If there is any problem that casters face in Grim Dawn, it is poor versatility compared to weapon builds. However they are hardly underpowered let alone bad.
@Avatar:
I guess I personally will have to experience it first hand then.
but regarding the skepticism of most (especially newer players like me), you canāt blame people on being wary to to invest time on a āprojectā without going through some type of reading, and based on most readings iāve done on these forums the feedback on it, at the very least, speaks poorly on the pure caster concept.
also doesnāt help that most arcanist builds in the compendium that are HC Ultimate viable (or advertised as effective) happens to be melee.
thatā¦ and the āvoice of the majorityā that seems to nudge casters into some off-tank hybrid path, which sounds to me has become more of a requirement to survive rather than a suggestion to better survive in the end-game. thereās a big difference in in the undertones.
and if all of this doesnāt scream imbalanceā¦ i donāt know what does.
Donāt you mean survivability?
No, I mean versatility. The versatility aspects are what affects the survivability.
My second profile is also my strongest one, itās a caster. The rest of the caster builds i play in Ultimate are PB and PRM caster. The latter are lacking some gear but i seldom find trouble clearing mobs, I can tank some bosses (without cluster or mirror or barrier) for a few seconds (which is sometimes enough to kill him or to bring them close to death).
I play SC but i donāt die often (with 7.5k hp my DEE WH cleared the game with 98% content completion, popping Aether Clusters only against the boss of EoR) so i think i can vouch for casters. While imo casters will always be a little behind the melee builds who have the added advantage of (high) % weapon damage, they still can dish out a shit-ton of damage though. They donāt suck at all. Then again, i havenāt tried a laser build yet, as itās energy drain made me switch to PRM
That being said, while the 4 caster builds i levelled which are either arcanist hybrids or occultist hybrids are Ultimate content viable, but the combination of occultist and arcanist seems to be really terrible in terms of inherent survivability (despite having mirror).
I think the reason is due to other class combinations add a little to the hp pool and other stats which the Warlock combination severely lacks
Anyways, regardless of whether your build is melee or non-melee for Ultimate non-trash content clearing you need proper gear and need to know how to actually play your build. You can easily facetank almost every nemesis on Elite yet even the Heroes on ultimate can wipe the floor with you if youāre simply button mashing without paying attention. You need to be aware of those prohectile those aetherial marksman throw at you that creates a damaging floor, you need to keep moving and hitting managing your cooldowns. Imo casters are only a little behind melee builds (except for AAR, i am lacking the gearing to make a build)
TL;DR
Casters will always be a step behind especially on bosses Melee builds due to lack of %weapon damage (with the exception of CT and PB)
You can clear Veteran and Elite by simply walking past things or by simply standing in the same spot but to kill things on Ultimate (with ease) you need to know how your build works (especially if you didnāt make it yourself) and also need to mind your surroundings. This applies to both casters and melee
On another thread i asked around about game mechanics and was told that physical resistance alone isnāt enough as you still need a decent amount of armor. So i gotta ask, how helpful is the ritual circle (on Ultimate)?
Agree with this and even DW guns are lacking behind (imo).
I recently did an Empowered Will of Fate Fire Strike Build, i am at Ultimate Deadmanās Gulch with 3 deaths in total. Imo the only rifles worth using are WoF and VoS as they both have 100% chance to pass through enemies. Even so, the grind is real and it feels a bit slower compared to my other builds
Given the fact that Iāve farmed that set on my Warlock completely self-found it is not something you absolutely need in order to finish the game on Ultimate difficulty with 0 deaths.
Overall, I would say the 25% physical resistance is the least important buff the circle gives. The massive damage boost is what makes it attractive, because it stops you from doing retarded things such as taking the Hungering Void devotion (LMAO). Due to the offensive nature of the circle, it allows you to gear defensivelly and still generate 100-150k dps because you do not have to: 1) care about stacking more cast speed; 2) care about mana consumption.
If you are interested I could post a video in which I kill pretty much every nemesis / unique boss using the set (ā¦and the seal it grants, ofc) !
I am actually more interested in the defensive part of the skill. I did notice the damage boost and agree on that aspect. But since laser builds need to stand still unlike the others i have played i was curious on the defense it provided.
Thanks for the feedback, and yes such a video would definitely be helpful especially one with you using ritual circle). I am used to relatively more mobile casters than AAR builds
will be viable with arcane storm set. aether/lightning chain lightning has lots of devotion combos too.
The what? /10 char
If itās a new item then could you post an SC of the items and the granted skill (if any) by the set?
I am missing 1 piece in each of the sets - Warborn, Infernal. That isnāt even the sad part, i havenāt gotten a single piece of the Lightdefender and Agrivix set which is the oneās i want
here there is a video showing it
Hi
Can you post your build with devotion setup please? very interested in playing an AAR warlock
I will probably make a guide somewhere in the near future. However, bear in mind that an AAR Warlock is perhaps among the most gear-dependent characters in the game along with the Blademaster.
Hi
You say you have tried the new AAR set. How is it behaving? I am a bit curious about fire to chaos conversion. Iās good sometimes not to have just one damage time or if you do fo full in not partially like the new set.
With that in mind isnāt Blood Orb of Chāthon better for going full chaos?
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You can see the video regarding the performance.
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Fire to chaos conversion is exceptional because it is only partial conversion. It is an important damage boost for both the beam and devastation while keeping your damage spectrum broad enough not to encounter special problems with chāthonics (especially Harbingers).
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Blood Orb cuts constitution and hurts HP regeneration. Given the massive spirit stat the Warlock has (actually, the highest in the game), you have an innate +500% bonus magical damage just from going 50/50 in both masteries and having 12/12 in Inner Focus. The boost provided by Blood Orb is not worth it because:
a) you could never benefit from the Black Flame set ability that provides a similar damage amplification while giving you 25% physical resistance and a massive -20% skill cost.
b) it makes your damage output bi-dimensional. Many so called āveteranā players teach new players wrong to focus exclusively on just one-two damage types. This is not a bad advice if those damage types are called āphysicalā and āpierceā, but chaos/vit focus means you will encounter problems with some Chāthonic enemies no matter how much resistance reduction you stackā¦andā¦chaos reduction is notoriously hard to stack in the first place. Those enemy types will ultimately swarm you in the Crucible and make you their b***h. Ergo, chaos/vit casters should always focus on 3-4 types.
c) Blood Orb means OFF becomes useless so you just threw -100% fire resistance reduction out of the window.
Sorry mate. Dināt see your video post. Thanks for that and the explanation above.
who said thereās none ?
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=423934#post423934
sole warlock take down gladiator difficulty.
8348HEALTH, 1676 da 930AR 1381 SPIRIT
Hi mate welcome back:).
@Avatar of Dreeg. His build above uses multiple elements to great effect and has Blood orb of Chāton. Itās not an AAR build but itās very good. His video is on page 2.
By the way I watched the video and that set with the music and purple/red AAR tearing stuff appart looks badass:cool:
Edit: And you get an Argivix legendary in the video too. How fitting