Normal to Elite (too hard) What to change?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hello :smiley: I completed campaign with expansions on normal. I have a warder for lightning and now i wanted to complete campaign again but on elite. Im dying while fighting almost with all minibosses. Too hard for my hero. What i have done wrong? What to change? Now i have to farm on normal? Or just go through on elite? Here is my build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2mr1nmV

2

since it looks like your doing a lightning build. You lack rr refund some skill points and get wind devil and max out raging tempest. in devotions get widow and rhowan’s crown, you should also probably get ghoul for extra healing. your resistances could use some work as well patch them as best you can with components and augments.

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Some of your item are obsolete and unfocused on 1 damage type. Change any of your below 50 lvl item to a new one, and if available also change any that is below 55 to 60 lvl range. Focus on lightning damage type and dont make a rainbow damage as it actually lower your kill speed. Craft a relic that support your build, add component to all of your item, use lvl 40+ augment from base game faction on weapon and jewelry, and max all of your resistance.

Since you are in Elite, I assume you already finish all normal content and unlock all friendly faction. If you have bad loot drop, go to either Homestead or Rover merchant and buy their gauntlet and greaves buy the lvl 70 version (faction revered), for the helm, torso, shoulder seek the one that support lightning damage on the AoM and FG faction merchant and buy the lvl 65 version(faction friendly). It should fill both of your damage and resistance.

If you have the potion from AoM quest, reset your stat point, and put at least 70-80 point in physique, put point in others if you need to equip specific item, if not spend all stat on physique.

Skill wise, I think primal strike is better for leveling, so remove any point in savagery, feral hunter, upheaval. Leave mogdrogen pact tree and all soldier passive skill to only 1 point and max soldier mastery bar. After that max in this order Stormcaller Pact>Field Command>Squad Tactic>1 point in wind devil and max the raging tempest. It’s fine to leave primal strike, blitz, brute force as 1 point in skill when leveling.

I can’t check devotion on as I’m using phone

4

Too many things to list tbh but I’ll have a go.

  1. Don’t ignore greens, they provide some of the best armor and stats early game, even mediocre rolls are usually better than some blues including the epic helmet you’re using. A “Purging” prefix for example will pretty much cap your Poison and Acid resist.

  2. Go to Homestead and purchase the “Solar Waistguard” blueprint then head to blacksmith and craft about 6 of these. Keep the best 1.

  3. Alternatively farm “Watcher Brandis” for his belt on Normal. “Vitality to Lightning” conversion is huge for Shamans.

  4. If you go 2-handed Savagery grab the “Might of the Bear” transmuter

  5. Add components and augments to your gear and craft a relic (not sure if you just forgot to add this on your upload)

  6. As others suggested you need resist reduction, on your devotions (on an LMB lightning build it is recommended you grab all 3 resist reduction options -
    a) Viper or Ultos, Shepherd of Storms
    b) Rhowan’s Crown
    c) Widow

  7. Place one point into Wendigo Totem and one point into Blood Pact and grab Wind Devil and max Raging Tempest

  8. Max “Tenacity of the Boar” it’s important. Grabbing Stormcaller’s Pact with Low OA is counter productive. So focus on boosting OA through skills and devotions.

  9. Get rid of Blitz and replace with an augment mobility glyph (I’m assuming you’ve found 1 by now).

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I didn’t know about all augments haha :laughing: Thanks so much

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I went primarily Phys on my Warder and scaled lightning as a secondary using mutated Primal Strike as main DPS as there are more monsters in the game less resistant to phys attacks than ele, and you can debuff monster phys mitigation as well. I’d for sure make it a point to max out Brute Force. The damage scaling and health are just too good to pass up, plus it gives you flat lightning.

Make sure you get your resists up. Stick some attack speed and resists in there via components and augments.

Kraken is always a good choice no matter the build but is it necessary for you to invest in a constellation like Tsunami like you are doing? Probably not. You’re spreading your damage scaling too thin and not reaping high damage output as a result.

Your weapon is a tri-ele 2hander when your skills focus on phys/lightning. It should be phys based with secondary lightning scaling or full on lightning base with gear converting any additional phys to lightning.

If you focus on those changes you will probably triple your damage output without much effort on changing your skill tree. It’s the itemization that may take some time if you don’t have the gear for it.

I am still trying to find a double green “Barbaric Imperial War Axe of Fervor” for my Warder… has proven very elusive :stuck_out_tongue:

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Here’s a link to my Primal Strike gear. Please ignore skills/devotions as I am currently specced for a Forcewave build (I have that gear set in my stash). But you can see the general direction you should probably take your itemization in for Savagery (As opposed to Primal Strike). Added skill points focused on your build is going to make your life a whole lot easier.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrgoYLN

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@NTofficial do you have AoM and FG expansions? I have warder guide here that you might find useful ☄ Collection of malawiglenn's Beginner Friendly builds

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@malawiglenn I have vanilla GD. That link I posted is to a character that is level 85, currently with a Forcewave spec, not Primal Strike, which is why I mentioned for the OP to ignore that. But my Primal Strike spec looks a lot like yours, only I scale phys primarily and went with Oleron’s Might exclusive linked with Ghoul instead of Stormcaller’s Pact. I don’t have access to any of that gear you linked except the amulet which I don’t use, and most of the constellations you are specced into are not available in vanilla GD. In my full PS setup, my res get capped, I still have managed to hit 20k life, and still doing about 85k DPS out of combat on tooltip but that’s just tooltip, OA/DA are about 2400/2200 and are a bit less due to level 85 cap itemization (Those stats get a huge buff on expansion items).

I never usually follow build guides as it ruins the fun of the game for me looking at someone else’s work instead of figuring it out for myself. I will usually ask for help if needed. For example I am still unsure if target specific debuffs like -% resistance will stack as my testing it is rather difficult to notice any solid confirmation (EG; wearing two Black Matriarch rings for -20% phys debuff vs. just one for -10%). I don’t have a script or anything running to collect on-hit data which can analyze spamming Primal Strike on a training dummy for example. I usually just play what feels good.

I know I’ll be getting the expansions soon because I really want to play a spin-2-win character, always been a BvA type of person since high school back in 2004 during heavy Diablo 2 days. Right now enjoying leveling my Blademaster Shadow Strike/Blitz combo. The mobility is crazy and I enjoy the guerrilla tactic to it

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