Grim Dawn

I don't know if it specifically increases due to level, but later stages definitely have some crazy shit going on.

I'm level 42, playing a Conjurer (occultist + shaman) that summons pets and is supposed to let them do all the work. Unfortunately I'm still too much of a melee mentality and I get into the mix all the time, but eventually I hope to be tanky enough, and I can always run in circles. I have a serious problem though, I want too many skills so I've got just 1 point in the ones I want while I push to 50 in both masteries. Currently I'm at 50 in Occultist and 40 in Shaman, so almost there! But if I had 12 points in the shaman bramble pet and occultist hellhound, they'd probably be wrecking shit a lot more than currently. But then I wouldn't have all the cool shit!

I'm absolutely loving this game, and knew I would, as it was the game that popped my Kickstarter cherry. My only complaint is the vast amount of skills that I want to use, and could be using (including devotion skills and skills granted by gear and augments), but simply don't have the slots to use them, let alone the manual dexterity to hit all those different fucking keys. I already have most of my second toolbar filled as well, what with 3 pets and 4 passives I have to cast. Other games like this I can usually narrow it down to a few truly great abilities, but this game seems to have soooo many that are worth using. Not really something I usually find myself having an issue with, but this one is really noticeable. If I could tie multiple skills to the same key that would be a godsend, but I understand why they don't allow that. Still, that's the one thing I wish for with this game.

Yeah, I assumed everyone would just start the game on Veteran, since we've all pretty much played these games countless times before. I'm really liking this one more than most though, just like Titan's Quest.

Crone_sl said:

Oh yes, I only play on Veteran. Shit's great! Vvoid, I'm the same class, but rocking Devouring Swarm + Wendigo totem for my build. Only have the Curse of Frality so far out of the Occultist tree. Then for Devotion points, I'm heading down the Bat line so far! Picked up a main hand and magic off hand that both add to Vitality damage. Just wrecking shit so far! So fun!

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Are you using pets, or not using them at all? I could see this class being played drastically differently depending upon that.

I'm obviously a lot further in terms of mastery points, but I've gone almost all pets. I even dropped a few skills I was using, and now I basically use Grasping Vines to proc the Shepherd's Crook ability (huge buff to pets for 4 seconds out of every 6) and slow them down so they don't even get to me, and Curse of Frailty to weaken them and let my pets hit harder. I use the Blood of Dreeg thing to give us all a damage shield and to help heal everyone a little once in awhile. And for shits and giggles I have my right click tied to the Eye poison thing. I rarely get into melee anymore since changing my skills around.

My devotions are the scorpion (tied to my briarthorn), the fiend thing (tied to hellhound), and the eye of the guardian (tied to revenant from Black Grimoire of Og'Napesh). I just cast vines on a group, then curse, and while they are running to me my pets run up and proc the shit out of their ae abilities and pretty much kill everyone. And I just unlocked the level 50 shaman pet that lasts for 20 seconds. That thing fucking shreds stuff. I only really remember to use it on bosses because normal trash dies so fast it typically doesn't matter.

Briarthorn pet is pretty beastly, but if you are just face-tanking stuff, then yeah I'd say you probably don't care too much about pets. Like I said, pretty amazing how you can play the same class completely differently given the skills available. I'm loving the pet angle because shit just melts most of the time now.

Still need more hotkeys though! And an easier way to use them all!

Hateyou_sl said:

You may already know this but the Y key toggles a second bar. It's useful for putting your auras and summons on. Mod tools should be out fairly soon, I imagine another bar or two wouldn't be too hard for someone to implement.

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Yeah I was aware of that and put all of them there. It sort of sucks when all my pets die to some ae boss though and I have to toggle it while running around in circles like a little bitch (druid), but better than filling up my main bar.

I'm 47 or 48 now I think, and just did Steps of Torment, the part that uses the Skeleton Key. Breezed through everything until the final boss, who fucking anally violated me in about 10 seconds even though I was aware he was an assbeater. I'm assuming this is another of those dungeons where everything levels up every time you zone into it. Not a big fan of those to be honest, and not sure how I'll ever beat that guy with my current build if he keeps gaining levels as I do. Unless there is a cap for Veteran difficulty and I eventually surpass it. Probably not even worth the effort for whatever loot he drops anyway, but you know I'm going to have to do it eventually just to say I did.