I’m cutting back on my D3 as it’s starting to get really old (and on my nerves) so I found I had Grim Dawn lying around so I gave this a whirl if only for a nice refreshing brease of playing something new. Also here I can finally play a real ranged spell caster so I went for a full Arcanist.
Now I find myself wondering about a couple of things:
the health bar seems to be 2 bars in one. Even if my health is full at times I see the other bar isn’t, but I can’t find out for the life of me what that other bar is supposed to represent and even if it matters?
I’m having a hard time to see if gear that drops (with the exception for weapons) if it’s an improvement in overall stats or not. Perhaps I’ve been pampered to much by Diablo, but how do I tell?
Atm, I’m focussing my skill points in the Replicating Missile one (I did also close to max out that Flash Freeze and I put my Devotion points in Imp and am busy with Wraith iirc.
%Aether damage is good and since I have Flash Freeze %Cold is good also, but I read that I should get %Fire damage also, but can someone explain why? As far as I can see the missile doesn’t get Fire Damage.
When can I put devotion points into the Widow constellation? Figured out it’s a 2nd tier constallation, but haven’t found out what unlocks that tier.
Again, probably pampered by Diablo to much, but damn do I feel weak. I’m level 22 now and got up to that prison Warden last night. The first round went pretty okay even though kiting in a confined room is not exactly my idea of ranged play, but when he transformed I hardly couldn’t get a dent in him.
Was this a question of to soon? Are there some short cuts perhaps I haven’t touched to become stronger?
One thing I haven’t done yet is use those … erm … what do you call them … those parts that drop which you can combine and attach to your gear? That something worthwhile of doing?
Any help very much appreciated.
On edit:
how much do I need to invest in Physique(?). A lot of gear I find I can’t wear because I’ve spend most of my points on Cunning and Spirit.
The other is constitution. Constitution allows you to quickly regenerate health out of combat.
I’m having a hard time to see if gear that drops (with the exception for weapons) if it’s an improvement in overall stats or not. Perhaps I’ve been pampered to much by Diablo, but how do I tell?
Grim Dawn is much more complex than Diablo 3 in that sense. You have to decide yourself if the item is an improvement. You can check how your desired stats change when you equip the two items back and forth.
%Aether damage is good and since I have Flash Freeze %Cold is good also, but I read that I should get %Fire damage also, but can someone explain why? As far as I can see the missile doesn’t get Fire Damage.
Elemental damage consists of fire, lightning and cold damage. The base skill of the missile does elemental damage so getting fire damage helps, but only at 33% efficacy due to the other damage types.
When can I put devotion points into the Widow constellation? Figured out it’s a 2nd tier constallation, but haven’t found out what unlocks that tier.
Hover your mouse over the constellation and you’ll see the devotion point requirements. It requires 6 of the green affinity and 4 of the blue.
Again, probably pampered by Diablo to much, but damn do I feel weak. I’m level 22 now and got up to that prison Warden last night. The first round went pretty okay even though kiting in a confined room is not exactly my idea of ranged play, but when he transformed I hardly couldn’t get a dent in him.
Was this a question of to soon? Are there some short cuts perhaps I haven’t touched to become stronger?
My experience is that act 1 in the easisest difficulty doesn’t drop that good items. For me, builds statrt to come to life and gain momentum after killing the act 2 boss, at level 23-25. The Warden can be a chore at times. Once you become more familiar with the game, things get easier as you know what items and skills work better with your build. Posting your skill setup with grimcalc.com would help.
One thing I haven’t done yet is use those … erm … what do you call them … those parts that drop which you can combine and attach to your gear? That something worthwhile of doing?
Those are components. The can give you decent bonuses. You can also craft them. I use them a lot for resistances so I can equip more DPS item.
Craftable components such as Antivenom salve and Rigid Shell give 20% resistance to a spesific types, not bad at all.
Yep, D3 is a non-arpg and can form bad habits. You choose your gear to suit your build. Since this build is your personal creature, you are the person to decide that. You can plan your build ahead using https://grimcalc.com . And then also post a link to it here, so people can help you.
Again, probably pampered by Diablo to much, but damn do I feel weak. I’m level 22 now and got up to that prison Warden last night. The first round went pretty okay even though kiting in a confined room is not exactly my idea of ranged play, but when he transformed I hardly couldn’t get a dent in him.
Even on your first character in normal you should just faceroll him and move on. If you can’t do it… I guess one out of two things are happening
Warden has a cycling pattern of attacks, he charges, tries to melee hit you, stomps, casts aether wave with stun, then blades with bleeding damage. If you learned the pattern you will avoid all these attacks and be safe.
Your hp is too low. That might happen if you put too many points in skills and not enough in mastery bar which is a common newb mistake. Some people do the opposite and put 1 pt in every skill, advancing the mastery bar too fast. In GD you need to do both - advance your mastery bar for hp and stats, while also investing points in skills, at least your main one, for them to be efficient. Try to get 1000 hp for every 10 levels, so around 2K at your level.
how much do I need to invest in Physique(?). A lot of gear I find I can’t wear because I’ve spend most of my points on Cunning and Spirit.
At least half of your points. More is better on your first character
Diablo 3 has a loot system & customization system which is rather limiting. The gear decides what kind of a build you play. It also decides a lot of your playstyle with its BiS items. On top of that is the combat which lets you kill hordes of opponents fast with cool animations. Grim Dawn, like many others of its kind, do not have this system. There are many layers of customization which defines your build and playstyle. The loot you find augments this or inspires entirely new build possibilities. All of that in a combat which is slower of pace and more tactical. Sometimes you have to stand behind a pillar taking out opponents while other ranged attacks can’t reach you. You also learn to prioritize certain opponents in due time.
pre lvl 30-35 you don’t really have much too worry about when it comes to gear nor the many layers of character customizing. Using components too augment aspects of your gear isn’t really needed, but you’re free to use them. For a Caster/mage my advice is to put in a total of 20-22 points into physique and the rest in Spirit. Later on you can find gear with physique/Health% to get you to 15k health which is a nice place to be for ranged characters. For gear just focus on damage output and some big crowd control spells for the time being.
In regards to PRM (your missiles) it doesn’t use aether by default. It is an elemental attack which relies on you boosting fire/lightning/cold…or simply elemental damage%. Make sure to find gear that gives you those stat upgrades. When it comes to your resistances it is possible to ignore them and just grab what you find along the way. Your route to the Warden could’ve given you a ring that gives 10% all elements which is enough. When you cross the bridge into new territory get some pierce resistance on top of that.
PRM is a skill/spell that is awesome for clearing large groups of opponents. Rooms are emptied within the blink of an eye. Yet it lacks power to take out strong single target opponents. Make sure to invest into something like Trozan’s Shard or something else that will help you take out the warden. That or be really patient and kite. My target is to have a minimum of 200+ dmg for the Warden with a specific skill.
You don’t have too max out any spells this early in the game. Well PRM needs close to max points, but anything else will function well around 4-6 points. That is more then enough for this point of the game. Getting a feel for numbers/milestones is something you get in due time. Don’t worry about having a broken gimped build which is unable to beat certain boss/areas. Just make sure to increase your mastery level with 2 points per level up and increase a skill of choice with the 1 remaining point.
As soon as you receive your first Devotion point you can use it on that huge constellation map. For a beginner I’d go with the most basic route. On the Crossroads unlock the 1 which is a pre-requisite to unlock The Turtle. Max out Turtle and move into the Dryad and Weigh Scale. That will give you a very solid survivability while at the same time teaching you roughly how the constellations work.
Even though fire is only 1/3 of the elemental damage, if you’re using Flash Freeze getting + fire damage is good. Flash freeze will lower fire resistance (only while the creature is frozen, so this will not help on bosses/heroes) thus making your fire damage do more! So boosting fire is even better!
If you’re struggling doing enough damage to the warden, you could try out Albretch’s Aether Ray (uses both fire and aether damage). At lv 22, you could have a build similar to this: http://grimcalc.com/build/95PYFsn
It has points in OFF to help freeze non-hero/bosses so you can pick them off with AAR easier (helps with the - fire resist), points in mirrors for 3 seconds of invincibility, sphere of protection to help keep you alive, inner spirit to increase spirit (damage and energy regen), nullification (remove monster buffs like reflect and dots like poison/bleed from you).
The ray does use a lot of energy so you may need to mess with changing points in it for points in Iskandra’s elemental Exchange (IEE). IEE will only grant you the % energy regen when you use it as the other “flat” damages are only applied though your weapons, which AAR doesn’t use… But the energy regen will help tons!
You may read that AAR is one of the worse skills in the game as it makes you stand still to cast it and the damage/per energy cost is too much. And this is an issue…late game… Early to mid game AAR will destroy most everything! Late game it can still be usable and fun, but takes more skill and gearing to work out well. Also will not compete with a melee build.
Eventually you may want to consider a secondary mastery as an Arcanist gets very few HP’s and the extra stats from the other master will help a lot! Plus solo builds are tough to get all the way through the highest difficulty…
Also if you’re using AAR or Missle, ignore the DPS on the weapons you’re using. That only matters if your are actually attacking directly with it (or using Callidor’s Tempest as it uses % weapon damage). Instead, look for weapons with energy regen, + damage% to your damage types, plus to attributes, casting speed, skill cost reduction (mostly off hand items will have this one) or skill cool down reductions or even resistances. Look more at your character’s DPS (even though this can be misleading) and not the DPS on the weapon’s tool tip.
Thanks for the welcome and the help. Wanted to respond earlier but RL got in the way :undecided:
My earlier problem with the Warden was indeed health related. Still, as a by product of my choice for going with RPM, I do indeed find that lesser monster I clear out almost screen wise, but bosses are indeed much harder.
Not all bosses, but a lot of them also seem to favor melee and it reminds me a bit of D3 in how fast some of them can close the gap between me and them which makes kiting at times rather troublesome.
-so far the gear that drops is sort of crappy. I’m still running around with a wand I got at level 22 and basically is about the only weapon I found that has native Aether Damage. Sometimes I find a weapon with really good stats, but because it has physical damage (which I find the most it seems) it still falls (far) behind the wand I have. I suppose RNG = RNG is also a thing in Grim Dawn?
I really want to go for a full Arcanist so (for now) I’ll not be picking up a 2nd class. Probably right up until I run head first into a wall, but let me dream about a 100% Arcanasist for now
Having said that I sure need more defense and Gibly mentioned Turtle, Dryad and Scale. I’ve been looking at that and Scale requires 8 affinity while the 2 previous only give 5. Am I missing something or should invest devotion points in other constallations to meet the requirement? If so, any suggestions?
Speaking of Devotions points. If after pushing up my defense a bit I still have some points to spend any suggestions to spend it on. Haven’t checked all constellations in detail yet but Scola’s Slight, Ulzine’s Torch and Olklaine’s Lantern look nice. I might forget about defense alltogether and just go full Glass Canon
What is the difference between %Aether Damage and %Elemental damage?
Elemental damage consists of fire, lightning and cold damage. The base skill of the missile does elemental damage so getting fire damage helps, but only at 33% efficacy due to the other damage types.
Trying to follow this ^^. Suppose my missile does 600 elemental damage does that mean it gets divided in 3 portions of 200 damage (200 cold, 200 fire and 200 lightning)?
So if I have a weapon that gives +50% on cold the missile would do 200 + (200 + 200*50%) + 200 = 700?
How does the damage type of the weapons factor in? Like I mentioned earlier, so far the only way I get my damage up strictly looking at my weapon is if the weapon has Aether Damage and they seems to be exceedingly rare.
So if a weapon does say 50 Aether Damage (let’s forget bonusses for now) and my missile does 600 elemental damage what kind of damage am I actually doing?
points in mirrors for 3 seconds of invincibility
Looking for this, but can’t find it. Or is Maiven’s Sphere of Protection mend by this?
How many acts are there actually, 2? I’m on my way to Fort Ikron and from what I can see that is pretty much close to the end, but there are 50 devotion points to be had and I got 22 of them atm and I haven’t missed a single shrine (expect for a sealed one) and I doubt I’m going to see 28 shrines in this last bit so where do I get the rest of devotion points?
I swear I found it myself, but I ran into a marked stone near Burwich (only one so far). Anyone that can tell me something about that? From what I saw I need 3 special stones(?) to get it open? I have one. Mark of Dheeg (or something).
Enough noobness for now. Gonna march on Fort Ikron and lay waste to it and perhaps tomorrow see if I can get someone to drag me around multiplay.
You may play Veteran - in that mode, you’ll MUCH more loot drops. However, enemies will hit you MUCH harder as well, and for many builds, it’s kinda difficult to level up on Veteran.
Yes, many bosses favour melee, otherwise, ranged characters will have too much benefts, and melee would suck.
Caster weapons (wands and sceptres) have INNATE bonuses to one of the damage types.
I’d idviced to level up with Callidor’s Tempest & Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange. Some mobs drop items, that provide significant bonuses to Calidor’s tempest - so it’s easy to “pump it up”. Vendors also sell those sort of items.
About devotions. Most devotions not just require certain affinity, but also provide some, when completed. Scales of Ulcama require 8 Order affinity, and provide 2. So, with 6 affinity from other sources, and 2 from Scales itself, you will have 8 affinity you need .Yes, contellation can “sustain” itself with affinity, but of course, you should first get more affinity from another constellation (Lion, for example), then complete Scales, and then unlearn Lion.
“Aether” is a specific damage type (something like “Arcane damage” in D3). “Elemental” refers to 3 specific damage types - “Fire”, “Cold” and “Lightning”. %elemental damage will increase all those 3 damage types, while %Aether - only Aether itself. Same with resistances.
Only “flat” elemental bonus (like, “30 elemental damage”) is “splitted” (it means 10 fire + 10 cold + 10 lightning").
Damage type on weapons is used ONLY with attacks and attack-based skills. In D3, all skills have “%weapon damage” scaling (thuse scale with your weapon). In GD, only SOME skills have such scaling, usually with addition of flat skill damage. For example. Callidor’s Tempest has “40% weapon damage” at 16 level, it means, with this skill, damage of your weapon actually matters (though, most of damage is still flat skill damage for Calidor’s Tempest) - you will deal 40% of your weapon damage to enemies per cast.
Many effects are related to “weapon damage” as well - for example, “energy leech” from Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange. With skill like Calidor’s Tampest, you will “leech” eneragy from enemies - that is quite helpful. Do note - those effects are penaltized, if %weapon damage is lower than 100%. 40% weapon damage means effect will work at 40% effectiveness.
Mirror of Ereoctes. This skill provides you with 3-second invulnerability to any damage. Has decent cooldown. Good to save your butt.
Maiven’s Sphere of protection provides partial damage resistance, and at the cost of your damage. But it isnt limited by cooldown :).
There are 3 acts in GD. You will get 25 devotion points in Normal difficulty, other are in Elite and Ultimate. In Act 2 ultimate, you should already reach 50 points.
Devotion Points are granted by shrines. Some shrines force you to fight a number of mobs (“desecrated” ones), others require “offering” (“ruined” ones). If you dont have required items to make an offering, remember what you need and return later.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, just saying it is hard… You should be fine on Normal/Veteran and probably a decent chunk of Elite, but Ultimate my be that wall… But with the proper gearing it can still be done! Just might take a while…
Speaking of Devotions points. If after pushing up my defense a bit I still have some points to spend any suggestions to spend it on. Haven’t checked all constellations in detail yet but Scola’s Slight, Ulzine’s Torch and Olklaine’s Lantern look nice. I might forget about defense alltogether and just go full Glass Canon
A glass cannon is a good idea…but…100% Acranist is more a glass pellet rifle… It is actually really hard to get through the higher difficulties with out a good defense. Dead characters do 0 DPS… Heroes and bosses will heal on death too in Elite and Ultimate, so can get through veteran dying a lot and slowing witling down bosses, but you’ll need to do enough damage on elite and ultimate to make up for the healing if you die… Olklaine’s Lantern gives you nice DPS. Rhowan’s crown is another nice one, its ability reduces elemental resist’s which will be a massive boost. Behemoth is nice for the HP and giant’s blood (heal, which arcanists lack). If you’re sticking with PRM, I’d go after Blind Sage over Ulzuian’s Torch.
How does the damage type of the weapons factor in? Like I mentioned earlier, so far the only way I get my damage up strictly looking at my weapon is if the weapon has Aether Damage and they seems to be exceedingly rare.
So if a weapon does say 50 Aether Damage (let’s forget bonusses for now) and my missile does 600 elemental damage what kind of damage am I actually doing?
Don’t forget about bonuses, forget about the damage the weapon does! Just to clarify a little more on what MortalKombat said, the % bonus are the ONLY damage boost you’ll get from weapons when using PRM/TSS. For example take the Blackwood Wand:
The 24-40 aether damage will not help you at all. The +15% aether damage will boost any aether damage you do by 15%. The 7 aether damage (this is considered “flat damage”) will do nothing.
And on a further note, this true for skills and devotions too. If you take the head node on the Magi that does 6-8 fire damage and +40% fire damage, you’ll only gain the 40% fire damage and NOT the 6-8 fire damage. Any “flat damage” (including DoT damage like burn/bleed/poison, etc) from items, devotions and buffs (skills that list “flat damage” will use it in those skills, but “buffs” like elemental exchange will not for non-WD skills/procs) is only applied via direct weapon attacks or skills with % weapon damage (% WD). The absence of %WD from most of the Arcanist skills are what make a 100% arcanist a glass pellet rifle… But hopefully that will be fixed…PRM and TSS are supposes to get come buffs in 1.0.0.5 and I think many are hoping for AAR too… Devastation is the only arcanist skill that does a lot of DPS (but not as good vs fast small targets) that does not have % WD in it (basically the only skill besides CT which has % WD). At least this true at the end game. Early to mid, a lot of the arcanist skills lines do perform pretty well. Just the %WD helps with the late game scaling. This why it is hard to ignore defenses later on as you just can’t put out the DPS fast enough to take out the mobs before they get you. You’ll need to be able to take a hit…or 20…
I swear I found it myself, but I ran into a marked stone near Burwich (only one so far). Anyone that can tell me something about that? From what I saw I need 3 special stones(?) to get it open? I have one. Mark of Dheeg (or something).
I believe you’ve found the rock blocking the path in the East Marsh? This is part of the “Hidden Path” quest line that was recently added. Sounds like you found the first rune. There was a Lore Note with the rune you got that gives you hints on where to go next… You can look in your lore history (its on a tab in the same window as your quest log) if you need to reread the note…
D3 is just a easy snore fest and it’s a shame to see how casual-core the game is and how soft it makes players, cause once they enter the world of cairn…that’s where it brings the difficulty most of us ARPG players crave.
Welcome to the Grim Dawn family, it’s a lot to learn and it’s a bit to take in but it’s rewarding once you figure things out. Then you’ll also learn how basic D3 is with their 2 stat system…stack your main stat and crit = gg.
