KickStarter Grim Dawn

[udm]

Having quite a bit of fun with my new Necro, up to lvl 30 now. Summons are finally starting to pack a punch and the lvl 30 mastery wraith kicks ass. I'm debating whether to go soldier for cadence or occultist for more powerful pets - the occultist pet talents take forever though.

I'm actually taking the time to read through the logs etc. and the story isn't completely awful like in other games of this type (barring Diablo 1). The Arkovia story is quite decent, in fact.

Best thing about necro is that they're not as passive as they are in other games because of dual mastery. In fact, I'm planning to do a necro (summoner) + arcanist (AAR) build. Should be fun.

 

[Lacrymas]

Pet classes in general aren't as passive in GD as in other games, you need to micromanage everything while keeping your pets alive and trying to survive.

 

[Kruno]

I just played my necro to level 65 and I didn't micro manage anything. My skeletons melted everything, but they died almost instantly in AOE. I just summoned them again, it is the most micro managing I had to do, hit 'Q' (my bindings). A small price to pay for massive melting potential.

 

[Hyperion]

Hybrid pet builds generally don't work, so I'd go with Occultist. I know of one build that is a two-handed kind of pet hybrid which utilizes the Revenant constellation to surprising effect, but that's it.

Revenant is one of the only pets that scale with Player Bonuses, which is why it's so good. Think the Living Shadows are the only other that do.

You're right though, I tried making a Melee Summoner Death Knight and it just isn't working. Was hoping for something similar to a Dominating Blow build from PoE.

The gear for a Phys + Vit build isn't really there yet either. Was considering Aether, but those new Aether to Phys components seem like they could be build enabling.

 

[Ent]

few questions about Blade burst: Does it work on ranged weapons? What exactly does lethal assault? From what I gather it increases the damage of attacks made against enemies debuffed by blade burst.

 

[Gentle Player]

Having quite a bit of fun with my new Necro, up to lvl 30 now. Summons are finally starting to pack a punch and the lvl 30 mastery wraith kicks ass. I'm debating whether to go soldier for cadence or occultist for more powerful pets - the occultist pet talents take forever though.

I'm actually taking the time to read through the logs etc. and the story isn't completely awful like in other games of this type (barring Diablo 1). The Arkovia story is quite decent, in fact.

Definitely Occultist. Death Knight apparently has poor synergy.

Give this build a try http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56793. Flame torrent on skeletons is incredibly powerful, but may get nerfed.

 

[Trias_Betrayed]

Occultist goes well with almost anything, necro I'm finding doesn't require too much attention to be paid. I like inquisitor better but find their skills are kind of an odd selection and lacking focus.

 

[Lacrymas]

Inquisitor is kind of a mishmash of different things people have found lacking in the other masteries, tbh. They could've been really cool with their artifacts, but all they could muster was a dual-pistol wielding mage. Seriously, the relics are pretty boring, but they could've been much more. Necro is pretty cool, though, so you win some, you lose some.

 

[Sykar]

Forget about CC immunity, some mobs are immune to certain types of damage, like Void Parasites being immune to vitality and I simply can't kill them.

They cannot be debuffed?

They can be (used to be impossible but I think they changed that a while ago), and -resists are critical to any build you want to take through Ultimate, but you'll still run into one or two enemies throughout the game that are a huge pain to kill if you can only really deal one damage type.

You are telling that to someone who loves AAR and wants to bite into his desk whenever a Flesh Hulk appears.

Inquisitor is kind of a mishmash of different things people have found lacking in the other masteries, tbh. They could've been really cool with their artifacts, but all they could muster was a dual-pistol wielding mage. Seriously, the relics are pretty boring, but they could've been much more. Necro is pretty cool, though, so you win some, you lose some.

It is a good class which offers a lot of synergies for other classes as a support mastery. It is also nice to have a mastery which enables you to have a DW pistol build without being forced to use certain items.

 

[Lacrymas]

"As a support mastery" is the key phrase and that's what I mean by "things people have found lacking in other masteries". It's obviously conceived as a support class to enable builds that didn't quite work with the base masteries. That doesn't make it not-wasted-potential, though. It also doesn't really offer anything that other masteries didn't. The sigils are an Occultist thing, all the lightning is Shaman, fire is Demolitionist and cold is Nightblade. It's all over the place and it doesn't know what it wants to be. That's an oversimplification, of course, but you know what I mean, I don't think it offers anything that wasn't already in in some way, unlike Necro, which I think is a good addition in terms of variety. Yeah, you don't need an item anymore to dual-wield pistols, whoop-di-doo.

 

[Aothan]

most spell casting classes consist of a variety of elemental types, gameplay wise the expansion trailers show, and to good effect, how the Inquisitor plays. However the trailers can also be potentially misleading if players try to incorporate the rune abilities before having the right skills to improve casting time and cooldown, they are powerful abilities but take too long to reliably use in the earlier levels, especially when incoming damage starts to escalate

Occultist goes well with almost anything, necro I'm finding doesn't require too much attention to be paid. I like inquisitor better but find their skills are kind of an odd selection and lacking focus

the combined damage synergies are strong at the start with numerous flat damage types but mechanically or functionally most of the attack skills are best used individually, e.g. using range with the various proc skills (five points each initially), Storm Box and Word of Pain can be used with other skills and helps when you are going to have to move around groups with stronger creatures. The main problem I see with the class is the uneven defensive abilities, Inquisitor Seal can make the character nigh immune to a lot of damage but once a certain threshold is exceeded with 'spike dps' the skill does not work and there are few other defensive abilities that will help with damage mitigation

 

[Sykar]

"As a support mastery" is the key phrase and that's what I mean by "things people have found lacking in other masteries". It's obviously conceived as a support class to enable builds that didn't quite work with the base masteries. That doesn't make it not-wasted-potential, though. It also doesn't really offer anything that other masteries didn't. The sigils are an Occultist thing, all the lightning is Shaman, fire is Demolitionist and cold is Nightblade. It's all over the place and it doesn't know what it wants to be. That's an oversimplification, of course, but you know what I mean, I don't think it offers anything that wasn't already in in some way, unlike Necro, which I think is a good addition in terms of variety. Yeah, you don't need an item anymore to dual-wield pistols, whoop-di-doo.

It is an elemental caster/DW pistol/support mastery. It knows exactly what it wants to be. With that many masteries overlappings are bound to happen.

 

[Lacrymas]

Elemental caster/DW pistol/support doesn't sound like it knows what it wants to be :p

 

[Luckmann]

"As a support mastery" is the key phrase and that's what I mean by "things people have found lacking in other masteries". It's obviously conceived as a support class to enable builds that didn't quite work with the base masteries. That doesn't make it not-wasted-potential, though. It also doesn't really offer anything that other masteries didn't. The sigils are an Occultist thing, all the lightning is Shaman, fire is Demolitionist and cold is Nightblade. It's all over the place and it doesn't know what it wants to be. That's an oversimplification, of course, but you know what I mean, I don't think it offers anything that wasn't already in in some way, unlike Necro, which I think is a good addition in terms of variety. Yeah, you don't need an item anymore to dual-wield pistols, whoop-di-doo.

It is an elemental caster/DW pistol/support mastery. It knows exactly what it wants to be. With that many masteries overlappings are bound to happen.

Yet we still don't have a good mastery for making cold wizards 'n' shit and I would still love to see a mastery actually built around ranged combat a la sharpshooting/hunting/whatever. The number of masteries is not the issue at all: you could easily have done new masteries without considerable overlap.

 

[Lacrymas]

There also isn't a good acid/poison firearms build, the relics could've been actual things you put in the game world (like Mortar Trap and Storm Totem) to complement that style of play, so there were definitely other things they could've done with Inquisitor. Now it's relegated to playing second fiddle to everything else.

 

[Aothan]

overlapping masteries do not mean because one class uses melee therefore any other class which uses melee (or range, or magic, etc) is the 'same'. Has this also been applied to Cadence and/or Fire Shot ? The Inquisitor's core ranged abilities are also mechanically distinctive requiring different gameplay methods and character development, the spells previously mentioned further contour the playstyle. The fundamental problems won't be similarity with other classes, it is going to be the long-term viability of a lightly armoured ranged caster with the noticeable increases in challenge since the expansion

a good mastery for making cold wizards

now that you mention this the Inquisitor's overall increased critical chance would work well with the spirit of winter, but for the time being most devotions should probably be defensive

 

[Sykar]

Elemental caster/DW pistol/support doesn't sound like it knows what it wants to be :p

Then no mastery knows what it wants to be.

Necromancer: Pet caster/vita&aether caster/vita melee
Soldier: Melee/phsical Caster (Forcewave scales with cast speed)/support
Arcanist: Aether/Fire or Cold/Lightning Caster/support/pet support

etc.

overlapping masteries do not mean because one class uses melee therefore any other class which uses melee (or range, or magic, etc) is the 'same'. Has this also been applied to Cadence and/or Fire Shot ? The Inquisitor's core ranged abilities are also mechanically distinctive requiring different gameplay methods and character development, the spells previously mentioned further contour the playstyle. The fundamental problems won't be similarity with other classes, it is going to be the long-term viability of a lightly armoured ranged caster with the noticeable increases in challenge since the expansion

a good mastery for making cold wizards

now that you mention this the Inquisitor's overall increased critical chance would work well with the spirit of winter, but for the time being most devotions should probably be defensive

Boring.

 

[udm]

How much of monster attacks and AI scripts did they change? I'm noticing the game to have a less cathartic effect on me, even when I'm replaying my old characters (which all seem to be even more buffed up now with 2x clear speeds compared to the last time I played, about 6 months ago). Seems like monsters are more varied now with missiles, spells and the occasional teleportation instead of just going up in your face to spam melee.

 

[Aothan]

Boring.

boring is having to stay in a protective circle at all times, an immensely powerful ability but Crate have designed the Inquisitor around this defensive skill. I took Dryad as early as possible and then, for the first time, Turtle for the shield under 40% health, and yes, I feel awkward. Eventually I will have Healing Rain to further assist with sustained yet also necessary healing. All of these are in my view necessary because there are too many spontaneous ways for concentrated damage to exceed healing or damage avoidance (i.e. netted or stunned etc) for a powerful class with limited defensive skills

however as mentioned above, the Inquisitor could prove to be one of the more effective casters in the game with devotions which activate from critical strikes. The seems like it could be one of their natural propensities with the inherent features of the class emphasising attack speed, elemental damage bonuses, and improved critical strike probabilities

 

[Sykar]

Boring.

boring is having to stay in a protective circle at all times, an immensely powerful ability but Crate have designed the Inquisitor around this defensive skill. I took Dryad as early as possible and then, for the first time, Turtle for the shield under 40% health, and yes, I feel awkward. Eventually I will have Healing Rain to further assist with sustained yet also necessary healing. All of these are in my view necessary because there are too many spontaneous ways for concentrated damage to exceed healing or damage avoidance (i.e. netted or stunned etc) for a powerful class with limited defensive skills

however as mentioned above, the Inquisitor could prove to be one of the more effective casters in the game with devotions which activate from critical strikes. The seems like it could be one of their natural propensities with the inherent features of the class emphasising attack speed, elemental damage bonuses, and improved critical strike probabilities

The circle does not last forever and it does not protect well against burst damage so you have to make judgment calls quite a bit. It certainly is more endearing than some of the brain dead one button builds I have seen which are build so defensively that you can facetank almost anything. /snore
But hey if all you want is defensive from devotions go for it that is what they are for. Gear plays a much larger role for both defense and offense anyway.

As a side note, unlike the necromancer the inquisitor can join both factions, but needs to persuade them first that they should work together with you despite misgivings from the past. Funny little detail that they even bothered with that.

 

[Aothan]

I'm not a defensive player by habit because these playstyles unless they involve active abilities or tactics can become monotonous but for this character I'm playing in hardcore and using only the Inquisitor, if I could use skills which increase conventional defences, e.g. armour, then the damage absorbed would probably make the character fairly robust. That said if the precariousness of even normal encounters persist I might start with a new character so as to wait for any possible balance changes, or at least to take some time to revise how to better prepare

I'm not surprised Crate are attending to the lore with these types of nuances, Grim Dawn is designed with appreciable attention, which is why I like playing so much by exploring maps to see what can be found

speaking of discoveries:

Spoiler

I don't know if it is a new area or I have only just found it with my recent character but there is an area to be found going right after leaving Devil's Crossing. The creatures are level 25+ and dynamite is needed to clear the entrance

Seems like monsters are more varied now with missiles, spells and the occasional teleportation instead of just going up in your face to spam melee.

the impression I have is that many of the creatures have received new skills and an increased rate of using their skills, even a few of the special Slith sub-bosses were stunning my low level character multiple times. The same appears to be the case in the marsh areas east of Burrwitch where the trolls use their nets with greater frequency, making those encounters a good deal more dangerous

 

[Cyberarmy]

speaking of discoveries:

That area was there even before the expansion. Follow it for a nice, hidden quest.

 

[Aothan]

I wasn't sure, since I usually go around maps but then on subsequent play throughs find new areas. Yes my Inquisitor has the quest insofar as they intend to solve these matters

 

[Cyberarmy]

You're going to face the most dangerous foes this game offers in that quest.

There is also another major secret involving Dalia and her diary (only avaiable in ultimate difficulty.)

 

[Carceri]

What's the difference between Aether, Chaos and Vitality damage? I mean is there a distinction in mechanics/behavior, aside from vitality having some kind of dot associated to it sometimes?