KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Jaesun]

OK cool thanks! Off to play some more <3

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

So what will I want to combine my Occultist with: Arcanist or Shaman? Somewhere in the game it said Arcanist have shit defense which kinda turned me off, but Shamas use mega Axes or whatever which isn't exactly my thing either.
I'm ususally totally into Priests and as an alternative Wizards/Mages.

 

[Lhynn]

Would a nightblade arcanist have a good balance between offense and defense?

 

[Aeschylus]

So what will I want to combine my Occultist with: Arcanist or Shaman? Somewhere in the game it said Arcanist have shit defense which kinda turned me off, but Shamas use mega Axes or whatever which isn't exactly my thing either.
I'm ususally totally into Priests and as an alternative Wizards/Mages.

Well occultist and shaman are the two weakest masteries (Occultist got a bit better with the latest patch). Contrary to what you heard Arcanists have the 2nd best defenses behind Soldier (due to the sphere of protection, though it's not as good as it used to be, and the really good oh-shit-button). If you want to make a pet build then take shaman. Arcanist/occultist is good if you'd like to try Albrecht's Aether Ray.

Would a nightblade arcanist have a good balance between offense and defense?

Yes, it's a very strong combo, though I wouldn't say it has particularly strong defenses outside of what I mentioned about Arcanist above. Shadow Strike combined with Olexra's Flash Freeze (the best trash-mob killing ability in Normal/Veteran mode by far) is a great offensive combo. A cold-based Phantasmal Blades spellbreaker is also quite strong, though it is not quite as good as it used to be before the latest patch.

 

[Angthoron]

So what's a good class to pair with Soldier? I kinda like melee so I guess the assassin-ey type thing?

Nightblade is best for offense (go dual wield and all the way to Execution, which is probably the best ability in the game for straight damage). Pneumatic burst from NB is also one of the best skills in the game.
For defense/tankiness, either Arcanist (stronger) or Shaman (more fun imo).
For a less-powerful but pretty fun combo occultist can combine physical and chaos damage and get pretty strong, but not as good a NB.
Demolitionist doesn't pair great with it, but if you want to make a fire+melee character it's your best option.

Thanks! Confirms my bias

 

[RuySan]

I wish they made this kind of game with Ys-like playability (and its awesome bullet hell bosses). I like the looting aspect but most of the times they end being mind-numbing boring. The first Diablo was awesome because of the atmosphere. If this nails that, i might give it a go.

 

[Renevent]

2. Trading is not fun, especially in POE where there is not auction house or a proper ingame trading interface to easily find what you need and how much it costs. I tried to do some web site trading and never again.
Getting item upgrades is a terrible experience because you need specific stats (and there are so many trash stats like better light lol) and you need specific number of slots for gems AND you need right combinations of colors. In GD you only need items with specific stats instead of 3 RNG rolls like in PoE. This is especially bad if you are like me and like to do many new characters instead of take one to very high levels and farm. I never had enough wealth to upgrade any gear.

I only played self found PoE, the random drops in GD are much much worse (and did they remove light radius from GD?).

My experience was completely opposite.

 

[ArchAngel]

Just picked this up. Holy shit, this setting and atmosphere is great!!

I did not see a save seeing in the keyboard bindings? I assume this only saves when you exit only? Just wondering.

Yeah, its the Diablo system where you dont really manually save but just play the game and when you exit, your character and story progress is saved. When you come back, the monsters will have respawned, but the area will be free of fog of war.

No, games saves at many situations. I had crashes where when I come back I lost very little XP and usually no items I picked up recently.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Well occultist and shaman are the two weakest masteries (Occultist got a bit better with the latest patch).

It's time for this meme to come to an end. It hasn't been true for the past few patches. Occultist is one of the best masteries now. The biggest issues with the Occultist was a lack of survi and a lack of synergy between the skills, both of which have been fixed now. Not only that, now that DoTs can crit, DEE is one of the strongest spells in the game. It was already one of the strongest anyway since it does Acid/Poison damage which is arguably the best type of damage in Grim Dawn.

Would a nightblade arcanist have a good balance between offense and defense?

If you are focusing on melee then you are probably better off with Nightblade + Soldier. Only take Arcanist if you want to make a caster Nightblade who uses Phantasmal Blades.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Just picked this up. Holy shit, this setting and atmosphere is great!!

I did not see a save seeing in the keyboard bindings? I assume this only saves when you exit only? Just wondering.

Yeah, its the Diablo system where you dont really manually save but just play the game and when you exit, your character and story progress is saved. When you come back, the monsters will have respawned, but the area will be free of fog of war.

No, games saves at many situations. I had crashes where when I come back I lost very little XP and usually no items I picked up recently.

Well yes, that is what Ive meant. Probably worded it a bit awkward. The game does autosaves, while you are playing. I did not mention that because barring a crash, you wont even know about them and just use the exit save anyway. But you are right.

 

[Haba]

God damn it was the ending bad. Or well, the fact that there wasn't one.

Ffs.

 

[coldcrow]

Well occultist and shaman are the two weakest masteries (Occultist got a bit better with the latest patch).

It's time for this meme to come to an end. It hasn't been true for the past few patches. Occultist is one of the best masteries now. The biggest issues with the Occultist was a lack of survi and a lack of synergy between the skills, both of which have been fixed now. Not only that, now that DoTs can crit, DEE is one of the strongest spells in the game. It was already one of the strongest anyway since it does Acid/Poison damage which is arguably the best type of damage in Grim Dawn.

Would a nightblade arcanist have a good balance between offense and defense?

If you are focusing on melee then you are probably better off with Nightblade + Soldier. Only take Arcanist if you want to make a caster Nightblade who uses Phantasmal Blades.

Not only that, you can choose Devouring Swarm/ Curse of Frailty/ Wendigo totem/ Seal/ Pox and deal respectable DoT + never die. Leads to my main gripe with GD: too many builds are viable - too balanced.

 

[Leechmonger]

God damn it was the ending bad. Or well, the fact that there wasn't one.

Ffs.

What difficulty were you playing on, and how long did it take you?

 

[Metro]

Just picked this up. Holy shit, this setting and atmosphere is great!!

I did not see a save seeing in the keyboard bindings? I assume this only saves when you exit only? Just wondering.

Wait... why are you playing a derpy arpg?!??!? You're only supposed to play sophisticated turn based games!

 

[gestalt11]

So what's a good class to pair with Soldier? I kinda like melee so I guess the assassin-ey type thing?

Try a stun jacks commando that uses a shield. Not claiming its the bestest in the world but it does interesting things and there a couple really nice lightning damage shields.

 

[gestalt11]

Would a nightblade arcanist have a good balance between offense and defense?

Yes, with the option of having really good offense as an alternate build. However you need to make a choice as to what kind of offense you do as you have multiple options (execute procs, cold aura, etc.).

 

[gestalt11]

I think it is perhaps important to inform people who have not played this game much of the following:

A number of builds are equipment based. I do not mean they need equipment to work well. There are a number of skills only available from equipment. These include:

1) a number of pets (about 3 or 4 depending)
2) dual wield pistols (there are abour 3-4 items that make this allowable and usually give an proc as well)

Additionally certain relics can give a left click attack similar to cadence/savagery and you can potentially do things like have a proc based build based on that. (i.e. go soldier/NB/shaman but a relic left click attack that give attack speed instead of extra damage).


Similarly certain item or enhancement based skills can shore a build that is purely class based. For example some people may build for Calidor's Tempest from arcanist as their main power and spam PBAOE but actually use a non-class based skill for some single target stuff because arcanist may lack something that works well for you build.

It is actually quite important to isolate whether you require certain key items or augment a build weakness this way.

So in reality something like a Maximum pet build is easily 50% not based on class. This is a fairly strong departure from typical ARPG tropes of the past. But is also not always true. Many builds are very much class based.

 

[Ivan]

Q:

how can I get dynamite? It seems like exploring the Arkovia Caves only contain 1. Does anyone sell them?

WHat can you do with "desecrated altars"?

 

[gestalt11]

Q:

how can I get dynamite? It seems like exploring the Arkovia Caves only contain 1. Does anyone sell them?

WHat can you do with "desecrated altars"?

Q:

how can I get dynamite? It seems like exploring the Arkovia Caves only contain 1. Does anyone sell them?

WHat can you do with "desecrated altars"?

Dynamite is dropped by Cronley gang guys and you can farm those areas where its a set piece as well.

A desecrated shrine is for devotions is summons waves of monsters.

There is some kind of clickable that is called an altar don't remember if it says desecrated but it just spawns loot like any other thing.

 

[ArchAngel]

Q:

how can I get dynamite? It seems like exploring the Arkovia Caves only contain 1. Does anyone sell them?

WHat can you do with "desecrated altars"?

Dynamite is found in mines and also later you can buy them from vendors.
Desecrated altars should give you devotion points I think if you can do what it asks.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I think it is perhaps important to inform people who have not played this game much of the following:

A number of builds are equipment based. I do not mean they need equipment to work well. There are a number of skills only available from equipment. These include:

1) a number of pets (about 3 or 4 depending)
2) dual wield pistols (there are abour 3-4 items that make this allowable and usually give an proc as well)

Additionally certain relics can give a left click attack similar to cadence/savagery and you can potentially do things like have a proc based build based on that. (i.e. go soldier/NB/shaman but a relic left click attack that give attack speed instead of extra damage).


Similarly certain item or enhancement based skills can shore a build that is purely class based. For example some people may build for Calidor's Tempest from arcanist as their main power and spam PBAOE but actually use a non-class based skill for some single target stuff because arcanist may lack something that works well for you build.

It is actually quite important to isolate whether you require certain key items or augment a build weakness this way.

So in reality something like a Maximum pet build is easily 50% not based on class. This is a fairly strong departure from typical ARPG tropes of the past. But is also not always true. Many builds are very much class based.

The only pet worth using that you get from gear with a summoner is the skeleton, and it's not even close to being the best one, that spot is reserved for the mastery pets. For a pet build the important ones are the Hellhound, Raven, Briarthorn and Primal Spirit. All of them gotten from the masteries. Playing a summoner without any gear is very doable. I did it, and I got all the important drops while I played with that character.

 

[Mastermind]

Act 2 sucked in Diablo II too, so what?

Act 2 was the best act of D2, wtf are you talking about.

 

[Aeschylus]

Q:

how can I get dynamite? It seems like exploring the Arkovia Caves only contain 1. Does anyone sell them?

There is a merchant who sells it, but you can miss him.

Spoiler

If you don't kill Isiah Redden in the side quest in Act 2 in the Arkovian Foothills, he will show up later in Homestead and will sell you 1-4 pieces of dynamite per session.

.

Well occultist and shaman are the two weakest masteries (Occultist got a bit better with the latest patch).

It's time for this meme to come to an end. It hasn't been true for the past few patches. Occultist is one of the best masteries now. The biggest issues with the Occultist was a lack of survi and a lack of synergy between the skills, both of which have been fixed now. Not only that, now that DoTs can crit, DEE is one of the strongest spells in the game. It was already one of the strongest anyway since it does Acid/Poison damage which is arguably the best type of damage in Grim Dawn.

As I said it got better in the latest patch due to the addition of +physical resist on Blood of Dreeg, but imo it's still one of the weaker ones (this comes from ~150 hours of playing Occultist in various forms). DEE is indeed a good skill, but their chaos/vit skills are in general pretty mediocre, and Bloody Pox needs a total rework. I haven't tried pets so I can't speak to that, but I'd say Soldier, Nightblade and Arcanist are all better from the perspective of Ultimate and killing nemesis bosses and stuff. But with enough legendaries and a decent build you can make most things viable so w/e.

 

[gestalt11]

I think it is perhaps important to inform people who have not played this game much of the following:

A number of builds are equipment based. I do not mean they need equipment to work well. There are a number of skills only available from equipment. These include:

1) a number of pets (about 3 or 4 depending)
2) dual wield pistols (there are abour 3-4 items that make this allowable and usually give an proc as well)

Additionally certain relics can give a left click attack similar to cadence/savagery and you can potentially do things like have a proc based build based on that. (i.e. go soldier/NB/shaman but a relic left click attack that give attack speed instead of extra damage).


Similarly certain item or enhancement based skills can shore a build that is purely class based. For example some people may build for Calidor's Tempest from arcanist as their main power and spam PBAOE but actually use a non-class based skill for some single target stuff because arcanist may lack something that works well for you build.

It is actually quite important to isolate whether you require certain key items or augment a build weakness this way.

So in reality something like a Maximum pet build is easily 50% not based on class. This is a fairly strong departure from typical ARPG tropes of the past. But is also not always true. Many builds are very much class based.

The only pet worth using that you get from gear with a summoner is the skeleton, and it's not even close to being the best one, that spot is reserved for the mastery pets. For a pet build the important ones are the Hellhound, Raven, Briarthorn and Primal Spirit. All of them gotten from the masteries. Playing a summoner without any gear is very doable. I did it, and I got all the important drops while I played with that character.

Sure you can play a summoner fine with BT and HH. BT is very strong, he annihilates the early game. Saying the item pets are not worthwhile though is somethign I can't agree with a couple of them are quite solid additions when you are already buffing pets. Again you need the items for a Maximum pet build not a build that uses pets. If you want an army of 5+ pets you need the items. With a high degree of +pet dam/speed/health/res the item pets contribuet a lot especially since BT also buffs.

 

[United Nations]

Act 2 sucked in Diablo II too, so what?

Act 2 was the best act of D2, wtf are you talking about.

No, you're crazy.

Act 2 was a barren/banal wasteland lacking color and diversity.

Now all ARGP's have sandy deserts.