DISCLAIMER
DISCLAIMER
Not long time ago a post in different platform about leveling with gun and shield and if that is possible , makes me realise I never try that , unfortunately my first response was " Its not viable " ( I own apologise to the OP , cause I was very very wrong , if you read this, sorry mate)
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
My usual day at Discord starts with @mad_lee dropping another insane spec from the current playtest on patch 1.3 and the damage from this Stronghold Purifier is just nuts , just the way this gunner deletes enemies was so satisfying to watch
PROS AND CONS
PROS AND CONS
PROS:
- Simple playstyle
- Stronghold set is very cheap to craft
- Probably the best gunner when patch comes live
- Very durable for gun spec in endgame content
- Multiple options to make it on a budget
- Insane burst potential
- Dynamic playstyle during leveling process
- Real modern apocalypse fantasy
CONS
- 1-15 Lvl is a pain ( you can use word of pain for the first 20 levels and switch to guns when get some key items)
- Guns support during leveling is very poor ( every fire pistols Purifier basically do green crafts up to level 100)
- Purifiers are squishy during leveling process
- A bit dicey for leveling in HC (endgame setup is different story , completely viable)
LEVELING
LEVELING
Faction and Blacksmith choices (CLICK ME)
- Vigil vs Kymon - Kymon is the way here , their shoulders comes in handy
- Outcast - doesn’t matter , I was hostile this run
- Barrowholm - I want to kill Ravager so I stick with them and we need their augments
- Cults - Doesn’t matter I pick Solael cause Charging Bull is my usual pick for movement rune
- Duncan - this is the only case you pick Duncan as a Blacksmith cause only he can craft the starting pistols for level 14 ( Later difficulties Angrim is the pick)
Attribute points and Devotion Path: (CLICK ME)
2:1 ratio Physique/Cunning and just like 5 points in Spirit for a bit extra energy
Devotion path:
- Pink Crossroad
- 2 x points Jackal
- Green Crossroad
- Scholar’s Light
- Viper
- Wraith
- Hydra
- Purple Crossroad
- 3x points Rhowan’s Crown
- Yellow Crossroad
- Lion
- Remove Jackal
- Remove Green Crossroad
- Remove Yellow Crossroad
- Phoenix
- Chariot
- Magi
- Solael’s Witchblade
- Remove Purple Crossroad
- Ulzuin’s Torch
[PROGRESS STEP BY STEP (CLICK ME)]
Level 1-10
I start as a Inquisitor gunner with double Francis’ Guns (you have to reset the session and his corpse will spawn new gun , affixes doesn’t matter) , it’s really painful early on so alternative leveling for the first 15-20 levels will be Word of Pain by basically 1 point Mastery bar + 2 Points Word of pain , caster off hand and Searing ember as a back up spam skill . My leveling was also simple rushing Bursting round and immediately throw 6 points in it for the 20% chance (more points is bad trade and Purifier is a skill points hungry class). I did nothing special in this bracket apart from going west from Foggy bank for the Isaac Spaulders . Gear wise we look for OA , life, stats and resistances skill tree and devotion map will take care of the damage part.
Level 10-20
This bracket is very important you have to pick Duncan as your blacksmith according to craft Double-Barrel Pistols , watch out for Devils touch ammo (its world drop) this is bis component all the way (was buffed in last patches) . Around level 14 medals start to show in the vendors buy something with resistance and craft Wardstone for it so you can speed up the game a little bit , craft another Wardstone as well for the amulet. Skill points progression stays the same I rush weapon pool skills (WPS) and immediately points to reach 20% chance, when I get my hands on the Double-barrel pistols I just shift to Demolition and get few ranks in Fire Strike. Grind some crystals at this point , you will need it for further crafting and buy every scrap in the shops (if this is your first character ). We look for attack speed on gloves (that's the reason I still wear a magic item at level 20) , more attacks = more procs
Note: You can’t have the same items like me before level 35 , general idea is to stack resistance ,attack speed , OA , life and stats
First Crating and Component Session:
- 2x Antivenom Salve - Boots + Belt
- off hand gun - Flintcore bolts
- Scaled Hide - Torso
- Silk Swatch - Shoulders
- Helm - If you don’t have Ectoplasm at this point use w/e you have (don’t left empty comp slots)
- 2x Corpse Dust/Frozen Heart - Rings
- 2x Wardstones - Medal + Amulet
- Relic - Ruination (attack speed is king and this steroid button is essential early on)
Note:This is standart comp setup at level 20, this setup provides vital sustain tools
Level 20-30
The moment I kill Krieg , I go to the shaded guy and took the teleport to Forgotten Gods for my movement augment so I can finally move around faster . Another important thing is I switch to the shield playstyle by farming crawling nest which is directly west from the first rift
This boss drops two different bases so might take a few runs until you get the correct one. Skill points strategy is the same but this time I rush Aura of Censure cause shield deals tons of debuffs and damaging nearby enemies by huge portion and this will make my clear speed much better. Cronley’s hideout is our primary target cause Incendiary Casque is BiS for this setup, Cronley rings also comes with attack speed so I spend a lot of time here getting everything that I need
and we need Respected Status with Devil’s Crossing according to craft Gunslinger Talisman ( we lose the proc but still attack speed and pierce resistance are very welcome also some flats). Ulraprax in Twin Falls bee hive is another target cause she drops class specific amulet and we need that to boost our Inquisitor skill tree . Voldkrak has no mercy so avoid his slams at any cost you don’t want to get hit by any of his special attacks
Level 35 Faction Gear
Very important milestone for every class in Grim Dawn, you unlock DC and Rovers faction gear. You have to spend some time killing Cronley’s gang members and some Undeads to reach Respected status with both faction but trust me every minute spend worth it. Here I mainly slow down and farm Killrian for Rovers reputation and for his exclusive component (took me 10 runs very unlucky but at least I rise some Undeads infamy). Nothing much special about this bracket is mostly grind better MI bases for the shield ,casque , amulet and Balthazar medal
Shopping List:
- Devil’s Cuirass - hands down amazing armor (500+ life, OA/DA and pierce + chaos res)
- Devil’s Shoulderguard - OA/DA, physical, aether and pierce res
- Rhowari Grips - amazing gloves (%damage, attack speed, ele res and flat stats)
- Rhowari Footpads - amazing boots (triple res, 200+ life and movement speed)
- Blueprint for Runestone (Rovers) - hands down best leveling helm component
After shopping and reputation is done its time to get new pants, be sure you stock some dynamites cause we go back to act 1 and open Hidden Path quest ,just few steps east from Hevil’s corpse there is hidden path with detonation site (be sure your poison res are 60-80 ideal cause this is very acid/poison heavy area), after killing the Dreeg guardian , we head to Broken hills for Solael Guardian ( his pants comes with Aether res , freeze res and life leech) , keep in mind you need at least 60 chaos res to survive here , this boss damage ramps up pretty quick
Level 35-45
Time to step into first really dangerous zone - Blood Grove. This area is very heavy on vitality and chaos damage, couple of deadly bosses lurking here like Bolvar and Zaria. Zaria and Harbringers are one of the first enemies that can shred your resistances, that’s why is not recommended to step here before level 35, if your resistance page is not on par you can be debuffed even to negative values and get one shot from Zaria’s Obsidian Shards. Harbringers on the other hand look harmless, floating and slow enemies but they cast one of the most nastiest debuffs in the game - Spectral Miasma, you can see what this debuff is capable of in this short crucible video. Blood Grove on the bright side is very rich on side quest, also very easy ones so be sure you fully explore the zone cause there is secret vendor as well that sells some useful items and blueprints. Final boss for this act also summons Obsidian Shards but they are not even close to the power of Zaria ones, however his chaos pools deals significant amount of damage if you stay inside for too long( secure next riftgate after you kill him, don’t teleport to finish quests ,shop etc cause is very easy to forget and displace your rift and then you have to run whole Darkvale fortress again-happened to all of us ).
Kymons chosen questline is my next step cause they sell faction belt for 1 to Demolitionist skills . Very unlucky I still run my level 14 pistol but Hand Mortar blueprint just doesn’t drop at all the whole journey (usually Benevald sells this but I don’t want to refresh the shop 100 times ). Next step is Fort Ilkon questline , nothing much can be said here it’s one of the poorest areas in Grim Dawn at least Lucius and Anasteria offers some challenge and they are one of the coolest encounters in my opinion ( you have to dodge some mechanics at this point cause we carry a shield but we are miles away from tank)
Level 45-50
Coven as destination is again mostly questing , not interesting objectives or build defining items . Malmouth on the other hand comes with very important Torso at the very early stages , another good news this one of the fastest farms cause Galakros is basically next to the Malmouth Sewers rift . Unfortunately at this point Purifier low sustain starts to kicks in and mobs start to chunk fair amount of your life bar .Main goal here is Honoured with Malmouth Resistance , this ideal because I have to farm Galakros anyways and this is good spot to stock some aether crystals as well. This reputation status will net me Vendetta blueprint (really good stepping point relic when leveling Inquisitor)
Level 50-60
This bracket involves the most dangerous part of the Campaign and that's Forgotten gods , a lot of enemies here shred resistance and some of the m heavily shreds physical resistance . Some big enemies have to be sniped from mid range (be sure you don't fight from very long distance cause you want Aura of Censure debuffs online all the time) . Good news are this expansion is very rich on Shrines , so we can pick up some easy devotion points . Kymon and Korvaak are the most scary enemies here , also don't underestimate Korvan Servants this guys use stun jacks like attacks and this shotguns ifall projectiles connects.
Level 60-70 Elite
Campaign in Normal is done but most of the items still cant be farm there , unfortunately we need better spot for Balthazar medal and our Casque cause this areas stop scaling in Normal. Elite is completely optional and general advice in the community is to skip it , however if this is your first toon or you prefer chill gameplay without stressing too much I highly recommend Elite up to Blood Grove ( easy quests , easy shrines and easy reputation ) , nice power up and easy transition to Ultimate if you have Elite bases on the faction gear and some starting augments from the basic factions , that makes your Ultimate farms easier because you can dance with affixes thanks to the resistance augments. I finish Blood Grove and just grind out my way to level 70 so I can transit much safer to Ultimate
Level 70-80 Ultimate
Stock up some augments and jump to Ultimate I use some elemental res augments for the jewelries and some life augments for the weapon slots , at this point you are familiar with the campaign and its basically - rinse and repeat . I do all quests but personally I avoid dungeons and some of the side areas for now cause in my opinion if you don’t need anything particular from the dungeons is completely waste of Blood of Chthon and that is very rare material to waste it.
Level 80-90 Ultimate
Level 80 is good opportunity to get some level 84 bases so you can shift between difficulties and get higher bases , watch out for potential Annihilation blueprint drop ( Bane also works just fine its direct upgrade from Vendetta but Annihilation is best here) , if you are unlucky don’t worry vendetta works just fine.
Level 90-100 Ultimate
Final bracket involves finishing the campaign ,reputation/infamy grind and getting level 94 bases for the MIs (Monster Infrequents) . I farm mostly totems and random heroes and hope for Turns grip and Oathbreaker set drops , I was lucky and drop 3 full sets and 5 pairs of Turins grips
FINAL SETUP
FINAL SETUP
Cheap Beginner setup level 100
This is my beginner setup for people that cant afford 8 h grinding per day and people that just pick up the game recently. There is no crazy items, everything is guaranteed with a little bit of play time
Endgame setup by @mad_lee - I still can’t believe how strong this Stronghold spec is , a set considered as absolutely outsider becomes the most explosive gunner right now
FARMING
FARMING
I would leave a link to my personal farming strats and what I do as a SSF player (I use completely fresh save folder for all of my runs ), I do a lot of farming tests when simulating beginner start
FAQ
FAQ
How this dethrone the Dagalon’s Purifier exactly ?
This WPS from the set is just insane (ofc if this change comes to life in the upcoming patch 1.3) and having 100% pierce is cherry on the top.
How expensive is this one compared to the Dagalon spec ?
This one is cheaper , Stronghold belt is very cheap to craft and it’s just three piece set which allows for rerolls for better stats by simply craft multiple belts and transmute em.
How much time final setup would take as a beginner?
Cheap setup was done in 30 hours mark , funny enough I got Stronghold blueprint before getting Oathbreaker set . All gear can be farmed in the campaign apart from the Magi ring ( a bit annoying to farm but can be replaced with other generic ring like the one I have from Malmouth if you don’t want to grind Tomb of the heretic) .
VIDEOS
VIDEOS
Cheap Setup Explanation and Gameplay CLICK ME
Mad_Lee’s Stronghold Purifier 5 secs Lokkar kill CLICK ME
Endgame setup dummy test CLICK ME
Endgame setup vs Ravager of Flesh 30 secs kill time CLICK ME
Endgame setup vs SR 30-31 CLICK ME
I finished the campaign with a decent no of deaths under my belt (playing softcore most of the time) sure, it can do totem farming reasonably well on ultimate but challenge dungeons and uber gods - no f way. Well maybe I should try out your build on console as well 
as I’m pretty sure I have the stronghold set there already.