Wow, that’s interesting. I never bound anything to pets, since I figured I thought it would only trigger when I cast the spell.
Whoa, yeah, that’s pretty wild. I didn’t even think to bind anything to a pet summons since those are the spells I cast the least. Might have to try it out.
Pro tip: Assign the Flame Torrent devotion to your skellies. It’s amazing.
I didn’t know what Port Valbury was, but I just found it. Seeing that the Conflagration is my least favorite area in the game, it’s just more of the same, except more difficult. Aether outcroppings everywhere, as well as little aether whirlwind type things that can’t be killed. And I didn’t even have a key to get in the dungeon, so I didn’t even make it very far. Not looking forward to coming back with a key, but I will have to give it a try. I wish they would at least put a teleporter by the gate.
The “roguelike” dungeons in general aren’t worth it. The only spot that has better loot than randomly running around is the end boss. Meanwhile it costs a rare crafting material to get in and it’s about 50/50 whether you make it back on a full clear. (If it’s the Steps of Torment dungeon, then that chance is zero because undead never drop any)
I do those dungeons more for the challenge/fun, than for loot.
Man, I hate those things. There’s quite a lot of them in the Malmouth zone.
Ugh. Haven’t gotten to the new expansion content since I started the game anew, but the aether patches are the most annoying part of the game. If they could be cleared, that’d be a different story. As it is, I spend as little time in those areas as possible. It’s that last bit that developers should not want: players doing all they can to get through/past something you spent so much time designing, and not wanting to go back.
The Grim Dawn devs seem to be fond of ‘don’t stand in this patch!’ level design. See also the Slith-filled basement where you’re trying to get the recipe.
Not my favorite thing about the game.
It wouldn’t be so bad if you could build resistances to the patches, but in my very limited experiments, it doesn’t seem you can.
Yeah, there’s one section in Act 2, after the warden when you go west for the first time. That section is filled with the green stuff all the way around in a sort of half circle, that eventually leads into a cave. So I built up my aether resist as high as I possibly could and ran through that green death to finally reach that cave alive!
I can’t remember what I found there anymore, but it wasn’t worth anything. They clearly never meant for me to go to that cave, that whole area was just supposed to be set dressing.
Ah, man. I’ve been meaning to build aether resist to check that cave out.
Meh.
My recollection was that aether resist didn’t help with environmental effects, which is something I really disliked when I played before. Was I wrong or did that change?
This was what I found out there about resisting those aether patches:
can only be mitigated by “damage reduction” such as can be gained from several ultimate skills, an aether cluster, or maiven’s sphere of protection.
Both of the new classes seem to be heavy on firepower but light on mitigation - so they are effectively tied to synergy with classes with well established resist stacking passives. Limits your ability to get past Elite, but I’m sure it’ll be balanced eventually.
Necromancer is easily the most batshit Pokemon iteration since D2, I applaud them for that. Its pretty nuts having 14 things just charge anything that pops on he screen. I’m pretty sure I finished the whole Malmouth portion without really paying attention once on Vet Normal. Elite has been more of the same, but I know Ultimate will wreck me, there’s just no way to get over 50% unless I jump into Occult or something.
Pretty solid XPAC though, good job from Crate.
I think I’d happily revisit this game if they:
a) Removed devotions and devotion skills completely
Devotions are a confusing mess with a terrible UI. I’d much rather have a talent tree approach or really anything at all that was remotely navigable.
b) Allowed unlimited free respecs
I believe Diablo 3 was a step forward here in ARPG design. The fact that I can test out all the different class builds on a single character without getting penalized is awesome.
c) Streamline all the different damage types
There are just too many right now.
Ewww, no. Interface improvements, fine, but I like the system just as it is.
Methinks D3 is the game for you. I love D3, but I love Grim Dawn precisely for its differences from D3. It’s nice, for a change, to have more limitations, more distinct characters, and just some different approaches. I love ARPGs and I like the variety this, D3, and PoE for example all provide.
Thanks for the info!
I like the idea that Devotions are another skill tree tied to environmental discovery/secret areas and hitched to other skills. It’s so meta!
But I agree the UI for them is terrible. Every time I pull it up I’m not sure which constellations I’ve even filled out, or which are available, etc.