Thank you for keeping this so simple. Most guides I saw on youtube were over an hour long and were very useful as an in-depth guide for the class but not for someone who just picked up the game and has no idea what all the classes mainly do.
I have just over 200 hours into GD, and I found this to be really helpful as I'm starting to look at alts. Clear and concise and non-rambly, which is really great as a viewer. Some of the audio was a bit hard to hear you.
thank you so much for this guide man,been looking around for early beginner build guide since most of them like "here's the crazy damage this build can do.............................when everything already max up"
I've found that most grim dawn guides either give you too much information so that none of it really sticks or just kind of assume you know everything already, so I aimed for a middle ground. Glad you found it useful!
A Cabalist(Necro+Occult) is more or less you standing back and admiring your Skeleton army, with a few support zaps from the Raven to offer burst and stun. So long as you attach the right Devotions to them they can solo most content while you watch.
man i was just looking for some class combo info but this is easily the best class overview guide i've seen as well. really impressed with all of your stuff that I've seen. ps: i dont normally look to offer suggestions but your videos are awesome and if i could contribute i'd love to-- flashing or showing the tooltips for the abilities that you are describing during the talent trees would be an excellent addition -- not sure how much extra work that is for you, i just had another tab going to look and read them but can be helpful. i know this is older content but wish you the best. solid channel. cheers
I have tried so many different combinations in Grim Dawn since Beta and one of the biggest things I have noticed is you need lots of life, like some of the combinations are naturally low on life like Inquisitor/Demolitionist or Arcanist/Occultist and if your low on life the areas with aether energy ground or DOT effects can quickly leave your character DEAD. A couple of my favorite not mentioned combinations: -Nightblade/Shaman (Trickster): get shaman to 25 so you can get Savagery, Tenacity of boar and the Mogdrogen, Heart of Wild, Oak Skin auras than get Nightblader to 25 so you can get most of the melee passives up to whirling death, anatomy of murder, pneumatic burst, Veil of Shadow. - Nightblade/ Necromancer (Reaper): Get nightblade to 32 max all the passive melee up to Whirling Death, max Veil of shadow/Nights chill, Merciless Repertoire, Pneumatic Burst to Elemental Awakening, Shadow strike but focus on Nidalla justifiable ends for less cooldown. Necromancer get to 15, max Spectral Binding, Reaping Strike, Necrotic Edge. My newest build I am trying is a Necromancer/Soldier (Death Knight or as I call him Death General), I have a skeleton army so far and am using War Cry as a banshee style type of character and of course Field Command/ Squad tactics :P
Leviathan death knight has been my go to build for all end game content. Super easy to use, amazing bulk and damage to health % and fantastic damage output to boot.
A big whoopsie indeed! I hate that there's misinformation coming from my videos now, but aside from putting up a highlighted comment, im not sure what to do to stop it.
@@armoredotter2183 explain the mistake in your next video. Nobody should complain about it, as everything else was crystal clear and very helplful. As my mother used to say: "Only those who do something take the risk of doing a mistake". Thanks for the ALL the useful video and keep on the good work !
in Grim dawn, played as a caster type is much more easier than full melee build In my case, my fav class are Forcewave Warlord (soldier+oath) & Ravenous Earth+PB Reaper (Necro + Night)
I fully agree with those outlined leveling builds. I'd just try to get more points into Nightblade's dual wield, it gives strong returns for a leveling experience. Also, your Occ might need more of a Single Target dmg, I suggest some points into Eye of Dreeg with its modifier(the one that mega buffs it, but gives it 5s cd). Otherwise, great suggestions!
With all my experience in this game (1600 hours), if you are planning to make your first powerful char, no doubt Bloodrager Warder focused on bleed is your guy: Insane defenses - maximum life, defensive resistances in both classes, aether, pierce and elemental resistance in both classes, % armor gain + armor absortion with soldier and strong offensive - bleed RR with shaman, auto-attack Savagery, offensive ability gain in both classes, unique buff with absortion of damage (making survivability dam easy), strong procs... serious guys, is a badass tanky with overwhelming dot damage in a combination of classes than is one of the strongest in my opinion, can handle Crucible and high Shards forgiving newbie mistakes. If I was back in the time with no insane char yet, I would start with that build.
@@home2341 yeah I tried chaos cadence, had some issues, don't know where. Physical soldier is insane, DK cadence with mythical Leviathan is broken. The good of bleed is DoT, so you can swing some hits and quit, is very safe and solid with soldier + shaman, that build maked me reach 75 shard with no problems. Trickster bloodrage is broken too
@@renandutra7564 what issues with chaos cadence , rah set ,void and voilla , now with my 65 lvl witchblade physical my crit is 170k with 50 lvl weap and missing the buff devotion on my warcry , ed i believe i could reach 700k is enough for ulti...btw do you know which builds can easily kill modro lokar ravag ? Never tried i had 3 lvl 100 EoR LOL and 1 pet conj i deleted
For leveling I would put only 4 points in Word of Pain and max Word of Agony first. This way you get a larger area of effect right away. Otherwise Word of Pain costs too much energy because you have to cast it too often because of the small aoe.
Definitely one of the best early skill tbh It's insane how different the skill is with and without maxed Word of Agony. I still don't believe it's smaller than OFF, seems like it hits even off-screen enemies and pierce through non-penetrable objects
Uncle Otter forgot to mention that Arcanist NEED to use fireball spell from Components (and the cold spear spell from that ice component for early Crucible run). OFF / that huge AoE cold attack is really bad for huge majority of enemies because most boss is immune to it and Sky Shard need quite a lot of damage before it's able to out-damage Fireball and Greater Fireball
I might add. Demo with blackwater cocktail is good and fun build and you can kite all you want or tank when u got good DA points. I managed to defeat ravager with bwc, thermite, rune of kalastor, and beam from conflagration rune just by kiting.
Great guide. Quick and easy. I may have to try stun jacks in the demo some day. Usually my go to leveling for that class is to rush explosive strike on the fire strike line. The AoE damage that provides after you dump points into it is nothing to scoff at.
I hated this game when I first played it, but this evening it really clicked for me whilst going from a night blade/shaman to a shaman oathkeeper, I’ve maxed out savagery on veteran and I’m melting everything it’s awesome fun!
one of my favorite classes wasn't mentioned rip paladin is amazing since BOTH the shield passive and the gun passive work you can wield a pistol and a shield and get both it might be a little hard to build late game which is probably why it was not mentioned, also rip shield breaker (demolitionist/oathkeeper pure fire auto attacker, being slightly tanking)
This video is great, but can you move closer to your mic next time? your voice's volume fluctuates a bit much for me. Still a great video, thanks a lot for the work :)
For sure! My mic has been on the fritz lately, so i had to apply a dehummer to kill some of the static, which sort of exacerbates the issue. I'll see what I cant fix for next time though!
Loved it. The only thing I thought was confusing, Occultist and Shaman make amazing pet builds. Like I solo murder all the things, well my pets do while I stand around. And I didn't see that mentioned.
i’m currently on my first game, i’m like level 22 and have done demolition isn’t with all of my points into the auto attack ability, it’s pretty fun so far
when i tried occultist, i felt like the eye skill was far stronger, just put a level into it, rush to unlock the aoe, max it, and then go for the blood for heal and extra damage. that pretty easily killed most stuff, including bosses. i even put a point into the minions to draw agro, but that was kinda useless as the bosses always bee lined for me no matter how much i tried kiting, so i just let them do extra dmg, while i focused on throwing eyeballs into them. cant say how powerfull they are late game, but was doing much more damage than when i tried to respec and skill for pox at lvl 30(not due to need, but to wanting to try something diferent). had to respec again and go back to eye as it was simpler and easier to play.
Thanks for the video. I saw the game on sale on steam and youtube beginner guide and watched this video to see if i would like the game. I am happy to see i will be able to make a character like my paladin from ragnorak online.
hey, man! Great video you've got here, I actually learned a few things about how this (too complex for me) game works and I'd like to ask you (or anybody else who comments, I don't mind) for some tips. Here's the thing. Yesterday I just finished my 1st ever playthrough of the game (never thought I'd have so much fun with another RPG after diablo 2, TIAoVH and torchlight 1&2), but I already sunk few hundreds hours into my 1st playthrough and I'd like to start over as I already beat the game... well, the AoM DLC, as I don't own a copy of Forgotten Gods. At this very moment I am a level 77 nightblade.... well, technically I am a level 77 witch hunter, but I only put points in the ocultism mastery for the spirit and energy boost as I always seem to run out of energy in those bloody dungeons (SoT, BoC, PV, and AG). So anyway, for my 1st playthrough I played the game on normal difficulty (not veteran, just simple normal difficulty), and I butchered everyone easily with the shadow strike and ring of steel, or ring of blades, or whatever the hell it's called. It's pretty easy with this combination of 2 skills maxed out and with a born killer like the nightblade class is. And I would like to start over, but this time play on veteran, and I would like to try something else, like for example, I would like to use 2-hand rifle (no shield) that deals INSANE amounts of AOE damage (like lots of crit chance + crit damage). I'd like this rifle to literally insta-kill dozens of mobs in 1-2 shots, even if it lacks in the boss fights. I have no problems kiting bosses, but mobs.... mobs always piss me off in RPGs, and I'd like to dispose them fast and easily, without much headache. So, I want a rifle build that dishes out insane amounts of AOE damage of ALL types, not just one. And this is for the offensive part. For the defensive part, I would like something that makes me invulnerable / invincible. I don't want to stock up on HPs and resistances, I want something that makes me for 3-10 seconds invincible / invulnerable / immortal to ANY type of hit / damage. Like I said, I don't care about having gazillion of HPs and 1000s of resistances and whatever. I just want to be immortal for a few seconds (well, the more the better). Also for my defenses I want to have pets to aggro on mobs and bosses, and I want my pets to be as tanky as possible, but to deal as little damage as possible since I will be taking care of the damage dealing part with my trusty rifle. So, offensive-wise I use rifle that deals AOE damage of ALL types, while defensive I would like immortality + beefy pets to harass and take the damage of the mobs / bosses. So, what is the best way of achieving this? Unfortunately, I get lost in so many skills of so many classes, and I can't fully figure out what each skill does and how each class should be played as, so I'm hoping you can help me choose the right class and skill to suit this playstyle I am having in mind. Can you please help a fellow Grim Dawner out? Thanks in advance to anyone who shares tips :)
I played a lot of grim dawn on malmuth patch. Now came back and tried oathkeeper. Oathkeeper is by far the worst starting class that doesnt improve until you get eye of reckoning. All other classes start way better. Oathkeepers auto attacks are meh in the early game and shield throw is on a stupid long cooldown and it cannot be used as a main damage skill efficiently at any point in the game unless specific unique gear is used. Bests starters are the ones with strong spells at lvl 1 such as shaman or some of the other casters
I'm working on a soldier/nightblade combo pierce build. surviveability is the big issue I'm noticing as I'm gaining levels, I do tons of damage but can easily get deleted if i don't pay attention. the forgotten nightblade build I'm following seems to really go all out on attack with very little defense...well see how it goes lol.
What constellations are you putting your divinity points into? I have tried many constellations but when it comes to melee go mostly Chaos and Eldritch, get (not in any specific order) Ghoul, Bat, Wendigo, Behemoth, those 4 together is SOLID. The life leech, high life regeneration really helps melee. I find it funny that there is like 82 constellations but I consistently come back to those ones even when I am doing a ranged build.
Soldier + Shaman is good for physical two handed, but from my own experience in the game and discussing builds with other people on the GD discord, I think Shaman does lightning two handed way better when paired with Occultist, Arcanist or Demolitionist.
@Keith Lightning Warder is commonly a meme on the GD official Discord for a reason. 3k+ defence and 12k+ health is just as doable on Conjurer, Elementalist and Druid. And Blast Shield, Blackwater Cocktail, Flashbang, Temper, Wasting, Aspect of the Guardian, Maiven's Sphere, and Mirror of Ereoctes are absolutely way more than "nothing else". Yeah sure, Soldier can have more armour and potentially twice as much health, but any more than 12-15k+ is just bonus or overkill. And damage absorption, offence debuffs and/or extra physical resist are worth more than a few hundred extra points of bonus armour. Also, Conjurer, Druid and Elementalist have an easier time killing bosses like Morgoneth than Warder.
I agree. There’s a few things the author of the video did not mention. RR is extremely important in this game. Surprised he mentioned Warder to go along with Forcewave. Oathkeeper or Necromancer is a much choice due to the RR.
I didn't need the help but i watched the video anyway, it was in my recommendations when i subbed to you! Usually when i play Grim Dawn I play with mods, grim internals, grim defiler, a trainer and whatever in game mod i pick, and this game is just awesome! Currently playing through the Reign of Terror mod and with all the stuff i just mentioned and picking every mastery thanks to grim defiler it's even more awesome!
My question is it metter if i chose for example Nightblade for first class and after that i picked Oathkeeper, compares to if i took first Oathkeeper and after that i take Nightblade? "sry for my bad english hope you understand the question"
No, the order does not matter. You can spend points in the core masteries or skills in any order, and refund them later (although you can't ditch a class entirely without a character editor like GDstash).
Can you please answer this. I started playing a PET build. I wanted to activate Mogdrogen's pact for resistances from oak skin and health boost from heart of the wild. I placed all 10/10 points in heart of the wild (26% health boost) but it didn't boost the health of pets only mine. Is this a bug or it really only boosts my health, not the pets. Thanks.
Depends- if you're going vitality Insect swarm is great damage with strong resist reduction and wendigo totem gives great health sustain and decent aoe damage. if you're going for pets, max out briarthorn and all of its subsequent abilities.
i believe guardians of empyrion slap you with retaliation dmg if the enemy has that this might not be correct or might have changed but beware of that and yes they are strong as frick, they won't die but you on the other hand will also they scale with player bonuses so rip pet scaling
Nice video for an overview of each class. I'm new to GD, have gone through the campaign and AoM on Normal before with a 2H Primal Strike Shaman, and couple months ago tried a Nightblade acid auto attacker of sorts I found a build for. Both of these builds ended up pretty boring as they are basically running around auto attacking things. Eye of reckoning looks like fun (I also really like the cyclone/whirlwind playstyle in other games), and leveling with the shield throw looks like a lot more fun than auto attacking. Do you know of a good build guide for an eye of reckoning build that includes things like devotions? Or should I just loosely follow your skill guide here and wing the rest of it? Thanks.
As with all things in Grim Dawn, its never a really straight forward answer. Here is my build that I use for my eye of reckoning paladin (oathkeeper/ inquis) : www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zxWjjZ with most of my builds, I try not to follow guides and instead try to experiment my way to the right answer, so this build is far from optimized, but i was able to clear through almost all high level content with this build. It also depends on what secondary class you use. If you are going archon (shaman) ultos , rowans crown, and aladrah's pheonix are going to be very strong, or if you go for the chaos variant, solaels witchblade and dying god are key constellations. I've got another video on my channel where I explain my thought process as i make a devotion build, It could be helpful.
@@armoredotter2183 Thank you for this, I'll check out that other video as well. Might just have to play and try things out a bit rather than follow a rigid guide.
Hello there! First I want to thank you for this great guide. Second i was wondering if there is a high end build for the POX N PALS Cultist that you show at 3 minute of your video guide ? I really like how it is and if there is an other video to explain all in detail for this particular build i will enjoy it so much..
Dervish is a great auto attacking, mobile assassin with a great mixture of both, fire strike purifier is a wonderful ranged build that can kill everything by attacking one guy, and you can never go wrong with spellbinder, either!
@@armoredotter2183 if i want to go dervish, what should i use for my main auto attack replacer while im leveling? And if I went spellbinder, the best skill to use would be AAR right?
My best love still nightblade and arcanist. I don't know it is counted as good or no, but I only took the exclusive skill and flash freeze(and the add on) from the arcanist bcs imo nightblade skills are so good
Nightblade arcanist is definitely a good build! one of the strongest of the early versions of the game. Its a little trickier to play, but definitely strong.
hey ! what do you think about Cold DW Reaper? Started game but not sure about it. Any suggest? I've read Aether reaper is better than cold. Can you tell me more about what do you think about it? =)
Its a really tough call. The only real benefit cold NB gets from necro is the flat cold damage from bone harvest and i think a single WPS thats generally overshadowed by the NB base WPS, however that changes with the morgoneth set which gives necro another source of cold RR in the form of ill omen. On the other hand, heart of theodin marcell is generally a really dope weapon and gives you an AA replacer thats really strong. There's definitely an argument to be made from either. I personally have a cold vitality reaper that's really fun and wrecks shop, so just follow your heart my guy!
masteries to me are 50% class they aren't full classes some are more viable as a solo mastery then others but in my opinion masteries are more like subclasses or half-classes
I've started as Stunjacks Demo, but there's one thing missing, no mention of how to allocate stats?.. I haven't played since 2017, so i've kinda forgotten everything about the game, and it's changed a bunch too.
Ahh sory about that! The standard spread which i recommend for all players trying to figure the game out is phys dump, with just enough spirit and cunning to equip rings and weapons.
Eventually, you're gonna want a second spell to add to the mix, I suggest either storm box of elgoloth, rune of kalastor, or rune of hagraad, depending on what rare or legendary items you happen upon.
The hack and slash build with soldier. Do you have a guide to distribute the points in soldier?new to the game and i am using your guide for dual pistol fire strike. Want to try something new.
Thank you for keeping this so simple. Most guides I saw on youtube were over an hour long and were very useful as an in-depth guide for the class but not for someone who just picked up the game and has no idea what all the classes mainly do.
I have just over 200 hours into GD, and I found this to be really helpful as I'm starting to look at alts. Clear and concise and non-rambly, which is really great as a viewer. Some of the audio was a bit hard to hear you.
thank you so much for this guide man,been looking around for early beginner build guide since most of them like "here's the crazy damage this build can do.............................when everything already max up"
I've found that most grim dawn guides either give you too much information so that none of it really sticks or just kind of assume you know everything already, so I aimed for a middle ground. Glad you found it useful!
As an avid ARPG fan but Grim Dawn newbie, this is the exact amount of information I wanted going into planning out my first character since 2017
Finally something that explains this game well. Thank you dude.
Just getting into this game and this is a perfect video to introduce the classes, love the content 👍
That's wonderful to hear!
This is perfect. I juat started playing and this helps a bunch.
Awesome! Glad you found it helpful!
Of all the guides out there, yours are the cleanest and sharpest I found
A Cabalist(Necro+Occult) is more or less you standing back and admiring your Skeleton army, with a few support zaps from the Raven to offer burst and stun. So long as you attach the right Devotions to them they can solo most content while you watch.
man i was just looking for some class combo info but this is easily the best class overview guide i've seen as well. really impressed with all of your stuff that I've seen. ps: i dont normally look to offer suggestions but your videos are awesome and if i could contribute i'd love to-- flashing or showing the tooltips for the abilities that you are describing during the talent trees would be an excellent addition -- not sure how much extra work that is for you, i just had another tab going to look and read them but can be helpful. i know this is older content but wish you the best. solid channel. cheers
There's a huge dearth of genuinely beginner friendly content for Grim Dawn, so THANK YOU FOR THIS! :D
Im so glad you found this helpful!
Check out RektByProtoss on YT. Very prolific and helpful.
I have tried so many different combinations in Grim Dawn since Beta and one of the biggest things I have noticed is you need lots of life, like some of the combinations are naturally low on life like Inquisitor/Demolitionist or Arcanist/Occultist and if your low on life the areas with aether energy ground or DOT effects can quickly leave your character DEAD.
A couple of my favorite not mentioned combinations:
-Nightblade/Shaman (Trickster): get shaman to 25 so you can get Savagery, Tenacity of boar and the Mogdrogen, Heart of Wild, Oak Skin auras than get Nightblader to 25 so you can get most of the melee passives up to whirling death, anatomy of murder, pneumatic burst, Veil of Shadow.
- Nightblade/ Necromancer (Reaper): Get nightblade to 32 max all the passive melee up to Whirling Death, max Veil of shadow/Nights chill, Merciless Repertoire, Pneumatic Burst to Elemental Awakening, Shadow strike but focus on Nidalla justifiable ends for less cooldown. Necromancer get to 15, max Spectral Binding, Reaping Strike, Necrotic Edge.
My newest build I am trying is a Necromancer/Soldier (Death Knight or as I call him Death General), I have a skeleton army so far and am using War Cry as a banshee style type of character and of course Field Command/ Squad tactics :P
Leviathan death knight has been my go to build for all end game content. Super easy to use, amazing bulk and damage to health % and fantastic damage output to boot.
best grim dawn guide on yt. wow youre the best. took many many different youtuber channels to finally find you. my hero
This is the perfect introduction to Grim Dawn. Thank you
Excellent! I'm glad you found it useful.
You did a little mistake; the Soldier's Forcewave is considered a spell, and therefore relies on Casting speed, not attack speed.
A big whoopsie indeed! I hate that there's misinformation coming from my videos now, but aside from putting up a highlighted comment, im not sure what to do to stop it.
@@armoredotter2183 explain the mistake in your next video. Nobody should complain about it, as everything else was crystal clear and very helplful. As my mother used to say: "Only those who do something take the risk of doing a mistake". Thanks for the ALL the useful video and keep on the good work !
@@armoredotter2183 you can use UA-cam annotation on the minutes you explained that part
@@armoredotter2183 Just pin this comment to the top.
@@armoredotter2183 put the correction in an overlay on your video now with an explained note in the video description!
Thanks alot, great vid, is awesome to have a some pointers to try things out, and delivered in a friendly manner. Keep up the good work :)
Thanks friend! I definitely will!
Definitely appreciate the effort here, nice and easy to follow. Just started playing (100 hours now lol), and found your link. Thanks.
in Grim dawn, played as a caster type is much more easier than full melee build
In my case, my fav class are Forcewave Warlord (soldier+oath) & Ravenous Earth+PB Reaper (Necro + Night)
Thank you for the video.
I hope one day they make another one! It would be amazeballs.
Hey anna, still looking for amazeballs? :*
Fantastic video! So clear and easy to understand. I have an oath keeper lvl 55 and I didn't know where to go next with it. Thanks
Glad it was helpful! If you need more guidance feel free to ask in the comments and ill do my best.
I fully agree with those outlined leveling builds. I'd just try to get more points into Nightblade's dual wield, it gives strong returns for a leveling experience. Also, your Occ might need more of a Single Target dmg, I suggest some points into Eye of Dreeg with its modifier(the one that mega buffs it, but gives it 5s cd). Otherwise, great suggestions!
Great video as always!! Very detailed, loved it. I hope it catches on and people come to you to learn more about Grim Dawn :)
Giefcat, you are 100% the homie. thanks for encouraging me every time i post a video!
@@armoredotter2183 Anytime :)
With all my experience in this game (1600 hours), if you are planning to make your first powerful char, no doubt Bloodrager Warder focused on bleed is your guy: Insane defenses - maximum life, defensive resistances in both classes, aether, pierce and elemental resistance in both classes, % armor gain + armor absortion with soldier and strong offensive - bleed RR with shaman, auto-attack Savagery, offensive ability gain in both classes, unique buff with absortion of damage (making survivability dam easy), strong procs... serious guys, is a badass tanky with overwhelming dot damage in a combination of classes than is one of the strongest in my opinion, can handle Crucible and high Shards forgiving newbie mistakes. If I was back in the time with no insane char yet, I would start with that build.
+physical or chaos cadence witchblade is dope btw , 3k off-def , dope dmg , bosses falling like flies
@@home2341 yeah I tried chaos cadence, had some issues, don't know where. Physical soldier is insane, DK cadence with mythical Leviathan is broken. The good of bleed is DoT, so you can swing some hits and quit, is very safe and solid with soldier + shaman, that build maked me reach 75 shard with no problems. Trickster bloodrage is broken too
@@renandutra7564 what issues with chaos cadence , rah set ,void and voilla , now with my 65 lvl witchblade physical my crit is 170k with 50 lvl weap and missing the buff devotion on my warcry , ed i believe i could reach 700k is enough for ulti...btw do you know which builds can easily kill modro lokar ravag ? Never tried i had 3 lvl 100 EoR LOL and 1 pet conj i deleted
Could you give me any link to guide me for that build? Just wanna breeze through the content right now and do the theorycrafting later
@@ssga7081 If only there was a way to search the internet ... /s
* ua-cam.com/video/Bm1JM9Vkg_w/v-deo.html
* www.grimtools.com/calc/L2J3g68V
God bless you, finally a real newbie friendly guide
For leveling I would put only 4 points in Word of Pain and max Word of Agony first. This way you get a larger area of effect right away. Otherwise Word of Pain costs too much energy because you have to cast it too often because of the small aoe.
Definitely one of the best early skill tbh
It's insane how different the skill is with and without maxed Word of Agony.
I still don't believe it's smaller than OFF, seems like it hits even off-screen enemies and pierce through non-penetrable objects
Uncle Otter forgot to mention that Arcanist NEED to use fireball spell from Components (and the cold spear spell from that ice component for early Crucible run).
OFF / that huge AoE cold attack is really bad for huge majority of enemies because most boss is immune to it and Sky Shard need quite a lot of damage before it's able to out-damage Fireball and Greater Fireball
I might add. Demo with blackwater cocktail is good and fun build and you can kite all you want or tank when u got good DA points.
I managed to defeat ravager with bwc, thermite, rune of kalastor, and beam from conflagration rune just by kiting.
Great guide. Quick and easy. I may have to try stun jacks in the demo some day. Usually my go to leveling for that class is to rush explosive strike on the fire strike line. The AoE damage that provides after you dump points into it is nothing to scoff at.
Definitely! dual pistol firestrike was a close second when i was deciding on the builds.
I hated this game when I first played it, but this evening it really clicked for me whilst going from a night blade/shaman to a shaman oathkeeper, I’ve maxed out savagery on veteran and I’m melting everything it’s awesome fun!
one of my favorite classes wasn't mentioned rip paladin is amazing since BOTH the shield passive and the gun passive work you can wield a pistol and a shield and get both it might be a little hard to build late game which is probably why it was not mentioned, also rip shield breaker (demolitionist/oathkeeper pure fire auto attacker, being slightly tanking)
This video is great, but can you move closer to your mic next time? your voice's volume fluctuates a bit much for me. Still a great video, thanks a lot for the work :)
For sure! My mic has been on the fritz lately, so i had to apply a dehummer to kill some of the static, which sort of exacerbates the issue. I'll see what I cant fix for next time though!
Loved it. The only thing I thought was confusing, Occultist and Shaman make amazing pet builds. Like I solo murder all the things, well my pets do while I stand around. And I didn't see that mentioned.
Forcewave works with cast speed
True
i’m currently on my first game, i’m like level 22 and have done demolition isn’t with all of my points into the auto attack ability, it’s pretty fun so far
This was a very well made video over all, thank you for your time.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Grim Dawn is an awesome game
Great video man! I'm happy to sub, you clearly care about your content! Big Ups! :)
really great video man, I really appreciate it.
when i tried occultist, i felt like the eye skill was far stronger, just put a level into it, rush to unlock the aoe, max it, and then go for the blood for heal and extra damage.
that pretty easily killed most stuff, including bosses. i even put a point into the minions to draw agro, but that was kinda useless as the bosses always bee lined for me no matter how much i tried kiting, so i just let them do extra dmg, while i focused on throwing eyeballs into them.
cant say how powerfull they are late game, but was doing much more damage than when i tried to respec and skill for pox at lvl 30(not due to need, but to wanting to try something diferent). had to respec again and go back to eye as it was simpler and easier to play.
You can call this a beginner's guide, but you throw terms left and right that new players will have no clue about.
nice guide for leveling. easy to understand.
do you have any video for leveling stats??
Really nice video guide. Subscribed. Please keep up the great work.
Thanks for the video. I saw the game on sale on steam and youtube beginner guide and watched this video to see if i would like the game. I am happy to see i will be able to make a character like my paladin from ragnorak online.
Thanks man for the good guide it was nice and easy to understand/follow👍🏽
Glad it helped, Carlos!
I went Nightblade + Occultist, and for a replay of the game it was decent (at least the first 15 levels).
Dude, very cool video, really helped me getting back into this game.. Gonna try your ice Arcanist ;)
Thanks for the video, I find it to be rather helpful.
Awesome! glad to help.
hey, man! Great video you've got here, I actually learned a few things about how this (too complex for me) game works and I'd like to ask you (or anybody else who comments, I don't mind) for some tips.
Here's the thing. Yesterday I just finished my 1st ever playthrough of the game (never thought I'd have so much fun with another RPG after diablo 2, TIAoVH and torchlight 1&2), but I already sunk few hundreds hours into my 1st playthrough and I'd like to start over as I already beat the game... well, the AoM DLC, as I don't own a copy of Forgotten Gods.
At this very moment I am a level 77 nightblade.... well, technically I am a level 77 witch hunter, but I only put points in the ocultism mastery for the spirit and energy boost as I always seem to run out of energy in those bloody dungeons (SoT, BoC, PV, and AG).
So anyway, for my 1st playthrough I played the game on normal difficulty (not veteran, just simple normal difficulty), and I butchered everyone easily with the shadow strike and ring of steel, or ring of blades, or whatever the hell it's called. It's pretty easy with this combination of 2 skills maxed out and with a born killer like the nightblade class is. And I would like to start over, but this time play on veteran, and I would like to try something else, like for example, I would like to use 2-hand rifle (no shield) that deals INSANE amounts of AOE damage (like lots of crit chance + crit damage). I'd like this rifle to literally insta-kill dozens of mobs in 1-2 shots, even if it lacks in the boss fights. I have no problems kiting bosses, but mobs.... mobs always piss me off in RPGs, and I'd like to dispose them fast and easily, without much headache.
So, I want a rifle build that dishes out insane amounts of AOE damage of ALL types, not just one. And this is for the offensive part.
For the defensive part, I would like something that makes me invulnerable / invincible. I don't want to stock up on HPs and resistances, I want something that makes me for 3-10 seconds invincible / invulnerable / immortal to ANY type of hit / damage. Like I said, I don't care about having gazillion of HPs and 1000s of resistances and whatever. I just want to be immortal for a few seconds (well, the more the better).
Also for my defenses I want to have pets to aggro on mobs and bosses, and I want my pets to be as tanky as possible, but to deal as little damage as possible since I will be taking care of the damage dealing part with my trusty rifle.
So, offensive-wise I use rifle that deals AOE damage of ALL types, while defensive I would like immortality + beefy pets to harass and take the damage of the mobs / bosses. So, what is the best way of achieving this? Unfortunately, I get lost in so many skills of so many classes, and I can't fully figure out what each skill does and how each class should be played as, so I'm hoping you can help me choose the right class and skill to suit this playstyle I am having in mind. Can you please help a fellow Grim Dawner out?
Thanks in advance to anyone who shares tips :)
inq + nighbl or inq+nec imho
@@andrejz8954 yeah, I've seen a lot of people recommending me inquisitor. Guess there's truth in this :) ... Thanks for the tips
Great video! Could type up an essay complementing your content but I'm sure you already know it's great!
Great guide bro, are these builds still viable to play?
I played a lot of grim dawn on malmuth patch. Now came back and tried oathkeeper. Oathkeeper is by far the worst starting class that doesnt improve until you get eye of reckoning. All other classes start way better. Oathkeepers auto attacks are meh in the early game and shield throw is on a stupid long cooldown and it cannot be used as a main damage skill efficiently at any point in the game unless specific unique gear is used. Bests starters are the ones with strong spells at lvl 1 such as shaman or some of the other casters
I chose arcanist demolition and I’ve loved the character we use totally different builds but I love mine!
Thank you. Very to the point and useful
fantastic video thank you
I'm working on a soldier/nightblade combo pierce build. surviveability is the big issue I'm noticing as I'm gaining levels, I do tons of damage but can easily get deleted if i don't pay attention. the forgotten nightblade build I'm following seems to really go all out on attack with very little defense...well see how it goes lol.
What constellations are you putting your divinity points into?
I have tried many constellations but when it comes to melee go mostly Chaos and Eldritch, get (not in any specific order) Ghoul, Bat, Wendigo, Behemoth, those 4 together is SOLID. The life leech, high life regeneration really helps melee. I find it funny that there is like 82 constellations but I consistently come back to those ones even when I am doing a ranged build.
My favourite build Oathkeeper with 4 Guardians of Empyrion XD
Soldier + Shaman is good for physical two handed, but from my own experience in the game and discussing builds with other people on the GD discord, I think Shaman does lightning two handed way better when paired with Occultist, Arcanist or Demolitionist.
@Keith Lightning Warder is commonly a meme on the GD official Discord for a reason. 3k+ defence and 12k+ health is just as doable on Conjurer, Elementalist and Druid. And Blast Shield, Blackwater Cocktail, Flashbang, Temper, Wasting, Aspect of the Guardian, Maiven's Sphere, and Mirror of Ereoctes are absolutely way more than "nothing else".
Yeah sure, Soldier can have more armour and potentially twice as much health, but any more than 12-15k+ is just bonus or overkill. And damage absorption, offence debuffs and/or extra physical resist are worth more than a few hundred extra points of bonus armour.
Also, Conjurer, Druid and Elementalist have an easier time killing bosses like Morgoneth than Warder.
I agree. There’s a few things the author of the video did not mention. RR is extremely important in this game.
Surprised he mentioned Warder to go along with Forcewave. Oathkeeper or Necromancer is a much choice due to the RR.
thank you just what i need :) i really like trying new game with some new build this helps :)
This game is great and annoying at the same time. Only a few class combos actually are viable for late game which is depressing.
I didn't need the help but i watched the video anyway, it was in my recommendations when i subbed to you! Usually when i play Grim Dawn I play with mods, grim internals, grim defiler, a trainer and whatever in game mod i pick, and this game is just awesome! Currently playing through the Reign of Terror mod and with all the stuff i just mentioned and picking every mastery thanks to grim defiler it's even more awesome!
My question is it metter if i chose for example Nightblade for first class and after that i picked Oathkeeper, compares to if i took first Oathkeeper and after that i take Nightblade?
"sry for my bad english hope you understand the question"
No, the order does not matter. You can spend points in the core masteries or skills in any order, and refund them later (although you can't ditch a class entirely without a character editor like GDstash).
Great vid! Helped a loot!
Great video this helps a lot.
Can you please answer this. I started playing a PET build. I wanted to activate Mogdrogen's pact for resistances from oak skin and health boost from heart of the wild. I placed all 10/10 points in heart of the wild (26% health boost) but it didn't boost the health of pets only mine. Is this a bug or it really only boosts my health, not the pets. Thanks.
In Grim Dawn you must read the description of any skill or support skill to determine who is getting it.
good video man , but what in occultist class combination , what shaman skills i should learn ?
Depends- if you're going vitality Insect swarm is great damage with strong resist reduction and wendigo totem gives great health sustain and decent aoe damage. if you're going for pets, max out briarthorn and all of its subsequent abilities.
i believe guardians of empyrion slap you with retaliation dmg if the enemy has that this might not be correct or might have changed but beware of that and yes they are strong as frick, they won't die but you on the other hand will also they scale with player bonuses so rip pet scaling
Subscribed! Great video. I play necro and occultist they are great
Nice video for an overview of each class. I'm new to GD, have gone through the campaign and AoM on Normal before with a 2H Primal Strike Shaman, and couple months ago tried a Nightblade acid auto attacker of sorts I found a build for. Both of these builds ended up pretty boring as they are basically running around auto attacking things.
Eye of reckoning looks like fun (I also really like the cyclone/whirlwind playstyle in other games), and leveling with the shield throw looks like a lot more fun than auto attacking. Do you know of a good build guide for an eye of reckoning build that includes things like devotions? Or should I just loosely follow your skill guide here and wing the rest of it? Thanks.
As with all things in Grim Dawn, its never a really straight forward answer. Here is my build that I use for my eye of reckoning paladin (oathkeeper/ inquis) : www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zxWjjZ
with most of my builds, I try not to follow guides and instead try to experiment my way to the right answer, so this build is far from optimized, but i was able to clear through almost all high level content with this build. It also depends on what secondary class you use. If you are going archon (shaman) ultos , rowans crown, and aladrah's pheonix are going to be very strong, or if you go for the chaos variant, solaels witchblade and dying god are key constellations. I've got another video on my channel where I explain my thought process as i make a devotion build, It could be helpful.
@@armoredotter2183 Thank you for this, I'll check out that other video as well. Might just have to play and try things out a bit rather than follow a rigid guide.
Great stuff. Thanks
Hello there! First I want to thank you for this great guide. Second i was wondering if there is a high end build for the POX N PALS Cultist that you show at 3 minute of your video guide ? I really like how it is and if there is an other video to explain all in detail for this particular build i will enjoy it so much..
Thank you for the video.
Good vid. Thanks
Hey awesome video! If I am looking for a build that deals good aoe and single target damage, what are a few you would recommend?
Dervish is a great auto attacking, mobile assassin with a great mixture of both, fire strike purifier is a wonderful ranged build that can kill everything by attacking one guy, and you can never go wrong with spellbinder, either!
@@armoredotter2183 thank you!!
@@armoredotter2183 if i want to go dervish, what should i use for my main auto attack replacer while im leveling?
And if I went spellbinder, the best skill to use would be AAR right?
Mirror of "(pronounciation-)Mysteries"
Jesus does that word make me feel inferior. I really should just call it mirror and stop there.
Thank you very much, very helpful!
Thanks for watching and im glad you found it useful!
Running a poison dervish is the best class I've played so far
Love me some dervish!
My best love still nightblade and arcanist. I don't know it is counted as good or no, but I only took the exclusive skill and flash freeze(and the add on) from the arcanist bcs imo nightblade skills are so good
Nightblade arcanist is definitely a good build! one of the strongest of the early versions of the game. Its a little trickier to play, but definitely strong.
Hello I just picked up the game yesterday trying to find out how to build a certain class
Thanks bro. Scoping it now.
I really like Dual-weild Blademaster but 2-handed BM is also a very good build :D
That's true!
would love to see a spin to win build guide
What was the build in the very last seconds of the video? I'm looking for something more magey such as that x'D
Good video but it would be interesting to have the build links at your discretion.
hey ! what do you think about Cold DW Reaper? Started game but not sure about it. Any suggest? I've read Aether reaper is better than cold. Can you tell me more about what do you think about it? =)
Its a really tough call. The only real benefit cold NB gets from necro is the flat cold damage from bone harvest and i think a single WPS thats generally overshadowed by the NB base WPS, however that changes with the morgoneth set which gives necro another source of cold RR in the form of ill omen. On the other hand, heart of theodin marcell is generally a really dope weapon and gives you an AA replacer thats really strong. There's definitely an argument to be made from either. I personally have a cold vitality reaper that's really fun and wrecks shop, so just follow your heart my guy!
masteries to me are 50% class they aren't full classes some are more viable as a solo mastery then others but in my opinion masteries are more like subclasses or half-classes
thankyou for this!
Soldier + Necromancer; this is the best retaliance tanker...
I've started as Stunjacks Demo, but there's one thing missing, no mention of how to allocate stats?.. I haven't played since 2017, so i've kinda forgotten everything about the game, and it's changed a bunch too.
Ahh sory about that! The standard spread which i recommend for all players trying to figure the game out is phys dump, with just enough spirit and cunning to equip rings and weapons.
nice guide, what about stats? if I go caster just go full spirit, melee physique and bow/gun max cunning?
Physique will help the most in the long run - unless you need the stats for some gear, I’d suggest it being the priority stat.
I reaallllyyy didn't like stunjacks demo, although I guess I screwed up in doing saboteur (I thought I could akimbo pistols)
any guides for the Slam Poet Inquisitor? I loving this starting domination! I need more!
Eventually, you're gonna want a second spell to add to the mix, I suggest either storm box of elgoloth, rune of kalastor, or rune of hagraad, depending on what rare or legendary items you happen upon.
The hack and slash build with soldier. Do you have a guide to distribute the points in soldier?new to the game and i am using your guide for dual pistol fire strike. Want to try something new.
Any tips for shaman? Without using swarm? I used the two handed i always used the skill with thunder.
Thanks
Force wave is affected by cast speed not attack speed
Yeah, I messed up on that one! Sorry GD community.
What build would you recommend for a lvl 1 ultimate run?
I wonder what would be stronger occultist +shaman or necro pet build? I kind want to try occu+shaman but occu+necro seems to be a juicy build.
occu shaman is generally the stronger build imho, but occu necro can be quite good as well! I would just go with whatever seems cooler!
@@armoredotter2183 stronger build sounds cooler haha. What skills do you recommend for shaky supper class?
What would be the most DPS 2 handed melee? Soldier + Shaman, Soldier + Occultist, or Soldier + Necromancer?
I believe that honor belongs to savagery lightning warder (soldier/shaman) , but bone harvest death knight (soldier/ necro) is certainly no slouch.
Hi, what about 2h lightning druid. Is awsome for leveling.
This is what I used and out of the 30 or so builds I’ve tried so far, it’s by far the best and most fun.
what are the classes for a 2h lightning druid?
if you have to choose one of this build the most broken ?