Advice on co-op (two-player HC team)

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Howdy!

I’ll just warn you guys that this is a bit of a wall, but the actual questions are at the bottom, in case you don’t feel like reading :smiley:

So my brother and I are playing this game on Hardcore, and we’re currently in Act 3 on Elite (these are our first characters). He went for Conjurer (“Corrupted Totem”, Curse of Frailty, Devouring Swarm, Blood of Dreeg, Mogdrogen’s Pact, Wendigo Totem), and I went for Spellbreaker (Shadow Strike primarily).
The Conjurer is also using the Acid Spray celestial power.

We’re both new to the game, but have been using the wiki, as well as these forums, to guide us a bit.
In-between our co-op sessions I’ve been playing as Warder (also on Hardcore), using Forcewave with Tremor. The first one died to Salazar on Veteran (that guy was a nasty surprise), but my second one is alive and well in Elite Act 2!

The thing is, I instinctively assumed that I, as the melee character, would typically be the target for enemies. Unfortunately, everyone’s always chasing my brother’s Conjurer.
I’ve learned that this is probably because of his higher damage output, and possibly because of specific skills like Curse of Frailty.

So I was thinking, since I have a Warder already, I could perhaps re-skill that character to synergize a little bit better with the Conjurer.

Because the Conjurer’s already using Devouring Swarm, Curse of Frailty and Acid Spray, I figured that I’d just max Corrupted Totem and Wendigo Totem to be my damage.
It also sounds logical to skill Heart of the Wild so that the Conjurer can ditch Mogdrogen’s Pact.
Field Commands looks good as well (I like party buffs!)
After that, I guess I’d just go for Fighting Spirit and a bunch of defensive skills…?

Now, I’ve found a bunch of information on how buffs, de-buffs and DoTs do or do not stack, but the majority of information assumed a single character. So before I start re-skilling, I was hoping to get some insight and advice on what to do :slight_smile:
I’ll just list the questions in a numbered fashion to make replying easier:

  1. If two characters place a Wendigo Totem, will both totems do damage, and will both totems apply healing?

  2. The description of Blood Pact states it’s an aura, does that mean that if two characters would place such a totem, only one of the auras will have effect, thus making the second one obsolete?

  3. If two characters cast Devouring Swarm, what will happen? My understanding is that both of the casts will do the DoT damage, but only one of the casts will apply the -%resistance de-buff. If this is true, it might not be worth it for both characters to use the skill…

  4. Is Clean Sweep (Blade Arc) reliable as a way of taunting enemies?

  5. How many points is War Cry worth? What can I expect from the Taunt effect?
    4.1) Is Break Morale worth it for the Disruption?

  6. Am I correctly understanding that casting Devouring Swarm at a Reflective enemy will in fact apply both the DoT, as well as the resistance de-buff to the caster?

  7. Heart of the Wild looks like a no-brainer, but how many points are Mogdrogen’s Pact and Oak Skin worth? (To a non-retaliation build.)

Well, that’s it, at least for now :smiley:
Any suggestions, tips or advice are more than welcome. We’re somewhat aware of the difficulty bump from Elite up to Ultimate, and we’ve seen the warnings about taking resistances seriously. :slight_smile:
Thanks for reading!

2

Hey Cake,

Sadly i don’t have many of the answers you seek. I do have a few however.

  1. The auras do not stack, in regards to the healing and damage I believe those would “Stack” because the totems are separate entities. About 90% sure on this one.

  2. Pretty sure you are right here.

  3. I am pretty sure reflective just reflects back damage, In other words i believe its basically the same as retaliation.

  4. Mogdrogen’s pact doesn’t seem super necessary to me personally besides the initial point but the regens could be useful given the right situations. Heart of the wild = max it. Oak skin, personally i like oak skin alot, it gives +armor and pierce res. The +armor applies to all of your gear and at lvl 85 can be considered the same as 10% increased armor (current stat variables and averages from characters I’ve played) Thus ultimately its up to you, but i personally like it due to the above reasons.

Sorry i don’t have answers to your other questions.

3

Thanks!

You were right, both totems apply healing. :slight_smile:
The biggest dangers right now seem to be huge hits and active DoTs after battle. But apart from those, I feel that it’s almost impossible to go down, as long as we are consistent with the totems. At least, on Elite, where we’re nearing the end of act 4.

I decided to go for Bleeding damage + Vitality damage, mixing Corrupted Totems with Grasping Vines and Blade Arc. It works quite well because my brother’s Conjurer is using Acid Spray, Devouring Swarm and Curse of Frailty with Vulnerability, and my Warder is using Rend to further reduce Bleeding resistance.
Double Wendigo Totems is working fantastically, I’ll greatly miss them when I start a new non-Shaman build :stuck_out_tongue:

We figured he keeps Mogdrogen’s Pact because I can use the skill points that it saves better than he otherwise could. At least, we think.

The only “problem” right now is that my damage is suffering a lot while trying to get/keep my resistances up. Haven’t gotten lucky with drops :frowning:

We’re still learning as we go, but so far it’s really been a great experience, I’m enjoying it more than I did Titan Quest even.

Thanks again for the reply :slight_smile:

4

Regarding War Cry and Break Morale, I have them both leveled quite high on my tanky Warder. I play him in multiplayer to taunt, and he’s awesome.

The taunt works best if you get it off along with a hit or two before your DPS friend starts unloading. The life reduction helps to keep lesser enemies suck to you wile others hit them. The skill disruption is also really effective on large groups of trash. You can refund points, so try them out. I’d suggest high level War Cry for the radius and debuff, but you can stick to one or few points in Break Morale because you guys aren’t doing much physical damage. That skill disruption is awesome against ranged targets though; try it and watch them all stop what they’re doing to run into your melee range.

Clean Sweep is good also, I’d suggest using both since they have cooldowns if you’re going more tank route.

You might lose aggro on bosses, but you shouldn’t have any trouble on trash and boss summoned minions.

5

Hey, thanks! :slight_smile:

You’re right about skills being refundable, but Mastery points are not. :frowning:
I had my Soldier’s Mastery at 25 already because I was using Forcewave with Internal Trauma before. So I do have access to Decorated Soldier now, but I’m not sure if that is worth 6 points (including 5 the Mastery points to get there).
I’m wondering if I would’ve stopped at 20 if I could re-do Mastery.

If Mastery points were refundable as well, I would simply try out Break Morale, but I’m scared that I will regret spending the points. Reaching the next “breakpoint” to reach Laceration and Squad Tactics would take 7 more Mastery points, and then it would take 8 more to reach Break Morale and Scars of Battle (and perhaps Counter Strike).

Laceration and Squad Tactics both seem like small bonuses. Obviously they’d be worth a point if you were already there, but I’m not sure if they are worth going for from the 25 breakpoint?

I guess the main issue is that I’m just not familiar/experienced enough to know if the skills are worth the Mastery points in the long run. It would take at least 16 points for me to have 1 in Break Morale, and I feel like I already have a lot of skills that would benefit from those skills points.

Cheers, I appreciate the reply :slight_smile:

6

You’ll probably want to decide on one exclusive skill. Primal Bond for the Shaman is okay, but if you’re using a shield and playing HC, you’ll most likely want Menhir’s Bulwark for Soldier. That means you’ll eventually take all 50 points in the mastery.

Almost all functional builds are made up of one full 50-point mastery and another 32+. You could probably get away with 50 Soldier and 25 Shaman since the former offers tons of defensive stats per mastery point and your build doesn’t require much mana, but the other way around will land you in hot water later on in both health and defensive ability.

Also, you’ll be able to refund mastery points and attribute points in 52 hours with the expansion.

7

Damage Reflection also reflects debuffs, so the RR is also reflected…

it’s the same for other thing, like energy burn …

8

Thanks again for the replies!

@cfwl That’s good to know! Any idea if the reduction will be shown in the character screen?

@Rylocke I didn’t realize I hadn’t mentioned it already, but I have 50 in Shaman and am using Primal Bond. The main reason for that is that I was going for Corrupted Storm anyway, so I was already at 40 in Shaman.
I also thought I’d get more out of Primal Bond since it gives me +% Bleeding damage, as opposed to +% Physical from Menhir’s Bulwark.
Whether or not I’ve made a mistake, I can’t really go back. :stuck_out_tongue:
Well, until the expansion, apparently! (Awesome news! I never understood why they didn’t allow us to refund Mastery points…)

At least I feel less bad about the 25 in Soldier knowing that most builds have 50/32, heh. And you’re right, I am playing Hardcore after all. I should probably start reading up on how OA vs DA works because I still have absolutely no idea ;D

Cheers!