Some feedback after beating AoM

Grim Dawn Gameplay Discussion
1

Disclaimer: this is only on Veteran.

I took my (now) Cabalist who was midway through A1 Elite back to Veteran to run through AoM because I like to visit every corner of every area on every playthrough. Full pet build wearing level 35 Rovers greens and some yellow pet damage rings. Started around level 52. All resists pretty good except the main one - Aether - of which I had exactly 0. Anyway, here are my general thoughts:

  1. The size and pacing of the xpac is good, though I was surprised by how large Malmouth is given it’s tiny footprint on the world map.

  2. I was surprised at the level/xp scaling. I went from 52-65 doing a single full clear. That seems a bit much, considering that upon finishing a full run of Veteran, most of the non-xpac Elite is now trivial and outleveled. Is this intentional?

  3. So many green drops, makes me wonder if drop rate is increased. Conversely, it seems (I could be wrong) that legendary drop rate is decreased as a result of larger item pool.

  4. Questing is less linear than vanilla. What I mean is (especially in Ugdenbog) I would explore/clear the areas and complete quests before they were even accessible, then come to find out I had already done them. A bit anticlimactic. This exists in vanilla to an extent, but it’s very limited (mainly during the Cronley questline).

  5. Malmouth difficulty scaling is felt pretty hard. I still pushed through it with 0 deaths, but did have to start resummoning pets and manually getting them out of all the ground effects. There also seem to be some hard hitting mechanics. From what I recall, there’s a charge attack and another projectile attack from one of the bigger guys, both of which chunked off 5k hp in a single hit, leaving me with just 1k. I imagine it’s more noticeable in Elite/Ultimate. Not a complaint, just an observation.

Overall very happy with the xpac, although some more character development - particularly on Ulgrim - would have been welcome. Maybe there are rep-based undiscovered quests down the line, who knows.

Also, Skeleton army is sick with high attack speed, like a firing squad.

Great job Crate!

2

Quick un-spoilery question, as myself, I am just entering Malmouth (found the riftgate yesterday). If the city is as huge as you say, isn’t it a problem that you have only one riftgate? Even Burrwitch which is a small town has like, 3… I mean, you will have to fight your way through the whole city every time you replay it? This could get annoying… I am barely in the city yet and I already hate the damn exploding imps and scamps that can take half your HP off with a passion. Not fun for melee characters… And they are too weak to just one-hit poison/bleed them and run away, they die in one hit.

3 - I noticed quite the difference when going with my Level 58 Blademaster on Normal/Veteran and then with my Level 85 Conjurer… The former, I only barely found a few epics and no legendary yet during my trek to Malmouth. With the other, I did 4-5 runs for Kilrian’s soul on Ultimate, and found 4-5 Epics, Legendaries, and even Mythical Legendaries and Epics and their blueprints on EVERY run. Weird.

3

The city is big, but it’s cut into 3 main districts. Once you get inside and progress you will be unlocking portals just like under Krieg’s mansion all the way to the laboratory.

4

There are several waypoints/paths that unlock as you retake the city. They don’t show on the world map until you’re actually there. There’s not much backtracking.

5

Thanks! Nice, that is good to know. I hoped for something similar. :slight_smile: Just odd that they are not marked on the map before discovery.