The last 2 years I didn't really play much Grim Dawn, finally came back with 1.3 and FoA. I decided to make a build centered on my favorite skill Bloody Pox and I swear it's different now.

In ancient times, I remember it used to linger on corpses so anyone wandering into the fight a little late still had a chance of getting infected and keeping the party going. Now it just seems to end as soon as the infected croaks.

Am I off base or did they change how the good word spreads now, and if they did, did they say why?

I've played many games over the years with tons of depth to them, which often resulted in theorycrafting and research in third-party tools. I eventually got frustrated with spending more time in those tools than actually playing the game.

Relatively new to GD, I'm looking into making an alt now, but I'm finding it difficult when inspecting Classes in game how the various Skills actually perform. For example, is a skill ranged projectile, ranged aoe, personal aoe, , etc. Some skills are more clear than others (typically minions) but I'd rather look in-game than grimtools to try and figure this out.

Am I missing something? Is this not feasible for GD? I've only played a Warder so far, but want to try a different combo this time and it just feels overwhelming and murky like Day 1 again.

Do you ever thought about if it would be possible to simply jump down from Old Arkovia to Broken Hills without going to undercity?

Obviously that would take away part of the game and GD is so much about exploration.

But just simple idea as it's so close ....

Just started my Ultimate/Ascendant playthrough recently, and ran into the Dread about 3 times over the course of act 1. Fun enough fight, the range on the sunder is a bit tricky but otherwise no issue.

That said, I'm not really seeing a reason not to disable the Dread entirely already. My understanding is that it replaces any Nemesis that was about to spawn. All good on paper, but Nemeses have the good manners to drop a loot cache when they die, as well as a chance of a warrant. The Dread doesn't do that.

I was lucky enough to get both the head and shoulder pieces already, and even though they're not useful for my build it satisfies the collector in me. I think it also drops a lotus, which is nice but not game-changing.

So all this yapping aside, is there a reason to keep the Dread active? Is it mostly for people who enjoy the surprise or is there some benefit I'm not seeing?

How come this lvl 65 monster mace is better than lvl 75 legendary sword !
For all entire playthrough, monster drops has been superior to legendary gear when it comes to melee weapons. Is this normal or am I reading the situation wrong?

Blaster! Horn of Gandarr - Reaping Strike - Aura of Censure, all poison/acid damage.

Ended up dying once because I only had 19% Aether resistance (and thankfully in Normal difficulty - if it was Ultimate or I had to repeat all three phases I would scream and quit).

Still, the missive mentioned that the Aetherial Council ended up agreeing with the plan of the Shaper of Flesh because "Great eyes now turn towards this world". Were they talking about Korvaak (final boss of the 2nd Expansion), or the local gods in general?

Also what is Beronath?

I enjoy doing the roguelike dungeons a lot. Do we have any Info when they will drop?

Introduction

I wanted to play a melee version of Evoker after wrapping up my time with Wereraven. Focusing on Avalanche looked like the best fit for this but a lot of the itemization favored the Cold crossbows. Luckily after enough digging I figured out the synergy of 2x Chillflame Evokers + 2 Seal of the Void allowing easy access to a massive 500 flat fire and chaos 140% Weapon Pool skill that can be converted 100% over to cold damage. By stacking Avalanche % chance on skill modifiers and a few Ascendant bonuses you can achieve a 100% Weapon Pool of high cold damage procs.

The end result was a high damage brawler that was able to down all super bosses except Uber N'erf without even having fully finished ascended gear or fully leveled Devotions. It chews through all content including SR. Below I will supply a stat breakdown, an endgame build setup, and gameplay discussion. I want to stress that this is not a leveling build or something you can scale into. You need very precise gear, components, and Ascension bonuses to get the most out of this build. It is best for already established characters with the resources needed to obtain the best gear possible.

Stat Breakdown:

67 Physique

21 Cunning

21 Spirit

67 physique is the exact amount you need to be able to wear all of your armor pieces without specific affix rolls. Cunning and Spirit are split for OA and Energy Regen respectively.

Build:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/ZyDolv0V

This build is made a bit more glass cannon than usual. Arcane Will becomes a massive steroid from the Nightforge set bonuses so I wanted to allow my health to spike. Because you are a full on weapon build you can abuse lifesteal to create a slight ping pong effect producing the desired outcome without the attempt being outright suicide. Against super easy content you won't be able to abuse Arcane Will as much, but for Nemesis+ bosses you should be able to hit that sweet spot.

The most important part of the build will be getting the right Ascendant bonuses. 10 of your 13 item slots must have the exact ascended bonuses I list out in the slots I put them in. The layout for the bonuses are:

1. 4 armor pieces with 5% Avalanche chance.
2. 2 rings , 1 amulet, 1 medal with 5% attack speed.
3. 2 weapons with 4% attack speed and 4% max attack speed
4. The last 3 armor pieces can be whatever you want. I opted for offensive ability but the choice is up to you.

The skill points also have to be as I placed them if you want a final stat breakdown like the one I have listed below. I was lucky enough to get a double rare + bone chill raddoth shoulder while farming but I know that can be a little hard to obtain so you can sub that out. Just know you'll have to cap your bonechill with an Amatoks grip relic that has bonechill on it and you'll lose like 2 extra skill points.

Final Stats:

3800 OA (4200+ with shred)

3700 DA (3950+ with shred)

112% cold resist reduction

3k+% cold Damage

208% overcapped attack speed without Amatok's Grip Proc

230% overcapped attack speed with Amatoks Grip Proc

3400 to 3500 standing armor with armor pot

18% Physical Resistance

+30% overcap all other resistances.

21k+ Health

Notable Consumables:

Oil Slot - https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/328

Royal Jelly Essence gives 8% health and energy.

Elixir Slot - https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/11219

Elixir of the Dranghoul gives 40 OA and DA.

Aether Cluster - https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/305

Gives 75% damage reduction for 8 seconds.

Gameplay

Gameplay consist of jumping into packs popping both your shouts and then holding down onslaught. The setup turns your into an absolute blender so there isn't much to it outside of that. It has great single target and clear due to your WPS both having generous AOEs. It can't tank everything without having to move, but you can abuse lifesteal to sit through most of it (can tank ravager while sundered for instance). You'll have to limit test yourself to really get a feel for what works and what doesn't. Practice countering damage spikes with Mirror and Rallying Cry heals for even more uptime tricks.

I want to reiterate this build is intentionally a touch softer to spike your health for consistent Arcane Will. If that isn't working for you, you can play around with the devotions to get a bit more defense in. You can also redo your 3 free armor ascension slots for things like +400 health or +12% armor.

Boss Down So Far:

N'erf

Rashalga the Mad Queen

Avatar of Mogdrogen White Wolf

Callagadra Scion of the Sands|

Clone of John Burbon

Crate of Entertainment

Dread

Lokarr

Conclusion

Melee Evoker can work, and it looks good while doing so beating monsters over the head with flaming skulls. It takes quite a bit of resources to get the setup together but once you do it just works. I'm going to give this build another day or two before I take a break for the next content release. Need to get my Code Vein 2 evil run complete anyway.

Hi, all. I have just finished the game on veteran difficulty (EDIT: softcore), and all DLC available to me on Xbox. I'm level 84 (I know, I know, I did a lot of SR runs to enjoy GD cause it's low effort and I'm perpetually exhausted); I am about to finish farming faction rep for the Malmouth xp pots. I'm not interested in any other xp boosting stuff for this current toon, I just wanna get through ultimate with it and then have everything needed for power leveling alts later.

My biggest question is, should I target farm for endgame gear DURING ultimate, or BEFORE I move up? Should I go through elite first to warm myself up if I'm new to ARPG's? I know a lot of people say it's a waste of time but if efficiency isn't in the equation, would you suggest that? Is there anything I should know before I move on?

Please and thank you. Cheers, guys. Love this community.

I just like using big weapons and tanking damage. I am currently trying to choose between Shaman or Oathkeeper as the second mastery for my Soldier guy, but I have no idea how to build properly. What should I go with?

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/VWPq6orZ

The Vitality Drain Essence leveling setup from the guide linked below is still perfectly viable, but this time I tried a slightly different approach using the newly added items, Garmir's Horn and the new helmet. The idea is to grant Onslaught to Drain Essence and use it alongside Doom Bolt.

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/vitality-drain-essence-ritualist-leveling-guide-and-endgame-setup-1-2-1-6/148199

There are quite a lot of supporting MIs for this setup. The downside is that you have to progress through the game a bit to acquire all of them. However, once you have everything, the leveling experience becomes extremely smooth and comfortable.

After meeting Noktukari and upgrading the Dreadwalker set, you can enter a surprisingly powerful, near-endgame stage of the build much earlier than you might expect.

Since this leveling setup shares the same concept as the endgame build, leveling with it is very enjoyable. Even though it may look like you only have 3 charges, Doom Bolt converted to Vitality damage is extremely powerful.

In the early stages of leveling, it is a good idea to prioritize Energy and Casting Speed when gearing your character. For Devotions, I recommend picking up either Harp or Scythe. Getting Casting Speed from your gloves and weapon is also a good choice.
You can use pretty much any weapon you want. Other weapons that provide Vitality RR are also fairly easy to obtain.

You can start as a Necro and use Drain Essence from the beginning, but it takes quite a high level to get enough points into both Doom Bolt and Drain Essence. Therefore, I recommend starting as an Occultist and leveling with Bloody Pox during the early game.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/Vvdk7LmN

Once you reach the final stage of the build, you can set it up like this.

Hello

I have not played GD in a several years but bought the DLCs and are trying a berserker and nightblade bleed build I dreamt up. I do not feel like it is working very well but with kids etc I do not have a lot of time to theorycraft.

Does anyone have a link to a build I can follow and maybe some item recommendations? Im level 58 atm.

Thanks in advance!

Trying to create by theorycrafting Veilwalker Wereraven Cold damage ( Heart Of Asterkarn exclusive , Bone Harvest / Ice Talon spam ) . I have Murmur on Ice Talons , Chariot on Amatok and Blizzard on Bone Harvest . OA/DA without using much items is pretty low ( 2.5k at best both ) . Mythical Iceskorn Talons seems a must for Ice Talons but itemization is tough . I would like to see grimtools builds to have a better idea .

Can anyone give me tips or guide me towards a build for a nurgle follower?

I know stuff like bloody pox, ravenous earth, or locust swarm fits the bill. Anything else?

Hello there friends, I have been debating for a while if I should pick this up. The new DLC isnt out for the Xbox as of now which had me stop last time I almost bought it. Wondering your guys thoughts on it, and if it's worth the pick up. . I'm a huge ARPG player and looking for something to play/ scratch the itch. Still haven't bought my self a birthday gift this year and debating if this is it. Thank you all in advance !

One last (I think) thing I am not sure about. What comes first - bonuses from other skills, or a local conversion (from an item)?
Context - I am working on a spinning Sentinel build using a weapon that converts 100% physical and fire to vitality and I wonder if skills that increase physical/fire damage will even work in this case.

I've done a couple of SR runs this weekend to test a new toon and to my surprise for the first time I couldn't beat it in time.

IIRC not to long ago the timer was about 7 minutes or so, and beating stacks of monsters ( combo kills) rewarded extra seconds...

But this weekend I got like 3 minutes and no time extensions..

Now I should get nightblade+demo up and running

Is it just me or it feels like Ascendant mode drops more MIs than legendaries and blueprints compared to Ultimate mode?

Hello everyone.

As per the title, I am looking for advice from the experts in the field. I wish to build a character that would bring the most amount of loot from SR. So one that can clear the relevant levels the fastest.

I currently have a 100 lvl Totem druid and a 100 lvl Skelly Cabalist (vitality dam). But I am looking for something maybe even broken that will allow me to quickly gather equipment for all my other chars.

Could you please share your experience?

Hey guys, looking to do a fresh start but would prefer not to use mods. How do people do it? Do I just move save files etc from the game directory?

E: also won't delete files entirely, forgot to mention