Not sure if anyone else has noticed but it seems Vindictive Flame has FX changes now? Either that or I’m going blind as I swear my pulses were the normal orange last patch but every one is red (or blue depending on the order I equip items) now.
Standard Vindictive Flame
Mythical Pyroclasm's Mark
Like Titan Quest makes use of mastery shrines to boost pet skills, this helped mitigate way higher skill point demands for pet builds in Grim Dawn and still give your character a little attention. Now you have refocus all skills on your character which breaks pet usage. Please reconsider.
I was leveling an Avenger Warder, now with all the great regen buffs he’s up to 11k+ regen, 150k+ sheet with buffs and 3k + oa/da. I’m curious to see how high I can take him.
Why should pet builds get special treatment in the skill point investment department when there are other builds that also suffer from skill point shortage? Seem pretty unfair for a build type to abuse a system that allows them to get more out of skill point investment than other builds types.
LA has been around since the beginning though. When was the last time it got buffed OR nerfed? Never? I’m not saying that it wasn’t OP, just that a nerf was hardly predictable for it.
Ok, I’ve now gone through all the new areas except for the East Marsh one and I gotta say. They’re really, really great. At first I was doubtful whether new areas were needed, GD already has one of the longest ARPG campaigns I’ve seen. But damn. They’re all so good and so distinct from the areas they connect to. The Coliseum offers interesting verticality for ranged characters to exploit and with its solid, paved surfaces is quite unlike anything you see in Arkovia. The final room of the Corrupted Tomb is GORGEOUS. The overworld areas seem surprisingly spacious, the Docks in particular. Just…great job on these, they are likely to become my favourite areas to explore when playing.
Gotta say though, they are BRUTAL to go through when levelling a character on Veteran. Monster Totems were already quite the challenge, usually way harder than most of the area they appear in. But Celestial Totem and some of these area bosses. Ouch. Rutnick’s Storm Spread close to one-shot my current character. Don’t even want to think what he’s like as melee.
Can I share an opinion? Not that it matters, but it’s different than what I usually hear, so I’ll do it to balance things out.
Old Grove - I don’t think I get the joke exactly or why that place drops totally normal shields of all items, but it’s fine I guess.
Burrwitch Cathedral - I love the idea of bridge between East Marsh and Burrwitch being destroyed and sealed from both sides. It looks though like the Cathedral is in the middle of nowhere. For such an important-sounding building that had its own stone bridge the hard cut to marsh looks odd.
Coliseum (and new chest) - It’s good if a little remote. I would move it east closer to Old Arkovia. Maybe even add a second path leading to the southern end of Coliseum. As for the new “Hidden Spoils” chest at the southern tip of Twin Falls I think it should be hidden on the map (like Hidden Path I mean).
Sunward Spire, Steelcap Sewers, East Marsh South - These look good and are in good spots, but I’m not sure what they are for. They lack purpose for me, be it lore or quest-wise.
Corrupted Tomb - This I don’t like the most. It introduces Ch’thonian monsters too bluntly without enough build-up (unlike Blood Grove) or atmosphere of horror (unlike Cultist’s Lair, Depraved Sanctuary). They just… are there. It’s also quite clean geometrically (large halls, simple shape) which feels unfinished to me.
Arkovian Docks - Great job! We can finally repair that cursed bridge and sleep well. Docks are well connected, ruins and piers look great and even have lore to explain the enemies there. Awesome addition!
Celestial Totems - Another type of totem - sure, good idea. But I don’t get why they appear in arguably random locations. New areas are only “new” for existing players. Fresh explorers will never know why totems spawn there. And when they do touch them - they won’t have a clue what these monsters are. They’ll likely attribute Ch’thonic origins to them and only in FG understand more. But then there’s still no connection between, say, Tomb of Heretic and Arkovian Coliseum or Corrupted Tomb where new players will likely see their first Celestial Totems.
FG requirement - It was probably easier to only enable new map for FG, but I wish base game players could see their new locations too (without totems, sure).
I hope I don’t come off ungrateful. I still have hundreds of hours to spend in Grim…
There’s been a long running joke/request/rant about the bridge south of Devil’s Crossing. In fact there are entire threads about just this particular bridge. To finally find out what is on the other side is just a Devil’s Crossing landfill is a Crate troll of epic proportions. At least this is my take on it, I think it’s hilarious. Certainly new players may not get that but then new players will most likely find it right away and it’s a freebie you get at the very start of your journey.
A video of Old Grove was the very first released for the game back in 2010. Sadly, it was never used in the game.
However, it obviously caught players’ interest because being able to visit Old Grove has been asked for again and again over the years since. Now Crate have finally allowed us to.
You do need to have the expansions and also to be L16 or higher otherwise the repair site won’t appear.