I'm currently running a lvl 31 Witch Hunter in full bloodreaper's gear with full dual wield spec into pierce and physical damage. I've also got 2 blade spirits out to pop that assassin's mark devotion. There are some survivability issues here and there, but it's probably the most single-target dps I've done with any char at this level. It's also fun to just curse of frailty and bloody pox a whole mob and dart to the back line with shadow strike. Shadow strike itself is an amazing offensive and survivability tool. The playstyle feels cool and thematically consistent.
That's an awesome sounding build! I'm looking forward to what you do with it at lvl 100! You may want to look into grabbing Pneumatic Burst for some survivability. It'll increase your total speed as well, including attack speed, allowing you to slap faster.
@@prof.reithe4053 Thank you! And yes, I've got the value points in pneumatic burst, veil of shadows and a couple of others. I might end up re-specing everything for a different damage composition depending on the gear I find - as is generally the case in Grim Dawn, lol.
@@prof.reithe4053 So I made it to level 53. I pumped more points into pneumatic burst, which ended up being a huge part of my survivability, especially paired with that second node which gives dodge and deflect chance. Except for the need to save up the burst heal, the pneumatic burst can be kept constantly up (side-node decreases cooldown) - which overall gives me something like 35% dodge and 22% deflect chance... not a bad form of damage mitigation... and that's not even with some later gear and devotions, which will likely bring the dodge close to 50%. For damage, it seems I'm doing an overwhelming majority of pierce, with bleed as a not too close second.. curse of frailty and bloody pox help boost the bleed from my attacks and the blade spirits. There's also some chaos and cold... and like... some measly 2-digit numbers for physical, LOL... not sure how I got there.
@@EVS2585 If you have Solael's Witchfire, that'll be the chaos. If you don't, consider getting it for the increased attack speed and some vitality damage. You could also put a few points in Anatomy of Murder for increased cunning (boosting weapon damage), and increased bleed and vitality damage. Assuming you have the points, of course. There's a bit of cold on one of the dual-wielding special attacks as well, and I believe the blade spirit does a bit of cold as well.
@@prof.reithe4053 Ah yes, witchfire is maxed out - for the attack speed mainly, for now. I know there are some crazy chaos damage sets out there, but I tend to get bored with a class before very late game. Blade spirits are really good against frailty-ed and poxed mobs.
You mentioned not favoring pneumatic burst--can you elaborate? It seems good for default weapon attack build w/ execution... 14% increased speed, much like solaels... And being able to pop the extra heal pretty often seems useful
You are correct on all counts, but in terms of self-heal for the dual-wielding execution build, Blood of Dreeg fully built provides better protections, retal, and substantial damage boosts for the poison & acid damage of the execution build, as well as the vitality of Solael's. This provides slightly more damage output than Pnuematic Burst, even if you're not building much retal.
Hey, great video, very informative. I'm playing witch hunter as my first character and struggling a bit with my first play through. Most builds I see look great but are gear dependent and level 70-100. What build would you recommend for a fresh new character levelling with no special gear? I'm level 35 or so playing on veteran
I would recommend focusing on vitality and bleed damage, at least for now. Bloody Pox & Phantasmal Blades are always strong in this class, especially w/ Anatomy of Murder. Alternatively, you could go full dual-wield using the complete top row of Nightblade, Solael's Witchfire, and the passive buffs on the bottom row of Nightblade. Finally, a third option would be to use Blood of Dreeg, Eye of Dreeg, and Amarasta's Bade Burst to bust out large amounts of cold/poison damage, incorporating Shadow Strike later on, using Merciliess Repertoire for damage boosts.
I would also recommend re-specing some of your earlier investments around that level. Once you hit the execution node, it's time to take your points out of belgothian's shears and put them into execution and blade spirits. Also, if you are going full dual wield, I'd probably suggest going into pierce and bleed - so don't bother with the nidala node that gives poison damage. Between the quick cut, whirling death, and execution, you have enough procs on your auto-attack... as far as I can tell belgothian is just a weaker version of whirling death, so you don't want it to proc over whirling. Veil of shadows and penumatic burst + the side node and second node are good for survivability. Shadow strike lets you get in and out, avoid getting trapped inside a mob etc. For the occultist side, I have solael's witchfire maxed and a decent amount in course of frailty, bloody pox and its second node, wasting.
u dont seem to elaborate further on sigil of consumption, which imo is also an equally powerful skill when paired with bloody pox. The latter by itself is already a pretty overkill passive one, but when combined with the former's vitality dmgs and attk -> hp effects (up to 30% conversion), even if densely surrounded and taking massive dmg, u can sweep through the entire swarm without needing to spend a bottle of hp or , even better, actively fighting them lol. Devotion buff crank this even further, which in my case aret win fang (bat constell) - bloody pox and guardians' gaze (eye of the guardian) - sigil)
Very true, but it's things that I forgot to mention like this that are getting me to just rework the whole Class Examination series haha. When I redo this episode I will be sure to include this.
@@prof.reithe4053 srr for the late rep, but yeah ill def rewatch it as well, im rlly fascinated with this class bcz of just how destructive it can be when push to max haha
I'm currently running a lvl 31 Witch Hunter in full bloodreaper's gear with full dual wield spec into pierce and physical damage. I've also got 2 blade spirits out to pop that assassin's mark devotion. There are some survivability issues here and there, but it's probably the most single-target dps I've done with any char at this level. It's also fun to just curse of frailty and bloody pox a whole mob and dart to the back line with shadow strike. Shadow strike itself is an amazing offensive and survivability tool. The playstyle feels cool and thematically consistent.
That's an awesome sounding build! I'm looking forward to what you do with it at lvl 100! You may want to look into grabbing Pneumatic Burst for some survivability. It'll increase your total speed as well, including attack speed, allowing you to slap faster.
@@prof.reithe4053 Thank you! And yes, I've got the value points in pneumatic burst, veil of shadows and a couple of others. I might end up re-specing everything for a different damage composition depending on the gear I find - as is generally the case in Grim Dawn, lol.
@@prof.reithe4053 So I made it to level 53. I pumped more points into pneumatic burst, which ended up being a huge part of my survivability, especially paired with that second node which gives dodge and deflect chance. Except for the need to save up the burst heal, the pneumatic burst can be kept constantly up (side-node decreases cooldown) - which overall gives me something like 35% dodge and 22% deflect chance... not a bad form of damage mitigation... and that's not even with some later gear and devotions, which will likely bring the dodge close to 50%.
For damage, it seems I'm doing an overwhelming majority of pierce, with bleed as a not too close second.. curse of frailty and bloody pox help boost the bleed from my attacks and the blade spirits. There's also some chaos and cold... and like... some measly 2-digit numbers for physical, LOL... not sure how I got there.
@@EVS2585 If you have Solael's Witchfire, that'll be the chaos. If you don't, consider getting it for the increased attack speed and some vitality damage. You could also put a few points in Anatomy of Murder for increased cunning (boosting weapon damage), and increased bleed and vitality damage. Assuming you have the points, of course. There's a bit of cold on one of the dual-wielding special attacks as well, and I believe the blade spirit does a bit of cold as well.
@@prof.reithe4053 Ah yes, witchfire is maxed out - for the attack speed mainly, for now. I know there are some crazy chaos damage sets out there, but I tend to get bored with a class before very late game. Blade spirits are really good against frailty-ed and poxed mobs.
You mentioned not favoring pneumatic burst--can you elaborate? It seems good for default weapon attack build w/ execution... 14% increased speed, much like solaels... And being able to pop the extra heal pretty often seems useful
You are correct on all counts, but in terms of self-heal for the dual-wielding execution build, Blood of Dreeg fully built provides better protections, retal, and substantial damage boosts for the poison & acid damage of the execution build, as well as the vitality of Solael's. This provides slightly more damage output than Pnuematic Burst, even if you're not building much retal.
@@prof.reithe4053 I didn't realize blood of dreeg has "% health restored" too. Seems like attack speed is pretty common on gear anyway. Thanks
@@BKMERRELL Glad I could help!
Hey, great video, very informative. I'm playing witch hunter as my first character and struggling a bit with my first play through. Most builds I see look great but are gear dependent and level 70-100. What build would you recommend for a fresh new character levelling with no special gear? I'm level 35 or so playing on veteran
I would recommend focusing on vitality and bleed damage, at least for now. Bloody Pox & Phantasmal Blades are always strong in this class, especially w/ Anatomy of Murder. Alternatively, you could go full dual-wield using the complete top row of Nightblade, Solael's Witchfire, and the passive buffs on the bottom row of Nightblade. Finally, a third option would be to use Blood of Dreeg, Eye of Dreeg, and Amarasta's Bade Burst to bust out large amounts of cold/poison damage, incorporating Shadow Strike later on, using Merciliess Repertoire for damage boosts.
I would also recommend re-specing some of your earlier investments around that level. Once you hit the execution node, it's time to take your points out of belgothian's shears and put them into execution and blade spirits. Also, if you are going full dual wield, I'd probably suggest going into pierce and bleed - so don't bother with the nidala node that gives poison damage. Between the quick cut, whirling death, and execution, you have enough procs on your auto-attack... as far as I can tell belgothian is just a weaker version of whirling death, so you don't want it to proc over whirling. Veil of shadows and penumatic burst + the side node and second node are good for survivability. Shadow strike lets you get in and out, avoid getting trapped inside a mob etc.
For the occultist side, I have solael's witchfire maxed and a decent amount in course of frailty, bloody pox and its second node, wasting.
u dont seem to elaborate further on sigil of consumption, which imo is also an equally powerful skill when paired with bloody pox. The latter by itself is already a pretty overkill passive one, but when combined with the former's vitality dmgs and attk -> hp effects (up to 30% conversion), even if densely surrounded and taking massive dmg, u can sweep through the entire swarm without needing to spend a bottle of hp or , even better, actively fighting them lol. Devotion buff crank this even further, which in my case aret win fang (bat constell) - bloody pox and guardians' gaze (eye of the guardian) - sigil)
Very true, but it's things that I forgot to mention like this that are getting me to just rework the whole Class Examination series haha. When I redo this episode I will be sure to include this.
@@prof.reithe4053 srr for the late rep, but yeah ill def rewatch it as well, im rlly fascinated with this class bcz of just how destructive it can be when push to max haha
@@anotherguy3554 Yeah, I think it's slept on in regards to damage output.