Grim Dawn

Grim Dawn

229 ratings
Unstoppable Poison Assassin
By Spike Spiegel
An assassin like no other: Dealing up to 900k damage!
   
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Introduction
Welcome back to a new adventure, Taken!
This time I want to show you a character, which is truly the strongest character I've made yet. Dexter is the combination of the masteries Nightblade and Occultist. When I've started his adventure through Cairn, I wanted to make a character which mainly deals poison and acid damage, which was very brave because there are some very strong enemies which high resistance in poison and acid. But after a short while, I mentioned that my character was basically "swimming" through the hordes of enemies and I completed the first difficulty without a single death. The only enemy I wasn't able to defeat was the Avatar of Mogdrogen, any other enemies, even the final boss monster were down after..., well the longest fight was about half a minute. ;D
But enough trash talk about how awesome this character is. I want to show you how to make such a deadly assassin. ;)

Here's my Dexter at lvl 100:










Index
  1. Skilltrees and attributes

  2. Devotion

  3. Grim Calc

  4. Playstyle

  5. Itemization

  6. Update lvl 75 (Elite)

  7. Update lvl 85 (Ultimate)

  8. Update lvl 100 (2023, with gear, skill trees and devotion)
Skilltrees and attributes
Here are my skilltrees at lvl 65:






The most important skills are:
  • Dreeg's Evil Eye (with Blood Burst, Focused Gaze, Terrifying Gaze, Vile Eruption)
  • Blood of Dreeg (with Aspect of the Guardian)
  • Possession
  • Shadow Strike (with Nidalla's Justifiable Ends)
  • Blade Barrier
  • Anatomy of Murder
  • Merciless Repertoire


Here is a quick view over my attributes:








And my dealt damage:



Devotion
As in my last guide I just want to give an advise for some good signs in the devotiion system:
My aim is to get to the abomination.

















There will be 6 points left at the end, but I don't know where to spend them, yet.
I've chosen those signs, which give me some extra poison, acid, vitality and piercing damage as well as resistances in poison & acid, chaos, vitality, bleeding and stun.
Skill tree build with calculator at 100 lvl
Just some advices how to skill this character at different levels:
(update 2023: I had the time to remove the old grimcalc-hyperlinks, but I can just deliver the skill tree at lvl 100 because I did not save the progress of each calculator link...)

At lvl 5:
There you can use Dreeg's Evil Eye as your main attack! :)

At lvl 10:
Blood of Dreeg is our aim in this skill range. After getting this skill, you won't use many healing potions for a long time. :D

At lvl 20:
Get to the end of the mastery bar of the occultist and start with nightblade. Don't forget to get Possession and Veil of Shadow.

At lvl 25:
As you get Shadow Strike, set this skill as your new main attack and put Dreeg's Evil Eye on your second attack.

At lvl 30:
Don't forget Focused Gaze and Blade Barrier!

Until lvl 85 you can maximize some of your favourite skills or get some other skills you would like to use. I kept for example Veil of Shadow and Pneumatic Burst. :)

Here is finally an option for lvl 100, including the complete gear:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQPA0RZ
Playstyle
Well it's very simple: Run into your enemies! :D Because the spells of the occultist mastery don't cost much energy, you can constantly use them and combine them to kill your enemies quickly. Blade Barrier is a good lifesaver, if you're running low in health, but Blood of Dreeg will continuously heal your character.
Itemization
This is my itemization at lvl 65:

First Hand
Offhand
65
Head
40
Chest
19
Legs
Shoulder
Hands
Feet
Belt
Amulet
First Ring
Second Ring
Medal
Relic
Update lvl 75 (Elite)
Here's a short update on my skills, attributes, equipment and damage at level 75:























And last but not least I'm dealing nearly 41k damage! ;)


Update lvl 85 (Ultimate)
Here's a short update of my poison assassin at level 85, but without his final gear:

I've changed the relic and wear now Malediction:



And here are my skill trees and devotions. I've chosen The Manticore as my final star sign:







Last but not least here are some other stats:







I'm farming for my final gear at the moment. It's the Shroud of Dreeg. If you have parts of that gear, pls write me. Also you're welcome for some loot hunting! ;)

Keep grimly!
Update lvl 100 (gear, skills and devotion)
After a very long time, I have managed to generate a new link for you, with all information about my current gear, skill points and devotion points at lvl 100! Have fun! :)

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQPA0RZ

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting my guide, I love to read that you still like my guide after so many years!! :))))

Gear:


Occultist skill tree:


Nightblade skill tree:


Devotion skill tree:
102 Comments
Spike Spiegel  [author] Nov 27, 2023 @ 8:00am 
@Darkbluu: You're welcome! :)))
Darkbluu Nov 27, 2023 @ 7:43am 
cool thanks!
Spike Spiegel  [author] Nov 27, 2023 @ 5:17am 
Update 2023 now online! :)
Spike Spiegel  [author] Nov 27, 2023 @ 4:43am 
@Walter: Sry bro, I can just deliver the one at lvl 100. The old calculator is not working any more and I did not save screenshots or anything relatable. I hope you can work out the rest. :)
Walter Nov 25, 2023 @ 1:45pm 
grimcalc builds are spam :(
ex0rzist Jul 24, 2022 @ 3:18am 
ok :-) i hope soon :-P
Spike Spiegel  [author] Jun 18, 2022 @ 1:42pm 
@exOrzist: Yeah I can try to remind it as soon as I have some time to play. :) It's a shame that the old links don't work anymore... :S
ex0rzist Jun 18, 2022 @ 12:26am 
Can you update the grimcalc links?
Spike Spiegel  [author] Apr 25, 2022 @ 4:26am 
@Daku866 happy to hear and thanks for following :)
Aquila Rift Apr 22, 2022 @ 8:53pm 
hey man ur guide is my first ever guide I've followed in this game. I just reached level 84 on this and it's been a fun build. I have all the DLC's and this still holds up today even if it was posted so long ago. THanks :steamthumbsup: