for newer people watching this... don't wait till a higher difficulty to obtain your devotions. in over half the builds in the game you will screw yourself over on survivability or damage depending on the class. you can always respect devotions and skill points. don't be afraid to experiment along the way, you'll make the bits back just fine.
and I say this so you don't have to spend 5 hours going back and hunting them all down when you find level 50 and above kicking your rear on elite in some areas or if you make the choice to touch ultimate underdeveloped.
Special mats note: From act 2 (and act 7) the blacksmith can craft dynamite, 3 per large crystal. Craft as many as you can spare, and if you are running out of scrap, don't sell your blue items, instead, go to the act 1 component girl and have her blow your items up. They always give you scrap and a bonus. For blues, this bonus is usually a component, but sometimes it will be a rare crafting material.
I use the rotate camera for 2 things. Searching the area after I clear the mobs to look for secrets. And certain boss fights to keep an eye on what they are doing, if I charge in at when they are off screen, I could run into getting one shot, by some of their attacks.
So, I think I'm just over 2.5k hours in grimdawn, and my favorite part is figuring out builds and trying to get new ones to work. My biggest tip is to use Grim Tools, kind of like PoB or Maxroll planner, but not really to plan out your build (which I love doing, but it's not a requirement like it is in PoE), but just to look at the end game sets and items, as well as the MIs (monster specific drop green items). It has a section in the items that shows you all the items that affect a specific skill and wear to farm them. So, if you have a skill you like, then go there, click on that skill and look at all the items that buff it. Also, iron at first is hard to come by, but it rains later on, and the cost of respecing starts out low, so don't worry so much about your skills. Try one pointing different ones at the start to see which one mechanically fits your playstyle, then go back and respec those points and dump them into one skill. Always at least put 1 point in the mastery bar every level until you reach 50 points, but I'd avoid taking a second class until after level 50. Also, on your first playthrough, try to reach Elite as soon as possible. It unlocks after act 4, and it's not so difficult once your character is in at least decent shape. (the opposite is true for ultimate. Stay in Elite as long as you need to, finishing pretty much everything because ultimate isn't forgiving) Push through to act 6 in elite and sit on the malmouth bounty board in elite until you reach revered (max rep), which unlocks xp potions that you can use for fresh characters and the rest of this character's journey. Turn off white items when the game starts and turn off yellow items as soon as you have replaced your chest and pants. Go jackal first for devotions on every playthrough. 1 red plus 3 red to get to it. This gives you 6% action speed (attack, cast and movement) as well as 2% physical resistance (which is nearly impossible to cap). I'd also recommend Dryad and turtle because they give you a heal when you use a skill and a shield when you drop low on life, respectively. From there, look at the damage type you are doing, then progress to the T2 devotions (these are the devotions that have decent requirements, but not too large, but they still give colors) looking for the one that reduces resistances for the type of damage you are doing. Like in most ARPGs RR (resistance reduction) is a massive boost to your damage. 1 point all auras in your class at first, then add points later once your main skill is filled out. max out buffs as quickly as you can. Soldier is the easiest class to level with forcewave and blitz and all of its passive bonuses. Oathkeeper is one of the fastest classes to level with vire's might fire trail and guardians. Use your components. You will get tons of them, so just use them, especially the ones on your weapon that give you an attack. If you want to focus on spending your points on buffs, you can use weapon components up until lvl 20 and they work really well. At lvl 20, you have to craft an upgraded version of said component. You can also craft components for your armor that are upgrades that will fill out your resistances. Anti-venom salve is a godsend early on giving your poison res and armor. Armor is based on gear slot and enemy chance to hit said gear slot (head, chest, legs, hands, feet and shoulders) The armor those pieces give is local. Armor on belt, jewelry and skills is global, and because of that, it's very valuable. Of all the ARPGs, Grim Dawn has some of the beast gearing. Better than poe, better than TLI, better than LE. The MIs give so much variety and crazy class changing abilities, thus why I recommend checking out grimtools.
Your comments have taught me much more than the video did. Godspeed. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm in my first run ever and in act 2 currently.
@@Grymn I'm running through the conclave of the three. Probably less than 200 hours play time. LVL 61 killing lvl 66 monsters with ease. I didn't need this guide - common sense for most.. Use a demolitionist at first with 2 guns. I've switched to a Necromancer as 2nd build. Use Devotion points sparingly.. Don't add to pets as they are NOT needed. Str, life and other stuff. My life regeneration is 96% and mana is about 75%..The game is pretty easy then but I still die with a major boss. ALL my equipment is either rare or legendary - Blue/Purple. Willing to help you out in-game if you trust me..
iv played for 1500 hours and my bigest tip would be to pay attention to the map things are always popping up, secret nooks and cranys that have insan loot
My two biggest tips for early game: Don't be afraid to use components and augments on gear to help cap resistances. I always recommend new players to focus on levelling up the early game factions: devils crossing, rovers, legion, homestead as soon as you can by taking bounties for them, as the gear and augments they sell can be really powerful at low levels. Secondly "monster infrequents" (green rarity items with specific skill bonuses) can be target farmed as soon as you have access to that enemy type. Monster infrequents are sometimes powerful enough to build around and can roll a prefix and suffix modifier, so it can be worth farming for a well rolled one.
Alkamos’ Scythe being one that i'm actually playing with *right now* and happened to hit one with a phys to cold conversion prefix which helps a ton. Had to go out of my way to get to the enemy that dropped it but that was a cool experience of just doing missions and stumbling across an enemy that dropped a cool item.
My most powerful item now, a lvl 50 item that still put damages level 75 gear is a Tyrant claw of corrosion, that converted all my Aegis of Menhir damage into Acid damage. Combine with my retaliation and etc, I peaked in damage, especially as I used the epic Perdition set to get acid retaliation.
Sadly, this is better if you using summons that derive from player damage, so Dervish with it's Blade Spirits and Guardians, shaman with wind devils are better used. My fav is linking Rowan crown with Wind devil for a double Elemental reduction in resistances, increasing the damage available.
There is an auto loot option in the settings, it picks up all components, scap, dynamite etc without having to keep clicking on them all. It doesn't pick up items though so you are free to pick whichever of them up that you want. Small but great quality of life thing :)
Turn on auto pick up materials slide the distance to max. it will only pick up components and food/essences. Set a key bind to pick-up items this is for everything else. The bank, the merchants, the devotion tree, all have search bars to help make your decisions easier and faster to find. Try to go for one damage type is best with conversions to that type, 2 damage types is still great, 3 is fine if it is elemental damage (Fire, Cold, Lightning), anything else is going to cripple you. Every item accept for relics can have 1 component and one augment added to it....augments are bought from faction vendors with high faction rating. There are a lot of Black smiths and they all have 1 of 3 bonuses they can add to gear you craft with them....hover over the circle symbol next to the combine button on the bottom to see them. ((I believe wiki has the list of them and their bonuses)) Do not ignore the apprentice as he can remove components and augments to change as you find new gear to make up what the component/augment was doing. DO not worry about gear so much your first play through.....as there is a ton.... and near impossible to get everything your looking for, the game can be beat with all rare (green gear) only....yes that goes for ultimate as well. Your goal with the first character is to have fun explore for secret areas and try to be friends with all the factions you can.....grind out the good factions to max and buy the mandates ( it gives +150% experience with faction) to pass on to the next character, so it is easier for you the next time you play. Always keep scrap (as you will always be finding it everywhere), dynamite (because you never know), and potions for what your lacking or a damage boost on hand. Stick all components in the shared bank as the blacksmith and devotions shrines will pull from it....NO need to carry it all around with you. Buy the DLC's if you enjoy the game the quality of life changes and addition to the game will make everything easier for your next play through..... Like buying a item to pass on that open all the rifts.....the ability to pass on money through shared bank......the transmute ability for the apprentice that lets you change a set item into another piece of the same set. Additional items, quests, hidden quests and bosses, also raising your level cap, the amount of skill points, devotions, and attributes.
I'm going through on first play on Xbox One X.. The only problems I have is where the quests start.. Had a few skeleton key misses but NOT needed. DE version.Either Blue or Purple equipment used. Epic or Legendary. Get Queeg for weapons - great help.. I think it's Queeg or Queed. Going through the other half of the game to clear a few quests up. Conclave of the Three needed - Working on through - Currently at the docks with ease!! OH.. LVL61
A note about second class: I'd recommend against picking a second class until after level 50. Focus on the main skill, buff skills and auras. Go with the 2-1 approach until you have 50 points into the mastery bar (every level put at least 1 point in the mastery bar, pushing it as high as possible. Some levels, it is best to do more in the mastery bar)
My suggestion for progressing through the game: Elite and Ultimate unlock after act 4 (the big tentacle boss). I suggest entering elite as soon as you reach the first act 5 hub, just to unlock the rep, though it's not necessary. In elite and ultimate, you get so much more xp and rep that a play through on normal isn't very helpful. I would recommend a full clear on Elite, however, because Ultimate requires your build to be somewhat complete or else you will die a lot and not kill enough. The difference between elite and ultimate is far greater than the difference between normal and elite, and the monsters fully scale to your level. Also, all the shrines are always in the same location, and your cap is 55 points, no mater how many shrines you get. Edit to add: Do not do extra quests for factions in normal. It is a complete waste of time. It's not really even worth to do it in Elite.
Hi, just wanted to say your tip on putting a lot of points leveling your class helped me A LOT today. I just began GD a few days ago and didn't fully understand why my stats were that bad. I just overlooked the bonus stats on class levels ... so thanks for the advice. And my personal tip that I personnally still struggle to apply: lay portals regularly, before a dungeon, before a new portion of the map, before a boss, etc. You never know what's gonna kill you in the near future, so make your way back to action faster.
Something I wish I'd known sooner is that in Act 6 (the city aka malmouth) you can get to max rep really quickly in elite, and you can buy xp potions from that vendor, so when you go into ultimate or elite act 7, you can use an xp potion to give you double xp the rest of the way. (xp potions and the lokkar set are how people do a 5-hour 1-94 play through) Also, the blacksmith collects blueprints, and the best way to farm blueprints is from the totems. These blueprints include helmet blueprints, which are how most people get end-game sets. You make 4 helmets, then your transmute the three bad ones into other pieces of the set with the inventor (act 1 component girl who also does the blowing gear up)
My biggest tip for starting. Learn the mechanics and how damage works on a tanky character. Then once you figure out that, go into a character that you really want to focus on a specific damage type. If you start multiple characters, you'll constantly find gear that works perfect for your 20 other characters with different specializations. I cant play a character now for an hour without wanting to swap to another and try a new item lol
The biggest tip I have is for fellow Xbox scrubs: whatever you assign to the A button is considered your default attack. Anything that says it buffs and procw off your default attack refers to weapon attacks/skills assigned to that button unless otherwise noted (i.e. Primal Strike for Shaman, which also had me under the impression that default attack meant the default weapon attack). Second: shrines give you devotion points and you can respec them with the spirit guide as easily as your skills with a minor extra cost. They can heavily modify your character passives and skills. Don't write it off as scary end game nerd stuff. Third: What happens in hardcore stays in hardcore. Transmog styles, stash items (even if in the "shared" tab), it all stays separate from regular/softcore mode and you cannot turn it off like Veteran difficulty. Fourth: Don't get carried away with respeccing your skills. If you keep changing them like trying on different outfits in a montage you won't be able to reassign them when you need to later.
For all new players, I'd recommend CrabTurtle's BattleMage, physical dot character. It's super tanky and does insane damage with decent mobility and great utility. It levels pretty easily with 2h spam forcewave, which is used to farm totems super easily until it can get the gear to swap to IT (which is what the physical dot is refereed to)
If you enjoy the base game and like building up to max level, there's a ton that you can do with conversions and item support, even if a certain class doesn't start with that specific damage type. It should be noted, however, that conversion doesn't affect a certain stat twice like in PoE - meaning that if you phys converted to acid and flat phys + % phys damage on your gear, all %phys bonuses are lost and only the flat numbers are converted and used. Most builds are viable if you can survive the early game pressure. Even a single pet can have a lot of general bonuses and work well on a summoner based build, and items can have summons, it's hard to keep up with what item does what but you get used to a certain leveling path. If you like extra mastery combinations or just general better qol/difficulty level control, I absolutely recommend adding a mod like Grimarillion or Dawn of Masteries. Not only do they add class combos inspired by Diablo 2/3 characters (among other themes), you can increase monster density, extra hero mobs, they scale better with your level and the shattered realm offers a ton of hard bosses to limit test your builds. Overall, I enjoy this game in similar fashion to PoE for the build complexity, but tend to prefer the more laid back, zero pressure progression and switch characters without feeling I'm "losing" out on the challenge aspect.
one final comment since I keep hearing "melee is bad" repeated. Melee is really powerful, but early game (ie without MIs)l at least) it's a bit weaker because a lot of it's strengths come from extra bonuses. RF melee/retal oathkeeper for instance is one of the most powerful classes to combine with. But that would require using DARs and WPSs before it even starts going. it's a much more spread out point distribution, which is tougher to get it going early game. (which is why each class basically has a power leveling skill that can get you to 50/60 without any problems and through elite on cruise, and you swap to your real build at 50/60. Soldier - forcewave (2h mi weapon) Nightblade - night's chill - ABB and default weapon attack (this os the weakest until you get malkadar's bade, which means joining Kamon's chosen faction and killing the boss with the ashes) Demolitionist - Blackwater cocktail with the high impact cd node amd a fireball component. Arcanist - OFF into trozan (second weakest leveling class after nightblade, though nightblade has movement skill) Necromancer - Skells until you get a bone blade at the early part of act 3 (or 2 with a dw relic) the swap to ravanus earth. Occultist - bloody pox (turn off gore in setting) (my bone sword) amd fireball componet. inquisitor - Word of pain (second node is the big damage) amd fireball component. Oathkeeper - vire's might (second node) and fireball component. (mi offhand and helmet early/late act 3) Shaman - Primal strike with the spam node.
I came from Path of Exile to Grim Dawn. Mostly because I am still waiting for POE 2 bc POE has become a little stale for me. I started GD on veteran with an inquisitor and would spend like 20 minutes a fight. Thank you for explaining that veteran ain’t worth it. Last thing is constellations. They are so confusing to me considering I don’t know what stats or abilities are good for different classes 😅
You don't need to rotate the camera. Mouse over the blocked area it will reveal what's hidden. A controller will highlight either red or button prompt.
Get grim dawn item assistant, it will save you hours of looking and selling gear you don't have room for anymore. Gear that will come in useful on future characters or for making a specific build needing a specific item. I lost so much time making mules and sorting stuff, time I could have used to actually be playing.
Hi! just wanted to mention something. One day you will be wanting to play, but the assistant needs an update to work again. You need to wait for that guy/guys to update it. How you can get all those items back again in the GD if they are not in the regular mules? Or worse: developers died or wont update again? I like to be rather safe then sorry.
Side note: It's nearly impossible to cap physical resistance, but you should always try to get as much as possible. Each area is a certain set of resistances, so you don't always have to have full cap: Act 1 you want poison and aether capped. Elemental is nice, too (fire, ice, lightning), but you can completely ignore Chaos and vitality because you won't even see that damage (unless you go well out of your way) until act 3 By act 2, you need to cap pierce resistance, and bleeding resistance before you start act 3. Half way through act 3, you need the chaos and vitality res. Stun res and other cc res is nice to get, but don't focus on them. They are like the cherry on top and honestly only really important at the end game in SR, boundless dungeons (s4 mod), act 8 (s4 mod) and super bosses (but super bosses each have their own specific requirements, and very few characters can do all super bosses, especially if you consider the S4 super bosses)
Honestly the thing I've found the most irritating is that I can't seem to narrow down a build that I enjoy or one that comes online semi early so I always feel like i hit with a wet noodle
In devotion search for things that lower resistances to the damage you want to deal. On your way there try to get offensive ability and defensive ability. You also want armor and such. In veteran they are not really tankier in my opinion they just have higher defense and armor and such so try to lower res and so on
What are your thoughts on The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut? Every so often I go back to it, but only for a bit. I have some sort of mental block and maybe its because I'm making some early game mistakes.
Does focusing on fewer skill approach work for summoners too? I tried playing as Shaman + Occultist and mained locust and all the summons, and while that combo handled most stuff easily, bosses became a problem. they completely ignored my summons (which usually tanked everything) and chased me instead, which basically forced me to kite them and refresh locust on them, which was pretty slow, even for DoT.
Compared to Last Epoch (I have 800+ hours in LE) for example, I find crafting lacking in GD and the Devotion system obtuse. Gear is OK I guess. Story and factions are interesting. Build variety is quite nice but I haven't progressed far enough to check later viability; LE has viability in a majority of its builds. I'm currently playing GD as there is an unpatched bug in LE that drove me away pending a fix.
PC version just ran TOO slow for me - Xbox One X in 4K.. better.. Start off with Demolutionist. MAX 2nd skill down out. Always use 2 guns. You don't need to create dynamite - you just need to remember where you need it. Currently lvl 61 and close to lvl 62. Health regen is 96%. Killing heros in seconds. Started Necromancer and building that up now. Only had the game for about 3 months but loads of experience on PC version. Willing to start a new char if anyone wants help. Just ask..
I've been playing it on and off since it came out, same with Titan Quest. It has gotten much better over the years, especially with the more recent updates. Still gets boring very fast though, maps are way too big and boring. Most of the time it's just a slog getting to your objective. Most objectives are boring and repetitive and have annoying run-backs. I end up playing for 10-15 hours, drop the game, come back 2-3 months later, play another 10-15 hours. The game being "complex" solely for the sake of being complex is a bit annoying too. Most of the damage types/resistances/status effects overlap with each other (do the same thing). Half the stuff is useless, same goes for the item drops.
Completely agree... It was already frustrating enough in Titan Quest (the game having too many stats and damage types) and its 10 times worse in this game.. this is my second shot at it after a very long time and I'm already getting close to uninstalling it again after only playing for 2 days.. its a micromanagement shitfest with all that unnecessary effects and bullshit damage types.. I'm all for challenge and brain storming in video games, but this is just like being in a math class rather than playing a game and having FUN..
This looks sooooo much like Titan Quest... If only TQ had better multiplayer :( Last i tried (probably ~2020 - before the embers expansion) multiplayer we had pretty awful lag spike and rubberbanding.
Observations . . . #2 Respec: Max devotion trees REQUIRE you to partially respec to ensure you get all of the nodes you want. Certain constellations give you favor points designated by the color type. A constellation can itself be used to meet prior requirements. For example if you play a summoner and pick up Shepards which is a purple constellation type . . . You can remove the original purple devotion node on the circle that was used to allow you to pick the Shepard in the first place. At 55 out of 55 devotion points, you WILL be removing and changing nodes if you want to min max the build. You generally want to have the EXACT number for each type, try to avoid having "11 out of 10" of a particular devotion type if the largest amount you need is 10. Tip: You NEED to max all of the resistances besides physical when you reach Elite and Ultimate. If you don't it will be extremely unfun and you WILL die often. Resistances will make or break your character until you've reached max level and unlocked everything. Resistances should be taken over all other things, your primary source of damage should be skill levels and not gear, gear is icing for the proverbial cake. You also should overcap them to at least 20% higher than whatever is your max resistance because virtually ALL rare or unique enemies in the game have some form of debuff to strip you of your protection. This is why you should attempt to befriend all of the factions so you can use their crafting materials to add additional resistances onto your gear that might be missing;
Here are some of my own tips 1. Avoid guides and play on your own 2. Avoid guides dammit. Meta, minmaxxers and buildfags are the worst, driving all the fun out of the game and turning a great atmospheric adventure into a grindfest pursuit of a highest number 3. Play with a friend 4. Play in a window watching something in the background 5. Replaying the game 3 times in a row with the same character is pure autism. You play to experience new things so experience new things. Avoid this pointless idea that you can only beat game on the highest difficulty. Game has a normal difficulty that it was built around, the rest is a self imposed challenge for weirdos
for newer people watching this... don't wait till a higher difficulty to obtain your devotions. in over half the builds in the game you will screw yourself over on survivability or damage depending on the class. you can always respect devotions and skill points. don't be afraid to experiment along the way, you'll make the bits back just fine.
and I say this so you don't have to spend 5 hours going back and hunting them all down when you find level 50 and above kicking your rear on elite in some areas or if you make the choice to touch ultimate underdeveloped.
@@bregonwebb8921 Don't go for pet help - they are NOT needed. Attack and health are better..
Special mats note: From act 2 (and act 7) the blacksmith can craft dynamite, 3 per large crystal. Craft as many as you can spare, and if you are running out of scrap, don't sell your blue items, instead, go to the act 1 component girl and have her blow your items up. They always give you scrap and a bonus. For blues, this bonus is usually a component, but sometimes it will be a rare crafting material.
oh dam thank you for that info im so noob still
Is Act 2 Cronley hideout or Homestea?
@@muramasa870Cronely!
I've played Grim Dawn for over 2000 hours and I have never rotated my camera. And never will. Static camera 4 Lyfe! 🤘🤘
I actually get really bothered when I accidentally rotate instead of opening my map.
I use the rotate camera for 2 things.
Searching the area after I clear the mobs to look for secrets.
And certain boss fights to keep an eye on what they are doing, if I charge in at when they are off screen, I could run into getting one shot, by some of their attacks.
Your loss
So, I think I'm just over 2.5k hours in grimdawn, and my favorite part is figuring out builds and trying to get new ones to work.
My biggest tip is to use Grim Tools, kind of like PoB or Maxroll planner, but not really to plan out your build (which I love doing, but it's not a requirement like it is in PoE), but just to look at the end game sets and items, as well as the MIs (monster specific drop green items).
It has a section in the items that shows you all the items that affect a specific skill and wear to farm them. So, if you have a skill you like, then go there, click on that skill and look at all the items that buff it.
Also, iron at first is hard to come by, but it rains later on, and the cost of respecing starts out low, so don't worry so much about your skills. Try one pointing different ones at the start to see which one mechanically fits your playstyle, then go back and respec those points and dump them into one skill. Always at least put 1 point in the mastery bar every level until you reach 50 points, but I'd avoid taking a second class until after level 50.
Also, on your first playthrough, try to reach Elite as soon as possible. It unlocks after act 4, and it's not so difficult once your character is in at least decent shape. (the opposite is true for ultimate. Stay in Elite as long as you need to, finishing pretty much everything because ultimate isn't forgiving) Push through to act 6 in elite and sit on the malmouth bounty board in elite until you reach revered (max rep), which unlocks xp potions that you can use for fresh characters and the rest of this character's journey.
Turn off white items when the game starts and turn off yellow items as soon as you have replaced your chest and pants.
Go jackal first for devotions on every playthrough. 1 red plus 3 red to get to it. This gives you 6% action speed (attack, cast and movement) as well as 2% physical resistance (which is nearly impossible to cap). I'd also recommend Dryad and turtle because they give you a heal when you use a skill and a shield when you drop low on life, respectively. From there, look at the damage type you are doing, then progress to the T2 devotions (these are the devotions that have decent requirements, but not too large, but they still give colors) looking for the one that reduces resistances for the type of damage you are doing. Like in most ARPGs RR (resistance reduction) is a massive boost to your damage.
1 point all auras in your class at first, then add points later once your main skill is filled out.
max out buffs as quickly as you can.
Soldier is the easiest class to level with forcewave and blitz and all of its passive bonuses.
Oathkeeper is one of the fastest classes to level with vire's might fire trail and guardians.
Use your components. You will get tons of them, so just use them, especially the ones on your weapon that give you an attack. If you want to focus on spending your points on buffs, you can use weapon components up until lvl 20 and they work really well. At lvl 20, you have to craft an upgraded version of said component. You can also craft components for your armor that are upgrades that will fill out your resistances. Anti-venom salve is a godsend early on giving your poison res and armor.
Armor is based on gear slot and enemy chance to hit said gear slot (head, chest, legs, hands, feet and shoulders) The armor those pieces give is local. Armor on belt, jewelry and skills is global, and because of that, it's very valuable.
Of all the ARPGs, Grim Dawn has some of the beast gearing. Better than poe, better than TLI, better than LE. The MIs give so much variety and crazy class changing abilities, thus why I recommend checking out grimtools.
Your comments have taught me much more than the video did. Godspeed. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm in my first run ever and in act 2 currently.
Solid comment! Lots of really good tips in here.
@@Grymn I'm running through the conclave of the three. Probably less than 200 hours play time. LVL 61 killing lvl 66 monsters with ease. I didn't need this guide - common sense for most.. Use a demolitionist at first with 2 guns. I've switched to a Necromancer as 2nd build. Use Devotion points sparingly.. Don't add to pets as they are NOT needed. Str, life and other stuff. My life regeneration is 96% and mana is about 75%..The game is pretty easy then but I still die with a major boss. ALL my equipment is either rare or legendary - Blue/Purple. Willing to help you out in-game if you trust me..
I'm just gonna leave this comment here so I can also look back on it
Lot of good information here
iv played for 1500 hours and my bigest tip would be to pay attention to the map things are always popping up, secret nooks and cranys that have insan loot
My two biggest tips for early game:
Don't be afraid to use components and augments on gear to help cap resistances. I always recommend new players to focus on levelling up the early game factions: devils crossing, rovers, legion, homestead as soon as you can by taking bounties for them, as the gear and augments they sell can be really powerful at low levels.
Secondly "monster infrequents" (green rarity items with specific skill bonuses) can be target farmed as soon as you have access to that enemy type. Monster infrequents are sometimes powerful enough to build around and can roll a prefix and suffix modifier, so it can be worth farming for a well rolled one.
Alkamos’ Scythe being one that i'm actually playing with *right now* and happened to hit one with a phys to cold conversion prefix which helps a ton. Had to go out of my way to get to the enemy that dropped it but that was a cool experience of just doing missions and stumbling across an enemy that dropped a cool item.
My most powerful item now, a lvl 50 item that still put damages level 75 gear is a Tyrant claw of corrosion, that converted all my Aegis of Menhir damage into Acid damage. Combine with my retaliation and etc, I peaked in damage, especially as I used the epic Perdition set to get acid retaliation.
When i realized that devotions can be bound to your summons, that changed the game for me
Sadly, this is better if you using summons that derive from player damage, so Dervish with it's Blade Spirits and Guardians, shaman with wind devils are better used. My fav is linking Rowan crown with Wind devil for a double Elemental reduction in resistances, increasing the damage available.
I was using the vampire spikes from the bat devotion on my summon skeletons as a necro, pretty cool.
There is an auto loot option in the settings, it picks up all components, scap, dynamite etc without having to keep clicking on them all. It doesn't pick up items though so you are free to pick whichever of them up that you want. Small but great quality of life thing :)
Dam this is gonna be OP when i use it on co op and dont tell anyone about it
Turn on auto pick up materials slide the distance to max. it will only pick up components and food/essences.
Set a key bind to pick-up items this is for everything else.
The bank, the merchants, the devotion tree, all have search bars to help make your decisions easier and faster to find.
Try to go for one damage type is best with conversions to that type, 2 damage types is still great, 3 is fine if it is elemental damage (Fire, Cold, Lightning), anything else is going to cripple you.
Every item accept for relics can have 1 component and one augment added to it....augments are bought from faction vendors with high faction rating.
There are a lot of Black smiths and they all have 1 of 3 bonuses they can add to gear you craft with them....hover over the circle symbol next to the combine button on the bottom to see them. ((I believe wiki has the list of them and their bonuses))
Do not ignore the apprentice as he can remove components and augments to change as you find new gear to make up what the component/augment was doing.
DO not worry about gear so much your first play through.....as there is a ton.... and near impossible to get everything your looking for, the game can be beat with all rare (green gear) only....yes that goes for ultimate as well.
Your goal with the first character is to have fun explore for secret areas and try to be friends with all the factions you can.....grind out the good factions to max and buy the mandates ( it gives +150% experience with faction) to pass on to the next character, so it is easier for you the next time you play.
Always keep scrap (as you will always be finding it everywhere), dynamite (because you never know), and potions for what your lacking or a damage boost on hand.
Stick all components in the shared bank as the blacksmith and devotions shrines will pull from it....NO need to carry it all around with you.
Buy the DLC's if you enjoy the game the quality of life changes and addition to the game will make everything easier for your next play through.....
Like buying a item to pass on that open all the rifts.....the ability to pass on money through shared bank......the transmute ability for the apprentice that lets you change a set item into another piece of the same set. Additional items, quests, hidden quests and bosses, also raising your level cap, the amount of skill points, devotions, and attributes.
I'm going through on first play on Xbox One X.. The only problems I have is where the quests start.. Had a few skeleton key misses but NOT needed. DE version.Either Blue or Purple equipment used. Epic or Legendary. Get Queeg for weapons - great help.. I think it's Queeg or Queed. Going through the other half of the game to clear a few quests up. Conclave of the Three needed - Working on through - Currently at the docks with ease!! OH.. LVL61
A note about second class: I'd recommend against picking a second class until after level 50. Focus on the main skill, buff skills and auras. Go with the 2-1 approach until you have 50 points into the mastery bar (every level put at least 1 point in the mastery bar, pushing it as high as possible. Some levels, it is best to do more in the mastery bar)
total nonsense
@@unityofvitality-5875 Easy to say. Care to elaborate??
Demolisionist is shit without second clas bruh💀💀💀💀
nah you wanna combine classes early. I struggled because i waited too long.
My suggestion for progressing through the game: Elite and Ultimate unlock after act 4 (the big tentacle boss). I suggest entering elite as soon as you reach the first act 5 hub, just to unlock the rep, though it's not necessary. In elite and ultimate, you get so much more xp and rep that a play through on normal isn't very helpful. I would recommend a full clear on Elite, however, because Ultimate requires your build to be somewhat complete or else you will die a lot and not kill enough. The difference between elite and ultimate is far greater than the difference between normal and elite, and the monsters fully scale to your level.
Also, all the shrines are always in the same location, and your cap is 55 points, no mater how many shrines you get.
Edit to add: Do not do extra quests for factions in normal. It is a complete waste of time. It's not really even worth to do it in Elite.
Picked it up for xmas and boy did i have fun for the first 8 hours, made a gunslinger style build taking on lvl 24 bosses at 18
Hi, just wanted to say your tip on putting a lot of points leveling your class helped me A LOT today. I just began GD a few days ago and didn't fully understand why my stats were that bad. I just overlooked the bonus stats on class levels ... so thanks for the advice.
And my personal tip that I personnally still struggle to apply: lay portals regularly, before a dungeon, before a new portion of the map, before a boss, etc. You never know what's gonna kill you in the near future, so make your way back to action faster.
I forget to lay portals so often in so many games, you definitely can't leave yourself too many checkpoints!
@@Tenkiei I've wasted so much time going from town to corpse so many times already :D
Something I wish I'd known sooner is that in Act 6 (the city aka malmouth) you can get to max rep really quickly in elite, and you can buy xp potions from that vendor, so when you go into ultimate or elite act 7, you can use an xp potion to give you double xp the rest of the way. (xp potions and the lokkar set are how people do a 5-hour 1-94 play through)
Also, the blacksmith collects blueprints, and the best way to farm blueprints is from the totems. These blueprints include helmet blueprints, which are how most people get end-game sets. You make 4 helmets, then your transmute the three bad ones into other pieces of the set with the inventor (act 1 component girl who also does the blowing gear up)
Potions are available in game from the very beginning, on a cool down just like D3, D4 and PoE
Never knew this 😑... just figured it out and I'm level 60
@@CaptainBananananathey did change that recrntly so maybe thats not onbyou
My biggest tip for starting. Learn the mechanics and how damage works on a tanky character. Then once you figure out that, go into a character that you really want to focus on a specific damage type. If you start multiple characters, you'll constantly find gear that works perfect for your 20 other characters with different specializations. I cant play a character now for an hour without wanting to swap to another and try a new item lol
The biggest tip I have is for fellow Xbox scrubs: whatever you assign to the A button is considered your default attack. Anything that says it buffs and procw off your default attack refers to weapon attacks/skills assigned to that button unless otherwise noted (i.e. Primal Strike for Shaman, which also had me under the impression that default attack meant the default weapon attack).
Second: shrines give you devotion points and you can respec them with the spirit guide as easily as your skills with a minor extra cost. They can heavily modify your character passives and skills. Don't write it off as scary end game nerd stuff.
Third: What happens in hardcore stays in hardcore. Transmog styles, stash items (even if in the "shared" tab), it all stays separate from regular/softcore mode and you cannot turn it off like Veteran difficulty.
Fourth: Don't get carried away with respeccing your skills. If you keep changing them like trying on different outfits in a montage you won't be able to reassign them when you need to later.
For all new players, I'd recommend CrabTurtle's BattleMage, physical dot character. It's super tanky and does insane damage with decent mobility and great utility. It levels pretty easily with 2h spam forcewave, which is used to farm totems super easily until it can get the gear to swap to IT (which is what the physical dot is refereed to)
Thanks i will have to look that up
Great tips, thanks for the upload
I benefitted a lot by prioritizing devotions skills that shred enemies' resistances to my character's main damage type.
If you enjoy the base game and like building up to max level, there's a ton that you can do with conversions and item support, even if a certain class doesn't start with that specific damage type. It should be noted, however, that conversion doesn't affect a certain stat twice like in PoE - meaning that if you phys converted to acid and flat phys + % phys damage on your gear, all %phys bonuses are lost and only the flat numbers are converted and used.
Most builds are viable if you can survive the early game pressure. Even a single pet can have a lot of general bonuses and work well on a summoner based build, and items can have summons, it's hard to keep up with what item does what but you get used to a certain leveling path.
If you like extra mastery combinations or just general better qol/difficulty level control, I absolutely recommend adding a mod like Grimarillion or Dawn of Masteries. Not only do they add class combos inspired by Diablo 2/3 characters (among other themes), you can increase monster density, extra hero mobs, they scale better with your level and the shattered realm offers a ton of hard bosses to limit test your builds.
Overall, I enjoy this game in similar fashion to PoE for the build complexity, but tend to prefer the more laid back, zero pressure progression and switch characters without feeling I'm "losing" out on the challenge aspect.
whats ''illusion be gone'' item?
I think questing is the only thing that has me confused but I’m sure I’ll get used to it, or resort to walkthroughs if worst comes to it.
thank you for the tips bro im new to grim dawn so this was great info for me
do any of you know if there will be mods available for xbox any time soon
how your equipment glow fire?
one final comment since I keep hearing "melee is bad" repeated. Melee is really powerful, but early game (ie without MIs)l at least) it's a bit weaker because a lot of it's strengths come from extra bonuses. RF melee/retal oathkeeper for instance is one of the most powerful classes to combine with. But that would require using DARs and WPSs before it even starts going. it's a much more spread out point distribution, which is tougher to get it going early game. (which is why each class basically has a power leveling skill that can get you to 50/60 without any problems and through elite on cruise, and you swap to your real build at 50/60.
Soldier - forcewave (2h mi weapon)
Nightblade - night's chill - ABB and default weapon attack (this os the weakest until you get malkadar's bade, which means joining Kamon's chosen faction and killing the boss with the ashes)
Demolitionist - Blackwater cocktail with the high impact cd node amd a fireball component.
Arcanist - OFF into trozan (second weakest leveling class after nightblade, though nightblade has movement skill)
Necromancer - Skells until you get a bone blade at the early part of act 3 (or 2 with a dw relic) the swap to ravanus earth.
Occultist - bloody pox (turn off gore in setting) (my bone sword) amd fireball componet.
inquisitor - Word of pain (second node is the big damage) amd fireball component.
Oathkeeper - vire's might (second node) and fireball component. (mi offhand and helmet early/late act 3)
Shaman - Primal strike with the spam node.
How to save your game on steam?
I came from Path of Exile to Grim Dawn. Mostly because I am still waiting for POE 2 bc POE has become a little stale for me. I started GD on veteran with an inquisitor and would spend like 20 minutes a fight. Thank you for explaining that veteran ain’t worth it. Last thing is constellations. They are so confusing to me considering I don’t know what stats or abilities are good for different classes 😅
You don't need to rotate the camera. Mouse over the blocked area it will reveal what's hidden. A controller will highlight either red or button prompt.
Get grim dawn item assistant, it will save you hours of looking and selling gear you don't have room for anymore. Gear that will come in useful on future characters or for making a specific build needing a specific item. I lost so much time making mules and sorting stuff, time I could have used to actually be playing.
Hi! just wanted to mention something. One day you will be wanting to play, but the assistant needs an update to work again. You need to wait for that guy/guys to update it. How you can get all those items back again in the GD if they are not in the regular mules? Or worse: developers died or wont update again? I like to be rather safe then sorry.
Any update? Is it safe to download?
Side note: It's nearly impossible to cap physical resistance, but you should always try to get as much as possible.
Each area is a certain set of resistances, so you don't always have to have full cap: Act 1 you want poison and aether capped. Elemental is nice, too (fire, ice, lightning), but you can completely ignore Chaos and vitality because you won't even see that damage (unless you go well out of your way) until act 3
By act 2, you need to cap pierce resistance, and bleeding resistance before you start act 3. Half way through act 3, you need the chaos and vitality res.
Stun res and other cc res is nice to get, but don't focus on them. They are like the cherry on top and honestly only really important at the end game in SR, boundless dungeons (s4 mod), act 8 (s4 mod) and super bosses (but super bosses each have their own specific requirements, and very few characters can do all super bosses, especially if you consider the S4 super bosses)
Honestly the thing I've found the most irritating is that I can't seem to narrow down a build that I enjoy or one that comes online semi early so I always feel like i hit with a wet noodle
Because you need months of experience in GD. Simple as that. One tip: Hunt for -x% to enemy resist in damage type you have invested in.
Good video!
For the first playthrough at low level (
Diablo 1!
In devotion search for things that lower resistances to the damage you want to deal. On your way there try to get offensive ability and defensive ability. You also want armor and such. In veteran they are not really tankier in my opinion they just have higher defense and armor and such so try to lower res and so on
What are your thoughts on The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut? Every so often I go back to it, but only for a bit. I have some sort of mental block and maybe its because I'm making some early game mistakes.
Nah same happens to me as well. I play a bit and then get bored.. faster than GD, but it's a good game nevertheless.
A note: many of the Xbox achievements require Veteran mode. Super annoying, but it’s there.
This looks like good advice.
tool tips about damage conversion being easier to read.
good advice thank you
Does focusing on fewer skill approach work for summoners too? I tried playing as Shaman + Occultist and mained locust and all the summons, and while that combo handled most stuff easily, bosses became a problem. they completely ignored my summons (which usually tanked everything) and chased me instead, which basically forced me to kite them and refresh locust on them, which was pretty slow, even for DoT.
Compared to Last Epoch (I have 800+ hours in LE) for example, I find crafting lacking in GD and the Devotion system obtuse. Gear is OK I guess. Story and factions are interesting. Build variety is quite nice but I haven't progressed far enough to check later viability; LE has viability in a majority of its builds. I'm currently playing GD as there is an unpatched bug in LE that drove me away pending a fix.
small hat
PC version just ran TOO slow for me - Xbox One X in 4K.. better.. Start off with Demolutionist. MAX 2nd skill down out. Always use 2 guns. You don't need to create dynamite - you just need to remember where you need it. Currently lvl 61 and close to lvl 62. Health regen is 96%. Killing heros in seconds. Started Necromancer and building that up now. Only had the game for about 3 months but loads of experience on PC version. Willing to start a new char if anyone wants help. Just ask..
if veteran was like double experience or maybe even 50% extra it might be worth it but 10%, thats worthless
I've been playing it on and off since it came out, same with Titan Quest. It has gotten much better over the years, especially with the more recent updates. Still gets boring very fast though, maps are way too big and boring. Most of the time it's just a slog getting to your objective. Most objectives are boring and repetitive and have annoying run-backs. I end up playing for 10-15 hours, drop the game, come back 2-3 months later, play another 10-15 hours. The game being "complex" solely for the sake of being complex is a bit annoying too. Most of the damage types/resistances/status effects overlap with each other (do the same thing). Half the stuff is useless, same goes for the item drops.
Completely agree...
It was already frustrating enough in Titan Quest (the game having too many stats and damage types) and its 10 times worse in this game.. this is my second shot at it after a very long time and I'm already getting close to uninstalling it again after only playing for 2 days.. its a micromanagement shitfest with all that unnecessary effects and bullshit damage types..
I'm all for challenge and brain storming in video games, but this is just like being in a math class rather than playing a game and having FUN..
This looks sooooo much like Titan Quest...
If only TQ had better multiplayer :(
Last i tried (probably ~2020 - before the embers expansion) multiplayer we had pretty awful lag spike and rubberbanding.
Sure, i mean GD and Titan Quest have the same devs. Even the lag spike an rubberbanding in grim dawn is the same as in titan quest :p
Please play Slormancer, i love the systehm that you also level your wepons instead of swaping them like in other ARPG because they are outdated
I wish they'd made a more multiplayer focused experience. It's not very good at all.
Nah, because is dont have more multiplayer focused, Grim Dawn is this good.
Observations . . .
#2 Respec:
Max devotion trees REQUIRE you to partially respec to ensure you get all of the nodes you want. Certain constellations give you favor points designated by the color type. A constellation can itself be used to meet prior requirements. For example if you play a summoner and pick up Shepards which is a purple constellation type . . . You can remove the original purple devotion node on the circle that was used to allow you to pick the Shepard in the first place. At 55 out of 55 devotion points, you WILL be removing and changing nodes if you want to min max the build. You generally want to have the EXACT number for each type, try to avoid having "11 out of 10" of a particular devotion type if the largest amount you need is 10.
Tip:
You NEED to max all of the resistances besides physical when you reach Elite and Ultimate. If you don't it will be extremely unfun and you WILL die often. Resistances will make or break your character until you've reached max level and unlocked everything. Resistances should be taken over all other things, your primary source of damage should be skill levels and not gear, gear is icing for the proverbial cake. You also should overcap them to at least 20% higher than whatever is your max resistance because virtually ALL rare or unique enemies in the game have some form of debuff to strip you of your protection. This is why you should attempt to befriend all of the factions so you can use their crafting materials to add additional resistances onto your gear that might be missing;
Here are some of my own tips
1. Avoid guides and play on your own
2. Avoid guides dammit. Meta, minmaxxers and buildfags are the worst, driving all the fun out of the game and turning a great atmospheric adventure into a grindfest pursuit of a highest number
3. Play with a friend
4. Play in a window watching something in the background
5. Replaying the game 3 times in a row with the same character is pure autism. You play to experience new things so experience new things. Avoid this pointless idea that you can only beat game on the highest difficulty. Game has a normal difficulty that it was built around, the rest is a self imposed challenge for weirdos
I grab all loot except the white stuff, sell it all , mega iron bits. All my characters are millionaires lol
Normal difficulty is too easy. If I don't play on Veteran I get bored.
asdf
100 hours is nothing.
I’m over 128,87 hours in and I’m only grinding the warden. Level 300+ already
I must say the hardest part is going from 144 to 189 but once you do then you will be able to progress to 200.