Hello , I’m relatively new to Grim Dawn (only having 3 characters that are higher levels then 50) and I’m very hooked into this game. My problem is that the first 2 characters that hit 50 really struggled in Elite even though they were breezing through Veteran. I’m very worried about this character so please give me feedbacks on it. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/M2g4jEVy http://grimcalc.com/build/1009-oeVXRj with plus skills and devotions
My main damage types are Vitality and Chaos with a decent amount of Vitality Decay. Amarasta’s Burst blade does around 2k2 damage (with Flame Torrent attached which does around 1k5) and my normal auto-attacks do about 2k damage. Chaos Strike does 14k damage with Raise The Dead attached (each skeletons do about 1k of Vitality dmg per auto). Shadow Strike does 4k damage with Twin fang attached which does around 1k5 dmg.
My supporting spell is Curse of Fragility with Eldritch Fire attached and the two combine is an awesome Chaos/Vitality debuff.
My weapons have a lot of Chaos and Vitality damage converted from Physical so the Nightblade’s dual wielding abilities can also do a lot.
Death Omen is probably one of the best loot I’ve found in the game. Mark the Death with does 1k vitality plus 20% reduction to enemy health with 2 massive debuffs every 2 seconds is sort of OP. The mini-doom bolts from my belt also does a decent amount of damage.
Despise all of the decent things that I’ve got going with this character, I’m dead worried about Elite and Ultimate and I feel like this silly build won’t be able to hold its ground.
I’m not an expert on this game but I have several hundred hours in it now. I haven’t gotten into ultimate with a character yet but I am on the verge with several of them. I also won’t be too specific about the build just some suggestions. I’m kind of curious why you decided to go with fire as one of your main supported elements as it were? Nothing in the witch hunter classes supports fire? Is it because you are trying to get the chaos damage? I have a witch hunter at level 70 who is breezing through elite at the moment and that is a chaos/poison/vitality build, skills that are all supported by the two classes.
Poison is excellent as it can apply powerful damage over time effects. Also if you go poison/chaos you can take one of the best constellations (in my opinion) the abomination. Another thing is that you don’t seem to have any resistance reduction for your damage types except fire which you’ve said is not a main damage type but seems to be one that is heavily supported in your build? You’ll notice that possession supports and boosts the damage of vitality/chaos/poison. You will also notice that curse of frailty has quite a powerful debuff for vitality resistance and poison resistance. You’ll also notice that veil of shadows has poison debuff on it as well.
Why do your two best survival skills have such few points in them? I’ve found that pneumatic burst and blood of dreeg are what give this build its survivability. Also for a build that is focusing on chaos and vitality damage you do not have many points in anatomy of murder.
In elite I’ve found that you need devotion procs that give you healing or give you a boost to attack damage converted to health.
Best advice I can tell you is decide what damage types you want the build to focus on (I usually focus on two or three if the damage is supported by the class) and where you want to end up in the constellations. Decide whether you want to get a tier three constellation and work out best how to get there. Finally, don’t be too worried about elite. Make sure your resists are as good as possible and you focus on damage types and work out how your build will heal damage dealt and you should be fine. Won’t comment on ultimate. Haven’t gotten there but I am a bit worried.
Though it is expensive the best component for vitality based damage melee builds is definitely haunted steel.
As I said, these are my observations. I am sure a more experienced player will be in to help you and you should take what I said with a grain of salt as still getting my head around skills and mechanics.
I thought my main damage types were Chaos(+597%) and Vitality (+674%) with Fire only about +262%.
I’m quite curious to what poison skill to invest in. I’ve tried Dreeg’s eyes but it was quite an inconvenience due to its slow casting speed. I think I also invest a bit in Attack Speed so i don’t think it will work in my build.
I’ve maxed out possession and also invested quite a bit into CoF … should I invest even more into CoF ?
Very good point you’ve brought up. I sometimes feel that their heals are not very optimal but I’m surviving the Warden just fine in Elite with my 19% lifesteal. I think I will put more points in AofM like you suggested.
And you are damn straight, haunted steel is hella expensive. Either way , I appreciate your feedbacks !
Sorry, what I mean by main supported elements is that you have devotions that are boosting your fire damage but you aren’t really doing fire damage so it is kind of wasted when you could go with poison damage and aim for abomination which will boost two of your most important damage types.
So for example this is my own self found build so far;
You have already invested in two poison skills in the nightblade tree and night’s chill debuffs enemies resistance to poison. Vulnerability debuffs vitality resistance and poison resistance. DEE is excellent with the transmuter in my experience, as long as you have another good attack while waiting for the cool down but I’d only use it for leveling until you can get more powerful skills.
Would you like to clarify what you mean by not very optimal? With pneumatic burst for example it isn’t just healing you, it is adding to your attack speed adding to your DPS. It is also boosting movement speed and any other stats to do with movement. With the belgothian transmuter the cool down is at five seconds and you can keep it up constantly and moving faster is always a good thing for characters to do.
I have multiple characters, I don’t rush through elite. The fun for me in this game is seeing builds come together and experimenting. I am going to be playing this for a long time so I’m not really in any hurry. There are things I have to do to get access to resist options to keep me alive in elite and ultimate. I have friends I am waiting to play certain characters with and I keep starting new characters because the builds in this game fascinate me.
Not sure how you can get through to complete ultimate in 20 hours unless you are incredibly experienced with the game which is not what I class myself as. I can get through normal in seven hours, elite has taken me longer but I am side questing and trying to get my status up with the different factions, also I am farming materials for certain recipes that take a shit load of farming and hours to get.
I have seen other people make the claim they can get from level 1 to 85 in 20 hours but I don’t see how you can do that if you are bad at the game?
It has a downside if you lvl up fast 1 to 85 in 20 hours not even hated or friendly in any faction. Factions are harder to lvl up if you leveled up fast. They most level in their main enemies like outcast they need aether’s to lvl up and rovers they need undead and if your 3 lvls higher than enemy they don’t give reputation o leveling fast is bad for grim dawn in the end you will have a hard time farming. Less heroes = less loot even in ultimate
I’m not that good with your curent character and what are your 2 other characters maybee I can help with a demolitionist/soldier or soldier/occulist or melee soldier or nightblade/soldier. Edit: here’s my 2 handed rifle commando aka Demolitionist/Soldier http://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2Je38Np . This character is super defensive while being super offensive, a win win and can blaze through sigil of chtlon in a matter of 5 mins in ultimate
if you have mandates you will have achieved revered with most factions at the end of elite when rushing.
sorry, i didn’t want to insult you, or your playstyle. As builds in my opinion get interesting in ultimate, when you get enough skillpoints and the game starts punishing you for mistakes. spending hundreds of hours into the game, especially if you like theory crafting aswell and then not taking it to the last difficulty just seemed weird to me.
I fully intend to take my builds into ultimate. I have three builds at the moment almost at the end of elite but I am weird because I enjoy watching a build from the start and I usually get to about level 60 odd and then a new build comes along that looks like a lot of fun or a piece of gear drops that I want to try a build around. I started a new build yesterday because a friend I play with wanted to try something new and I am always up for a new build. Also with all the builds and farming and playing I have done I have learned a lot about this game. You should also consider I have only been playing this game for a month and a half and there is a lot to learn before pushing yourself into ultimate. Also ultimate makes me hesitate a bit because it will be the ultimate gear check and build check and at least two of my builds that are self found and self made (not following a guide) might prove non-viable for the final difficulty.
I think it’s a misconception that ultimate is an absolute gear check right away. You don’t need all res to be at 80+ when you start ultimate. One of my characters entered ultimate with -15 poison res and did fine (though I did not dare fight guardian of dreeg right away with that res).
Unless you play hardcore, just try ultimate. If it turns out not enjoyable, you can always go back to elite and do BoC or whatever to gear up. Once you hit lvl 70, resistances become a lot easier to amount.