KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Hobo Elf]

Found a neat little combo with shammy (can easily apply to other classes i bet) - get a Cracked Lodestone in your weapon, put Lightning Nova on a hotkey. Now go to a mob and just hold your Savagery hotkey, the press and hold Nova one. Your character will alternate using Savagery and casting Nova in quick succession, with all them shammy's lightning buffs Nova hurts quite a bit, so it's good even on 1 target. AoE packs are delt with in seconds.

How does it work? Is it a DoT that spreads around the mobs like Bloody Pox or more like Sigil of Consumption? Seems good though, I'll have to try it out.

As I mentioned the best vit/chaos based caster I found to pair with occultist is Nightblade, as their Phantasmal Blades line pumps up vit damage a lot (and is crazy good).
Another possible option is going Arcanist and getting the chaos/vit transformer of Albrecht's Aether Ray. It won't really work as a build until you hit lvl 50, but when you do it's very powerful. Arcanist can also let you focus more on Occultist as their low level stuff is good for boosting magic damage in general.

Phantasmal Blades might be my best bet for having a reliable Vitality nuke skill to go with the DoTs and AoEs although I wanted to try and make a character with a pure caster flavor. Not a fan of AAR and the investment is too deep. I hate builds that only begin to come around late, late into the game.

 

[Aeschylus]

Well, PB basically is pure caster, even though it 'feels' physical. Its damage is boosted purely by spirit -- you can build the character with 0 cunning at all and it'll work fine. Maxing it also leaves you with enough points at lvl 50 to max chaos bolt or sigil of consumption, either of which are nice vit/chaos nukes (Chaos bolt is better, probably).

 

[Cyberarmy]

For pure caster I'll say go arcanist. I'm trying arcanist with missiles (as main attack) and skyshard as someone recommended a few pages ago. After getting Skyshard and missiles 5-6 I started wrecking shit up. Flash freeze and Mirror spell are good "oh shit!" buttons.
I only had some problem with early boss fights but once you get enough offensive ability and skyshard levels they become easy too. But while skyshard is devastating and fun I still don't get demolotion man kind of destructive satisfaction. guess I'm a hopeless pyromaniac...

 

[ArchAngel]

For pure caster I'll say go arcanist. I'm trying arcanist with missiles (as main attack) and skyshard as someone recommended a few pages ago. After getting Skyshard and missiles 5-6 I started wrecking shit up. Flash freeze and Mirror spell are good "oh shit!" buttons.
I only had some problem with early boss fights but once you get enough offensive ability and skyshard levels they become easy too. But while skyshard is devastating and fun I still don't get demolotion man kind of destructive satisfaction. guess I'm a hopeless pyromaniac...

Demo is only true "caster" in GD. My Grenado/Canister Bomb demo is a blast(!) to play.

 

[Cyberarmy]

My Grenado/Canister Bomb demo is a blast(!) to play.

Leaving craters and burnt bodies in me wake, I like me smell of barbecue in the morning!

Mortars "The Big One" upgrade is also wrecks shit but mortar itself is pretty underwhelming so I'm not using that (and mines) much.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Hobo Elf item's Lightning Nova is a fast 1-hit AoE spell, that deals direct damage, Savagery keeps up a buff for lightning damage further buffing Nova and deals damage as well.

 

[ArchAngel]

Leaving craters and burnt bodies in me wake, I like me smell of barbecue in the morning!

Mortars "The Big One" upgrade is also wrecks shit but mortar itself is pretty underwhelming so I'm not using that (and mines) much.

My first ever character was Blackwater Cocktail specialist but later I figured out Grenado/Cluster Bomb combination left a bigger area of destruction behind you and was more fun :D

 

[Cyberarmy]

Blackwater Cocktail specialist

I mostly use that for my melee "Commando". Flame passives work nice with cocktails debuffs.
I often find myself picking 1-2 skills at soldier line at most. Even if it's the main tree I picked at first level up.

 

[ArchAngel]

I mostly use that for my melee "Commando". Flame passives work nice with cocktails debuffs.
I often find myself picking 1-2 skills at soldier line at most. Even if it's the main tree I picked at first level up.

When I started playing GD, that skill and its passives were pretty different

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Started playing as a occultist. Enjoying it so far

 

[Sykar]

Started playing as a occultist. Enjoying it so far

Wait until Doombolt. Seriously fun seeing enemies exploding in a giant cloud of blood and gore.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Thought there would be more pets. Only 2 - Raven and a hellhound seem a bit lame :/

 

[Stompa]

Thought there would be more pets. Only 2 - Raven and a hellhound seem a bit lame :/

More pets are available through skills granted by gear.

 

[Sykar]

Thought there would be more pets. Only 2 - Raven and a hellhound seem a bit lame :/

You can get one more pet through second mastery, Shaman for example has a good one. Further pets are available through gear.

 

[roll-a-die]

You can get one more pet through second mastery, Shaman for example has a good one. Further pets are available through gear.

Shaman + Occ gives you a total of 5 summons, 2 totems, storm and windigo, 3 pets, raven, hellhound, and briarthorn. Add in devouring swarm if you want I don't really count it. With gear you can get another 3 I think. A golem, a ghost, and a zombie maybe? I can't recall the last one.

 

[Sykar]

Well I do not exactly consider the totems to be pets. The storm spirit does not benefit from pet gear at all so not fully fitting into the summoner team. It's also not permanent.

 

[ArchAngel]

Shaman + Occ gives you a total of 5 summons, 2 totems, storm and windigo, 3 pets, raven, hellhound, and briarthorn. Add in devouring swarm if you want I don't really count it. With gear you can get another 3 I think. A golem, a ghost, and a zombie maybe? I can't recall the last one.

Actually Shaman + Occultist = 4 pets but one is only temporary I think and needs to be resummoned (lvl 50 Shaman skill). Through gear you can also get a sword that summons a demon to fight for you and lvl 2 relic that summons a Stormhound. If there are more summons through gear I don't know. Also I am not sure if you can get two of those swords to carry one in each hand and summon two of those demons at same time.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Necro off-hand tome for skelly + salazar's sword for the bad ass Chthonian Harbringer.

 

[ArchAngel]

Necro off-hand tome for skelly + salazar's sword for the bad ass Chthonian Harbringer.

I am currently using that sword on my Conjurer but I don't know where to find that Tome. But I switched to my Demo anyways, much more fun to clear rooms with one Cluster Bomb :D

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Oh where does the sword and offhand drop?

 

[roll-a-die]

Oh where does the sword and offhand drop?

Sword drops from Salazar Blade of Ch'thon, in a bonus area east of Burwich outskirts, called the Depraved Sanctuary. The area is through a fence that is intact until you hit it. And then you have to farm up the key.

 

[roll-a-die]

The book is called the Black Grimoire of Og'Napesh. It drops anywhere you can find an epic after I think level 40 monster level.

 

[Renevent]

The book is awesome, too. The skelly isn't quite as powerful as the rift hound but is pretty tanky and does decent damage.

 

[roll-a-die]

There's also the Blightshard Amulet, http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Blightshard_Amulet.

 

[ArchAngel]

There's also the Blightshard Amulet, http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Blightshard_Amulet.

That base damage is bad. Even with full summoner gear he will not do much.