Hi everyone,
passing the Gates of Torments is actually one of the most complex and complicated tasks. I am playing in coop and it is a tense situation to avoid to get killed… or like happened to us one of the players get locked up in a room and a boss fight while other one is outside and cannot help. -> Autoloose
I would really appreciate to make Steps of torment easier or avoid the strict limitation of skull keys they are too rare and chances to survive at first time are low, so if you do not want to bother a user to replay a whole game just for the sake of managing this quest - please ease it a bit.
Also it would be great to have a dealer where you can actually sell your loot, the one you placed there is only able to sell.
Why shouldn’t I be able to turn these tons of loot from 5 levels into silver?
The idea that you cannot use a portal however is great imho. Rising the challenge and tension by far.
Steps of Torment (SoT) is meant to be difficult. It’s much easier now than it was when it was first released. (SoT could be made harder again, in my opinion.)
You get given one Skull Key when you kill Zarthuzellan. You also are given a blueprint so that you can craft additional keys at the blacksmith. It used to be very hard to get the materials to craft the key, but it is much easier now. (You will also need to make a Skeleton Key to enter the Bastion of Chaos later.)
You can use a riftgate to sell your loot when you reach the doors at the end of the 3rd level. After that, it’s better to just set the loot filter to green and ignore the yellow items.
There are many things in Grim Dawn that are very hard the first time you encounter them. They get easier once you understand what to do.
Steps of Torment is a test of your character, both in build and the gear you have collected when you summon the courage to descend into the darkness.
The initial levels prior to the Gates are of a particular difficulty. Past the Gates, one should expect a merciless experience. I would consider it a travesty if this difficulty were to be reduced in any way. There are many forum contributor’s that consider the difficulty of the game in it’s current state to already be too easy.
I have restarted from complete scratch 4 or 5 times now. Throughout my previous playthrough’s I had attempted the Steps of Torment and past the Gates. My most recent Fire Strike Pyro prior to my current made it to the Gates easily enough. He then died in the Chamber of Souls. I was disappointed and upset but took solace in the lesson that that particular character, at their current level and with his current gear, was not ready to face the horrors within. I have since approached the building of characters in Grim Dawn from a different, I believe, more educated point of view and I feel like it has been to my benefit overall.
Consequent to that, my current Fire Strike Pyro has cleared Zarthuzellan but left the Gates locked and has proceeded to continue progressing through my Single-Pass Veteran experience. Now LVL 40 with much improved gear, I am confident that he and I would fair better. I am, however, leaving the Gates till I am LVL 50 to give myself the chance of Legendaries dropping as I navigate the halls and the dead held within.
I would suggest taking this latest, less than positive experience as a lesson, as I did. I think you would benefit from considering changing your perspective to –
“If something is too hard in my current circumstances, perhaps, it is not the content that requires changing but that it is I who is not ready.”
I would agree with putting a buying vendor down there.
The only thing I hate about SoT is that the Room of Death is the first encounter. That many heroes in a row usually means the end of the run for most of my builds’ first try. I know I could come back to it, but that’s a lot of unnecessary running. Even Alkamos isn’t that bad, now that I know the bone floors in his room don’t spawn surprise guests.
I have not done a lot of research regarding this decision as I have not reached it in my current play through or ever before. I will certainly explore in detail what the outcome of both decisions results in prior to making mine.
This is a very interesting post and certainly does support siding with The Outcast, as you also suggest Wurtanen.
I will have to wait and see what both sides have to say.
Crate just needs to add a third floor to SoT. Before you go down you get a message which would depend if you died recently in the murder room. If you did it would say: “You better leave little bitch, cause in every next room will be rape for you”. And the whole of the third floor would be like that murder room from the 1st in terms of difficulty. Or just lock the 3rd floor if you entered SoT twice this session with the message - “We care for your mental health! You were not lucky enough not to die through the easy part and we don’t want you to feel even more unlucky”
Well guys, I don’t want to comprimise the extra kick you seem to need in this game.
Steps of Torment is a test of your character, both in build and the gear you have collected when you summon the courage to descend into the darkness.
Still it would be better if I can test the characters of our party (not playing singleplayer) more than once or two times without breaking my nerves about it because I cannot craft a freaking key.
It seems you think that this level is preseved for super heros only (pun intended) so I’ll (or better we) leave it aside - sad enough they put so much work in a great story and level that is preserved for few.
Or just lock the 3rd floor if you entered SoT twice this session with the message - “We care for your mental health! You were not lucky enough not to die through the easy part and we don’t want you to feel even more unlucky”
well you already cannot enter the doors twice in a session so it seems some of your idea has been implemented already.
Others have already stated what “SoT” is meant to be.
It’s a challenge dungeon. The first you encounter in the game. If you get slaughtered first encounter that’s really not a big deal. It happens specially if you’re unprepared.
I feel you’re being overly presumptuous. Once you progress through to Act 3-4 you should get plenty of “Blood of Ch’thon” and the first 3 levels of SoT/Arkovian Undercity offer the corpse dust/ectoplasm to remake more keys.
When you enter SoT after farming up a bit, you’ll realise it’s not as hard as you originally thought.
Well yeah and plus The Cursed Smith can craft Ancient Heart, Tainted Brain Matter and Blood of Ch’thon.
I really hope they don’t make SoT easy. I was strutting around there feeling invincible when i walked into a locked room. 3-4 Uniques no biggie but it was really fun.
The game is no fun if they make everything easy, some things are placed in earlier Acts but are actually meant to be accessed only when you’ve become significantly strong. SoT, Bastion of Chaos and The Hidden Path are the known ones. And plus one extra on Ultimate (Edge of Reality)
Thanks for your help. I am not complaining about difficulty of the level but the obtainable ressources for the key foremorst the blood. But you have already helped me. We are not yet in Act 3 so this would explain the lack of spawning blood. I thought it would be more rare.
Good to know it is not. Bone dust and other things we have relatively plenty and there is much if you follow the skeletons.
Thanks again for giving me some confidence that we will have more than just 2 chances.
I have to agree that SoT is not too hard, in fact it gets quite easy once you have lots of gear available for your characters.
That said, being able to sell to the vendor in there would be a positive change and I see no reason why you should not be able to. Even with the filter set on green it is pretty easy to fill up your inventory.
Some say it’s supposed to be hard, some brag it’s easy.
Those who allege easy are cheating too much. It is hard and figuring out how to beat the hardship is what playing is about. I’m facing hardcore veteran and it’s back to the drawing board on every death. I finally beat SoT and I challenge myself never to farm, use potions, kite or postpone a boss. And that’s on a caster build supposedly squishy… it is doable.
I hate it when threads are necroed. The game has gone through a lot of balancing passes since this thread was created and the “Undead” specifically have had their difficulty increased.
But perhaps my biggest issue is having the audacity to call people “cheats” when you purposely avoid using potions and refuse to kite. Let me just let Alkamos lower my resists and freeze me, whilst I stand perfectly still trying to out dps him and if he succeeds in killing me then clearly … it’s too hard. WTF?
And the whole of the third floor would be like that murder room from the 1st in terms of difficulty. Or just lock the 3rd floor if you entered SoT twice this session with the message - “We care for your mental health! You were not lucky enough not to die through the easy part and we don’t want you to feel even more unlucky”