Having sunk more than 500 hours into the game, all the way before the Arcanist got release till release, there are still things I don’t get about Grim Dawn, specifically why it is designed this way.
The Armor system. It is an elaborate system with hit-locations and armor absorption, but armor is one of the worst defense there are over, after stacking DA, resistances and life.
Deflect% and Evade%, which is hard to get, and useless against ground attacks (correct me if I am wrong) and too random for use in melee. This is a mechanic which I believed that is meant for Nightblades to survive.
Veil of Shadow is useless against ranged attackers, which is about half of the mobs in Grim Dawn, doesn’t help against charging, and because the OA debuff comes in after you are swarmed and hit.
There are so many cool gears out there but I am passing them all up because to play melee I have to max all resistances. The only place I could stack +damage% or OA or anything else that’s not resist is my main hand and off hand
Bleed is such a common DOT in middle of Act 1 onward – the groble, marksman, reavers all can inflict it - but besides crafting Silk Swatches, there’s so little gear that have bleed resistances before Act 3. I know because I have imported all my stashes/mules into the Stash Manager from over 500 hours of play (I hoard every Staunching gear I can find) and I have no more than 5 that can be used in a character in beginning Act 2.
Again, DOT.
I really wonder how Crate could balance monster damages and HP when there is no combat log.
Boots of Unseeing Swiftness. Why does this even exists? Even playing as a ranged character, with some many ranged mobs, auto-hit attacks, ground attack, and now the cap on maximum movement speed, I think it is just a novelty item and can be safely taken out from the loot table.
Which skill is an attack, which skill is a debuff, and the effect of what skills would stack, and would not stack, with another skill?
Why shamans and soldiers and arcanists got such cool ultimate skills but demo get stuck with Ulzin’s Wrath.
Since this is a single player ARPG, with an emphasis on modding, why are iron bits and crafting mats restricted by characters? If it is to prevent twinking, then all crafted items should be bound to character…
Touch my boots and I’ll get violent. Getting both Avoid projectiles and Avoid melee one a single item is awesome. Think of the boots as giving a bonus to speed when you are not in combat. Very cool boots.
1-6) All the issues from 1 to 6 stem from you not having enough defenses. All the different defenses fulfill their part.
Just try to gear up with something more defensive and the game will feel quite different. There is always enough room to stack some damage, unless you play with 1hand and shield.
Just because you can’t see all the numbers, doesn’t mean they can’t.
Just for fun. Obviously.
Your best point. They sometimes do a bad job of explaining things.
All the skills are useful for something. Though some combinations just suck but that wasn’t your point anyway.
Weird indeed. Yet it doesn’t really matter that much since iron bits are more than enough and most good items are found anyway and the only thing you really want to craft is some relic.
I think our experiences kind of invalidates each other; every slot aside from my two hands are either Armor or resistances, though maybe our tolerance for damage is different. So unless we go into the rigors of turning this into a full-fledge debate, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
For #11, when that some relic involves Manticore Eyes (a pain before v1.0.02) and lots of materials that requires crafting, it’s a pain unless you have multiple toons.
The Stonehide affix provides poison/bleeding/pierce resistance. I think they buffed crafting recently since around 2 out 4 crafted items ends up being a green these days.
Regardless, I’ve seen Stonehide items appear in stores often, especially on elite+.