So I know Xbox won’t be coming out for a few months or more, but assuming the game stays similar to its current state, I would love some input.
What builds do you think will be more Xbox ready?
Basically I am looking to figure out 2 things.
What build will be better at start and more self sufficient and able to farm gear as my first toon. Be able to beat Ultimate and maybe farm Elite SR 65/66 fairly efficiently.
Which build would people guess will be comfortable to use on the controller and be able to facetank the best with good gear and also farm even tougher mobs. Be able to speed farm Ultimate SR70-75 and be more forgiving with the controller. When I say facetank, I don’t mind kiting certain bosses if need be, but really I want a build that can just pull as many mobs as possible and AoE everything.
I personally think Maya’s Fluffy Squishy would be one of the better xbox builds since there are only a few buttons you actively hit during combat and I am leaning to that as my starting build.
Well, it all depends on how comfortable you are with the controller.
Cons:
You must micromanage pathing, which can trap you if you are not familiar with some terrains and kiting. For example mouse-move will auto-calculate a direct and unobstructed path, but the controller does not.
You can not target empty spots well. You can easily target mobs, but empty requires removing target and estimating the target point. It is not precise.
Movement skills are similarly not precise when not targeting a monster.
Kiting can be tricky, as you have to manage the stutter-step and panning very carefully.
Equipping without a mouse can be a bit of a pain
Melee requires that you personally ensure you are in range of the melee weapon, unlike that auto-move of the mouse.
Pros:
Panning and camera angle control is precise and the world is amazing to look at.
With a default xbox controller you have a fair number of buttons, which can be reassigned. And an alternative menu for another map of keys, which then requires one of the first menu be a swap button. If you don’t want to swap, you have ~14 buttons?: 2x trigger, 2xbumpers, 4 directions, 4 buttons, and 2 joystick push (I usually deactivate the move-joystick push to avoid sensitivity accidents or use it for a heal). This is often enough keys to play even very piano-ish builds. You can effectively have 3 menus of commands but the first is only available while not in combat…which can be useful for permanent buffs - depending on your risk of arcane dispels.
You can relax on the couch and play a fast pace. The component fiddling seems to have been greatly improved in latest patch.
TLDR. Any build that feels comfortable within these restrictions.
Note: pet attack command might require you to cycle through enemies. You might need this command if you are running around and don’t want your pets to constantly disengage and follow (you want the pets to attack!).
Good thing about Maya’s Fluffy Squishy build is you don’t need to control your pets really. On PC I can farm Ultimate SR65/66 effectively without worrying about controlling my pets at all which is why I am leaning to it as my first build.
Maya likes no-effort play so that may work well for you. There are still kiting/movement nuances.
Personally, I find the minimal-button philosophy a bit mind-numbing, but it’s obviously a personal thing. It was a bit frustrating to do piano builds initially, but like any instrument…a little practice helps.
I’ve been playing with a controller for over 350 hours now. It works really well with most builds I tried (after changing standard button layout). However, I’d avoid ‘self target skills’ like inquisitor’s seal or nullification since there is no way (that I’m aware of - and I asked several players) to apply such skills to your character.
Yeah I wish they would make skills like Inquisitors Seal simply castable under you instead of always targeted, would make life SO much easier, and a whole lot better for a controller.
The best you can do is cast approximately without a target then move into the effect or cast around a mob and move in.
Debuffing yourself with really small radius things like minimal-skill nullification is really only possible by standing next to a mob and then casting it on the mob.
Honestly, I would love to see kb/m input enabled for this game (and many others) on XBox One. I have a Razer Turret, which is really comfy to use while lounging on the couch or in my recliner, but the list of game that have kb/m input enabled is still rather short. I own a number of games on both PC and XBox One, and sadly, some I rarely play on XBox One, because they do not have the kb/m support enabled, and I prefer to play certain games with kb/m, and others with a controller. Grim Dawn is one I prefer kb/m input. @Zantai, any chance of this being enabled when the game does port to XBox One? Just thinking I would be more likely to buy another copy of the game on console, to help support the studio, if I was able to play using kb/m and/or controller.