Looking for a powerful, Barbarian-like build

Diablo veteran here, my all time favorite classes were barbarian,warrior in this order.
In contrary to other Diablo players, I did enjoy Diablo III. I no longer have that much time nor patience as I had in Diablo2 so nowadays I enjoy games that are easy. I like to rush through them and feel the breeze:)
I really struggled with Path of Exile difficulty, finished it (to maps) ONLY because of other players help(you play online in PoE). Definietly do not want to have such an experience in Grim Dawn as I’ve had in PoE. I want the game to be easy and I would like to progress as fast as I can.

So what can you recommend me? No classes in Grim Dawn are appealing to me, maybe except soldier.
I like tank builds, rather melee. Don’t like to die. No time for grind.

I get it that Grim Dawn is rather hard but based on your experience,observations what class,equipment can be good for me? I just want to finish the main story on the easiest difficulty possible.

My first questions would be:

How long do you want to play Grim Dawn? Just once the Main Campaign on Normal/Veteran or do you want the other difficulties (Elite/Ultimate), too?

If you just want to play the Main Campaign for the story in an easy way, I would recommend a Warder (Soldier/Shaman). Grab a 2H-Weapon and start smashing things.

With this character for sure only once on Normal if there is no easier difficulty.

Ok, so Warder it will be - but which particular build? What equipment? Which skills are crucial on the skill tree for me? Maybe you can link some Warder primer which you think is proper?

I don´t think there is something like a Primer for Warder.

I could link you some builds but they are all for Endgame. In my personal opinion and what I interpret what you want, I would take 1 Auto-Attack Replacer (Savagery or Cadence) and Forcewave with a big 2H Weapon you find.

And then just play and see what you find. You can´t make many mistakes on Normal and if there is a problem at some point, just ask. :slight_smile:

Yeah but I want my build to be as optimal as possible, especially early on. People claimed that PoE is easy at least till final boss and maps. That was BS. Some people say that GD is as deadly on bosses as PoE so I must be careful. I don’t want to die nor need to grind exp.

So which weapon should I specialize in? Maces,Axes,Swords do they make difference for Warder? Which resistances are the most important for the main campaign(with expansions) ? Assign all my points to Strength?

I want my gameplay to be as easy and straightforward as possible.

If you play Normal even a complete ARPG-Noob as me (and I am perhaps as old as you) didn´t die very often. And you can´t specialize in anything at Normal mode because nearly all equipment is random and you will change it frequently.

Well since you play only once on normal. Go shaman and Take Primal strike line with transmuter and watch content evaporate.
There is optimal leveling, and optimal end game. PS is optimal leveling.

If you don’t like Primal Strike you can do Force wave with transmuter

So pure shaman no soldier?

All my skill points to strength? Any other tips to make the game easier&faster?

I really want to be prepared. I’ve had a pretty consistent Marauder build but it wasn’t enough in PoE. I’ve barely finished it so that is why I’m so cautious about my character in GD.It is better to spend one hour reading about tactics than being forced to repeat bosses or stages.

What about resistances? Do I need them in the main campaign? Which ones?

I think Superfluff wanted to say Warder with Shaman (Primal Strike) as most used skill.

Resistances: The best would be all to 80, but in Act 1 it´s more Aether/Poison, in Act 2 Pierce/Fire/Bleeding, then Aether again and last Chaos/Fire (imho).

For AoM I would say Poison, Chaos and Aether…FG I only played on Ultimate with capped resistances.

a) you can watch his youtube series about grim dawn guides and the “grim dawn” playlist to see his level builds etc…
https://www.youtube.com/user/Malaganted/playlists its IMO one of the best youtube contet creator for grim dawn with realistic guides and builds.

b) to rush smooth to the game is more or less for all classes the same:

  1. take one skill to build around, example for a 2hand physical dmg char. Forcewave. Max it. and get everything that helps this skill. In this example. Physical dmg, physical resistance reduction, cast speed, offensive ability, big weapon with high dmg range
  2. take some stuff that helps you to stay alive, skill wise, heal spells, absorb shields, defensive ability, reduce target dmg skills etc…
  3. A LOT of your char power comes from gear. In the levelphase too. So you need to take care of this:
    3.1. try to max all resistance,
    3.2. get high physical resistance and high armor and high armor absorption
    3.3. if you come from poe, poe players says: “grim dawn is easy, you can stack health and regen and you will be fine”. So stack Health and some heal devotions like chariot, behemoth and/or the harp

if you come from poe you should know what you are need to look for on every gear slot:

double or triple resistance rolls and health
plus your dmg typ roll (physical),
offensive or defensive ability and armor
plus all skills, or plus soldier/shaman are great too and later in the game needed to get more power

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLPrdGV example for a char with good start gear. (taken from this guide https://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49754)

example for melee start builds for level 50
soldier 2hand https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrAYJ6V <- physical dmg
shaman 2hand https://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2gEb7yZ <- Lightning dmg
nightblade dual wield melee https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GXbKlV <-- cold dmg and squishy

you see how this works. get one skill to work around, get the right devotions (resistance reduction for the dmg type and heal devotions) get the correct gear (health, resistance, plus skills, offensive and defensive abillity) and you are good to finish the game easy to start ultimate.

To make it easy for OP, check out Stupid Dragon’s Forcewave build for Death Knight in the forum.

But I fear it’s too unchallenging for you in Normal and you may give up halfway.

Sent from my SM-N916S using Tapatalk

Your specifications kinda conrattict the idea of a build in GD. In GD builds are endgame concepts. I can tell you that Stormreaver vindicator is the strongest 2h build but how does it help you when you just wanna breeze though normal and elite, maybe ultimate, and you’ll probably never drop a single piece of Light’s Defender set.

For 2h leveling take soldier for Forcewave and whatever has phys rr: necro, oathkeeper or witchblade. Oathkeeper, if you want things easy. And play with whatever drops.

Play the game , explore, do whatever U want and learn game’s mechanics

Pick any AOE (area of effect) skill you like the most for leveling => end normal & elite > try another class … and so on

After 5-7 builds : if you feel enough Experience , enough items => try Ultimate and see if you want to continue …

here you go: https://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83360 basically Grim Dawn version of the charge / whirlwind barb from the diablo games. it is beginner friendly so you do not need to have any gear prior to making it.

the sword and board death knight build by stupid dragon are more like Paladin zealot from d2

Forcewave builds are like hammer of the ancients and seismic slam from diablo III, check out both supid dragons death knight for forcewave leveling and my beginner spinner for a basic endgame forcewave build

But since you just wanna push through the main game on Normal difficulty, you can do that with basically all classes :stuck_out_tongue: its sooo easy you can’t really ask for builds in Normal difficulty since no one really cares about it

So forcewave is better than primal strike? I guess it says so in the wiki, as forcewave is tier1 and primal strike tier2.

Indeed, I came from PoE. So I know what I need the most broken combos and OP skills in order not to suffer in the second part of the game!

In PoE they said the same thing. The game is only hard on maps. Don’t be fooled, first 3 acts may be normal but the next 7 are HARD.

OK will go with the forcewave. Looks like most of you guys recommend it and only only two mentioned primal strike.
I’m not interested in a particular build very much because I do not intend to look for a specific items/equipment. Hope that this game is not so focused on item synergies as PoE.

-> Assign all my points to Physique? <-

What is good about forcewave is that it is physical damage which is “easier” to build around than lightning. What is not so good about it is that reflection will hurt more. PLUS it will feel more “barbaric” to you than primal strike

You might like this video I made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uls5ANbhn2g

11k views, +100 likes, 5 dislikes

11 767 views.

Not convinced whether transmuter (no stun at all, massive reduction of dmg) is worth it but will take your word for it.

Any other noob friendly OP skills in this game for a soldier?
Not related to forcewave.

Transmute make it has 0 cooldown so you can spam it w/o 2.8s waiting.

Also, if you want some 1-pass build like back in D2, I have to tell you GD has 0 build like that. Put crucible and shatter realm aside, most of the challenge dungeon can’t be done without proper build on Ultimate.

You will have to “grind” for items to progress. And if you will have to grind anyway, pick a build with better end game result.

So many advice for one playthrough on normal difficulty, you could have finished the game multiple times since that. :slight_smile: I consider normal difficulty like the first kiss before sex at most. :smiley:

You could even have started multiple charaters, reach a few levels in a few minutes, test out the first skills, then pick what you liked the most. You can complete normal difficulty with anything very easily.