New player, game has no focus

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Yoo, started playing this game singleplayer a few days ago.
Level 35 or so right now and almost burned out, here are my reasons, maybe I can enjoy it again…

  • Style and theme, came from PoE and I like this atmosphere a lot better
  • Interesting item mods on blue items and interesting crafting system
  • Very widespread world to discover
  • Devotion system
  • To many different damage types and resistances, no focus here. You just get everything you can get on items.
  • No focus in item mods, its like every item base can have all the available mods, so I am not like oh I really need high physique on that item base. So you aren’t hoping for certain mods to drop it’s just one giant mod pool and everything is useable and can spawn on every item base.
  • All the factions stuff, I play this game for the first time how would I know what all my decisions would do to factions and maybe items available late game? Currently I just do every quest I can get but I don’t know why… nothing to focus on again.
  • Builds, they all look alike compared to PoE. PoE has many different playstyles, but if I look up builds for GD everything just looks the same besides the fact that there’s ranged and melee.
  • Leveling with a different build than the build you want at the end. I read that a lot of builds only get effective when you meet certain requirements (items or devotions). I dont feel like playing through the whole game with a build I dont want to play and maybe not even get to play the build I want because its viable way to late into the game.

To sum it all up I feel I have nothing to focus on in this game and just casually run through it. But for what goal? What’s the endgame in GD?

I want to do this build: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41810

2

Poe is even worse in that aspect. People created whole guides around those powerleveling builds. In grim dawn you can invest heavily in an aoe spell and respec later by lvl 30 when you gathered enough skillpoints to get your skills for build. Spells do a lot dmg and scale extremely well with skillrank.

3

Game specifics. In GD the build is enabled mostly by items, itemization is better. In PoE it’s done mostly by the skill tree.
Two identical builds in GD may completely differ from each other, based on the equipment. Then they are further customized by the devotion system, to make differences even bigger.

  • Leveling with a different build than the build you want at the end. I read that a lot of builds only get effective when you meet certain requirements (items or devotions). I dont feel like playing through the whole game with a build I dont want to play and maybe not even get to play the build I want because its viable way to late into the game.

It’s too common for most of the aRPGs, when the player is willing to force progression. IMO it could be seen to a greater extent in PoE, rather than in this one.
Basically it isn’t a bad thing, unless there is too much emphasis on it to progress in game. Both games are fine in this aspect. It also isn’t a necessity in both, could be played with the main skill from lvl 1, but eventually wouldn’t be optimal.

4

mmm bad to hear you are getting burned out

I love the game and yes factions can be affected wrong or good.
its your choice and all build are effective.
I played my first char without ever looking on forum yes i probably did some things wrong and maybe i picked wrong items and skills.
but in Elite you get to choose again and you can do things right.
And the resists eventually you will get focus and understand it.
My first char i got all factions (good ones and most bad ones) maxed out.
I could beat the strongest monsters and beat the final difficulty
I love that you are like whut am i supposed to do???
Now i made a second char and following a build from the forums.
Im even training factions on normal (lvl 34 already got one faction maxed)
You can buy writs(i believe they are called) when you max a faction for another char and use transfer stash :slight_smile:

I hope you still do get to like the game!
Just understand its kinda how the game is supposed to be (my feeling)

5

In Act 3, you have to make a choice between two faction, Kymon’s Chosen and Order of Death’s Vigil. To see what those faction have equipment wise i suggest to take a look here: http://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items

6

Level 35 & almost burned out???

Maybe you could switch focus and try playing games that are not ARPGs because you have been playing too much POE and the burning out carries over into this game?

7

It’s safe to say he simply doesn’t like the game, but calls it a burnout. Unlikely to happen in 35h.

8

Items, Masteries and Devotion all provide bonuses to damage types, resistances, and enemy resist reduction.

Yes there are a lot of damage types because that’s what promotes build diversity.

Um, no. Not every item can spawn all of the mods. For more input visit gracefuldusk. Also, you’re talking purely for greens and yellows and trust me, you won’t be using greens/yellows for all slots, even with the build you want to follow. Furthermore faction greens all have the same stats no matter if you buy it today or tomorrow, only the values will change.

You don’t need to worry about decisions having an impact on factions. Killing someone who you’d rather save or saving someone who you could rather kill has no impact on faction rep, and even if it did you can just get back that rep by farming and bounties etc. What I’d recommend is that you get all factions to Honored before moving on to Elite, but even that’s not absolutely necessary. You will get all factions(except Black Legion) to Revered sometime in late Elite/early Ultimate. Black Legion requires some more grind, even more so if you decide to side with the Outcast, which comes at late game.

That is not completely true. While it is true that there are a lot of left click builds that are most viable, how they do the damage, and what other skills complement the playstyle makes the difference in the playstyles. Also your feedback is highly generic, so I’m not sure what we should tell you to convince you otherwise.

This is done this way because for veterans trying out new builds, leveling is the most boring part. You can play the build the way you want to. Guide writes only recommend the most efficient method of leveling. You can always play the game the way you want to.

There’s Crucible, Gladiator difficulty while being somewhat undertuned right now is quite challenging. End game farming, nemesis fights, rogue like dungeons etc all offer significant challenges. There’s also Ultimate Avatar of Mogdrogen which some people could say is literally the hardest challenge in the game.

PoE may offer better end game alternatives, but I’ve seen some videos where people just kite the bosses for 90% of the fight, not sure how that’s more interesting than standing and fighting.

9

It’s not the game that has no focus, it is you…

Decide on the build you want (you already did it seems) and then the bonuses you want vs not want are clear. Just because a sword can have all kinds of bonuses does not mean they all are equally useful to your build, so you pick the one that is and sell the one that isn’t.
A different build could decide very differently and a bonus that is useless to you could be very useful to him. So the item offering both affixes is not lack of focus but allowing build diversity.

You have to decide what your focus should be, the game cannot decide that for you.

As to different base items having the same affixes, to a degree that obviously is true, your stat requirements still will be determined by the items you want to equip (2h melee / 1h melee / ranged / 1h caster / heavy armor / caster armor), this is not a matter of available bonuses but of base items you are using.

Factions: there really is only one major decision and you can look at the items of the faction vendor to decide which of the two factions is offering you the better gear

10

I agree with mamba about the factions. There really is only one choice that makes any meaningful difference in the game. I guess maybe you could include going with the Outcast later on but it’s not a huge deal because you can always change your mind in a later difficulty. The rest of the factions more or less take care of themselves. The first character is the toughest, but subsequent characters can use warrants and mandates which makes the process much faster.

The thing about is you are either gonna like Grim Dawn or not. I take it you like PoE, but I did not like it at all. Either way, I have to laugh a little when I think about 2 small Indie companies putting out ARPG’s that kick the shit out of one put out by a huge corporation like ActiBlizz.

11

Thanks guys for the helpful insights!

Definitely gonna play it further, your insights gave me something to focus on again :wink:

Didn’t want to give up on it because of the awesome style/atmosphere, it’s the best from the RPG’s I played (D2, D3, PoE and GD ofc).

I also think that later in the game when I understand more of the mechanics and have seen higher tier items I will probably have a better focus on the gear I want to farm for.

12

Now what the fuck is that?!?
Do you really think you can just come up with an excuse and a promise to git gut, and leave it like that? Look at all these fucktards throwing stones at you, mouths too big. Just look at them. You are damn supposed to argue with any and every one in this thread goddamn it. What’s wrong with you?

What does it mean “it’s me, not the game”. Of course it’s the bloody game!
I can even whisper you a name of a certain developer who’s responsible for all of your pain. It’s always him. Him, him, him. Just spam the shit out of it with personal messages. Or gonna give up and just run away? Will you, chicken?

Goddamn, where this world is going to :mad:

13

Hey. Don’t blame it on Crate. They just do what Nine tells them to do. Everyone knows this.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

14

:D:D aint even mad

15

“- Builds, they all look alike compared to PoE. PoE has many different playstyles, but if I look up builds for GD everything just looks the same besides the fact that there’s ranged and melee.”

I don’t even know how to tell you just how far this is from the truth. Builds are very different with so many possibilities…including focusing on different things or several should it fit your build/devotions etc. So much to say here

How is POE more diverse in this aspect? You have 54353523423423 skill nodes…passives…and you really only use one skill.

In grim dawn you Have dual classing with very well defined skills end so many possibilities between them and equipment. I strongly suggest you keep playing…look around at other builds, discover. There is so much diversity that you might find yourself making a character based on an idea you had and half way through you make another one because another idea hits you.

16

Neah, he’s right. I played my first char to clvl60 something in epic, got bored and started new. My second char is clvl70 now and I’m starting to feel bored again.
It just feels like damage type doesn’t matter at all, you just need to concentrate on 1 or 2 types and the rest of the game is you trying to max out as many resists as possible.

You have factions, but precious few builds use any of the items they make available. You have augments, but you can safely ignore the 5-6 offensive ones each faction offers, because you’ll need to pick from the couple of defensive one every single time.

It’s not a bad game, but it’s repetitive and it feels generic. I don’t have much of a problem with that, but ymmv.

17

For the record, damage type itself doesn’t really matter. In PoE you can wake up and say “I want to make a fire build” and look up all the fire skills to do that with. In Grim Dawn if you want to make a fire build you go either go Demo or force it on another class with specific gear and conversion. While gear is a huge part of a build in PoE it’s an even bigger part in Grim Dawn.

Generally the difference is that damage in PoE is largely chosen on skill selection whereas in GD it’s chosen based on class. Build diversity is often limited to the class you choose rather than the items. There’s no motivation to create a poison-based Arcanist for instance, because none of the skills benefit from it, they all want me to go Aether.

And let’s not even start on shit like Electrocute or Burning, an entirely separate line of damage that often has fuck all skills attached to it at all.

18

I think you’re simplifying the picking of a damage type… It isn’t just picking a damage type and finding gear for it, it is picking similar skills that focus on that damage type and building around it. You can’t just pick aether damage to “focus” on it with a warder and have it work… You generally pick your main skill(s) which use a damage type and then build around that… The idea they you can pick different damage types and use different skills to get them to work is the definition of build diversity… If only aether damage builds worked, how broken would that be?

Unfortunately a side effect of having so many different builds that utilize different skills and different damage types is that you will have so many items that are worthless to most builds. So yeah, a lot of the faction gear is going to be worthless…a lot of the drops are going to be worthless…but that is just true for this style of game in general… I do think the augments could use a bit more balance, as least among the offensive ones as there are definitely some that don’t compare to others, but it isn’t a guarantee to only use defensive ones. If you have the right gear, other components, devotions whatever, you CAN and I DO use some of the offensive augments. I don’t need the defensive ones to max my resists…Its all about how you construct your build…

Pretty much all aRPG are repetitive… beat the game on one difficulty, play the same game on the next difficult and beat it, play the same game a third time on an even more difficult level… That is just a how these type of games work… Even the games that have “random maps” you do pretty much the same thing. Yeah the layouts of the levels might be different, but in the end you do the same thing… If anything, it might slow your next character down as you have to try to find different locations…

Typically the thing that separates these style of games are the class systems and I believe GD’s diverse class system definitely sets it apart from the generic aRPG…

19

Well…seems burning/frostburn/electrocute are more supplemental damage types and aren’t intended to be the primary damage type focus of builds like bleed/poison. Just like there aren’t many builds that focus on just acid damage. It is acid/poison where the major damage is from the poison and the acid is supplemental. Bleed usually gets paired with the strong physical/piercing BUT the bleed (even adding IT with it) is still weaker than poison from a DoT stand point. But the physical/pierce is stronger than the acid so it balances out…

Part of that diversity thing… want direct damage, focus fire/cold/lightning/physical/pierce. Want DoT, go bleeding/poison. if both fire AND burning are really strong it would upset the game balance…

20

This game is definitely not a hand holder like so many other games today. I can definitely see where you were originally coming from. I was confused as hell before coming to these forums. This is a highly complex game with a learning curve and very little useful tutorial. This does frustrate a lot of new players as there is so much to do/pick from that if you don’t know you need to focus on something, you can get lost…

I think the more you learn about the game the more you will enjoy it. I applaud you for giving it another chance after reading people’s replies. I’ve seen so many threads similar to yours where the person just gives up. They post here with only the purpose of venting their frustrations and don’t really even want to try to learn more about the game. “Generally” this forum community is very nice and extremely helpful if you’re willing to listen (always going to be a few bad apples)! I’ve never really used a games forum before GD and as you can see from the number of my posts, I’ve used this one a lot…