KickStarter Grim Dawn

No, not yet but it is a planned feature. They do have optional challenge dungeons, though.

 

It has a toggle-able 'Veteran Mode' which has been made fairly tough in the latest patch. Causes a lot more boss spawns, increases mob health and damage a lot, etc.

 

Hardcore mode is also in iirc

 

So Kommissar first demoed this game this game to check it out and now it sits on his steam account:

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The key to make successful Kommando or any hybrid build is to not invest evenly in both of them... My Kommando is just soldier who invested in flame strike and shield.

 

It is currently one of my big gripes with the game, it's nearly useless to invest into a second class. Hopefully they either substantially increase max level or give a good chunk of extra skill points through quests.

 

Well, since Legendaries only start to drop at Lvl 50, you know that there's a minimum 30 skill points to go, and probably more like 60.

There are also whispers of a 'Devotion' system, which apparently might be a way to feasibly dedicate a character to one class right through to the (eventual) end game.

 

So I did the last two levels of Steps of Torment. Was p. nice, 'cept... final boss drops greens that are worse than the stuff I already have. And set pieces that I already have. FFS.

Second skeleton key is out of the question though, getting more cthulhu blood seems p. impossible.

 

There's one from a quest in act 3, other than that you just have to repeatedly kill Salazar as he sometimes drops it.

 

Did you get the special green sword from him? Dunno if it's 100% drop chance or like Salazar's sword, but I got a sword that was pretty sweet. I was hitting for 1k damage with my occultist who wasn't specced for melee, at all.

 

All hero monsters in the Depraved Sanctuary have a chance to drop the Blood. It can also drop elsewhere, but at a (much) reduced rate.

SoT is more for farming the Lvl 41-45 monsters than anything else. The chests that spawn multiple waves of enemies on the last floor are super, super rewarding. And the SoT boss' middle chest guarantees a unique.

It's a good area to visit when you're lvl 40. Honestly, though, I'd get a character to max level, then start another one (or stop playing for a while). Getting a character to the point that their gear set-up means they won't have to upgrade for, like, ten levels... Meh. I'd wait for Crate to finish Act 3 (probably by June) before burning out on that content. It's why people are complaining about Ch. 1/2 of Act 3. Of course it's a morsel. You've spent dozens of hours making sure your character isn't going to be able to use a single upgrade from that content.

 

Also, a good farming area for high level characters is the furthest western waypoint past Homestead. Just go a short ways south-west from there, and you'll find a little cul-de-sac connected to the rest of the map by a very narrow strip of land.

Once you walk in, a whole bunch of harpies will start landing. In Veteran there's a serious chance that there'll be anywhere between 1-3 hero monsters in the pack. Rinse, repeat.

 

So I kinda... uh... grinded a little. Full guardsman(?) set + one of the rarest components = +3 in all soldier skills. ~200 dps less than with my other gear set though

 

Only problem is that you've gotta go sword n board with that set, and the Guardsman's Hammer sucks. The Nightblade set is much better, but even it starts to fray by lvl 40. In both cases, the biggest problem is the weaponry.

 

Devotion system announced:

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20557

 

Cool, cool.

 

Returned to Torchlight II after playing Grim Dawn and I gotta say... Grim Dawn is better in pretty much every possible way. I had way too rosy image of Torchlight.

 

With T2 you have to mod the unholy shit out of it.

Synergies is a good place to start. The Far East Pack collection is also nice. Ultimately, though, it is what it is: a super-fast, cartoonish ARPG. It's great for when you just want to go through stuff like a hot knife through butter. But it doesn't compare well to GD, no.

 

Torchlight 1 & 2 fucking sucks.

 

That's a bit strong. T2 had some nice ideas. The unique skill modifiers on skill levels 5-10-15 were a really nice touch.

Ultimately, though, it feels weightless and - often - bland.

 

It was a nice touch (added in beta after much complaining about how dull the skill trees were), but it didn't save how utterly crap the skill system was anyway. Not being able to put in skill points into your chosen skill each level was some bullshit. You mean I have to wait 10 level ups before I can get my marginal skill/spelll upgrade? Ugh. Who thought that was a good idea?

 

In D2 you had to wait until 24/30 to get your main skill for many builds and could not even refund skill points. Also you could never have more than minimum level requirement + skill level -1 = char level skill points in your skills, making it very restrictive as well. Made skills you could use as a main build at 12 or 18 quite superior for a while until late game, if even that.

 

Diablo 2 is a 15 years old game and kinda one of the first games in this genre after D1. Gaming should move forward and evolve a bit.

(remembers QTE fest console games and sobs in a corner)

 

It did.. into that terrible excuse of a aRPG called Diablo 3.

 

Now that's something I agree...
Up to a point since I made lots of monies from RMAH Even able to paid for major KS projects thanks to that. Blood money for real.

But the real evolution is Path of Exile. Even with its downcomings, PoE is the best game in genre now and I can only hope other games to copy it.

 

Meh, that was just old design, back when people were still experimenting with the genre and didn't know what was actually good (and even then I thought it was pretty bad design that you had to waste points on skills that didn't benefit you in any way). They eventually fixed it with more intelligent design. First by the addition of synenergies and later by adding in respecing. TL2 had a shitton of absolutely useless skills that you couldn't even add into your rotation so you had to wait a long ass time to get that marginal upgrade that actually did benefit you in some way. It was awful.

Titan's Quest and Grim Dawn does it best so far with the mastery thing. You are given some level of freedom to choose how soon / late you get access to the last tier abilities.