I’ve only been playing the game for a few weeks, and I’m really enjoying it, up to a point. I know what I don’t know, so I’ve been trying the various build guides out there in order to get a feel for leveling. I’ve tried probably 6 or 8 different builds, some more than once, and they all seem to fail me about the same time.
That time is about when I get to Darius Crowley. For whatever reason, probably due to my own incompetence, the game becomes an unfun slogfest, as my characters all lack the punch to keep up with the increased difficulty of the monsters (particularly the bosses). There isn’t a single character that I’ve gotten past about level 35 (I think I got one guy into Act 3).
Do you have any good tips on how to transition builds into being decent for Act 2 and higher? My latest attempt has been the pet-based Lazy Pokemon Build, and it was just painful going through the Arkovian Undercity. Maybe it’s gear, maybe everything is supposed to turn into a slog. I don’t know, but I’m desperate to find something that’s as fun to play at 30 as it was to play at 15. Ten to fifteen minute Darius Crowley/Guy in Desecrated Sanctuary/Guy in 3rd level of Arkhovian Undercity fights aren’t fun for me.
I’ve found the Pokemon build to be one of the easiest I’ve played, aside from Superfluff’s Commando. I’ve found that I had to put pet attack on my LMB. It helps me focus fire if a mob or two peels off to come at me. The biggest nugget of knowledge for running the build is to let your pets gain some aggro before debuffing them. I send my pets in, wait 1-2sec then CoF them and lay down Grasping Vines to trigger the Shepard devotion.
Occasionally I have to kite and, yes, I have died a few times, but as you play you’ll become more comfortable with game mechanics and learn how to “set” the battlefield to your advantage.
Don’t lose hope! I was frustrated as all hell when I came back to this game. But I lurk on the forums quite a bit and soak up all the knowledge I can.
If you post a https://grimcalc.com/ link of your build including devotion and a screenshot of your main stats, then we should be able to spot your weakness.
In general you should aim for 100+ health per character level. Do not dismiss yellow items, as they provide you with frequent upgrades of your gear including helpful stats like health, resistances, offensive/defensive ability, extra damage and speed.
I’m having the opposite experience. By about level 25, the builds starts shaping up and then it starts getting fund to play and suddenly DPS starts sky rocketing.
My 1st one was an almost pure nightblade (by level 25) started to be a Blademaster (my own build on first experience, probably less fun). Stopped playing it at level 50.
This board won’t let me put links or images into my posts until I have three posts, and this would be number two. So I apologize for this post and the next one so that I can get to the required three, in order to get you the information you wanted.
Many newer players over-invest in skills and not enough in advancing their mastery bars. You’ve only taken 26 mastery levels so far, whereas the respec linked above has 42 levels. The stat bonuses from mastery levels are especially important at the beginning. Quick rule of thumb is that your health should be at least 100x your character level. Prioritize advancing your mastery bars early, then fill in additional skills at higher levels.
Invest in skills with strong build synergies. Instead of Summon Familiar, the respec above invests in Hellfire. Hellfire has the following synergies with your existing skills:
Greatly increases hellhound damage. Half of your hellhound’s damage is fire, and this adds a +100% bonus to that damage.
Adds flat damage bonus to all pets. Your hellhound and briarthorn will inflict additional flat chaos damage with each attack, and so will all your additional pets in the future. Your hellhound already has a very high innate attack speed and will especially benefit.
Increases your own fireblast or greater fireblast damage by an additional +100%. If you’re not already using one of these abilities to support your pets’ DPS, then you need to immediately apply either a searing ember or a flintcore bolt to your focus. Likewise, you should also have an enchanted flint applied to your weapon since it will boost both your (greater) fireblast and your hellhound’s damage.
Don’t over-invest in debuffs like CoF too early. You need a strong base of DPS to work with before debuffs become cost effective, and debuff abilities in general suffer high diminishing returns for point investments. They’re super important at endgame but much less so early on.
Going forward from the respec linked above, I would put 2 more points into CoF, 3 points into Vulnerability, then beeline hard for Conjure Primal Spirit by maxing your shaman mastery bar. Good luck!
