AETHER MAN AAR Mage Hunter (2024)

Welcome to the Complete Build & Leveling Guide for theAETHER MANAlbrech’s Aether Ray (AAR) Mage Hunter.This build works great as a starting build in the game, can do most content (including a few super bosses) and easily farm Ultimate for set gear with self-found drops.While I would say it’s only hardcore viable for very experienced HC players, it is new player friendly, fun, easy to farm the green best in slot (BiS) items, and scales very well. If you’re looking for a fun starter build that focuses on the recent changes to AAR with a complete leveling guide, this is the place!Note the GrimTools link is at the bottom of the guide.

With the release of 1.1.2.1, AAR received a major buff where it now pierces all enemies, and the buff is fantastic. The beam melts pretty much everything, only having issues with high aether resist bosses (which have to be kited). Continuing my mission to find solid starter builds to share with the community paired with the interest in AAR, I decided to try multiple variations of AAR; this included 4 different devotion layouts, multiple item combinations, and other class combinations (including Warlock). I found the build presented in this guide to be the best for self-found, solid for leveling and surviving in Ultimate. And yes, AAR is a great leveling skill, and the end-game variations can kill super bosses!

However it’s important to note that moving to a converted lightning variation of AAR is recommended. As such, I’m including a link to this transition with recommended BiS gear.

This build is only hardcore viable for experienced HC players.

I want to extend special thanks toRektByProtoss; he provided great support and information for the end-game variation of this build. He’s also one of the best Grim Dawn streamers out there. I recommend people subscribe to his channel.

I also want to extend thanks tobluewilliamaon reddit, who also provided some great support and ideas.

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.

Resistancesare 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

Augmentsare 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.

Transmutation
This is a new and critically important feature introduced with Forgotten Gods that allows the player toconvert 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 byKargonin the Conclave of the Three. The quest unlocks after you’ve progressed to the Oasis area. The Tome is found onCanen’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 onFarming 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 toconvert 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:83 Physique, 24 Spirit
Faction of Choice: Kymon

This build is very easy to level but becomes quite gear dependent about half-way through the leveling process. The good news is the core gear is very easyto farm!

An important note on Energy management!This build is VERY energy hungry. You can avoid constantly running out of energy by initially using Ectoplasm in your Rings and Amulet, and later on putting a Focusing Prism (Level 27) in your amulet, and an Arcane Spark (Level 35) in your medal.

The most important piece is thePulsing Shardwhich drops 75% of the time fromThe Amalgamation, located west of Homestead. Get this as soon as possible; I believe the lowest level variation is level 32. The life leech makes all the difference.

Crimson’s Arcane Scepteris another BiS item that’s part of the transition to lightning (but also works great as pure aether). This drops from Sister Crimson in theTomb of Sethan.

Loghorrean’s Corruption Shouldersare also great support for AAR and can be found in Loghorrean’s troves.

Let’s talkRelicsright quick. Prior to transitioning to Lightning, I do recommendHaunt. Solid damage and great Aether debuff.

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

Iskandra’s (1) → PRM (1) → Distortion (1) → PRM (Max) →Respec At L10 – Remove all PRM→ AAR(1) → Arcane Will (1) → AAR (Max) → Nullification (1) → Elemental Balance (1) → Mirror (1) → Maiven’s Sphere (1) → Mental Alacrity (1) → Fabric of Reality (1) → Disintegration (1) → Reckless Power (1) → Fabric of Reality (Max)

Mental Alacrity (Max) → Reckless Power (Max) → Disintegration (Max) → Maiven’s Sphere (Max) → Conversion (3) → Arcane Will (3) → Iskandra’s (3)

Word of Pain (1) → Word of Renewal (1) → Deadly Aim (1) → Vigor (1) → Death Sentence (1) → Inquisitor Seal (6) → Word of Renewal (6) → Death Sentence (Max) → Deadly Aim (Max) → Inquisitor Seal (Max) → Word of Renewal (Max) → Steel Resolve (1) → Arcane Empowerment

Distribute the rest as you see fit!

Crossroads (Primordial) → Imp (AAR) → Scholar’s Light → Hawk → Widow (Haunt) → Crossroads (Chaos) → Jackal → Viper → Crossroads (Order) → Panther → Solemn Watcher → Ulo (Word of Pain) → Eel → Tree of Life (Reckless Power) → Remove Crossroads (Primordial)→Remove Crossroads (Chaos)→ Oklaine’s LanternRemove Crossroads (Order)→ Dryad (1) → Lotus (1)

AAR is quite strong, easily destroys all trash and melts most bosses. This build is quite tanky as long as the damage is flowing outward and you’re standing in a seal. However, physical spike damage (from bosses like Galakros) can quickly kill you (even in your seal) if you’re not careful (and running solid gear). Lining up a dozen or more enemies that fill the screen (including orange bosses) and melting them in a second or two is like a perfect golf swing. AAR is a ton of fun.

Wondering why your Maven’s Sphere of Protection is toggling off? It automatically turns off if you run out of energy!

I found this build goes up and down while leveling; it destroys a lot of content, but when you encounter a problem boss, it can be quite a problem, which is why I don’t think it’s a good HC viable build except for those who have extensive HC experience.

This build is designed to facetank, however blinking away to avoid terminal damage is often required with certain boss fights – but most of the time you’ll just be standing in your seal and manically laughing as you vaporize everything around you.

Survivalis dependent on life leech from uninterrupted damage, the Inquisitor Seal, Maiven’s Sphere and the OH GOD NO invulnerability of Mirror from Arcanist. Do more damage and get more leech. It’s that simple. A really strong AAR build often doesn’t even need to use a Seal while farming trash and orange bosses.

Rotation for Trash:AAR. That’s it. It’ll vaporize all trash.

Rotation for Bosses (Kite): Seal, Word of Pain, Haunt, AAR. Use Word of Renewal either for regen or insta-heal (depending on boss) and of course Mirror for the 3-second invulnerability. Nullification is also warranted for certain bosses, but it’s more of a conditional than a norm.

As mentioned this build guide focuses on the full Aether variation of AAR, however the strongest transitional end-game build is conversion to electricity (full). I’m including the initial Aether build below, and also the transitional build for those who want to pursue it.

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