Grim Misadventures, reporting in. Today’s update is on a new type of skill-modifiers we have dubbed Transmuters.
For the uninitiated, Grim Dawn currently features three types of skills: Active, Passive and Modifier. Active skills are those that, as the name implies, require active use by the player. They go on your skill bar and are manually activated. Passive skills are those that always provide their benefits and generally provide bonuses such as damage, resistances or even chance on attack effects. The last type of skill, Modifier, alters the behavior of Active and Passive skills by adding additional effects, such as an extra explosion to a spell, or extra poison damage to a blade attack.
Transmuters are a special class of Modifiers as they do not represent an obvious gain in power. Instead, they provide interesting trade-offs that can dramatically alter the way you use the skill. The goal for this fun new addition is to provide even more interesting build possibilities as well as to give players with even more flexibility as to how they use certain skills. Each Mastery will feature 3-4 such Transmuters.
Let us take a look at some examples of this upcoming feature:
Tremors
“With the strength of Menhir, smash the ground with a mighty two-hander and let rip devastating waves of energy upon your foes.”
Tremors turns you into a living juggernaut as you create shockwave after shockwave of earth-shattering force. This Transmuter turns Forcewave into an effective Left-Mouse Button (LMB) skill, though at the cost of its stun potential.
Other Soldier Transmuters: Cadence, Blade Arc and War Cry.
Quick Jacks
“They lose the stopping power of Stun Jacks but can be thrown in rapid succession to spread devastating electrical damage among large packs of foes.”
Quick Jacks turns Stun Jacks into an effective LMB skill, at the cost of greatly reduced (but not removed) stun potential. If you enjoyed filling the room with Stun Jacks in some of our earliest builds, then this is the Transmuter for you.
Other Demolitionist Transmuters: Fire Strike and Canister Bomb.
Fevered Rage
“This transmutation of Pox can be as dangerous to the Occultist as to the foe. The plague will progress rapidly, more than doubling its damage, but as the afflicted burn with fever, they will become crazed, moving with unnatural speed and attacking with berserker fury that makes them both more deadly and more vulnerable.”
Fevered Rage is a dangerous new option for Bloody Pox, turning into an even more deadly disease with no cooldown and higher damage, but also throwing the victim into an unstoppable rage. This Transmuter is for those Occultists that are not afraid to dabble in the darkest reaches of their powers.
Other Occultist Transmuters: Eye of Dreeg and Witchfire.
Ring of Frost
“A powerful pneumatic technique causes the ring of steel to draw energy from the nearby air, magnifying cold damage and freezing foes but at the cost of piercing damage.”
Ring of Frost is intended for those Nightblades that prefer elemental might over physical strength by converting the pierce damage component into a significant bonus to cold damage. Any cold damage on your weapons will be greatly magnified.
Other Nightblade Transmuters: Phantasmal Blades and Pneumatic Burst.
You can look forward to trying out Transmuters yourself with the upcoming Build 20. Check back on 07/21/14 for our next development update!
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