Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Basic end-game build
3. Skills
4. Devotions
5. Items
6. Leveling tips
7. Stats to aim for
8. Attribute points
9. Damage conversions
10. Gameplay
11. Farming Dark One’s set
12. Example of Dark One’s build
13. Videos
14. Game mechanics
15. Future patches/updates
1. Introduction
Cabalist (Necromancer + Occultist) ​is a “classic” starting class. There is ​strong synergy
between Necromancer and Occultist (vitality damage, lifesteal and pets) which means that it
is pretty hard to make a “bad” Cabalist.

In this guide I will help you creating a ​high damage and sustainable​ caster-build around the
skill ​Ravenous Earth​ (RE). The advantages this build has is that it’s pretty easy to gear,
level up and improve. It is also very durable and forgiving. The main disadvantage is that in
the late-game our damage-type “Vitality” is one of the most resistant damage on monsters.

Starting a vitality cabalist from scratch can be divided into several stages:
i ) Leveling up
ii) Gearing up for farming the ​Dark one’s set​ (​Dark One's Gift​)
iii) Farming the set
iv) Improve the build and move on to farm more difficult end-game content
(Gladiator Crucible, super-bosses, high Shattered Realm on Ultimate)
The goal of this guide is to take your build into stage iii)

The target audience​ for this build-guide is a player who has done some builds before and
thus know some of the basic structure and mechanics of the game but have done not that
much farming and such. I will also assume that you have had some struggles in getting a
decent end-game build up and running. ​To summarize:​ I will assume you know how to
complete the quests, importance of armor, resistances etc and that you start from scratch
item/gear-wise.

I will here present to you a very nice budget build that uses gear that is easy to get (faction
vendors, blueprints, common random green items etc.) and that you can do some basic
end-game farming with so that you can upgrade the build further (and farm for gear for other,
future chars).

My goal is that you will enjoy reading this guide and playing the build. Another goal is also
that you will learn a lot on how to make good end-game builds so that you can look on almost
any build that you might stumble on and understand more about what you read and see.

This guide is based on “Nightmare’s vitality cabalist” by ​ceruleansong​:

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-0-3-2-nightmares-vitality-cabalist-new-player-start
er-build/43313​ I have done many adjustments to make the build more durable and have also
included some of the new items that has been included since the guide was written in
December 2017 (note, the guide has not been updated to fit the new Forum format).

My Forum-colleague ​Nery ​made an Oppressor (Necro + Oathkeeper) version here

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-1-2-beginners-budget-vitality-re-oppressor-leveli
ng-guide-inside/50493​ it is more damage-oriented but less sturdy, at least in my
experience/understanding. Definitely worth checking out!
2. Basic end-game build

Level 100 build with basic gear - Grim Tools Calc link:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrP6Bk2
(A build similar like this will be able to farm Dark One’s set comfortably, see below)

Note:​ do ​not​ take the gear etc in the Grim Tool link above as some kind of recipe to follow. It
is just example of what you can do if you follow this guide. You can see it as some kind of
"minimal version build". Below, you can read more about how to get gear, alternative gear,
leveling tips and much more.

The reader should also note the inclusion of Shield instead of caster off-hand, which means
that we are ​pretty low in spirit​ (enough to wear a caster chest-armor). This can be of course
be modified since eventually we can get physical resistances elsewhere and thus use caster
off-hand. Read more about this below.

The build was made in Forgotten Gods ​Patch 1.1.2.5

3. Skills
Main damage-skill is ​Ravenous Earth​ (RE) and is a Necromancer skill.
It is a “shotgun” skill (deals damage in many many small hits fast) with decent AoE.
We want this skill as high as possible of course, but we can not go beyond 26/16, more will
just be wasted points.
It has some ​breakpoints ​in the number of projectiles it releases in each “tick”:
Rank 11: 5-7 fragments
Rank 13: 6-7 fragments
Rank 16: 6-8 fragments
Rank 23: 7-9 fragments - this is the lowest rank in the skill you should aim for.

The first RE-modifier “​Decay​” will increase its damage with an additive damage modifier.
I.e. if you have rank 10, you get +90% vitality damage on RE. This number will be added to
your total global +%vitality damage modifier, but only for the RE skill.
In addition, Decay will reduce target’s damage by a lot.
Max this modifier.

The last RE-modifier “​Foul Eruption​” might look attractive: health reduction and resistance
reduction. But do not be fooled by this!
1) Most bosses have huge resistance to life-reduction attacks
2) This modifier makes monsters killed by RE to explode, everything that is listed on
Foul Eruption will require another monster to be hit by an exploding monster.
Thus, leave this at one hard point: let +skills increase the rank.
Siphon souls​ (Necro) will steal life back to us and reduce monster’s OA.
Try to get main skill to like rank 10-12 or so and the modifier as high as possible.

Spectral binding​ (Necro) passive toggle skill that improves health and OA.
The modifier “​Spectral Wrath​” will cast a curse when you get hit that will reduce monsters
resistances.
Max both.

Mark of Torment​ (Necro) life-saver skill that you shoot on the toughest target. As long as
monster is alive you have huge damage absorption for the duration. Worth to get at least to
rank 8-10.

Curse of Frailty ​(Occu) curse that will lower target’s resistance, speed and DA.
I like to get main skill to about 5 points for decent radius (higher radius can aggro too many
mobs) and maxing the modifier “​Vulnerability​”.

Blood of Dreeg ​(Occu) toggle skill that will increase your OA, life regen and heal you when
you activate it (like a secondary health potion). Its duration is about 50% of its duration so
learn to time its usage well. The modifier “​Aspect of the Guardian​” will increase your
damage, poison/acid resistances and physical resistance.
Max both.

Solael’s Witchfire ​(Occu) toggle skill that increase your vitality damage modifier (the flat
damage will not be used - require weapon damage to be applied). The modifier can give us
some more vitality resistance. I suggest you spend point in this skill after everything else and
do not go overboard here. I maxed the main skill for more +% vitality damage.

Exclusive skill:
- Harbinger of souls ​(Necro) ​is not worth it​ ​(can be good when you are leveling though)
the life steal will only apply to skill that have weapon damage.
- Master of Death ​(Necro) is nice for OA, DA and vitality resistance.
- Possession ​(Occu) is overall the best one: damage, chaos res, damage absorption and
chaos resistance. It also provides skill disruption protection which is dope!
Try to get​ both mastery bars​ maxed for stats.

4. Devotions
For a vitality caster, we have 2 ​mandatory ​devotions:
1) Dying god
2) Rattosh, the veilwarden
They are located in two different sections of the devotion tree, which means we have to get
affinities from basically everywhere - getting constellations that give mixed affinity will be a
key for us.
We will also pick up the ​Bat ​for it’s heal proc and ​Tip of the scales​ for its energy leech and
resistance reduction abilities.

Devotion tree process

Green Xroad
Bat (bind proc to RE)
Yellow Xroad
Lotus (will help with energy regen early)
Hawk
Oklaine’s Lantern (will help with energy regen early)
Remove Hawk
Red Xroad
Jackal
Viper
Lion
Rattosh, the veilwarden (bind proc to Curse of Frailty)
Scales of Ulcama (bind proc to permanent toggle skill like Spectral Binding)
Remove Yellow Xroad
Sailor’s Guide
Eel
Solemn Watcher
Remove Lion
Dying God - up to proc “hungering void” (bind to Siphon Souls)

We now have two (2) devotion points left to spend. Here are some ideas:
i) Get the first two nodes in Ultos, Shepherd of storm for the +50 flat OA
ii) Purple xroad and first node in Empty Throne for +18 flat OA and 15% stun res.
iii) The first two nodes in Revenant for energy absorb and damage reduction from undeads -
perfect for Steps of Torment runs.
iv) Two nodes in Obelisk of Menhir for armor and DA.
v) Look for constellations that gives resistances in their first and second nodes if you need
some of that. Flat health and/or energy nodes can be useful as well.

Alternative devotion tree process

This is also a good devotion tree, used in Nery’s Dark One Cabalist build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNY4GQgZ
(everything is empty apart from Devotion tree)
Green Xroad
Bat (bind proc to RE)
Hawk
Scholar’s light
Oklaine’s Lantern
Remove Scholar’s light
Turtle (bind proc to Spectral Binding)
Vulture
Lion
Rattosh, the veilwarden (bind proc to Curse of Frailty)
Yellow Xroad
Scales of Ulcama (bind proc to Exclusive skill)
Sailor’s Guide
Eel
Solemn Watcher
Remove Lion
Remove Yellow Xroad
Red Xroad
Dying God - up to proc “hungering void” (bind to Siphon Souls)

The main difference is that we get a life-saver proc now: but give up OA, physical resists and
energy regen.

5. Items

5.1 Weapon

Bonespike​ and lower tier. Higher tier versions require more cunning and spirit, but can
get better mods. It is a Monster Infrequent (MI) that is pretty easy to farm: do a few
runs in Mountain Deeps and you will find plenty to choose from. Try to get one that
has extra +% vitality damage and some other relevant offensive and defensive stats
like physique, health, resistances.

5.2 Shield

Basically any shield (yellow, green, blue, purple) that grants huge (+20%) physical
resistances and other defensive/offensive mods is fine. Remember to have a shield that has
item level around your level so that you get the most out of it (in particular, the amount of
damage blocked).

I like these MI shields​ ​Colossal Bulwark​ (and lower tier).The base shield already gives
some physical resistance, cooldown reduction and nice modifiers to Overguard. What is extra
good about these shields is that you can shop them from ​Hyram ​in Steelclap District (you
have to save his ass first in side-quest). You can ”​powershop​” him until you get a decent
shield (reset vendor inventory by leaving the area and visit other vendors, then come back to
him - he can also sell some nice relic blueprints). Note, the level of gear he sells does not
depend on game-difficulty, only your level matters. So it is enough to save him in
Normal/Veteran – if you need an upgrade just go back to that difficulty and powershop some
more.

The shield I used on the build above have two magic-tier affixes so something similar should
be “easy” to get. The most important stat to get is extra physical resist, in total you want at
least 20% from the shield.

5.3 Caster off-hand

At some point, you wanna switch to a caster off-hand for more damage and cooldown
reduction (we will get plenty of physical resistances elsewhere). Remember that usage of
caster off-hands require high spirit (724 for the highest tier ones). ​Keep this in mind when
leveling​ - that you might need to use an attribute respec potion.

Some good faction caster off-hands:

Wendigo Caustic Effigy
Elite Harvest's Ledger​ ​nice against Aetherials
Elite Death's Advance​ ​nice against Undeads
Word of Solael​ ​nice damage and OA

Common off-hands:
Mythical Edrick's Backscratcher
Mythical Virulent Maw
Compelled Wraith​ (and lower tiers) ​MI that will give some more resistance reduction to
Siphon Souls. Drop pretty often in FG areas.

5.4 Helm

Fettan Mask​ (Boba Fett from Star Wars you know). Again not a meme-item, very good for
its ”cost” and perfect for beginner/budget builds. Here is how you get it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltY_sXpeo8
You get one version per difficulty, so go to FG as soon as you can on each difficulty just to
pick up this helm! (level req for Normal/Veteran is 50, Elite 75).

5.5 Chest

Elite Solael Black Flame Vestments​ (and lower tier)

There are other faction chest armor that can be of interest but I think this is the best until we
get Dark One set.
5.6 Gloves

Yellow or Green ones with good defensive stats.

Not super important to get something godly here since there are gloves in the Dark One set.

You can try to craft some of these if/when you get the blueprints:
Emberguard Gauntlets
Plagueguard Grips
You can buy these blueprints from the secret vendor in Blood grove. He do not sell them
100% of the time so you have to visit him a few times to get it. Cheap to make so make many
and keep some with many good defensive stats.

5.7 Boots

Yellow or Green ones with good defensive stats.

Craftable: ​Stoneplate Greaves

You can buy the blueprint from the secret vendor in Blood grove. He do not sell it 100% of
the time so you have to visit him a few times to get them. Cheap to make so make many and
keep some with many good defensive stats.

Good faction boots that can be good to begin with ​Elite Harvest Footpads

5.8 Belt

Craftable: ​Stoneplate Waistguard​ you can buy this blueprint from the secret vendor in
Blood grove. He do not sell it 100% of the time so you have to visit him a few times to get it.
Cheap to make so make many and keep some with many good defensive stats.
Good to use when farming for Dark One set due to its extra Freeze resistances.

White Lotus​ Faction blueprint. Extremely good belt but require you to be revered with one
of the FG factions. Remember that learned faction blueprints are not soulbound.

If you get a good rolled belt of this MI ​Ugdenbog Girdle

(and lower tiers) it might also be a decent choice for a basic end-game build. Can drop from
the “creeper” monsters in the Ugdenbog areas.
5.9 Legs
Get whatever good ones you can come by (many defensive stats).

A good choice is ​Solael-Sect Legguards

you can farm them from ​Guardian of Solael​ in the "Hidden Path" quest. They always roll
with Aether & Bleed resists and life steal. Drop chance is 40% and it is pretty fast to run that
boss so give it a try if you lack pants.

Craftable pants that might be worth to consider:

Rimeguard Chausses
Stormguard Leggings
You can buy the blueprints from the secret vendor in Blood grove. He do not sell them 100%
of the time so you have to visit him a few times to get them. Cheap to make so make many
and keep some with many good defensive stats.

5.10 Shoulders

Some faction shoulders (also lower tiers)

Elite Wendigo Vile Spaulders​ (my favorite)
Elite Wendigo Vile Pauldrons

These MI-shoulders ​Ascendant Shoulderguards​ could be interesting for some pierce to

vitality damage conversion on the Bat proc.

Dark One’s set has shoulders, so do not spend too much time trying to find the perfect
shoulders.

5.11 Rings

Slith Primal Ring​ Quest reward from the Rovers in act 1 where you collect Slith Necklace
Coven Sky Seal​ DA/OA, elemental res and Freeze resists (for farming Dark One, se below)
Bysmiel Vile Seal​ decent ring for some +% vitality damage

Any good yellow or green ring will do as well. Resistances and OA/DA is what we need to
get started farming.

5.12 Amulet

Venomfire​ faction blueprint. Will be our goal amulet for the final build so worth crafting.
Meanwhile, use any amulet that gives some +skills and stats like resistances, life, OA/DA etc.
5.13 Medal

Basilisk Crest​ drops from basilisks in the Ugdenbog areas. Will be our goal medal and is
worth farming for a good one. Can also be bought in Ancient Grove. You can do Ancient
Grove in Elite. You can reset the vendor inventory by just going in to the level that is after
the one where the vendor spawns. Stay there in 30 seconds or so, then go back to vendor in
the previous level. Repeat until you find something good (plenty of resistances, OA/DA).

5.14 Relic

Mortality​ ​blueprint is sold by Malmouth faction vendor. +1 RE is best completion bonus

(well the only one that will be useful for us apart from +1 Siphon Souls).

Sacred Talisman​ (and lower tiers) is a good replacement, you get this from the Lost Elder
quest in act 2 by telling the camp leader “no I did not find a talisman” when you hand in the
quest. See more under “Leveling tips” below.

5.15 Components

Weapon/shield/off-hand:
Overall good components for resistances and damage against Aetherials/Chthonics
Purified Salt
Imbued Silver

Amulet, Medal, Rings​ (note, some can only be used in Amulet/Medal):

Mark of Illusions​ great for energy regen and DA.
Ectoplasm​ great for energy
Aether Soul​ great for aether res
Black Tallow​ great for chaos res
Arcane Spark​ great for OA and energy
Frozen Heart​ great for Freeze reduction
Dread Skull​ ​good for speed
Soul Shard​ good for Vitality res & Energy absorption
Wardstone​ elemental and bleed res, speed

Armor ​(note, some are slot-specific):

Sanctified Bone​ great for resistances and extra damage to undead/chthonics.
Very good for SoT & BoC runs.
Restless Remains​ Energy, casting speed and life steal.
Consecrated Wrappings​ Attack speed
Scaled Hide​ great for armor absorption
 Leathery Hide​ great for stun resistance
Runestone​ elemental & aether resistance
Silk Swatch​ pierce & bleed res
Antivenom Salve​ poison/acid res
Unholy Inscription​ ​OA and some resistances
Molten Skin​ fire res
Dense Fur​ cold res
Rigid Shell​ lightning res
Chains of Oleron​ OA
Mark of Mogdrogen​ ​health and speed
Mark of the Traveler​ speed & slow res

5.16 Augments

Weapon/Shield/off-hand
Ravager's Eye

Rings/Amulet
Survivor's Ingenuity​ allround very good augment

Osyr's Temper​ OA & DA

Osyr's Wisdom​ OA and good resistances

Medal
Teleport skill, pretty high cooldown though. It requires clear line of sight
Emblem of the Riftstalker

5.17 Crafting
Try to craft as many items as possible with ​Angrim ​in Devil’s crossing for Armor
and/or Physique.
The blacksmith in Steelclap district is also good for chance of freeze and stun
resistances.
6. Leveling tips

Before you start, read section 11 below and take note on which items you can NOT sell!
(​Sahdina's Memento​, ​Mythical Stormheart​, and more)

Pick up the ​Talisman relic​ from the ”​Lost elder quest​”. When you hand in the quest, select
”No, I did not find a talisman” and you will get a pretty good relic from free that have a skill
that will regen your energy.

Do quests for Solael in FG, but it does not matter that much which of the gods you choose to
serve. If we do quests for Solael we can buy their faction armor pretty quick. Remember to
buy and apply writs (if you do not have mandates) for all factions as soon as you get honored
with them.

Side with Barrowholm​ ​is mandatory​ for their faction gear, siding with Outcast is optional.
Also side with Order of Death’s Vigil.

For armor gear in general, it is important that you have gear that are around your level so that
they provide as much base armor as possible.

If you take too much damage and die, it is most likely due to having low resistances, DA, life
and armor.

For details on ​leveling regarding skill-distribution,​ I will refer to this guide:

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-0-3-2-nightmares-vitality-cabalist-new-player-start
er-build/43313/2
Keep in mind that I/we do not take Doom Bolt as skill, and that we have another Devotion
route (see section 4 above for devotion progress). Instead of Doom Bolt, get Mark of
Torment up higher and get Solael’s Witchfire (the Occu skill).

7. Stats to aim for

At level 100ish before we start farming Dark One set.

Around 15k health, 2.8k OA and DA, maxed resistances (overcap elemental, acid, aether and
vitality). Around 50% physical resists and 1.7k armor rating with as close 100% absorption as
possible (with Blood of Dreeg on).

+1500% vitality damage without Dying God proc.

Stun, slow and freeze resistances (get as close to 80% as possible) will be important for
farming dark one set (see below) as well as some “less damage from chthonics”. Having
overcapped elemental, vitality and possibly also chaos resistances will be important as well.
8. Attribute points

As much as possible into Physique.

Some spirit is needed to wear Rings, Amulet, Chest armor (and Head when we get Dark One
set) and caster off-hand. At most we need 724 Spirit.
Some cunning might be needed for the Bonespike dagger.

Remember that some items can give spirit, when you then change gear, you might have to
account for this.

Also remember that mastery bar also provides stats.

You can only respec attributes with a special potion (quest rewards, nemesis troves, crucible
and Shattered Realm reward chests).

9. Damage conversions
We do not want any conversion from vitality damage to another damage type.
Since there are plenty of items that do this, you need to be careful when equipping your char.

Conversion to vitality can be desirable. In particular the acid/poison damage on RE.

Unfortunately, there are not that many items that provides this conversion.

The second conversion into vitality that might be interesting is Pierce to Vitality for a slightly
more effective Bat devotion proc. These items are pretty common
Korvan Plating​ (not caster chest though so no extra energy regen)
Ascendant Shoulderguards
After all, we are going for the Dark One set, so the chest and shoulder slots will become
occupied eventually.

10. Gameplay

This build is very simple to play. Debuff with Curse of Frailty, cast RE and Siphon Souls.
In order to get most damage output, place RE on top of monster and try to make it stand still.
Use Blood of Dreeg for heal and keep the buff up at all times. Maybe the most tricky thing to
learn is to know when to kite and when to tanke. Also it takes some time to learn how to time
Blood of Dreeg (we both want it up all the time AND use it as a heal).
11. Farming Dark One’s set

Preparations
Make sure you are around level 100 and have a build similar to the goal build presented in
section 2. In particular, have high DA, life, physical resists, overcapped elemental, vitality
(and chaos) resistances. Also have as close to 80% stun, freeze and slow resistances.
Make sure you have augments and components in all of your items.

Study the video below a few times, and take notes on which items you CAN NOT SELL.
You need to do a ​Secret Quest first​ see guide here (only works in Ultimate)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDN6SPjY038
(skip the Lokarr fight for now, he will wreck you)

Strategy
In order to farm the Dark One set, we need to clear the “Edge of Reality” in particular the
monsters called “​Rift-Claimed Adherent​”, see map below - they are marked as red dots.
Each of these have around 10% chance to drop a Dark One set piece. Each have a specific set
piece that can be dropped indicated by the map.
We can’t transmute the set pieces into other ones, so you need to farm the entire place.
This can take a few hours, and it is no big deal to get multiples of the set - keep the ones with
good rolls and dismantle the rest (or use for other chars).

Edge of Reality is pretty nasty place, and you need to be somewhat careful since there is a
high chance that you get your toggle skills removed by Arcane heroes. Remember to cast
rift-gate here and there to get back in case you die (not a valid strategy in HC though).

Overall, it is a decent place for loot and materials in general, so it is definitely worth farming
in its own right - but it is the Dark One set we are after.
12. Example of Dark One’s build

By​ ​Nery​: ​https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV7B8zB2

Still pretty budget/cheap. GT link from his Oppressor guide:
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-1-2-caster-beginners-budget-vitality-re-op
pressor-leveling-guide-inside-cabalist-version-added/50493
For more decked builds, see the official forum build compendium.

13. Videos
Steps of Torment run with Dark One set-up by ​Nery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APdDJjP3HCM
(you do not need Dark One set for this dungeon)

14. Game Mechanics

In this section, I will explain some of the more advanced game mechanics of Grim Dawn that
is relevant for this build. ​This section can be skipped at first, but you need to learn this stuff
eventually.

Armor:​ negates physical damage. Armor absorption is a value on how effective your armor
is. Not super-important for our build but you still need decent armor that you will get from
having armor-items that have item-level around your own level.

Life-steal mechanics:​ we do not benefit from global “attack damage converted to health”
since we are dealing damage with skill damage (exception is Bat, but that has skill specific
life-steal).

Damage reduction/absorption mechanics:

The ​damage absorption​ on Mark of Torment and Possession will stack multiplicative.
E.g. 50% from MoT and 15% for Poss: 1000 damage incoming, 500 will get through MoT
and 85% of that will get through Poss = 425. In total, we absorbed 57.5% of the damage.

“​Less damage taken from​ (insert racial)” will add up additive with same race (e.g. two Black
Tallow components will give 12% less damage taken from Chthonics).

“​Reduced target’s damage by x%​” only the strongest debuff will apply.
E.g. if a monster is debuffed by Decay (all damage) and Ill Omen (Necro skill) - physical
damage - only the highest number will apply for the damage type of consideration.
This is the reason why we do not take Ill Omen, we already have Decay.
All the three damage reduction/absorption mechanics above will stack multiplicative.
E.g. let’s say we have 15% dmg absorb from Possession and 50% from Mark of Torment
active; Reduced target’s damage by 26% from Decay; 12% less damage taken from Chtonics
(two Black tallows): 1000 damage from a Chthonic monster will become 277 damage taken.
(1000 * 0.5 * 0.85 * 0.74 * 0.88 = 277)
Resistances and/or armor will further reduce the damage you will take: I.e. let’s assume it
was vitality damage, and that you have 80% vitality resistances, you will take 55 dmg.
(277 * 0.2 = 55)

Resistance reduction mechanics:

For us, there are two resistance reduction mechanics that is important:
“​-x%​” and “​y reduced target’s resistances​” the first kind we get from “Spectral Wrath”,
“Vulnerability” and from “Will of Rattosh” devotion proc, the second kind we get from “Tip
of the Scales” proc.

All of the “​-x%​” kinds will stack and for a “​-x​total​%​” but only the strongest “flat” resistance
reduction debuff will be active (this is why we only need one such).

Let’s assume we apply all of our resistance reduction debuffs on a monster.

-36% from Spectral Wrath
-34% from Vulnerability
-25% from Will of Rattosh
flat 22 from Tip of the Scales
In total, we can debuff a monsters resistances by the value 117%, this value we then subtract
from the monster’s original vitality resistance. Assume monster has 90% Vitality resistances,
after our debuffs it will have -17% which means that if we deal 100 damage, the monster will
take 117 dmg. Without any resistance reduction debuffs, the monster would take 10 damage.

What is applied to weapon attacks?​ ​Properties that are given as global flat numbers, like
the flat acid damage on blood of dreeg - are applied via weapon damage. Since most of our
damage skills do not deal weapon damage, we will not use such properties. Another example
is the 2nd node on the Viper devotion “15% Chance of 36 Energy leech” will not be applied
to say Ravenous Earth.
The only skill we use that have weapon damage is the devotion proc “Twin Fangs” which at
max ranks deals 22% weapon damage. This attack will, for each hit, apply 22% of your
current “flat properties” (e.g. 22% of 36 Energy leech is 7.9).

15. Future patches/updates

I will not have time to update this build guide with every new patch. Patch changes seldom
“kill” beginner builds but can sometimes “hurt” decked end-game builds. At the official Grim
Dawn forum you can read the patch notes and see what changes have been done to this guide.