2nd Run Update: (Level 6) Started out with a total of 8 pots, which I think maybe I used 1 or 2 during the 1st 10 waves. After beating them I received xp that placed me just a bit under leveling to 7. I took a gamble and continued to see if I could beat the next run. It was a little tight near the end with only 1 pot left on Wave 20, which I used. I won out and cashed in my reward and dinged past 7 to level 8 and 3/4’s of the way to level 9.
I received tons of whites and yellows again (so many this time I had to make a second trip to retrieve them all) and just under 2500 iron. Sold what I didn’t need and put me at 3300 iron (I spent almost all the iron I had after my 1st run, mostly to get the pots I started this run with).
I think my next runs will be only just the first 20 waves again to be on the safe side and so I can build up some levels and resources/gear.
Edit: Oh, and so far my build is a simple Nightblade (all attribs into Phys) with Dual Blades(2), ABB(2), VoS(2), and the rest went into the mastery bar (After the first run I did). I haven’t allocated my points from this last run yet.
Oh crap… I musta missed Demasked writing that. It used to be at 20 tribute, then 15 and after that I was unaware they had further changed it. Good to know and a change I totally approve of considering that 10+ Tributes starting out is extremely expensive in comparison how with easy it is to get to your first Devotions in Main.
Indeed but totally worth it to be able to give your 2 cents on it with feedback.
Speaking of which… Keep giving feedback. It’s still pretty new release-wise and the Cruc could use more polish in my opinion. Tho it’s better off at the moment than when I last played it so I am totally happy with how my last 2 runs just played out.
I want it to be fun and enjoyable to play from the start with new characters as well and I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted it to be playable as such. So it helps for them to know that others want the same and any ideas they might have to make it better.
3rd Run Update: (Level 8) Beat the 1st 20 this time with no pots used at all. I had grabbed Pneumatic (4) and its modifier prior and I leveled to 9 after the 1st 10 and added those points to the mastery bar. Since I lost no pots I felt confident to take on the next 10 to make it to Wave 30.
It went fairly easy til Wave 23 where I had to use a number of pots. I passed that and made it to 25. Here is where life became difficult.
Enter, Agara Varos - Regenerator (Level 12). I simply could not, at this point, out-DPS his regeneration. I had to give up and let him kill me.
I died. I leveled up to 10 at that point. As a consolation for having to commit suicide, this time along with the usual whites and yellows, I received several greens and it looks like I also earned some extra pots from the chests, as I had more than when I died. I gained about 2300 iron before gear sales.
4th Run Update: (Level 10) One of the greens I received last run was a Scrapmetal Gladius of Conflagration. I’m not really favoring fire dmg here but I said screw it and slapped a completed Searing Ember on it for a needed boost (I figured Fire Blast would come in handy and not only make light work of the Cold Ones in the first wave set but maybe also enable me to handle my suicide patron who caused me grief last run).
As expected it eased the way considerably and I passed thru the first 20 with no issue again. No level ups this time however and only a quarter of the way thru level 10 in xp.
Made it to 23 no problem again but here (again) I had to use 4 pots. Onward to 25 but this time my Regenerator did not show. I was actually kinda disappointed as I was wanting to see if Fire Blast’s burn dmg would be enough to tip the scales. Anyway I passed thru to 27 just fine where Fire Blast did come in handy against the hero Ice Snap. I used 1 more pot here.
Made it to Wave 30 with no issue. Here I met Zaria the Carver. Proved too great a challenge for me. I died and dinged level 11 and received the usual 2k or so iron, some greens and even a Chthonic Seal of Binding.
Note: I have 13 tribute and just over 8k iron total at this point. Beacons cost 5 Tribute and 10k iron so those are a no go currently and it will actually be a while before I can comfortably afford to use them. Blessings cost 12 Tribute, so again, do I take the plunge on beacons/blessings or should I consider either saving more iron/tributes or take a stab at buying some Devotions? The question then becomes, what’s the wisest choice at this juncture?
Personally, I won’t be playing The Crucible for a few weeks as I am going on holidays. That being said, I would much prefer the EXP, gear, Devotion and so on gains to be sufficient enough within The Crucible to be able to play it exclusively with a LVL 1 character and not have to rely on taking my character back to the Main Campaign to fill any holes, etc.
I know Crate will no doubt be keeping a close eye on The Crucible related threads and will be tweaking and balancing The Crucible as a result. To this end, I would just like to give my 2 cents in relation to making the structure of The Crucible one where it can be a complete and rich experience from LVL 1 all the way up to end-game.
I seriously look forward to diving into this arena of death when I return
I agree. Crucible is NOT in fact an alternate game path. it’s just not viable- the XP seems to go about 10% as fast as campaign and you will not get a single point of faction. which means it’s back to the campaign to grind for all of it. I also noticed after 80 waves of mobs i still hadn’t received a single legendary, whereas in that same amount of time in Campaign I definitely would have found at least one.
If they really want this to be an alternate game mode it should REPLACE what you need from the campaign, not require you to go back and re-farm the campaign for everything. With treasure troves and one-shot chests it’s not like the loot in the Campaign is worse than Crucible anyway.
Not yet, no. But perhaps Zantai’s declaration of intent to increase the xp gains may help ease that aspect.
It is definitely getting closer now tho.
As for the faction rep tho, if someone was simply intending on playing a character in only the Cruc, rep would matter little and it did pose a problem for them with having faction enemies spawning together in the Cruc. Having rep active they would end up attacking each other instead of you. Not ideal.
If you only played 80 waves on what I’m assuming is the first difficulty, Aspirant, then your qualms against leg drops are largely unfounded. Go higher to see better returns.
I have faith that it will get better as a mode that can be played fully separate from Main. It’s already almost there.
Yes, I would like to see Crate implement measures so that the Faction Rep and other similar features of the Main Campaign are woven in to features within The Crucible.
I’m sure Crate will have anticipated a good up-take of The Crucible considering the success of the base game and as such, will be open to accepting feedback from users and making adjustments and inclusions.
I really do think that The Crucible is a great addition to Grim Dawn and would really love to see it develop and grow in to an alternate way of playing - obtaining gear, levelling, etc.
I have never doubted Crate’s passion for making a game that is as enjoyable to play as possible. I’m sure that they will employ this approch with The Crucible, as well.
To be honest I would disagree with the faction part in the Crucible, I don’t think tying the factions to it makes much sense. Thematically or mechanically.
I sure would enjoy it a lot more if it had somewhat better loot rewards and more XP. So hopefully that will happen. Yeah, it would be a fun to alternative to level up and develop a character a bit or to just “mindlessly” grind for some gear.
Which means damning a toon who levels through Crucible to never have access to augments lol. I’m a Grim Dawn fan for life, they’ve got the best ARPG that’s ever been, but Crucible is a disappointment imo.
it doesn’t function as endgame because BiS characters have nothing to gain
it doesn’t work for leveling because XP would have to be increased about 500% to compete with the campaign, as mobs in Crucible are worth zero.
it offers devotions at a much higher cost and slower rate than they can be attained in the campaign.
it offers no faction rewards, meaning a character who somehow reaches high level purely on Crucible will be in a nightmare scenario of either being weaker than regular toons who use augments, or having to mindlessly grind the same mobs in campaign simply for rep.
So it doesn’t cater to endgame OR newbies. THIS IS FIXABLE- a few simple tweaks would work, for example faction QUEST rewards or faction-by-purchase inside Crucible, and a modest devotion cap increase, or a few STAT points attainable by tributes would guarantee interest for max level characters.
As it stands right now it’s unfinished. But I have high hopes it will become relevant.
Ain’t nobody smashing through Crucible, the scaling after wave 100 is utterly insane, even on the 1st difficulty. A devotion cap increase (say 1 devo point for each difficulty completed) and a stat increase (maybe 2 points per difficulty) would smell like reward for your effort, but still be INSANELY difficult to achieve and certainly not over the top.
There is less combined loot than other ARPGs in Grim Dawn, but loot is not all they have to offer. A few tweaks and Crucible will be a fun AND rewarding challenge for ANY character (also assuming massive fixes for towers, which are currently not working as per desc).
