I got my hands on Grim Dawn yesterday, putting in 7 hours of playtime already.
As I leveled up, I kept feeling confused about where to spend all the points I’m getting. Thus, I thought of asking a few questions here.
[LIST=3]
[li]How impactful would it be to my chances of progressing past the normal difficulty if I don’t make “optimal” choices?[/li]
[li]If it actually hinders my ability to progress, is there any way to fully reset my stats (Physique/Cunning/Spirit, I’ve found the way to reset my Skill(?)Points) and start over?[/li]
[li]Being a Spell Breaker (Nightblade/Arcanist), I’ve been having a hard time finding use for my Arcanist Mastery; are there any general guidelines I can follow to figure out which skills are worth getting?[/li][/LIST]
Making non-optimal choices should still allow you to complete Elite difficulty -Ultimate might prove harder though but still doable if harder - considering only the stats allocation and mastery points cannot be refunded.
No way to refund stat points - it is usually advised to have a few points in Spirit to wear all jewelery or off-hands if required and put the rest in Physique.
For a Spellbreaker, if you invest a decent amount of points into Arcanist mastery, you can put all points in Physique without too much trouble.
No specific guidelines here, however it depends on which playstyle you are considering.
Maiven’s sphere of protection is usually a must-have (to simply reduce all incoming damage by a percentage), along with Mirror of Erectoes (makes you invulnerable for a few seconds) for survival.
At higher levels, having points in Inner Focus will greatly increase your offense (due to Offensive ability - and +%spirit to a lesser extent).
When it comes to more offensive skills, Olexa’s flash freeze can freeze all regular ennemies and heroes on the entire screen when levelled up for a duration, while causing decent amount of cold damage. Doesn’t apply to bosses though.
Trozan skyshards are a good offensive skill for burst cold damage if you want to have a more active playstyle, while higher tier Exclusive skills can give really good benefits for casters. Finally Devastation is a crazy-good ability to deal with bosses when lacking single target damage.
Depending on your playstyle and the type of damage you are going for, you can consider keeping only defensive skills of the Arcanist tree and make use of the strong offense of the NightBlade. Or do a caster archetype, with using utility skills from the NightBlade such as Pneumatic Burst, Veil of Shadow, Ring Of Steel, Blade barrier, while using the caster offense from the Arcanist.
That makes up for a long post, just to say: do what you want cause a pirate is free !
It may not be that impacting. My first character was under bad spent points and I managed to finish the game on ultimate with it. Of course it’s a bit more tricky than if you follow a strong build, or makes your life harder but heh, practice makes perfect.
Thank you everyone for your answers! They were encouraging and enlightening.
As a follow-up question; I’ve so far put about 10 points in Spirit and 12 in Cunning. Would you suggest I focus solely on Physique from now on?
Furthermore, as far as Masteries are concerned, is putting 50 points on the bottom bar of both the way to go regardless of build?
Focusing on physique is a sure way to be at ease, given how the game works (more HP, regen HP and more Defensive Ability, especially true for a light build like yours). Personnaly, I always keep a small pool of points unassigned in cases off, even at lvl 85.
For the mastery bar, it’s somehow up to you. You can go full 50/50 or keep a few points if you think you’ll need more points into your skills. Some build goes for 50/40 or 50/32. But in any cases it’s not “bad” to go full for the mastery bar since it increases your general stats.