Thanks both for the reply, i still try to understand everything but there are way too much info everywhere lol
I give up…
I’ll let this game on the side for a bit, i can’t choose a thing, and if i choose something, it’s not what i think it was…
Sorry to have waste your time.
Surely not the end, but i’ll restart when my brain can choose something.
<3
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As a beginner, the first week is difficult, then you begin to feel and understand the world
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You didnt waste anyone’s time, friend. It’s always awesome to have newcomers in the community. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, whenever I drop by the forums (not as much as I once did, admittedly), I always love engaging with new players- Your early experiences allow me to re-live my own first experiences with this game and, well, Grim Dawn is in my top 3 most fun games I have ever played in my life. So I relish the chance to re-live these memories through your experiences!
I have I think close to 3,000 hours of “in-game” time in Grim Dawn, and I still consider myself a noob. There are game mechanics I still dont fully understand like % weapon damage and damage conversions. I only recently started to understand how that stuff works, and just barely.
I do remember the first thing that made the game fun for me, though, and that was HP Regen! I built a Shaman with only 2 things in focus (for the same reason as you, I couldnt choose on where to focus, too many things).
GOAL OF BUILD
To survive (because I kept dying to everything and couldnt even finish the game on Elite).
My approach to survival was 4-fold;
- As much HP as possible: I would take every skill (passive, toggled) and use every component/relic/augment that increased my HP and/or Physique.
- As much HP Regen as possible: With a huge HP pool, HP Regen can be super effective if its significant enough. I would take any skill (passive, toggled, active, or triggered effects) that increased my HP Regen.
- Resistances: I would choose skills, gear, and components that met the criteria of points 1 and 2, and also provided a good coverage/balance of resistances to damage types. This would cut down the damage I would take, making my vast HP and HP Regen even more effective.
- Armor and full armor coverage (armor absorption): I would choose skills, gear, and components that met the criteria of points 1, 2, and 3, and also provided effective armor rating and boosted armor absorption (the aim was to get to 100% armor absorption). This would greatly reduce the amount of damage that might actually get through, and boost the effectiveness of my HP Regen even more.
This was my first build to make it to level 100, and probably the most fun journey I have had in this game. I was able to comfortably clear all areas (but not super-bosses) up to and through Ultimate difficulty. It was the first character I was able to grind out Faction reputation to max (Revered) with all the Factions, including Malmouth Resistance, and I was finally able to buy those sweet sweet XP boost potions!
Around level 90, I decided to take Soldier just for Menhir’s Will and Military Conditioning since those are 2 awesome skills for HP boost and HP Regen capability. I also experimented a little and moved away from prioritizing armor absorption so much. The end result was the below build, appropriately named after the coolest Hokage;
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To Knife. A bit of a newby here myself. Covid giving me plenty of time to play GD. I was thinking about a making a Shaman and then add Soldier late in the game for the same reason you just typed. I am eager to try it out as a two-handed build. I will need all the hitpoints and regen I can get. Though I think balancing lightning and bleeding could be an issue, especially with the devotion points. What first class did you choose?
To the poster, Azazel, yeah this game is loads more difficult to learn than D1, D2, or even D3. At the same time it is also loads more fun too. If you don’t mind mods, I would suggest Grimarillion. The Spirit class from the Titan Quest (also a very fun game to play, similar play style to Grim Dawn too) selection is a lot of fun. You may find some spells that are enjoyable. I finally, after many restarts like you (I think I have deleted at least 6 characters, some making it to the 40s too), I settled on Spirit/Arcanist. It seems like an odd combo, but it works well so far. I am using that AOE spell Visions of Death. I can’t wait to stress test it in the next two difficulties with better gear. When you get a chance, try out that DLC Crucible. NOW THAT IS FUN.
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@Nery Hi, is this still viable or not? Because it seems really old and can’t find anything concrete for a mage hunter.
Hi,
Thanks for the advice.
You can mod the game and do everything? This will not conflict with nothing else?
I saw that mod but i’m afraid that those mastery will be maybe more powerful than the vanilla one, and don’t want a super OP char.
Also, while i’m at it. When you have a weapon (sword/pistol) who did let say cold damage, are those damage augmented by spirit or cuning?
I don’t know if the cold damage from the weapon is considered physical or magic.
All cold damage falls under spirit 
Cunning increases physical/internal trauma, pierce, and bleeding damage. Spirit is everything else basically. The tooltips should list it I think, at least for cunning.
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Elemental Runes Mage Hunter could be interesting too I think, here’s an endgame build: Mage Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
You could make a lot of Mage Hunters but we don’t have many beginner guides for them
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Runes are awesome, i play trozan for now but rune a super fun.
The problem is controller… i can’t choose where to put the rune and it’s annoying.
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Indeed.
The problem is I assume that for example enemies goes to you
and then you cast the rune
but you cannot cast it closer to you (for enemies to run into it after it’s armed)
but you’re forced to cast it on top of them (at a certain range) and they escape it before it explodes?
I’m playing / leveling Cold Hagarrad that’s meant to facetank and never kite (lot of healing), that might not have such problems with 
I think because I always cast it on top of enemies at melee range for max damage unless I’m able to make traps before boss fight begin but then I don’t need that aiming.
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Exactly, every cast with the controller land where the enemy you target is.
To i cast a rune, the enemy comes to me and by the time the rune are activated, the enemy are out of it’s range… bummer
And how do you play it? you use what for melee attack?
For now I’m just using normal attacks / later I’m going to use Chillspikes from component and Shadow Strike when I level it up a bit.
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@Azazel the MH guide is pretty old. I think Pain and Runes are good combo for leveling.
Other than that there’s lightning AAR, probably the best way to level this class. And you can play with controller as well. I was thinking of making a guide but there’s already older one posted.
I don’t like armor stacking and defensive devotions on it but more spirit points and classical lightning devotions and it’s great build.
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I heard that the Zenith and the Diablo 3 classes in Grimarillion are OP for Grim Dawn. I am staying away from those classes, for now. I am just messing around with the Titan Quest ones. Spirit’s Visions of Death spell is similar to Grasping Vines from the Shaman, just different animation and damage type. Both act as CC and AOE. The real test will be in Ultimate, but that will be a while for me.
Edit. If you are familiar with Diablo 3, especially the Shield Throw Crusader build, Oathkeeper has that spell. It also has a spin spell like the Diablo 3 Barbarian, but I havn’t messed with that spell yet. That will be my next venture after I finish with my caster/sometimes stabber.
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Hey guys. Question again.
Is smite proc with aeagis of menhir? How can i know if it would work with it or not?
No, from OK only Righteous Fervor (or just your basic attack without any skill) procs Smite.
You know this by “when used as default attack” in RF’s description.
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And thanks again friend 
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Most skills in the top left corner of mastery display are passive, some are WPS ( WPS stands for “Weapon Pool Skills”. It’s a pool of skills that trigger from weapon attacks and adds bonuses and special effects to those attacks ). Under the description of WPS, you can see “Can activate with all default weapon attacks…”. Most default weapon attacks works with WPS (they accumulate together), except Cadence. The 3rd hit always overlapses other WPS.
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