This game is fun don’t get me wrong, have I stopped for a while…yes…do I come back?..yes. But it really lacks a purpose to play after hitting level 100. Crucible isn’t really fun and shattered realm is more of the same, so end game it is not.
For those who have lots of hours in and tons of legendaries hoarded, once a character hits 94 and you are fully geared… sure hit level 100. This puts you about act 3/4 ultimate. After that for me there is really no incentive to play. Other than than bet the story to beat it but once you’ve done that a zillion times who cares.
Now I hate the paragon system in Diablo 3 but at least it offered a leveling system past the joke of level 70. For me what kept me playing Diablo 2 was the fact that at least I was always earning xp for 99 (which to this day I’ve never seen, 95 smiter).
Hitting 100 in grim Dawn isn’t hard and there needs to be something to keep you coming back. Maybe a paragon system minus the power creep that Diablo 3 became. Maybe every 5 levels increase magic find by 1%. Perhaps every 10 1% to all resist.
Don’t think that would break the game, make it even easier to get legendaries that might elude some without having to join boring gladiator 150-170 and stand there while others own just to collect the loot. Or with the resist fill out those annoying resist that might not be maxed…something to look forward too really is what it needs.
Currently just started ugdenbog for the X time and really don’t feel like the slog to the end of forgotten gods.
What Norzan said. I’m glad passive stat increases like that aren’t a thing for a couple of reasons:
At a certain point you make the game a joke. Sure a fully geared character can clear the game with ease now but for a lot of them you still have to pay attention - you can and still will get killed if you allow it. Characters that literally have 95% resistance to every damage type will get tickled on the other hand.
Everyone is on the same playing field. When it comes to comparing builds, these random bonuses add an extra layer that need to be accounted for. In games like Borderlands that feature a similar system (e.g. Badass ranks) you can disable them, something that would need to be implemented here as well or set as a restriction in challenging areas like Crucible/Shattered Realm.
Honestly, is there any difference between having a goal to strive for not anyway? If you’re not finding it fun or don’t want to play then I doubt having a reward at the end is going to fix that.
Maybe you should look at a different game or ARPG to freshen things up and come back to Grim Dawn another time.
I totally understand your request and I also proposed some idea for level 100 characters that was discussed in topic …
As seen from the comments, NOTHING is really going to happen.
A good all round level 100 character is not a waste of time though, especially if he has opened up all the portals from the secret quests. I use mine to farm for the elusive items that an upcoming character is not going to be able to obtain for a long time.
paragon system without power creep… wonder how’s that possible.
the real end game in gd is looking for the BiS for your builds & THE BEST STAT ROLLS among the duplicate BiS you got.
or just start over and try another build. thats another end game perspective too.
i doubt crate will ever implement any type of paragon system. i remember zantai or someone from crate saying they want grim dawn to have a DEFINITE END or something like that. an end where we all can decide that this build’s journey has ended. and to shelve that build as a trophy.
is it a good/bad end game design? i dunno. what i know is that several years after taking break from grim dawn, players might want to play grim dawn again for some time. either for nostalgia or to try out different gameplay styles.
just talking out my butt here because I don’t necessarily think the game needs it but you could avoid the power creep if the reward was something already part of the game. Since best in slot is really the be-all-and-end-all for the game perhaps something like earning “merit rolls”. For every X amount of XP gained AFTER you reach 100 (and it could grow, like the first one is N xp. Second one is N*1.5 xp and so on you get a way to reroll a single stat to a higher value on an item. You could never get outside what is already achievable but this would give a means to fine tune your build as you go AND you couldn’t refund it. Once spent once done. And the more you do the more XP it costs.
I don’t know, like I said, your first sentence sort of struck a note in my head and that’s what came out. Haven’t really given it much thought - which probably means it’s bullocks.
using xp past lvl 100 to reroll stats on gears seems like a nice idea. if crate could implement it.
but i kinda feel that sr is already a good place to implement a paragon system. at least for softcore. because deep end shards of sr is where the game balance is absolutely thrown out to space. even with bonuses from paragon, i doubt players can progress much past the break point.
maybe crate just want gd end game to be closer to diablo 2. the incoming monster totem update for adding alternative farming sites in the world map points to diablo 2 direction.
What about cosmetic rewards for getting loads of exp after 100? Or maybe something really really OP like, I dunno, a medal with lvl 1 required that gives +100 health? Something like that, cool to get, fun to have, but completely zero impact for anyone other than the one who earned it.
The only thing I’d want added to the game for my lv 100 characters is a craftable item held in my inventory (maybe 2x2 or 3x3) that would absorb the exp of heroes/bosses that I kill (that little message that says “Hero Killed, X Experience Gained”). The item would be transferable to shared stash and use-able by another character who would instantly gain the accumulated exp. Theoretically you could use that item, along with a Savior’s Merit and some mandates, to boost a new character you want to try straight to ultimate where they could grab out the accumulated gear you have for them and start to play. I enjoy the game as much as anyone else but when everything else in the leveling experience has been shortened/quickened it seems that exp gain needs something better than ‘40,000 iron bits for one hour of x2 experience’.
If the proposed exp item cost significant crafting materials to make (maybe 5 or 10 of each rare crafting material like Tainted Brain Matter, Ancient Heart, etc… + 1,000,000 iron bits) and was single use I don’t think it’d take much away from the experience of the game really. People who want to level the original way could do so just like the people who want to gain faction reputation or infamy or gear don’t have to use mandates or gear found on other characters. It would simply be a way to transfer experience the way that we can already transfer faction rep (mandates and infamy wanted posters), gear and even iron (via iron bars).
Well, I guess Mandates do a similar job in that they boost a new character’s XP right from the start if they use one. Since most people who want to level quickly will use those, an XP potion, Lokarr set, etc, I’m not sure that would really be a good addition to the game. You could, for example, play an L100 for a very long time and then give that to a new character probably making them L100 almost straight off, but where would be the fun of playing the new character then? You’d still need to do the devotions and maybe also the faction rep. Since you can level a character to L100 in a few hours I can’t really see what that would add.
I’m a casual player so I don’t have a lot of time in endgame, so you endgamers can work out the specifics.
What if extra exp could be converted to a coin or token, and these tokens could be exchanged for keys to an endgame dungeon that requires say five keys to get to the inner sanctum to some uber boss.
I to like having incentives at endgame, something like a journal that keeps track of set items and rares etc. would be nice also.
I’ve been asking myself the same thing but already after hitting 94. Why that is not the cap, I will never understand. The last 6 levels only serve to scale the enemies up, effectively making you weaker than you are at 94. That should never be the case in an ARPG. Especially when the level-ups are nearly useless because someone thought 1 SP per level was a good idea.
And to be honest, I have to really like a build’s playstyle to go past 50 these days. If I get over the annoyance of 2 SP per level after 50, 99% of the time, I just make a new char at 94 since levelling further becomes pointless.
In my hundreds of hours of playing GD, I only ever took exactly two characters to 100. Most others are either 90 or 94 - when the levelling becomes counter-productive.
I’ve been contemplating just using DGStash to keep resetting my level to 94 but then we come to the problem in the OP. I rarely play chars again when they’ve made it to 94 and their build is mostly online.
So the point is to level up to make yourself weaker?
I just mean that it is completely unintuitive. You usually want to level up to increase your power, not reduce it, as in most any other game.
I know GD is balanced around it now so will never change, but it doesn’t remove the pointlessness and illogicality of the last 6 levels. I am not complaining about the power of the enemies here. I would be completely fine with just making 94 the cap, making the enemies the same strength as the current 100 and just moving the points from the 6 levels elsewhere. I just don’t want to grind them while getting weaker and weaker with every level up because it is just a terrible feeling.
