Grim Tides Best Build

Grim Tides features a very flexible and fun character creation system, allowing players to shape their destiny in whatever way they see fit. If the many choices are too much for you and you’re just looking for a solid build, we’ve got you covered with our Grim Tides best build guide.

The best build in Grim Tides

Generally, there are no “bad” builds in Grim Tides. Thanks to the amount of freedom you have when building your character, all the options you have are viable. Conversely, there is no one “best” build that rules them all, but there are some good builds that can get you started.

Related | Grim Tides Strategy Guide, Tips & Tricks

One of the most popular builds to use in Grim Tides is a mage build. Since you have a variety of spells and schools to choose from in Grim Tides, you can experiment with all sorts of fun builds. Although, since you only have a limited amount of spell slots, you’ll need to carefully curate which ones you want to focus on in battle.

You start the game with 2 spell and skill slots, and every five levels you unlock another slot. You’ll have to build according to your character’s level, but here are some good spells you can start out with.

Best spells

• Aether Bolt is your go-to damage-dealing spell. It does decent damage and has a short cooldown. The best part? Each Aether Bolt reduces a target’s S. RES stacking infinitely, meaning that you can blow up any monster with enough time.
• Thunder Strike deals high damage and has a good chance to stun its target. Generally, any ability that can stun in this game is very good, as it can help you mitigate a lot of damage from large groups.
• Disintegrate Essence, though unpredictable and requires investment, is easily one of the best spells in the game. It has a chance to instantly kill its target, and if it fails to do that, it’ll stun them instead, which is also helpful. The instant kill doesn’t work on bosses, but it still stuns.
• Steal Essence is an excellent spell thanks to its versatility. It does medium damage, healing you and buffing your S. PWR in the process, stacking infinitely.
• Death Bloom deals very light damage to all enemies in the battle, poisoning and weakening their damage output. AoE attacks in Grim Tides are fairly weak, but Death Bloom is a good compromise with its utility.
• Healing Light is the preferred healing spell since it’s a no-nonsense heal that requires no setup, and it even buffs your S. RES too.

Best skills

• Metaphysics has a chance to reduce the cooldown of spells. Mandatory for mage builds.
• Hermeticism gives you a chance to not use up a spell charge when casting spells. When coupled with Metaphysics, you’ll be slinging spells every turn.
• Theurgy gives you a chance to deal increased damage with spells. This one requires no explanation.
• Gnosis has a chance to reduce the ARM and S. RES of enemies whenever you hit them with offensive spells. If you’re not planning on using Aether Bolt often, this should be taken in its place.
• Meditation gives you a chance to recover Morale and HP when casting support spells on yourself. If you don’t have a reliable way to maintain your Morale, this is a good pick.
• Other weapon skills like crushing, stabbing, etc., should be avoided since you will typically be equipped with a staff or wand at all times.

There are tons of different spells you can take, but these are some of the best combos we have used. We’ve survived through tons of dungeons with these spells, so we think they work pretty well in just about any situation. What are some of your favorite builds to use in Grim Tides? Let us know in the comments below.