KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Sykar]

They nailed Drain Essence, though. I have no idea why I find that skill so satisfying and cool. It's kind of like Kain's ranged blood drinking from Legacy of Kain, but cooler.

Man now I feel like making a Ritualist just to try it out...

 

[Great Deceiver]

Spoiler

I only died once through the entire game on Veteran with this Flame Torrent skeleton build, seems pretty good. I did most of the optional dungeons/bosses too. Gonna start the expansion now, I hear it's quite a bit tougher than the base game.

I think this is far and away the best game in this style. It doesn't lose itself in ultra sperging but still has a lot of depth for people that like to figure builds out, etc. I mostly play it for the cool places/atmosphere. I may do Elite/Ultimate but I doubt it.

Regarding the unsatisfying animations, I don't have an opinion since my summoning necro doesn't really have animations to speak of, other than Bone Harvest which is alright. I played a Soldier to 30 and the melee wasn't terrible, there was some impact there that felt better than Path of Exile.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Guize, so how do you do a melee necro? I like undead and necromancy in every game I play, but I'd rather stick my dick in a blender than play a summoner i na h'n's. As for the necro casting, the dmg being split between vita, cold and aether makes my head spin, since the synergy between these dmg types seems rather poor. Going for a necro/occultist melee seems interesting, but the lack of lmb attack skill an poor defenses seem like a huge problem. Now that I think of it, it really sucks that necro tree doesn't have a deafault lmb attack skill.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Guize, so how do you do a melee necro? I like undead and necromancy in every game I play, but I'd rather stick my dick in a blender than play a summoner i na h'n's. As for the necro casting, the dmg being split between vita, cold and aether makes my head spin, since the synergy between these dmg types seems rather poor. Going for a necro/occultist melee seems interesting, but the lack of lmb attack skill an poor defenses seem like a huge problem. Now that I think of it, it really sucks that necro tree doesn't have a deafault lmb attack skill.

I'm playing as a vitality&chaos cabalist and wrecking shit up with a 2 hander. As long as I can hit something its impossible for me to die( unless I shot from some abitilies I forgot to dodge...)
But yeah I'm missing a LMB auto attack skill.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Guize, so how do you do a melee necro? I like undead and necromancy in every game I play, but I'd rather stick my dick in a blender than play a summoner i na h'n's. As for the necro casting, the dmg being split between vita, cold and aether makes my head spin, since the synergy between these dmg types seems rather poor. Going for a necro/occultist melee seems interesting, but the lack of lmb attack skill an poor defenses seem like a huge problem. Now that I think of it, it really sucks that necro tree doesn't have a deafault lmb attack skill.

A caster necro/occultist is one of the strongest builds right now as long as you don't build for Drain Essence or Bone Harvest, Ravenous Earth is more than enough.

Since I'm theorycrafting + testing builds at their full potential right now, am trying to build a melee necro that's doable for 100+ Gladiator Crucible and less than 1 or 2 min Mad Queen since that's my metric of a build being successful or not rather than being able to decimate trash mobs of which is easily doable.

10++ builds done and only 2 has actually done it (and the caster necro/occultist actually facetanked 2 Valdarans just now in Gladiator 150 only life blessings incl. ofc. ). I refuse to use the classic DW blademaster/pierce and the current meta summoner, since one is already proven and the other might be due to a bug/oversight.

Can you please optimize this build too? http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkBx0DZ

I've been mulling over how damage types stays consistent and especially with the theme that you want but it's proving to be impossible without sacrificing clear/kill speed and since Necro's damage types is all over the place. I might have to redo everything including the blade arc idea but I'll see.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Can you please optimize this build too? http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkBx0DZ

I've been mulling over how damage types stays consistent and especially with the theme that you want but it's proving to be impossible without sacrificing clear/kill speed and since Necro's damage types is all over the place. I might have to redo everything including the blade arc idea but I'll see.

Well sacrificing some burst killing potential might be allright in favour of survivability and higher OA.

But build needs a nuking skill else too slow.

How about bone harvesting instead of blade arc? Maybe spec for cold along with reap spirits?

bone harvest and reap spirit with focusing on vitality/cold damage. don't think it will be very efficient though.

 

[Hobo Elf]

In some regards Titan Quest skills look better than GD, sadly.

I thought the TQ masteries and skill/spells were better than in GD.

 

[gaussgunner]

I am at awe how game can at the same time nail things like levels atmosphere and monsters, yet fail miserably at player's own skills. Many monster skills look better than your skills.

I've got a Conjurer with 3 pets, and there's so much shit happening on screen I can't tell what's mine and what's the enemy's. Much better than my first build where I had to waste time killing low-level mobs though.

 

[Sykar]

Guize, so how do you do a melee necro? I like undead and necromancy in every game I play, but I'd rather stick my dick in a blender than play a summoner i na h'n's. As for the necro casting, the dmg being split between vita, cold and aether makes my head spin, since the synergy between these dmg types seems rather poor. Going for a necro/occultist melee seems interesting, but the lack of lmb attack skill an poor defenses seem like a huge problem. Now that I think of it, it really sucks that necro tree doesn't have a deafault lmb attack skill.

A caster necro/occultist is one of the strongest builds right now as long as you don't build for Drain Essence or Bone Harvest, Ravenous Earth is more than enough.

Since I'm theorycrafting + testing builds at their full potential right now, am trying to build a melee necro that's doable for 100+ Gladiator Crucible and less than 1 or 2 min Mad Queen since that's my metric of a build being successful or not rather than being able to decimate trash mobs of which is easily doable.

10++ builds done and only 2 has actually done it (and the caster necro/occultist actually facetanked 2 Valdarans just now in Gladiator 150 only life blessings incl. ofc. ). I refuse to use the classic DW blademaster/pierce and the current meta summoner, since one is already proven and the other might be due to a bug/oversight.

Can you please optimize this build too? http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkBx0DZ

I've been mulling over how damage types stays consistent and especially with the theme that you want but it's proving to be impossible without sacrificing clear/kill speed and since Necro's damage types is all over the place. I might have to redo everything including the blade arc idea but I'll see.

But Drain Essence is so much fun!

 

[Lacrymas]

Drain Essence doesn't work on its own, that's why you have Storm Totem and such. I doubt an Occultist/Necro will work when built around Drain Essence.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Drain Essence doesn't work on its own, that's why you have Storm Totem and such. I doubt an Occultist/Necro will work when built around Drain Essence.

Do you have any particular combination in mind?

I still have around 5-7 more builds to try and Drain Essence, while underwhelming, is a fun skill, adding one more build to the list is more than welcome.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I am at awe how game can at the same time nail things like levels atmosphere and monsters, yet fail miserably at player's own skills. Many monster skills look better than your skills.

I've got a Conjurer with 3 pets, and there's so much shit happening on screen I can't tell what's mine and what's the enemy's. Much better than my first build where I had to waste time killing low-level mobs though.

I went full zoo build, with 8 skeletons, a plague zombie, hellhound, raven, an extra revenant summon from a unique offhand tome and a crab from my relic. It's glorious. A fully buffed zoo with Flame Torrent and Blood of Dreeg rampaging across a map is a sight to behold.

FPS tanks quite a bit though, since this is mostly a CPU constrained game running on an ancient engine that only properly supports 1 core.

 

[Lacrymas]

Drain Essence doesn't work on its own, that's why you have Storm Totem and such. I doubt an Occultist/Necro will work when built around Drain Essence.

Do you have any particular combination in mind?

I still have around 5-7 more builds to try and Drain Essence, while underwhelming, is a fun skill, adding one more build to the list is more than welcome.

I will link you my most recent iteration when I get back home. It's a Ritualist built around health leeching, I find it incredibly cool, but haven't gotten to Ultimate yet.

 

[Sykar]

I played around a little with grimtools and came up with this:

http://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrGP1jN

 

[Lacrymas]

Emmanuel2, this is the build -> http://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2EL4bbN

The items are more or less placeholder, especially the rings and belt. I'll probably shuffle some items around for better resists. I also kind of don't like the Affliction constellation, so I'll probably get something else.

 

[bozia2012]

You guys realize that Veteran is Story Mode and Elite is Normal?

 

[Sykar]

You guys realize that Veteran is Story Mode and Elite is Normal?

Nonsense.

 

[Hyperion]

You guys realize that Veteran is Story Mode and Elite is Normal?

Oh, so you're not allowed to play on normal until you beat it on Story Mode. Nice mechanic. Thanks for letting me know, bro.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Having tried it now, I change my mind. Drain Essence seems pretty great. Tooltip DPS is 150k, but probably more than that because you can drop Vit resist to the negatives. Put it to the test on Crucible and it was smooth albeit only for a really short time.

Link to the Character. Spirit was important since you needed to sustain the channelling cost. Blood pact is actually good considering that a good amount of your leech will come from Weapon Damage procs not to mention a bit of damage boost. Using Decree of Malmouth means that we could utilize the Aether -> Cold transmuter. Damage boost is significant and the life leech lost is gained back from devotions + skill modifiers.

Also, Stormbox character is pretty good. Main defense is just running around, enemies can't catch you if they're already dead and if it's Iron Maiden/Fabius/Valdaran, pop and mirror and resume kiting. A little slow when killing elemental units like Guardian Beasts but surprisingly effective still for the others. Made it to Gladiator 120 (arguably the build barrier/gear wall because of the Iron Maiden + Fabius spawn) but I quickly forgot the Kiting rule and decided to facetank Fabius but got critted instead from 14k to 0.

Really Great Pants is pretty much BiS IMHO as it can allow really flexible gearing, tons of defense and a good amount of OA + magical damage, also Stoneplate greaves crafts but it's pretty hard to nail the right combo since crafting is crap unlike in MedianXL or Eastern Sun.

 

[Lacrymas]

Good luck getting Badge of Mastery to proc for Drain Essence :p Also, does the tooltip take into account the potential to target multiple enemies thanks to Hungering Reach? It can affect up to 5 extra targets.

Blood pact is actually good considering that a good amount of your leech will come from Weapon Damage procs not to mention a bit of damage boost.

What do you mean by this?

 

[Emmanuel2]

Good luck getting Badge of Mastery to proc for Drain Essence :p Also, does the tooltip take into account the potential to target multiple enemies thanks to Hungering Reach? It can affect up to 5 extra targets.

Blood pact is actually good considering that a good amount of your leech will come from Weapon Damage procs not to mention a bit of damage boost.

What do you mean by this?

It assumes full potential, hence the theorycrafting. Otherwise, one can just replace the Badge for a +2 or +3 one, or a Mark of Divinity for extra survivability. It's actually much easier than getting a good rolled green like the one I used.

No, it doesn't. Only one target is considered and it does show when against the training dummy, cast speed affects the rate at which it drains IIRC. It doesn't shotgun since there's nothing to shotgun with, so tooltip won't be as misleading like say with Phantasmal Blades.

Though it does take into account Vitality Decay of which is nearly half of the damage in the tooltip. Realistically, its around 80-90k (0 vit resist) which is much more reasonable judging from the training duumy. With devouring swarm, you'll be dealing 15k base damage per tick at around 6-7 ticks per second against the training dummy.

What do you mean by this?

Blood Pact is an aura that gives Flat Vitality damage, which applies to all your Weapon Damage based skills along with the universal %Vitality Damage. Drain Essence and Wendigo alone won't be enough to cover the massive amounts of damage from numerous sources you'll be getting on higher crucible, especially when you're actually forced to kite.

Though it doesn't show with the build I linked, I used Flame Torrent because you'll mostly be standing when killing stuff. Twin Fangs and Flame Torrent are both Weapon Damage procs, both of them use the extra Vitality Damage and Aether Damage bonuses (Flat and %) and the Life Leech you have from all your stuff + auras.

It wouldn't be a surprise if you see yourself critting for 10k randomly (translates to around 6k+ leech assuming enemy has no leech resist) in a second just by existing if you set Twin Fangs to Whirling Blades.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've gotten one shot more than once in the expansion, have since used the potion and respecced all into physique and hasn't happened since - but the new areas are definitely a lot harder than the base game.

 

[Sykar]

I've gotten one shot more than once in the expansion, have since used the potion and respecced all into physique and hasn't happened since - but the new areas are definitely a lot harder than the base game.

I really start to hate Physique. It is far too good of a stat making the other two almost obsolete. I think they should have done the attribute system like the did in TQ.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I'm not sure how it was in TQ, but in Diablo 2 it was exactly like this if you wanted to survive the higher difficulties, you had to pump vit, barring item requirements. It sucks because it's an illusion of choice - there's zero wiggle room.

 

[Sykar]

I'm not sure how it was in TQ, but in Diablo 2 it was exactly like this if you wanted to survive the higher difficulties, you had to pump vit, barring item requirements. It sucks because it's an illusion of choice - there's zero wiggle room.

An energy shield Sorceress could go max energy and max block needed a decent investment of dexterity to maintain it though some shields could lower this considerably so there was some variation at least.

That being said, TQ had 5 attributes, strength, dexterity, intelligence, health and energy. Strength increased physical damage, intelligence elemental damage and damage on staffs plus energy regeneration, dexterity increased OA, DA and piercing damage, and the other two are self explanatory.
TQ is better because you do not nearly get as much damage from your gear, making those three attributes a really good contributors for your damage and dexterity is universally a decent choice for OA/DA though you would get most of that from gear.