Games are not run in continuous time but discrete. Each second is divided into frames. Grim Dawn run at 60 frames per second (fps).
Increasing the rate of something, like attack speed, cooldown reduction, or casting speed thus occur in discrete increments as well. For instance increasing your cast speed from +115% to +118% may or may not result in a faster cast of a certain spell, since you might not be able to push the animation with the required discrete frame step.
Interesting. Is that the reason why sometimes spells donāt get used even when the game did register the keystroke?
I always see this if hold LMB and press some skill buttons at the same time. Character doesnāt stop his attacks, and to use the skill I must either stop holding LMB or spam the skill button to hit the āaction frameā or something.
Perhaps, can also be due to next delay or something. I am not very familiar with the game engine of TQ/GD, I have only played it for like 2 weeks but have about 5k hours experience of Diablo II & III
To be honest, a lot of that is just hyperbole. There are barely any builds where you canāt level with the intended skill.
Admittedly some are harder than others, mostly due to Energy constraints, which can be mitigated by using caster items and Ectoplasm in most slots.
I donāt think thereās a world of difference between leveling fighter/gunner types and the supposedly superior caster types.
Skills like Devouring Swarm and Storm Box may have decent AoE clear but they tend to struggle with single target, while a build like DW pistols can have passable AoE with WPS but still do good single target even without stash items.
What is important is that you focus your early skill and devotion points on the right areas.
In the case of Purifier for example, you should start by capping Ranged Expertise immediately: this gives you a load of flat damage and attack speed.
After that you get Bursting Round to 19-20% proc chance, which gives you AoE and then you can start getting the first two skills in the Fire Strike line, and Flame Touched.
Fire Strike together with the WPS does good things.
What these skills have in common is that they all have a lot of flat damage, which rules the early game. By stacking a lot of it, you can have a gunning monster which clears quickly.
Percentage-based skills tend to be less hot early game. Something like Deadly Aim tends to give you fewer returns early and is also a good example of a skill where the player needs to pay attention to how it scales.
The first rank is clearly the best: it gives 20% damage, 5% crit and 4% OA, and for the next three points, each gives 5% damage, 2-3% crit and 2% OA.
But after that, each point only gives 5% damage, 1% crit and 1% OA, which is a total of 40% damage, 8% crit and OA for eight points.
So for that eight point investment, you actually gain fewer returns than those first four points, thus itās better to leave the skill at 4/10 early and focus on the flat damage skills instead.
Things like the above you can experiment with by allocating the skills, but take care not to close the skill window: as long as you leave it open you can undo any changes free of charge.
Alternatively you can use Grimtools and plan your build there.
Another important factor is that you take a good Devotion skill early. Almost every damage type has some sort of damage skill that you can get with your first 5-6 Devotion points that grants a lot of supplemental damage.
Some fan favorites are Bat and Fiend, but others such as Guardianās Gaze, Tsunami and Aetherfire are good too.
Additionally, the Relic slot can give a strong power boost early game: the Ruination relic is something you can craft early (the Warden chest always drops the required brain material on the first kill), this gives a very strong spammable buff.
There is also the Bone Talisman which you can get in Act 2 if you choose not to fulfill a dying manās wish, this item solves most of your Energy issues and the higher level versions actually provide a strong damage boost.
Many of these things require the experience of knowing which skills are good (although the above should provide a decent base), but by choosing the right skills and Devotions you can level very effectively even without a āleveling skillā or stash items.
[i]P.S.: I think the main disadvantage of leveling ranged builds is that you canāt have a mobility skill. On a highly efficient build you can use an innate skill plus 2 Riftstones for maximum mobility, but for a new player I wouldnāt recommend you to rush through the game that way.
P.P.S.: a few exceptions are skills such as Rune of Hagarrad which absolutely destroy in both single target and AoE. If youāre looking for the speediest leveling you should go for those, but that doesnāt mean you canāt level effectively with other skills.[/i]
Funny, but I would have said otherwise. Rush and max explosive strike early for tons of burn damage on AOE, and good chunk of points (say 10-11?) in Vindicative Flame for total speed (including run speed, good for starting!). 2 points in Ranged Expertise gives you +7% in Attack speed already. And also a few points (5-6) in Bursting round, as you said.
My opinion.
Thatās why I put viable in parenthesis and didnāt say ācanātā. Viability is also highly subjective. So no, I donāt beleive my opinion to be hyperbolic, especially when you consider Worblehats wording (ābatshit insaneā).
Your following points are definitely worth reading for new players, but beside the point Worblehat and I were making. I still consider myself ānewā in some ways, even after over 220 hours of playtime, simply because I havenāt been able to play many masteries extensively yet. So thanks! 
Bursting round is the real deal here. You can go for the different variations but Bursting round is really the one that oneshots things when it procs.
Early on, it doesnāt matter so much I think. For sure, Bursting round is a killer. In fact, all the Inquisitor WPS are monsters for a gunner. They give you high damage and high AOE. Later on, the way they interact with Brimstone is just insane, I love it.
Guys I need some help here. Whatās the best way to farm for low level relic blueprints (the lowest level, like 25) without starting a new char? I really need Squall and itās not something that roguelike vendors sell, iirc.
Maybe secret trader in Blood Grove on Veteran? Donāt remember correctly
He only sells skeleton key blueprints. I guess it should be trove farming on normal for now.
My reason for writing that wall of text was to hopefully clear away some of the fearmongering around leveling builds.
If you want to level with a certain skill, by all means go for it, donāt let some guy on the internet stop you.
canāt help you with the blueprint, but I can craft squall for you if you want
just let me know
Sometimes I get a bit provocative in my phrasing. 
My method for getting Squall: play for four months straight. :mad: Low level relic blueprint drops are really irritating. I eventually got the last one from a dynamite chest running through Veteran on my sixth character.
Youād think they could make Origin of the Slith give a non-duplicate relic blueprint of the appropriate level range if one is available, but no, apparently thatās too much workā¦
To get it legitimately, I guess hunt around for dynamite chests, and maybe try farming Aspirant Crucible. Iām not sure how rewarding Crucible is at low/mid levels (based on my own experience, Iād be very impressed if you could beat Valdaran at wave 100 unless youāve leveled up quite a bit since the last update! :))
On rare occasions the Blood Grove vendor does carry blueprints other than Skeleton Key, but all Iāve seen were low level green junk (Adeptās this-or-that level 30ish armor pieces). I still check every time Iām in the area, but heās not tremendously useful.
Catching up on comments from earlier in the week:
Also, the xp argument is only true in Veteran. Trash and bosses seem to be comparable in xp in Elite, and trash give so little xp that itās indistinguishable from zero in Ultimate.
2, 3. Fair enough. Though on the RR front, some of that comes from devotion procs, so setting those up early means they reach max devotion level sooner. I guess as long as the big respec happens when there are still plenty of quests left in Ultimate it probably doesnāt matter too much though.
What youāre describing is the advice in the Guild Compendiums that new players should look for g1-g3 builds (low gear dependence).
Are you aware that the cost of using the spirit guides increases astronomically the more you use it? You seem to believe āwhat is the spirit guide forā is a compelling argument; it isnāt. We know for a fact that the developers set up the spirit guide so that players could make minor tweaks to their characters, and specifically do not want to allow us to go back and forth between wildly different specs (Crateās intent is that we make a new alt if we want that). You can do it - once. Which is all you need for the āuse setup X to level, then setup Y at capā thing, of course. Doesnāt make it a good idea.
A new player, who doesnāt know how the game works, what aspects of skills are of greater or lesser importance, what they enjoy more or less within the game, should be leveling how they want to play throughout. If I want to play Cadence S&B, thatās how I level, Iām not going to spend three playthroughs doing 2-handed Forcewave first. And I genuinely donāt see how anyone can pretend that the latter approach makes a lick of sense, particularly in the context of a new player.
I can (sort of, maybe) see a jaded veteran who has already done every type of character doing the maximum speed leveling setup and respec approach. But Iām not sure why theyād be making a new alt in the first placeā¦
Iām agreeing with the OP - heās leveling in a perfectly sensible way, which I support. So why in the world would I duplicate that effort? Youāre welcome to take your own advice; go ahead and make a beginnerās diary advocating for using completely different skills to level with than what you plan to play with at level cap. Iāll even promise not to show up and call you a lunatic!
@Strukto Thanks but my rig isnāt exactly one that I can trust to run multiplayer. It will take a few more months before I can get a new one.
@Worblehat yeah itās sad that quests give you duplicate relics. I guess it really is trove farming now. But if I get Ulzuin relic (which doesnāt need squall) Iād probably settle for that. Should be able to make a gladiator build using that relic.
Edit: ulzuin relic needs squall for desolation. Guess thereās no escaping this squall hunt.
no escaping this squall hunt
like I said, Iāll gladly craft it for you
lol I thought it was Strannik who made the craft offer. Iām always confused between you two. Yeah the āMy rig canāt run multiplayerā comment was for you. But thanks!
Doh! Haha, and then I overlooked itā¦ sucks man, but I can relate
I recently replaced my potato by a more trustworthy machine, such a relief!
I have an alternate solution though, I can craft it and then put it on a toon for which I will give you a download link via pm
Costs canāt be too steep for a low lvl relic so no worries
Canāt wait to have a better pc really. I wanna play crucie without lags. Btw, just got squall blueprint. Origin of the slith quest didnāt give me a dupe lol.