I’ve been away from the game for awhile, and am completely out of touch with what’s been nerfed or buffed recently. I’m starting back up tonight playing with my brother, and I’d really appreciate suggestions on a build that’s solid both leveling and endgame, with good AoE clearspeed and at least decent survivability. I’m not looking for builds that are glass cannons, or builds that are slow and awkward leveling up until you get specific gear - I’m hoping for something fun to play from the get-go but can still at least make a decent go at endgame. Thanks!
Fire strike generally fits that bill IMO. Melee and ranged have good end game options. Melee has faction gear support, ranged has an MI that’s pretty awesome. Fire pure, Fire/Phys, Fire/Chaos, Fire/Lightning, Aether/Fire… Keep some points aside, use whatever gear you come across, and it should sort out alright eventually.
I would advice a Poison Witch Hunter : easy to level with DEE and very good in the end game
The survivability is decent (2 healing skills, no need to get involved in melee fight), it clears mobs at a (very) good speed and most bosses and nemesis are not hard to kill in Ultimate (some can even be a cakewalk when well-geared) thus making the build a good Ultimate farmer (quite a good point for a new beginning)
The gear dependency is very low as poison is well supported gear-wise and has some Faction gear too (Rovers mostly)
The best example is the build from TomodaK (a true Dreeg’s Disciple) : http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49047
And I had a lot of fun levelling and playing mine in Ultimate
If you want to be more tanky (thanks to Soldier’s passives and skills), you can try a Poison Witchblade like the one from Drizzto : http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52149
I started my first char as a Caster Witchblade. I did modify it at the end when I was fully geared towards Drizzto stuff (thanks to Shieldbreaker) and I down every nemesis easily, can farm all area and I have 11k HP while having a Shield being a range character that can Kite cause most damage is coming from DoT.
Soldier before getting to top gear will offer you free HP and free Resist from the skill point which are both good thing to have.
I would highly recommend a ranged Pyromancer. It doesnt need any specific gear to work well, the firestrike line provides good AoE in brimstone, and occultist brings some nice tank to the party with blood of dreeg. It was the first build i beat the game on and i still love it.
Yeah, it was my first build as well. He’s nice and not so gear-dependant, but his tankiness is quite lacking in endgame - he’s rather a glass cannon.
For more tankiness, would a sorcerer be the better way to go? Or is pyromancer superior, despite the squishiness? The only recent guides I’ve seen for ranged firestrike are sorc fire/chaos, but some of the older ones could still be relevant, I’m just not sure what’s changed.
Fire Strike has an oddly large amount of options. If you focus a Fire/Lightning Fire Striker, and go Demo/Shaman, you can pick up Mogdrogen’s Pact for some extra health and health regen, and run out the full mastery bar to get Stormcaller’s Pact for more damage. The stats from a second mastery bar will add some tankiness as well.
You could also focus Fire/Phys/Int Trauma, and go Demo/Soldier. Grab the various passives, both pieces of Field Command, maybe Oleron’s Rage, maybe grab Fighting Spirit for more OA… And as you’d be half Soldier, you’d get extra tankiness there as well.
If all you wanted was damage, then your best options would be Occultist or Arcanist. But since you specifically seem to want a sturdier build… Soldier and Shaman varieties can both be powerful enough to clear comfortably, but tanky. Occultist/Arcanist will clear far faster, but also be far squishier. Up to you.
Here. Quick and dirty Demo/Shaman variety.
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVW98GNJ
All that gear is faction gear, so you don’t have to worry about obtaining it. You will want to replace it whenever possible, though. I didn’t finish off the devotions, just worked to Tempest, because you’re sure to want that. Also didn’t allocate attribute points, because that can change with devotions and gear. Change the skill points as you please. Only things that are really needed maxed IMO are Stormcaller’s Pact, Heart Of The Wild, Thermite Mine, and the three pieces of Fire Strike. There are certainly other useful things, but that’s all I call 100% needed for function.
I appreciate the help! Do you think the Demo/Shaman is superior to the sorc fire/chaos build? This is what I was looking at: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50260
I can only say two things on that. One, Fire/Chaos Fire Strike should pretty much always be Demo/Occultist IMO. Two, Demo/Shaman will probably end up cracking 11K health, maybe more, depending on your gear and devotion setup. It’s just a generally tankier route. It will almost certainly be less damage overall, though I expect your lucky hits will actually be about the same, because of Stormcaller’s Pact’s “Chance of” extra damage.
Again, it’s just a choice. Better, worse… Eh. Both will function. Shaman will simply be safer. IMO.
The Demo/Occultist builds are very, VERY squishy by the time you make it to end game (lv 85 on Ult difficulty), so I would factor that into your decision.
Pyromancer was my first character I developed as well, and while she’s a beast when it comes to damage, the Pyromancer builds have no circuit breaker abilities that can save you when you get nailed by high spike damage, only one added heal (Blood of Dreeg), and a debuff (Curse of Frailty).
If you want a bit more sturdiness, the others have mentioned plenty to get you going.
But hell, why not both? I say try both builds and focus on the one you’re most comfortable with.
^
Good point. There is nothing stopping you from making a Fire Striker of EVERY kind. All the damage focuses and all the class combos that support them.
That’s part of the joy of games like Grim Dawn. You can do one thing that you really enjoy, and even if you hate every other skill in the game, you can still spend a LOT of time testing and optimizing various versions of that ONE thing you enjoy. You’re bound to get value out of your purchase with this kind of game.
Sorcerer isnt more tanky, he just has 3-sec invulnerability on CD, that’s all. Maiven’s sphere gives damage absorb, but so does Possession. And Aspect of Guardian at least gives fair poison and physical resist…
I dont think, that Mirror of Ereoctes alone justifies whole class pick, considering he would deal far less DPS.
Fire Strike Sorcerer gunslingers are garbage. The only damage types that get enough support from gear to be decent are Fire/Chaos hybrids (specifically because Exterminus has shitton of + to skills and a proc that would be broken on any other weapon) and Physical/Pierce hybrids (because Cadence). The only reason that one build does well is because it’s a wannabe Pyromancer.
They used to have a solid 2-Handed ranged build using Vortex of Souls, but that got hit hard with a nerf lately and I’m not sure if it’s viable anymore.
Aether/Fire with VOS is still good IMO. The nerf was to AS, and it kinda had too much, so it’s still strong. I suspect that maybe a top end fleshwarped rifle might beat VOS now, with perfect rolls, but it’d probably still be close because of the piercing effect on VOS.
They used to have a solid 2-Handed ranged build using Vortex of Souls, but that got hit hard with a nerf lately and I’m not sure if it’s viable anymore.
VoS got its attack speed nerfed by 14%, but Arcanist got a fair amount of flat damage added with the buff to Fabric of Reality and Reckless Power. Since we’re talking about a ranged weapon here any flat damage is a big boost considering how bad their base damage is. I’d say the build is probably still viable, but maybe that’s wishful thinking on my end because I finally got the items to make one.
The Demo/Occultist builds are very, VERY squishy by the time you make it to end game (lv 85 on Ult difficulty), so I would factor that into your decision.
Pyromancer was my first character I developed as well, and while she’s a beast when it comes to damage, the Pyromancer builds have no circuit breaker abilities that can save you when you get nailed by high spike damage, only one added heal (Blood of Dreeg), and a debuff (Curse of Frailty).
Do you not use Blast Shield ? Because it IS by definition a circuit breaker. Pyro should also have fairly high passive hp regen. Also tankiness can be addressed with the right choice of devotions and items. You can always wear a MoD, it gives nice bonuses to skills you use, get your dw enabler from the belt and not pick full damage devotions.
While it’s quite a bit harder to be tanky as a pistol build there’s always JoV’s harbinger build as an example of how to be a ranged tank.