[Need advice...] One shotted twice on HC

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Hey everyone,

quick intro… I’m still extremely new to GD (127 hours of gameplay ) and first post here. I didnt even finish the game yet, I’m enjoying it… taking my time, etc. Playing HC all the time on every game I can.

I’m not a complete noob into this kind of game, played plenty of D1, D2, PoE, TQ and the list goes on but I never had this kind of problem.

It’s the first time I have this kind of problem. I get one-shotted in Grim Dawn… like, out of nowhere. Indeed I’ve read a lot of guides, I’m not too dumb and no I didnt over invest in my skills points. I actually try to put as much points as I can in the mastery bar, boost my resist as much as I can, play defensively, invest some points into defensive skills.

First time it happened was on some kind of caster shaman I leveled to lvl 45 I don’t remember all the details.

BUT NOW, playing HC Veteran on the character I enjoyed to play the most, my vitality conjurer wich had pretty good gear I think, maxed elemental resists, 5k HP at lvl 45( it’s fine right ?! ) and a good balance of offensive/defensive skills… I get f*ing one shotted by some Chimaeras in the Blood Grove. Edit : Forgot to say I actually had no problems at all leveling to this point, it was a breeeeeeeeeeeze , then this happens.

I tried to understand what happened but simply couldn’t figure. Even if I had some kind of debuff casted on me, I don’t think you can get annihilated like that hahahaha ! Had both defensive auras up and playing my rotation as always, didnt even have the time to health pot or something.

IS THIS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN GD ?! Or I’m just shitlucky or I’m missing the point of the game, or how to play…

Any hint is appreciated and sorry for the wall of text !

2

as someone who only plays this game hardcore and has several thousand hours played

true one-shotting is very rare in this game. a lot of the time what kills you is multiple medium-sized attacks, or getting shotgunned by a bunch of projectiles

chimeras are notoriously difficult relative to the enemies around them. they inflict severe and long-lasting dots on you (poison and bleed), and can crit pretty hard with their melee attacks as well. it’s possible too that due to their proximity to bloodsworn enemies, you had curse of frailty cast on you at the time which would reduce your resistances.

while leveling chimeras are the only enemies i ever really feel the need to pay attention to, so don’t expect this to happen all the time. try to keep your DA at a reasonable level (check enemy crit chance by hovering over your DA), try to keep your resists up, and don’t neglect armor either.

your hp was fine for that level, you just got swarmed by a bunch of (intentionally) overtuned enemies. if you’re having trouble at that point, remember that at level 40 you can start using the lesser weapon/jewelry augments from faction vendors. at level 50 you can start using the greater ones, though grinding the necessary rep on normal/vet takes a while.

3

Thanks so much for the quick answer.

I’ll consider everything you said, like I mentionned I’m still extremely new and I get that it’s a complex game ( and awesome game )… So yeah, from te way you see it I probably didn’t pay enough attention to all the variables. That’s what you get when you get too confident from breezing trough every quests.

On the other side that’s why I play HC, for the challenge and the way you learn a little but more every time you die !

If I can ask you something, what are the renowned class/builds to be all around good for HC ? Maybe I could read about them and choose what’s my next character !

4

yeah i mean it’s not a jab at you or anything, i’ve literally never played this game softcore, so i went in blind just like you and died a few times along the way. there are a few things that you can only pick up on through experience.

i’m of the opinion that any build that isn’t hc-viable is just not a good build. i don’t play super safe or anything, i play hc the way most people play sc, i just know what i’m doing. it usually takes me between 22 and 24 hours to hit level 85, which is much faster than most people can do on sc.

but to actually answer your build question, anything from jajaja is a solid build. check out his threads, i’m sure there’ll be a few that pique your interest.

5

Try adding a few circuit breakers to your build.

6

Elemental resistances are useful, but exactly the best defense. My admittedly soft core chars run around with sub-50 ele resists until elite at least. And I tend not to eat a death or two till late elite/ultimate. Blood grove is almost purely chaos/poison/bleed/pierce + whatever the faction you sided against brings to the table (order or kymons).

I’m going to assume you mean that Manticores are killing you as there are no chimeras in this game (unless you are playing a modded game?) In which case the instant damage would be a mix of physical/pierce with lingering poison/chaos. If you mean the small chtonian demony things then those are I think pierce/phys/acid/poison/chaos - be careful around those the green ones hit harder than the red ones.

7

Concerning jajaja’s builds, I wouldn’t follow them at 100% for HC. When I see his health going down quickly, even sometimes under 10%, it’s an assured heart attack in HC :rolleyes:

:stuck_out_tongue:

To the OP
Chimeras monsters can be easy if you have enough acid/poison resist. Try to use Antivenom Salve (goes in all armors, although belt and gloves are usually good spot for it) Component to help you (gonna have to craft them at the blacksmith). For bleed/pierce resist, you can use/craft the Silk Swatch (for pants and shoulders).

Other good mentions for resistances :
Sanctified bone (usually BIS for the Helm IMO)
Black tallow (good when missing chaos resist, for medal and amulet)
Wardstone (I usually use it early on only)
Runestone (again, I only use it early on only if needed)

It’s just a few components with resistances that can be crafted at the blacksmith.
Hope it helps!

8

@Dreeg

I will take a look, I just need a lot more gameplay I think and then take a better look at all the skills/devotions/augments… By circuit breakers I assume you mean something like Menhir’s Will ?! Gotta check what’s similar for every classes.

@Silben

I totally meant Manticores sorry :stuck_out_tongue: And yeah I forgot to say I had decent pierce resist ~ 50% , same for poison and chaos/pierce were in fact pretty low ~ 15% maybe. I probably got hit by a lot of different stuff very fast like you guys said.

@MrTek

Thanks for the suggestions, I got greedy with components. I tend to hoard everything for late game and then just die without using them… :rolleyes:
It’s nice to see someone from Quebec on the forums, I assume you’re french like me ?!

9

Correct, but not every class has something like Menhir’s Will. You’re better off looking at devotions (Turtle Shell, Giant’s Blood, etc.).

10

Just wanted to add a few devotion suggestions for hc:

  1. Tree of life - prolly the best devotion for hc. The proc is amazing (way better than giant’s blood imo), and there is also a lot of hp on the way.

  2. The bottom three nodes of Obelisk of Menhir. The devotion starts at the 7% increased armour node and with that one you unlock both the 5% DA as well as the 150 flat armour node. The armour gets added to every single piece of gear. Very nice, especially for melee builds.

  3. The % and the flat hp in Targo. Just good hp :smiley:

  4. The flat hp and the proc in Behemoth (giant’s blood). Its not as powerful as healing rain, but it’s also a lot cheaper to get and it helps.

  5. The lifesteal from Revenant (and a few other nodes in various constellations). -> In order to get value out of lifesteal you need a skill with high % weapon damage. If you use one of those lifesteal is great.

  6. The % hp nodes in crossroads

  7. Wendigo’s mark -> a caster substitute for lifesteal. Very powerful, if you go for a vitality build, still decent with other stuff. Not a must have, but useful.

  8. Turtle. Very good for leveling, but falls off quite hard in Ultimate. Usually only worth to keep past lvl 70 if you need the affinity.

  9. Dryad. Unfortunately the constellation as a whole is not exactly fantastic, but the proc is quite ok.

  10. All devotions with resists and physique. The best of these is Solemn Watcher imo (and Light of Empyrion o.c), but even the few % on Empty Throne are nothing to scoff at, if it helps you to cap your resists.

11

I am new to the game too and I find that the difficulty on hardcore raises considerably from lvl 40. I am lvl 48 by the way. Once you have completed all the side quests, the difficulty spike should be noticably curved. Nothing like diablo 3.

12

Yes, at least to me on some characters especially on ultimate without very strong defenses.
And here is why I am playing SC only right now: Something I noticed is that the ‘lifesaver’ procs from items like Mark of Divinity sometimes just won’t trigger and I die, even though it is not on cooldown. If that would happen to me on HC I’d be very mad :smiley: maybe this can happen, when I drop from like 60% to 0% in one hit, but I’m not sure about the mechanics.
So don’t rely on those items once you’ve got them.

13

This is why keeping your DA reasonably high is a good thing. Sinaril is right, if you go from 60% to 0% HP in one hit (typically a crit) it will not trigger your circuit breaker procs/skills. High DA will help prevent those crits. Most of the time though (at last with high DA), your HP will drop fast from multiple “shot gun” hits and in those cases your circuit breakers will trigger.

Also don’t under estimate the 20% armor absorb on the scaled hide component. Help reduce a little more physical damage…

14

15% poison resist is pretty dangerous when facing manticores. Increase your reputation with devil’s crossing first to Honored to get the lvl 40 augments for rings and ammy that increase poison resist. Then later on Rovers to revered for the lvl 50 augments.