KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Lone Wolf]

Changed from molotov to dual-wield Firestrike build, and I'm feeling like fucking Max Payne
Maxed out Flame Touch, Solael's, Fire/Explosive Strike, and maxed out Curse of Frailty + Vulnerability to make me feel like I'm experiencing Bullet Time

Yes, this is my main character, too.

Since I got the two (a pair of the same item) Demon-themed pistol legendaries, as well as the legendary medal that supports the build, it's basically been a turkey shoot. The procs are so strong and frequent that you don't need any AOE. Get to the end of the Occultist line for the exclusive skill (Possession, I think), which will pump up your Chaos resistance and massively boost your Chaos damage.

More than 32k sheet DPS on that build...

as squishy as I am

Giant's Blood Devotion constellation will help you out in a big way. Besides, you can make defensive choices with your items outside of the weapons, medal and amulet slots. Runic Handguards will cover some of that character's weaknesses, for example. Pump all attribute points into Physique.

Can anyone else recommend a good second mastery for arcanist? Some awesome personal experiences with that?

Nightblade is good support for an Olexa's build. Otherwise, Soldier can really boost your survivability. Demo is great for fire/lightning synergy (and there is a legendary called something Vanity in the off-hand slot that reduces cooldowns on a crit, with +1 to Arcanist/Demo skills).

Occultist has great combos with the Arcanist through Chaos damage builds (and the Clairvoyant legendary set is a big help, here).

But the way it does lightning is very contingent as far as +%dam. It often adds raw lightnig

Well, yeah, but raw lightning is usually a better choice than added percentage lightning. That percentage is additive (meaning, if you already have +300% lightning damage, another +10% will make it 310%), so at a certain point raw damage is preferable. And the +100 (or so) lightning damage on Brute Force is a big, big increase when your +300-400% to lightning damage is taken into account.

Yes, it requires a two-hander, and that is its main downside.

Yeah if only it wasn't useless on bosses/heroes since they can't be frozen and therefore can't get the res debuff.

What do you mean? Why would they not get the resistance debuff if their reduction to freeze duration is too high?

EDIT: Oh, because you're saying the debuff is only there while they're frozen. Maybe. I'll check it out. But plenty of bosses/uniques do get frozen for at least a bit. I haven't been having huge issues there.

 

[made]

Crafting weapons and gear with the Blacksmith.

Also stash tabs and the reputation writs. There's plenty of iron sinks at least for your first char. I'm halfway into elite and broke all the time, still picking up all yellows.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I tried, and failed, to find an equivalent of Poinas's TQ skill guide so I assume there is none at this point? I can see that this is literally Grim Titan Quest, so coming up with builds and synergies will be like 90% of the fun for me, but similarly to TQ many skill descriptions are kinda shit and it's pretty discouraging to invest x hours to come up with a build that doesn't work at all.

Also, is this game still in development? Seems kinda unfinished at some places.

 

[ArchAngel]

After getting my Chaos focused Warlock to lvl 37 I am feeling it is kind of weak. Or maybe comparing it with my previous Vitality focused Conjurer makes it look weak.
Or maybe this build shines at higher levels since both main skills (Aether Ray and Doom Bolt supported by Possession) shine when you finally max those 3 skills. And at the moment I only got Aether Ray (converted to Chaos) and I am leveling my Occulist to get access to its top level skills. Energy upkeep is a real chore with Aether Ray so I usually just use it vs yellow enemies and heroes/bosses. For everyone else I got a firebolt and that chaos wave attack that I got from components. Since both do not scale with your level they are both becoming weak now and I am becoming more dependant on using Aether Ray which costs something like 340 energy per second while my regeneration is only about 40 or so.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Arcane Lens reduces skill energy cost by 6%. Then there is the component that adds 20% to energy reserves. A pair of them nets you 40% extra energy.

There are various Devotion constellations that help out with energy regen and available energy. Dryad, Widow, the Lantern and the Owl, in particular, early on. Both Dryad and the Owl can make a significant difference with a minimum of Devotion investment (Dryad will net you 200 energy with two points, and the Owl will reduce skill energy costs by 5% with the same).

Finally, there are three Arcanist skills that will help: Iskandra's Elemental Exchange, Inner Focus and Mental Alacrity. If you're up to the Aether Ray, then you can invest in all three.

With Arcane Lens, a five point investment in Mental Alacrity and the Owl, you can reduce that 340 e/s to to ~259 e/s.

Tricky, but manageable, if you also occasionally chug Elixirs.

Zboj:

The Wiki has most of the skill effects in each tree listed: click here, for example, to view the Arcanist skill tree and see how each skill scales (click on the skills in the tree).

Or, if you want to do it another way, here's Grim Calc, which lets you plan out characters: Grim Calc

 

[ArchAngel]

Actually that 340 is with maxed out Mental Alacrity
Also AE cost goes up as your casting speed goes up and Mental Alacrity gives casting speed, I noticed that each point in it increased cost more than it decreased it

Iskandra's Elemental Exchange is useless for a Chaos build and I will not put points into it.

Unrelated question, do auras turn off sometimes for any of you as well?
I think it might be connected with losing all your energy but not 100% sure. I keep losing Solael Witchfire

 

[Cyberarmy]

Unrelated question, do auras turn off sometimes for any of you as well?

You probably swap weapons accidently time to time.


I think it might be connected with losing all your energy

Or this

 

[Lone Wolf]

Yes, losing all your energy will shut down auras that have active energy costs, from memory.

RE: AE, have you been maxing it out? That skill doesn't really go well with being maxed too early.

Also, what about attributes? 1:1 with Phys/Spirit?

 

[RuySan]

All the crashes in this game made me go play path of exile instead. And while poe is for me objectively speaking a better and more complex game, I spend most time wishing I was playing grim dawn instead.

I think grim down is just giving me the tough love

 

[Wolfenswan]

Anyone else with a NVidia card gettings massive slow-downs/stuttering after alt-tabbing? Ironically, I never had any issues until I updated my woefully outdated drivers.

Edit: It appears that Grim Dawn now uses 100% of my GPU, even on lowest settings.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yes, losing all your energy will shut down auras that have active energy costs, from memory.

RE: AE, have you been maxing it out? That skill doesn't really go well with being maxed too early.

Also, what about attributes? 1:1 with Phys/Spirit?

Yea, I maxed it out at lvl 37. I would not call that early.

And I put most points into Phys because I don't have access to skills that increase HP

 

[Lone Wolf]

Lvl 37 is definitely a bit early to max AE and not struggle with energy.

You've got a two-fold problem:

1) Overinvestment in AE;
2) Lack of Spirit, which affects not only Energy but also regen

You're an Arcanist, so my advice would be to re-allocate away from AE until you sink twenty levels of attribute points into Spirit and can max Inner Focus. Survivability for you isn't taking hits, but mitigating against them with skills like MoE and Maiven's.

 

[Lone Wolf]

In end game, even with 90% Phys investment, you will still get one-shot regularly.

Get Giant's Blood, Dryad and Turtle.

 

[ArchAngel]

I am working on getting Turtle right now. I doubt I will take this character all the way to Ultimate, he is not mobile enough. I am just taking him for a ride through Veteran and maybe some Elite gameplay.

Well even with max AE I am not killing bosses as fast as I would like so I would not want to put less points into it :D

Maybe once I can max Doom Bolt I can remove some points from AE so I can use it for lesser mobs and Doom Bolt for heroes and such.

 

[MrJohnson]

Anyone else with a NVidia card gettings massive slow-downs/stuttering after alt-tabbing? Ironically, I never had any issues until I updated my woefully outdated drivers.

yeah but only while typing - alt-tabbing to chat with someone outside of steamchat is a bitch

 

[ArchAngel]

Anyone else with a NVidia card gettings massive slow-downs/stuttering after alt-tabbing? Ironically, I never had any issues until I updated my woefully outdated drivers.

yeah but only while typing - alt-tabbing to chat with someone outside of steamchat is a bitch

Go to options and move Background FPS slider all the way to the left to remove that "problem".

 

[Ivan]

is there any way to change the size of the HUD? Shadow Strike can be annoying when an enemy is just below the hud

 

[Cyberarmy]

is there any way to change the size of the HUD? Shadow Strike can be annoying when an enemy is just below the hud

Change camera direction?

 

[made]

Had some initial trouble on elite but cold-based warlock is still a powerhouse. Fixed my resists, spent the 30ish devotion points I had, now tearing shit up again and not dying (much). Finding a lot of nice lightning gear tho, as if the game is trying to tell me something.

 

[LizardWizard]

Unrelated question, do auras turn off sometimes for any of you as well?
I think it might be connected with losing all your energy but not 100% sure. I keep losing Solael Witchfire

Yes it's energy leech, which makes that leech resistance underrated and important for some builds . There is a rare spawn dual wielding aetherial wizard in Plains of Strife that will leech everything you have in one shot, then chase/shadow strike your ass half way across the map. If you're playing hardcore be on the look out for this fucker even if you're two shoting everything on the map. He nearly ended my ultimate HC Druid that was just dicking around in Elite.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Unrelated question, do auras turn off sometimes for any of you as well?
I think it might be connected with losing all your energy but not 100% sure. I keep losing Solael Witchfire

Yes it's energy leech, which makes that leech resistance underrated and important for some builds . There is a rare spawn dual wielding aetherial wizard in Plains of Strife that will leech everything you have in one shot, then chase/shadow strike your ass half way across the map. If you're playing hardcore be on the look out for this fucker even if you're two shoting everything on the map. He nearly ended my ultimate HC character that was just dicking around in Elite.

Problem?
Too bad they nerfed him.

 

[ArchAngel]

nice.. once shot with 9000+ hp :D

 

[flushfire]

Anyone else with a NVidia card gettings massive slow-downs/stuttering after alt-tabbing? Ironically, I never had any issues until I updated my woefully outdated drivers.

On a Gt730 (this is a cafe PC, so dont judge) it crashes after alt-tabbing. It crashes a lot even when not alt-tabbing too. Gonna have to wait for more patches I guess.

 

[DDZ]

Men, I was so happy when I found out about the pickup key, bound it to W.

Was making looting so much easier, but I noticed how it didn't make it faster, turns out it ignores the loot filter and picks up anything at your feet.

Ugh.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Why would you waste a valuable key on something like that? I use WASD for skills and spells. Q for Health and E for Energy potions.