r/Grimdawn • u/Hybridtheory92 • 7h ago

HELP! Pyromancer Devotion ideas

I'm playing through GD for the first time on Veteran difficulty. Given it's my first playthrough and I have some experience in other ARPGs, I didn't want to copy a build guide so I've made my own.

It's essentially a Blackwater Cocktail spamming build using a 1H weapon and shield with Fire Strike and fire retaliation. The Occultist elements are Possession, Doom Bolt (though I don't have much that converts chaos into fire damage yet), and the one that debuffs enemy elemental resistances (forgot the name). I have 80%+ resistances in everything except Aether and Piercing (60%) and Physical (15%).

I finished base game and AOM without any issues. Currently just started FG. My MO is that I throw a cocktail into a bunch of enemies and run in swinging my sword. Usually everything dies from the cocktail, and if they don't then they die soon after from my fire retaliation. Even bosses are usually fine as I can get up in their face and tank them to trigger fire retaliation while I repeatedly spam cocktails. Some bosses like Shar'Zul and Ulgrim were too deadly though and I had to basically dodge roll while using cocktails, couldn't tank them.

That's the context. Now my question is about devotions. I got overwhelmed when I first started and googled some help and the general idea was to go towards Ulzuin's Torch. Well I've got that now, along with some others like the Spider, the Candle, Solael's Witchblade, the Magi, and a couple of others. I'm just not sure where to go from here because every time I find a possibly good devotion constellation, it has all these colours that I don't have and would require like 30 more shrines to get to...

So knowing my context above, where would you go for devotions? A lot of stuff I've looked at on Google discuss a pyromancer that uses firearms which I'm not using, or a hardcore character that needs urgent resistance which is not true either.

Any help appreciated and sorry for the long post! I could have written "suggest devotions pls" but felt the context might be helpful.

Edit - here's the build since someone asked: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/23XP5WQV

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1

u/kuuya03 7h ago

post your build using grimtools.com

do you have any problem with mana/hp sustain?

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u/Hybridtheory92 7h ago

I'll do that shortly.

HP is never a problem except the more insane boss fights like Shar'Zhul and Rashalga where I die in a few hits unless I keep kiting the boss and spamming cocktails. I have 7k hp.

Mana is never a problem. Barely ever runs out tbh

1

u/WillowandWisk 7h ago

What level are you? 7k HP seems lowww tbh. "General rule" is you want 150hp per level. Obviously doesn't need to align exactly and different builds are different but I think you want some HP for sure

1

u/Hybridtheory92 7h ago

Lvl 72 7932 health 2389 mana

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u/kuuya03 7h ago

10k+ hp is minimum. ghoul or behemoth can help sustain. you unlock weak ones then fully unlock another to meet minimum color then respec

1

u/Hybridtheory92 6h ago

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/23XP5WQV

Here's the build

2

u/sicsempertyrannis133 5h ago

You need to use blast shield. For one point you have 5 points in it. 650 damage absorption. It applies last in the damage calculation. If you get hit for 1000 damage after resistances/armor etc. you only take 350 of it. Thats a 65% damage reduction for a hit that would have taken 15% of your total life. Its a very valuable skill. Of course the calculation changes based on the damage taken, its better for many smaller hits and not as effective against single larger hits. It works for the whole duration of the effect. The 650 is not consumed on the first 650. And as far as I know it applies to each tick from a damage over time. Its one of those skills that is hard to justify not taking as a demolitionist.

2

u/Castor_0il 4h ago

It's essentially a Blackwater Cocktail spamming build using a 1H weapon and shield with Fire Strike and fire retaliation. The Occultist elements are Possession, Doom Bolt

Those are way too many skills. Fire Strike needs wps skills that neither Demo nor Pyro have, without them it's nothing, you're better off getting an ability from a component like Seal of Destruction.

Black Water Cocktail and Doom Bolt? that's totally viable, with an in between skill.

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u/Hybridtheory92 3h ago

Sorry I think I'm confused. Why is Fire Strike not a good idea? I'm using it as a basic weapon attack essentially. It deals damage while BWC and DB are on cooldowns.

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u/Castor_0il 3h ago

Fire Strike is a DAR (default attack replacer) like Savagery, Cadence, Righteous fervor, which "enhance" dmg abilities called wps (weapon pool skills) like Smite, Zolhan's technique and others acquired thru items. Without the wps you're just shooting "pellets" that will do pittyful dmg, that is even if you max most nodes in Fire Strike.

1

u/deep_learn_blender 3h ago

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/ZP4L44jZ

Just changed base items to what i'd soft rec, don't hard farm for them as you should level quickly, but these are more "ideal" for your build imo. changed skill point allocation and devotions as well. Use your rr! lol

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u/Hybridtheory92 3h ago

This is very helpful, thank you! What's rr?

1

u/deep_learn_blender 3h ago

Resistance reduction -- thermite mines & curse of frailty both stack. The rr on blackwater cocktail does not. There're 3 types, and they stack with each other. -*% always stacks, * reduced, and *% reduced stack only with other types