I’ve put 60 hours into Grim Dawn and just finished it on Elite with my level 71 Sorcerer, which awarded me an off-class legendary medal :furious: The game is frustratingly stingy with significant drops, to the point where I’m not getting loot that is commensurate with the enemies I’m facing, specifically, my resistances are solely buffed by augments/add-ons. These paltry bonuses make so much of the game a slog that is bordering on unenjoyable. This is further compounded when all the epic or legendary gear I receive is either off-class, or 4-5 levels higher. It currently takes me hours to grind out a level, as for some reason the mobs in all the areas are stuck at between level 69 and 72.
I love the game, but am finding it difficult to want to keep playing, because I’m not getting gear necessary to meet higher challenges.
Thanks.
-Mike
*edit - I’ve added my character details; the stat screen on the left is without my abilities enabled. My devotion tree is Hound, Dryad, Crane, Jackal, Fiend, Solael’s Witchblade, Behemoth, Hawk and 4 spots in Crossroads.
It’s all about making multiple chars and defining builds with the gear you happen to find. Personally I find more off class stuff on whatever character I’m playing. I’ve found a lot of good gear for my witch hunter and blade master through my sorcerer. Long story short I’m going to have a sick witch hunter and likely find all my sorcerer gear on him
You also could just start farming elite to get gear as you will out level the content (which will help). Once you start getting more drops and crafting legs from the blacksmith it will get much easier to progress into ultimate. TBH my sorcerer has terrible gear but a solid build, I’ve also supplementing all my resistances through augments and components and have gone into mostly all offensive constellations, but I’m am getting through ultimate fairly well. The main difference I’ve noticed is I die more often, but things still die relatively quickly.
I don’t have multiple characters though and the prospect of having to grind through the game again, as a different character, finding the exact same barriers as with the Sorcerer is unappealing.
It was the same problem with D3. I don’t know if it’s an ARPG staple to have people keep playing, but it’s not my cup’o tea.
D3 had the smart loot so it was very easy to gear a char and harder to start other ones. I prefer GD’s method as it entices me to try other classes and will likely keep me playing for much longer. D3 just became a virtual VLT that you could completely deck out and be done with a character within a couple days of game play.
I played D3 from release and quit in February of this year and I’ll tell you, I think GD has way more potential from a ARPG point of view.
I believe I am in the serious minority in the way that I play Grim Dawn in that I pick up every single item that drops and then, once my inventory is full, I return to town, sell all the excess stuff I am not going to keep and then view each relevant item in the vendor’s stores for potential upgrades.
Some may see this as tedium, I see it as, if the circumstances that the player is presented with in Grim Dawn were reality, one would want to collect every item that they came across to make sure they accumulated as many resources as possible.
My experience of the game as a whole is fairly limited as I have never moved past Act III in Normal Veteran (restarted oh so many times). That being said I really do not think that I am going to change my approach to item collection.
The reason I mention this is, I often see people exclaiming that they are finding it difficult to obtain upgrades and what not by playing the game. It makes me wonder how these players are actually playing the game because my method of selling and buying from vendors on each trip back to town often results in me finding useful items and upgrades. A rather natural progression.
Just my 2 cents and something that you may like to consider.
Syn, I do pretty much the same thing, filtered for green and up though. I use all the add-ons, I try crafting with those frugal blacksmiths and I have run through the game twice now. The faction specific vendors are good and I’m trying to get revered with the Outcast cause they seem to have the best gear and augments, but I have run out of useful upgrades until then. The fact that I have to randomly find recipes for relics and crafting materials further compounds the lack of options.
Slayerviper, I found that D3 had much the same problem. I’d run a rift, GR or boss and IF a legendary dropped, there was a very good chance it’d be off-class, or well below level (another issue in GD). I’m willing to commit to a game, but for me that means 60-100 hrs. What this means is that I main a character, try to get maxed and take on the highest difficulty (within reason; D3’s torment levels are nonsense) for me that is completing the game. If I want to replay it, I’ll start a new character. But after so many hours with GD, I have three legendaries equipped and two of which are class specific and have been with me for 15-25 hours. I just want some better loot. I’ll be posting my character after the three post limit is reached.
I’ve stopped D3 too and agree that GD has more potential and is more fun.
I’m probably not the best example, as I like creating alts, however…
You realise that the stuff you have equipped on your toon is WAAAY better than what I’ve used to run through into ultimate in my first 2 characters…
I don’t do exactly what syn does, but I definately do a bit of vendor shopping to get those small incremental upgrades that I wasn’t able to get from drops.
I ahve noticed a lot more greens dropping in 1.0.0.4 though! maybe it will be better for you now
I keep the yellow filter till ultimate then I stay on green +
I actually found that more often than not I usually had at least one yellow weapon equipped for a long time. There is the odd ring/ammy that has been yellow for awhile as well.
I only have 3 epics on as well (none of them could even be considered top end either) and two of them are level 50 (boots and gun) and I’m level 81. I really do feel between augments, components, BS, and factions there is enough to get you to a point you can always farm elite to make the next step. Hell Diablo series has always been like this (even D3 just farming lower torments).
I just looked at your screen shots, your more defensively built but were similar in the abilities we picked. The main difference is your melee (which is probably a handicap compared to dual wielding pistols).
This what I’m running, again probably not much help since I’m ranged. The only other comment I have it your resists/health are pretty low, I make sure all my gear has some sort of resist on it. I’m also probably not the best person to give advice as I’m no expert in this game.
+1 to that. Greens/yellows can be really good. Great for resists/health and well rolled weapons can be sweet too. In terms of defense a good green will take a poop on any blue/purple you have, yellows can be v strong too.
This deathmarked claw I’m staring at nets me a -580 DPS loss compared to my dermapteran yellow! Now this isn’t exactly a fair comparison as this is ignoring the fact that DM has set bonuses, I have horrible % cold damage atm (weapon has cold conversion), and the DM weapon has a proc as well that doesn’t show on sheet dps. None the less it shows you that this good shit can compete.
With the new patch dropping a lot more rares, a ton more MIs, and MIs being likely to roll with wanted affixes this is even more true
Faction Vender Gear. This stuff is the shit. Use it. Sometimes vender gear can be BIS, or at the very least a VERY easy to get slot for stats. Solid example is Elite Harvest Gloves being the strongest OA statstick in the game with only a single comparison, an “Agressive **** of Attack” item, and even then that item won’t have the innate stats or pierce resistance Elite Harvest Gloves grant.
Well-rolled greens can easily outdo any legendary in a competing slot, except for legendaries that grant +1 skills. And even then may still be better for niche builds. They also are open to having more super-synergies compared to legendaries. Example would be Poison Witch Hunter actually considering getting all of their slots rolled to an “Of Blight” Green and abusing the super-poison stack, being a Niche build that can easily rolf-stomp any enemy in the game, reaching 300k+ damage ticks not even counting crits.
Rare greens often grant far better resistances for just a single modifier (Stonehide and Incorruptable both grant an insane 3x resistance set of which all can be 30-40% resistance, for a single prefix, that can be further stacked with a suffix for even more insanity, an example being how Stonehide Exalted Grieves of the King are one of the most powerful defensive boot option you can get (Boots being one of the worst slots in general at that, often never granting solid +skills or being a part of a set).
Hey Iron Heel. I have been playing since I bought the game in December of 2013. I have taken breaks from the game to go back to Diablo II LoD and Skyrim but keep coming back to Grim Dawn. Perhaps because the game is fucken awesome.
With each major patch prior to release I deleted all my characters, gear and recipes to start completely afresh. Have done so again recently to use Grim Dawg’s Good Looking Mod (which I highly recommend!) and my LVL 27 Fire Strike Pyro is now my current main. I don’t believe I will be restarting again as I don’t believe the game is going to be experiencing any major balance passes any more but who knows!?
I really don’t see myself every not picking up every single item that drops to sell for the odd couple iron bits. I can tell you that if you do the math, selling every single item does begin to add up to a nice injection of funds that would have otherwise not been accumulated and it gives the player the opportunity to view the vendor listings a lot more frequently which is how I find upgrades quite often. I also find it exciting mousing over each relevant item in vendor screens - perhaps the next one will blow me away with its stats which has happened often
I am quite the hoarder when it comes to components and as of yet I haven’t used any in my gear. The top line of resists is 80 / 80 / 80 / 79 / 25 and I have 3.1k life at LVL 27. I feel quite comfortable with where my character is at at the moment but it is a constant game of trying to remain in front of the 8-ball - exciting none-the-less!
For all the time that I have played this game, which is a lot, I have never actually progressed further than reaching Homestead so even though I am quite familiar with game mechanics and what-not, there is so much that I am yet to experience that is so exciting!
I know everyone approaches GD differently but at LVL 27 I have 65k iron, am very well equipped gear-wise and have a very powerful build at the moment.
Based on your requests, I thought I might offer a different perspective of how to approach GD, item acquisition and play style. As I said, some find picking every item up tedious and unnecessary but I love it. Frequent visits back to town feels realistic and has often resulted in upgrades.
I wish you all the best as you step forward in the dangerous land of Cairn. Death can often reveal itself when you least expect it. Beware…
Softcore or Hardcore, watching your character fall to the ground face first is never a nice experience…
maybe it will be better for you now 