(1.1.9.8) HC Beginner Primal Strike Druid + Leveling guide - suitable for first char

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hi there, grimmers!

Glad to share with you this sparky druid.

I leveled this char on HC SSF, no merits, mandates or leveling itens like lokarr set and potions of clarity were used.

The goal was to create a char that can begin the endgame farming on HC consistently, almost all the gear are from factions, craftable and easy-to-farm MI’s.

I started with Shaman mastery, you can pick up Hevill's Greatsword - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database here Grim Dawn World Map it will make faster to chop off some rotten zombie necks. Spend your points on the mastery bar until you’re able to unlock Primal Strike and Thunderous Strike.

Continue to put 1 point at Primal Strike and 2 points on the mastery bar until you’ get all the nodes of Primal Strike. For a safer gameplay, you can put 1 point on Wendigo Totem skill. On LVL 20, i assume you probably already met and slayed Warden Krieg. The next step is taking a little detour for FG DLC, and the reason is to farm Korvan Storm Halberd - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database that’s gonna be our main weapon. You can farm it from Animated Preserver - Grim Dawn Monster Database.

Now that we got our weapon, let’s get back to Vanilla campaign. Start spending points on the Arcanist mastery bar, i put on point on the Wind Devil and Raging Tempest for additional damage and resistance reduction. On Devotions, try to get Widow and its Arcane Bomb proc ASAP and bind it to Primal Strike.

At this point you probably made your way to Homestead or further, i made alliance with Order of Death Vigil faction to be able to farm Noveria Stormfire here Grim Dawn World Map for two important MI’s Ascended Diadem - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database and Ascended Epaulets - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database (you can farm lots of dynamite here too, beware of the aether damaging ground) at the end of LVL 40 you should be completing Loghorrean and AoM DLC, unlocking all the factions. On the devotions, go for Kraken and Behemot. Don’t forget to farm Zaria on darkvale for a useful Zaria's Pendant - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database that give’s us +1 to all shaman skills.

It’s time so start Elite difficulty. Max Maiven’s Sphere of Protection on arcanist mastery bar and go for Stormcaller’s Pact on Shaman’s.

Put points on raging tempest (leave in12/12), don’t forget to check your devotions, get the Turtle Shell and Healing Rain procs. At LVL 70 you should be completing the Vanilla and AoM DLC. Remember to farm for upgraded versions of your Weapon, head and shoulders MI’s.

Time to start the ultimate difficulty, maxed out Overload and Inner Focus for OA/Aether Resist, after that ,started to max out all of Primal Strike nodes. Remember to do all the totem events you can (clean the area first, be careful), and to sell your loot! Don’t forget to buy factions boosters to increase your reputation gain with the factions.

You should be on your way to complete ultimate Vanilla Campaign, remember to farm all the totens you find on the way and be careful with Arcane Hero monsters that you may find, they can be very dangerous with their nullification.

Time to begin the endgame farming! After you reach LVL 94, you can farm for endgame versions of your MI’s, and craft your Leg/boots armor Rimeguard Chausses - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database / Stoneplate Greaves - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database on the blacksmith. If you haven’t acquired their blueprints yet, you can replace them with Solael-Sect Legguards - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database and Elite Legion Greaves - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database until you get their BP. Your armor, rings and medal are faction itens, and if you didn’t droped any Mythical Cerulean Shard - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database or Mythical Ultos' Gem - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database, you can farm a good version of Zaria’s Necklace or even use faction item Thundering Gem - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database. If you didn’t acquired a Mythical Thundertouch Bracers - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database , you can craft a good Emberguard Gauntlets - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database.
*edit: for more damage you can craft Plagueguard Grips - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database and change the component to consecrated wrappings.
Your belt, head and shoulder MI’s can be farmed on Port Valbury dungeon (the belt from Watcher Brandis Grim Dawn World Map and you can shop shoulder and head Mi’s from Agarrad Grim Dawn World Map)

I started farming dungeons/some bosses with this version. Farm all the totens you can.

After obtaining the mythical ultos gem, tried the build on SR 65 and suceeded. Remember to be careful with arcane mobs and powerful debuffs on SR, you can farm all dungeons and regular bosses without much sweat.

*edit: Since the release of patch 1.2 i was looking forward to test the Ultos set with its new health regen stats, so i changed gear and devotions, and the final version of the build is now Druid, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.0) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

gonna test on higher SR and superbosses later

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid x Korvaak

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid x Theodin Marcell

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid x Kra’Vall

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid x Morgoneth

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid x Mad Queen

(1.1.9.8) Beginner HC Primal Strike Druid SR65

Thanks @Gnomish_Inquisition and @tqFan for your suggestions

Thank you all for reading!

10 Likes
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sry, but i have to ask, why how no prioritization of attack speed?
117% is painstakingly low for a spam PS in my mind :thinking:

1 Like
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you’re right, super low for this type of build, still working on it, tho. My primary focus here was staying alive for endgame farming

4

You can totally take the attack speed component in gloves at least since you have so much Acid and Bleed overcap.

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very good observation Ty VM!

6

for me personally, minor change/investment i’d probably do is ensure attack speed affix on weapon, even if basic alacrity suffix.
Likewise for gloves, craft or buy basic green gloves with alacrity or other attack speed suffix, then slap on component too.
pierce chaos res so high don’t need aug so can use elemental res aug in case not fishing for specific resist prefix too
should “on avg” bump from 117 to 157 speed Druid, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

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Sounds good! Thx for the suggestions, gonna try it soon

8

btw the first Druid in the Beginner Compendium :partying_face:

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9

Hi. Noob here with a noob question. While levelling my new Druid character, what do you spend the Attribute points on (Physique/Cunning/Spirit)? The build tool here doesn’t seem to specify what to spend on, each level. Unless I’m just missing it somewhere on the tool. Thank you!

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Hi! You can spend most of your points on physique. Spend a few on cunning, and you don’t need any on spirit.

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11

Welcome to the forum. :slightly_smiling_face:

If you go to the grimtools calc link and then hover over the attributes it shows you how many points went into each one. 87 Physique and 20 in Cunning.

3 Likes
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Does it make sense to go to Gollus rings? And put more points into Mogdrogen’s Pact to get something like 1000 hp per second regen?
Also do you think this would work as Elementalist or Archon (made them without changing attack speed and everything else)?

Elementalist, HC Primal strike

Archon, HC Primal strike

1 Like
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Excellent idea! i used the coven rings cuz they’re easier than farming gollus (heard that those enemies will always drop their MI’s on patch 1.2 and this will make that kind of farming less PITA) on Elementalist and Archon i think build will perform better DMG but i think it can lose some of its toughness, need to test it, tho

14

Awesome, thank you so much :slight_smile:

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15

Thank you for the welcome! This looks like a great forum with tons of great info and people!

Thank you so much for the info, I see the attribute points spent now! I don’t know how I missed it before :confused:

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16

Unless i am mistaken, you don’t have any source of flat RR? Is it deliberate? Or you just sacrificed it in order to get Behemoth + Tree of Life + Ultos?

2 Likes
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Yeah i ended up sacrificing scales

18

How does this build compare to your Lightning Warder build? I was planning to play one of these as my first character in 1.2, with a preference toward the Warder.

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19

Lightning warder rocks too. I remember leveling [1.1.9.0] Beginner's Lightning Warder that have a good damage sheet, but i don’t remember about its survivability

20

hello, and thank you!

noob question: at lvl 20-30… you said to put points into arcanist mastery. that threw me. do we discard the shaman or druid, and switch to a arcanist 2nd job? or can I put pts in to a 3rd job? what am i missing … because I am wanting to start a new character now, with this build

thank you

1 Like