Hello all, apologies if this is not where to post this.
I made an infiltrator following Nery’s guide which is well-done and have hit 40, I changed to veteran and switched over from WoP to dual wielding and have been dying quite a bit more on bosses/aether mobs. Here is my character: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2G4o1kV
I have also read that inquisitor is not that great for melee builds even though infiltrators seem to have some praise behind Dervishes? Granted I’m not the greatest Grim Dawn player in general…I have around 300 hours and my highest toons were a 75 witchblade and 80 saboteur, they didn’t have as many actives to use.
I guess what I am getting at is, does this get easier by any means…am I missing something in my build? I try to use all the actives per engagement to my best abilities, I am thinking of lowering from veteran to normal but am afraid that is just going to make the normal-elite jump unbearable…I really am in a good groove with grim dawn and am just not sure if I should continue this toon(I enjoy DW builds/lazy caster builds…which don’t seem to exist other than pets). Thanks for reading this wall of text to whomever, please feel free to have me break down some of the questions more if they come off as confusing.
First of all: Welcome to the forums!
Most important answer first: Yes, it will get better. You just need better gear.
Now for the details:
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Switch back to “normal”. “Veteran” is pretty challenging (IMHO it’s overtuned, but maybe that’s just me…). The 10% more xp you get are never worth the hassle. For leveling up, normal is the way to go nowadays.
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Don’t be afraid of the change to Elite. In fact, the transition from normal to Elite is quite smooth. Except maybe for Warden Krieg and later on Darius Cronley, enemies at the beginning of Elite aren’t really hard. Besides that, you’ll also get better gear. It is definitely doable.
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Infltrators aren’t exactly the easiest characters to level. But you got the Inquisitor mastery. If everything else fails, put as many points as possible in Word of Pain and maybe some in Storm Box of Elgoloth, get spells from components and play as a caster. This works well at least into the 50 level range. I don’t think this will be necessary though - which brings me to my next point:
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Get better gear. I know this is easier said than done, but you need more resistances. That extremely low Aether resistance for example would get you killed against any enemy doing Aether damage, regardless of the build you’re playing. Focus on gear with lots of resistances. Even in normal, there are rings, belts, boots, gloves and so on with a lot of resistances on them. Crafting isn’t too expensive either. Make resistances your top priority.
Don’t give up. 
You have an excellent guide to follow and you’re playing a very fun class. Good luck!
Thank you for the answer, I think this covered what I was looking for. I have played through most of elite on my witchblade but that had been a couple of years ago and I just don’t recall veteran being as hard back then, of course shield classes are generally pretty safe. Appreciate the pep talk, I am a ways away from an alt but I tend to jump between characters, are there any casters that are considered lazy that are viable? Like no more than 5 actives?
Not a caster, but definitely the laziest and most relaxed build I ever played (and also one of the strongest):
Maya’s “Fluffy Squishy”
It’s a pet build and it has a lot of buttons. But most are toggle buffs and pets you don’t have to resummon often. Gameplay is really easy, no button smashing. Besides that, the build is not that gear dependent. For optimal performance you need the items in the GT, but the build will also do fine with rather basic equipment: Just get as much boni for pets as possible and cover your resistances.
In general, “caster” and “lazy” is somewhat contradictory. Casters have to cast spells to deal damage or defend themselves, so every caster build I know requires a certain degree of active gameplay.
Of course there are rather sturdy builds, that don’t play like a piano, for example PRM Mage Hunters:
PRM endgame build by mad_lee and
Beginner’s and leveling build by Nery
AAR mage hunters or Spellbinders could also fit your bill:
Endgame Spellbinder by ridopenyo
Lightning AAR Mage Hunter by Nery
Chaos AAR Mage Hunter by mad_lee
Anything using AAR is very easy to level. AAR is a very strong skill on its own. It will carry you through campaign and early endgame even with suboptimal gear.
Of course it’s up to you, what and how you like to play. But I’d recommend getting at least one character to level 100 and early endgame. It will make leveling alts easier: You can start farming gear. You also can buy xp potions, that double your xp, if you are revered with Malmoth Resistance. And in Forgotten Gods you can buy a token that unlocks every waypoint in Normal/Veteran and Elite and also gives you skill points from quests on these difficulties. So once you’ve reached level 100 with one char, leveling alts will be much easier and faster.
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