Acid Ravenous Earth Oppressor



Welcome to a Complete Build & Leveling Guide for the Acid Ravenous Earth Oppressor. This build is one of the best starting builds in the game, can do all content (save a few super bosses) and easily farm Ultimate for set gear with self-found drops. It’s new player friendly and scales very well. If you’re looking for a fun, powerful and top tier starter build with a complete leveling guide, this is the place! Note the GrimTools link is at the bottom of the guide.

JAN 2020 UPDATE! Click here to see a detailed announcement by the Guide Creator about the issues he encountered with the Grim Dawn Community, Forum Moderators and why he moved his guides from the Grim Dawn Forums.

It’s been my experience this build is the strongest RE build out there, outperforming the traditional Vitality version of RE. While this build does start with traditional vitality damage, once the character equips a Leafmane Horn and converts to Acid (covered below under Gameplay), it melts everything with efficiency.

This build is hardcore viable and can easily reach 100!



This build is based on SFHobbit’s RE Acid Oppressor build. A shout out to SFH for his great video!

Update 1: Special thanks to Foxhull on Reddit for providing an updated and even stronger end-game version with the Pandemic Sword and Venomfire Amulet! New GrimTools link is at the bottom.



Before we begin, I recommend these mods to anyone playing Grim Dawn, especially new players. Note none of these mods cheat or change the core of the game – they just add quality of life:

GrimInternals (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-grim-internals/38773) 
This is hands down the best mod currently out for Grim Dawn. Automatic component pickup and monster name/labeling with legendary drop Sound FX are just a few reasons why every Grim Dawn player should have this.

GD Item Assistant (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-grim-dawn-item-assistant/30491)
This mod allows the player to store an unlimited number of items they find. This is fantastic because it supports “account building” with extending storage to be anything the player feels is important in the future or for another build.

Item Color Filter (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-rainbow-filter-item-highlighting/42765) 
A fantastic visual modifier to the game that shows item prefixes and suffixes in colors based on their damage/resist/skill type. Extremely popular and valuable. Note this is for the WanezGD Tool, which auto-installs and manages the rainbow filter. Download the setup.exe for the Tool.



Resistances are everything in Grim Dawn. If you die, it’s probably because your resists were low. Below is a list of recommended components that are commonly used throughout the leveling process:

Components List

  • 7: Wardstone | 7% Elemental, 15% Bleed Resistance | Amulet & Medal
  • 15: Silk Swatch | 18% Pierce & Bleed Resistance | Shoulder, Chest & Leg Armor
  • 15: Imbued Silver | 20% Chaos Resistance & 15% Bleeding Resistance | Mainhand/Offhand (Toggled Item Skill)
  • 15: Purified Salt | 20% Aether Resistance | Mainhand/Offhand (Toggled Item Skill)
  • 15: Antivenom Salve | 20% Poison & Acid | All Armor
  • 15: Unholy Inscription | 10% Vitality, 15% Bleeding | Hand Armor
  • 20: Runestone | 12% Aether & 12% Elemental Resist | Head Armor
  • 20: Soul Shard | 20% Vitality Resistance | Ring, Amulet, Medal
  • 20: Mark of the Traveler | 8% Movement Speed & 10% Slow Resistance | Boots
  • 24: Sanctified Bone | 18% Vitality, 12% Chaos | Chest & Head
  • 24: Aether Soul | 16% Aether Resistance | Amulet & Medal


Augments are the most important thing for end-game and require honored or revered reputation with a faction to access them. Rule of thumb: as soon as you hit Honored with any faction (which will begin to happen in Elite mode), immediately buy the Writ (for 88,000 iron) that doubles your faction gain. This will help you get to Revered much quicker, and give you access to the necessary augments to help your resists in Ultimate.

Augments List
The factions a player gets Honored and Revered with first are generally: Devil’s Crossing, Rovers, Homestead, Black Legion, Order/Kymon, and Coven of Ugdenbog. I’m listing some of the most popular defensive Augments below for reference, which can greatly help in surviving both Elite and especially Ultimate.

  • 40: Arkovian Rose Powder | 10% Elemental Res | Rings/Amulet | Rovers Honored
  • 40: Slith Venom | 15% Poison, Acid & Bleeding Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Gazer Eye | 10% Aether Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Corpsefiend Tentacle | 10% Vitality Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Divine Flame | 10% Elemental Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Blessed Ashes | 15% Fire & Lightning Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Consecrated Silver | 12% Chaos Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Necrotic Flesh | 15% Bleeding Res | Rings/Amulet | Order Honored
  • 40: Chillheart Powder | 15% Cold & Vitality Res | Rings/Amulet | Order Honored
  • 70: Venomguard Powder | 15% Poison & Acid Res | All Armor | Rovers Revered
  • 70: Nightshade Powder | 7% Pierce & 10% Cold Res | All Armor | Rovers Revered
  • 70: Bladeward Powder | 10% Pierce Res | All Armor | Devil’s Revered
  • 70: Mogdrogan’s Touch | 10% Poison & Acid Res, 7% Vitality Res | All Armor | Devil’s Revered
  • 70: Kymon’s Blessing | 15% Fire Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Kymon’s Conduit | 15% Lightning Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Demonbane Powder | 7% Vitality & Chaos Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Mankind’s Vigil | 7% Aether Res, 7% Chaos Res | All Armor | Black Legion Revered
  • 70: Kingsguard Powder | 7% Pierce Res, 10% Poison/Acid Res | All Armor | Black Legion Revered
  • 70: Flameweave Powder | 7% Pierce Res, 10% Fire Res | All Armor | Homestead Revered
  • 70: Solarstorm Powder | 10% Fire Res, 10% Lightning Res | All Armor | Homestead Revered
  • 70: Wraithtouch Powder | 15% Cold Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 70: Spiritguard Powder | 10% Vitality Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 70: Spellward Powder | 10% Lightning Res, 7% Aether Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 90: Coven Warding Powder | 7% Elemental Res | All Armor | Coven Revered
  • 90: Coven Black Ash | 8% Pierce and Chaos Res | All Armor | Coven Revered


Transmutation
This is a new and critically important feature introduced with Forgotten Gods that allows the player to convert set items to another item of the same set. And it works with BLUE (non-legendary) set items! The quest to unlock Transmute is given by Kargon in the Conclave of the Three. The quest unlocks after you’ve progressed to the Oasis area. The Tome is found on Canen’s Corpse. It costs 120,000 iron per transmute, and uses 1 Eldrich Essence (which is quite rare, so make each transmute count!). Luckily, a player put together a guide on Farming Eldrich Essence. Remember, if you can craft the helmet of a set, you can transmute those helmets to other pieces. This means you can craft an entire set just from the helmet recipe!

Another technique is to convert a set item to another random set item. This costs 30,000 iron, scrap and crystals (which is a lot cheaper than converting to the same set). A good example of this technique is if you want the Mythical version of a set item (but you have none, and don’t have the recipe to craft the helm), you can take another mythical set item and convert it to a random set item with the possibility of getting a mythical of the set you’re looking for!



Final Level 100 Stat Distribution: 63 Physique, 3 Cunning, 40 Spirit.

Items

While leveling, you’ll find these items to be very helpful:

  • 18: Bone Talisman (Relic)
  • 20: Bonespike of Corrosion (1H) (Best)
  • 20: Leafmane Horn of Corrosion (OH) Acid Conversion Here (Best)
  • 20: Vitriolic Gallstone (20) 1H x OH (Components)
  • 25: Gluttony (Relic)
  • 35: Mortality/Torment (Relic)
  • 40: Basilisk Crest (Medal) (Best)
  • 50: Blight (Relic)
  • 50: Venomancer’s Rainment (Chest)
  • 65: Stonetreaders (Boots)
  • 65: Peerless Eye of Beronath (Amulet)
  • 65: White Lotus (Belt)
  • 84: Pandemic (Sword)
  • 90: Venomfire (Amulet) Cult of Dreeg Craftable
  • 90: Serenity (Relic)
  • 90: Rune of Displacement (2nd movement skill)

Skills

Phase I (Necromancer)
Skeletons (Max) → RESPEC AT LEVEL 7 and remove Skeletons → Ravenous Earth (Max) → Spectral Binding (1) → Spectral Wrath (1) → Decay (Max)

Phase II (Oathkeeper)
Presence of Virtue (1) → Vire’s Might (1) → Resilience (1) → Judgment (1) → Haven (1) → Ascension (1) → Guardian of Empyrion (1) → Clarity of Purpose (1) → Tectonic Shift (1) → Scion of Dreeg (1) → heart of Wrath (1) → Celestial Presence (1) → Path of the Three (Max) → Celestial Presence (Max)

Phase III
Necromancer: Mark of Torment (3) → Foul Eruption (4)
Oathkeeper: Ascension (Max) → Guardians (Max) → Judgment (Max) → Resilience (Max)

Phase IV
Oathkeeper: Clarity of Purpose (Max) → Haven (Max)
Necromancer: Spectral Binding (Max)
Oathkeeper: Presence of Virtual (Max)
Necromancer: Foul Eruption (Max)

Devotions

Crossroad (Chaos) → Viper → Crossroad (Eldrich) → Rat → Scorpion (Vire’s Might) → Manticore (Judgment) → Eel → Murmur (Ravenous Earth) → Behemoth (Presence of Virtue) → Oklaine’s Lantern → Abomination (Partial!) (Tainted Eruption for Guardians) → REMOVE Crossroad (Chaos) → Hound → Solemn Watcher → REMOVE Hound→ Ulzuin’s Torch (PARTIAL) → Empty Throne (final, one point)



The key items for this build are easily found and farmable as the player progresses through the story. The Bonespike drops from the Mages in Mountain Deeps. This lowers the recharge time and raises the duration of Ravenous Earth. The Leafmane Horn is what converts Vitality Damage to Acid Damage, and drops from the Leafmanes east of Coven’s Refuge in Ugdenbog. While the Leafmane Horn is usable at level 20, most players won’t get to Ugdenbog to farm it until 40 or so; but Ravenous Earth is so powerful it’ll perform just fine before the conversion to Acid. The Basilisk Crest also drops in the same area the Leafmane Horn does (east of Coven’s refuge) from the Basilisks. That is the most difficult one to find, so don’t spend too much time farming a good one until Ultimate; prior to that time, any prefix rolls will work just fine as long as you have the skill recharge adjuster for RE.

Pandemic (1H Sword) is the ultimate weapon goal for this build (L84), and replaces the bonespike, but it’s a very rare drop. One can also craft a Venomfire amulet at level 90 with a Cult of Dreeg blueprint.

This build is so powerful the play at early and mid-game is just rush, drop RE and rush. With bosses, use Judgment to debuff them. But when you get into Ultimate you’ll need to strategically use your Vire’s Might to proc scorpion, Judgment to debuff and pull large groups into your RE, and Ascension to buff your damage. Another key skill at end-game is Mark of Torment, which protects you from damage while it’s up – hit bosses with this as you rush back and forth through them with Vire’s Might while using Judgment and Ascension as it’s available. Rune of Displacement also provides a second jump if you need to get away from damage. If you are engaged in a tough fight, make sure you kite and use Vire’s might whenever it recharges to keep clear of big hits. I made it to 100 farming Ultimate like a boss with 0 deaths using this build with only self-found gear (I didn’t even have Dark One’s set).

This build can farm the Dark One’s set, but you have to make sure you are properly outfitted. This means all resistances maxed (and overcapped by some amount) and at least 16,000 health is recommended to be safe.



With the included leveling guide, GrimTools prior to level 94 isn’t really necessary, but I believe it’s always important to see where you’re going. Below is the end-game build for reference, showing the final gear, etc.

Original Level 100 Goal → GrimTools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GXBK6V
Enhanced Level 100 Goal (Foxhull) → GrimTools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkor8RN



Below are additional complete build guides you might be interested in!

55 Comments

  1. Hi, David! I like your guids, they are unique for Grim Dawn. Its really hard to understand how to build your character, even if you played few years Diablo 3. I tried few builds, and this one is my favorite. Can you explain please difference between this build and Mala’s build i found few days ago. Link below:
    https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2E1dPm2

  2. If you’re talking about Malagant – his builds are solid – but I’d have to dive into the two and compare them side by side to determine the different choices. At quick glance, Foxhull’s build has a lot more DA, which would make a huge difference with survival. I’d go for the higher DA version 🙂

  3. Where can I find the Venomancer’s Rainments and the Dark One’s set? they don’t seem to drop from the crucible.

  4. Unfortunately, both are RNG drops. You just need to keep playing until they drop – but remember, you can also craft the Helmet recipe (if/when you find it) and transmute the Helmet to another piece of the set. Good luck!

  5. Well, I finished Foxhull build, and i have few questions:

    1. Why he made overcap elemental resistance ~ 40%? And didnt get pierce and stun resistant cap.

    2. His build looks solid, but seems weaker than BlightLord version.

  6. Congrats! Overcapped resistances are quite important at end-game; my guess is he didn’t pursue pierce and stun due to the content he was doing. I haven’t played RE in quite a while so I can’t comment on whether or not Blightlord would be superior – try it out and let me know! 🙂

  7. Been running around the map trying to find Leafmane Horn item, im now lvl 37, and i should have had it when i were lvl 20!?

    Google wont say where it’s put, and Grimtools is not working (tho i dont think it would show me anything)

    Since im lv37 and i haven’t been lucky enough to find Leafmane Horn (yet) i started looking into other things that could boost my DPS.
    And i found a youtube video of a guy saying dual wield “Bonespikes” is best, with the “bladesworn talisman” equipped.

    Does Leafmane Horn do anything different than bonespike does?, cant find Any information on that item on google.

  8. I think GrimTools will be back up today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed! If I recall we dual wield bonespikes – not the Leafmane Horns (my apologies, I can’t remember – it’s been months since I ran this build). Look up farming bonespikes – they are ultra-easy to get – using 2x of those should work perfectly fine until you jump into the next difficulty.

  9. Tried this build, it can be pretty fun and decently survivable. Zero deaths at 55, happened to find a Venommancer Rainment before hitting 50 and once I got to 50, things went even faster.

    Comments:
    1. At first, it can be a little expensive with energy and the cool down can make things a little difficult, I’d recommend going with Skeletons/pets until about 20th level until you farm your Bonespikes and have sufficient energy to continually cast RE.
    2. Found the recipe for a Manticore leap movement that splashes acid on landing. This synergized with the build better and I replaced Vire’s Might after testing for a bit. Now, for most trash mobs I don’t even need to cast RE, just jump in, then run to the next group, or if the pack is big enough, I can pre-cast RE, jump in, and RE will kill everything running towards me.
    3. Suggest planting RE right at the feet of bosses, that way they get hit by all of the RE projectiles.
    4. At 55, I don’t seem to ever need Judgement or Mark of Torment for anything, I pulled out those points to max everything else out and it seems to work (for now). Maybe recommend that these are picked up later when bosses stop dying in one RE cast?

    I enjoy your builds David, would like to see a couple of others;
    – NB/Arcan Cold build
    – Oath/Demo EoR build
    – Oath/??? shield throw build
    – Necro/??? Bone Harvest build (remember Diablo 2 Bonemancers? Something like that, haven’t seen anyone build one)

    Great job!

  10. Thanks for the feedback – I’m glade you’re enjoying it! RE (Acid or Vitality) is one of the best “all around” builds in GD for general farming. While it’s not built for pushing SR, it can own Ultimate with self-found gear. When I get back into GD I’ll definitely consider additional build guides – thanks for the recommendations – who knows, I just might pursue one or more of those 🙂

  11. “Abomination (Partial!) (Tainted Eruption for Guardians)”

    What is that skill? I can’t find it in the trees or the guide.

  12. You might be looking at Foxhull’s version, which doesn’t use it. For new players or if it’s your first time playing the build, I recommend the original version. For that, the Abomination is in the lower left corner of the Devotions, just to the left of Behemoth. Per the note, we only take the left side of the devotion, not the whole thing. I hope this helps!

  14. Nevermind, I get it now. Tainted Eruption is the Abomination skill, Summon Guardians is the attached trigger skill

  17. Bonespike drops in the Mountain Deeps (before Homestead) and the Leafmane Horn drops in the marsh east of Coven’s Refuge; so Bonespike, yes. Leafmane horn – nobody will be L20 in that area 🙂

  18. I have just started playing again after a long time away and was using this guide and have reached a point of confusion. In the devotions it shows going from Scorpion to Manticore but I didnt have the correct pre-reqs to do this so maybe im confused?

    Crossroad (Chaos) → Viper → Crossroad (Eldrich) → Rat → Scorpion (Vire’s Might) → Manticore (Judgment)

    Ive completed and am two eldritch short…

  19. Did you miss the one node on the pincer of scorpion? Following the process of devotions works just fine; I bet you missed the pincer node to the left of the skill proc node on Scorpion 🙂

  22. This is such an amazing build. I finnaly got the leafmane and everything melts! I got a lot of hardcore achievements thanks to you man. Cheers, hope you keep up the good work. I am only in elite but this build is such a blast.

  24. Can someone explain what I did wrong? I can’t get the abomination even though I’ve been following all devotions as described. I’m 1 eldritch short.

  25. My guess is you put 1 point where you didn’t need to; it could be the extra point is in a devotion that’s marked as [PARTIAL]. I would reset your devotions and walk the list again exactly as it’s defined. Worse case, post your GrimTools here and I can have a look at it for you.

  26. Hi David – Love the build! I have been really enjoying it. But for some reason I think I won’t have enough skill points to actually finish? I’m only 92 currently and I haven’t done all the skill point quests, but even in grimtools I fall about 12 skill points short when following the instructions. Is there something I’m missing?

  27. Thanks! It’s a great build! There’s a quest you can do in all 3 acts that provide skill points; I can’t recall the name off the top of my head, but a quick google search should point you in the right direction. Sorry I can’t provide more detailed information as I haven’t played GD in quite some time.

  29. Oathkeeper is required to play as Oppressor; if you were to choose another class (say Soldier) you’d have a completely different build. Note there are different Ravenous Earth builds out there (Cabalist, etc.). It’s just Guardian of Empyrion and other key Oathkeeper skills have great synergy with Necromancer and the Acid damage.

  31. For this build, I don’t think it matters; you can compare the augments from each faction to see which appears to be a better match. Apologies for not providing a more clear answer; it’s been quite some time since I ran the build.

  32. Well, I don’t think it matters anyway. Because I’m a summoner the Kymon’s don’t want me lmao. Didn’t realized it when I played your skelemancer.

  33. Hi,
    made up an Oppressor build as I went along and it was terrible. Have started on yours, which is working much better. I had a couple of questions I hope you can answer for me:

    1-The Leafmane horns I find are all converting acid damage to another damage type, not TO acid damage. I’ve found about 15 so far and they all do that. Am I missing something obvious or have I just been unlucky?
    2-I also have a stack of those Basilisk medals but am not sure exactly what one I am looking for. Is it defence related (better resists) or something else?

    Many thanks.

    =D

  34. Morning Sollen! I can’t remember the details of drop variations of the horns, but the BiS item shows in the GrimTools Calc; unless Crate changed something since the build was created (which I’m not sure of). If I recall, what you want with the basilisk medal is the recharge adjustment to RE.

    My apologies, but I haven’t played this build in quite some time and the details aren’t fresh in my memory anymore. I hope this helps at least a little!

  35. Thanks for the reply David. Will just have to keep murdering the denizens of Ugdenbog until they give me what I want!

    =D

  36. Hi again David,

    I have followed the Devotions path you set out above but I am well short of the required types to access the Abomination – 3 red and 5 green.

    Do you know if the values have changed since you wrote the guide?

    Many thanks.

  37. I don’t think so; my guess is you may have missed a single point somewhere or completed a constellation that was [PARTIAL]. You can try rebuilding it manually in GrimTools to see where the missing point(s) might be?

  38. Hey man, sorry about all the drama that forced you away from the game. That said, just wanted to drop a line and let you know I really appreciate the plethora of well-written and full builds for leveling. As someone who just picked up the games and expansion, it’s been an invaluable wealth of knowledge about the game and the intricacies of the builds.

  40. Hello there,
    First time player here, I’m looking for a noob friendly guide and this seems to be it. I mostly enjoy h&s through powerbuild that can help me defeat all/most of the content w/o thinking and just enjoying smashing things because I usually play my games with a completionist mindset and I approach this genre as a lazy guy that just doesn’t wanna think. I read everything and man, kudos on the work, just reading it was awesome.

    I have one quick question for you tho: do you think the build is still viable with the latest update?

    Thanks for your time =)

  41. Thanks for the feedback, Mathieu! Yes, I believe all of the builds are still viable with the latest release. I haven’t heard otherwise 🙂 Enjoy, and happy hunting!

  42. Hello,
    why do you pick up the viper instead of the wrench constellation?
    Anyway, im excited to play this build, i have played several of your recommended builds so far and they always work out well!
    Thank you!

  43. Unfortunately it’s been so long, I can’t remember; my apologies. I don’t play Grim Dawn anymore so I wouldn’t be able to comment since I haven’t run that build in a year and a half 🙂

  44. SOOOOOO i dont think i can get any help but im tryn out this build as my “first planned build” just startet chars and ran until im stuck ^^ far top some comment said dual wield those bonespikes but how to i unlock dual wield with this build ?^^ But so far i have to say it pretty stopmps evrything so far ^^

  45. I can’t remember if duel wield is automatic or not; I know it’s easy to do, but can’t recall if it’s unlocked. If it is, it’s part of the skill progression. My apologies I can’t remember things better – approaching 2 years since I last played Grim Dawn 🙁

  46. wow thx for answering at all ^^ i cant find it in skill tree tho ^^ there is a blade dancer talisman i guess but i havent got the blueprint yet :((

  47. but also if i dual wield these bone stuff then i dont get t hat off hand with convert dmg into poison or not? or is that part not important ?^^

  48. Ultimately you want to shoot for the items that are shown in the build; it’s been so long since I ran it, I can’t remember any details, but the guide should provide everything you need. I hope this helps!

  49. Hey David, just want to say I’ve had a blast playing your builds and they’re really helping me up my GD game. Thanks for them, and I do hope you come back to the game at some point for more guides! All the best, mate.

  51. Do you think thread of mortality (amulet) would be better than venomfire? It will give less dps but better sustain I imagine

  52. My apologies, but it’s been so long since I played, I wouldn’t be able to comment on this. Perhaps the GD Subreddit would be a good place to ask active players? Good luck!

  53. I’ve just gotten back to playing Grim Dawn, and finding out how much was added since!! As a returning player, I really appreciate your guides. The detail is amazing. Also, I’m really sorry that you had to go through all rubbish in the GD forums. I hope things are turning out better for you online. Thanks again!

  55. For those having trouble accessing Abomination: I had the same issue, and for me it was the bottom right foot of Manticore that was missing. I’m not sure if that is the same one everyone misses, just thought I’d say.

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