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

[Tim_N]

I am a level 40 Inquisitor. It’s been smooth sailing thus far with word of pain and cleanse getting rid of all trash mobs with great haste, the only negative is poor single target damage.

I have yet to pick a second class, and I am thinking of doing it very soon as I heard that word of pain stops being effective around level 40 as mobs get tougher, so I might want to respec out of it.

I am thinking of making nightblade as my second class and go duel wield melee. Does anyone have recommendations for other combos that might be more fun?

[Adam_B]

Some thoughts:

Respeccing skill points is cheap as hell. Experiment with what’s fun!

Respeccing devotions, not so much. As they’re generally pretty tied to elements or themes, try to pick something (pets, melee/range, shield/2h/dw, damage channels).

Skills can get huge bonuses from certain items, particularly Monster Infrequents (basically, base item types that are tied to specific groups of monsters. My dagger upthread is an MI). This can go so far as to make something viable/not-viable.

[Tim_N]

@Adam_B

Respeccing skill points is cheap as hell. Experiment with what’s fun!

I read that the cost exponentially increases with the number of skill points you’ve respecced on a single character. Is it that gold is so easy to come by it never matters much?

@Adam_B

Skills can get huge bonuses from certain items, particularly Monster Infrequents

Oh I wondered what these were in the loot filter, thanks!

[Adam_B]

@Tim_N

I read that the cost exponentially increases with the number of skill points you’ve respecced on a single character. Is it that gold is so easy to come by it never matters much?

Oh, maybe. I always come into a character with a decent enough plan that respeccing 30-40 points ain’t no thang.

[vinraith]

@Tim_N

I read that the cost exponentially increases with the number of skill points you’ve respecced on a single character. Is it that gold is so easy to come by it never matters much?

Pretty much, yeah. I respecced certain characters of mine completely around level 70 more than once and still never really noticed the cost.

[Ultrazen]

@Profanicus

That was just my experience playing the first area and dungeon, where everything was basically the same few items over and over. Admittedly it seems like I extrapolated that to cover the entire game, which was wrong. :)

The early game is fairly horrible, and is indeed a slog. I wish you could start characters at level 20 lol.

[Ultrazen]

@Tim_N

I am thinking of making nightblade as my second class and go duel wield melee. Does anyone have recommendations for other combos that might be more fun?

With inquis seal, and aura of censure, any class that deals elemental damage is a great choice. You can also go the DW route.

Here are a few choices.

This continues on the path you are on, with NB added in.
Cold Infiltrator

Dual Wield piercing Infiltrator

Cold/Pierce infiltrator

There are quite a few builds with that combo, but here are a few examples to get you started.

Inquisitor has so many possible builds…and so many classes that work with it depending on how you play it. You can use INQ for nothing but INQ seal, Aura of Censure, and Word of Renewal, and pretty much put any class with it. All 3 of those are really powerful in almost any build, especially word of renewal, and inquisitors seal.

Here’s a “mage” variant on INQ
Caster INQ

[Beerbelly_Sneetch]

I am a little obsessed with this game. I “discovered” it last week, meaning it had been sitting uninstalled in my Steam library for I don’t know how many years. It’s fantastic. The build depth is freaking catnip for me. It’s the POE version I always wanted.

It’s also surprisingly well written. I don’t know how many people play ARPG’s and actually read all the scattered lore notes and quests texts, but they’re all worth your time here. There are a whole lot of very short, very sad tales packed into the landscape “For sale, baby shoes – baby eaten by demons.”

[Ultrazen]

@Beerbelly_Sneetch

The build depth is freaking catnip for me.

Yah, my 1000 hours concurs with this statement lol.

[Tim_N]

The one negative im finding is just how high the level cap is. My guy is up to 48, and while im still having fun levelling is starting to really slow down and there’s many many more hours to go till true “end game” is reached.

[Strato]

One way to level reasonably fast is via Crucible. Assuming you have decent gear, DPS and survivability, getting to the higher waves yields some good exp.

[Ultrazen]

@Tim_N

The one negative im finding is just how high the level cap is. My guy is up to 48, and while im still having fun levelling is starting to really slow down and there’s many many more hours to go till true “end game” is reached.

In my personal opinion, GD sucks post 50. By level 50 or so, you have your build to the point where the soundness or lack of it is proven. Everything after that point is just incremental versions of “better”, and trying to keep up with the idiotic damage sponge mobs that can also one shot you.

The sweet spot in GD for me, is when you are developing a build, and getting new skills often enough that you can really feel your build progressing. I have probably 100 characters between 50-60, and a handful that are 85+. They could have done a much better job of getting you to end game, and then that end game meaning something. That entire slog from 60-100 is garbage for me.