Can you guys share what you consider as a squishy class?

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
5

First of all glad to hear you’re having a blast and thank you for watching! :smiley:

As @fordprefect has said, a mastery alone doesn’t necessarily determine if a char ends up being squishy or tanky. Sure some masteries like e.g. occultist provide free physical resistance, etc., but in the end it just matters how high your values in the various defensive layers as well as the values in your healing capabilities are gonna end up being. You can increase the values of those defensive layers via masteries, devotions and gear.

GD’s defensive layers:

  • health
    you “only” need enough to not get oneshot as long as you have enough healing
  • resistances
    absorbing a %tage of incoming damage with the “+x%max res” stat putting your res to over 80%
  • resistance overcap
    to protect vs RR
  • % absorption
    absorbing a %tage of incoming damage, multiplicative with resistances
  • flat absorption
    absorbing a flat amount of incoming damage
  • armor
    absorbing a flat amount of incoming physical damage
  • armor absorption
    determing the effectiveness of armor (70% default value, 100% max)
  • x% reduced target’s damage
    reducing enemy damage before it even hits you, multiplicative with resistances and %absorption
  • defensive ability (DA)
    making you immune to crits at high enough DA values and able to dodge some attacks up to a limit of 40%“dodge chance” (technically it’s not dodge), also reducing incoming damage by a bit
  • dodge/deflect
    a %chance to dodge a melee attack or deflect a ranged attack, doesn’t work against dots or ground effects
  • circuit breakers
    various procs that proc whenever you reach an HP %tage below a certain threshhold upon which they grant you a form of healing or a buff to one of the above defensive layers

ways of healing in grim dawn:

  • health regen
    good on few builds, like e.g. avenger warder
  • attack damage converted to health
    this is basically “lifesteal”, works only on hit damage, not on dots. This is the most common way of healing in GD and the more dmg you deal, the more you heal (sth sth best defense is good offense)
  • active healing abilities
    like e.g. blood of dreeg or word of renewal

Also some classes rely more on more skill to be played in a “tanky” or “reckless” way, like e.g. Spellbinder compared to Warlord.

Soldier is commonly named as a “tanky” mastery since it’s just really easy to play and has a built in circuit breaker (menhir’s will).

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