I am quite new to the game and have been trying to play for the past 50h. Yes, for me it takes a while to lvl up “fast” and I really can’t speed up with my actual power. With that time, I created some characters (Warlod, Cabalist and Dervish) and everyone around lvl 50 stops doing damage and I die VERY often.
Most of the guides I see already need a high level character or use terms that I’m not familiar with yet(constellations & skills), but I feel stuck in this mid-game transition because I cant progress.
Any recommendations that I can understand?For example, “Pyromancer is very broken even if you don’t know how the build works properly” I literally spent 1h looking for guides and nothing that really helped me
Please upload your chars to https://www.grimtools.com/calc/, generate a link using the two upper buttons on the left and share those links with your reply, so that we can advise you on how to improve them.
Both chars suffer from maxed mastery bars below level 60 - your skills are too weak - and not using components. Check the blacksmith for those components which do not drop. If you have not learned some, then you can get them from the quartermasters of allied factions.
In addition to the good advice above: I’d recommend following some beginner guides. Choose a build/guide you like and try to respec into it. Especially make sure you got one main attack skill, that you have more ore less maxed out.
Here are two suggestions for Warlords. The guides are a bit older, but they still work fine:
Cabalists are a bit harder to level. I’d suggest using the Occultist side mainly. You can loosely follow this build:
A good endgame goal is this one:
Or you can choose a totally different direction later on:
Looking at your GT links it is no wonder you’re doing no damage. I don’t know where people who aim to put 1 point into every skill are coming from, but it doesn’t work in Grim Dawn. Here you pick your workhorse skill and max it. Otherwise yeah, no damage.
Also, you’re not using components. This is probably a huge reason why you’re dying too much.
Constellations and skills are basics. They are explained in the official game guide. Too bad it’s now buried under multiple hyperlinks.
Hey man welcome to the forums! If you’re like me and have severe ADHD and can’t focus long enough to read most build guides, then I can understand your frustration/confusion.
I have learned by trial and error, and by asking the community here VERY specific questions as I learn. Part of the journey in Grim Dawn is uncovering the depth of character building in its myriad layers of values, from the many types of damage/damage resistances, to the exact order of damage mitigation IE; damage absorption functionality, and so on.
It is a jungle of variables, but please have some patience- It is very rewarding once you learn it! I would start with one main question, maybe if there is a glossary somewhere so you can know the terms people frequently use. I remember when I started the 2 ones I saw the most and had no clue what they meant were “proc” and “circuit breaker”
Proc: basically you can replace this term with the word “trigger”. That’s how I made sense of it. When an ability “PROCS”, it “TRIGGERS”. Skills that proc (trigger) are generally any skills that have a % chance in their description. Such as “10% chance when hit” or “100% chance on critical attack”.
Circuit breaker: This is basically a skill that operates as a fail safe. It will “proc” at different conditions but usually when your life drops below a certain percentage (100% chance when your HP drops below 40%, etc). True circuit breakers cannot be interrupted or canceled by stuns, from what I understand, and hence they earn their name by ensuring at least one safety net by which to catch you in that “oh shit” moment.
Pyromancers can mop up the early game, a good way to start one is to begin with demolitionist and max out Flame Touched, Fire Strike, and Black Water Cocktail. If you’re assigning your devotion points to constellations that boost your fire damage, you can just make Black water Cocktail your main attack and toss them all over the place. This build requires a few careful choices to really shine in the early game but it’s definitely great for leveling. Don’t even pick occultist until you have the initial skill nodes for Flame touched, fire strike, and black water Cocktail maxed.
"Resistances are king": The best/most-important stats in the game are your 8 main resistances, 7 of which reduce damage (shown with icons on the first page of your character info panel). Get them to 80% as quickly as you can, and at higher difficulties aim to get them above 80% (some monsters debuff them).
"Pick and focus-on one damage-type": Try to keep the majority of the damage you deal focused into one “type” of damage (like pierce, or burn, or aether etc). This is because it’s easier/more efficient to focus on buffing up one single damage type (and debuff enemy resistances to a single type) than it is to buff multiple types of damage.
In fact, is there a “general n00b guide” which has all of this general advice? I think I gathered all of this stuff gradually as I started playing but I don’t recall ever seeing it all in one place.
An amazing passive skill for the Demolitionist is Blast Shield. Blast Shield is a circuit breaker, which “procs” when your health drops below 60%. It provides some (TERMINOLOGY ALERT!) “Flat damage absorption”, among several other amazing defensive buffs.
Flat damage absorption: as I understand it this is a predetermined amount of damage absorption, which is always applies in the same set value as is designated in the skill description details.
Q: WHAT MAKES DAMAGE ABSORPTION SO GOOD?
A: Damage absorption falls last in line in the order of defenses. What this means is that incoming damage must first break through your armor, shield if you blocked, and resistances. Each of these defenses will cause the amount of damage to reduce a bit. The final damage that makes it through those defenses then crashes against the wall of your damage absorption, which reduces that damage further by an indicated or calculated amount.
% damage absorption must be calculated and is not guaranteed to be a reliable means of significant defense
FLAT damage absorption, however, is ALWAYS consistent in the value it absorbs, and as such a very dependable means of defense.
In the case of Blast Shield, we are dealing with FLAT damage absorption. This means all damage that makes it through your defenses will get reduced by the amount of damage absorption indicated for the duration of the skills effect. At early levels it may not seem too impressive, but when you pump points into the skill you will wind up with a good 700 flat damage absorption whenever the Shield is up, which is amazing considering the defenses you may already have in place.
I personally love a beefy build. Commandos are great for this, with 2 circuit breakers (blast shield and menhirs will), shield support (overguard and soldiers Shield passives), and lots of retaliation damage.
Pyromancers can be quite resilient as well, the Occultists skills Blood of Dreeg and Possession offering a lot of toughness on top of the demolitionist skills Blast shield and vindictive flame.
That’s not bad idea for a guide. This one of my guides can help a bit:
The thing about GD though is you have relatively easy start on normal and tougher on veteran but unlike some newer entries is more classical RPG game and you have to know some basic mechanics to proceed further like to cover resistances, to take RR skills/devotions, not to stand in aether pools.
As already mentioned above Malawiglenn’s guides for beginners are great. And notice there is a section ’ Other Beginner build guides with similar philosophy as me’ in that guide. There are newbie-friendly and easy to gear builds by Nery, StupidDragon, Maya and others . These 2 guides are good too (although it got some legendary items but they can be replaced temporarily with other green or epic items with similar stats).
