With Path of Exile’s new league around the corner I feel I wont be touching Grim Dawn for several months. However there are still some interesting discussions to be had. I feel like both the leveling and the end game in Grim Dawn could use improvements, the question is which one should be focused on more?
LEVELING PROBLEMS
The game starts off painfully slow.
You know it. The way leveling works you’ll only have a couple of active skills to use while leveling initially. And if you try leveling again with the same class…well, you wont have much of a choice in the matter. There is a painful lack of active skills to the point where the best strategy is to find a spammable AoE and rush the content. Not much fun.
Some locations are huge.
And we don’t have that many ways to increase movement speed or movement abilities. The Underground City must be one of the biggest culprits. The area is enormous and the enemies are the same skellies/ghosts copy-pasted over and over. The Blood Grove is very similar but with cultists. I always let out a sigh when I have to go through them.
Three difficulties including the expansion.
Yup. Have to repeat it all 3 times. Diablo 3 has an alternative way to level that doesn’t involve going through the acts multiple times. PoE got rid of this archaic concept awhile ago. Maybe in the future after 2 more expansions it’ll be possible but for now - pretty boring.
END GAME PROBLEMS
The Crucible is a glorified horde mode.
Little variety between waves(is going to change soon though), kill whatever is thrown at you, repeat, feels more of a gear check than actual end game. Little variety, seen plenty of people say how they need a break from it because of the monotony.
End game dungeons are miles behind rifts and maps.
You know it. The layout is the same apart from some roadblocks. The monsters encountered there are always the same. Their difficulty is not that high in comparison to the last boss in the expansion. Even after the addition of a new dungeon I doubt a lot will change.
Little to do once you reach level 100 other than gear hunting.
Other than gear hunting…hmmm…component hunting? Not much to say here.
Wouldn’t this fit better in the Ideas of Feedback area?
Anyway, I’m not entirely in agreement with any of the leveling issues, but the end game issues seem about right. That said, I don’t play the end game. I create a new character instead.
I thought you quitted the game because you were complaining that they made the game “too easy”.
What else is there to do in endgame besides gear hunting? Haven’t played a single RPG where that wasn’t the point of endgame. And please no, no idiotic rifts and maps that add endless grind through repetitive crap to give it the illusion of content.
IMO u should never compair this master piece of an RPG to trash DIABLO 3, or to the android/iphone app PoE that ends in 1 day.
U can compair it to ofc TQ:IT , Sacred 1&2 (3is also trash), Divine Divinity & Beyond Div (anything after is trash), even D2:LOD which was an awesome game.
If you want u can compare D3 to Torchlight - and if it werent for real money auction house - Torchlight would have won…oh wait…it’s winning now ! YEY !
BUT YOU ARE RIGHT ! After Level 100 - besides crucible fun, and creating a new char - there is pretty much nothing else to do to motivate ur farming to another lvl, to make cu compete for something.
One thing to do, is start farming just uber places in 4 player party, to have a harder chalange, and trading, to try to find better rolls for ur items.
The only thing missing in this game is the Rift/Map system that D3 and PoE has ! PERIOD ! Something to make u want to do better every time u start playing. Maybe with harder rift/maps u have to change ur build with ur same char, so there would be a lot to do after lvl 100.
I also think the same map shape is a lil annoying BUT the ideea that secrets exist and wouldnt without the same map shap, i dont really care. I LOVE SECRETS.
U always encounter same monsters cause u farm same areas - and areas have specific monsters cause its very as it should be - u know where to farm specific items, etc…
Crucible is getting with next update more waves - AWSOME - but could also use another option to have infinite waves - and would instantly be a Rift/Map system with a lvl of wave finished being something to compete for with other players.
GD can not be changed at this point but these suggestions maybe applicable to Grim Dawn’s sequel
I personally find end game i.e crucible to be very boring so rarely solo it anymore. I doubt this can be addressed especially considering the price tag on crucible DLC is way too low
I have mixed feelings about the “diablo like” difficulties i.e completing one difficulty to unlock the other.
This thread is pointless as similar threads have been made countless times on the forums and everyone has contributed their opinions multiple times on such threads. I highly doubt this thread would suddenly yield a different result
Lastly, and most importantly. Weren’t you supposed to quit and move on to PoE?
Levelling is fine. You have the new faction tonics to share with your new toons if you’re desperate to gain xp faster.
Endgame - Unlimited, once you finish one toon you make another one. I can’t just stay using the one bloody character for the rest of my life. I’d go insane. I dislike crucible however, that mode is not for me
@Chthon - although I do appreciate your contributions to everything around here, I don’t agree that this thread is pointless. It may have been discussed before but there are many new/returning players who have not seen those discussions, myself included. I agree with some of what the op said here. I too at the very least would like to see more to do at endgame. I am always very sad when I hit level 100 and the xp bar stops moving. Like others I do not find the crucible very attractive. IMHO it’s even more mind-numbing then greater rifts in D3.
I don’t think Crucible on Glad diff can be finished at 150 on single player by any class. Pet builds, which are all OP, can do it, and maybe some 2-3 more classes, but thats it. Or if there is a build for every class that can finish it…it might take 3 hours to do it.
Crucible Glad is ment to be played in 4 players IMO, and it’s more fun that way…but dont play with pet build in party, FPS will go to 20.
AND What GD Sequel ? Is there a plan for a GD 2 or something similar ?
A lot of classes do beat Crucible on Glad. You see it on a lot of the builds in the Class and skill section, most of which do not use pets. It does take a lot of great gear in many cases, but it’s certainly doable.
I disagree with everything OP said about the leveling process. I think it’s the best part of the game. That feeling when you just get out of Devil’s Crossing and kill your first zombie…and then you change your shitty gear for a slightly less shitty gear.I honestly consider that to be among the best experiences one can have in this game.
I agree that the endgame is lacking. Crucible is unbelievably boring. Some kind of map system would be great, like in PoE (or like in Warebare’s mod). I even think areas from the game could be used - Crucible, with in-game areas, and with infinite waves. Progression could be handled by slight tweaking of gear, with corresponding tweaks to monster difficulty.
“I don’t think Crucible on Glad diff can be finished at 150 on single player by any class.”
Please stop, you are embarrassing yourself. All you have to do is look at the builds on these forums by people like superfluff and you will learn that your statement is ridiculous. People solo clear gladiator all the time.
I don’t agree with any of the “issues” this post brings up. I enjoy the leveling process and don’t find it slow which is why I have leveled so many toons. Do I get impatient to reach the next level? Sure, I think we all do but it is really satisfying when it dings and you start thinking about where to put the points to improve the build. It’s the point where the build goes from being a bit of a struggle to where it blossoms at level 50+ that I enjoy most. It’s the constant tweaking and improving that brings so many of us back.
The locations are huge and this is a bad thing? The locations and the spread of monsters seems perfect to me. Considering how many builds can’t just face tank and rely on kiting it makes sense that the locations are the way they are. It is when you get a build that needs lots of room to kite that gets caught in a rift against Grava or something that it becomes and issue.
The end game is miles behind rifts and maps? You think these are actually comparable? They are as tedious as the crucible can be but worse in many ways. What is the end game of any of these kinds of games? I’ve been playing these kinds of games since they became a thing and the end game is always the same it has just been refined so that you can now trade gear between characters. Pretty much kill things to find loot to better your character to kill things to find loot to better your character for when expansions and such drop.
Grim dawn is the way the devs planned and imagined it. They’ve given us an utterly superb game you can sink thousand of hours into. I personally enjoy hunting for loot and killing beasties. If I get tired of one build I switch to another one. There is always something I want to play or try. Because of all the variation in loot and characters and combinations of things there will always be something to do. I find crucible to be really slow sometimes but the pay off at the end is worth it. Because of crucible I have a tonne of equipment I wouldn’t otherwise have. I can deal with the tediousness if the pay off is worth it. I have some issues with the RNG but that is more about wanting to test builds more than anything and not having the right gear to do so.
, Sacred 1&2 (3is also trash), Divine Divinity & Beyond Div (anything after is trash), even D2:LOD which was an awesome game.