Spirit, Panetti, Spanetti, Spagetthi, a quirky Mage Hunter experiment

[Boromonokli]

So, looking at all the crucible-worthy things I want to try, all the characters I bring up one step closer, one session at a time, to salvation and farming heaven, I have to say most of these look terribly the same.

To change things up, I figured I’d do things differently this time. I’d assume the position of a naive newcomer, who doesn’t know that assigning attribute points is nothing more than a sham, even moreso than in d2, because Vitality, or Physique-Strength, is the one stop shop for survivability desperately needed against things like Fabius or other nemeses. Also needed to equip armor.

so for a moment, for at least normal (Veteran) and Ashes of Malmouth I’m going to assume that even without investing in physique, I can get enough to get by with okay gear.

Secondly, I’ll play Panetti’s Replicating Missile. Not a devastation meteorsorc, not a Trozan’s build, not your cookie cutting Olexra’s with Greater Fireball either, not to speak of Albrecht’s Aether Ray using people (Nothing wrong about them, perfectly reasonable folk). No. This is PRM. The red headed stepchild of skill design, that just never fits anywhere. Not without ludicrous conversion anyways in order to just maybe have enough Resist Reduction to be considered a “good” build who kills some boss under X seconds…

Nope. This is Panetti. And a spirit panetti, like a Spanetti, or Spaghetti.

Speaking of spaghetti, I could use a meal.

Ah yes, of course, I’m not going out there without a plan. First off, Arcanist is a wonderfully survivable mastery even without much health. Mirror of Eroectes is pretty much the way to survive. Maiven’s Sphere of Protection is also pretty powerful.

On the other side is the go-to pairing for any elemental user nowadays, the Inquisitor. It also happens to be one of the best defensive classes as well, bundling the healing and buffing Word of Renewal and Inquisitor Seal into a nice package titled “Survival ticket” and sending them over to Devil’s crossing.

Then of course, what ties the two together, is the spell, Panetti’s Missile. Normally, it’s not very impressive. It hits a single target, spawns non-replicating copies of itself, and those copies may or may not hit other enemies. But never the original target. That’s not very good, is it? Great for trash encounters, bad for big bad bosses, the real threat, is it?

Well, No.

Distortion gives the main projectile a chance to pierce through enemies, and hit monsters behind them, replicating again. Put a large number of monsters together, and their bodies become a sort of damage pinâta waiting to be burst open, taking the boss out and dumping it’s content onto the ground. That in theory makes it good against minion-spawning bosses and grouped up things, perfect for most of the main campaign. As for it’s shortcomings? well, we’ll just have to wing it.

I don’t expect this build to do hell/hell, or AoM superbosses @ level 100 without a single point in Physique. Eventually, if only to get my gear, I’ll have to spec into physique. But that shouldn’t come until level 50-60 at least. And until then, every point goes into spirit.

That is the plan at least.

Stay tuned.

[Boromonokli]

The Plan:

Nothing much. Pump up Panetti, it’s Synergies, Mirror, Maiven’s, and the two inquisitor buffs to stay alive. Maybe a point or two in other skills for devotion proccing, but that’s it. Panetti is this mage hunter’s mainstay, and so will it be.

For devotions, there are three ones she wants. First the Elemental Storm from Rhowan’s Crown, that’s mandatory for any elemental, fire, ice, or lightning build. Plus, it’s on the way to the Blind Sage, and the Attack Seru top tier constellations, needing lots of purple, and somewhat less green. Other than those, I’m eyeing the Blue side of the star chart, with the Hourglass constellation for Time Dilation, as my low health could necessitate a lot of buffs, and as such, cooldown reduction could very well be critical. Of course, this mostly depends on equipment I can find.

Speaking of equipment, yeah, I don’t know every piece of equipment I can potentially wear, unlike some people, I play Grim Dawn, not Grimtools. What I know is that the highest level of armor will need me 40 points (spent) in strength, so after CLVL 60 I’ll have to spend points there. That’s not 5 level ups I mean, but 40 levels worth of attribute points in strength. Oh did I say strength? I meant Vitality, uhm Physique. Yep, I was thinking the old D2 system where you put “just enough in Strength/dexterity for your gear, nothing in energy, and the rest in Vitality”. They might have got rid of that in Grim Dawn, but rolling together Strength and Vitality really didn’t do much about the issue. There is one stat worth using, and the rest are situational, good only for the gear requirements.

That’s it in a nutshell. the plan anyways.

I named the character Cinderella, in homage of my earlier Diablo 2 sorceress, who dealt with Hell Baal with just firebolt and as little frozen orb as I could get away with, and in anticipation of the mounting difficulties that are sure to come. In difficulty, I pick veteran over normal, because it’s still easier for ranged characters, and because the extra bosses help me develop the right habits for later difficulties. Finally, the extra loot is always welcome.

And with that, our adventure begins.

Veteran, Act 1.

Cinderella started her life as any other arcanist cut from the noose. Grab the corpse on the bridge, grab the random weapon (Mine was a mace) equip it while attacked, regenerate, retaliate. First level up hit me just as I grabbed Francis’ gun, so out of the blue I was no longer whacking things with a mace, but shooting either a bullet or a replicating missile.

Rest of lower crossing went like that. PRM to slvl 5 gave me enough oomph for now, next was pumping arcanist mastery for more Spirit, more energy, more health, in short, more stuff. Goal was, of course, to grab Distortion at mastery 15, get it to a reasonable level (40%), then keep going towards Proliferation, pumping a couple into the base PRM as I needed to keep the speed up. Additional character points into spirit, and Arcanist’s large spirit gain would help keeping the damage rising in the meantime.

Kyzogg was, needless to say, a walk in the park, a walk with lots of annoying zombies, who were mostly taken out by the replicating missile fragments.

Past kyzogg was the old dump, and wightmire. Farros the rotted was the first hero denizen who took a while to deal with, but wasn’t much of a problem otherwise. Then there was Pusquill’s den, who was certainly making Cinderella earn his stash of loot, (which wasn’t much, the tight-fisted bastid!)

Wightmire went OK at first. Distortion came online in a short order, and Cinderella found it to her delight that having things behind a boss increased the chance that a piercing missile could spawn additional missiles that would in turn hit the boss. Similarly, things rounding a corner, coming through a chokepoint would get hit hard really fast.

Milton Hart was slightly more dangerous, managing a couple hits on me, but nothing I couldn’t dance through. Viloth went by without much notice, the other two quest guys for Harmond (The lightning and the fire rotting soldier heroes) got the same treatment. Isaac’s spaulders were useful for a change, and so was Karvor’s Conjuring Bone, with it’s reckless guardian summon. You don’t really appreciate the heal it does until you play with a non-standard leveling build.

Speaking of non-standard leveling, Cinderella does no crucible. She’s too busy saving the world. Similarly, she leaves Olexra’s Flash Freeze as the only enemies that are vulnerable to it get mowed down by Panetti’s replicating missile anyways.

Foggy Bank went the same way, except I picked up a +1 panetti ring from shared storage, and added a Nether Crown to my private stash.

Flooded passage, same. I’ve probably got more experience fighting Shambler Bosses than necessary. In Burrwich Outskirts the Sky Clan boss dropped his Storm Totem MI, but sadly I’m not that kind of mage. Further up, in the Moldering Fields, Cinderella nabbed the other two guys for Harmond, who did their best at charging and keeping her on her toes, but a well timed Mirror did them in.

After clearing the Burrwich portal (which had only one fleshwarped boss), I decided to pay Direni a little visit. I am, after all, looking for a good challenge, and he has the keys. Plus, he’s a nice reputation boost later on in act 2, so I spare him and head to the Depraved Sanctuary.

Yes, a cultist DOES drop the key on the way there, but what gives.

Past the iron door, a nice piece of text informed me that a presence far stronger than my little arcanist resides in this place. Of course, the welcoming committee melted like paper in the chokepoints, so it couldn’t be that bad… Oh look a closed door, it Can’t be a trap can it? Oh it doesn’t open from the other side? Oh hey Salazar, can we play?

Salazar does not mess around. He is literally everything you can expect from a ranged Grim Dawn boss. Lots of high damage projectiles, an AoE under you, and the occasional unavoidable here-goes-half-your-health doom bolt or similar.

Cinderella was drinking potions every doom bolt, sometimes inbetween to prevent an one-shot, avoiding chaos bolts, and shooting back Panetti’s whenever she could, and eventually…

Yep. Now all that was left was the Warden’s lab, and a bit more devotion shrines. Nothing special. Cinderella was going for quill and hawk, for elemental and offensive ability power.

Finally the Warden: Unlike Salazar, Krieg is a cake as long as you don’t get eaten by a charge-stomp combo, or get caught with low health. Cinderella didn’t, so she passed the first act with flying colors.

See you in act 2, the home of shadow striking undead and many, many many gunners and crossbowmen. It’s also very desertlike. Lut Gholein anyone?

[Jeroni1976]

Great !

I follow!

Finally a different approach!

Keep it up!!!

[Boromonokli]

Thanks for the encouragement.

With act 1 done, the easy part was over.

To recap: In act 1, the enemies were fairly simple, with a hint of what is to come. Some slow zombies, slith, and beasts (thornback puppies) with the occasional shooter mixed in. Still, projectiles were fairly slow from the throwing zombies, and the occasional squishy counters (charging monsters and ranged spam) were well balanced by melee counters from cold ones and burning dead. Similarly, bugs exploded into mists that gave trouble to melee characters. All in all, the monster design was well balanced and a safe bet for an early access audience, leaving plenty of room for maneuvering and skill to overcome build weaknesses.

But in act 2, things just got real.

The welcoming committee shot a quarter of my girl’s health off with their guns and molotovs. Cronley’s gang was NOT playing lightly. At least they died quick, much like in western gunfights. A lot of build up, and a shot or two before a cowboy or bandit dies.

In this case of course it’s a lot of bandit cowboys, but semantics. Of all their gangs, the skirmishers were the worst, surviving a hit and sometimes stunning me. Clearly dodging did not work as well as previously, and the enemy was tougher, so it was time to employ the more advanced tactics I used in Diablo 1 a lot: Chokepoints. Not only did those slow enemies down, they presented killing fields where PRM worked like the old Lightning Fury javazon. Similarly, Line of Sight tactics worked well too.

Rescuing the Skinner family, letting Izzy go, everything went in the “optimal” way.

Then to visit the other main enemy faction in this segment: The Undead.

Now those are much like a mixture between the Aether Corruption and Cronley’s gang at first, being slow like zombies, but fast at firing like cronley’s gunners. But that’s where the similarities end and the absolute hell begins. They have elite and regular archers who shoot quick arrows you are guaranteed to eat some from, and the elite shoot a slower vitality arrow which applies a DoT (my arcanist has no vitality resist).

Then when you thought it doesn’t get worse, here comes the real kicker: Priests who heal, Knights who apply a reflect buff to all around them, and finally, Revenants, who are tough sons of Uuroboruuk or however he is spelled, and are armed with deadly spells that shotgun you at melee range, or poke at you from range. More specifically, Lightning Revenants can autohit you, Frost revenants can throw a freezing bomb at you, and flame revenants can burn the ground below you. Then there are the skeletal Warlocks casting Sigil of Consumption below you (for ridiculous damage), Skeletal Golems who can trap you (Remember sigil of consumption?) and their bigger and even bigger variations.

Finally the Ghosts, who are undead but ghostly. Some can throw phantasmal blades in an arc, others can teleport at you.

Why I tell this? I went to the spined cave, and had no trouble after I cleared out some retreat room. This is important to remember later on.

Beasts were still cannon fodder.

Stallnton mine had the elite Skirmisher Nicholas Balthazar. I used his ronley’s Cronies as force multipliers by letting Nic take the lead, popping mirror, then spamming Panetti’s at him as much as I could. The piercing main missile would set off multiple extra missiles in secondary targets, and those also hit the boss. Bam. Note 1 for arcanists. Mirror is the key.

Blowing up the barricade, the road to Old Arkovia was cake. Some shamblers tested their luck, they were even less of a trouble than the one in wave 10 of the Crucible.

Ignoring the rocky coast town, I went straight up to the forges, then to haneffy mines, then to the man Cronley himself. Direni was a nice enough guy so far, but now he’s became another 150 Devil’s Crossing reputation point. Same with Cronley, but he took a bit more coaxing. His Maiven’s Shield made him tougher, but the extra aetherials spawned were prime targets for the piercing missile.

Next up, the real mess for squishy builds: <s>undead burg Halls of the Dead,
Tomb of Tal Rasha</s> Arkovian Undercity. Full of undead, ghosts, and painful bosses. But first I had to deal with a nasty reflect-heavy extension of Old Arkovia/Twin Falls, including a reflect boss. I could have nullified, but right now the extra missiles from Proliferation, plus more and more points in mastery were my plan. Defense can wait. Elemental Storm also came online by this point, and it wasn’t reflected. Yay.

Dungeon Level 1 of the undercity went fine, I grabbed the waypoint in Broken hills, then continued downwards to fight the needed heroes. The first two of them died peacefully, falling meteors and slow teleports did not deter me. (The star markers from the quest kept lighting up the shadow striker boss) But the third one, he was accompanied by a lot of nasty shadow strikers I woke up too many of, and shortly after killing him, I took both arrows and a coordinated pair of shadow strikes. And just like that, I was dead.

Compared to that room, Kilrian was a cake. Avoid the star attack, don’t stand in the ground flame, don’t spend too much time with him when he has his aura on. And above all, avoid the arrow. If it hits you, keep dodging around and let it drain a good portion of your health, then use the potion to pop to full. That’s a good thing in low health, his arrow deals less damage to you. He took a while to dance with, but did not pose much of a threat.

With Kilrian done, the big part of this act was over. Only one boss was left, and that was in smuggler’s pass.

The broken hills held the third main faction in the act, a motley collection of boars, harpies, and later some quirky looking Trolls. Trolls like women apparently, but they weren’t much different from Cronley’s gang.

They were also locked in a battle against aetherials, but against the tiny zombies and reanimators, the crossbow/gun armed troll hunters, plus their gigantic brethren held their ground easily. Looking at this conflict from the first glance gives the impression that the trolls are winning, but of course, that’s just one of Grim Dawn’s many false hopes as Cinderella will soon see.

Voldrak, the act’s last boss, was at the end of the pass, holding the gate preventing anything from passing north. Not a smart move considering that’s were the aetherials were coming from. He had a slow curse, which was a pain in the back-mirror, but other than that, he was the usual slow boss with a slow, easy to dodge ranged attack.

And that is where the act itself ends. Maybe it’s not how it was released, or how the wiki lists it, but this is a good stopping point for me, before the conflict opens up for real.

[Avyctes]

I named the character Cinderella, in homage of my earlier Diablo 2 sorceress, who dealt with Hell Baal with just firebolt and as little frozen orb as I could get away with

For a second there I thought Sirian had started playing GD. But I looked up his (ancient, look at those html tables) site and he never made a Cinderella.

Either way, good luck with this character, PRM will easily carry you into ultimate in my experience.

[Boromonokli]

He did start grim dawn, back in late 2016. it was his recommendation that led me to discover the game.

there is his thread.

If you look into RB’s diablo subforum, you’ll see Cinderella was a homage to Ember. (I should finish that story at last too, now that I remember it)

[Boromonokli]

Act III, where the story starts up for real.

Let’s face it, Act 2 felt like a filler. Starting with taking out “another threat”, Darius Cronley, some exploration into the catacombs with the Arkovian Undercity, and some new nice beasts with the boars, harpies, and trolls, but with the exception of boars we won’t see them ever again.

I cut the end of the act at the end of Smuggler’s Pass, because from here on, we will meet the new and improved monsters the aetherials have been cooking in their war against the trolls: Fleshwarped Trolls, Vanguards, Commanders, Deadeyes and Flameeyes. These guys are tougher and faster than regular zombies, both with movement, attacks, Point blank lightning novas and quick projectile guns are a marked transition from the slow zombies and slow projectiles from burning dead. Swelling their ranks now are the possessed (Apprentices, Arcanists and Elementalists) who can shield themselves, and somewhat later on: Flesh Hulks too, big fleshy monsters that can charge, stun, and hit hard.

But first things first, Cinderella exits Smuggler’s Pass onto Deadman’s Gulch. Here the trolls are on the losing side of the battle. Shamans, Hunters and Warriors just barely holding up to the aetherial reinforcements. At least for now, occupied with each other as they are, they are easy pickings for Panetti’s Replicating <s>Lightning Fury</s> missiles.

Continuing to the deeps, the locals don’t pose too many problems. The only heroes I meet get into chokepoints with their cadres, and thus get hit even harder. The occasional spider ambush is manageable. Ikrix drops her scales, but that’s it. I grab the devotion shrine and the homestead reputation track, and head out to Prospector’s Trail for a breath of fresh air. Then I hear gunshots and grobbling. The grobles are back!

And stone clan too, which is the only enemy type to drop Groble Stone Effigies, the only PRM boosting Monster Infrequent gear in the vanilla game. +2 Panetti’s +2 Proliferation, to go with +20% crit damage and -10% energy cost to the same skill. A massive change from the Karvor’s Conjuring Bone I’ve been using since wightmire.

Yes. I haven’t found a single better upgrade, and the heals it provided were invaluable. But Cinderella has outgrown it, and it was time to get the replacement.

But since that was mentioned, it’s time to talk about my item luck.

In short, nothing.

In longer, I mostly found heavy armor, bleed, vitality, occultist, necromancer, shaman, soldier, you name it, a lot of epics, but nothing for my girl. The only epic of note was a pair of Embergrip Handguards and a Malduin’s Cloth.

So I wore those, with the Nether Crown I grabbed from the transfer stash, and the panetti’s ring too. Boots were a hand-me-down Explorer’s Footpads, pants were crafted explorer’s pants, amulet was Maiven’s Lens, also crafted, and the rings were a slith primal ring, and a +1 PRM ring I found in the transfer stash. Scepter was a shopped +1 PRM arcanist implement. Medal was a rare with 12% aether resist. With those, my resists were decent, except against vitality and bleeding damage. My armor was low, but I had plenty of firepower to make it a non-issue.

So with the above in mind, I set course for Tyrant’s Hold, full of grobles, one of them sure to drop an effigy for me. The local Briarthorns were rather easy, except when they dropped a grasping earth on me. Those hurt. My only death on the way was accrued from those, but then I got into the habit of staying on the move with Panetti. Ungoliax, Manticores, Ol’Bloodbriar were all panetti food.

Tyrant’s Hold was an easier place. Lots of choke points and small enemies. Bloodfeast wasn’t any tougher than your average boss, and it was easy to kite him while Mirror was on recharge. or shooting back when Cinderela gained some distance on him. I got one effigy out of the full clear, and that one was chaos/vit damage.

Next up, Cinderella finished the path to homestead. The aetherials still died as easy as before, and were mowed down en-masse. Level up points were improving Star Pact and Mirror. Character points went into spirit. I also found a Demolitionist’s stone effigy of Frostbite. That’s a keeper.

In homestead, I changed my gloves and my shoulderpads. I got a goodly amount of vitality, and OA out of the changes. The new one was a crafted adept’s gloves of readiness, the shoulderpads some rare.

I added a component into my weapon. A Wrathstone for more aether damage. I gave a blessed steel a shot, but no dice, doesn’t stack with Elemental Storm.

Out in the infested farms I meet the dermapterans. They are basically tougher spiders with less speed and no ranged enemies. Past them are more bugs and aetherials in the Rotting Croplands. I had Cinderella walk the outer edges, I was looking for the note on the farm about the buried treasure. With my lack of good items, any roll on the epic table was welcome. There was a rover camp on the way, and a buried crypt with a little girl in it. Being a nice person, Cinderella opened a rift for her, only to find out that there was now a demon in the rover camp. Go figure. And I haven’t even unlocked the Kymon’s reputation track. What a wasted 70 points.

Further up, I find the note, then the treasure. No, nothing useful, time to move on. I skipped the Dermapteran Lair for now, and headed straight to the Amalgamation, and the end of a session.

Next up, I was going down to meet Gollus. The guy was a serious danger, with lots of poison and a shadow strike ability. Nothing a lot of happy feet can’t solve though.

Next up I picked Kymon’s Chosen, and went out to Sorrow’s Bastion. The bloodsworn were nothing special, with lots of slow projectiles, interspersed with a few gunners, melee demons and sword wielders. Cinderella full cleared the Blood Grove. She started using a Void-Ward from an imbued silver.

Not much of note happened on the way to Darkvale Gate. I skipped the C’thonic rift for the time I get Rover reputation to Honored, as there is little point to clearing it now, I have a Kymon’s Chosen Mandate up already. I’m swimming in reputation.

And in Darkvale Gate: I met Karroz, Sigil of C’thon.

If you haven’t met Karroz yet, imagine Salazar with less danger. Then you got Karroz.

For the first stage at least.

His next form, a boss Unraveler, is still nothing too dangerous. Keeping out of his tentacle field, not sitting in AoE pools is all it needs.

His stash was, of course, useless.

Cinderella will see you in act IV.

[Boromonokli]

Act IV - A quick trip

The fourth act started on the tail end of my Karroz session, by dispatching the last of the bloodsworn near the Darkvale Keep exit. Then a rush to the waypoint to consolidate my progress. So far so good. Now time to report back to Somer.

Obviously this victory was not the end of it all. In fact we only discovered the big plan to summon a big baddie, and time is of the essence. I’ve got to grab a waypoint (pardon my diablo, totally meant riftgate) at Fort Ikon and reconnect the two legion forces, before everyone can press on to the Necropolis and have a good old-fashioned showdown with the cult and end this summoning episode for good.

Somer also gave me a quest epic item: Combat Medic’s Mark. I couldn’t have asked for a better medal, quite honestly. My bleeding resistance was lacking, and the on attack proc is very helpful in complimenting my Word of Renewal.

Anyways, such equipped, Cinderella took on the Asterkarn Mountains, with all the cool stuff hiding in the snow. Chillmanes by the dozen, and the usual aetherial posse. Chillmanes send waves at me and zerg-rush, and the Aetherials have a nice Troll Vanguard unit with a chill aura. Other than that it’s business as usual, until I reach the first fort… Then the flesh hulks come. And these ones somehow not only charge, and send stun waves, but take ages to kill. Looking at my damage, I deal about two thirds of the damage I would deal normally.

I think about that deeply while collecting the Trip South notes and reach the next waypoint. I go back to Devil’s Crossing, consult my damage types, and come to a realization that my initial assessment, that Elemental damage would be my main type, with a minor “by-product” aether damage from passive synergies, was wrong. Despite heavy investment into +% elemental damage devotions and items, Aether was still pulling ahead, now that I nearly finished up with Distortion, and completely finished Proliferation. Secondly, Flesh Hulks still resisted a third of my damage, (About half of my aether) and since they had good mobility and enough damage to keep me on the move, Elemental Storm was not a reliable resist reduction option anymore.

Furthermore, a new patch hit, and a monster infrequent drop was added to a new roguelike dungeon, with the innate ability to convert all elemental damage on Panetti to Aether damage. That, combined with the fact that Aether to Lightning and Cold to Fire (or something along those lines) is, for some inexplicable reason, only available on mythical versions of the Invoker set, and the level 94 legendary Farrath’s Cube, all suggest that focusing on aether will be a better path.

Finally, Aether resist reduction is easier to come by. Word of Pain’s last synergy curses enemies with -x Reduced Aether Resistance (that stacks with other sources of RR), Arcane Bomb from the Widow constellation also deals damage on the way, and Aetherfire is easily spammable using a single point each in Storm Box and Lightning Tether.

So I dropped my devotions completely. Cinderella picked up imp, then toad, then widow. Losing the Chariot of the Dead sucked, but that was a price I was willing to pay. I also picked up Wraith for the extra resist, affinity, and damage. Relic-wise I made a Specter relic, but it was not very compelling. I looked up Haunt and it’s good, but first I’d need to get some materials.

Testing on some enemies, things were going well. Flesh Hulks died better, and there was a small overall damage increase too on my character screen. Going aether was obviously the correct choice. Unlike Diablo 2, where it was worth, nay, necessary to have two damage types due to the unbreakability of immunities, here in grim dawn, putting all proverbial eggs in one basket, and then stacking resist reduction to it is the way to go, especially on a character who has %magic damage from high spirits (and thus extra %damage is a proportionally smaller increase than getting resist reduction on the board).

Such reinforced, I pressed into Asterkarn Valley and tried hugging the left wall, hoping to avoid the chillmane boss my Pet Conjurer always had trouble with. Nope, turns out I somehow managed to find him, likely from bad navigation. Oops. Tempt-shoot-tempt, Mirror and shoot as long as I can, and then continue, repeat this dance, and the beast dies. I skip Mogdrogen’s Shrine for now. Same with Tomb of Korvak. I grab the next waypoint, right next to a shrine I can grab, and then comes the realization. I’ve got all the places needed for the hidden path quest, a quest that gives me a skill and an attribute point.

So I bomb the lower crossing side path, kill the locals, grab some rift scourge slicers, play dodgeball with Guardian of Dreeg (think Pusquill the Howler but with floating eye minions he can resummon. Yeah not too damgerous.

Next up is Guardian of Solael in the Broken Hills, between the portal and the Steps of Torment. He has a wave attack where I should not stand unless I have ridiculous resists and health. So, other than me being lazy, nothing dangerous.

Guardian of Bysmiel, in Asterkarn Valley, next to the Asterkarn Road riftgate, was a bit more lively. He could teleport to me, but had a small aftercast delay before he attacked, so keeping distance from him was something I had to learn on the spot. Mind me, anyone can keep running and attack only while protected by Mirror of Eroectes, but skilled mages can make use of the enemy stopping to finish an attack to gain enough distance to retaliate, also dodging said attack.

With this final guardian’s death, I gained my quest reward, but now my inventory was loaded with these stones, (attribute point went to spirit of course, skill point somewhere useful, likely inquisitor mastery, working towards death sentence) so I went to clear out the temple of the three. And since I was there anyways, I grabbed the east marsh devotion shrine and the fang of the great beast next to it. Anasteria valued it much.

So continuing onto Fort Ikon, I had a relatively easy time with the Death’s Vigil people who tried to stop me. The trick to their skeletons was killing the skeletal priests, and then the necromancers, in that general order. Or shooting indiscriminately into their midst when clumped up. They rarely got past corners or doorways, if you catch my drift.

My momentum kept me going at the fort. Lucius hurt some, but liked staying in my aetherfire. The Plains of Strife were fairly challenging, but taking things a bit slower and safer saw me through. Necropolis was a hot knife through butter up to the inner riftgate. Here the Chthonians brought forth their Vanguard units, Chargers without the Flesh hulk’s stun, but with sweeping area damage strikes and shockwave attacks. But so late in the campaign, charger units, though worthy of respect, are nothing special. So did Cinderella clean up the blood wagons, descend, clear the guardian of the gates, (a poisonous hyperactive bastard who required plenty of footwork) Thalonis (who got stuck in some rubble for a while and I couldn’t hit him with the missiles at around half health, but Karroz was deadlier), and then it was time for a dance with the Loghorrean.

Loghorrean was a monster who didn’t move. You can figure his threat level on your own I think. His hero summons took some attention away, but the regular vanguard I could handle by maneuvering it into the line of fire.

Old Log is dying already in this picture. Must be all the aetherfire hidden under his tentacled chin. Storm Box and Aetherfire are a ridiculous combination against stationary monsters. Individual fires don’t hurt that much, but when stacked by a high rate of fire skill, like storm box,they become manifold. Similarly, they are all but useless against things that move quickly, like almost every melee boss.

Finally, after all this, I took a rest. It was time to get prepared for Ashes of Malmouth. Cinderella received valuable material donations through the transfer stash, most notably an aether soul and aethersteel bolts, plus aether crystals, which together with Cinderella’s gathered items, were enough to craft her way up to the Haunt relic.

Now, haunt was a huge boost from the previously used Bone Talisman. +1 to arcanist skills was both damage and a defensive upgrade, it made my spaghetti all the stronger. More elemental, more flat aether, more crit% from supercharged. Faster recharge for Mirror, the works. Even stronger was the granted skill: 17% aether resist reduction and 1.5k ish damage per second for piddling energy costs for a decent number of seconds.

I tried out my new toy by descending into the Steps of Torment. Most things died too easily to notice the extra resist reduction I gained. I say most things. The two lock-up rooms included. Alkamos, however was refusing to come out of hiding in his spectral strike. Great. I can’t reliably tempt that attack, and he is immune to being hit, traps, lawyers, or any AoE while in spectral mode. I can’t even break him out with nullify because I can’t aim at him (and because I didn’t bother getting it so far). So it was mirror, stacking up my Damage over Time effects and as many missiles on him as I could, then running away and waiting for mirror to recharge. Rinse and repeat. Safe but boring.

Past this, and a huge sum of rhowari and outcast reputation, (I did the dungeon because just now I got the rover mandate from my Conjurer after doing Log) I decided to put off Bastion of Chaos for now. The extra Kymon’s and Outcast reputation isn’t really needed now, especially since it would be a great boost later for one of the expansion faction’s reputation.

A quick cleansing the shrine of mogdrogen (and some other shrines not really worth mentioning) later, I was ready. But I wouldn’t just stop now. It was time to get the gloomwald rift. Past the crystal, Keeper of Burrwich got in a few cheap shots, sending Cinderella to the floor. Okay, I forgot to use mirror, but still, the guy missed franchises, he would have been a great Touhou enemy!

Look at me flying!

Okay, moving on, the few zombies past him weren’t anything special. Even the ugdenbog wretches and half-wendigos were eating them without problems. Such a shame really. The enemies that founded Grim Dawn’s early success to be treated so badly. Well, no point lamenting, time to go forward. The Wendigos were not much of a problem either. They had fast and charging wendigos, and like Ghouls, they left puddles on the ground. And of course, being undead, they gave Rover reputation, so it was fine.

The random poison plants were more annoying, but nothing a few antivenom salves couldn’t patch up either.

Catching the rover group, and the riftgate, Cinderella proceeded to rest.

[Boromonokli]

Act V - Part 1

The fifth act started as it does for everyone. Some bleed resist, some poison resist, and a casual run through Gloomwald. Well, a more casual than usual, as I haven’t met the teleporting and charging nasty bosses hiding in the dark. Carraxia was a bit tough at first, but not very dangerous. Things sped up after the coven. Unlike my previous characters who spent mapping out the swamp, here I was making beeline to the Tomb of Ugdall (it’s a nice devotion shrine), and from there to the town of Barrowholm.

Since allying them is worth more than another dungeon to grind out later, I didn’t take the ugdenbog fetish by force. And while I did their quests, I was gaining Coven reputation either way. The north-east ugdenbog area was an easy clear, with large open spaces to maneuver in and enough corners to form my enemies into deathballs. The mine was a bit less inviting, but the chokepoints helped turn things in my favor. The only problem was the ghost crab boss, who managed to corner me in an area where the game didn’t render a stone barrier, so I tried in vain to escape him. Oops, another tombstone to retrieve. The next time, wise to such tricks, he didn’t fare so well.

But past those, the Ugdenbog Fetish was retrieved, and at the Altar of Rattosh, Cinderella waved the dark and dank swamp goodbye. It was a nice place, the locals were very inviting, but it was time to move on, and she jumped head first into the void, again, to save an old friend.

Technically, this was not necessary, as she could do Ashes of Malmouth later, and bother with the Black Legion / Malmouth Resistance reputations in Ultimate, but she did it anyways. Besides, Legion gear was nice to have as an option.

What fate would befall her in the Void, only time could tell…

[TipTop]

when i started the game for the first time… the so called Spaghetti seemed one of the best AoE skills in game but with my Battlemage, with 49 lvl i was at fort ikon and it was kinda hard for me… not enough hp and probably wrong skills set up over all (too much glass cannon i guess)… all in all, i struggled with it

[Boromonokli]

It is, honestly, for the first five levels I used francis’ gun more than Panetti. Distortion is what really gets things working. Think of Diablo 2’s Lightning Fury amazon. As soon as she got pierce, she could mow down mobs, especially cow mobs with ease. If there is something that panetti could use, besides the lacking item support at low levels, is more pierce. From MIs or Epics, I don’t know. But more pierce for the main missile would be just nice.

Anyways, onto act V part 2

Deep in the void was… just like any time I was in the void, or in the Necropolis. New enemies were Chthonic Servitors, who did their best to apppear Dermapteran ticks or something. They had a few new tricks, more ranged, but besides that minor nonsense, they died to my Spaghetti as readily as anything else. then, on wings of fire, breathing doom… came Ekket’Zul, Progenitor of Darkness. There was no stopping him. He was hot on Cinderella’s heels, charging, casting, almost feeling the supple magehunter flesh between his claws, but this was no longer act I anymore, I was wise to his tricks, so a protracted battle commenced, which consisted of me running away and waiting for the Haunt and Storm Box to do their grisly work, and in the meanwhile I fired back panetti after panetti to hasten his demise, stopping when a good shielding opportunity came.

See? Ekket’Zul is a great boss. He has good short and mid-ranged attack variety, a good gap closer, a large arena with enough space to loop around, and charges that can be defeated by good positioning. In short, never too boring to be harmless, and never too unfairly powerful either.

Smaller versions of the guy returned in the later parts of the Void’s Edge. They were a nice variation to the usual dreadguards, but otherwise not that many of them appeared to really make a difference before I grabbed Ulgrim (where a dead log laid defeated at last) and went onwards towards Malmouth.

Oh yeah. Mourndale, Malmouth outskirts - Piece of Cake. The new Aetherials were literally just slightly weaker trolls with tentacles. The Sentinels and Guardians were Aether Crystals on Steroids without the good drop rate, Scamps and Imps were effectively the same as the chthonian Hungerers and Gorgers, but exploding in aetherfire or acid on death. Possessed also made a reappearance, along with a scarce few aether hounds, and rarely, some corruptions/overseers/mindragers, nothing really new under the sun, except for the malmouth houses being a pain to deal with. Oh and there were the Bloaters. Doh. Basically flesh hulks but not as tough or dangerous. There, done.

So at the outskirts, I found a cellar. In that cellar was something Dalia Thornsbury, who came here from Homestead, wanted dearly: a letter from Dravis. That letter was guarded by a terrifying possessed mage.

Terrnox knew his tricks. A shotgun, a teleport, nope. I was playing it safe. maintain distance and whittle him down slowly, step away when he teleports, always stay quick on Cinderella’s feet, and yes, since I had no looping area, let him return to his starting point when he gets out of his leash.

Speaking of a leash, my Mage Hunter had one of her own.

The drop was not any less impressive.

Spellweaver is not a particularly good weapon for Panetti, but the aether damage and elemental balance boosts are still pretty useful. Compared to my bloodsworn scepter, this was a good deal. But while we are there, I looked through her gear, and some pieces were woefully underperforming. Of course, this meant hitting up the faction vendors.

Outcast’s robes, some MI shoulders with resists, the new spellweaver, Cinderella’s new look was definitely greener than before. But there was one piece she was missing, a monster infrequent added in the fresh 1.0.5.0 patch, while she was going to Darkvale. That thing was Slathsarr’s Crest, added in the new roguelike dungeon. I had a level 65 version on another character, but bun waiting for it, plus it had weak modifiers. So Cinderella went on instead to the Ancient Grove herself, and dueled with the Aethergaze herself.

Now, there was lots of aether and poison thrown around, plus some elemental from my spaghetti, but it is veteran, and you get the story. Cinderella killed Aethergaze and claimed her reward.

OA, DA, resists, and casting speed on top of the Panetti’s mods made for a good bit of extra damage.

This also meant that aetherial wraiths spawned from possessed were all but immune unless I lowered their resists. Oh well, win some, lose some. Still, with Malmouth reached, it was time to get our last faction, and finally put an end to Veteran.

Oh yeah. I tried Trial of Corruption. It was like a rugby match. On one side the Aetherials, the other had the Voidborn, and the ball, played by yours truly.

Chalk another death up on your board folks. Elite is going to be fun.

[Boromonokli]

Wait, did I say elite? I meant Malmouth. Act VI

Malmouth, the city of green color, fleshy places, the HR heaven (Human Resources) of Grim Dawn, turned to it’s extreme. The outskirts and the sewers were fairly tame, compared to what awaited me inside the city.

First I want to take back regurgitators being like flesh hulks. They are, in a sense, since they charge a lot, but they don’t stun nearly as much, and they die rather quickly. Think mini-hulks.

Now these guys, these ARE the new and better flesh hulks. Because some people thought those guys were easy. Welcome the Aetherial Titans, in big, bigger, and huge variations, with regular, fire, and aether affinities. Besides charging, and stunning, they can fire a cannonball (dealing aether + fire/burn damage) at you from range, and some can throw a spread of either aether or lightning.

Chief amongst these guys was Bollag, who held the gates. He once killed my conjurer who had his buffs on, good resists, and high health. Cinderella, who is at this point my second strongest character (or third strongest, but second in how far she’s gotten.), but without too much health looked far worse.

Yet the new gear was pretty good. Shuffling around my pieces, I had almost 90 hp for each level and good armor absorbption to boot. So with that in mind, I went in, with a portal waiting nearby for when I inevitably died.

That didn’t happen. See, I was wise to Bollag’s tricks. I moved erratically enough to dodge most of his charges, and yes, I know it’s a homing missile consisting of a many ton titan, but it is still a melee attack after the charge that is slower than Alkamos’ spectral strike. With the right movement pattern, it can be dodged. Same with the cannonball. And even if a few came through, my Maiven’s was by now maxed at 14/12.

Bollag brought it on definitely, but Cinderella was just better. Sorry, no pics, I was busy not dying.

One thing I forgot to speak about was that I picked a point up in devastation. It is a strong spell, and if I’m to kill bosses in any reasonable amount of time, I guess a few points in it won’t hurt. It is useful for clearing away the aetherial sentinels/guardians from afar.

Other than the boss, Malmouth was mostly the same. Large crowds of Aetherial Vanguard, lots of tentacles, some possessed, some wraiths, some heroes, some bosses, lots of chokepoints, and more, and more of the same.

In the Malmouth Harbour, there was a beautiful boss drop, two epics, none of them useful.

Eventually, I arrived to the Fleshworks. Yes. Krieg was quite a contestant (no pics again, I was busy staying alive) with the aether turrets scattered around, but he was doable for now. At least he no longer charged or stomped.

The two guardians were quite charge happy, and I didn’t have a good looping ground. So I kept them at their leash’s length, which was slower, but at least it was somewhat safe.

Then finally, it was down to the last boss, Theodin Marcell himself.

Now of course, his first phase, summoning bloaters (mini-flesh hulks), and colossi (uber-hulks) was the most dangerous. Devastation was a godsend here, as it hit a lot thanks to Theodin’s large monster size and immobile form (Think d2 Blizzard or Fissure, but slightly different)

Then Theodin started moving around, but without summoning Colossi! Maintaining range was easy, and so was pouring on the pressure and the damage over time ticks.

Finally, he started Flying around, floating with tentacles of aether air! Okay, it was cool, he used his arena aether crystals to shoot aether in a star pattern, but once I figured out the space spots where I wouldn’t get shotgunned, it was more than doable. I had to avoid his ground slams, but with Cinderella, that was the least scary

He died quickly.

His quest gave me a deviltongue. Not exactly useful.

That was act VI. Cinderella will see you in the next chapter

[Boromonokli]

Okay, this time I’m really doing elite, or at least something like that. Cinderella started exactly the same way she finished Malmouth.

Kyzogg crumbled before her spaghetti might, and that was when I realized how he was tuned to be faced immediately after Loghorrean. Oh well, I grabbed the shrine and moved on. Next up was the Old Dump, Wightmire - Where the Riftgate was guarded by a Flesh Hulk Boss… oh boy this will be fun - and then Sodden Hollow. Milton and the three bosses for Harmond were relatively easy too, and even the Slith cooperated in giving me their necklaces.

After grabbing the Foggy Bank gate, I finished Viloth off, and continued on to Burrwich, this time through the bridge. Who needs the Flooded Passage when you have a bridge in your backpack?

The Grobles around the outskirts were quite fun, especially with the middling poison resist my gear gave me. More interestingly, their bosses tend to come from different clans. So while normally you face Snake Clans around Burrwich, who drop the Dreeg’s Evil Eye boosting offhand, and then Ember (Thermite Mine) and Stone clan (Panetti’s Replicating Missile) around Tyrant’s Hold and Homestead, then Sky Clanners (Storm Totem) in the Asterkarn Mountains, and finally Death Clan (Phantasmal Blades) in the East Marsh, all sorts of bosses appear here in Burrwich Outskirts.

The two Fleshwarped Thrasher heroes for Harmond’s second quest came with a third who wandered in, creating quite a commotion. That third boss also decided to pipe in when I was clearing the Burrwich Village riftgate. Of course, that didn’t stop the Spaghetti.

Neither did Krieg, but I think that goes without saying. He hit harder, but honestly? If one can kill the Malmouth bosses, Krieg is cake.

Since this was quite easy so far, I’ve decided to finish off a few things from the Veteran checklist. I’ve hit level 61 in Krieg’s lab, so I was officially overleveled for the Roguelike Dungeons. I also had a few keys in my inventory, expecting more runs to get Slathsarr’s Crest.

You know what this means, right?

First, Bastion of Chaos (Purely to get Barrowholm reputation to respected and unlock their first tier, you understand.), where I had to put my first point into physique.

A sad moment, but without it, I can’t hope to equip my end game gear.

The place itself wasn’t very threatening, lots of spaghetti, and some resist debuffs saw to that. 10k crits feel really nice now, and in dense crowds the damage figures skyrocket. Devastation for when I need to fight from a distance, or if the enemy decides to stay in place, in which case aetherfire from imp bound to storm box also helps out.

Shar’Zul was also a lot less scary than I remembered him from my sorceress’ run-in with him, maybe it’s because of the powerful Maiven’s, high resists, and cautious movements I practised with Cinderella. Long story short, Spaghetti 1, big demon 0.

While I was there, I had to go to Port Valbury.

Most notable was how the Burning Ones spawned by the obelisks exploded from Haunt, leaving neat rings of their death explosions (instead of showering me with fireballs). Other than that, Flesh Hulks… Let’s just say the resist reduction I built up was worth every single point. And yes, there were bigger hulks called Ironside Hulks, and even ridiculous-er and bigger-est hulks called Rage Hulks. Oh, and a super-hulk called Jarred the Plaguewarped, within a tight cage. Oh boy, that guy was fun!

The flames of Valbury also decided to show some challenge, but with my previous experiences, they subsided easily. My high level might have helped too.

Then finally, Aldritch and his counsilors Crabbe and Goyle. Yes, they are nasty. Yes, they are each getting stronger as the others die. So I killed the head honcho first, then the other guy died in the meantime, and finally, poison guy coughed up the aethercrack.

All around, it was worth it. My rewards from the town were an Empowered Maiven’s Lens, a Fateweaver’s Shoulders, and a legendary tome for lightning purifiers, similarly nice. Two legendaries in one run - one I might actually put to use, is a good balance in the end.

And that was enough for now. Act II Elite will certainly be a change I think. But for now, Cinderella waves you goodbye.

Oh and I just remembered I can link the grimtools copy of her build. Here is the Spaghetti ready to have a go at Cronley’s Gang and the many many undead.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V04A6MV