I just recently got into Grim Dawn (it’s my first experience with an ARPG, in fact) and am really enjoying it, but there’s a question I have. Is it possible to do well and have a good time in end game content even with a sub-optimal character build?
The reason I ask is because I’ve made 3 characters so far - a warlock, a blademaster, and a warder - and just from looking at build guides, I know I haven’t spent all my attribute points properly, and I’m afraid of having a situation where I sink dozens of hours into a character only to realize that I’m getting torn apart in the end game and have no choice but to delete my character and start all over. If that happened, it would completely kill my enthusiasm for the game.
Generally, unless you majorly screw up with skills, gear, etc. it’s possible to go through all of normal/veteran and Elite without any major consequences for a non-optimized build. Once you get to Ultimate though, you might start feeling some pain depending on how poorly the build has been set up.
Attribute points mis-assignments are fairly small. There are people here(who are admittedly experts) that have gone through the entire game without spending a single attribute point and did just fine.
Nope, I did just that with my first build. Wanted to do a 2h fs elementalist. The build was a disaster and fell apart in ultimate . Knowing what I know now with some gear that I have now I’m sure it would be viable. Ended up finishing ultimate as a lightning based savagery build after taking a pyromancer to 85.
It seems like it would be really tough to wreck a build beyond repair. Worst case use a trainer to respec. Probably won’t even need to do that. The game has some serious build diversity.
Put 70% of your attributes into physique. Do not invest in mastery bars beyond a 50/32 split or a 32/50 split between both your classes. While some builds can do well with 50/50, I’m giving you advice on how to play it safe before branching out with future builds based on what you learn.
If you put 70% of your attribute points into physique, and a max of 82 skill points into your mastery bars… you should not be able to screw up your character in a way you can’t cheaply reverse.
Doom’s advice is probably best, following those rules it would be very difficult to ruin a character to a point that it can’t be fixed with simple skill/devotion/gear adjustment. Those things may take time depending on how deep into elite/ultimate you are, but you should be able to fix it.
If you’ve already gone outside what Doom said on those characters, you can use a trainer (GD defiler, etc.) to fix attributes/mastery bar if you aren’t opposed to that sort of thing.