Beginner VS Nemesis bosses (HALP)

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
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So this is my character

Still leveling and farming

following This Guide as the end game build is planned to be like this:

also put in mind that i fought * Kubacabra, the Endless Menace like 3 times before on ultimate when i was lower level and weaker and got him. :smiley:

The story is:

I’m playing on ultimate and reached the rift at the very north of Gates of necropolis

i go in and clear then found a door that requires a skeleton key so i say ok i accept that challenge :sunglasses:

got 2 keys and went in. Everything is fine until * Benn’Jhar, the Colossal Spawned.

he stuns me and 100 to 0 me in less than 2 seconds :roll_eyes:

i say to myself what just happened (maybe i was not prepared lol)
and i say ok i am willing to take that as a challenge

so i restart and i go in with the 2nd skeleton key i had

same thing happened as Benn’Jhar spawned again and i was like okay lets play this smart this time

i use Mirror of Ereoctes in good timings
i do some damage and dash away to heal, i avoid his Sunders so i kite in a good way

got him to half health. i go in i get stunned. he gets half my health. i spam my healing potion and Pneumatic Burst (as it heals for a good chunk of health) but apparently i couldn’t use them while stunned so i die again. :skull_and_crossbones: this time the fight lasted a good minute.

i say what did i just witness
and say you know what i will ignore all this and go back to fight the final boss in the main campaign (hopefully he is easier than what i just witnessed in ultimate).

so this time i go to do the Bane of carin quest so i go to the crypt entrance i go in i see a Totem at the same time i hear a Nemesis boss spawn alert i check my map i see he spawned all the way north and i am south so i say i will start that totem then go to fight him

i start the totem finish the fight and as i am looting i see something huge lands on me from nowhere and 100 to 0 me in less than 1 second (i don’t think i even got to react or see the boss name) :scream:

after some research it turned out to be Grava’Thul, the Voiddrinker he flew all the way to me and destroyed me.

so what in the world am i just witnessing lol

is it my build? (my resistances are capped)
or is it me?
or is there something wrong
any advice/explanation would help
this was the funniest thing ever happened to me in Grim dawn :slight_smile:

also any advice for a beginner even if it is off topic is good :smiley:

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my guess is it’s sunder killing you
aside from armour absorb being a bit low, perhaps sustain/lifesteal slightly low, it looks perfectly playable

you have low phys res(relatively normal these days), and low DA, that means Nems hit you harder, and specially Benji can hit you hard since he does a bunch of phys dmg, which will get magnified by 35%

benji does a stab attack that can hurt by itself, but also applies sunder; should evade when this come
benji also places cluster bombs, these explode for massive dmg, and applies sunder, should be some distance away from them and either break them at range or wait for them to time out

Grava has a wingflap, which applies sunder, evade when he does it
he also has a nullification and hard hitting orb attack. He will get angry and lean back/raising his arms in the air, and 2 orbs fly out towards you, homing missiles, avoid these orbs, wait for them to time out or lure them into a solid object so they break

*note their Sunder attacks also comes with sunder FX flash warning, so even if you don’t look for the telegraph you can see the warning FX

you don’t have Nullification, this can be a handy 1pt button tool to cleanse yourself of sunder, would suggest getting it

and ofc, bump up your stun res so stuns aren’t the issue anymore

2 Likes
3

Benny is super annoying to kill pre level 94 imo, especially on glassy chars like breakers. Gnomish gives good advice. I will add to keep in mind, when trying to run away he can and most likely will trap you in his obsidian cluster thingies; can use Oleron chest component for reduced trap duration as it will help.

Grava I’m not sure; he’s typically easier in MC at least. Perhaps you had a bunch of dots on you and he sundered you? Regardless, just avoid his sunder and his ‘arms raised to ChThon’ attack (more specifically his two reddish pink fuzzy balls-they have a sound when they’re first spawned in).

I actually was having a lot of trouble last (or second last) char I levelled with Benny; he just hits so hard and if you get sundered you’re one shotted with glass. It’s really frustrating trying to run away as he can trap you and then he’ll just march over and slap the shit out of you. I know it’s maybe not the answer you’re looking for, but if you absolutely cannot kill him, just avoid until your char has more damage and tank. Breakers can have insane damage potential for sure.

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alright after playing it, imma edit this one
it’s “ok” playable, caveat being the dmg and sustain is so low there is a million things that can go wrong
It can technically kill both benji and grava, however, if it’s in a group fight, the chance to survive it jsut plummits. Can’t kill things fast enough can’t heal fast/high or reliably enough.

Unsure why there is 0 main dmg skill nor any maxed dmg skill at all. Also no modifiers to boost the main skill, or rather the skill the guide uses isnt’ boosted or poorly boosted and the modifeirs you do have you’re not using(shadow strike)

I managed to kill both in BoC with this tweaked setup Spellbreaker, Level 98 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
but i really don’t prefer it in a way i “recommend” it, because it just feels like it needs/can use way more changes, specially on the dps side, which will then also help lifestealing

i’m not even really sure what endspec this is supposed to be or rather what it’s doing since it’s doing it basically unmodified (ring of steel is not awesome at 3sec cd, imo :woozy_face:)

*without lightning conversion i’m not sure i get Ultos proc, the char is already struggling on triggers and/or decent trigger setup as is too :thinking:

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after trying a totally different and technically bad/“inferior” setup, i arrive at the aforementioned dmg+sustain being low as the main issue

yours original (with Lethal Assault active)

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*keep in mind part of RoS and ABB dps doesn’t stack

the more ABB invested and slight extra defensive modification i made (with Lethal Assault active)

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*keep in mind part of ABB and RoS dps doesn’t stack

completely different setup, using bunch of MIs but with 0 affixes Spellbreaker, Level 98 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

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just quicker/safer when the direct dmg and dps becomes much higher/deals with threats and Nems smoother

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You can try improving the cc resists with chains of oleron on chest armor for entrap. resist, a dreeg-sect pants to help with the stun resist, and your armor absorb seems too low, it’s mandatory having 100% armor absorb on the endgame with DW chars, so i would put a scaled hide component on the pants, and farm monster totems to get some advanced component BP’s like living armor and sacred plating too

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And if you’re not willing to change for RoS dot’s spec, i would take some points of ABB and RoS and invest those on shadow strike and it’s nodes for dmg boost too

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i tried to improve that for leveling by if i focus the DA i feel i might need to drp a lot of damage.

also thanks for the useful info :slight_smile:

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so i actually fought him twice again right after i posted this topic

the first time i got deleted

the 2nd time i didnt even allow him to hit me i was dashing away to avoid almost all his attacks except the ones i couldn’t because he is too fast

and was going back in only when i had shadow strike off cooldown

10

so i agree with you about the dmg.

the way i play this build is i use shadow strike as a main dmg ability and ring of steel as my AOE /CC ability with spamming Pneumatic burst off of cooldown which is whenever i take dmg to heal and just using ABB as a filler ability when waiting for cooldowns which feels a bit weird because i feel that ABB should be my main dmg ability but its not :thinking:

this was the way i killed Grava right after i posted the topic i didn’t let him attack me alot and played off of cooldowns of (shadow strike my highest dmg ability).

this build has alot of mobility
3 dashes with shadow strike.

11

this is exactly what i was thinking about since the main issue i faced in ultimate difficulty was that i was gettin stunned and CCed over and over and over.

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The build you are trying to follow requires specific items that you don’t have.

You’re using 2 Shadow Strike weapons. So max Shadow Strike. Also max Dual Blades for more pierce damage and phys resistance. Your weapons have pierce to cold conversion, so it’s a no brainer. I’d probably also max Phantasmal Armor because armor stacks really well with phys resistance. Also max Nights Chill for resistance reduction.

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this looks better

is it usable or is this outdated?

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totally useable, i tried it without affixed when i compared, since i didnt’ wanna cherrypick stats for the fight test/with consideration for ease of obtaining too

basically means the stats can only get better/“go up” once affixes are applied/“whatever” is dropped ingame let alone actually farmed

just keep in mind it/shadow striker is a totally different build than the guide, so you’ll be looking for different items etc :sweat_smile: - and as such can also benefit from addtional tweaks and appropriate SSbreaker approach

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Same in terms of devotions and stats or should i change anything if i go with this instead?

Apparently i was using a shadowstrike playstyle with the wrong build anyways

It requires alot of kiting/going in and out of combat especially when fighting bosses and since it is a glass cannon.

Also what is the point of Anatomy of murder?
And is Nullification an over kill if i have Mirror of ereoctes and Pneumatic burst for sustain?
If no then what should i put the last points in?

I am thinking about investing them in ring of steel since its my AOE skill.

Also a noob question:
What is the hard cap level of skills?

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16

Bonus DMG to humans, more cunning=more OA.

No, Nullification is a different form of defense; it doesn’t provide any damage absorption or heal factors; rather it cleanses your character of any harmful DoTs, reduced life, slows, etc…

Maxxed out, basically. Every skill can get to 10 points over the default amount the game lets you put into said skill. So take shadow strike. It can, by default, be pumped up to 16/16 pts. With gear that gives skill points, it can be ‘hardcapped’ at 26/16. Not all skills need this; but usually your main damage skill wants to be hard capped.

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What, no 2x Frostborn of Shattering?? :upside_down_face:

Kidding aside, it’s pretty easy to get a decent single rare combo, don’t be afraid to re roll whatever place you farm the swords, OP. Chilled of Shattering, Frostborn of Frostbite, that kinda thing…

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18

doesn’t really require kiting
Benji fight
Grava fight

what you do is make it beefy enough to facetank, this basically just means a certain amount of “core” stats/base defence where you can’t be 1shot, and then ex able to heal up fully and fast enough, reliably enough, that any other inbetween dmg gets “reset”
*obviously still have to pay attention to the regular big danger stuff intended to be avoided

another “handy” way to look at it is, your cooldown is pretty low, if you’re trying to kite “constantly” you’re effectively wasting the low cooldown you invested so hard to build, aside from just the basic “wasting” dps
Your a melee build, build/set up to be able to melee('ing?), then just withdraw only when necessary.
And if you’re in a group fight scenario you have the benefit you can avoid some danger just by attacking something on the other end of the pack; shadow striking forth and back between enemies left and right.

i think this is probably one of the best examples i’ve ever come across of why to not underestimate even an actual glass cannon(ignoring we can just build less glass) [1.2.0.3] - Deathmarked Ice Cold Spellbreaker (no MI) - SR85-86 - Ravager of Flesh 1 min - Callagadra 2:03 - Avatar of Mogdrogen
this is a super squish melee on paper, and i personally could not replicate OPs feat without some changes :sweat_smile:
But the result still speak for themselves, it could facetank a superboss (before additional changes in 1.2.1+), and one of the hardest hitting enemies in the entire game; “no kiting”
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i would personally not, without modifiers you’re just not really getting great scaling on RoS dmg wise imo, so for me it’s mainly there to debuff enemies with Fumble via circle of slaughter cheap breakpoint
dmg gains will be minimal so for me not worth it

passives, buffs, offence/defence

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I was used to shadow strike being on 3 sec. cooldown but now i see the difference when its lower cd

Thank you this is really helpful :slight_smile:

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it’s basically the same for any skill you choose, you lean into its modifications, in this/SS’s case most of this investment is to “dps’ify” it, lowering the CD so can be used more frequently

It’s also part of the issue i mentioned with your original setup, you weren’t really following the guide, not leaning into any specific skill modifications ("un"boosted skill(s) in essence), aside from not maxing/maining either skill. Both which leads to less dmg/dps, but then “extra” simply because modifiers/items are available to extra enhance the skills, be it cooldown dmg or dps wise.

Shadow Strike just, imo, makes it super simple, because it’s at base a hard hitting skill, (so already good dmg), but also super easy to modify and lots of easy item modification available to capitalize on it.
For cold ring of steel it’s a bit harder/fewer items available, likewise sorta for ABB (neither is impossible) but you just didn’t use either, so their dmg was even lower.

Suppose we can call it entry vs intermediate levelling styles, SS levelling is easy where RoS might be slightly less easy/“medium”, so the potential difference might just get amplified more when then not approached “completely” ontop.

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