KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Sykar]

I had to reconfigure some stuff at the end of elite (mostly components to bring up resists) but I think that's a good thing personally. The harder difficulties should force you to realize character build weaknesses and figure out how to proceed smarter. I'm currently towards the end of Act 3 on Ultimate...so far it's not too bad but my clearing speed is starting to slow down. Need some new gear I think :D

I'm sure there's stuff that does need to be balanced, though.

As long as it doesn't turn into making only tank builds viable I am fine.

 

[Hobo Elf]

What's shitty about them?

Named monsters are just gigantic HP bloats. Some enemies I've had to just keep whacking at for 5 minutes until they die, without any serious threat. Just takes time. That was Elite. Ultimate is kinda the same, except there are even moar named monsters who take a shitload of time of just whacking at them. I have nearly all my resistances maxed out, and it it's not then it's close to being so on Ultimate, have 1200 armor at 102% armor absorption, use a shield and have Maiven's Sphere for 30% damage reduction and I still take a shitload of damage. I can't imagine what kind of agony it must be for anyone who isn't built like a tank. I'm not so far in Ultimate yet where it's not manageable as long as I cycle my defensive and pot cooldowns in a rotation, but I hear that there's a lot of one shotting going around even with beefy HP pools and capped resists. Enemies on Ultimate have huge DA values and so it is agonizing to kill anything when paired with the already high HP pools. A little side effect of this is that there are many legendary items with on crit proc effects that are completely redundant because of how difficult it is to overcome those DA values, even impossible for some builds.

Right now it seems like the game wants you to have either Soldier, Arcanist or both on Ultimate. We've discussed ITT how poorly developed and designed some of the other masteries such as the Occultist are, and now that problem has become a lot more pronounced on Elite and Ultimate.

for the builds I used elite seemed fine, but ultimate forced me into a defensive fuck
some builds might be forced in elite, no ideaa

Yeah you really need to focus a lot on the defensive side of things now. It's not bad that you should do it, but you have to go balls deep in it. Thinking about making a new character right now wears me out because I just think of all the dumb factions I have to grind rep for so I can get the resists needed to survive Elite and Ultimate. I know mandates exist, but still. The factions were a nice little thing when they were an added bonus, not when they became mandatory. And FFS Crate remove the Mogdrogen Shrine quest from being walled behind the Rhowari faction. Make it available to everyone without rep grind.

 

[Renevent]

I had to reconfigure some stuff at the end of elite (mostly components to bring up resists) but I think that's a good thing personally. The harder difficulties should force you to realize character build weaknesses and figure out how to proceed smarter. I'm currently towards the end of Act 3 on Ultimate...so far it's not too bad but my clearing speed is starting to slow down. Need some new gear I think :D

I'm sure there's stuff that does need to be balanced, though.

As long as it doesn't turn into making only tank builds viable I am fine.

I'm using a pet build and it's been pretty easy, even on ultimate. Biggest issue is if I get too cocky and fire off too many debuffs and fail to manage my pets right I can draw aggro...I'm pretty squishy (can't take more than 2-3 hits on ultimate) so I just have to be careful. Clearing speed is fine though, no named enemy takes longer than 30 seconds to down. Act bosses can take some time, though.

My buddy I play often with uses a sword and board build and while he is tanky, he does decent damage as well. Doesn't take him that long to kill named enemies either though about twice as long as me.

To be honest watching videos from other players on the official forum it seems more offensive characters actually have easier time on ultimate. Doesn't mean you can neglect your defense completely or forget about resistances, but I don't think anyone has to make tank builds to succeed.

 

[Sykar]

Well normal is still easy going at 46 with vastly underleveld gear, some stuff is sub lvl 20 still. Obliterating almost everything and everyone. That stupid boss at the cannon, Herald of Fire iirc took ages though thanks to 8 levels difference and constantly seeing double digints instead of quaduple digits floating...

 

[Hobo Elf]

Normal is doable with crap / sub-par gear as long as you play smart, but Loghorean will be a pain without resists. Elite and Ultimate are easier to manage with good high level epics and legendaries, crap greens and yellows need not apply or you'll be in for pain.

 

[uaciaut]

Soldier + Arcanist is as cookie cutter as it might get. But why are you looking for ready builds? Why not play what you like? I'll help you if you like, but won't that ruin your fun?

I do want to test shit out but i'd like to start from something which i know is good and work from there with tweaking and shit.

Speaking of which how does respec'ing work in this game? I've found a guy who can reset your skill points apparently but as far as i can see not your char points? Is this true?

Also got a link to that soldier/arcanist build?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Soldier + Arcanist is as cookie cutter as it might get. But why are you looking for ready builds? Why not play what you like? I'll help you if you like, but won't that ruin your fun?

I do want to test shit out but i'd like to start from something which i know is good and work from there with tweaking and shit.

Speaking of which how does respec'ing work in this game? I've found a guy who can reset your skill points apparently but as far as i can see not your char points? Is this true?

Also got a link to that soldier/arcanist build?

http://grimcalc.com/build/nxiHFr

Here's a base version of what I'm running with.

You can respec everything else except stats and points put into the mastery, unfortunately.

 

[abija]

To be honest watching videos from other players on the official forum it seems more offensive characters actually have easier time on ultimate. Doesn't mean you can neglect your defense completely or forget about resistances, but I don't think anyone has to make tank builds to succeed.

I bet most are x + soldier or x + arcanist, which is the same issue poe had (has?): build versatility gets raped by stupid balance.

 

[Sykar]

My second highest character out of 7 is a Nightblade albeit not decided on second mastery yet. Will soon catch up to my Warlock again.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's a bit premature to say for sure at this point. We'll just have to wait and see how Crate balances the game. I never got that far in TQ so I don't know for sure, but I hear that it has some serious issues with its balance at higher difficulties with many builds being flat out impossible to play beyond Normal. So if Crate should learn anything from Titan's Quest, it should be to not repeat that same mistake.
I heard a rumor that they are going to improve the drop rate for Legendary items on Ultimate, but I hope that this isn't their only solution.

 

[Renevent]

TQ had tons of build possibilities that can make it through to the end. If the metric is simply past normal, I can't imagine a single combination (unless that person is retarded) that couldn't make it at least to the end of Epic. I've personally taken at least 5 combinations through to the end of legendary, and I used to watch tons of videos on other class combinations of shit I've never even thought of. Regarding GD, I've seen just about every class combination in Legendary. Not to say every single class combo will be just as powerful as any other, but there's def enough variety.

 

[Hobo Elf]

There's a difference between doable and fun/viable, though. You can drag your way through Elite and Ultimate and eventually get to the end, sure, but you'll probably not have a fun time doing so if you're dying each step of the way. Chances are quite high that you'll probably be able to strong arm your way through Ultimate regardless of build if your equipment is that good, however. Of course the problem then is getting that good loot. And should the best loot be necessary to deal with Ultimate or be icing on the cake?

 

[Renevent]

Depends, should every class combination be exactly as gear dependent as every other? Should every class have exactly the same potential throughout the entire leveling process? I don't think so, frankly I find that when games are so beyond balanced it becomes monotonous. In TQ, for instance, it's cool finding amazing gear with one class and thinking about a new build around that may not otherwise be all that great. I'm starting to find some stuff in GD giving me the same ideas...awesome 2hd fire double axe and some other fire based heavy armor...thinking Soldier + Demo will most likely be my next character.

The same thing was true in Diablo 2, people would come up with all sorts of crazy builds based on items they find later on, or builds that stink half the game only to get insanely strong after getting a specific item/runeword or reaching a specific point in leveling.

 

[Zdzisiu]

The fucking hp bloat on ultimate heroes and bosses is through the roof. It is made worse by the fact that Ultimate, as opposed to normal and epic now, have unlimited mob scaling so when you will be max level 85, hero boars will be 89-90, and those 4-5 levels of difference increase their Defences quite significantly so you wont get as many critical hits if you are not all OA. My Warder is at around 2k OA and have around 12-15% chance to crit such a boar. And it takes some time with my 18-20k dps to kill them. Not impossible, I just killed four of them at the same time, just time consuming.

And then you go to Steps of Torment and heroes there scale to level 92 and you wail on them even longer.

And the cherry on top? A skeletal priest heals them to full hp in one cast from offscreen.

Skeletal priests are retarded in general and should be straight up removed but on Ultimate, they are twice as retarded as on the other difficulties simply because it takes way more time to deal the same amount of damage they can heal. And yes, they can and will heal through walls, thats just how they roll.

They may be a slightly smaller pain in the ass for ranged characters that can just click them and they die. Melee need to stop dpsing the boss and run to the skeleton priest hoping he wont heal the boss in the meantime, kill the priest, get back to the boss.

And a fair amount of heros/bosses likes to spawn skeletal packs from time to time, with priests included.

The best thing about Bastion of Chaos is the fact that there are no skeletal priests there. But instead you get huge mobs that constantly block your quite narrow passage so you feel like an American on Black Friday trying to push your way through a crowd of sale-crazy trashpeople to get to the bosses.

 

[Lacrymas]

I heard a rumor that they are going to improve the drop rate for Legendary items on Ultimate, but I hope that this isn't their only solution.

Only in the rogue-like dungeons afaik. They are also going to lower legendary drop rates in Normal across the board.

And the cherry on top? A skeletal priest heals them to full hp in one cast from offscreen.

That's a relic from TQ and the engine they are using. Mobs can cast spells through walls and they never fixed it (I don't think it's even possible), so don't count on that :p Either nerf the priests or ...I dunno.

 

[Renevent]

Well just fought my first nemesis in Ultimate...pretty cool. It was one of the giant obsidian monster and was pretty tough. I'd estimate it took about 7-8 minutes to kill. Def cool though, had tons of skills including a new one I haven't seen which was conjuring up clusters to block movement. Nemsis chest had a bunch of iron, a rare component, 2 greens, and 2 epics (no legendaries boo).

 

[Kruno]

My last character didn't work out, and so I started a new one. My Lightning Bulwark character, level 52, is clearing Elite areas with enemies at level 62 very easily.

I have two legendaries, boots and a mace, and they help massively.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I was afraid that my punny arcanist going to have a bad time in elite but it seems I was wrong. As long as I can oneshot half of the screen Im good. Shard paired with blizzard devo. is pretty deadly.

 

[Sykar]

There's a difference between doable and fun/viable, though. You can drag your way through Elite and Ultimate and eventually get to the end, sure, but you'll probably not have a fun time doing so if you're dying each step of the way. Chances are quite high that you'll probably be able to strong arm your way through Ultimate regardless of build if your equipment is that good, however. Of course the problem then is getting that good loot. And should the best loot be necessary to deal with Ultimate or be icing on the cake?

From my experience many seemingly bad builds get a lot better with certain gear or changing a skill or two. I remember my Ice Shard Elementalist was pretty good in first two difficulties in TQ but struggled a lot in the last due to shit gear albeit Core Dweller was very helpful but died too fast. Then I got stuff like Staff of Cosmos, Demonwalker, Calypsos and Aphrodite Amulet after a few weeks farming and viola suddenly it went a lot smoother. Oh and I actually switched to Ice Shard, tried with Volcanic Orb before without having much -CDR.

That being said, will the game stick with level 85 as maximum level or will it be increased again at launch?

 

[Zdzisiu]

I heard a rumor that they are going to improve the drop rate for Legendary items on Ultimate, but I hope that this isn't their only solution.

Only in the rogue-like dungeons afaik. They are also going to lower legendary drop rates in Normal across the board.

And the cherry on top? A skeletal priest heals them to full hp in one cast from offscreen.

That's a relic from TQ and the engine they are using. Mobs can cast spells through walls and they never fixed it (I don't think it's even possible), so don't count on that :p Either nerf the priests or ...I dunno.

Remove skeletal Priest, remove priests!
you are worst skeletors, you are the skeleton idiots you are the skeleton smell. return to the void. to our void friends you may come our contry. you may live in the zoo... ahahahahahah, Aetherials we will never forgeve you. Priest rascal FUck but fuck asshole skeletor stink sqhipere shqipare... skeleton genocide best day of my life. take a bath of dead skeletons... ahahahaha Aetherials WE WILL GET YOU!!! do not forget Grim Dawn. Chtonians we kill the last boss, chtonians return to your precious void ... hahahaha idiot skeletor and aetherials smell so bad..wow i can smell it. REMOVE PRIESTS FROM THE PREMISES. you will get caught.soldier+nightblade+arcanist+demo=skeletor kill...Ulgrim alive in Cairn, Ulgrim making diary of Carirn. Good writing Ulgrim Cairn. We are strong and have iron bits now hahahahah ha because of Ulgrim... you are ppoor stink skeletor... you live in an underground hahahaha, you live in caves

 

[Hobo Elf]

Only in the rogue-like dungeons afaik. They are also going to lower legendary drop rates in Normal across the board.

That would be disastrous as nearly all my lego drops are from Normal. I saw 3 legendary drops while I did Elite in its entirety. I consistently see 1-2 legendary drops every few hours on Normal.

There's a difference between doable and fun/viable, though. You can drag your way through Elite and Ultimate and eventually get to the end, sure, but you'll probably not have a fun time doing so if you're dying each step of the way. Chances are quite high that you'll probably be able to strong arm your way through Ultimate regardless of build if your equipment is that good, however. Of course the problem then is getting that good loot. And should the best loot be necessary to deal with Ultimate or be icing on the cake?

From my experience many seemingly bad builds get a lot better with certain gear or changing a skill or two. I remember my Ice Shard Elementalist was pretty good in first two difficulties in TQ but struggled a lot in the last due to shit gear albeit Core Dweller was very helpful but died too fast. Then I got stuff like Staff of Cosmos, Demonwalker, Calypsos and Aphrodite Amulet after a few weeks farming and viola suddenly it went a lot smoother. Oh and I actually switched to Ice Shard, tried with Volcanic Orb before without having much -CDR.

That being said, will the game stick with level 85 as maximum level or will it be increased again at launch?

There are some such items like that in Grim Dawn that change everything, although this is getting dangerously close to Diablo 3. Some guy invented a build where he could stunlock enemies forever with Olexra's Flash Freeze and Trozan's Sky Shard as he found an item that resets cooldowns when you crit. As for the level cap, I dunno. I thought the maximum was going to be 100. Regardless, mods will be able to take the level cap to the thousands if you wish it.

 

[Lacrymas]

That would be disastrous as nearly all my lego drops are from Normal. I saw 3 legendary drops while I did Elite in its entirety. I consistently see 1-2 legendary drops every few hours on Normal.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=304352#post304352

I was wrong, they are going to increase it in Ultimate across the board (but even more in the rogue-likes), but everything else is true :p

 

[Aothan]

are there any camera mods or the like in discussion or development for that matter on the forums (or elsewhere) ? That was one of the great features of the original Titan Quest, the camera mod changed the experience of the game substantially, and even today could warrant playing the game again with computers that are better able to handle such unintended excessive processing demands

of course, that being said, I would presume a camera-type mod for Grim Dawn might prove incredibly overbearing for even powerful computers

 

[Hobo Elf]

That would be disastrous as nearly all my lego drops are from Normal. I saw 3 legendary drops while I did Elite in its entirety. I consistently see 1-2 legendary drops every few hours on Normal.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=304352#post304352

I was wrong, they are going to increase it in Ultimate across the board (but even more in the rogue-likes), but everything else is true :p

That's kinda gay tbh. You need those Legendaries for Elite and Ultimate so you'd like to get as many as you can before going on to those difficulties. It won't matter much to me since I'm already a bit lego'd up with one guy and can easily farm Ultimate, but it'll be a painful process for anyone who hasn't been playing the game since the beginning. But, yeah, I think this was their original intention. Ultimate was supposed to be Legoland. Anyway, might have to grind up a dood real fast and start running Normal runs to capitalize on the high legendary drop rate Normal has before it gets nerfed.

OTOH I've been doing Krieg runs all morning on Ultimate and have nothing to show for it. Not even any sub-par or decent epics. Last run Warden finally did drop me something, but of course it was the Empowered Soiled Trousers.

 

[Cyberarmy]

"The drop rate for Legendaries will also be significantly reduced on Normal/Veteran. It will be unchanged on Elite."