Easiest most OP class for simple play

Anyone got a link to a build that is very OP from start to finish and can handle all aspects of the game from campaign to crucible that meets the following criteria:

  1. 1-3 what I call action buttons. Just a couple actual attacks/debuffs needed, must be simple.

  2. Able to go toe to toe as much as possible with self found gear and currently the account has NO gear to start with, so this build will be the one farming gear for every subsequent character.

  3. Easy to play and understand, meaning no attack sequences that must follow a different sequence, unless easy to understand.

This is for my 15 year old son with a mild case of Down Syndrome. He is able to read and understand a lot of things in the game and is able to a lot as far as character building if he has a guide to go off of. He enjoys being able to do all this without my help and he really LOVES this game. he loved TQ and he was able to play the entire game playing the Soldier and Psionic class combo, I forget what they were called but there was a lot effects that happened every attack that he didn’t have to control and it was very survivable.

I hope to find something that he can enjoy this game with as well that keeps things easy. He did play a Dreegs Evil Eye Occultist and was having a lot of fun with it and he was able to kill things easy, but now he is starting to get a bit frustrated with his inability to take many hits.

Any links to any good guides that explain the leveling process and gear and devotions for a new player and not just a brief explanation only an experienced player would understand?

Thanks in advance =)

Since he did enjoy DEE I don’t think recommending any other newbie friendly build is needed

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52149

That’s a DEE Witchblade using a shield

Someone even updated it for AoM

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=572598#post572598

I guess, something like vitality conjurer is the way to go, if you want an easily accessible sirvivability.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55449 - this guide seems good

I took a look at that myself yesterday , not been back long for the expansion so looked at this for an update , I do have this build up to lvl 85 . But the guy’s link who says he updated it is just an empty grimcalc for me .

Yeah I noticed that as well which is what kind of scares me off, I want to make sure it is still what the OP was talking about and not changed a lot.

So I’ve been working on a guide/elaboration of Nightmare’s/JoV’s Vitality Cabalist. I haven’t published anything on the forums yet, because I’m still leveling, but I’ll say that thus far, it’s been a breeze, with only a few abilities to press, all self-found gear, with a strong end-game only requiring faction gear (easily upgraded when you find stuff). I’m leveling with JoV’s suggestions here. I’ve been able to do all content including the rogue-like dungeons as I get to them with 0 deaths thus far. I’ll post more later (my notes are at home and I’m at work), but it’s definitely strong and fits your other criteria.

Nice I would really appreciate that =)

At some point I’ll post a fully fledged guide, but to get you started, this is what I’m doing (and has been very successful):

At level 2, choose Necromancer mastery, put 1 point mastery, 2 points in Raise Skeleton
Up to level to 6, put all points in Raise Skeletons, leaving just the single point in the mastery
At level 7, visit the Spirit Guide (back right corner of Devil’s Crossing), and remove all points from Raise Skeleton, place 15 points in Necromancer mastery and then the rest in Ravenous Earth
From here, all points go towards Ravenous Earth until maxed
Then 25 points in Necro Mastery, max Decay, max Spectral Binding, 5 in Spectral Wrath
Then put 10 in Occultist mastery, 1 in Curse of Frailty, max Vulnerability
15 in Occultist, max Blood of Dreeg, 32 in Occultist, max Aspect of the Guardian
40 points in Necro, 1 point in Foul Eruption, 1 in Blood Boil
50 points in Occultist, max Possession, max Doombolt
Then max Siphon Souls, max Blood Boil, 50 points in Necro

For devotions:
1 Eldritch Crossroads
Bat (bind Twin Fangs to Ravenous Earth)
Viper
Eel
Wendigo (bind Wendigo’s Mark to Curse of Frailty)
Spider
1 Order Crossroads
Crane
Rattosh, The Veil Warden (bind Will of Rattosh to Siphon Souls)
Oaklaine’s Lantern
Scales of Ulcama (bind Tip the Scales to Possession)
Hawk
*Remove Spider (go to Spirit Guide to remove those points)
Panther
Solemn Watcher
*Remove Crane
1 Primordial Crossroads
Obelisk of Menhir (skip the two on the middle right side)

The gear is outlined in JoV’s post in that thread (at end game), but you can get some of that before max level, and there are some lower level versions available at 35 and 65 in some cases.

Focus on the following stats on gear, in very roughly this order:
Vit Dmg, %Vit Dmg, %Vit Decay, OA, DA, +skills, Health, Energy/Health Regen, Resists, CDR, %Chaos Dmg, Reduced Stun Duration

For attributes, I put first 10 points in Physique, then 10 in Spirit, then keep going Physique until at least 50 points or so, can add the 10 in Cunning whenever, then rest in Physique.

Playstyle is pretty much just drop Ravenous Earth and let things explode. For tougher mobs, debuff with Curse of Frailty, then Ravenous Earth. Use Siphon Souls when surrounded for AoE damage/life steal. You’ll keep Spectral Binding and Possession (once you have it), toggled on at start of play. Keep Blood of Dreeg up (can cast every 15 seconds or so, or at most every 30). That’s pretty much it. At high levels, you can add in Doombolt on cooldown to nuke things. You can also use Mana Infusion (from the relic, from the Lost Elder quest in Act 2; lie and keep the amulet) for mana regen/extra damage for bosses.

As I said, at some point I’ll post a more detailed guide, but that should be more than enough to get started.

Thanks a ton!!!

Sorry, in GD, there is no single OP class, that does everything better than others…

Sorry to say that, but if such build would exist, which has 2-3 skills and can easily crush the whole game with basic gear, that would be super OP and probably most people would play that. For example the cadence-blitz based sword and shield facetank builds are simple, but they also have 4-5 skills at least, like war cry, overguard, some debuff. Casters have even more skills for protection and debuff.

If he played a caster, I assume he wants to try something different, so I would recommend to try a 2 handed forcewave build maybe, or a cadence witchblade or death knight. But they also require some good gear to really shine, just like any other builds.

That is so awesome that your son is able to enjoy the game so much!

If I might ask what build became his favorite so far?

Thanks for sharing!

One thing that I have found with friends that are different levels of mechanical trouble is (such as quad or paraplegics and others whom require a bit of simplified interface) is the use of a Macro program to assist either through the use of a third party program which can sequence off triggers, or a built into hardware style macro program which can set time delayed keypresses such as a (charge (9) + 30ms + shout (8) + 30ms + Shield Bash (7)) being put to a single key such as 1. This is possible with a great deal of modern gaming hardware and if that is not a possibility there are a few freeware and opensource alternatives to make it work.

I do not THINK this will be against Crate’s guidelines, or acceptable use policy. (especially if not used in PVP)

Hope this helps some.

I actually spent a lot of time looking at or creating builds using grimcalc and grimtools (thank you Stormcaller & Dammitt!) to use minimal keyboard presses as my hands and shoulders are so screwed from over 20+ years of excessive mouse/keyboard gaming (that and getting old and lazy).

The first thing I looked at was classes that had a lot of passive/toggle buffs that I could activate and ignore, then worked on keeping the attack skills to a minimum so I wouldn’t have to stretch/move my hand all over the keyboard - it helps having a programmable ambidextrous mouse too.

Currently my mouse/keyboard setup is as follows:

  • W key to move using little finger - N key as alternative with thumb if little finger starts acting up, and mouse button 1 as alt-alt
  • Main active skill keys assigned to keys 4,5,6
  • Keys 7,8,9 are Heal, Lifesteal and Attack Speed potions (note R&E are default heal and energy potions - close to W, so no need to hotkey energy potions, and key 7 can be used for an additional attack depending on class and build)
  • Quick bar 2 (Y key) has all auras in slots - allows me to ignore this bar completely throughout gameplay unless debuffed of them, but is close to access with index finger to quickly switch if necessary.
  • Mouse button 4 (thumb) mapped to 2
  • Mouse button 5 (thumb) mapped to 1
  • Mouse button 6 (ring finger) mapped to 3 - GD sees this button as PGUP
  • Remapped switch weapons to A key (originally W)

With this setup I literally can keep my keyboard hand in one place and thus both help and aggrevate my RSI. As for my mouse hand shoulder, it’s screwed anyway. Only daily exercise can keep it from boning my game time.

Just fyi I use a Steelseries Sensei and Apex 350 mouse and keyboard, of which the latter has programmable Macro keys as well (which I can’t be arsed to programme and sit outside my fingers’ comfort zone)