KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Average Manatee]

What is this now, Dark Souls? Interesting change but I can't see how giving everyone an iframes move can just fit into the game well. Half the time you can't see the screen anyway (and there's not cues like audio for big attacks coming), the other half of the time you have bosses that will be 100% trivialized by this. Games like Dark Souls work because there's only 2, maybe 3 enemies at a time to keep track of, they tend to be fairly slow and cumbersome and the areas aren't showered in more glowing light gfx than a Touhou game.

Always in favor of less but higher quality more relevant loot. I'm not enough of a Grim Dawn expert to know exactly what modifiers people are looking for at the high end so I'll just trust that its better.

 

[Lacrymas]

Everyone already had a movement skill of some sort once they got a single rune, this just adds in a dodge as a baseline.

 

[Lacrymas]

I tried it out and I'm liking the loot drop changes. As for the free dodge, it's a mixed bag. Ranged characters who can kite become even better at that, while class movement skills like Blitz in Soldier or Shadow Strike in Nightblade kinda lose their luster and this makes them less unique and movement less of an advantage for them.

 

[Lacrymas]

Another good thing - bosses always dropping their infrequents is a godsend. The number of useless-for-your-character affixes and prefixes is staggering, so target farming specific ones is made significantly easier with this. Not that you are guaranteed anything, it's always RNG, but the task is less daunting. This is especially true for build-enabling infrequents like Pulsing Shard. Oh, and this makes it easier to know certain infrequents exist, otherwise you'd never think to look them up.

 

[udm]

Just got back into the game after years. Was worried the game would feel too gimped with some of the changes like removal of partial components and level scaling all the way to level 100 on Normal/Elite. Glad that's not the case, and it does look like they did plan and test out these changes before pushing live. Level scaling only seems to work in select areas, and everything else that was changed since 2020 has made the game feel smoother to play, e.g., the removal of partial components, consistent monster infrequents being dropped, and the Evade skill. Altogether the changes make certain character builds more viable from early game.

In fact, it seems like they jacked up the game's difficulty in certain areas on Normal Veteran. Found myself dying more often even with 50%-80% resistances (which, when I played years back, almost made you godlike). Great stuff.

I am indifferent to the removal of potions though. On one hand, I no longer have to run to town and break my finger while buying 50 potions. On the other hand, it feels like wasted potential when it could have added another layer of complexity to the game. I really like how PoE handles potions, for example. Oh well.

EDIT: Oh I just realised Fangs of Asterkarn will add potion customisation. That's cool.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

First level 100

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Had this in my backlog for years and I just started it. I always think I'm going to like looters until I'm about 20 levels in and the dopamine grind starts to feel dirty.

Spoiler

 

[Average Manatee]

Been playing this off and on for a while with a summoner build (Necro/Occultist). Started on Elite difficulty. Some questions:

- Damage is great for everything regular, but goes to shit as soon as a serious boss that can AoE evaporate my stuff comes into view. Not that bosses are impossible but it takes a lot longer to take them down. I'm not sure if there's really any good way to keep minions alive. When it comes to resists its just a lot harder to max them for pets and I can only get like 20%-50%ish for most of them. I could go and get one of the devotions to live leech but then I have to assign it to one specific pet type when I use 4 (skeletons, blight fiend, familiar, hellhound). So I'm not really seeing a solution to survivability?

- Damage from minions is also... problematic to maximize. Everything does a different damage type, and there's no damage conversion I can find except solael's witchfire (which is only phys->chaos and only 45%). My skeletons do vitality, my blight fiend acid and poison, my hellhound fire, my familiar lightning and electrocution, and everything gets buffed with elemental damage from the familiar. Right now damage is good but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just continue with totally rainbow damage types or there's some way to get a decent enough damage conversion and/or resistance reduction applied.

- Leveling curve felt very good for the first 2/3rds of the main campaign but seems to level off past 50 or so, which I'm not a huge fan of. Feel like level 75 is where you want to speed to. I guess if I was on ultimate I'd be able to do that but Ultimate doesn't really feel practical from a fresh start. If there was some way to start with devotion and faction rep maxed I'd try ultimate on my next character, but unfortunately the GD Defiler seems to be broken and not updated for current Grim Dawn version. Anyone have a replacement character editor?

Did finish the main campaign, about 1/3rd of the way through Malmouth and level 71 atm. No deaths yet (hardcore).

 

[luj1]

Damage is great for everything regular, but goes to shit as soon as a serious boss that can AoE evaporate my stuff

It was the same in Diablo II when playing a summoner vs Act Boss, inherent weakness of the build

 

[Average Manatee]

It was the same in Diablo II when playing a summoner vs Act Boss, inherent weakness of the build

Not really, if you chilled + cursed + clay golemed act bosses basically couldn't attack at all with all the attack speed debuffs.

Which reminds me: my debuffs are strong as fuck when I have all of them on, but most bosses seem immune. Is there anything that counters this immunity (like - enemy slow resistance, I think I've seen that?) and is it even possible to stack enough of that to beat boss resistances?

 

[luj1]

if you chilled + cursed + clay golemed act bosses

yes exactly.. it makes it bearable but you still didnt steamroll them... idk if there is an analog in Grim Dawn, which was my whole point

 

[Average Manatee]

Well in that case your summons stayed alive and generally killed the boss in a minute or two. In GD I have to run around like a chicken with its head cut off for 5-10 minutes for a few of these bosses while I summon things that only deal 1% of the boss's HP before being killed.

 

[Hobo Elf]

For pet builds you really, really want to get the Nature's Guardian devotion. It's a massive damage hike for them and comes with a taunt that forces enemies to attack your pets. I've tried lots of different pet devotion variations but this one always performs the best and has you running around in circles the least. Pets are very strong and fast at killing everything, bosses included, provided that you have a good setup. Sets that support your build are also very important since most of the key pet sets let you summon a pet twice (two Hellhounds, two Briarthorns, two Blight Fiends or two Familars) but these are very end game gear. Your problem is that you are focusing on too many pets. Skeletons, Blight Fiend, Familiar AND Hellhound is stretching yourself too thin. Pick two pets and focus on them. Use the leftover points on spells and passives to support your pets' output.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yep, I've got Nature's Guardian. Though its only level 5 atm. Leveling devotions is... such an awful mechanic, just make it scale with character level cmon.

I am already kind of focusing. My points are this:

The only Occultist pet ability I really invested in was storm spirit, and its a buff that affects all my skeletons' damage and gives pets elemental resist so I figured it scaled pretty well. The Blight Fiend abilities are AoE stuff that I really don't need more of. Could respec a few points out of hellhound to spread to more buffs, but hellhound is really tanky even with just a few levels so I kind of like it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That doesn't look focused at all to me. You just have a horde of bad to mediocre pets. The only one you have maxed out are Skeletons and Skeletons are one of the weaker pets in the game. I also notice that you haven't attached a single devotion to your pets, which is probably why you feel like their damage isn't up to par. All devotions that proc attacks can be attached to pets so that they can proc them. Some examples: Rumor or Acid Spray are great for Blight Fiends and Eldritch Fire is very good for Hellhounds. All three reduce enemy resistances and add more damage. If you want an offensive proc that's more utility oriented for your pets then Tainted Eruption is one of the best ones to have.

 

[Lacrymas]

Remove familiar and hellhound, max out Aspect of the Guardian and the Curse of Frailty line after maxing out Blight Fiend. Get Reap Spirit instead of Master of Death. Ill Omen is pointless in this build, even as a single point. Put points into Bonds of Bysmiel after having gotten everything else.

Something like this at lvl 100 - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYE1ErN

It will look different when taking account gear, though. Putting more points into Blood of Dreeg will help your minions survive more, but it really depends on what you find lacking. You can easily remove points from +pet damage skills and put them into Blood of Dreeg.

 

[Average Manatee]

Respecced a bit and went to this:

Decided that the level 50 necro skills were shit, 25 levels of occultist buffs are much much better.

I did get enough devotion for twin fangs on skeletons and flame torrent on blight fiend. Was 100% focused on getting natures calling there. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss a single shrine all game, that's just how many points you have by that point.

Funny enough, I moved up to Ultimate for the 2nd expansion and I see practically no difference? Since everything is leveled to you, is it just your resistances that are nerfed and a few extra higher tier enemies that spawn? It feels practically the same since my minion resistances are the same. Skeletons have suddenly become quite a bit more tanky with all this stuff. Suddenly not really losing any of them except a few on tough totem spawns.

Remove familiar and hellhound

Hellhound is literally 4 points for a huge HP pool and threat generation. I probably would have died without those few points vs. some of the secret bosses. Familiar is a huge DPS/elemental resist boost that also heals probably as much as blood of dreeg.

 

[Average Manatee]

And Korvaak is down on hardcore ultimate, very easily in fact. Never lost the stack of summons. Think it all just came down to not having that much pet resistances before I hit level ~65 or so, ended at 86 and I've got a pretty decent lineup of them now:

Also just maxing bonds of bysmiel gave a crap ton more HP.

Funny enough I actually had to quit to avoid dying during the Father Kymon fight. Or rather, afterwards, he died and I had too much burn dot to survive, quit out at literally 50 HP or so with 2s left on my potion.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Your new build looks sound to me. I agree that the Necro level 50 skills aren't as great for pets, especially compared to Bonds of Bysmiel with Manipulation. 25% total speed is such a massive damage hike for your pets that nothing in the Necro tree can compare to it. I was trying to keep my suggestions vague enough to give you some direction but not tell you how to play the game since figuring out what works for you is part of the fun. In general I'm not a big fan of the Necro mastery for pet builds, although I do really love the Blight Fiend as a pet. It's just that none of the skills there support pets quite as well as Occultist and Shaman skills do. I've never given Reap Spirit a proper try tho. That might be worth looking into in the future.

 

[Average Manatee]

Figure I'd give this another try, since I thought Ultimate with the summoner would be a lot harder and require some real struggle and it went so quickly instead.

What class combo would you guys use for a maximum tankiness two handed sword build relying primarily on martial prowess? Soldier/Oathkeeper seems the thematic option but Oathkeeper requires a shield for like 80% of the abilities.

Bear in mind I'm going to attempt to play on ultimate from the start and if that doesn't work out at least elite. Obviously I'll have a ton of items and money in storage to support getting some early resistances and all.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are very few abilities in Oathkeeper that require a shield. I have a Nightblade/Oathkeeper that uses dual pistols and it works very well.

 

[Hobo Elf]

What class combo would you guys use for a maximum tankiness two handed sword build relying primarily on martial prowess? Soldier/Oathkeeper seems the thematic option but Oathkeeper requires a shield for like 80% of the abilities.

Lots of options. Soldier + Occultist (Possession and Blood of Dreeg), Soldier + Arcanist (Mirror of Ereoctes, Maiven's Sphere), Soldier + Necromancer (Spectral Binding, Mark of Torment), Soldier + Shaman (Wendigo Totem, Mogdrogen's Pact, Primal Bond), Soldier + Demolitionist (Vindictive Flame, Blast Shield). All options let you weave in different damage types as well. With an Occultist you could try to go for melee chaos or acid damage, Elemental or Aether dam with the Arcanist, Cold / Vit with Necro, Lightning with Shaman, Fire with Demolitionist. Pick whatever theme you like the most. I couldn't say what is overall the best choice but anything with X% Damage Absorption will help make you a lot tankier.

 

[Zeriel]

I really hope if Grim Dawn 2 happens they'll go for D2-style randomized areas. Replayability would be massively improved.

Personally I feel the complete opposite. Designed levels have a lot more character. It's one of Grim Dawn's strengths, I'd argue. Lots of environmental storytelling.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I really hope if Grim Dawn 2 happens they'll go for D2-style randomized areas. Replayability would be massively improved.

Personally I feel the complete opposite. Designed levels have a lot more character. It's one of Grim Dawn's strengths, I'd argue. Lots of environmental storytelling.

I agree. It's one of the things i liked best about Grim Dawn.

 

[Average Manatee]

Lots of options. Soldier + Occultist (Possession and Blood of Dreeg), Soldier + Arcanist (Mirror of Ereoctes, Maiven's Sphere), Soldier + Necromancer (Spectral Binding, Mark of Torment), Soldier + Shaman (Wendigo Totem, Mogdrogen's Pact, Primal Bond), Soldier + Demolitionist (Vindictive Flame, Blast Shield). All options let you weave in different damage types as well. With an Occultist you could try to go for melee chaos or acid damage, Elemental or Aether dam with the Arcanist, Cold / Vit with Necro, Lightning with Shaman, Fire with Demolitionist. Pick whatever theme you like the most. I couldn't say what is overall the best choice but anything with X% Damage Absorption will help make you a lot tankier.

To be clear, I was looking for a character purely focused on physical damage (though I'd count piercing damage as well) and not spamming spells (though I'd use buffs). Is relying just on soldier for damage good enough?

Basically the playstyle I'm going for is a barbarian. EDIT: Not diablo 2 barbarian just a stronk dude with big sword.