When to start using Components?

Hey guys!

I apologise if this issue has been raised in the past. I believe I am approaching the end of my Veteran Normal playthrough with my FireStriker. He is currently LVL 48 and has 6.1k HP (need to update my Signature). Up to this point, my Firestriker has not been troubled by much and, as his HP has continued to rise, the ease at which he has been progressing through the content has also risen.

As a result of this, I am actually yet to do anything with Components other than collect all that I come across. I have not added any Components to any of my gear as I was of the opinion that they would ultimately be wasted as gear upgrading will continue to be a fairly regular occurrence.

So the question has been on my mind for quite some time and I wanted to know people’s opinions and whether there was a consensus as to when to start.

When should I start actually using the Components I have been collecting along my travels?

I am the type of player that likes to hoard. I like to know that if and when the time comes that I need to call upon a particular item or Component, that, as a result of the way I have been playing up to that point, there is a high chance that I will have the required item in my possession.

That being said, I know that I am going in to Elite and that consequently the assumption is to be made that the game’s difficulty will be increasing. Even though I am playing on Softcore, I am making every endeavour to keep my death count at zero. I have approached the building of my Firestriker from this point of view - with Resistances and Health being the first two priorities when it comes to gear acquisition. As I have mentioned, this approach has served me very well so far.

EDIT: So you guys understand how I approach GD. I play Grim Dawn as Single-Pass, which means that I, at least at this point, do no farming what-so-ever. I also do not do any trading with players for gear or other items.

So I wanted to throw it over to you guys to see what you thought was an appropriate time to start using these, often very powerful, Components.

Any and all opinions and discussion is welcome! I love seeing the points of view people come from.

Cheers!

Syn

Use components as soon as you can and as often as you can. You can always remove the component from the item (this kills the item) later if you desperately need it, but honestly the odds of absolutely needing a common component and not having 10+ of them (with the notable exceptions of ectoplasm, vengeful wraith, and chipped claw) are vanishingly small. Rare components are more difficult to get, but not so much that you should be panicking over them. Also, there’s a recipe for just about every component you could want so if you’re in need of a given component, you can probably convert something you have piles of into that component. If all else fails and you desperately need a component but can’t make it drop and also somehow can’t craft it, you can always make a post in the trade sticky.

I usually start to use them when I get into Burrwitch Village and am going to rescue Darlet.

In Normal? That seems very early, Eis.

Perhaps I am allowing the hoarder in me to run a little too rampant…

Syn

If you diligently pick up every component, you will end up with hundreds of them. You can also buy a lot of them at various NPCs.

And don’t forget that you can salvage items you replace to recover the components.

Like my friend the Yawg said, use them as early as you can, they help you so much.

I start at about the same time as EIS :slight_smile:
Once I can start re-using them if they are hard to get, ie rescuing Dalia from Burwich village :slight_smile:
And now I have hundreds, but I’ve played a lot of toons too!

Just wanted to post somewhere that I am about to pass the gates locked by Uroboruuk in The Steps of Torment for the first time to recover the Archive of Fates Untold for The Outsider…

I am still yet to use a single component in any of my gear…

I have the following critical stats for this voyage into the shadowy unknown…

6178 HP
4205 DPS
80 / 78 / 78 / 80 / 80
47 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 6

This may be the last adventure of Rick Grimes in the harsh, cruel, unforgiving world of Cairn.

I sure hope not!

I will be back to celebrate my triumph or lament my defeat…

My body is ready…

Huzzah into the unknown!!!

Syn

There are many components with a level requirement of 1, so you should start using components from level 1 and onwards.

You can remove them, replace them, etc. It’s not permanent.

Dirty, shaken, wounded but alive… Rick Grimes slowly placed his bloodied hand on the obelisk. The cool, blue glow emanating from the forsaken symbols etched into each of the four sides…

I did it…

If Crate were endeavouring to design a dungeon to scare the shit out of the player, I can assuredly confirm that they have succeeded in The Steps of Torment.

The Death Room. Jesus… Even with 6k HP, I was on a knife’s edge the entire time. I think out of all the enemies I faced in SoT, the Gargantuan Horror’s were by far the most… Well, horrifying…!

Alkamos himself wasn’t too bad, he certainly hit very hard and was very fast. It was a matter of run, run, run, try and squeeze a few shots in, run, run, run… Perhaps with a higher level of Curse of Frailty he would be a lot easier due to the higher reduction in movement speed.

All in all, an amazing, terrifying, on the edge of my seat, my heart rate not dropping below whatever, experience. I am not sure if I can farm that place, it might take too much toll on my body…

Syn

You know what might make SoT take less of a toll on you? Can you guess? Because the answer has been in your bags and falling off enemies in vast quantities this whole time…

APPLY SOME BLOODY COMPONENTS YOU GOAT. >:|

I agree with most others here, which is to say that you should use them whenever they benefit. As has been noted, when you eventually come to an upgrade you can trash the item and keep the component to reuse. Also, crafting/utilizing something like Scaled Hide is a big advantage to get that armor absorption up. When you go to Elite they can be an excellent way to fill in gaps for your resistances. For example, I often end up using Antivenom Salves b/c I always seem to be low on poison resist.

Knowing the content is also part of it - I often keep belts, ammys, etc. with resists plus components that can fill a gap in a particular act/boss fight where I know it will be needed. To use your experience, Alkamos does big cold damage so having that at 80+ would help a bit.

I play SC but despise dying as well, and I am also a hoarder in these games. As time has gone on I have learned to use everything b/c it really does make your character much more powerful, easing the leveling experience significantly.

Glad to hear that your SoT run was successful:D

I normally use components when i find my toon to be lacking. If i clear areas/ bosses easily and have enough health and resistances then i don’t bother and just keep em in my stash. Normally i start using them around act 4 just before going into elite.

Awhile back Zantai was streaming in elite with all yellow items and no components, so clearly you can get through i’d say half the content without even putting any on gear. :cool:

I make a good number of items, including other components. I add and replace components on my gear whenever I get something new. I do not actually try to farm anything. This is my stash right now:

It’s okay. You can use components on your stuff. You will not run out.

In normal/vet i tend to not use any components at all, unless it is for a specialized build. E.g. for a pet master i use components that are special tailored towards that build. Like Bindings of Bysmiel.
Or for a dual wield Fire Strike build i use Enchanted Flint and Searing Ember in my weapons as early as i can use them.
And if i get a better equipment, i change it, and put a new component in it. I never dismantle or demolish equipment.
I dont use components in the rest of the equipment. I usually wait until elite, and then see where and what is needed. And as MoridinB said, if i meet a specially tough boss, i equip the relevant armor to deal with it.

I certainly understand where you are coming from and I actually do agree with you that applying components would no doubt improve survivability and my DPS output.

I think this is a great feature - being able to decide whether to keep an item or keep the component that is socketed in the item. I definitely believe that I will use this feature further down the track. The problem that I struggle with is, I like to keep a series of different items for each slot that have differing resists so that if and when I come across an item that provides a huge increase in say DPS or another particular resistance that is lacking, I can chop and change other equipment slots to see if I can reach a balance that is more optimal than what was equipped previously.

I think this is the definition of a hoarder…

I think this is how I am probably subconsciously approaching the use of components, as well. My entire playthrough I have endeavoured to make sure I maximise my DPS at the same time as I maximise my HP and Resistances. That’s to say that DPS has taken a back seat to HP and Resistances. I come from the point of view that having sheet DPS of 10k would be lovely but if Rick Grimes fell face first in the dirt as a result of having 3k HP with that 10k DPS, then the DPS really doesn’t matter any more.

At this point in time, LVL 49, every piece of my gear is magic (yellow) other than my helm which is rare (green) and my chest which is epic (blue). My gear has been obtained from both mob drops and from buying from vendors.

Not that I have any other play-through to compare my current experience to, but I really feel that my character is, barring the non-use of components at this stage of course, very optimally built. I have a helm, pair of boots and amulet that, once I equip at LVL 50, will increase my HP from the current 6200 to 7700 whilst losing no DPS. Again, I do not have any other playthrough to compare these current stats to and perhaps having 4500 DPS at LVL 49 as a Dual Wield Firestriker is low but I am mowing through the content very comfortably as it is and, from reading other people’s builds, I think that 7700 HP at LVL 50 sounds very comfortable.

Looking back over my playthrough thus far, equipment upgrades are starting to become less and less frequent. That being said, I have seen a marked increase in item level of equipment sold from vendors. This coupled with the fact that I am on the cusp of hitting LVL 50 and being able to travel to each faction vendor and see whether there are any equipment upgrades available for purchase from them, I will certainly remain mindful that, if I have 20 of a particular component I would benefit from using, that it is probably in my best interests to use it, knowing that there is every chance that I will probably create another one before too long :slight_smile:

Oh the complexities of being a hoarder and control freak :rolleyes:

Syn

I tend to wait until the end of normal/vet unless it is a component that is so obviously beneficial to my build. I will also slot them if my character begins to severely struggle before that point, but that hasn’t really happened to me outside of an EA character I stripped naked when the game launched and went back to later haha.

The main reasons I wait until the end of normal/vet is because it isn’t necessary and I don’t really want to waste time min/maxing until elite. Also components tend to be how I fill out holes in my resistances and that is largely irrelevant until the very end of normal/vet. I usually add components and whatnot before I do the roguelikes and clean up all the post game quests I didn’t finish running through the game naturally. This is the same approach I take with augments.

I have attached 5 emeralds to my alt’s gear. She is lv5. That is all.

I tend to go for as early as possible, because a lot of early game components you find aren’t a big investment. As in, they’re really common components so you’re bound to find more and your cost to remove them from items is so insignificant.

I usually try to wait until I’m fairly close to retrieving Darlet from Burrwitch so I know I’ve got the option of doing removals. But yeah, overall early game components are pretty cheap and can help quite a lot!

As soon as you complete one