Grim Dawn - An ARPG from Crate (ex Iron Lore aka Titan Quest devs)

Ok, wow, I’m impressed someone actually created such a website. It’s complicated, but to be fair, so is the game itself.

Path of Building is the thing you install. It’s pretty dead simple though, tbh. Highly recommend.

Looks like some folks have started hosting forks. No idea if these are any good/out-of-date/full-of-spiders.

Path of Building Community Fork | Path of Building Community
Path of Building Web (pob.party)

I’ll try to resist reinstalling but this is as good a time as any to ask my question.

I have a level 100 character with cloud saves (I think - its been a while) and no mods. Can I try mods and switch back and forth between playing the current character and characters in total overhaul mods?

I only have experience with Reign of Terror, but that works as a thing you choose on loading a character up from the main menu and thus doesn’t have any impact on non-modded gameplay.

I have not tried switching the same toon back and forth between modded and non-modded.

Thanks. I don’t want to switch the main character back and forth. I want to have two characters in different mods (well; base game and mod) that I can alternate.

My fear comes from older TES modding where the mods overwrote data. I’m glad to hear it is unfounded with a more modern game.

Yep, at least with Reign of Terror that’s no problem.

Mods are done in GD by making custom “maps”, they are in essence separate from the main game. You can have fully independent characters in a reign of terror game, in fact, I think you have to. When you load up a custom game, you are loading a world file really.

I’ve never had any problem with any of the custom game modes I’ve used. That’s not to say something won’t screw up your main game, but I’ve never had any problems.

As good as reign of terror is, I actually never play the main game anymore. Being able to combine GD classes and D2 classes?..um…yes. Hell, just being able to combine 2 D2 classes can keep you busy for hundreds of hours. Speaking of which, I’m up to 982 hours on GD lol.

There are so many insane and fun class combos in ROT…it’s just silly. GD shaman and D2 Sorc, barb, palie?..oh man…so much fun. Necro from GD + Necro from D2?..c’mon. I’m not sure I’ll ever un-install this, the combos are almost endless.

You don’t want to play this?


There is a ton of loot that boost class skills. how does that work in these mods? Have they modded in a bunch of custom loot or added these new skills to the loot generator?

Storm Totem: reduced Attack Rate by ~10%

(It’s probably still fine.)

Grim Dawn V1.1.9.0 Changelog :: Grim Dawn General Discussions (steamcommunity.com)

In ROT, they’ve modded in an absolute ton of gear and skills. They’ve done a really job of transferring the D2 skill trees to the GD system, as well as itemize the game for those specs. It is quite literally the full D2, maps, bosses, npcs, music, you name it, with the GD interface, devotions etc. It’s both games, in full, together…it’s pretty amazing actually and it works really well. They even have all the sets, runes, runewords, cube recipes etc.

You guys annoyingly made me impulse buy the two expansions to Grim Dawn. I haven’t played the game since launch, I don’t suppose there is anything I should read to help a new player? Things like great class combos, mods that are essential, tips for going through the content the best way, if I should just slam the accelerator and play Reign of Terror from the get go?

Cheers

I don’t have anything bad to say about RoT, but I mostly play unmodded.

Class combos…GD’s greatest strength is how every combo has all kinds of fun stuff to try. Respecs are cheap! Just get in there.

Content…again, they have done such a good job of supporting however you want to play that I say just go for it and just engage with what you like. I promise you that you aren’t screwing yourself over – you can always go back and full-clear whatever map, and the level-scaling windows are so wide that you might well get some excellent rewards for doing so.

The one thing I’ll say is that the best favor you can do is to pick a damage channel and focus on it with skills, devotions, and gear. So that’s “elemental” (really a combo of fire/cold/lightning), fire, cold, lightning, poison/acid, vitality, physical, pierce, or “pet”. Just orient yourself around collecting things that all buff the same thing, and you’ll be okay.

Oh the D2 Maps. I must have missed that part. Enthusiasm waning :).

Barring playing on more “xtreme” levels, I would say just play what feels fun and don’t be afraid to mess around with different combos. There are a lot of solid mods, but I won’t play without an inventory mod of same variety because I’m a hoarder by nature.

Great stuff, thanks!

Cheers…

If you loved D2, ROT is amazing.

General advice for Grim Dawn:

  1. Try and focus your build on one main damage type, and maybe a 2nd damage type that is often paired with it. You can look at the skill trees and classes and kind of get a feel for what tends to go together. Same goes for combining classes. Ideally you want both classes to be buffing the same thing, or one class that debuffs for the damage type you are using.

  2. Use this to fool around with build ideas, almost as much fun as the game Grim Dawn Build Calculator

  3. Reign of Terror is actually the only game you ever need play for the rest of your life because it’s the best thing ever made. Ok…that may be slightly hyperbolic, but I really love this mod. It’s not just D2, it’s a BETTER D2, in every way. So many great quality of life things with this mod.

  4. Make sure you get used to trying to keep your resistances up, and take the time to get used to all of them, and what mobs are doing to you. GD starts out pretty easy, but quickly can kick your ass if you ignore resists. The same goes for how you build your character, don’t bypass all the defensive stuff and just stack every possible offense, you’ll get owned at higher levels. This also applies to the devotion tree. Defense and resists are very important in GD.

  5. Don’t be afraid to experiment with builds, as that’s where most of the fun is! Like I said upthread, I have 900+ hours into this thing, which is pretty incredibly for a single player game.

  6. Give it time to sink in. There are a lot of systems at play, and things to figure out in GD, and I bounced off it 4 or 5 times before it really hooked me. Navigation, and not knowing the main route you need to travel, can be a real pain in the ass at times, and was the cause of my early quitting.

Thanks for the recommendations mate.

Question about Reign of Terror: I never played Diablo 2, is Reign of Terror so great because it recaptures the nostalgia or because it fundamentally makes Grim Dawn better for any player?

It’s a great mod, but it certainly benefits from knowing D2. I played d2 a ton, so for me it’s both the nostalgia and the game itself. I think it stands on it’s own, but there is no way for me to really know that, as I sunk thousands of hours into D2.

You are perfectly fine to get a handle on GD as it stands, there is a ton of game there to be had, and a great game. Best ARPG ever made in my opinion.

Also, don’t forget to play with a gamepad. It takes a minute or two to setup within the game, and once you get used to it, it’s way more fun than mouse and keyboard.

I’ll reiterate that gamepad is great, but if you want or need precision targeting it doesn’t do that. Some builds suck with it.

Mind you I play gamepad style full time, though that’s mostly for RSI reasons.