Bleed levelling?

[dumb_eboy]

@Evil_Baka

In tests I’ve done levelling between Normal and Veteran from 1-30 for other damage types/skills, you need more dps for Veteran because of the just above double health enemies get compared to Normal and need to be more careful with how you build your damage and balance against building any early defense/sustain. Maybe that’s the reason , I could see maxed Swarm + Falcon working for Act 1 Normal just fine.

I leveled a bleed shaman from 1-30 with DS + GV + falcon on Normal yesterday to test the snapshots I posted earlier (you can look at them to have an idea of my build, which looks basically the same as the one you mentioned). The build facerolls everything in Act 1 Normal, but starts to have issues in Act 2, especially with the ghost bosses from Arkovian Undercity, Kilrian, and Zarthuzellan (and that was on Normal difficulty). Thus, I think it is safe to assume that this same leveling approach would be a pain on Veteran difficulty - unless you skip Arkovian Undercity bosses and Steps of Torment as a whole (which is skipped by a bunch of players anyway, so it would not be game-breaking).

However, the struggle was without using a proper spammable skill, only relying on DS and GV damage over time. Spamming DS is bad dps and is very mana costly. Now that I think about it, I think that I should have used either savagery or a component skill to support my dps. Savagery is also less mana hungry than a component skill and with some investment might have more dps too (would have to test both approaches to know), especially if still using Barrog’s weapon.

Maybe with savagery and dual hollowed fangs, you can level as a bleed Shaman on Veteran. Might try it when I have the time for it. If I manage to kill Kilrian and Zarthuzellan on veteran, that would be a huge success. I would aim for something like this at level 20:

Shaman, Level 20 (GD 1.1.9.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

@tqFan

I wonder how DS vs Viloth would look like. Even on normal
Maybe there’s a video somewhere

I did this fight yesterday and I can’t remember exactly how it was, so it is safe to assume that it is quite easy, at least on Normal difficulty. I almost never play Veteran, so I can’t say anything about that difficulty. I usually kill Viloth when I am level 10+, so not sure how early you go there. By this level, I already have maxed DS, a slith quest ring, a barrog’s weapon and a karvor’s off-hand.

@IraqiMaestro

Certain devotions like huntress benefit both players and pets as well. Something like this : Shaman, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

Very interesting approach using Briathorn together with Nighttalon to improve your bleed damage output. I never tested this approach. Might be pretty strong with Zaria’s necklace, which you usually farm anyway due to the +1 to Shaman.

[holystar88]

@dumb_eboy

Very interesting approach using Briathorn together with Nighttalon to improve your bleed damage output. I never tested this approach. Might be pretty strong with Zaria’s necklace, which you usually farm anyway due to the +1 to Shaman.

Or you could try Primal Strike, at 16/16 it deals 310 bleeding dmg / 2s. It’s much more dmg, stable and easier to use.
The problem with Bleed build in early stage is you cant get flat RR and %RR from devotion/gears , thats why undead is a pain.

[dumb_eboy]

Yeah primal strike has good flat bleed damage, but it is another cd based skill. Unless you are talking about the transmuted one? I think that, since savagery is a spammable skill, it could be a better dps support for leveling, unless you use another filler dps skill from component or something like that (but it will be more energy hungry than savagery). However, you could just use both as well when you have enough points for it (I would start with savagery though I think).