This is how I play Grim Dawn as Barbarian
So… How to level as oathkeeper now with AoM being nerfed? RF doesn’t feel aoe enough. Windmill/Judgement/vire?
Thank you for this guide, keep up the good work. I’ve got some reading before starting the game this weekend.
If you have crucible and FG and want to level an alt char REAL fast, here’s my tricks:
-create new character
-go to crucible, take difficulty unlock token, exp potion and equip Lokkar set(this is because you cant access shared storage before finishing the very first quest)
-start main campaign on normal, pop difficulty unlock token, all riftgates unlocked
-teleport to Conclave of the Three, grab the lore notes on the floor, there’s five of them, don’t read for now
-teleport to Vanguard of the Three, grab the lore note on the floor.
-teleport to Fort Ikon, grab the two lore notes on the floor.
(There are actually some more easily accessible lore notes but i usually dont bother)
-back to Devil’s Crossing, now use an exp potion, read all the lore notes, you should get 10+ levels instantly.
-teleport to lower crossing, go to the cave and kill the boss, this finishes the first quest, report in for exp.
-talk to the guard to open Devil’s Crossing gate, ez exp.
-talk to spiritual guide, ez exp.
now exit, start Elite difficulty.
-use an exp potion, talk to gate keeper, big ez exp.
-talk to spiritual guide, more big ez exp.
now exit, start Ultimate difficulty.
-use an exp potion, talk to gate keeper, huge ez exp.
-talk to spiritual guide, more huge ez exp.
Now a level 30 alt char within less than 15 min. This is usually enough to start an elite, or even ultimate run right away.
BONUS, for even more easy exp:
On Normal difficulty,
-take some scrap, royal jelly and dynamite, exchange some iron bits
-drink a exp potion
-repair the bridge to Arkovian Foothills, run to Stephen Skinner, bring him back to Devil’s Crossing, turn in quest, exp.(you should know the right options to choose, if failed no juicy exp:undecided:)
-teleport to Arkovian Foothills, talk to Bernard and Greven in the camp, start clearing barricade and lost elder quest.
-run to the barricade, blow it, return to Bernard, exp.
-run to elder, talk, go back and turn in quest, exp.
-teleport to Cronley’s Hideout, a bit further in, near the devotion shrine, break an urn and get Annuals of Arkovia
-teleport to Old Arkovia, go to Rovers camp, give Annuals of Arkovia, exp
-give royal jelly, free exp.(requires friendly with Rovers)
-run to New Harbour, give scrap to Silas, exp.
Now repeat the process in Elite, you can teleport so it’s still not so bad, big ez exp.
Now repeat the process in Ultimate, this time you cannot teleport and enemies are far more dangerous so you may want to skip some steps, but still, huge ez exp.
After doing all these, within 2 hrs you will have your char at close to level 50:rolleyes:
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I keep seeing different advice on this so I wanted to test it a little. I went to every vendor and bought any BPs I was missing, even if I had no use for them. I also milked Vinelton (leaving/re-entering the Feral Thicket) and bought every BP he sold until I had them all.
Prior to this I would always grab a couple of treasure troves on runs (Mountain Deeps, and Gloomwald, usually). Most of the time I would get a BP, but since I went on a buying spree the drops have really slowed down. It’s to the point now where I almost never get a BP from a TT.
Reading elsewhere, the TTs are still giving BPs, but if it’s one I own then I don’t ‘see’ it since it won’t show duplicates. So, the pool doesn’t actually change and it’s not worth buying BPs to shrink it? Not only that, but it’s a total waste of money to buy a bunch of undesirable BPs under the assumption that it’ll make it more likely that you’ll get one that can’t be bought?
I can’t find a source for this, but my understanding is that a blueprint drop will re-roll 10 times if you already know it, and if after the 10th time it hasn’t rolled something you don’t have, it doesn’t drop/is replaced by something.
If that’s the case, shrinking your pool is worthwhile, it’s just really hard to get those last few blueprints if you have almost everything.
But it will be easier to get the last BP’s since the pool is shrinking.
Though you will never get duplicates which you can trade with
Why didn’t I read this 300+ hours ago? I must spend 25-50% of my time agonizing over which item to swap with which after each visit to the stash guy. And then a ton of offline chin-stroking in Item Assistant min/maxing resists.
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Shameless omegabump.
@sir_spanksalot: At what difficulty did you run SoT get through the 70-95 stretch? Normal or Elite?
Also, Is SR good for leveling?
Btw thanks for the guide! 
looks like a good guide from what i was able to read. Why is it all blurred out?
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My guess is that it is blurred out because it contains spoilers. Not everyone feels the need to play every game perfectly. I, for one, enjoy exploring the game myself, and I do not mind dying here and there if my build is not ideal. I do realize that if I open a guide, there will for sure be spoilers, so blurring seems unnecessary here. It makes more sense to blur spoilers in replies to other threads (non-guides).
Because it’s written in old forum format. It was originally spoilers tag. This forum posses dropdown menus, which are of course better suited for long guides.
Updated the formatting and any broken links… hope I got everything alright.
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On the getting items part: it’s a vicious circle to recommend nemesis to players who are in the leveling stage. That sequence would be good for an acceptable lvl100/finished build. My (1st) toon is 100, it could do those, I guess, but for example I’ve reached nemesis stage only with four factions.
Farming nemesis is the sort of things interesting for people who don’t need this advice anymore (as source), but as optimization.
For genuinely levelling characters, particularly If is about the first toons, not so many items banked, not a clear idea what to do with them etc, is better to focus on that char specific needs rather than Kupacabra or even Conley, and mainly through MI. Rogue-type char? The mines should drop some “murderer” armour. Acid weapons? Rift scourges and pasquill. Piercing? The derampteran caves can deliver a truckfull and other goodies etc
But for that you absolutely need to raise every stone in game for two-three playthroughs to get an idea of what & where instead of the speed runs recommended by cool kids. Those are for later.
“You want to get to lvl 94 to get many purples”. No, you don’t, not as a beginner, not if you feel like I do. Every other day I have to dynamite 1-2 stash tabs of purples, of which I have no idea whatsoever if they re decent or not. I can’t spend my time on watching internets arguing on every other purple and make a decision. Not to mention blues, some of which, just as double rares, can be better than purples. So I decided to hold onto purple set items and everything else goes to dynamite if it doesn’t have something truly amazingly obvious even for a beginner like myself (Silverbolt e.g.). Did I vendored bank-able epics? Did I destroyed amazingly useful purples? Absolutely. Do I want even more of this “I don"t know what I am doing” feeling? Lol, no. There’s zero value in farming efficiently if you don’t know what to do with the loot. And keeping everything without labels and catalogues and infinite storage cheat is impossible.
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A “little” late to reply, but here it goes:
I agree. It would be silly on my end to recommend levelling toons to farm nems.
However, as you’ve correctly pointed out, it takes awhile to get “Nemesis” stage. At which point, your toon should ideally be out of the “levelling phase,” and transitioning to the end game stage.
P.S: There are plenty of tips in the guide which do not revolve around farming nems 
Not sure I understand what you’re saying here. So apologies if my reply is irrelevant.
I am not suggesting you specifically hunt for MI’s. I am saying that you should hold onto them if you happen to chance upon a good one.
As for players without a clear idea with what to do with their specific build: The above “how-to” cannot hope to cover every single build type.
Again, as you’ve pointed out, that specificity comes with experience. And the new player may either:
- Do several playthrough to get that experience for themselves
- Check out guides posted by theorycrafters here and rely on their experience to see what’s needed
Why wouldn’t you want to get as many purps as possible? While you cannot control which legendary item will drop, surely maximizing the rate at which you acquire them means increasing the possibility of finding gear which is relevant to you?
Also, if you are farming in a way which is yielding more legendaries than you know what to do with, it also means you are farming in a way which will yield the most amount of items with rare affixes.
And even if your luck is that shitty, having a massive stash of purps is extremely valuable for trading, or even just vendoring.
Surely we can agree that the above is what’s known as “a good problem to have” 
You should always be building a spec with an end goal in mind.
In general, this involves having an item set (e.g. Justice set). Which in turn means you want to get as many purps as possible to find said items as quickly as possible.
Further, you can fill the rest of your item slots with any cool toys you may chance upon
It is possible.
Alternatively, you can just sell duplicates, and keep the best rolled ones for yourself…
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The Lord of the Builds: The Return of the Spanks
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May be a looooong while before I post builds again.
I do have some ideas I would love to be able to test out one day though
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I SEE A GHOST 
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You made the first step though, welcome back! 
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I don’t have a computer which can run GD anymore