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Grim Dawn |OT| It's always grimmest at dawn.

Lanrutcon

Member
You are definitely right there, though Grim Dawn has its fair share of padding too. The areas and boss fighters were just much more distinct, flavourful and memorable in Titan Quest, as were the masteries/classes.

I miss my goddamn shield mastery. Bashing fools by the score, charging into danger at every opportunity.
 

Robofish

Member
I miss my goddamn shield mastery. Bashing fools by the score, charging into danger at every opportunity.

Specualtion off course but people have been asking for a shield masterie so maybe with the exppansion..

there was also talk about a necromancer..

Either way, the expansion is gonna give us lots of cool stuff.
 

Nordicus

Member
Rovers have some pretty good stuff for pet builds

Bought a bunch of those potions that give your pets +100% damage and +100% crit damage for 10 seconds. Makes Primal Spirit shred bosses pretty efficiently
 

Nymerio

Member
The bat is mainly lighting but it gives you resistances and health restoration.

Maybe put some points in sigil of consumption and detruction(gives some fire damage)

I have not played a pyromancer so i'm not the right guy to give advice.

Oh, ok. Didn't want to go the pet route anyway. I've been thinking of putting points into Solael's Witchfire for the chaos damage and attack speed, but I'm not sure if I wouldn't be better of with a debuff.

What I've seen people doing is pumping points into Curse of Frailty and Vulnerability. Those two skills are basically a huge debuff to the enemy.

Yeah, these sound great. Blood of Dreeg sounds like a nice skill to have as well though.

I'm also not sure if I should even spend more points in the demo tree at this point. The cluster bomb thing is good enough with the amount of points have in it right now so I think I may be better of getting the debuffs from the Occultist tree.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Leveling slows down quite a bit around 25 or so. Blah. I need to figure out how to mow through enemies better...That may help speed this up.
 
Finished normal for the first time. Really damn fun game with much too samey environments and an incredibly disappointing ending. Titan Quest is by far a better game, but I still really like this one and hope an eventual expansion will improve it greatly.

In Early Access it was even worse. They had fewer unique assets so act III dungeons looked the same as act I, and it caused me to not know zone names because there wasn't enough to separate them in my mind. I'm glad they did some work to improve it, but I could go for more. It's not big enough issue to really take my enjoyment away, but it'd be a nice polish.
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
I almost think that was sneaked in at some point because it took me quite a few characters before I noticed it.
There's an NPC bandit you can save outside on the fields that specifically tells you about it.

Anyways, for myself, I'm using a to handed ranged weapon and then going after the skill that lets you hit multiple enemies with lightning and then the skill that lets you spam it endlessly. It does less damage when you have the spam modifier but it's still enough to melt every mob I come across. Heroes take a bit longer and I have to heal every now and then, but I'm running through the first act with this set up.
 

Nordicus

Member
That feel when your nice looking set becomes outdated, and you quickly have to switch your equipment to a mish mash of different items due to cumbling set bonus.

RIP Brimstone set, welcome goofy leather hat and crossbow on a heavy armor guy
 
Anyways, for myself, I'm using a to handed ranged weapon and then going after the skill that lets you hit multiple enemies with lightning and then the skill that lets you spam it endlessly. It does less damage when you have the spam modifier but it's still enough to melt every mob I come across. Heroes take a bit longer and I have to heal every now and then, but I'm running through the first act with this set up.

Are you talking about Primal Strike? It's been the bread and butter of my latest build. Sadly I haven't had a lot of time this last couple weeks to play it, but it's been extremely viable up to level 30. Hoping to throw 3 more hours into it tonight while chilling with a podcast.
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
Are you talking about Primal Strike? It's been the bread and butter of my latest build. Sadly I haven't had a lot of time this last couple weeks to play it, but it's been extremely viable up to level 30.
Yup but I use ranged to stay away from enemies and they all pretty much die before they can get to striking range. The lightning "splash" also hits a bunch of baddies too. So gud...! I was thinking of doing a melee version of it but I should at least try to finish the damn game...
 

Cracklox

Member
Leveling slows down quite a bit around 25 or so. Blah. I need to figure out how to mow through enemies better...That may help speed this up.

Sure does. In a couple of solid 4-5 hour afterwork sessions over the last few days, I've gained 2 levels a night. Picking up and completing as many quests as possible seems to be the best way. They give big chunks of xp. Unless your killing monsters 4 + levels above you it seems like a such a crawl gaining xp from killing

All good though. Rome wasn't built in a day etc etc
 
Sure does. In a couple of solid 4-5 hour afterwork sessions over the last few days, I've gained 2 levels a night. Picking up and completing as many quests as possible seems to be the best way. They give big chunks of xp. Unless your killing monsters 4 + levels above you it seems like a such a crawl gaining xp from killing

All good though. Rome wasn't built in a day etc etc

Yeah quests become so much more important as you level. Around 30 some quests knock off like 15% of a level.
 

mstevens

Member
Does anyone have any good builds that are not gear dependent? In order of preference I'd like to either do pet build, melee, or mage would be fine.
 

Nordicus

Member
Oww, that East March boss giant's poison damage is serious business.

Died in 30 seconds against the boss and boss alone, then pumped my poison resist from 0 to 80%, and still had to get a bit potion spammy on my 2nd attempt.

Also, Shaman's pets (that scale with pet bonuses) don't seem to really work for a pure pet build. Briarthorn is slow and dumb, and can't keep aggro, while Primal Spirit, as amazing as it otherwise is, can only be present for 20 seconds before it goes on cooldown for another 20.

My pets can't really carry me anymore at 40ish level (or rather, really haven't since level 20) so I need to pump up my Demolitionist stuff
 

Maledict

Member
There's definitely a way to make pets work / highest level player in our group is a pure pet build, and happily farming ultimate difficulty stuff at level 85.

I think it's quite item dependent though - there's a lot of additional pets and bonuses you can get from gear.
 

Nordicus

Member
There's definitely a way to make pets work / highest level player in our group is a pure pet build, and happily farming ultimate difficulty stuff at level 85.

I think it's quite item dependent though - there's a lot of additional pets and bonuses you can get from gear.
Yeah, my point was that Shaman, if he doesn't have the help of additional pets, can not make a pure pet build work. Even if given infinite attack damage, Briarthorn's attack speed is far too slow to clear mobs, and that pet's AI has ADHD when it comes to using its Aoe ability. "Imma kill everyone in one sho- OOH A SQUIRREL!"

When I've got both my Briarthorn and Primal Spirit up then I can just sit back and relax (with exception of really aggressive bosses), but otherwise I need to pack my own Aoe and crowd control to survive.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Yeah, my point was that Shaman, if he doesn't have the help of additional pets, can not make a pure pet build work. Even if given infinite attack damage, Briarthorn's attack speed is far too slow to clear mobs, and that pet's AI has ADHD when it comes to using its Aoe ability. "Imma kill everyone in one sho- OOH A SQUIRREL!"

When I've got both my Briarthorn and Primal Spirit up then I can just sit back and relax (with exception of really aggressive bosses), but otherwise I need to pack my own Aoe and crowd control to survive.

Wouldn't matter if the Shaman had 10 pets. You have specialise in this game. So you're either gearing for +pet stuff, or your not. No middle ground. If you don't, your pets don't keep up with the difficulty curve. And if you're gearing for +pet stuff, you might as well take the two best masteries for pet stats and they happen to contain the best pets in the game.

And now your Conjurer.
 
Does anyone have any good builds that are not gear dependent? In order of preference I'd like to either do pet build, melee, or mage would be fine.

Start as Occultist.
Put 1 point into Curse of Frailty.
Pump Occultist to 10.
Invest into Hellhound until 16/16.
Unlock Shaman.
Pump Shaman to 10.
Invest into Briarthorn until 16/16.

Should be shy of level 20 by that point and setting both pets to aggressive will stomp most everything. After that you're more free to experiment, but I recommend working on raising occultist to 50, picking up Bonds of Bysmiel (1 point) so that you can cap out Manipulation. Then raise Shaman to 50 to cap out Primal Bond and Primal Spirit. Devouring Swarm and Grasping Vines can also be helpful support skills for pets.

Finally, get some devotion skills and put them on pets so that they can proc it.
 

Nordicus

Member
Wouldn't matter if the Shaman had 10 pets. You have specialise in this game. So you're either gearing for +pet stuff, or your not. No middle ground. If you don't, your pets don't keep up with the difficulty curve. And if you're gearing for +pet stuff, you might as well take the two best masteries for pet stats and they happen to contain the best pets in the game.

And now your Conjurer.
I am taking pet gear every chance I get (pet damage sitting at +207% right now), and the only way occultist would really help my Briarthorn aside from getting more pets like I previously said is Manipulation for the attack speed. Briarthorn is such a slow lumbering thing that if it doesn't get aggro, it's useless, while I can just click Pet Attack on my RMB and Primal Spirit will teleport and shred anything near where I pointed it, whether big groups or big fatties.
 
I am taking pet gear every chance I get (pet damage sitting at +207% right now), and the only way occultist would really help my Briarthorn aside from getting more pets like I previously said is Manipulation for the attack speed. Briarthorn is such a slow lumbering thing that if it doesn't get aggro, it's useless, while I can just click Pet Attack on my RMB and Primal Spirit will teleport and shred anything near where I pointed it, whether big groups or big fatties.

I'm sure I'm asking a dumb question but are you setting your pets to aggressive? My Briarthorn runs offscreen one-shoting things with 15k hits. So things die before they even get a chance to attack me. If you cast though then you're going to steal the aggro from the pet. Outside of bosses I just hang back and let my pets do all the work.
 

Nordicus

Member
I'm sure I'm asking a dumb question but are you setting your pets to aggressive? My Briarthorn runs offscreen one-shoting things with 15k hits. So things die before they even get a chance to attack me. If you cast though then you're going to steal the aggro from the pet. Outside of bosses I just hang back and let my pets do all the work.
Yes, I put it on Aggressive, and my only spell is Stun Jacks, though I do wonder if I should just respec the points I put in that into Flashbang

Edit: though tbf, hearing people have success with pet builds on Ultimate makes me guess that summoner builds are generally in much better place than they were in Titan Quest still, correct?
 

Cracklox

Member
I'm sure I'm asking a dumb question but are you setting your pets to aggressive? My Briarthorn runs offscreen one-shoting things with 15k hits. So things die before they even get a chance to attack me. If you cast though then you're going to steal the aggro from the pet. Outside of bosses I just hang back and let my pets do all the work.

Can they still put down bosses on their own, in a reasonable time though?

I started a Shaman as a side project last night, mostly to have a look at the skill tree, with the intent of running it with soldier. After reading some of the stuff like the above, I'll prob just go full summoner and take Occultist as well. See if I can get away with investing zero points in damage dealing powers, and just take CC and passives along with the summon stuff. Should be fun. Whats the best Devotion path for summoners? Looks like theirs summoning options for a few paths, but do any stand out?

Might have to save Soldier to pair on another Nighblade run
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
So are you guys playing solo or multi? I want to play with friends because solo is slow and isn't as fun. Still a blast, but I love multiplayer in games like this.

Hit 32 last night. Still working my way through Act 2 stuff. I will say that my only real complaint with the game is that it feels a bit drawn out at times. It's fun and the combat feels good, so that helps.
 
Can they still put down bosses on their own, in a reasonable time though?... Whats the best Devotion path for summoners? Looks like theirs summoning options for a few paths, but do any stand out?

Mine can, yeah. Granted I have fantastic gear including the legendary pet set - Beastcaller's Regalia. It's the character I've spent the most time on. As for devotion, the goal is to get Mogdrogen the Wolf, trying to get as many useful pet constellations as possible, as well as those which give useful skills that proc on your pet attacks. So things like: Raven, Shepherd's Crook, Bysmiel's Bonds, Jackal, for pet bonuses. Then things like Akeron's Scorpion and Assassin's Blade for pet attack procs.

So are you guys playing solo or multi? I want to play with friends because solo is slow and isn't as fun. Still a blast, but I love multiplayer in games like this.

I've played about 75% solo and 25% with a buddy. It's definitely faster multiplayer, but I found that the characters I ran multiplayer are complete butt at solo, because either I make them too glass-cannony or so tanky their damage output suffered.
 

cirrhosis

Member
So are you guys playing solo or multi? I want to play with friends because solo is slow and isn't as fun. Still a blast, but I love multiplayer in games like this.

Hit 32 last night. Still working my way through Act 2 stuff. I will say that my only real complaint with the game is that it feels a bit drawn out at times. It's fun and the combat feels good, so that helps.

My roommate and I play together like 75 percent of the time, 25 percent solo. Happy to team up when you feel like it.
 

Cracklox

Member
Slow OT is sad. More peeps need to play this. Guess a lot of folks playing The Division I guess...

Mine can, yeah. Granted I have fantastic gear including the legendary pet set - Beastcaller's Regalia. It's the character I've spent the most time on. As for devotion, the goal is to get Mogdrogen the Wolf, trying to get as many useful pet constellations as possible, as well as those which give useful skills that proc on your pet attacks. So things like: Raven, Shepherd's Crook, Bysmiel's Bonds, Jackal, for pet bonuses. Then things like Akeron's Scorpion and Assassin's Blade for pet attack procs.

Thanks. I mucked around with my Shaman last night and got him to 19. Maxed Briarthon straight away, and also 1 pointed his aoe for now. He straight trashes shit. Most heroes/bosses he can handle by himself, but may take a recast or two. Working now on getting the hellhound up to scratch. Unrelated, but why the fuck are wands melee btw? Wanted to do wand and caster off hand to stay at range, but it seems like my only option is pistol if I want an off hand and to stay ranged

I think I mucked up Devotion though. I think the pink and green nodes are the ones you are talking about which I have unlocked a lot of with my demo/arcanist. I thought there'd be other stuff in the blue and gold nodes so I went that route, but looking through the early skills at least there's not a lot. Seems more for supporting tankier style characters, with heals, and shields stuff.

I haven't respecced devotion yet. How does it work exactly? I assume it will reset any levels you have gained in skills? If you later respect back to a skill you have levelled, do you retain the levels?
 

cirrhosis

Member
I haven't respecced devotion yet. How does it work exactly? I assume it will reset any levels you have gained in skills? If you later respect back to a skill you have levelled, do you retain the levels?

It'll cost 1 aether crystal plus a small amount of iron to remove a devotion point. Levels of devotion procs that you spec out of won't reset - if you spec back into a constellation to get the proc, you'll be back to where you were initially. Some constellations can become dependent on their affinity completion bonus; you might find you're unable to take points out of a constellation because it supports itself. In that case, dumping points into a Crossroads or two should let you despec one of those constellations.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
My roommate and I play together like 75 percent of the time, 25 percent solo. Happy to team up when you feel like it.

Add me on Steam - nicoga3000.

I'm loving the shit out of this game. But I have a new question! How do I get rep for the first town you visit? I'm level 32 and still am only Friendly. I want to craft something but I'm not able to buy the recipe yet because my rep is too low.
 

cirrhosis

Member
Add me on Steam - nicoga3000.

I'm loving the shit out of this game. But I have a new question! How do I get rep for the first town you visit? I'm level 32 and still am only Friendly. I want to craft something but I'm not able to buy the recipe yet because my rep is too low.

You'll need to either run the Cronley areas repeatedly or run Devil's Crossing quests from the bounty board. Once you get up to 'Honoured' reputation you can buy writs that give your character a 50% bonus gain whenever you kill something related to that faction. Once you hit 'Revered' you get access to a 100% bonus gain. You can also buy those writs and dump them in your shared stash so you can distribute them amongst your other characters.

Will add you when I get back this evening, heading out now.
 
Slow OT is sad. More peeps need to play this. Guess a lot of folks playing The Division I guess...

Yeah. That temporarily took me away for now. I really am enjoying the game though. Followed a Shaman/Occultist build from the official forums and just started the second play through.

Not a big fan of the resistances though. Wish I would have done more research of the game prior so I would have saved some resistance gear. Right now any poison mobs basically one shot me as I sit at -5 resist.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
You'll need to either run the Cronley areas repeatedly or run Devil's Crossing quests from the bounty board. Once you get up to 'Honoured' reputation you can buy writs that give your character a 50% bonus gain whenever you kill something related to that faction. Once you hit 'Revered' you get access to a 100% bonus gain. You can also buy those writs and dump them in your shared stash so you can distribute them amongst your other characters.

Will add you when I get back this evening, heading out now.

Bounty board? :| I didn't know that was a thing.
 

Nordicus

Member
My poison Witch Hunter is feeling like bit of a glasscannon now in Elite difficulty, but when he does good, he does really good.

But I have a new question! How do I get rep for the first town you visit? I'm level 32 and still am only Friendly. I want to craft something but I'm not able to buy the recipe yet because my rep is too low.
Doing the bounties, or killing faction's favored enemies that are somewhat within your level range
Bounty board? :| I didn't know that was a thing.
You find the bounty table inside Devil's Crossing right next to the leaders of the place

Not a big fan of the resistances though. Wish I would have done more research of the game prior so I would have saved some resistance gear. Right now any poison mobs basically one shot me as I sit at -5 resist.
That's honestly almost a Diablo-clone trope by now where at least by 2nd difficulty you got to have some resistance gear stashed away.

Even Torchlight 1 which was mostly ridiculously easy, during the last 10% of the game you could get 2-shotted by off-screen lightning spells without resistances.
 
Working now on getting the hellhound up to scratch. Unrelated, but why the fuck are wands melee btw? Wanted to do wand and caster off hand to stay at range, but it seems like my only option is pistol if I want an off hand and to stay ranged

I think I mucked up Devotion though. I think the pink and green nodes are the ones you are talking about which I have unlocked a lot of with my demo/arcanist. I thought there'd be other stuff in the blue and gold nodes so I went that route, but looking through the early skills at least there's not a lot. Seems more for supporting tankier style characters, with heals, and shields stuff.

I haven't respecced devotion yet. How does it work exactly? I assume it will reset any levels you have gained in skills? If you later respect back to a skill you have levelled, do you retain the levels?

My left mouse button is devouring swarm so that I can attack from range while procing a pet buff. And respecing devotion costs some currency and 1 aethar crystal per star. Crystals are easy, they're 100% drop from the ground clusters that attack you. And no, levels don't reset. I bought a skill early, got it to like 10, then decided to buy the stars back to reinvest elsewhere. When I went back to get that constellation/skill I was still level 10.
 

Cracklox

Member
Bounty board? :| I didn't know that was a thing.

Yah, each faction will have a bounty board. They function much the same as a D3 bounty. Kill x creatures, kill x boss etc. Devils crossing one is in the room with bourbon or whatever his name is. I think you need to be friendly status to be able to do them

Also keep in mind the 3 difficulties, and the fact that maxing rep with a faction is designed to be done across 3 playthroughs. I'm in act 4 of elite with my demo, not far from the last boss, and still haven't reached revered for any faction. And I've been doing bounties here and there and all the quests a I can find. I'm close now on a couple though.


It'll cost 1 aether crystal plus a small amount of iron to remove a devotion point. Levels of devotion procs that you spec out of won't reset - if you spec back into a constellation to get the proc, you'll be back to where you were initially. Some constellations can become dependent on their affinity completion bonus; you might find you're unable to take points out of a constellation because it supports itself. In that case, dumping points into a Crossroads or two should let you despec one of those constellations.

Thanks. Bolded is cool
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Well one of my problems is that I apparently skipped the entire Cronley stuff. I must have taken a wrong turn at some point. I've already started doing stuff at Homestead. That's why I never got rep stuff at the first town, ha. Guess I should go finish those quests.
 

squall23

Member
I'm playing a Conjurer with a Shaman primary so I have lightning and pets, but upon reading the descriptions of Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil, I'm torn on which one would be best for my character.

What do?
 

Cracklox

Member
I'm playing a Conjurer with a Shaman primary so I have lightning and pets, but upon reading the descriptions of Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil, I'm torn on which one would be best for my character.

What do?

hmmm. I'd say Deaths Vigil. Kymons Chosen are cleric types that rock heavier armors and weapons. From what I know the Vigil are more (dark) magic'y types, though I'm not sure what you get as faction rewards.
 

squall23

Member
hmmm. I'd say Deaths Vigil. Kymons Chosen are cleric types that rock heavier armors and weapons. From what I know the Vigil are more (dark) magic'y types, though I'm not sure what you get as faction rewards.
But that's what my Conjurer is. The only skills I have from my Occultist job are the pets, my primary mastery is my Shaman with 2-handers and heavy armours. I'm mainly having trouble choosing because I value my melee lightning damage (Kymon's Chosen) as much as the usefulness of my pets (Death's Vigil).
 

Nordicus

Member
I'm playing a Conjurer with a Shaman primary so I have lightning and pets, but upon reading the descriptions of Kymon's Chosen and Order of Death's Vigil, I'm torn on which one would be best for my character.

What do?
Rovers afaik have the best faction pet stuff so you're better off choosing Kymon's Chosen out of those two because at least then you'll have something aligning with the lightning damage aspect of your build
 

Nordicus

Member
Hah, just noticed there's no Shaman card for Grim Dawn steam badge. I guess that was the last mastery to be implemented?
 
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