New to Grim Dawn - first character - love the Purifier. I’m starting Act 7 on Normal and dabbling in Act 1 still on Elite. Level 68, and figuring things out. Fire based for now (no lightning) based on gear I have found. I would love to be DW, but have not found the right fire-oriented guns, so I’m using 2H Ranged guns for now and have found some nice ones leading up to what I’m using right now.
The build guides are great for end-game, but there isn’t a lot out there for choices mid-game or how to progress. I did read one really great leveling guide on this forum, but that build went lightning as well so started to deviate.
Can anybody take a look and critique decisions on skiills and especially devotions at this point? On the devotions, I still struggle picking which skill to associate to which. Like should I switch Fire Strike to a different devotion now that I got Magi and Witchblade, or should I add a point to Chilling Rounds just so I can associate that to a devotion? You can see my path where I chose to stick with Ghoul, Fiend (this was an early choice, but might be ready to change?), Witchblade, Magi, Crown, and working toward Ulzuins Torch (with other supporting devotions), but could use some thoughts on this (understanding again that I’m not level 100 and I am looking for what’s good right now that can transition to something else later).
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKjvwOZ
You are better leveling with blackwater cocktail (maxed first and last node, ignore the second and add the point for the modifier for more area ) and thermite mines with kiting (you should max thermite mines too since it has elemental reduction, your enemies will die faster). Leveling with guns is fun but doesnt get much support, it is viable tho. I personally leveled my purifier just throwing molotov and running till level 94
Couple quick things for you just from glancing at your build, assuming you like to level with ranged fire-based (as I did as well):
- if you’re going to stay 2H, put 3pts in Searing Might, you’re gimping yourself otherwise, that’s a really nice instant dps increase
- max Thermite Mines for the RR and zero pts in Hellfire Mines, that’s for chaos builds
- bind Eldritch Fire to Firestrike, this is almost always the way to go
- Elemental Storm can be bound to Thermite Mines or Seal, I’ve tried both you can experiment with which one works for you better
- Hawk is a very good devotion, I do like Magi too but not so much for AA builds. Fiend also prob not worth it
- Spider or Jackal can be nice, esp for the atk spd, don’t worry about Torch you can grab that at the end
clean up Hydra first it’s a great devo
- again, if you’re staying 2H, Kraken devo is a must
- put points in the 2 other Inq WPS, they are really good procs
- more pts in Deadly Aim
- lvl 60 opens up some pretty powerful relics, but they are super expensive to craft. Ulzuin’s Pyroclasm is very good for fire-based Demo builds but fair warning that prob won’t be the end-game relic you use
As for 2H vs DW, that’s going to be up to you which style you prefer, I personally really enjoy DW, so I leveled that way but 2H is great as well. You should see some pretty decent lvl 65 pistols dropping now:
Empowered Oathbreaker
The Marauders’ Judgement set
Empowered Aldur’s Inquisition
Can mix and match any of those, or use 2 of them. You can target green MIs as well by farming certain mobs. There’s a BP for Shrapnel Pistol that has nice stats for you, can craft 2 of those even. You shouldn’t have any problems finding either 2H or DW pistols at your level.
I’m not too familiar with 2h weaps but Grimtools is very helpful in this regard.
This is where you get the blueprint for Shrapnel Pistol that the poster above mentions. You might need to lobby reset a few times before the pattern shows up. https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/253
Thanks so much for all of the help. These were really great recommendations, and I’ve incorporated most of them. New Grim Tools attached.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQaPRnN
A few follow up questions:
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I haven’t had luck finding decent pistols yet for DW. I agree the ones you listed are good, but RNG is not coughing them up yet. Do you think that dual Shrapnel Pistols would yield better results than my current 2H? I also feel like that 2H could be good if I can find the other set pieces, again at least for now. If I do eventually go DW I would obviously back out Kraken devotion.
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Let’s say I continue down this path. What skill would you bind to Meteor from Ulzuin’s Torch once I get there?
Thanks again for all the help. I was using Blackwater Cocktail for a while, but I’m really enjoying the fun of the gun right now so I’m going this route for now.