Is this normal?

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

I’ve been playing a commando character. I’ve made it all the way through normal, and at some point in either act 3 or 4 (I can’t remember exactly) of normal, I found a yellow (magic) 1H axe that had superior dps numbers. I actually replaced an epic at the time. Since then, I have not found a single 1H weapon of any kind (epic, yellow, green, or monster infrequent) that is listed in the tooltips as being higher DPS than this particular axe. I’m now in Elite difficulty, act 3 heading towards Fort Ikon, and am still using this axe from normal.

I’m not complaining, because the damage output including buffs and such is actually quite good. I’m able to kill most trash mobs in 1 or 2 hits, and a single Blitz can wipe out an entire group of white-named enemies immediately.

I have several questions here:
Has anyone encountered this kind of lack of suitable upgrade?

Am I passing up obvious upgrades because I’m only looking at the tooltip that says “-100 dps if equipped”?

Does the tooltip take into account augments and components attached to the item?

For reference, the weapon I currently have equipped is:

Superior Assault Battle Axe of Alacrity
Magic One-Handed Axe
38-120 physical damage
1.93 attacks per second

19-27 physical damage
+18% attack speed

Searing Ember
2-4 Fire Damage
+12% fire damage
10% physical damage converted to fire damage

Voidvine Powder
8 fire damage
+25% fire damage
6% chaos resist

–

In the character screen, when fully buffed, it says I’m doing 6915 dps.

Should I be worried that I haven’t found an upgrade in so long?

2

that certainly is not uncommon

Am I passing up obvious upgrades because I’m only looking at the tooltip that says “-100 dps if equipped”?

DPS isn’t everything. If you primarily attack with your weapon, then it is a decent indicator but even then there are other things to consider (e.g. resistance reduction)

If you mostly use skills that are not centered around your weapon, then it is pretty useless

What do you consider an obvious upgrade and why would you ignore it if it were obvious ? Just being rare or unique and higher level does not make something an obvious upgrade however, whether something is an upgrade mostly depends on your build

Does the tooltip take into account augments and components attached to the item?

yes, but when you hold CTRL pressed while comparing items it will ignore those, so you really see the difference in items

For reference, the weapon I currently have equipped is:

Superior Assault Battle Axe of Alacrity

Superior means more physical base damage, of Alacrity means increased attack speed, so a great combination for sheet DPS (as opposed to real DPS, see above)

3

Going without an upgrade for so long isn’t particularly uncommon, no. I’ve ran a riflemen from Level 35 with a Devil’s Musket up until Level 70 when I upgraded to the Elite version before.

Maybe I could’ve stayed in one or two areas and farmed a better rifle but why bother when I’d just replace it eventually anyway and the Musket I was using was doing just fine for damage.

It depends. Weapon comparisons do not take exotic stats like weapon procs or skill bonuses into account which may make up a significant portion of your damage.

Does the tooltip take into account augments and components attached to the item?

Yes. Holding CTRL while comparing items will temporarily disable your components/augments though so you compare each raw weapon.

Should I be worried that I haven’t found an upgrade in so long?

As I say, if you’re killing things in a decent time (Bosses in particular), then you’re doing fine. When you feel your damage start to suffer is when you want to consider looking for an upgrade.

4

yes, but when you hold CTRL pressed while comparing items it will ignore those, so you really see the difference in items

Okay, now I feel stupid. I didn’t realize that you could do this and I’ve been playing forever. Thank you! I will definitely be using this.

If you primarily attack with your weapon, then it is a decent indicator but even then there are other things to consider (e.g. resistance reduction)

My build is focused primarily around weapon damage + flashbang (which reduces DA of target), fire damage buffs, and blackwater cocktail. Survivability comes from using overguard to maintain active healing and counter any poison/bleed that my resistances don’t mitigate, and using the ability provided by hollowed fang for damage to health conversion. It’s a pretty ‘tanky’ build. I can stand in the bad stuff for a significant time before needing to move away if my resistances are maxed and I’ve got blooddrinker active, so I get a bit extra time dealing damage and keeping enemies still so that blackwater cocktail can do its thing for a bit extra damage.

5

Others have mostly answered this, but have you checked faction gear up to level 50? I can’t remember the last time I actually used yellows past level 20…they might have slightly more DPS than others, but overall stats are inferior to greens (at least).

6

If it makes you feel any better “superior” of “alacrity” is pretty much the god combo of early game physical attacking builds. I’d still reckon almost any epic melee item (or legendary of course) that was suited to a soldier/demo would be a large upgrade once again at this point.

You could try hitting the shops/faction vendors as yper said. A weapon I used for a while with a demo melee build was Kilrian’s Skullbreaker (drops from him in the Arkovian Undercity fairly often) which I got a bit lucky with. Lasted me a looong time.

7

Thanks everyone for the tips.

As soon as I used the ctrl key to toggle components/augments off when comparing, I found a green that was a 100 point upgrade on DPS. Without the toggle, it showed as being something like -150 DPS. So I’m certain that I’ve skipped over several potential upgrades that were close, just because of the addons to the weapon.

The more you know.

8

BTW, check this yellow weapon, relatively easy to find on Ultimate and very good to level up new chars. It is a level 94 base weapon with a char level requirement of 35.
I have a char who used this weapon from lvl 35 to 94.

9

where did you find that at? that seems like a drop table somewhere is bugged to allow that low of an affix roll on a redeemer weapon in ultimate

10

I don’t think so, there’s no higher level of those affixes, so unless you’re implying that “Vampiric” and/or “of Alcrity” should not drop at all at high levels there’s no bug afaik.

11

I’m not sure. But I will pay attention when they drop next time.

12

Exactly! Needless to say i didn’t know about this either, so after crafting about 100 or so Enchanted 2h Axes i came up with this

Imgur

It’s even better, no armor piercing :smiley:

Prefixes: vampiric, draining, sapping
Suffixes: of alacrity, of celerity
Any combo of these affixes will result in a lvl 30-35 weapon.

13

Well. It figures. I think the RNGods are toying with me. No sooner do I make this post, and get some nice tips, do I find:

Superior Mutant Bludgeon Of Alacrity
37-172 Physical Damage
1.72 Attacks Per Second

24-34 physical damage
115 internal trauma damage over 5 seconds
+3% Crit Damage
+129% Internal Trauma Damage
+17% Attack Speed
+2 to Forcewave
-0.4 second Skill Recharge for Forcewave
+2 meter radius to Forcewave

–

Found it on Elite Difficulty, just as I was going through the Fort Ikon armory.

Without holding ctrl, it was a 100 point increase to dps, and ignoring components and augments, it was an over 200 point increase. :confused:

I guess this was all just me being unlucky on the drops. But at least I’ve got a pretty beefy upgrade now.