Seems like anything I think of has already been done by somebody else - better, or just flat out sucks. Ran into the same problem in PoE. So I’m sticking with whatever the FOTM or current meta is.
All I tried to do was simple. Make a sorcerer build that was stronger than the AAR build I was using previously, that didn’t use Time Dilation. I probably tried 20-30 different devotion setups, skill combinations, gear setups (I might not have had everything I needed here), and everything I came up with was pretty well garbage. So yeah, I’m done. Complete waste of time, never doing it again. I’m sticking exclusively to tried, tested, proven builds.
I thought I had a build that could tank Mogdrogen, defensively he could take everything Mog could throw at him. The problem was my OA wasn’t high enough to keep aggro on Mog, and I don’t have the foresight to anticipate stuff like this. Any good theorycrafter would. I don’t.
Yeah, i can understand. I was pretty disappointed when i failed to kill Elite Mogdrogen with my Witch Hunter who was tanking Warden and Kiliran. But this is my second profile. So there’s a lot for me to learn. Like the one above me posted, don’t give up. The game’s still pretty fun without being able to beat every thing in the game.
I have one profile - Saboteur, who chooses to be the dick. Lying to rovers about talisman, keeping hargate’s formula, killing Angrim. etc
Another one- Sorcerer, is solely made with the purpose of completing Kymon’s quest line and farming Nemesis rep with The Order.
These two profiles were made for their respective purposes but i do get to go with different constellation choices, skills etc.
My two other profiles Warlock and Pyromancer are for figuring out builds. The former is my first profile which i abandoned for reasons similar to yours but now my interest has been rekindled and the latter is a new profile with the purpose of making a bleeding build ( i only recently figured out after beating Veteran Mogdrogen with Poison WH that he has a weakness:undecided:- Bleeding)
And I’m purposefully avoiding Soldier mainly because it’s survival skills make it optimum for Ultimate. So saving the best for last - Battlemage
Eh, I still enjoy theorycrafting in stuff even when it’s been done to death.
Those few moments where you actually stumble upon something are literally the best feeling. A season or two back in Diablo 3 I was totally doing Inna’s exploding palm before anyone else figured out how good it was, and I will gloat about that to anyone who will/won’t listen until the end of time.
I also had a Helltooth acid cloud witch doctor build that used the mana rain Big Bad Voodoo rune, and it actually worked better than the typical acid cloud build despite it being complete sacrilege to use any rune other than that damage one.
But anyway I’ll shut up about unrelated games now, lol.
All I was trying to do was make a better DPS “Sorcerer” build. Something that was better than the crappy AAR one that I was using. Nothing from demolitionist really gives the required DPS I’m looking for. And that’s the problem. I couldn’t make CT work, because CT required I get near mobs, and I couldn’t make a sorcerer build tanky enough to reliably use CT during boss fights. I’ve pretty much given up on “Sorcerer”. CT is only viable on a build that can face tank.
I messed around with a Pyromancer build briefly. Using the Blood orb of Chthon to convert elemental to chaos damage. Once again, even if I convert all the fire to chaos damage, nothing in demolitionist provides any viable DPS. Just ended up with something that did (considerably) less DPS and was even squisher than my AAR sorcerer. Even tried to gear for some sorta pet hybrid build, and that just made the build even suckier. I’m convinced now that if you use pets, you either go all the way or none of the way.
Well of course CT is only viable if you can tank it is a melee ability You just need to tweak your devotion setup and pump mad physique.
Hybrid pet builds are just weak for the most part. Blood Orb is a cool idea for an item, but really all you do is end up making a shittier version of X build. Whatever skills you use you end up with a chaos version of it minus all the +XX skill gear, elemental based devotion get all their bonuses wasted, etc
This being said there are definitely some viable off the beaten path builds you can do and it’s fun as hell to make your own builds! I have a pretty decent dual wield melee pyromancer, never see anyone do that before and it’s not bad
I stopped creating/updating build threads in GD when the time investment required jumped to “full-time job”. Theorycrafting a super-fun build doesn’t take very long, but testing it out to make sure it works at least decently with self-found gear across 2-3 difficulties worth of (unskippable) content is a gargantuan task (oh, and it might not even take one playthrough - you might get to level 70ish and find you need to completely re-make your character from the beginning to make it work). Even if you do publish your build - which takes hours of writing and editing, depending on how much content you cover and how fancy/organized you want it to be - you have to deal with a flood of questions (that you already answered in the OP) and edgy asshats bitching about skill choices they don’t agree with. Occasionally you’ll get a “thanks, having fun with your build :)” post which is satisfying, but the overall payoff isn’t worth the time investment. :T
TL;DR Don’t feel too bad about giving up on making character builds to post on the forum. It can be daunting and isn’t for everyone.
It just goes to show how “good” AAR really is…at least compared to other skills a sorcerer has… The sad thing it is that an AAR build is probably one of the best, after a properly geared CT build, for a sorcerer. Just not very good compared to any melee character (at least once you hit ultimate) or if you’re trying to take out mobs where you need to be tanky (mog, iron maiden, fab)…
Caster builds on the whole are not as good as melee. If caster skills had more synergy, i think it would help out a lot. If I’m going to get like, one or two shot in Ultimate, my abilities better be one or two shotting them, back. I still think Crate just hates casters :p:rolleyes:
I’ve never used another person’s build in an ARPG, I just try to put together my own builds and see how it turns out. I usually end up with something that’s really close to a popular build, but I dont mind since I built it myself and I obviously did pretty good if everyone else is using it. Case in point, my first build was a warder. I thought I was all original, using some cool, unknown build nobody else had thought of, lol. I learned different real quick the first time I visited these forums, lol. Doesn’t matter, he still wrecked face and I did it mysel, and he wasn’t exactly like the cookie cutter warder builds. He was still my own creation.
Trying to make obscure builds is the hard part, and there is a reason they’re obscure; it’s hard to do, usually takes very specific gear, and still doesn’t end up being as strong as the FOTM builds. I tried some different, crazy builds in PoE, but they never really worked out. Gearing in that game is a nightmare even if you were lucky enough to come up with a good, original build. So, I quit watching the forums and what other people were doing and just did what seemed fun or cool at the time. At least in GD you can grab a trainer and an inventory editor to try out different builds, which is what I would suggest if you don’t want to turn it into a full time job. I don’t see any problem doing that if you are like me and don’t have hundreds of hours to dump into a bunch of builds that may not ever work out. You can always find an ideal build and then start from the beginning playing legit to see if you can make it happen, or at the very least, respec that botched build and try something different without starting from scratch.
Yeah!! Casters are always my favorite class to play in games. I don’t mind being a glass cannon… But in Grim dawn, compared to melee classes, I feel more like a glass BB gun…
I’ll give AAR another shot if they decide to buff it. If I’m only able to channel AAR for the 3 seconds when mirror is up in most boss fights, then that 3 seconds better be among the most hellish DPS potential in the game, or I don’t really feel like its worth it. I’d like to consistently be seeing 40-50k ticks with AAR when it crits after applying a few resist debuffs. Blademasters can do just as good or better without burning up their energy bar. As can a few other builds. Bleed and poison builds getting 50-100k+ ticks. etc.
I feel ya, I built a bleeding, lighting warder just to come up short on logy in ultimate. So much time invested to fail at the end. I could eventually down him but the thoughtnof taking 30mins to an hour and a half on one guys bores me to tears. I have given up on the game till I find a cookie cutter build thats proven to tear the game apart.
You just need to tweak your devotion setup and pump mad physique.