KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Aeschylus]

The Savage relic also allows you to summon a pretty powerful pet, a Stormhound or something like that.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Massive Shaman nerfs in this hotfix. My build just went from 13k dps with 8 charges to 9k. Stormcaller's pact lost the added lighning damage and is now a shit. In fact, none of the top Shaman skills look that impressive. Military Conditioning from Soldier also lost flat physical dmg, and is now just +% life and +% physique.

And some changes to life leech.

And they boosted the dmg of monsters on normal by a bit and on veteran by more.

I guess the Shaman nerf was in the books, seeing as he really was strong, but Im still salty about it.

 

[4249]

Yeah Shamans took a really big hit on the damage front... But really, it was to be expected. Atleast they're still tanky as fuck, especially as warder. Devouring Swarm didn't get hit at all, now I'm even more tempted to try doing a build around it.

I really, really don't like the idea of adding an RNG component into life leech. At the moment it's just for the vampiric and bloodthirsty prefixes and I hope it stays only on those.

 

[gestalt11]

Massive Shaman nerfs in this hotfix. My build just went from 13k dps with 8 charges to 9k. Stormcaller's pact lost the added lighning damage and is now a shit. In fact, none of the top Shaman skills look that impressive. Military Conditioning from Soldier also lost flat physical dmg, and is now just +% life and +% physique.

And some changes to life leech.

And they boosted the dmg of monsters on normal by a bit and on veteran by more.

I guess the Shaman nerf was in the books, seeing as he really was strong, but Im still salty about it.

Yeah I was expecting a shaman nerf which is why I didn't invest past level 15 or so in the DPS stuff. But the Briarthorn is still pretty strong.

The Military conditioning thing is kind of weird, if I remember that they added that in and now removed it. For my various solider builds (stun jacks commando, dual pistol FS commando and cadence DW blademaster) I seem to remember that is was jsut life/physique. Then they added in the that damage with soem of the other rebalance and now its back to the way it was.

Edit: my 15/16 briarthorn was tearing apart warden levels last night combined with wendigo totem and 7point hellhound on veteran. BT is a much better early pet than hellhound the retaliation on the low level if you pump him to like 8 or so is basically a moving AOE. HH can hit similarly had singly but a BT will clear out a large number of Sliths pretty fast from retal alone.

 

[gestalt11]

Yeah Shamans took a really big hit on the damage front... But really, it was to be expected. Atleast they're still tanky as fuck, especially as warder. Devouring Swarm didn't get hit at all, now I'm even more tempted to try doing a build around it.

I really, really don't like the idea of adding an RNG component into life leech. At the moment it's just for the vampiric and bloodthirsty prefixes and I hope it stays only on those.

Life leech was pretty strong in the past, a number of build rely pretty heavily on it to have minimal down time at the very least and also for fighting champions to some degree. My stun jacks commando (whose build took a rather large +12 or so new point burden due to stun jacks changes) uses SJ and the solider shield stuff and although that guy is pretty tough when I pop overguard and because of the ability to be midrange and kite they have zero life leech and its a noticeable difference against say my blademaster who has/had about 5%.


I have to say I really like stun jacks builds its a really unique and versatile way to deliver damage. Its become rather energy intensive now though, it was before but its even more now.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Ok, today I started my Vitality & Chaos damage Occultist. Still not entirely sure what gear I'm gonna slap on him and while I have an idea what skills I wanna take for now, I have no vision of a goal. One question I do have is that does Solael's Witchfire affect the damage of your spells or is it purely for weapon damage?

 

[Sykar]

If it works like in Titan Quest then percentage based modifiers affect spells and weapon damage but flat damage modifiers only affect weapon damage attacks.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's what I was hoping would be the case. That will work awesomely for me.. Except I might start over with my character now ;_;. I dual classed into Shaman for Devouring Swarm but I'm not sure if I actually need it that much. My biggest problems vs bosses seem to be survi and being able to actually hit them with my spells (I'm going full Spirit) and Arcanist has skills to help with both of those problems. Maybe even letting me dip into some other stats than just Spirit because I'll be maxing out Inner Focus. Oh well lol.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Ok, today I started my Vitality & Chaos damage Occultist. Still not entirely sure what gear I'm gonna slap on him and while I have an idea what skills I wanna take for now, I have no vision of a goal. One question I do have is that does Solael's Witchfire affect the damage of your spells or is it purely for weapon damage?

Its just for weapon damage.
I played as a melee cultist and used Sigil of Consumption with Bloody Pox. Blood of Dreeg is also a cool emergency CD.
Paired it with soldier for modified Cadence.

Edit: Going full spirit for Occultist is a bit waste imho, if you want to build a caster with him spend some points in cunning for DOT duration and damage.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Its just for weapon damage.
I played as a melee cultist and used Sigil of Consumption with Bloody Pox. Blood of Dreeg is also a cool emergency CD.
Paired it with soldier for modified Cadence.

Edit: Going full spirit for Occultist is a bit waste imho, if you want to build a caster with him spend some points in cunning for DOT duration and damage.

No, I actually just tested it out with another character. Solael's Witchfire does add spell damage. I don't think going full Spirit is a complete waste because I'll do a shitton more when I do hit. I'll be going for Doom Bolt and that skill really loves high spirit. Also I'm not going for physical DoT damage so cunning wont help me at all other than for OA. I'll probably skip out on Bloody Pox and go for Wasting and maybe Black Death. I'm going for everything that does Vitality and Chaos damage.

 

[ArchAngel]

With new changes to Veteran melee builds just became unfun. Even my Demo with 4000 life that only uses fire and forget bombs cannot stand in once place for more than few seconds or his life disappears.
I can imagine what would happen to melee builds without a shield that need to stand and fight it out.

 

[Zdzisiu]

With new changes to Veteran melee builds just became unfun. Even my Demo with 4000 life that only uses fire and forget bombs cannot stand in once place for more than few seconds or his life disappears.
I can imagine what would happen to melee builds without a shield that need to stand and fight it out.

It isnt that bad on my melee warder, two handed mace so no shield. But it has 7.8k life, some lifesteal and decent life regen and is tanky as fuck. But I do admit that even this build after the damage buff on mobs will get to low health when being gang raped by a horde of mobs and some heroes in them, the key for this character is to kill them faster than they kill you.

And the health potion change does not help either.

 

[Cyberarmy]

No, I actually just tested it out with another character. Solael's Witchfire does add spell damage. I don't think going full Spirit is a complete waste because I'll do a shitton more when I do hit. I'll be going for Doom Bolt and that skill really loves high spirit. Also I'm not going for physical DoT damage so cunning wont help me at all other than for OA. I'll probably skip out on Bloody Pox and go for Wasting and maybe Black Death. I'm going for everything that does Vitality and Chaos damage.

Hımmm, I was pretty sure about that. Did you tested it from "CHAR II" tab with spells equipped? Maybe I should stop playing games high >_>
Only spirit is enough if you just roll with Doom bolt, but it is a bit "boring" (not the effect mind you, I seldom find myself yelling " FOR CHAOS!!!" after using it. )
Also try to get some equipment with Chaos Bolt active skill on it, its a nice back up while waiting for cooldowns.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Noone forces you to DL the patch faggots; just don't let steam spy on you login when Windows start. (and there is option to roll back IRC)

 

[Zdzisiu]

Noone forces you to DL the patch faggots; just don't let steam spy on you login when Windows start. (and there is option to roll back IRC)

Haha that is actually a reasonable advice and I haven't even considered it before because it seemed so natural and normal to always have your "online" games updated.

 

[ArchAngel]

It isnt that bad on my melee warder, two handed mace so no shield. But it has 7.8k life, some lifesteal and decent life regen and is tanky as fuck. But I do admit that even this build after the damage buff on mobs will get to low health when being gang raped by a horde of mobs and some heroes in them, the key for this character is to kill them faster than they kill you.

And the health potion change does not help either.

Try to make this character from lvl 1 with no gear swapping from other characters and you will see how new players will "enjoy" these changes...

 

[Zdzisiu]

Try to make this character from lvl 1 with no gear swapping from other characters and you will see how new players will "enjoy" these changes...

I'm not saying that those changes were good or necessary, or that they will not affect anyone, and new players especially.

But maybe then new players with no gear should not start at veteran from the very beginning? No idea how hard the change was for normal, the patch notes said something about slight increase there.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm not saying that those changes were good or necessary, or that they will not affect anyone, and new players especially.

But maybe then new players with no gear should not start at veteran from the very beginning? No idea how hard the change was for normal, the patch notes said something about slight increase there.

The Veteran is only for ranged builds that move fast? How does that make for a fun game?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Hımmm, I was pretty sure about that. Did you tested it from "CHAR II" tab with spells equipped? Maybe I should stop playing games high >_>
Only spirit is enough if you just roll with Doom bolt, but it is a bit "boring" (not the effect mind you, I seldom find myself yelling " FOR CHAOS!!!" after using it. )
Also try to get some equipment with Chaos Bolt active skill on it, its a nice back up while waiting for cooldowns.

Yeah, man, trust me. I just respecced a high level chara into an Occultist with 1 point in Solael's Witchfire and a few in Second Rite, which increases Vitality and Chaos damage by a % and the rest I put into Sigil of Consumption. I kept toggling Solael's on and off and the difference in damage was visible as night and day. This is perfect since I Consecrated Blade gives a bigger damage % boost to Vit and Chaos damage on top of giving a % into OA, but it changes Solael's to require a 2h gun or a melee weapon, which I was planning on all along anyway. Was gonna use Salazar's sword for the pet summon to help me a bit with my lack of survi with this build. And I'm not just going for Doom Bolt, that's only my solution to boss fights. Otherwise I'm getting Sigil of Consumption, Bloody Pox for Wasting (Vitality damage), Curse of Frailty, Solael's Witchfire for the passive damage bonuses and some skills from the Arcanist tree. Haven't decided yet what I will get from there but Mirror of Ereoctes is a given. The build I'm going for is something like this http://grimcalc.com/build/L4DBnU

Ignore the fact that I only put 1 point into the skills. I just tagged the ones that I'm interested in and the build is still a work in progress, I haven't decided how much I will invest into the given skills if anything at all. That will require some fudging around once I get to a high enough level to have enough skill points to try out my build in any meaningful kind of way.

 

[Zdzisiu]

The Veteran is only for ranged builds that move fast? How does that make for a fun game?

I never said anything like that. I said that veteran may not be the best choice to have "on" from the very start of a new character without access to gear from other characters. You presented the case that such a character would have a problem and I said that it might be better then to play on normal until he feels strong enough to play veteran, like it was intended right?

Do you start every game on the highest difficulty and then complain that your new character has problems with it?

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm plannig to play with a dual gunslinger nowadays. Got all of them "Marauder" set for start and some other gunslinger skill gear. Dunno which character I should choose though, maybe demo for fire strike and C&C from jacks?

 

[ArchAngel]

I never said anything like that. I said that veteran may not be the best choice to have "on" from the very start of a new character without access to gear from other characters. You presented the case that such a character would have a problem and I said that it might be better then to play on normal until he feels strong enough to play veteran, like it was intended right?

Do you start every game on the highest difficulty and then complain that your new character has problems with it?

Only action RPGs :D
And Veteran is ingame presented as difficutly for aRPG veterans, not as super hard mode that kills all melee without cool gear. Sorry, but your point does not stand.

If it is meant to be hard, then it needs to be hard for all characters, not just half of them.

 

[Aeschylus]

Ok, today I started my Vitality & Chaos damage Occultist. Still not entirely sure what gear I'm gonna slap on him and while I have an idea what skills I wanna take for now, I have no vision of a goal. One question I do have is that does Solael's Witchfire affect the damage of your spells or is it purely for weapon damage?

People have given slightly incorrect answers -- Solael's Witchfire adds some flat damage to any physical attack, which some spells do fall under such as Phantasmal Blades (you'll want to get to and max out Second Rite for the% bonus as well). Also Consecrated Blade changes it to require a melee weapon only, no guns. Unless they changed it in a hotfix or something.

In terms of high end equipment, there's lvl 40-50 uniques for pretty much every slot for a vit damage build, and you have the choice of going dual-wield (2 Lifebinders), two-handed (Scythe of Tenebris, your best overall option if you roll a good one and don't mind using chaos damage), or 1-handed and the grimoire of Og'Napesh for a pet and decent vit damage bonuses. Sadly it takes a lot of grinding through the end of act 3 to get all the 50 uniques, or you might luck out and roll a good rare. I'd recommend Doom Bolt over Sigil of Consumption as it's much better v. bosses.

And Veteran mode can be a bit challenging when you fight the very first mini boss, but after that as long as you've made a slightly competent character it's not so bad. Normal is way too easy for the most part.

 

[Hobo Elf]

People have given slightly incorrect answers -- Solael's Witchfire adds some flat damage to any physical attack, which some spells do fall under such as Phantasmal Blades (you'll want to get to and max out Second Rite for the% bonus as well). Also Consecrated Blade changes it to require a melee weapon only, no guns. Unless they changed it in a hotfix or something.

In terms of high end equipment, there's lvl 40-50 uniques for pretty much every slot for a vit damage build, and you have the choice of going dual-wield (2 Lifebinders), two-handed (Scythe of Tenebris, your best overall option if you roll a good one and don't mind using chaos damage), or 1-handed and the grimoire of Og'Napesh for a pet and decent vit damage bonuses. Sadly it takes a lot of grinding through the end of act 3 to get all the 50 uniques, or you might luck out and roll a good rare. I'd recommend Doom Bolt over Sigil of Consumption as it's much better v. bosses.

And Veteran mode can be a bit challenging when you fight the very first mini boss, but after that as long as you've made a slightly competent character it's not so bad. Normal is way too easy for the most part.

Consecrated Blade requires a melee weapon or two-handed gun. Dunno when this was changed but it has not been updated on GrimCalc yet. Got to lvl 24 with my Occultist and I'm doing okay so far. It's not the most efficient build, I guess. I can kill stuff relatively fast, but it requires me to run around in circles to make sure that enemies stay in the Sigil of Consumption. For boss fights I do the same + Doom Bolt them whenever I can. The worst is when the AI is smart enough to run out of the Sigil. Not sure if this kind of gameplay will be interesting to me in the long run, but we'll see.


Also, is there an Occultist set that looks like this?

I know that the Soldier, Nightblade and Arcanist have their iconic sets but idk about the other masteries.

 

[Aeschylus]

Also, is there an Occultist set that looks like this?

I know that the Soldier, Nightblade and Arcanist have their iconic sets but idk about the other masteries.

Well, it looks a bit like the Bloodsworn Vestements MI set that the cultists drop.