the most
Status: ​(Write up till page 22 of the thread)