MR. THUMPYSHARTS Dual Wield Physical/Pierce Gun Tactician

Welcome to the Complete Build & Leveling Guide for the MR. THUMPYSHARTS Dual Wield Physical/Pierce Gun Tactician. This build is great fun for new players, easy to play, can complete all campaign content with self-found gear, is solid for farming Ultimate, and uses GUNS GUNS GUNS! If you’re looking for a fun ranged shooting build that is nimble, scales well, and allows you to blast enemies from a distance, this is the place!

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.

The GrimTools link is available at the bottom of the guide.

Gun builds are some of the most fun in Grim Dawn, blasting targets from a distance and piercing hoards of enemies, often killing them because they can get close. One of my favorite builds is the Dual Wield Elemental Purifier, and was the first build guide I did. Since then, I’ve wanted to do an alternative gun guide for a build that’s solid, fun and capable of pursuing end-game content.

The reality is gun builds are always going to be squishy and aren’t really hardcore viable when it comes to pushing end-game content. But for those who want to play a gun build in softcore, this rocks, and I believe is stronger than its elemental counterpart.

Featuring great pierce, physical/pierce damage and internal DoT trauma, while the play style of this build is similar to the Purifier counterpart, it has better survivability and hits certain enemies a lot harder (due to being physical focused).

I am also including an alternative build provided by a friend that focuses on a different devotion and gear setup with an OA ability in excess of 4,000. I’m sticking with the presented build for this guide because I built it from scratch and took it to 100. It’s solid and works great!

The initial inspiration to make this build came from Siritron, who gave his blessing for creating this guide. A shout out to him for being a great streamer and Grim Dawn player!

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!

This build is VERY easy to play, supporting the simple right-click shooting termination of most enemies with Cadence. The only additional skills used are War Cry, Word of Renewal and Inquisitors Seal. That’s it. So this is great for players who want a simple build that does great damage and doesn’t require piano skills to play and survive.

We utilize the strength and defense of Soldier with the support of Inquisitor. Since we’re physical and pierce-focused, our goal is to pierce, penetrate and DoT with internal trauma. We do add Chilling Rounds and Storm Spread to provide additional elemental support in addition to pierce damage. It works great. Another great thing is with this devotion setup, achieving max resists in Ultimate is a lot easier than it is with other builds.

As mentioned, the General Play Technique is to simply shoot and kill everything with penetrating rounds. Trash often dies in just one shot, and Fighting Form at 12/12 ensures 100% penetration chance. We always want Word of Renewal (WoR) up, and only use War Cry (WC) and the Seal for bosses.

Survival is all about killing most targets from a distance and standing in your seal with Word of Renewal. Make sure you have an instant movement skill on your medal, like Glyph of Disorder. It can make the difference between life and death in some boss fights. This build is designed to be mobile as well – with tough bosses, you’ll have to regularly run/teleport out of the way of big hits (the Seal simply won’t be enough), so be nimble and be quick! The good news is your DoT damage from Internal Trauma will continue to tick on your targets as they run around chasing you.

Rotation for Trash: Cadence shots. That’s it. Most trans dies in 1-3 shots, and if you crit, the bodies go flying!

Rotation for Bosses:: WoR always up, Seal down, start shooting. When boss is in rage hit War Cry. Tank as long as you can and then teleport (with a movement skill, like Glyph of Disorder), put your Seal down and start shooting again! That’s really all there is to it.

Final Level 100 Stat Distribution: 58 Physique, 49 Cunning. Note: depending on your gear, you MIGHT need some points into Spirit to use rings.
Faction of Choice: Kymon’s Chosen

Items

This build utilizes bonuses from two pieces of the Octavius set (Helm and Chest) and then focuses on using two Mythical Havoc guns. What’s important about these two guns (and what makes them critical to this build) is each weapons conversion of 45% of pierce damage to Physical. Two of these guns support 90% conversion, and that’s huge. All the other items are random drop legendaries, many of which are very common. The great thing is there are many other items that also work in their place; albeit not with the same level of effectiveness, but well-enough to support trouncing through Ultimate.

03.16.2020 Update: Thanks to “The_Wall” for his helpful pointer: “Something that irked me was the unlikelihood of ever getting the double Mythic Havoc drops… until I discovered the Fald smith family. I got the first one after 4 rolls and the second after 10 (they now have a variable conversion rate, one of mine has 47%). …point out that you can cash in Ancient Hearts, Aetherial Mutagens, and Celestial Lotuses (with Polished Emeralds) for a decent chance at a relatively small drop table? In rolling for these I also got a Mythical Arcanum Sigillis, Gutripper, and Dagallon’s guns which I believe are BiS for another one of your builds.”

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

14: 3rd Company’s Revolver (1H)
15: Vicious Spikes (1H Component)
20: The Slugger (1H)
25: Guile (Relic)
30: Shadowspine Enforcer (1H) Cadence Support
30: Dustbrawler’s Shoulderguards (Shoulders)
31: Outlaw’s Retribution (1H)
35: Juggernaut (Relic)
35: Devil’s Retribution (1H) Devil’s Crossing
40: Zeal (Relic)
50: Bounty Hunter’s Shoulderpads (Shoulders)
50: Havoc (1H)
50: Devil’s Cage Hauberk (Chest)
58: Empowered 3rd Company’s Revolver (1H)
75: Seal of Blades & Might (1H Component)
75: Deathdealer’s Sidearm (1H)

Skills

At the character’s inception, we put points into Inquisitor to get the Dual Wield and Bursting Round support; then we dive into Soldier and move back and forth between both Soldier and Inquisitor. It is very important to balance the progressive support from both classes to ensure solid damage and survival during the leveling process (one reason there is a lot of back and forth in skill distribution).

Note the below number represent the points you put IN for each stage, not the final value.

Phase I (Mixed)

Ranged Expertise (1) → Bursting Round (Max) → Ranged Expertise (4) [SAVE POINTS UNTIL LEVEL 10 FOR SOLDIER] → Cadence (3) → Markovian’s Advantage (3) → Cadence (3) → Fighting Spirit (3) → Fighting Form (9) → Word of Renewal (3) → Deadly Aim (3) → War Cry (1) → Field Command (1) → Chilling Rounds (Max) → Vigor (1) → Decorated Soldier (1) → Squad Tactics (1) → Break Morale (1) → Scars of Battle (1) → Deadly Momentum (Max) → Oleron’s Rage (Max)

Phase II (Mixed)

Fighting Form (Max) [ENSURE ONLY 100% PENETRATION, NO MORE] → Inquisitor Seal (3) → Steel Resolve (1) → Null Field (1) → Arcane Empowerment (1) → Storm Spread (3) → Cadence (Max) → Squad Tactics (Max) → Storm Spread (Max) → Inquisitor Seal (Max) → Arcane Empowerment (Max)

Feel free to put the rest of the points where you would like. Remember that Fighting Form should only be 12/12 max (with item adjustments). Anymore is a waste, so if you have (for example) 14/12, take those two points out and put them in another skill.

Devotions

Crossroads (Primordial) → Sailor’s Guide → Eel → Solemn Watcher → Assassin’s Blade (Markovian’s Advantage) → Hammer → Harp (Field Command) → Panther → Light of Empyrion (Oleron’s Rage) → Throne → Azrakaa (Cadence) → Vire [PARTIAL] → Remove Crossroads (Primordial) → Obelisk [PARTIAL]

As covered above, this build utilizes both the Octavius set and dual Havocs with additional legendary (and one Magic) items for support. I am also providing an Alternative build that uses the Warborn set, a single Havoc and a Deathdealer’s Sidearm. This build does have 4000 OA and I’ve been told it can hit for over 1M damage, but haven’t had a chance to test it out – however the source that provided this build is solid, so it’s great for anyone wanting to play an end-game Tactician to consider.

(THIS BUILD) L100 Octavius & Havoc End-game Tactician Build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2JaxzaN
(Alternative) L100 Warborn Havoc/Deathdealer End-game Build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVb9RBQ2

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