So cool to see this still going. I’ve got my multiverse version of Bull still up and running as well. I’ve taken various screen shots for a future writeup.
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Cool, I am still only level 58 in Elite, but given my past attempts at hardcore and deaths I am taking this one a LOT LOT more slowly and focused.
I posted here as well as I saw a lot of people are saying that Eye of Korvaak does not trigger.
One reason was they state it is on only on 100% critical attack and requires high Offensive Ability.
I am not finding this to be true as the eye triggers often from it’s assigned “Empowered Lightning Nova” and in fact often starts a second attack whilst the first ring is still expanding. (hard to screenshot that though)
My OA is only 1392, so you definitely do not need insane values here to trigger the skill.
Looking forward to Rattosh when I get there.
We all know that these are not the most optimal builds, but they sure go a long way into making the game challenging as well as throwing new curved balls your way that change the way you think in the game.
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Father Bull - Discovering Rattosh
Digging and diving into the unexplored areas of Cairn, Bull did find some shrines and other remote relics devoted to the entity Rattosh.
Intrigued …
The search for the way forward appeared to lie in the areas of Arkovia and the Steps of Torment.
Bull found a strange and enlightening text in one of the deep dungeons in the steps that was an actual quote from the writings and trainings of Rattosh.
“Give an acolyte a powerful gun with unlimited ammunition and ask him to kill a room full of 100 assailants and you will find that he can achieve it with ease, ask him to do the same with an olive branch or a toothpick and he will fail”
The way of Rattosh then seems to lie in the concept of an olive branch or a toothpick?
I can’t kill all the scourge with just a branch or toothpick — or can I? ---- with Korvaak and Rattosh?
Time to consolidate, but Bull is still hearing whispers of “May the Dawn be with You”
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So this is currently where I stand and a look at how my character has developed. I finally jumped into Ultimate after farming a few things in Elite.
It has been a long journey. The tides of the doomed and the damned never seem to end. The light and the dark call to me constantly, pulling at the threads of my sanity, burning like a thousand suns then washed with the embrace of the dark stars.
My dearest wife, someday soon I shall see you once again. Someday soon I shall feel your embrace, hear the words of your tender heart, fall into the serenity of your peaceful, kind eyes.
My daughter, you are out there. Somewhere. I shall not rest, for with every aetherial demon and cthonic damned I send to the fire and the night I make this place a better world for you. I will not falter. I must not falter.
Beware.
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Father Bull and the trapped child — Ballog’Nath
Father Bull eventually reached Homestead only to find that the entire settlement was locked down due to some mysterious illness that was ravaging the colony and he was immediately isolated into a dank little apartment that he had to stay for 14 days.
Once cleared and released he was asked if he could help with the Demateran infestation that was terrorising the colony.
After 14 days of sheer boredom, Bull accepted and looked forward to a new pursuit.
Clearing the Dematerans was effortless given the skills and tactics he had honed during his passage, but a lone isolated blocked cave was to become an incident that would be burned into his memory forever.
Inside was a small child that reminded him of his own daughter, BUT something was not right!
A few questions verified Bull’s suspicion that this is not what it seems and battle attack ensued as the child transformed into a demon like entity.
Eye of Korvaak immediately kicked in with the Nova skill, too early as it seemed to have no effect?
Can this creature be immune to the Eye?
Lets see lightning,
Also not too much damages yet
OK looks like we need full on manno vs manno …
OK -the beast is resilient, lets get in his face.
Resilient SOB - I am now in your face - bring it on …
Now my skills are gonna kick your butt.
O-Yeah, you feel me now hellspawn …
NOW … Gaze into the Eyes of Korvaak - they are going to be the last last thing you see
The Eye of Korvaak sealed the demise of this aberration and Bull’s lightning attack gave the “coup de grace”
What sort of foe would stoop to such tactics as to use children as bait for their agenda?
Father Bull now knew that this enemy had no moral conscience and would use any scenario to fool and trap any would be heroes.
Forewarned is fore prepared and Bull, a little wiser and more aware pushes on with his hard core quest.
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Take that bastard down hard, Father Bull! Nice to see him still fighting the good fight.
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The more Eyes the better !
Father Bull still alive and well at level 68 in Elite.
The Eye of Korvaak devotion is now really one of his main mob and even boss decimator skills.
I now get almost permanent triggers of the eye from spamming my Empowered Lightning Nova with double and sometimes even triple rings surrounding him. Coupled with the Word of Pain and the Storm Box it is becoming a pleasure to play with a build that I initially thought that given the parameters of the original challenge was going to be a bit difficult due to the extreme ends of the Devotion Tree specifications.
Just goes to show that given a little attention you can make any character combo work with Grim Dawn. Not exactly end game stuff, but more of a challenge and fun thing to do, which is the way way I play the game.
Dishing it out with Word of Pain and the Eye of Korvaak
Close up camera kills
Storm Box added for further insult to the beasts
The Eye of Korvaak reminds me a lot of the firework I remember from my youth called a “Catherine Wheel” 
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Bonus points for the “catherine wheel” reference. 
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Man… for real guys, this is beautiful! Those shots look awesome, and these posts are really inspiring for anyone curious enough to peek around on the forums in search of weird memey stuff.
I love to play the game this way as well, and honestly its much more fun knowing that im not alone in that. If it hadnt been for you guys i probably would have stopped playing this game a while ago.
I definitely would have never reached the point of designing a CCG style deckbuilder game around it, which has given me hours of enjoyment in the game world despite not being able to use my laptop. I was at the point where i had most of the mechanics figured out, and then I started playing Flesh and Blood TCG and there was a moment where i got discouraged because many of my ideas are used in that game, IE; the direction i had started to move in with Gear cards, resources each turn, etc.
Its still a very different game but i had no idea Flesh and Blood existed! I have since bought several booster boxes, and learned how to play it- the game is legit, man. A serious contender to MTG, and has inspired me even more to get more work done on the Grim Dawn CCG.
That same inspiration is what I get/have gotten from the content you all have shared and continue sharing! Its that stuff that makes this community awesome, and it totally does breathe new life into the game! Im looking forward to seeing more!
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Time stands still for no man.
It has been many months now since I made my way to the troubled but beautiful countryside of Homestead. The Black Legion’s presence, while certainly alarming to some, was never-the-less a welcome respite to the trials of the last year, knowing now I could rest just a little. Put down this path I choose to walk when both my gods turned their backs on us.
I staked my claim to a small, very modest, farm just outside the town’s sturdy gates. I finally felt I could hang up my quest, sadly never knowing what became of my dearest daughter. It seems that no trace of her existed. She was gone forever and my lovely wife, may she rest in peace, was whispering to me from far away, “Father, rest. Spend your days tilling the soil of the earth until we may once again be reunited.”
So I listened. I met many wonderful people there. I immediately hit it off with Sergeant Serriv and Praetorian Zedlee, spending many a night drinking RobHalloway’s moonshine (it’s actually not half bad given before the crops were replenished he was having to test it out on root vegetables rather than corn.) Oliver Thornsbury and his lovely young wife are an interesting couple, odd in a way so seemingly un-alike, but they’ve a lovely young daughter in Lucy and she’s no end of precious questions and whys? I wonder if my dearest daughter and she could’ve once been friends?
But, alas, I made the mistake once again. I believed it was over.
Returning one evening, just as the beautiful sun, may Korvaak allow it to shine forever, was setting, the smoke in the distance made my heart sink. My home was once again gone. Destroyed.
It seems evil never rests.
So I return to my path, placing the helm of justice once more on my head, and the scepter of the shadows into my hand. Once more I am called to end evil, though a task impossible to achieve. Once again I must embrace the road, the darkness and the light, to find the sun in those who are irredeemable and the darkness in those who are most pure.
Once again, the Grim Dawn breaks on the things I hold dear. But it shall not break me.
Those who have brought it to us, they have but one task as I come for them. Be afraid.
OOC:
So I’d taken a good break from the exploits of Bull as I’d gotten to a point where it was getting hazardous. So I worked on a handful of other characters and did a lot of target farming while I theory-crafted an idea that might work for old Bull. Through several patches things have sort of gotten to this point and when I picked it up with all the pieces I quickly finished the push to 100 and look to continue the journey for fun.
DISCLAIMER: For those who don’t remember the two caveats for this character was it had to use both Rattosh and Korvaak devotions. It also could never side with either Kymon or Order of Death’s Vigil.
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Happy to see you got to level 100. My incarnation of Father Bull sadly demised at level 85 in Ultimate.I was playing so well and safe with him and was only taking the dangerous main quests when needed for progression and made it to Fort Icon. I think I got a little too cocky when I hit 85 and got the Achievement award for the first time ever. I decided that I would now kill Queen Ravna in the Homestead Hive before venturing into Necropolis from Fort Icon. I usually avoid her in hardcore as she can sometimes hit seriously hard if you get caught. This was unfortunately one of those times (sigh).
Note to self : Leave Queen Ravna alone in hardcore.
Your comment on gearing in hardcore is also so relevant. You get so used to having the vast stash items available in softcore with which you can equip most builds with all your self found stuff instantly. In hardcore, I have only played 3 chars (including Bull), so my stash collection sucks and finding good gear in the campaign was a major mission in itself.
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I have been plugging away at Hardcore Classless, but without the ability to connect to the internet not only am i working with an outdated version of the game, but also cant share my progress as easily. The process is so cumbersome i decided to put a hold on sharing my HC classless build journies until i get a new machine.
Ive run into the same issue of limited Gear, and moreso limited blueprints. I resorted to MC farming and rep building using the Immortal Army by @Contragor and have gotten that build to level 83 and am farming SR 20-21 (in Normal), averaging about 4 blueprints, 4 epics, a bunch of crafting mats, and at least 40k iron bits per run.
I also ran bounties repeatedly in Malmouth until i hit Revered, and have been building up a supply of XP potions, as this is a SUPER helpful tool for HC Classless, which can otherwise sometimes be a real slog depending on the build.
Personally I have been loving the journey of rediscovering all these blueprints and building up stock on items with desireable prefix/suffix, potions, and crafting mats. This game makes grinding so much fun because theres so much you can do with the loot that you get, especially MIs.
Overall, theres just no experience in the game that can compare to the Hardcore experience. The threat of permadeath on its own makes this game shine, but even moreso when playing HC classless (no GD Stash). It wasnt until i played this way that i realized how solid the game design is from the ground up. It is built in such a way that beating the game in classless is do-able. The fact that one can achieve this accomplishment through various builds and following a non-linear game path encourages me to keep trying new things just to see whats possible. The heartbreak losing a beloved HC character is real, though. Whenever ive lost one of my HC builds i have had to take a short break before starting again. Its just a more intimate experience.
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I feel the pain 
That is why I only have done 3 hardcore runs so far. You become so attached to them and losing them to a stupid death impacts you in a way most softcore players cannot understand.
Yeah sure, then why don’t you just resurrect him with GDStash most would say?
To me, to do this misses the point of a hardcore character. If I wanted that, I would have started out as a softcore in the first place!
The hardcore journey is hard and brutal, but has a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment that you can miss out on in the softcore mode. You spend endless time just trying to edge up experience and find suitable items that in softcore are whisked over in a blink of the eye.
Also gonna take a little time to grieve before starting a new hardcore character number 4. Dunno what class I am going to go for yet, but I do know that I am going to stay as far away from Queen Ravna as I can. At least Bull has left some quite usable items from his level 85 journey in my hardcore stash. Maybe with a little more care and less overconfidence, my next hardcore can reach the coveted level 100 and get that achievement?
Last known picture of Father Bull (incarnation MikeHeydon) taken by Douglass Sullivan Oldbarrow before his fatal quest into the Homestead Hive
Witch God Cult, Draellus, the Oracle of Dreeg paid his respects to Bull and honoured him for his devotion and hopes that in his journey in the afterlife he finds his wife Siobhan.
Find his wife in the afterlife?
What about finding his daughter Iona in the afterlife - did she not perish in that terrible aetherial attack?
Here comes the making of my next hardcore story character 4 - “Iona the Abducted”
Obviously may be some sort of Aether and Chaos themed build from Bull’s lore, but maybe she managed to break away from her captors as she matured and found solace and training with a friendly bunch of bad-ass renegade soldiers who melded her natural Chaos and Aether skills with their way of true warrior hard hitting combat
Lore for another day once started …
@Knife
@CaiusMartius
You guys got any ideas of a challenge spec for Iona like we had with Bull?
The crazier, probably the better.
Once again into an enjoyable hardcore adventure
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Well, my idea with Iona was going to be a bit of surprise, hopefully, once I hit Ultimate as the reunion would actually come near the end of the journey of doing the entire campaign. But Iona is actually already in game. Two hints, one is probably way to obvious. 1) The name Iona is deliberate because it’s close to the identity she’s ‘assumed’ in the game. 2) Her abduction fractured her mind and she doesn’t remember much about her earlier life. 
So, given that, maybe something along those lines. I think a warlock would be a very appropriate choice (both aether and chaos to represent the two sides fighting over her) and messing with all those other worldly ‘things’ has taken it’s toll.
Yes, and judging by our stories we’ve all felt that. HA! Here’s my stash were I keep my Salt Bags. I currently have 6 characters. 3 of those characters have unlocked the Edge of Reality quest so I’ve actually already used 3 salt bags. If you count how many are here currently and subtract 3 you can see how many characters I’ve lost since starting over in November-ish.
And seriously, don’t get me started about blueprints ARHGGHHH!!! I did a post about this last week.
Regardless of what happens going forward, and despite the slow frequency of our posts here, this has been an extremely enjoyable journey.
RIP to those lost. But the fight for Cairn must go on!
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Weird that we both had a plan for Iona 
I prefer your idea though and look forward to her story unfolding from your ongoing journey.
In the meantime I have decided to pursue another hardcore character based on 2 of my current softcore characters. Her name is “Natasha Doe-Krieg” and is the daughter of two characters of mine who are currently bitter enemies. Those who have read the posts in “Personal NPC and LORE inspired fantasy character builds” will probably recognize who the parents are. The story of how they became man and wife from being arch enemies with one hell bent on hunting down and killing the other though is food for another chapter in the “NPC and LORE” post.
The class choice that best fits Natasha given her ancestry will be Warlord. I am also hoping this class will give me more durability in hardcore at the higher levels than my previous class choices.
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Man, I cant wait for this!
I currently have 2 HC builds in the works for the Personal NPC Lore inspired fantasy character builds thread you started.
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HC CLASSLESS: Paige Renhaul, Port Valbury survivor
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HC TACTICIAN, but only maxed out mastery bars and passive/toggled skills that dont cause damage are allowed: Beyon Cavanil, ex-duke of Fort Ikon and survivor of the Fort Ikon riots and Groble/Dranghoul occupation.
Once my new machine has been set up, you can expect to see their stories posted.
EDIT: I took screenshots using my phone, so you guys can have a preview of their appearances;
PAIGE REHNAUL;
BEYON CAVANIL;
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