I am a hardcore Diablo 3 player and I was in search of a new game because I am waiting for the D3 new class.
I tried Path of Exile but it feels buggly slow etc so I didnt like it.
This game looks pretty impressive!
What are the + and -'s of this game when compared to D3?
And am I able to reset attributes, skill points etc without having to pay real money or having to create a new char? Because as a noobie I will reset alot. Some games dont let you or you need to pay $, or need to open a new char thats the biggest turnoff for me in a game.
And I hope this game is balanced in terms of classes All tips n tricks are welcome!
It depends on the person. I haven’t played D3 since it’s release and a lot has happened since then. My brother has been playing D3 religiously and recently tried Grim Dawn and he couldn’t get into it (Grim Dawn) that is.
His reasons were that D3 was more flashy and holds your hand a lot more. Equipment picked up in D3 just tells you wether it’s better or worse. In Grim Dawn you have to make choices. Do you trade your OA and HP for a weapon that does twice the amount of damage? or do you trade your OA and HP for a boost to armor and resistances? etc
D3 gives you access to skills immediately and as you progress your are granted a new skill etc. It suits the more casual gamer as you don’t really have to plan until later on. Grim Dawn has a lot of theory-crafting. You can’t just slap various skills together and call it a build. (Well you can, but don’t expect to clear the content). Certain items and class combinations synergise better than others and with the right customisation your build will clear rooms with a snap of their fingers.
D3’s levelling system just doesn’t end. It has an endless grind even after reaching max level. Once your reach max level in Grim Dawn, that’s pretty much it. You max out a few of your last devotions and farm a few rare legendaries from the rogue dungeons but for most it’s time for a new character.
You can reset skill in Grim Dawn using “in-game” money but you cannot reset your chosen mastery or attribute points. No money is required. There’s also mod tools if you completely ruined your build available. Pick physique. You will want a lot of physique. One thing is for sure, when selecting your attributes you hover the mouse button over physique. I can’t stress how physically punished you will be if you don’t pick physique for most of your attribute points. Hint, Hint, Hint.
Grim Dawn is more “old-school”. You decide how to optimise your character and what you ultimately want your character to play like. I think Diablo 3 takes a lot of choices away from the players and gives them to you in drips and drabs to give the impression of customisation but falls short. Grim Dawn is customisation defined which is why I prefer it.
You really have to decide for yourself. My bro managed to clear Act 1 in Grim Dawn before shelving it and returning to D3. It’s not for everyone.
Biggest difference is that Grim Dawn is mostly intended as a solo experience. You can find people to group with, but there is no leaderboards and basically no competition. You play how you want.
Best thing about Grim Dawn over D3 is probably character customization. Where as in D3 there is almost no customization beyond the 3 or 4 sets for each class, GD has nearly infinite possibilities. Between gear and components adding extra abilities and devotions fine tuning your strengths or shoring up your weaknesses - there are just so many options it sometimes gets overwhelming. I love it.
Only thing about D3 I think is better is that it’s overall more graphically polished and probably smoother animations.
Overall, as someone who has put a couple thousand hours into D3 and nearly 1500 hours into GD - I personally think GD has a lot more replayability and is a lot more interesting. Rather than grinding paragon eternally hoping for better ancient rolls of the same gear you already have, GD encourages building new characters and farming gear for your entire roster of characters. That just really does it for me - it’s what I love in an ARPG.
Basically, with D3, you always know what you’re getting when you make a character. In GD, it’s just one experiment after another.
I personally think it’s one of the worst ideas to ever be implemented in a game for a multitude of reasons. It’s not “real progression.” (Don’t mean to sound rude. Just my opinion.)
Grinding for gear is much more interesting in a game that actually takes advantage of the possibilities. In D3, not so much, because there is almost no room for customization. You know what gear you want going in, you get it, and then you’re done besides paragon (and ancient gear). In GD, if you get some cool gear that maybe doesn’t work for your class - you build a new class to take advantage of it. And there are no limits to what gear you want and how you use it.
It depends, really. There are three difficulty levels (normal/veteran, elite, ultimate), and you have to do a full game clear before you can progress into the later difficulties. Your first time to get to 85 (max lvl) will take a while, but I usually do it in around 25-40 hours now depending on my build and how much gear I have saved up in my stash for the build.
The highest level requirement for gear is 75, so you can use all gear in the game at that level. You can farm the best gear in the game in the roguelikes (basically end game dungeons) on elite (second difficulty), but there is a higher change for legendary drops on Ultimate. Ultimate is a pretty big jump from elite, so I recommend taking your time before switching from elite.
Also, there are different factions you can grind rep for by doing bounties. Each faction has different items they sell - including augments. Augments usually are for increasing your resistances to certain damage types, but there are DPS ones too. Resistances are pretty much the most important stats in the game (in addition to OA, DA, and HP). On elite, you take an automatic -25% debuff to your resistances, and on ultimate it’s -50%. So make sure to always pay attention to what types of attacks enemies are using, and try to get your resistances up to that type if they give you trouble.
Then this game is for you.
When you play your first run through the game, lets say a lightning melee char, you will reach some point when you will say: “I got a lot of gear for a fire melee char, time to make it.” Then you will start your fire melee char, and you will reach a point when you will say: “I got a lot of gear for a cold range, time to make it.” And so on.
Have fun.
If you perfer d3 over d2 then Grim Dawn isn’t for you. If d3 was a let down then Grim dawn is for you. I played the hech out of d3, sitting on paragon 832 before gr 40-1000000000 became the norm but once Grim Dawn was available in beta I haven’t looked back.
I’ll agree that end game farming is pointless in grim dawn once content is complete but if you made Baal games over and over then its not that big deal or if you ran the secret passage in TQIT over and over then again this game is for you. Paragon in d3 hardly amounts to progression or prolonging the game you get a level put 5 more points in main stat then see if you can clear gr 836363957 any faster…boring. The problem with arpgs now adays is max level is too easy to get to there is no grind. I hope they change this with xpac. Played d2 for 12 years never saw level 99, 96 was the highest I made it, played titans quest for a long time highest was a 71 never made it to 75 and that is fine with me. This way grinding gear still had a purpose gaining a level eventually.
Bottom line if you are hung up on d3 and think its good then you arent going to like Grim Dawn. I’d recommend ditching the garbage blizzard made and play this. Having said that I’m a sucker and will probably get the necro if the player pac is no more than 14.99.
Grim Dawn has some Diablo 3 Inferno 1.03 moments that can make you want to pull your hair out fyi
I miss that too. I did manage to get a few chars to 99, mainly sorcs and javazons as they were AOE heavy and cleared cows in no time. Some other characters with less AOE never made it, but were fun to play nevertheless…fury barbs being a prime example.
Although the cow level was sort of a gimmick, for a long time it pretty much was end-game, and it was fun. Running rogue-likes is OK, but they are fairly predictable / manageable. I seem to remember cows being more unpredictable, although that could just be from trying to group up as many as possible : ) I miss that style of gameplay. (Though it could also just be nostalgia ^^)
I guess crucible is similar, but I find it too detached from the main game, and the lack of drops until you have finished makes it feel somewhat tedious.
I guess there were lots of reasons why D2 was so successful. Ahh, reminiscing
Back on topic, I also played D3 from launch, and still log in now and then, but I find the power creep and lack of build diversity has put me off.
GD offers a lot more customisation due to the Skill and Devotion systems. It’s also a single player off-line game, so whilst the game itself doesn’t allow you to respec Mastery or Attribute points (only Skills) there are a number of external programs that can do it for you.
I would say go for it. Even if you just ended up playing through the game once to Ultimate it would be worth it.
All tips n tricks are welcome!
I always switch chars because I never endup continue playing with 1 char