Gellert Grindelwald was the eminent dark wizard of his time, and few wizards could challenge him. In Hogwarts Legacy, we’ve tried to recreate him using Spells and Talents that best mirror his powers. This powerful build looks to focus on Ancient Magic and cursing enemies.
Grindelwald Spells
This build is one of the most powerful builds in Hogwarts Legacy. It compensates for any weaknesses and amplifies its core strengths. The Spell cast used for this build is simple but effective.
The Glacius spell is the first of the four primary spells; it freezes enemy targets allowing you to focus on other enemies. Glacius also ensures enemies take increased damage from follow-up attacks. Casting Glacius and using other damage spells significantly drain enemies’ health pools.
Diffindo is the primary damage spell for this lethal build; it slashes enemies from afar, causing substantial damage. This is the primary damage spell in this build, and it’s handy for dealing damage to vulnerable enemies.
The third spell in this build is Crucio. The Cruciatus curse causes enemies to experience excruciating physical pain, leaving them immobile. Cursed enemies are susceptible to increased damage from follow-up attacks. Since this is a Grindelwald Build, some affinity to Dark Arts is necessary. This spell is highly useful when fighting numerous enemies, allowing wizards to cast spells that damage their opponents critically.
The last spell used in this impressive Build is the Transformation spell. Primarily a control spell, it transforms enemies into alternate forms, such as barrels or other harmless knickknacks. This spell takes the enemy out of a fight, and this build will use this spell increasingly regularly.
Grindelwald Talents
Dark Arts Talents
This Grindelweld build only uses some Dark Arts talents considering Gellert Grindelwald was one of the most powerful Dark wizards ever. The first dark arts talent you will need is the Blood Curse for this Grindelwald-inspired build. This talent ensures that while inflicting damage on one cursed target, all cursed targets will also be damaged. It is essential to your build as you’re using Crucio to curse enemies and other damage spells to inflict damage on all enemies.
The second Dark Arts talent you need is the Stunning Curse; it upgrades Stupefy to curse enemies. Cursed enemies will take additional damage. This talent helps spread the curse around the battlefield easily. Paired with the Blood Curse talent, this talent is essential for defeating enemies in combat.
Crucio Mastery is essential for this build. Attacking an enemy cursed by Crucio releases a projectile cursing another target. Similarly to the stunning curse, it spreads curses across enemies during combat. This build is designed to heavily damage cursed targets; spreading the curse to enemies is the initial goal.
Curse Sapper is the last Dark Arts Talent used in this build. It is a defensive talent, as defeating cursed enemies will regenerate some of your health. As the combat style dictates fighting cursed enemies, this talent is useful for replenishing health after vanquishing enemy targets.
Spell talents
Transformation Mastery is an essential talent that alters the transformation spell to become far more deadly. This Spell mastery transforms targets into explosive objects, which can be thrown at other targets causing them to explode. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone. Essential talent for this Grindelwald-inspired build.
Diffindo Mastery is the second spell talent, as it upgrades the existing Diffindo Spell to cast more damage and strike additional enemies. An effective talent as it deals damage to multiple enemies. Quite lethal when enemies are cursed or vulnerable.
Glacius Mastery upgrades the Glacius spell making it more destructive. Attacking an enemy frozen by the Glacius spell sends outward deadly shards inflicting damage to nearby enemies. This spell upgrade ensures damage is dealt over a big AOE area. A practical talent to utilise against multiple enemies in combat.
Core Talents
After that, focus on the other offensive aspect of this Grindelwald build. This build relies significantly on Ancient Magic, and the Core Talents selected will showcase its importance.
Basic Cast Airborne Absorption fills up the Ancient Magic meter when an airborne enemy is dealt attacks from your basic cast spells. An instrumental talent for increasing Ancient Magic, airborne attacks are common in combat, and additionally, if that fills your Ancient Magic meter, it’s a bonus.
Protego Absorption enables players to fill their Ancient Magic meters using Protego blocks. Successful Protego blocks contribute to the magic meter, and perfect Protego blocks contribute even more. The idea behind this talent is to increase the production of Ancient Magic.
Evasion Absorption boosts the Ancient Magic on successfully dodging unstoppable attacks. As our build relies heavily on Ancient Magic to deal additional damage, talents like these aid our production of Ancient Magic.
Protego Expertise is another necessary defensive talent. Perfect Protego blocks will send two damaging projectiles back at enemies. This is a counter-attacking spell which deals damage while being defensive. Something Grindelwald would have.
Stupefy Expertise boosts the spell, causing it to deal damage while simultaneously stunning enemy targets. It is handy when combating numerous enemies, as Stupefy is a basic spell and can be cast without needing a cooldown period.
Protego Mastery is a counter-attacking talent. Perfect Protego Blocks releases a lethal wave which breaks enemy shields and deals significant damage. This upgrades your Protego blocks while still contributing to the Ancient Magic meter.
Room of Requirement Talent
Only one RoR talent is used in this deadly build. Thunderbrew Potency increases the range and damage caused by the Thunderbrew Potion. Using the Thunderbrew Potion creates a deadly thunderstorm which stuns and damages enemy targets. Paired with the Thunderbrew Potency, the damage and number of enemies affected are significantly increased, allowing wizards to gain an advantage in combat.
Grindelwald Traits
Level 3 traits are used for this impressive Grindelwald-inspired build. For Level 3 traits, legendary armour pieces are needed to enchant them. Since you’re looking for a perfect balance between your Diffindo spell and Crucio Spell, 2 different Level 3 Traits can be used.
Laceration III will be equipped on three out of six Legendary gear pieces. This offensive Trait massively increases the damage from the Diffindo spell, making it possible to one-shot smaller enemies to defeat. This Trait will reap intensive damage on larger enemies such as Trolls and Animagus Hunters.
Unforgivable III will be equipped with the remaining three Legendary gear pieces. This highly destructive Trait increases the damage cursed enemies can take. This also boosts the damage from Ancient Magic, your basic spell cast and object thrown at enemies. All in all, this is the most destructive and deadly Trait available in the game. Utilizing it in a Grindelwald-inspired build is poetically fitting.
That’s all from this Grindelwald Build guide. Remember to use Ancient Magic regularly during combat as it’s an essential part of the build, and Ancient Magic is something both Dumbledore and Grindelwald regularly use throughout the series.