Coming from PoE I’m having a hard time making the change in thinking required for GD.
I wanted to start with a DW Poison WH. I’ve made it to level 50 but have respecc’d a couple of times as I keep reading what I interpret as different strategies on where to invest points and which skill(s) to optimize first.
Any suggestions on what this build should look like at 50 and where I should (realistically) be regarding health, resists, damage output, etc. for a first character?
Just letting you know that picking this for your first character will make the game unnecessarily difficult (and it’s already a difficult game). You need game knowledge to effectively play a squishy character (to know what/when to dodge, etc.) and it’s hard to learn what abilities you need to dodge if they keep killing you. Plus Witchblade is about as squishy as it gets.
For gear, prioritize resists, armor, and health, probably in that order. Every other stat is irrelevant if you aren’t alive.
As for skills, I’m no Witchblade expert but the general idea for leveling is to pick one or two damage skills, max them, and then put points into mastery bar and support skills. Dreeg’s Evil Eye (with Focused Gaze) or Phantasmal Blades (with Frenetic Throw) should both be good leveling skills. They also both have MIs that you can farm (DEE PB). Maybe you don’t use Focused Gaze with that MI? Again, I’m no expert.
Level with those skills and then when you hit 94 and are capable of equipping all gear, then you can respec your char into what you want (DW poison).
Or I suppose you could also use DEE (Focused Gaze) + Shadow Strike with Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends. Those two together should be fine for leveling. Something like this.
Thanks for the advice. Any suggestions on a better “starter” character? I prefer something not too “vanilla”/boring. I was originally looking at a DW Pistol Purifier?
Normally I would suggest Death Knight but they’re not the most interesting class ever.
If you’re good at kiting a ranged purifier should be fine. Make sure to get Blast Shield as a back up to save you from the charging enemies. You could even get Tortoise as well since it’s your first playthrough, although most people dislike that constellation because it falls off hard late game. At least I think that’s why they dislike it? :rolleyes:
You’ll still be squishy but Blast Shield can cover for your mistakes.
DW Witch hunter was my first character and it was brutal. Many, many deaths… some could have been avoided by knowing better but its hard to play still after having leveled many characters since.
Its a fun class but really difficult… basically I had this skill set and devotions with Nidalla’s hidden hand and justified ends maxed as high as possible with gear. Used remaining devotion points to fill in resistances, could use those from turtle for that purpose too. I don’t have the expansion yet so I did not have rumor devotion which would be good and would help get abomination so you could maybe find a way to drop something and get behometh devotion
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqvrGMN
Use curse of frailty, shadow strike in (hit a priority target that isn’t in the center of a mob), ring of steel to freeze, do a few auto attacks and then get the hell out of there - repeat as necessary. I don’t really keep ABB constantly because the buff is so short and I’m always running away - got to get the dots up from the WPS so its hard to find the time honestly.
You’d have be more specific about your preferred play style to get more detailed suggestions. But basically anything with soldier save battlemage and to a lesser extent commando will do great as a starter.
But why not go for the top of the food chain right away? Spellbinders are best for super easy crucible farms and expanding your inventory right from the start. Problem is all other builds will seem weak after that.
Another option worth considering is pets, namely a conjurer (cabalists are harder to play). Pets play differently than most other arpgs. They’re certainly not boring in gd.
How viable are spellbinders without fire/ele > aether conversion as cruci farmers really? any experience?
Dunno… Nothing is viable for proper cruci farming when something’s missing. I just dropped that example meaning that if you’re committed to completing your first char for the purpose of farming crucible it’s easiest to do with a binder.
I’d say a tanky DK, will not be fast clears though. But the magelord ring set can grant up to 60% conversion so would be a budget spellbinder for sure
I guess this is part of the “re education” process coming from a game like PoE. Seems like a LOT of the gear/items people recommend for a “starter” or “new player” have REALLY high level (to a noob).
The magelord ring requires level 94. In my mind that’s not a “new player” or “starter” item unless I need to rethink what’s “noob” in this game and plan on grinding my way to a 100 on whatever character I want, planning on it being either very slow or very painful.
Dlesar proposition is more for a semi-caster. If you want a melee DW ranged, then go for Amarasta Blade Burst with Lethal Assault capped (the bonus applies to yout base damage), Blood of Dregg with aspect of the guardian for life regen and physical res,Possession for damage absorption, Pneumatic burs xith shadow dance for more evasion, and blade barrier to use in critical situation. With those your suravibility will increase greatly. Dont give too much importance to Resistance reduction and debuff untill you have both masteries at max (or at least one of them with the other at 40). At 50 you should have that (think like that, for each 3 points per level, 1 per masterie and one to up a skill).
Also try to change things on your devotions to increase survivability. My first mistake was to try to put my points on constellations with proc. Biiiiig mistake.
And in general, reaching the end of normal, you should focus more on capping resstances and armor. If you look on other builds, you will see a lot of players put green with defensive stats for boots and pants. You can keep those two slots for that during the rest of your game. I do that and i dont suffer from damage loss. Also check your DA (put your mouse on it you can see chance to be touched and to be crit), with low one you will take more crits, and the mechanics make it hurts a lot, even if its 1,1 damage bonus, specially when its from physical damage (the main damage source of enemies, and the one that hurt the most, loock it like that, being hit for 1100, you with 1000 armor on chest, the damage is reduced to 1000, taking in the end 100 damage. But if the enemies crit, he deals 1210, and you take 210, wich is double. And the higher the crit chance, the higher the damage bonus, take a look at DA OA mechanics on game guide )
I play dw acid deceiver (Ocultist, Inquisitor) and this is how i did.
And if in any case tou reached AOM content, well, enemies damage increase a big step, making it awfully hard.
Most people on here are talking about end-game builds. So if you want advice on pre-endgame beginner stuff, you’ll have to specify that.
For leveling, just grab gear with good resists and armor. Also look at faction gear along the way. Do this until you hit level 94+ when you can actually equip items.
There are a few guides for before you have any legendary gear, such as this death knight and this elementalist. If you choose a different class than those, I would still recommend reading those and trying to learn from them.
Hi rochambeaux,
It appears a number of folks are misleading you by suggesting more high end game builds which require extensive play time to acquire the desired gear.
As you note further in the thread for alternative starter builds, StupidDragon, a well known individual on this forum, has produced a number of very good starter build guides such as this Deathknight http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74487 which uses easily obtainable faction gear & should help in obtaining the higher end rare/legendary items for further builds. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help in regards to this build or others he’s produced on this forum.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Thank you very much. Those links are definitely helpful.
The one thing I still don’t fully understand is how much focus should I be placing on resistances leveling up.
Should that be a priority and what % target on which?
Resistances are very much a priority starting in late normal (approaching necropolis) onwards. How much of a priority is hugely dependant on both spec and player skill. For example a veteran leveling with pets may ignore resistances for the most part into mid to late elite while a newcomer in melee will feel the need for them as early as Conley.
In general you want to aim for 80 in everything (cept stun) once you start needing resists.
Sense you are a PoE player i assume you are used to their hyper-lethal end game and can get away with less resists for longer but would still aim for 50+ top row and 30+ bottom row by normal necropolis and 70+ top / 50+ bottom by elite necropolis. 80s across the board by ult necropolis.
Less is obviously possible (normal log has been done w/o gear!) But it gets uncomfortable fast.
Your welcome.
Just to expand on Silben’s comments regarding resists, take note that as your progress into the higher difficulties, your resistances will take a hit.
From normal/veteran to elite, your top row of resists will reduce by 25%.
From Elite to Ultimate, the top row takes a further 25% reduction, with the bottom row taking a 25% reduction only. Therefore you’ll have to stack more resists to maintain/increase what you already have when traversing through the higher difficulties.
By end game, you should be capped across all the main resistance types, preference being over capped by a good 20-30%. This can be hard for some character/build types. Take note this excludes the resists on Sheet 3 of the character screen (slow, freeze, sleep, Physical etc…) which are somewhat hard to obtain in general. Try & aim for around 30% at least across these. Physical can be very hard to obtain & generally depends on character class/ build type as some mastery’s have physical resist available. Otherwise, Physical resist will come through gear & devotions.
Hope this helps.
If you intend to keep trying with your poison witchblade, all you need to do is to put Mark of Dreeg component and spam Dreeg’s Infinite Gaze. Later, attach it to Tainted Eruption in Abomination devotion. It’s so absurdly strong that it feels like cheating. You don’t even need to focus on a main skill.
But as a new player it will be truly better to scrap the current build and pick tankier. You just need sturdier build to have a single playthrough without too much of frustration.
It could be any class/combo, which provide better survivability. Soldier, shaman and necromancer have sources of increased HP, altogether with improved survivability in various forms. Combine with anything.
Just find out the damage source you’d like to play around and go.
In a difference of PoE you’d find gear upgrades way more often, and progression wouldn’t bother you up to the very late game, as long as you stay alive.
Basically, focus on resists and HP, past mid elite armor and damage absorption play a big role so it’s good to have.
Be careful with build guides. In majority they are min-maxed by BiS items some of which you are unlikely to find easy (and thread creators have them generated as it often happens), or require advanced knowledge in game for smooth progression (so pre-made characters are used), or are completely incompatible with HC (if you play it).
Taking into account that in a difference of PoE, in GD a build is mostly defined by items (you can have totally different builds with identical skill trees), you get what I mean.
So be careful and don’t give them too much credit.
Just pick something tankier to experience the game and learn mechanics and encounters.
I am leveling a WH right now. Nidalla dot/acid leveling is easy and really fun