Grim Dawn discussion thread

[Colif]

Game was not amused when I equipped this dagger at lvl 12

Shame I still can't find anything better than it at lvl 37. They getting close though, only taken 25 lvls to catch up. Only quests I have want me to kill bosses. Fun. Have to overcome the roadblocks to get more quests elsewhere. The amalgamation should be easy, I was just getting tired. Not sure about Navan. I try later, running out of classes I want to try. Funny, she been getting fore drops I never seen before. Play a poison thrower, get everything else. Game didn't really offer her anything better than what she had. Still waiting on better shoulders too.
Combine that dagger with this move

and you get murder. She basically throws acid balls at people... though throw is not right word. Its more like a machine gun. I didn't know what to expect from skill. I expected the eyes to be bigger. though at rank 14 they pretty chunky.

She mainly exists to be an oathkeeper who uses acid. Shame it appears the set really doesn't suit her but she 2 lvls below wearing it now... its too late. Its destiny.

She took ages to not be a glass cannon. She can one hit almost anything, I only know I am fighting a boss when it doesn't die right away.. or I am running away. Chapter bosses generally involve running away. But only so I can shoot them from a afar. They haven't been a problem besides the exercise.

So far anyway. She can't really take a hit. The oathkeeper part of her isn't really helping a lot. most of his moves add damage, not life skills.

Last 2 characters I have played have bent the curve. They collect potions and rarely use them. Helps they are ranged.

There is a almost completely dark cave you have to go into that most characters hate, but she had 80% poison resist and vitality resists. She was hunting the things that normally kill you. She is same against scorpions. Just hits them back. Its only bosses and big things with pointy arms that she doesn't like a lot. The 5 lvls later I notice I had swapped it all out and she had 0 just before a boss that spits poison at you. That does explain some of the things game was trying to hurt me with. Bugs I don't normally see after 1st area of game.

I thought game was bugged, all my characters seemed to show hardeszt boss they fought as Swarm Queen Ravna and its only now I realise that is the bug boss. Before that it shows something else. I thought it was a bee. I noticed today as this character was showing something else until recently.

 

[Colif]

I wasted a few hours last night trying to get a dual wield gun user to work... they seem too squishy. Casters seem better than they are. Then I swapped to a Death knight. Who was unstoppable in chapter 1 but hit chapter 2 and thought, I need a better weapon. I went to chapter 7 and swapped to this blue one which was better than what I had but I still knew I needed a better weapon. Selling stuff in shop I read damage difference between one in my bag and current as 895 and swapped immediately. The difference between them only looks worse now my skills have increased.


Chapter 7 is the expansion, it slots in after chapter one as an optional area but it is really handy as there seems to be a gap in equipment between chapter 1 and end of chapter 2. You go from getting lvl 15 stuff to lvl 35 and not a lot inbetween. For a game that says you don't need to grind, that is a big gap. The expansion adds a place to get lvl 20+ gear. Its where he got the axe and his chest piece. Its where a few of my people have got equipment.

Character below repeated the 1st area 4 times before he felt good enough to attempt the 1st dungeon. Then the quest he was doing didn't say he needed to kill boss at end so he didn't try. This was before he got the axe., I normally start chapter 2, do a little bit of it to guage how character is coping and depending on answer, either go further into chapter 2 before swapping or like character today, go to chapter 7 and bounce back and forth between zones. He changed between lvl 24 and lvl 26 to point chapter 2 was a cake walk and he only knew he was killing bosses - for the most part - if they last longer. One or two made him retreat and get health back before attempting to fight again. One has a life leech I haven't found an answer for yet besides pet builds just tanking it. Need to work him out, can't just run past him I don't think.

Its funny that you can never tell if the weapon you are using is good until you compare it against something else -besides the damage figures on character. It doesn't spell it out anywhere on the actual weapon, just in comparisons. And even then its not clear. Two weapons, one shows it does way more than other but depending on your skills, a weapon that shows as being better can actually be worse. You can't tell until you equip it. I think the damage that shows is just physical.

The dagger above shouldn't power a spell that does 3k damage per hit. Based on the top 3 lines, the blue weapon below should do the same damage as the green, not 2k less.

Generally when difference is so great, the bigger damage weapon is a two hander. One of my guys has a two handed mace that hits for 6k. The axe could only be better if I was using an Oathkeeper/Soldier as then all its effects would work. Character uses Blade Arc as an attack and Laceration is an augment to that attack, meaning he gets even more damage using the axe than he would without blade Arc

First chapter I left enemies as a red smear. Chapter 7 it was a struggle for a while but once I got that axe its only gotten better. I think he is op for current area and that is scary as he isn't finished getting skills yet. He did a skeleton dungeon way faster than normal as one of his buffs haunts things attacking and saps their vitality. I can watch them dying wihtout hitting anything. Great for skeletons.

Death Knight = Soldier/Necromancer. I didn't steal the obvious lich king title.

I should move game onto my hdd as its on nvme and runs at around 61c all the time I play games... or could be its 32c today. Or fact I played game since ... I am not sure when yesterday, 18 hours ago?

 

[Colif]

This is how a weapon looks if you have all the skills and are using them

I had a heart attack earlier, I thought I had sold it. Silly me had just put it in the inventory.
Really should be a way to lock items into slots. Too easy to sell things.

its not small

I thanked the troll who died to give it to me. That +29% all damage is what sets it apart from the others I have seen.
I have so many extra skill point bonuses on my gear that my main attack could be lvl 26 of 16. It isn't as so far not many people have lived long enough to make me need more points in it. I will once I run out of other things to spend on.
I have been using my time of being seriously OP to prepare the skills for a time I don't have the weapon or it fails to hurt things as much.... but I don't know when that will be. It lets me build up the characters stats without needing to struggle.
Normally when I reach one area I kill everything for exp. Tonight he kills everything so fast it was boring and I just went to end. It makes game too easy.
I seem to have gone slow tonight, I didn't achieve as much as night before, lvl wise. Character didn't struggle once. More like a freight train.

mask makes me think of 80's horror movies.

Biggest crit I saw was 6k

Play game for a few weeks, I only just noticed the map toggle button and it lets you show more than what I have been looking... slaps forehead.

 

[Pifanjr]

What is going on with his head in this picture? It doesn't look like the mask from the other pictures.

Play game for a few weeks, I only just noticed the map toggle button and it lets you show more than what I have been looking... slaps forehead.

Classic. Done that in a couple of games myself.

 

[Colif]

He is looking down, the top of mask is what you are looking at. Its an ingame shot, as opposed to the title screen. I can't zoom in that far.
If you look, you can see the tip of his nose.

I tried to make a nightblade/oathkeeper last night but the transition from chapter 2 to chapter 7 made me question how it is meant to work as it lacked the dps to kill anything. I think build I am looking at might be end game, not someone starting. So they can play with points based on bonuses on equipment. Its easy to get extra skill levels of equipment. I have 10 on the Guy from last night... lvl 26 of 16.
Also since they have all the points needed, they can have main attack/2nd as 2 moves that only show at mastery lvl 32.
I gave up. I want to give nightblade class a chance. So far highest combo I have that works is about lvl 30.

So I made a battle mage instead. Its a SoldierArcanist. First chapter was easy enough, I was basically a tank at that stage. Its the transition to chapter 7 that was once again difficult, although she at least had both her main attack moves from the start, it was just hard to work out what to spend the points on. ONe npc in game lets you respec on the fly, for a cost. Which means you can be within 2 points of a new skill, and if its important enough, remove points from another skill to spend to get new one. I did that twice. She still not perfect. But she better now...

I had to build up an attack strong enough to beat enemies at the same time as just spending mastery points to get to the right level of them to get newer skills, like a energy bubble that wraps around my character to protect her, and another buff from Soldier side that boosts attack/defence. I need all 3. She already drinks too many potions, I was actually down to 2 left... I have characters who don't drink them. Save over 100 potions. I guess someone has to use the spares.

Although the armour isn't a set as such, it all matches

Okay, not the boots but they didn't drop any?

hands might not match either...

She likes it.

She only lvl 30, I ran out of steam. I probably play her tonight as she not at point most are.

One day I will stop making new characters and see past chapter 3 again.

I hate archers. Comes a point in chapter 2 I am always chasing them down, as I can hear the noise of them firing at me all the time. Skeletons are the worst for it. Only character who seems immune is my necromancer characters as they have a buff that kills the skeletons before they hit me. My Death knight had it. Makes one dungeon way easier. Only have to deal with the bosses then.

Need to work out how to buy stacks of potions, not one at a time.

 

[Colif]

Made a Trickster. Nightblade (think rogue) mixed with a shaman). It removes one problem of night blades, they too squishy. Shaman can heal selves... actually both can but having a shaman as part of build means more life regen. And more damage. He runs around with 3 wind devils - whirlwinds, they slow and damage things attacking him. Invible pets but only last a minute. So constantly recasting them... can have 3 at once.

Most characters get to lvl 24 and think, I will go to Chapter 7 and get new weapons. That didn't work as planned, he is still using same weapons as before, he is deadly enough with them
He even has the same helm on as when he went there. Nothing there was of much use to him, bonus wise

thats a lvl 18 sword and he lvl 30.
He has a new helm he has grow into, I must need to go to a new zone as game is giving him lvl 32 gear and he was only 29

Blue one is what he is wearing, the green is an upgrade. He will use some of those skills on it eventually. Green offers so much more.

its funny, all the mage helms look like ninjas and its only at lvl 30 that Nightblades do as well. I have murderers chest on the one I tried last night. This one can actually hurt things. It has an attack that isn't just the base damage of the weapon. That doesn't work well.

 

[Colif]

Two hours later

Still using same weapons but at least armor and helm match now. I don't actually have anything better in banks waiting for him. He has to hope game feels generous.

Pattern I am in. Last nigtht I wanted to try the boss I am up to on most characters. I haven't actually tried him yet. I took my necro up to fight it and just didn't want to know really. I wanted something easy to do for a while... so I did what I have done everynight... made a new character, got it to lvl 32 and got tired. Wake up next day and want something easy...

 

[Colif]

Question about default weapon attacks. Does cadence count as a default weapon attack or does it only count the stock standard attack button as default? I am confused, I thought I knew what I was doing. I see builds where they choose a replacement default action attack and also all the passives that only occur on default attacks... so which is it?

if its only the default attacks, it is hard to see how any 1 handed weapon can create enough damage on a boss in early game.

it works how I thought it did...

The ability behaves much like the text implies... ALL default weapon attacks will have a chance to trigger the ability. Whether you're using an unmodified default attack or you are using a default attack replacer like Cadence, Savagery, Fire Strike, Mistborn Talisman, etc.

link

so the replacements work. Cool.

Its funny as it seemed to work how I thought and then I watched a video and thought... hang on. Most people seem to have the go here command on left button and action on right... I am old school, 2 actions on mouse and rest on numbers. It take me too long to retrain brain to only one button actually doing anything useful in combat.

I tried the default attack button method with my nightblade and it takes too long to clear anything. He is up to a dungeon full of skeleton archers... not sure what defence you need to stop them shooting arrows at you. Apart from killing them. I hate them. I spend half the fight looking for them. He wasn't fun with the default action.

 

[Colif]

Al my Wardens use 2 handed weapons, I have seen videos of people playing sword/board shaman builds so I am following one

His main attack is a sweep, its called blade arc, it is good for hitting groups but its not ideal for single target. Its like using sandpaper to kill a boss or it was until he got weapons/gear that enhance his attacks. A support spell he uses is Devouring swarm. So he matched out the helm and Mace only has one attack on it. Shield he only matched one of the classes.

I had this helm in my bank

But he had to find this himself

I misread the poison resist as being damage, its why I put an enhancement on it for poison damage. I could remove but it probably does something.


bonuses on weapon/helm mean I just hit things and they bleed to death. I don't have to keep fighting them, its only when I fight lvl 40's at lvl 35 that I need to use a potion. I went looking for things that could live long enough to hit me back. Apart from ranged there aren't many things that can

and shield just added to flavor

It mostly improves a buff

With helm and weapon he went from boring bosses to death by slowly erasing their armor to actually being being a threat. He had his defences solid, they couldn't hit him but he was very harmless to other things... was.

He borrowed a weapon off someone else to start with, then game dropped that claw. I had seen them before but they didn't match the skills of the other characters so getting 3k DPS off them depends on circumstances.

So far I haven't seen a weapon like it for nightblades. Probably isn't any as they can use 2 weapons at once and 2 x 4k would just be too much. My last nightblade character didn't slow down when he hit chapter 7, he still has same weapons he started there with. It mostly helped armour for him.

Think I been awake too long, my eyes are not working properly and typing is fun without mistakes.

He is lvl 35. I am looking for things that make him actually use a healing potion. He my ony tank that managed to get over 100 heal potions. He rarely uses one. Only times I do are boss fights. Just to be sure. He needs a new chestpeice as its from lvl 20. So few things hit him in the last 10 levels he hasn't had to look.

 

[Colif]

I didn't achieve anything today. Like most days I woke up and didn't want to do anything hard right away so I basically spent all day trying new combinations out. I want to try all the attacks, to see which to avoid/use

I wanted to play a caster. Most magic classes are hybrid to point they don't feel any different to other classes... or they are pet builds and I find them boring. After a certain amount of pets it becomes the game playing itself. And that is boring. You either don't do anything and let them do all the fighting or you pull agro and defeat purpose of them... a shield wall.

Seems casters are meant to use 2 handed swords in this game. That seems unlikely.

I tried one whose main attack is fire based... she was fun to play until I meet a boss that is resistant to fire... I ran away. I was right next to a portal so I took it and reloaded game. random boss not there next time.

I tried a few other classes... wanted to try oathkeeper/inquisitor buils. Start as oathkeeper, game doesn't offer any guns at all in the 1st 10 lvls, meaning when it came to choosing a 2nd class, I took it but still no guns. restarted as inquisitor and game gave it guns. Thanks for wasting my time. Type casting in weapon types offered.

The combo makes a paladin. I thought I already had one but he doesn't use guns.

Running out of combos I haven't tried. warden... Which is soldier/shaman is probably fav and pretty easy as you have health and defense. No default aoe but you can get it. I have one who uses a 2 handed sword and another who uses sword/board. They both pretty dangerous.

Some classes aren't really favourites... I wanted to try a move today but I couldn't work out who uses it. It is inquisitor, a gun class. I think my highest lvl one is about 32. demolitionist is about same. I played Occultist too much and can only polay necromancer if its not a pet build.

Have to not play tomorrow so was trying to get somewhere today. I failed and just drove self mad playing same zones 2 times in a row... 3 actually today.
as far as I can tell I haven't seen any caster weapons in chapter 7, only shields so far. She got as far as the first town in desert and I decided to try someone else.

I am not really a caster type of person. I generally move towards melee classes. Or ranged if its good.

 

[Colif]

Type casting in weapon types offered.

it makes sense but its still annoying. It would be easier to start from a soldier base as they get more physique per level compared to say a caster that gets more energy, but i can see the game being frustrating for someone starting a soldier and only getting guns. There is a gun that is always in the same place but getting a second gun to pair with it just didn't happen before level 10 where you pick the second class.

Most classes can only use 1 gun, at a time, Inquisitor has a skill that lets you use 2. There is also a pair of gloves and a chest piece that also provides same effect... might be more, I only seen so much of game.

Choosing the dual wield skill without the weapons to use it with seemed a waste of points. It was only later after playing same areas a 3rd time in the day that it got too much for me. This is the sort of game that once you tell it what you want you might never see those things again. I have seen it before... putting off choices until you actually have the thing you want to use.

I played game to test GPU. I have to say it works, the only strange days I had were one weekend and that could have been steam or something. That and game crashes if you play it for more than 8 hours. Helps to restart client or you get freezes where only answer is to logout of user on windows to get a picture.

I think part of problem I have is I follow build sheets of people who already have all their skills and may have respecced into this. Meaning its not really designed for levelling. The fire mage relied on a skill that is really just a defence mechanism. Stops things getting near. It lacks range.

 

[Colif]

Game isn't amused when you use a chapter 7 weapon on a chapter 1 character. He had the right requirements... Have to be lvl 20 and certain physique score. Since I only put points in physique I passed both

It went from mildly trying to kill me to "we want you dead now. And you know why. Its that axe. If you put it away we will try to kill you in a less obvious manner."
There is a mob that throws fire at you, not so much fireballs as just fire. Most you normally get in 1 room is 5 or 6, easy enough to deal with. This one room was full of them all throwing fire in sync at you. I survived as weapon was op. And I knew what to expect from using it.

I was sort of expecting it to not like the weapon but it sure made the first boss fight a little shorter. I was tired and skipped some of rooms as I didn't want to deal with pissed of spiders. The more of a creature you kill, the more they hate you and want you dead. It must be a racial history thing as I generally don't leave any witnesses

I normally gear up my characters at 20 as its where the blue chests start to show. I have a few, but all I did was give him a green weapon. I will remember not to again.

game doesn't react the same way in chapter 2 as chapter 7 is available to play at that point. I used forbidden fruit.

I posted screenshot here as imgur appears to be down for maintenance

not amused.jpg

game went nuts after a lvl 20 character equipped this weapon. Its from a later chapter, it wasn't happy I was doing 1k crits. It stopped playing nice and tried to kill me in a non subtle way. Only upload here as imgur is acting odd

forums.pcgamer.com

I reloaded game after swapping back to normal weapon, to see if it would calm down. It seemed to work.

chapter 7 actively tries to stop you grinding the 1st area. It remembers what you did previous time and instead of a peaceful stroll to the "start of fight" they attack you as soon as you leave city. With high lvl mobs, trying to make you portal
Its not so bad further in, you can reload some areas and it doesn't care so much.

Most cases you don't need to grind anywhere but if you a little low lvl or just missing some skills, repeats are fine in my eyes. I also learned where not to go if you don't want to run into any random bosses. I only did it to make sure a necromancer buff/attack was strong enough to make crowds around me die before I have to hit them. Its great on the undead and skeletons.

I hate archers. I don't know what defence you need to stop them attacking you. Same with big rock guys that throw rocks. I didn't think my guy that weak really. I normally only see them on people who don't have a shield. He does... maybe I find one of my better shields for him.

 

[Colif]

TIL I had hit max character limit on Steam cloud saves and if I wanted to make a new character I had to delete one... so I removed a few that weren't really going anywhere and started a new one... who is almost at same point as most of my guys. Might go try the boss tomorrow. Though he not quite up to that part of story yet. So at least I might actually play him...

Problem is I wake up and want something easy and most of my characters up to not easy quests. One has you fight 3 bosses at same time, I know as one of my guys randomly found himself doing that. Really nice that bosses don't recover health if you exit the zone, they stay as is.

So my biggest hit - Damage Dealt

Doesn't seem to match up with my dps

It could be most of my damage happens after I hit things - they either bleed to death or suffer , and often from afar when I am not attacking anything. I have to stand further from the practice dumby

they suffer the consequences of my helm... though training dumby is mostly from a buff I have.

So I have two characters that both use blade arc. Difference being one is a Soldier/Shaman and the other is a Soldier/Nightblade. SO at least they not exact same class. And he didn't take to the armour design she has.

Seems about half the classes have a heal of some sort, so if you mix right combos you can end up with 2 heals, but spending points on heals robs potential DPS. No point staying alive if it takes ages to kill anything. Blade arc starts out like you wiping dust off their armor to cutting them apart... you just need to spend points on it. And getting right drops helps. I had forgotten what best weapon was for blade arc. Its a scorpion tail. Its a lvl 24 weapon. I know there are better.

His shoulders fire off cannister grenaes randomly in combat. I didn't know where all the explosions where coming from.

Go into new area, first monster almost kills him... time to work on resistances I think. He had no vitality resistance. I have fixed that, see if same thing happens next time.

Game sure does strress GPU out(sarcasm), its average temp for today, where I played it for about 11 hours, is only 45c. Maybe I need to find a newer game. At least my room doesn't get too hot.

 

[Colif]

Seems to me tanks have a better chance of survival compared to squishy classes

I have 2 sentinels.
One uses a dagger to buff a ranged attack

The other thought, like all other classes that going to desert would give him a good weapon. I gave him a weapon at lvl 20 and he was still using the same one 15 lvls later. Its only in the last few levels he actually got an upgrade. It wasn't a bad weapon but he sees other classes getting 6k crits and cries a little. He should be happy, he hardly ever uses a heal potions. He has a heal after all - which also can be made to hurt things attacking him.

He also used same shield from lvl 5 to about 33. They weren't great shields, there was just no offers. The shields in the desert are pretty lame really. They don't fill the gap or at least, not for an Oathkeeper. He had a shield that could block 25% of the damage, the ones desert offered were only 22%

It could also be because shields to oathkeepers are actually weapons, and I was doing enough damage already. Game needed to balance it out somehow.

Based on his appearance you can probably guess he isn't ranged

He 4 lvls short of a set I have 4 parts of already. Would be great to find the shield for it.

He at same spot the last character had a shock but I have kept his resists under control for most part. He has 80% vitality resists, meaning one boss in a skeleton dungeon wasn't hard at all for him. He just fought an optional boss I remember being really hard to beat but when you can stand right on top of him and not get effected by his attacks he sort of has nothing he can do.

 

[Colif]

I started 3 new characters last night... today.. now. Since the last sleep... 26 hours ago...
One was a shaman/Occultist who used primal strike and basically face rolled the game until I got bored around stage 30 and wanted a challenge
So I made a Reaper which is a Nightblade/Necromance build... more Nightblade with necromancer buffs and a few attacks thrown in.
He got to about lvl 27 and was at a quest to do a dungeon that I really didn't want to do twice in one night... so I made another character... I think I have a few characters stuck at that spot... mainly from me making new characters all the time... whistles innocently.

Its just a painfully annoying dungeon. The rest of game I seen so far is better than it. Skeletons, so many archers. I spend most of fights finding them. Best defence against them is retaliation effects. they hit you, they feel pain. Shields don't seem to be enough, they shoot anyway. If your health regen high enough you don't notice them.

When I think of Sorcerer.
I think of a magic user who wears flowing robes and has a long beard... stereo types...
Mine likes to be different. Melee Sorcerer

His head is on fire... as were his hands and feet at one stage but I changed equipment since then.

Game also gave stereo types. His class is half Demolitionist and half Arcanist. Vast majority of Demo are gun users. For first 20 levels game kept giving me guns. Nothing else weapon wise fell at all for him, still using crap he got in first 10 minutes of playing. Once game knows what class you have, it thinks it knows what you want. And won't give you anything you really want for a long time... unless you change your mind after starting like my Reaper did. I was lvl 7 when I switched builds and didn't have to change a lot but enough to suddenly be able to use 2 maces - you can't switch classes after choosing one, but can change skills if you can afford it.The game had given me a few by then... it wouldn't have if it had known I was going to swap... but I didn't know, how could it.
Lucky I had kept this when it fell, I think it was off a random boss I fought a few weeks ago. I think it was in act 2. That is where he got the shoulders and head.

I couldn't work out why game wouldn't give him a weapon. Once I combined that torch with my attacks I understood. It was fun. It still is lol. Throw a fire bomb and watch the groups disappear. Stand in middle of my fire and watch them die trying to kill me. Or just touch me. Its only flying enemies that can be a problem. Fought the fire resistant dinosaur that made other caster run away... I must have too much other damage as it died. I mainly fire but also cold and electric. I can do a few. Best way to fight resistances. No point being one alone, there is a check out there for you otherwise.
That 50% light radius means I can see my shadows move around in dungeons. I was the main light source in one area, was strange but I got used to it. Its less obvious during day.
Also means its hard to sneak up on people... if they don't see the torch they might feel the flame... I try to introduce self with a fire bomb.

He is still squishy, He retreated from one area when he was 25 and the things he had to kill where lvl 30. He returned at 28 and it was easier. Unlike tank based classes, he couldn't just stand ion front of first boss and eat all the damage. Retreated oince to get health back to full, Boss didn't alst long in the fire.

New character is past the one I was playing to avoid a dungeon. Still needs to do it. Last boss uses Vitality attacks, if you don't know it he can take half your life in one hit. I used to run away from it but that takes too long. But now I just make sure to have vitlaity resists about 50 and its not a problem any more. Still need to watch his other attacks though.

My top 2 magic users aren't casters.In the classical sense. They don't dress like them.
Battlemage is a Tank who uses a little bit of magic. Mainly the energy bubble
Sorcerer knows when to run away. He is mostly a Demolitionist with a arcane shield at moment. He can't tank things, he tries to kill thinks before they can hit him.

I fought the T Rex dinosaur by exploiting a bit of terrain it couldn't run through. So it would run up to that gap and then retreat again. I whittled so health off it throwing a fire bomb at the ground as it approached. That would have taken too long so I let it try to hit me a few times.

Often the only way I can tell I am fighting a boss is by fact it hasn't died yet. Sometimes I find out after fact. See faction rewards and think, oh there was a boss there. No drops seems the norm.

 

[mainer]

I started 3 new characters last night... today.. now. Since the last sleep... 26 hours ago...

We all love gaming on the PC, but you should seriously thing about breaking up some of those prolonged gaming sessions with a little sleep and/or sustenance. 26 hours straight? I thought I was pushing at times when I hit the 12 hours straight mark. Not trying to sound like a "parental guardian" here, just a bit of concern.

 

[Colif]

It is only after I stop playing that I notice that I can't think or type any more and that I should go to sleep. There isn't much thinking involved in a lot of it. Same goes for watching videos for hours, it's only if I have to actually do something else that I struggle after staying awake for so long.
I wanted to fix my sleep pattern so I stayed awake until I knew I wouldn't wake up later the same day.
That worked and now weather is stopping me playing for a while.

 

[Pifanjr]

I now understand why you cut yourself off from playing Journey.

 

[Colif]

No, Journey was out of a desire to not play game so much I would start to hate it. I never reached that point. I didn't want to. I did in diablo 2, I got to stage I hated Jungle music. Some of Grim Dawns music is repetitive.

I hate this game... well, how it shows weapon damage or the comparison.
Game shows axe does 100 DPS more than current... insert in slot... it does.
Game shows axe does 100 DPS more than current... insert in slot... nope.

Game lies, it shows weapon doesn't help at all.. insert in slot... adds damage.

You have to test almost everything.

Can you be consistent?
I hate to make some item just to find it doesn't help. You don't know if it will help until you equip it.
Hate to farm some item just to find it doesn't add anything.

I also don't understand how adding a component, say Fire, to a weapon can actually cause weapon to do less damage. It happened twice tonight, put ifre in, damage output drops... so I replace with a component that adds physical damage and it works as expected,... damage goes up.

Lvl 38 Commando. Game wouldn't give him a chest piece still at level 17 so he made his own.

It took until lvl 13 to get proper pants, and not white ones (worst color gear in game is white/grey. Its only just better than what you start in... just
Its only in the last few levels he stopped wearing that set.
This set - https://www.grimtools.com/db/itemsets/1
He could only use/get 3 part bonus as he uses a 2 handed mace.
You can only make chest piece and shield... but I had found the other parts long before tonight. I was missing a step, I didn't know you could make components by combining others. The not having right thing had stopped me making one for the last month. Lucky I combined all my characters mats into one place. Need a armor mod... sure, I have 900 of the basic one.

Both of his main attacks almost do 10k now. Just need to level up more skills. He has room to grow.

In previous encounters, when I had found a monster shrine in desert - spawns bosses to kill - the big dinosaur boss in region had disappeared so I assumed if you saw one, he wouldn't show up... I was wrong. He showed up middle of the battle, extra thing to deal with. Those things can be dangerous, I ignore the shrines in one dungeon as the rooms are too small to manoeuvre.

 

[Brian Boru]

I also don't understand how adding a component, say Fire, to a weapon can actually cause weapon to do less damage

Isn't that likely to be because the enemy is somewhat fireproof? Your weapon could be fine, just not against the wrong opponent.

 

[Pifanjr]

I also don't understand how adding a component, say Fire, to a weapon can actually cause weapon to do less damage. It happened twice tonight, put ifre in, damage output drops... so I replace with a component that adds physical damage and it works as expected,... damage goes up.

I looked this up because it made me curious. I suspect the fire component converts some of your physical damage into fire damage, but you have higher bonuses/multipliers to physical damage than to fire damage, so your total damage goes down.

 

[Colif]

I guess that is possible. I know the scores for weapon attacks change depending on equipment but I had not thought the DPS of an actual weapon would go down based on an add on. I had not seen it before. I thought I was seeing things until I removed it. Happened two times.

So if weapon scores and damage amounts on attacks also change based on other things, how the blank am I supposed to know if the new weapon is good enough. Does that mean I have to try every weapon I find just in case it actually is better. This is madness.

"weapons are stat sticks first and foremost in GD. you can make almost literally any weapon type work with any class combo if you build right. unlike a lot of RPGS you aren't locked to certain types of gear by class, and there's almost nothing in terms of skills that lock you into certain gear types. a handful of skills and devotions only work with certain types of gear equipped, but beyond that you can use whatever gives the best stats, and even the things that do lock you to an item type are broad. for example the Kraken devotion only works with a 2 handed weapon equipped, but it can be any 2h weapon, whereas a lot of games would have things that only work with, say, daggers or greathammers or such. for example my current favourite build is a spellbinder (necromancer/arcanist) using 2h melee that mostly fights with tempest and transmuted bone harvest. this works because the temporal arcblade is a fantastic stat stick for this sort of playstyle.

imo you don't actually need to worry about gear beyond the basic idea of using things that help your main damage dealer until you hit ~level 70 at least, and arguably as late as ~90. as long as you play decently and have good skills and devotions, you'll be totally fine through normal, elite, and early-midgame ultimate with a bit of common sense and self-found gear."

Where Are the Caster Weapons? :: Grim Dawn General Discussions

I've noticed that 99.99% of the weapons seem to be "Physical Damage" oriented. I have a level 5 rare dagger that I'm still using at level 24 because it is the only weapon I've found so far that isn't physical damage and is far more powerful than any level 24 epic weapon I've seen. If I use a...

steamcommunity.com

MY lvl 38 caster using a lvl 15 dagger knows this already.


I found out yesterday that adding "Elemental" damage to a weapon actually boosts fire, cold or electric at same time. I had an axe that was +65% elemental and it was one of the ones I swapped in thinking game was lying to me. It actually did help.
Same thing applies for resists though. Shame it doesn't cover poison/acid but then it would cover the things games attacks you with in first few zones. I know now, helps to have poison in 1st area and fire in second.. Vitality in later areas of chapter 3. No idea about after that... I need to stop restarting. If it wasn't going to storm today, maybe I try.

Knowing high vitality resists makes 2 dungeons in later chapter 2 not a threat at all makes game easier. Before that one boss would have me running away to heal half the fight, and the other place was a nightmare. Last place has a quest to find someone. With high resists, the game seems to funnel you towards the end of dungeon before you finish quest and I have to turn back and look outside the route it wants me to take. Now I don't worry and look around instead of trying to find exit. With high poison and vitality they got nothing really, I need to push up chaos next I think.

Its also a really dark cave. I have to turn lights off to see anything inside it, it is hard to adjust as start is light but it becomes darker in a few seconds of being inside and its hard on the eyes. There are a few areas like it in game.

I have gear and skills that add to constitution but until a few seconds ago I had no way of knowing what my constitution total is. I just learned it shows as a bar on my health amount that I knew about, just didn't know its name.

https://grimdawn.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Mechanics#Constitution

constitution represents how much health you will regen out of combat without eating anything or using a heal potion, to replenish the total amount of health. I generally try to keep it maxed. Curreent tank uses so little potions he also has over 100 now. When your life regen outstrips the damage input, constitution is always 100

There is a general lack of instructions for this game. Without watching a video it asks a lot of people.

the more I restart, the more game feels like its trying to kill my guys. Seems to throw more monsters at me than before... only in recent days I have noticed.

I play slow, I see videos of people finishing game at lvl 30 and that is normally when I hit chapter 3. Based on equipment drops, it seems the right place to be at that stage. I will be in Homestead at lvl 33 getting lvl 36 drops. Bosses may scale to your lvl so going fast might make them easier. I don't know. It doesn't seem to apply to Cronley - 2nd area boss. He takes longer at 28 than at 30.

 

[Brian Boru]

Does that mean I have to try every weapon I find just in case it actually is better

Has someone else not done the heavy lifting by now? Community should have a weapon chart available somewhere.

 

[Pifanjr]

So if weapon scores and damage amounts on attacks also change based on other things, how the blank am I supposed to know if the new weapon is good enough. Does that mean I have to try every weapon I find just in case it actually is better. This is madness.

I did see some complaints that the expected damage the game gives for a weapon does not always equal the actual damage it does when equipped. So yes, if you want to be sure, you'd have to try on every weapon.

Has someone else not done the heavy lifting by now? Community should have a weapon chart available somewhere.

I don't think it's that easy if the weapon's attributes are rolled randomly, especially with the amount of attributes each weapon can have.

 

[Colif]

Random stats don't make setting up a calculator very easy,
Blue weapons have set stats but the values vary
Green can be almost anything
Purple... I only have one ring and it always has same stats. I would have to compare my 2 maces. The ring is always in the same place so almost all my characters who played chapter 7 have it. Most used it...

To me, the value showing on a weapon shouldn't change based on other equipment. There has to be a starting point.

Made Nightblade mixed with Arcanist.
Most night blade builds include same skills so they all look the same after a while. Might not have a lot of life but you have to be able to hit me first.

Its an all cold build so most things die before they hit me. Just being near me was enough for the skeletons in that dungeon I hate. Makes it easy when they die just being near me.

buff attacking test dumby again.

Entire time playing I was thinking, I want to make an all poison build with nightblade but it really isn't that different to any other. And game doesn't care if you want poison gear, its going to give you crap in first 90 levels and you have to deal with it.

Drove self mad towards end wanting to make a combination I haven't already... I think I have done them all now. Only class I don't get fully are inquisitors now. Rest I understand. I should sleep I guess.