Suggestions for the easiest to level and play build possible?

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hi all, next week I will be playing with a buddy that has a LOT of difficulty following builds and playing anything that requires multiple buttons.

With that in mind, I could use some suggestions/link of a build guide that is:
1- Well written for absolute beginners and easy to follow during leveling
2- Very easy to play, not many skills being used in rotation
3- Still decently powerful during leveling so he doesn’t lose interest because he lacks damage.

Really, the easier the better. Think of him as someone who has never played a ARPG before.

Thanks in advance!

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Hello welcome to the forum!

You mentioned you were gonna play with him? To what extent?
You could play along with the same beginner build guide and you can help in IRL like he could try to copy you.

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Hi! We’re going to play the entire campaign together, but he doesn’t want to play the same build as me (understandable). I still haven’t decided which build I’ll play, but I don’t need it to be super easy like my friend does.

Basically what I’m looking for him is a leveling build guide that doesn’t require hard to get items, and a rotation of at most 3 buttons. The build guide needs to be very beginner friendly as well, to avoid confusion

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4

I can think of ravenous earth rituatlist, you basically get the demanded MI’s for freen in campaign (bonespike dagger and basilisk medal)

The wind devils are permanent now, so one only has to toggle them at the beginning of each run (and after dying)

The extra skills are just icing on the cake and can be removed, i.e. skip wendgo totem, mark of torment and call of the grave. Put those points into oak skin and the mastery bar instead. And the bloodthirster components can be switched for imbued silver, silvercore botls or purified salt for defenses/damage.

Then it just 2 buttons for damage skills, and 1 button for movement skill like teleport/vanish etc

Blackwater cocktail + thermite mines sorc should be few buttons too, there is a guide for it here on the forum but it uses many skills to prov devotions so for that one need to rework the devotion tree.

We did recently discuss Primal Strike warder as easy to begin with build here Which is the Best Lightning Build?

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OP, if you’re looking for the absolute most easy build for your friend to play then it’d be Forcewave Warlord. Answering your list of reasons:

1 - Forcewave is a simple skill to use and very intuitive.

2 - The only main skills are Forcewave, Blitz for movement, and War Cry when you’re stuck in. All the other skills are passives that increase your power/toughness without need to activate them.

3 - The damage and AoE are very good even before you get the MI two hander.

Honestly, if you do have him play it your biggest concern will be making sure he doesn’t get bored of it. It’s well known as the easiest way to level a soldier build for a reason. The link below has a good progress guide for leveling with Forcewave.

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Pierce infiltrator if you have the AoM DLC

Auto attack
Pneumatic burst
Shadow strike
WoR

Pretty much it

Works with any garbage you find in the bin, easy primo MIs in A3

Strong build, can go the distance

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7

Blademaster should be easier, just need one buff to keep up instead of two

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2H Melee Pierce/Bleed Blade Arc/Ring of Steel Blademaster

Easy to gear + 3 movement skills + hold Blade Arc button = win! :sunglasses:

You can use different rings to make it easier to gear as well.

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problem is to keep pneumatic burst up all the time, its like button one has to push with even time intervals.

And OP was after a detailed build guide, not just a final grim tools link

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Pneumatic Burst has a 60 second duration… that is quite long for a refreshed buff.

mad_lee posted a build for it a while ago - it’s an effective build that clear well and is very easy to level.

If the person wants a basic beginner build, then here is the companion with 138 to choose from:

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I did think this but dropped it because warcry smorecry. But you are right, either will work fine and basically for the same reason.

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Pet Conjurer
Really laid back playstyle, Curse and Blood of Dreeg as active skills.
Gives your buddy time to walk around and look at stuff while pets are doing work.
Good beginner build especially if he likes pokemon… cough… i mean pets

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13

This is really easy to play as well, just skip bone harvest and mark of torment. Just use War Cry on bosses. [1.1.9.0] Beginner's Apex Death Knight

And this, just skip wendigo totem, [1.2.1.6] [HC] [2HMelee] Herald of Oleron- Beginner HC SSF super tanky physical warder guide - great for first char - lazy and fast endgame farming

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14

I would suggest Albrecht’s Aether Ray Spellbinder…

  1. the variant I am playing uses LITERALLY 2 (3) SKILLS. (Albrecht’s Aether Ray + Mark of Torment, in the case of trouble, Mirror of Erreoctes).
    Spellbinder, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
  2. other “skills” are perma buffs, all the constellation is picked for healing
  3. the only question is how to survive until you unlock the main skil, the AAR, and collecting all “BiS” items. But in the terms of playstyle, it is easy. You use AAR and drink energy potion, if necessary. When the build is complete, you don’t need worry about energy, your energy regen is the same like the amount consumed by using AAR.
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15

Primal Strike spammer, can be made to basically use only one button
Forcewave spammer warlord/death knight, same as above - on principle i don’t recommend it on a fun basis, but it’s an effective and easy level build
^Blade Arc can be in the similar vein but technically less “easy” because actual melee requirement

i would in general stay clear of any auto attack (righteous Fervor/savagery/Cadence) if the desire is ease of play and power early on, these skills don’t scale as high in the early levels and come with various caveats like less aoe. They become absolutely fine later tho, and have relatively decent low input builds/options with them.

Pets would be another easy one, but they’re not that low button, “lots of pets to summon”, +support skills, they are easy and strong tho (too easy perhaps that some find it boring)

Beam skills are strong but can be a struggle to handle energy management early. Drain Essence and Albrecht’s Aether ray are both options for stuff that has low input builds available.
*Eye of Reckoning can’t be unlocked until like lvl 18-20 similar as with AAR, but it’s also strong even if not a magick beam channel and whirlwind/"spin2win"channelled, if paired with a passive class it can be pretty low button too.
I would not do from Flames of Ignaffar if the goal is low button, simply because Inquis automatically means +2 support buttons for full potential.

Likewise i’d stay away from most demolitionist related stuff if the goal is low input, simply because Thermite Mines etc often means it can quickly become a rotation build with a handful of buttons, specially if maining one of its skills (cocktail/grenado etc)

I’m normally the biggest Nightblade fan, but even if it’s strong it might not be the easiest to play/build, specially if the requirement is low button and as beginner.
Both Ring of Steel and Shadow Strike is fun, but takes a lil going to get the power, so you do sorta rotate a couple skills or use/respec different ones. *RS did make a pretty detailed guide for dual wield ring of steel tho, and iirc someone made a poison Shadow Strike guide too.

RSnoomak, Ralf, Honorabru all writes excellent guides from what i’ve seen

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