KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Sykar]

Wut, Mental Alacrity doesn't seem to be working as intended. It should give me+Casting Speed% and -Skill Energy Cost%, except that the energy cost for my spells go higher each time I put a point into MA.

Edit: Seems that this bug only affects AAR.

Yeah, it drives me mad.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Anyone has Oleron's blood recipie unlocked and could craft one for me? I need it for the T2 relic, and I had like 1 of 4 drop during my 200h of play, so recipie is the way to go I believe.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Materials that have a blueprint are also much less likely to actually drop as loot. One thing you can try is hunt down the secret merchant in Act 3. Belevan? Something like that. He stocks blueprints, intermittently. He's in an off-map area near Blood Grove. Have a look at the Grim Wiki.

I was going to go 12/12 into Olexa. It's an all or bust skill imo, as you said. 3.75 may not be that much but it could be enough if you hit hard enough with the Arcanist to finish everyone off within that time (that's the plan).. But if it's only a fraction of a second vs bosses, it's probably not worth the investment. In that case Mirror of Ereoctes shoul be better and more reliable.
And I don't know how else to build an Arcanist tbh other than as a stationary artillery cannon. Last time I played an Arcanist Panetti was just a very awful version of DEE and kiting around monsters and casting Trozan's Sky Shard ever few seconds was pretty tedious, especially since the meteors were very erratic and would fall wherever they wanted, often missing monsters. AAR was the only spell I had any real results with.

Olexa's depends quite a bit on whether the bosses have 'freeze length duration' modifiers. Some do, and that 3.75 secs might end up being more like 1.5 or 2. For Devastation, that's probably not enough. But you'll be pleased to know PRM is quite heavily improved from its first iteration. It does respectable damage, especially if you have cast speed bonuses. Same with Trozan's; it's killing power and accuracy is now excellent. And shards don't require you to stand still. I can kite Cronley at lvl 50 well enough that he does no damage in 80% of runs.

Albrecht's is great at killing speed, but the trade-off in mobility is massive. And the 'charge up' time doesn't help, when you first trigger the beam and watch it travel to the target (hah!).

Have you thought about the passive that gives you +% damage when you're below 70% health? That one will come in handy for a build that can expect to rely on Maiven's quite a bit.

 

[Aeschylus]

I want to make an Aether damage focused Arcanist because I have some nice loot (like a sword that gives +90% Aether damage) for that damage type so I'm not sure if Night's Chill is what I need, but Veil of Shadows could be good. Can you toggle Veil of Shadows and Maiven's at the same time? Is there some kind of limit other than what your energy is capable of supplying? Not sure if specing into a Nightblade just for one ability is worth it in the long run though.

Nah, the only reason to go Spellbreaker is if you want to do cold damage, for which it's the best option, as both classes have good cold attacks and boosting abilities. If you're making an AAR build focused on Aether you're best off going either pure Arcanist or adding Demolitionist for the AOE stuns and such.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Getting close to the Warden now. Melee is pretty visceral, I am digging it. They nailed the atmosphere pretty well. Music is a little hit and miss but some tunes are great for slaughtering shit.

Starting to run into survivability concerns with some hordes really digging into the HP. Going to have to pump physique and some warrior survivability skills. Have been trying to find leeching gear.

Learning not to attract all of the weaker mobs to me but to leave options to shadow strike in and out of the bosses.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Olexra's Flash Freeze was pretty useless. Even with a heavy investment it was useless vs bosses and only useful against normal mobs, except Callidor's Tempest makes short work of mobs already and so Olexra's was completely unnecessary. I'll just stick with Mirror of Ereoctes since it's already good with even just a 1 point investment. Man, why does the Arcanist mastery tree suck so much?

 

[ArchAngel]

I was going to go 12/12 into Olexa. It's an all or bust skill imo, as you said. 3.75 may not be that much but it could be enough if you hit hard enough with the Arcanist to finish everyone off within that time (that's the plan).. But if it's only a fraction of a second vs bosses, it's probably not worth the investment. In that case Mirror of Ereoctes shoul be better and more reliable.
And I don't know how else to build an Arcanist tbh other than as a stationary artillery cannon. Last time I played an Arcanist Panetti was just a very awful version of DEE and kiting around monsters and casting Trozan's Sky Shard ever few seconds was pretty tedious, especially since the meteors were very erratic and would fall wherever they wanted, often missing monsters. AAR was the only spell I had any real results with.

Arcanist is by far the worst class in the game. And I love arcane casters most in all aRPG I play and this game ruined them.
When the most fun "caster" is Demo with grenade skill you know how good and fun casters are.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Arcanist is by far the worst class in the game. And I love arcane casters most in all aRPG I play and this game ruined them.
When the most fun "caster" is Demo with grenade skill you know how good and fun casters are.

Agreed. I want to know what the hell Crate was doing when they made the Arcanist and then remade it again from scratch and took one whole year with that and still managed to come out with a mastery that has 2 Nova spells, 2 Meteor spells and a Magic Missile spell that's very similar to the Occultists DEE. I was so hyped for the Mastery and was super disappointed on the day it was released. I still like the Occultist and although it also feels like it lacks some focus it at least has far more synenergy potential than the Arcanist. I haven't tried Demo much yet. Made a Blackwater Cocktail demo once and thought it was pretty fun but the level cap was 25 at the time and so there wasn't enough points to do anything that interesting.

 

[Stompa]

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, Arcanist sucks dick.

Grenade-focused caster Demo is hella fun, paired mine with an Occultist for that sweet -resistance. Rare Champion survives more than two volleys.

 

[ArchAngel]

Agreed. I want to know what the hell Crate was doing when they made the Arcanist and then remade it again from scratch and took one whole year with that and still managed to come out with a mastery that has 2 Nova spells, 2 Meteor spells and a Magic Missile spell that's very similar to the Occultists DEE. I was so hyped for the Mastery and was super disappointed on the day it was released. I still like the Occultist and although it also feels like it lacks some focus it at least has far more synenergy potential than the Arcanist. I haven't tried Demo much yet. Made a Blackwater Cocktail demo once and thought it was pretty fun but the level cap was 25 at the time and so there wasn't enough points to do anything that interesting.

Aether Ray is only fun spell, or it would be if it was not so slow to activate and slow to move left and right. And Arcanist has no fast move skills so you cannot even run back and activate it again.
I guess this is a problem of not enough money to do arcanists well. I even find their spell animations unattractive. When Diablo 2 spells still look better you know there is a problem.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Aether Ray is only fun spell, or it would be if it was not so slow to activate and slow to move left and right. And Arcanist has no fast move skills so you cannot even run back and activate it again.
I guess this is a problem of not enough money to do arcanists well. I even find their spell animations unattractive. When Diablo 2 spells still look better you know there is a problem.

I kinda like Callidor's Tempest. It staggers normal enemies so you don't take so much damage even if you are in the middle of things and the 'boom' sound effect it makes is pretty satisfying. Otherwise, yeah, I agree with you. Crate said that they are saving the Necromancer mastery for a future expansion. If they cock that up I'll never forgive them.

 

[Zdzisiu]

I kinda like Callidor's Tempest. It staggers normal enemies so you don't take so much damage even if you are in the middle of things and the 'boom' sound effect it makes is pretty satisfying. Otherwise, yeah, I agree with you. Crate said that they are saving the Necromancer mastery for a future expansion. If they cock that up I'll never forgive them.

I cant think about Callidor's Tempest as anything other than "Fart Nova", but its just me.

 

[ArchAngel]

Nova spells are the most boring shit that can exist, only worse thing is Damage over time auras. At least do nova spells like the Paladin skill in d2 called Blessed Hammer. Now that was a cool spells and it wasn't just about spamming one button until you or they died since the hammer didn't hit all area around you at same moment like normal Nova spells do.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Huh? Blessed Hammer was exactly that: just spamming one button. Well, add in Teleport as well, I guess. Not saying it's a fun playstyle, just acknowledging that Callidor's Tempest is a decent spell that gets the job done, even if it isn't all that interesting. Love DoT Auras as well. I like to build Tanky tanks with a DoT aura or retaliation damage, preferably both. It's fun to build something funky once in a while when you get tired of the vanilla playstyle.

 

[ArchAngel]

For Blessed Hammer you had to position at least as it had a path. I was giving an example of a better Nova spell, not better spell over all.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Fair enough. I feel that the Arcanist has enough positioning and praying with many of their spells so giving them a few reliable ones is the least Crate could give them. I'm lvl 29 with my Arcanist and I'm beginning to lose interest. He's powerful and can burst down enemies very fast, but the gameplay just isn't that interesting. Could be that I need to take a break from constantly playing as a Caster and make a melee guy again.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Crate teasing some new legendaries:

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25297

 

[Hobo Elf]

Some cool shit there. I hear that Legendary items will be character build defining gear, unlike Epics. That'll be pretty interesting to see.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Some cool shit there. I hear that Legendary items will be character build defining gear, unlike Epics. That'll be pretty interesting to see.

Yeah, I hope for a lot of legendaries that give things unavailable on other gear.

Also, give me the God damn act 4 now, I need to improve my Warder and I cant without more levels!

 

[Tacgnol]

I'm impressed at how much GD has improved since I last played about a year ago. I was pretty luke warm about GD but now I can't wait for Act 4 and the finished product.

They certainly seemed to have learnt some lessons from TQ.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Hobo Elf:

Arcanist can be very powerful. But it's definitely meant for high risk/high return gameplay. It can get a +50% damage modifier with 1-2 point investment (Arcane Will), once you're below 70% health. Then you've got Reckless Power, which gives you +30% damage but lowers your HP by 20%.

It's got various damage mitigation/limitation skills built in (Mirror/Maiven's) to stop you from getting one hit KO'd. If you can skillfully manage the dangers to get to the rewards, this class can mop the floor with just about anything. My Spellbreaker was my first lvl 50 class, and 45 lvls of skillpoints went into Arcanist. You can't really run on auto with Arcanists, but it keeps things interesting...

Just my two cents.

 

[ArchAngel]

Hobo Elf:

Arcanist can be very powerful. But it's definitely meant for high risk/high return gameplay. It can get a +50% damage modifier with 1-2 point investment (Arcane Will), once you're below 70% health. Then you've got Reckless Power, which gives you +30% damage but lowers your HP by 20%.

It's got various damage mitigation/limitation skills built in (Mirror/Maiven's) to stop you from getting one hit KO'd. If you can skillfully manage the dangers to get to the rewards, this class can mop the floor with just about anything. My Spellbreaker was my first lvl 50 class, and 45 lvls of skillpoints went into Arcanist. You can't really run on auto with Arcanists, but it keeps things interesting...

Just my two cents.

As we both said, it is not interesting. Spells are boring shit.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I prefer Occultist, anyway.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Hobo Elf:

Arcanist can be very powerful. But it's definitely meant for high risk/high return gameplay. It can get a +50% damage modifier with 1-2 point investment (Arcane Will), once you're below 70% health. Then you've got Reckless Power, which gives you +30% damage but lowers your HP by 20%.

It's got various damage mitigation/limitation skills built in (Mirror/Maiven's) to stop you from getting one hit KO'd. If you can skillfully manage the dangers to get to the rewards, this class can mop the floor with just about anything. My Spellbreaker was my first lvl 50 class, and 45 lvls of skillpoints went into Arcanist. You can't really run on auto with Arcanists, but it keeps things interesting...

Just my two cents.

Oh, I know. My Arcanist wrecks shit fast and hard. The spells just aren't interesting visually and in gameplay. The flavor is also utterly generic and bleh. I thought that the Mastery would've had some link to the Aetherlias but other than sharing an element I don't think they are connected? The Occultist feels like a more interesting package to me since I can see far more build variety within it just as a single mastery and as a dual mastery. Maybe I just lack imagination, but I don't see that much varietal potential in the Arcanist. I can pick a PBAoE spell that does ice damage or a PBAoE spell that does aetherial and fire damage.. Ok? Why didn't they just make one spell with a 1 point transmuter that changes the element of the spell? I'm just repeating what I've said before, but the bottom line is that the Arcanist doesn't suck because it can't kill shit, it obviously can, it's just a lazily/hastily designed mastery. The only spells that are unique to the Mastery is the Ray spell and the unreliable meteor AoEs.

 

[Metro]

Agreed. I want to know what the hell Crate was doing when they made the Arcanist and then remade it again from scratch and took one whole year with that and still managed to come out with a mastery that has 2 Nova spells, 2 Meteor spells and a Magic Missile spell that's very similar to the Occultists DEE. I was so hyped for the Mastery and was super disappointed on the day it was released. I still like the Occultist and although it also feels like it lacks some focus it at least has far more synenergy potential than the Arcanist. I haven't tried Demo much yet. Made a Blackwater Cocktail demo once and thought it was pretty fun but the level cap was 25 at the time and so there wasn't enough points to do anything that interesting.

Production scheduling isn't their strong point. The game has been languishing for over half a decade.