Grim Dawn: new expansion in 2024?

[mogbert]

With this latest Steam Sale I picked this up. I'm probably going to give Diablo 4 a pass for now, at least until it comes out for a while and I see how they are running it.
Like Path of Exile, there is a LOT to pick up at first. So I started a character to get a feel of the game. I got to level 6 without picking a class just to try and see how combat worked. Well, I really liked the gun one of the bodies has on it, so I looked up gun builds and went with a dual wielding warlord build. Played that most of the weekend until I got a ways into act 2 and there is a portion of the build where you are putting a lot of points into the job bar without really increasing your fighting. Just a bit of a hump to overcome. Kind of wanted to see what else was out there.

I had been collecting skellie/pet equipment because I enjoyed my skellie build when I played PoE. So again, I looked up a beginner build for skellies. Found one that focuses on Necro until almost level 20. But this time I tried a starting trick I found in one of the youtube tutorials. I went to the crucible for five times to get 5 devotion, some good starting gear and a lot of levels.

WOW! What a difference. I mean the ease of the crucible between builds and the start of the game when you are boosted like that. I'm glad I started my first character normal, but I'm also glad I tried this other way for my second character. However, I did run across something... interesting.

See, there is a side path blocked off in Act 1 by the need for two dynamite. You aren't really supposed to investigate it until Act 2 and certainly not within a minute of starting the main quest. Well, the Crucible had dropped two dynamite, so I figured I'd go check out this side path. This was interesting because I was at level 13 and these monsters were at level 26... and Brutal. This was a good way to show that skellies are OP in the early game. If it is like PoE, they will drop off a bit later.

I am glad I followed a build to make my characters, because this kind of leveling where you pick one skill, then go 7 or 8 levels just putting points in your class would be unintuitive to me. I think I'm going to use this build to farm equipment for some sort of lightning warder.

If anyone has any tips or tricks to this game, let me know. I haven't gotten very far yet.

 

[mogbert]

Yeah, hoarding has always been a problem of mine. I even have trouble getting rid of duplicate epics. There is apparently a way to blow up epics with dynamite, but I'm not sure if it is worth it. Haven't gotten to a place where dynamite is plentiful. I've about caught up to where I stopped my first character (dual gun wield wielding warlord). My Ritualist is chunking through stuff that was giving my Warlord trouble. I have 9 skellies, and three other pets (had an epic pet amulet drop). I'm sure at some point I'll start having trouble as I won't be able to scale my pets as fast probably. But at this point, I'm only having trouble casting my debuff (has a devotion that needs to level up attached) before all the enemies are dead.

So I've found that you turn off commons pretty quickly, and probably turn off magic in the loot filter about halfway through act 1. I wanted a way to see everything that had pet stats and all greens or up, but it didn't combine that way. Didn't realize I hadn't seen anything drop for several rooms and had to turn off that option to go back.

At what point do you stop looking at random green equipment and only start looking at epics or double rare monster drops?

 

[mogbert]

I guess I'm about midgame, Act 3, and the super OP feeling has dropped off. Not sure what causes it but some bosses (which I have finally figured out are different than heroes) are pushovers and some utterly wreck me. Dying isn't too bad in the game and you seem to be able to pick up your corpse and get your exp back if you go back right away. I tend to drop a rift before a boss fight so I can warp right back there if I die. I've found a number of epic items which summon pets, and sometimes they are even better than they appear because they come with party buffs. I'm still strong, and much stronger than my first character (which might be relegated to a mule at this point), but I'm actually having to fight battles rather then just walk through all of them.

I'm on the fence about blueprints. I've found that somethings (like faction loot) can't be put in the shared storage. So I'm worried about some of the rarer blueprint drops, as maybe I should keep them for someone who will need to craft the item. But this has again lead to hoarding blueprints, which are now taking up too much space. Hard to tell what I should learn, what I should vendor (I guess any non-blue that I've already learned) and what I should hoard.

I've only "farmed" for the wardens weapon which has a roll on it for pets. I'm not sure if blacksmithed items which have random stats should also be farmed for, or if that is even possible since if would be crazy wasteful to just make several of the items in hopes one is better than the others (I think). Since the game doesn't appear to have quicksave/quickload I don't know if there is something that I'm missing.

I have learned to clear out the mining caves each time you load in to fill up on that sweet, sweet dynamite. Also I've started selling extra stacks of health potions since they seem to drop at a much higher pace than you need them. I'm probably going to start blowing up duplicate epics at this point (I tried it and you get one of the purple two slot components). I got my first legendary item, Totally Normal Buckler, which I just looked up to paste here and found it is a guaranteed drop (oh well). Went through one of those Skeleton Key dungeons, but it really wasn't my bag. Had to throw a bunch of greens on the floor because you can't sell anything in there and can't warp out or back. Not really a fan of high stress runs. That boss was also one of the ones who wreck me, but by that point I had a game plan in place (kite and re-summon).

Sometimes I have to make a call for whether to take equipment that buffs my pets or buffs my skills that buff my pets, and it can be hard to tell which I should go for. I'm finding a balance, for now. I know you can check the numbers, but the raw stats often don't tell the whole story (dropping a almost 40% pet damage belt for a belt that gives every skill in the shaman tree an extra skill point for example). Just kind of going with my gut in some cases. Aren't too many components with pet stats I can add to equipment. However, with so many pets (I think I have 14 at this point, 9 skellies and five misc) pet stats are multiplied. But a percentage up state is already multiplied, but there are diminishing returns on percentage increases. But... Still, as long as the game is fun and I'm not flying a spreadsheet, I'm going to keep playing.

While I love the QoL features in the game and it really shows just how much frustration a lot of the games intentionally add in to monetize solutions, I'm not sure I'll be up for a second play through. Having to clear entire areas to make sure you aren't missing things is fun the first time, but sometimes I find myself just walking for five minutes to try and get back to a place where the road split. Maybe there is a mod or something, but a boost to walk speed for your second playthrough would probably go a long way. Or maybe a map with everything highlighted to take the place of having a working memory. I could probably play with that map webpage open, not sure how well that would go (avoiding spoilers for now so half the fun is exploring).

I did want to roll at least one more character after this one. I want some sort of AoE melee character. I saw someone with something like a melee chain lightning build and that looked fun. Ranged was great at the beginning, but without good/large AoE's it quickly becomes a slogfest. I'm sure there are viable ranged builds, but the one I was playing didn't come together. Also, there are probably good AoE caster builds, but I'm not a big fan of glass cannon builds as they tend to die a lot to random bad luck, which leads to long, boring running back. Also, managing mana isn't really fun and either turns into waiting between fights for mana to regen or chugging mana potions. This is just in general, there are probably good builds that I jsut havent' found for GD. But chain lighting has the added benefit of kind of being ranged and kind of being AoE, and if I can trigger it from melee, then I usually don't have to worry about mana costs (I don't mind the "reserves a portion of your mana spells"). I have to try and find that build, but I'm holding off looking it up so that I will actually finish this run.

Also, while I've enjoyed playing with the Ars people, my current game play style (ten minutes on, five off) isn't really conducive to cooperative gameplay. My ability to focus on things is really shot, and I wouldn't want to put any of you through that.

 

[mogbert]

I love guides! And that may let me repurpose my dual wield Warlord into a different build.

I have just discovered components and I'm feeling OP again. A Wrathstone on a Warden’s Judgment is just SICK! I also put some sort of electric ammo on my offhand because it might cause the pets to stun enemies. Not sure if mobs have a defense against stunlock, but seeing as they do get to attack then there is probably something.

Also just installed the Rainbow Text mod. Helps see what is going to sell well (two rare affixes) and what is going to bring in no money (common monster infrequents with two magic affixes). Also helps see good drops... you know, if you are in to that kind of thing...

 

[mogbert]

This is the guide I've been following:
https://forums.crateentertainment.c...de-ritualist-aether-pets-starter-build/108282
It's a bit older and not laid out super strictly. Sometimes I get an epic drop that looks like it is better than what I'm being told to use and so I have to make the call whether to go 'off-road' or not. Like an extra summon creature, for example. Since it is just leveling equipment, I haven't worried about it much. Other times, I'm having to use a skill I don't really like much because it is good at triggering a devotion later (not feeling the Ravenous Earth, and they don't really put points into it). But I don't know enough about the game mechanics to make a good substitution. They tell you to take Grasping vines I guess for Arcane Bomb, but they use a Seal of Corruption instead. I actually like Grasping Vines more than Ravenous Earth, but maybe later on there is a difference in how it procs the devotion.

I have noticed that some skill proc differently than I would have expected. I have a 10% lightning on hit from one of the recommended pieces (it isn't the point of the piece, but it always rolls with it). You use Ill Omen to proc Shepherd's Call, and it winds up proc'ing Lightning Bolt as well. Apparently the spread of Ill Will counts as a separate attack and that is what makes it good at triggering Shepherd's Call. I'm thinking maybe Ravenous Earth is also like that. However, that also means that while my mob is good at crowds and able to get it's proc's off, against single target it is unlikely to trigger those things.

I really do like the way you can respec your points without it making a big deal about it. It lets me take certain skills to try them out. Or even just as fillers as I'm leveling.

One BIG change that helps a lot with making my pets work for me is binding Right Click to Pet attack. It actually is more of a Pet Move command. They attack on their own (as far as I can tell the skellies don't have a pet bar and aren't settable). But let's say you drop a Wendigo Totem, it helps to be able to pull my pets back to it to try and draw the enemy into it's rather small range. The totem would be fine if I could cast it at a decent distance, but when I try it seems to drop about halfway to where I want it. It's great for when you know right where enemies are about to spawn, but when walking around it is annoying. In fact, a lot of my skills seem to be ineffectual enough that I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong. But fights are so chaotic that I have trouble seeing what I can fix. Back to Ravenous Earth. Seems to drop down and shoots out three (occasionally five) small acid bullets a short range in a random direction. It's rare that it hits anything. I'm sure at higher levels it becomes pretty useful, but they aren't pumping many points into it (one point in Ravenous Earth and one in Decay). With equipment is gets a tiny bit better, but I'm not sure how it is supposed to trigger it. I'll do some research or something. Maybe if an enemy stands RIGHT on top of it, it counts as three attacks?

Edit: Was just experimenting and I really like Bone Harvest. I have some points on my gear, so I only put one point in each skill in that line (three total). AoE direct damage, DoT, slows the enemy, buffs all your pets. I'm going to try it out with Shepherd's Call and see if it triggers enough.

 

[mogbert]

I agree about the bosses, but I WOULD appreciate a little warning. Often I'll do a doubletake and go "Wait, they're still alive?" and THEN I'll notice it's a boss. Oftentimes it doesn't even get that far, and I'll just get notification that a boss died. Then you have the ones where I go "Wait? Where did all my pets go?" and then I have to kite while resummoning my babies to do my fighting for me.

I have a few buffs and a pet that I only summon for big fights, but I've out scaled fighting again, so I'll probably have to wait until the next area.

I got a cool amulet (the one the build tells you to get) and I can't equip it for two more levels. When I do, I'll lose one of my pets (I'll miss you Blighted Rift Scourge!) but it buffs my skills a bunch and I rolled it with a +39% damage to pets so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

 

[mogbert]

Still in Act 4, just murdering it. Tried to show my wife and she said "It looks like the bad guys die as soon as you touch them." Well, she's not wrong. What I do now is open with Bone Harvest, which gives my pets two buffs for about 5 or 6 seconds, then I use Ill Omen if anything is still alive by the time I can press the second button. If enemies are spaced far apart, I'll drop a Ravenous Earth on them (I put a point in decay and it is starting to grow on me). For boss fights, I use Wendigo Totem, Call of the Grave, and Conjure Primal Spirit. So far that has been enough. Since I've gotten my current gear, I haven't had to kite anything. Often I'll make it out with all of my skellies intact.

The troubling ones are the ones with ground effects. I have to micro them out of the ground effects. That and anything with retaliation damage will wear down my guys (crunch all you want, we'll summon more). After one of those fights, I'll often just resummon stuff rather than wait for them to heal.

One trouble with a low skill ceiling build is you can't shore up weak points by playing better. This means it is VERY gear dependent. That means farming for the right stuff, and I had to spend an hour this morning farming for that level 50 pendant with a pet affix. Now that I have it on, I'm running through mobs super fast, though I do miss Scourgy.

I'm thinking of this character as my springboard. I don't need them to be super competent, I just need them strong enough to farm stuff to boost my other characters. I can also already see I'm going to need to come up with some mule characters. If there is some way I can duplicate characters, like in Borderlands 3, then I can make one perfect mule character (full of empty bags and the like) and thenjust duplicate them and give each different names like Blueprints, 1-50SetPieces, 50-75Legendary, etc...

Yeah... my Borderlands save directories are kind of a mess...

 

[mogbert]

I saved a bit of space after I realized that recipes are account-wide, so no need to save them up.

Wait, wait, wait... WHAT?!?

I'm guessing this is only for dropped recipes? Because there were some faction recipes it wouldn't let me put in the shared stash. Either way, this really helps. That means I can get rid of my recipe tab!

BTW- What are augments? I just found they are different then components, but I'm not sure what they ARE, you know?

 

[mogbert]

OK, so I'm in Act 5 and I've just gotten to the town of Barrowholm...

Spoiler: About Barrowholm

OK, so EVERYONE there talks about 'hunger' and tries to feed me. One lady said something like her stew was made from one of someone's finest recipes or something similar. I can't scroll back to check. Give's me vibes of Andale. Andale was a Fallout 3 'town' where they ate a lot of "strange meat". So already afraid of what I'm getting into I google the town to see what I'm supposed to do here.

Apparently... they are a faction and you can choose to side with them. The only downside of siding with them is some of their quests lose faction with the bog witches, I think. As for the 'hunger' thing, yeah, it looks like they eat 'strange meat'. Someone asked if there was any reason to NOT side with the faction and apparently the only answer was 'roleplay'.

Kind of freaky that the only difference between the 'good' cannibals and the 'bad' cannibals is if they are willing to share their meat with you... well that and if they try to eat you immediately.

I'm not sure if I should kill everyone here or go ahead and take their faction quests. On one hand, I hate to miss content, on the other hand, I also hate to help out the cannibals.

So tell me what you guys did?

 

[mogbert]

Dang it. I was almost all the way through the Tainted Wood, one of those skeleton key dungeons I had a quest for. Normally I hate that kind of thing because it is too stressful. Well, I lost power, and what a time to find out my battery back up battery has gone bad (flashing with an X on it is usually a bad sign).
Only good thing is it seems I still have the equipment that dropped.
But I do have to craft another skeleton key. I think this time I'll just beeline for the end since I've gotten all the one time chests I guess. I did get some more of the equipment they recommended, but I'm not sure if it is better than my old epic equipment. I have to give up another one of my pets that came from my offhand, but I get a bunch of points in some skills I use. Not sure if it is worth it. Just going to see if I feel squishier or not, I guess...
Edit: I made another Skeleton Key and noticed I still had ther first one (I think?). Did they give me back my key because I got kicked out? That would be nice, but it isn't like they are hard to make. Made a second just to be on the safe side. Not going back in until I fix my battery backup.

 

[mogbert]

Pet Ritualist is doing fine so far at 60. I'm in the second expansion so far. My hoarding was starting to become cumbersome, so I asked for a suggestion on how to solve that.
There are two mods:
GDStash (Java machine)
GD Item Assistant (.Net framework)

I didn't have java installed on my machine, I just remember how annoying it was asking me to update it every other day because of security issues, so I went with the .Net framework one.
Haven't used it, but apparently it 'reserves' the last two tabs of your shared stash, but in exchange you have infinite storage with the ability to filter and search for anything you've put in there.

I'll let you guys know if it works, for any other hoarders out there...

 

[mogbert]

OK, been using GD Item Assistant for a few hours. I'm REALLY hoping it is stable, because I've moved about all of my epics into there (holding my few legendaries in shared stash for now).

So far, only downside is it is a bit clunky at first. You need to tell it to stop bugging you about the online component. I told it to minimize to tray and then told windows to keep the tray item visible. Also you probably want to set the annoying notifications to auto dismiss. You only need to access the program to withdraw things from your database. It does take a few minutes to get all the icons working and such. When you first install it (and have to reboot the computer), it has to parse your game to build a database of what items there are (I guess this is to make it so they don't need to update it after each patch). Then it takes several minutes after that before the icons start to show up. But after that, I had no problems.

So, it 'reserves' the last two tabs of your shared stash (depending on how many you have bought). The next to last is for withdraws (so you want to keep it mostly empty to give you space to take stuff out of your database), and the last tab is for deposits. As soon as you put anything in that tab, it disappears (pop up dialog to say it was taken by Item Assistant). For the most part, you want to have closed your stash and walked away from it to do anything in your item assistant app.

The best thing about it is that you can filter and sort the items to find stuff you might not realize you had. It also keeps track of duplicates, where they only show up once (with a note that there are duplicates) and when you go to withdraw one, it lets you pick between them for which one you want to withdraw.

So far, I like it.

Edit:
Did just run into a... thing with Item Assistant. The Auto Updater told me there is a new version available. The one I downloaded was from the website and hasn't been updated in about a year (1.3.8142.11921), so I was surprised there was an update one day after installing it. I checked, and I still don't see any new versions, either on the main website or Nexus, and nothing mentioned on any of the threads. Concerned about malicious payloads, I deferred the installation for 10 days (can't deny the installation, only defer it or do it now).

So I go into the app and click "check for update" and it says if there is an update, it will pop up the window, but it doesn't pop up any window. This could be there isn't really an update, or it could be that this doesn't override the 10 day deferral.

Finally I found the link to the discord, and when I check there, it DOES appear to have some updates (as recently as 12/24/22), they just haven't updated the version they upload on their website or Nexus. Also, I see the developer is pretty active, even linking an Ars article from 3/18 (Hi NotMe if you ever read this). So it had me worried at first, but probably isn't a bad thing.

 

[mogbert]

Quick question: If you take your character to Elite, is your progress in Normal saved? I kind of want to pick up a better Warden's Judgement, but I'm about half way through

Edit: Never mind, I already did the thing.

 

[mogbert]

So pretty much my build is Elite ready. I'm level 73 (made it to 70 in normal mode, particularly farming Wendigos for that flipping Gaze drop). I don't have 'optimal' drops for any of my slots, but I figure that is par for the course.
It is strong enough that any bosses in Normal die often without me noticing them. The only ones that last very long are the ones with invulnerability phases. Ground effects are still the bane of my existence. And I don't mean the enemies that die and leave a puddle. I mean floors made out of poison you need to run through, or aether fields, that kind of thing. Though the whole poison puddle when you die and at the end I was fighting some guys that ALWAYS set you on fire every time you kill one, and they could wear down my pet's HP if I went through them too fast.

I did run into the problem of not having enough Spirit several times, so I had to dip into my reserves in order to be able to equip things. I've been trying to choose items that have built in Spirit so I don't run into that again, but it isn't uncommon that I get an upgrade, then find another piece of equipment has stopped working because I don't meet the requirements for it anymore.

Other than that, this Ritualist build is Normal tested and approved. I should be able to hit lvl 100 in elite, and if I'm lucky, maybe not have to do Ultimate at all. Trying to decide on what kind of build I want to do next. It will largely be based on what equipment I find. If I get some great legendary pieces which are key to making a particular build work, then I'm more likely to try that build. At this point, though, I'm just building up a 'library' of components. I have a few hundred of some, and none of others (craftable).

 

[mogbert]

Not a lot of movement on the thread. Got a few upgrades and I'm starting to feel OP again, even in Elite. Only in Act 3 at the moment, but I ran through the Steps of Torment without any issues. Didn't even need to resummon my skellies. I switched to the Dirge of Arkovia for the chonky skelly guy. Necrolord's Shroud dropped while I was in there, so I switched that in. Switched to Eyes of the Reaper because it was better than what I had on at the time. And because I was still using gloves from about lvl 35, I switched to Purging Touch gloves. Since my dots and such seem to count as attacks, it is triggering the lighting bolts and arcane bolts all the time. Not a lot of damage, but when it is incidental and doesn't require anything on my part, no reason not to.

One change to the build that I made was replacing Ravenous Earth and Decay with Grasping Vines and Entangling Vines. Ravenous Earth might be "good" at proccing Arcane Bomb, but they aren't often around for it to blow. Grasping Vines proc's it and holds them there as they get hit. It also helps I have some effect (I think, not sure from what) that seems to cause them to run away when I attack. That means my grasping vines causes them to run back and forth over the bombs. There is an added benefit that the vines seem to have a lot less restriction on where I cast them and a VERY short recast timer letting me cast it over and over as I run. Either way, I've tried it both ways and I really prefer the Grasping Vines.

Only thing I'm concerned about is I'll change something and lose the 'secret sauce' which is making the build work.

Edit:
Dang nabbit! Got some really nice Necro gloves, legendary. 30% chance to summon a pet on enemies death. I can't seem to trigger it. I even de-summoned my skellies to give me a better chance. Still going to wear it because it does buff one of my skills, and has decent stats. I was tempted to make that relic that summons pets on attack (swarmlings) but I haven't found the nemesis blueprint yet, so I'll stick with the chonky skelly.

 

[mogbert]

I really wanted to hear how everyone else is doing in the game. Like, did you get an unexpected drop that was way better than what you were farming for? Did you respec to a different build and now are zooming through? How far have you gotten?
I'm still on my second character (first didn't make it too far, but I can respec and fix them later if I like). I've just started Ultimate. Elite wasn't really much of a problem. Ultimate is proving more challenging, but so far nothing too bad. Enemies that summon poison pools on death now melt my skellies in seconds. A ton of legendaries are dropping now, but very rarely anything I could even consider using.

I think once I start finding "final" best in slot items, I need to consider using augments. I've been holding out using too many components or augments on my equipment because I'll often run into equipment that needs more spirit to equip, and it isn't hard to slap on some spirit with components. Even in Ultimate, some of my resistances are capped, although I don't have anything that raises the caps. Chaos is negative, but I understand that won't come up much until later, so I have some time and room to farm better pieces. I'm Honored almost everywhere, revered a few places, and I think only respected in the rest.

I'm at the point where the incidental damage from lightning bolts and such that trigger from my attacks are drops in the bucket, not really a selling point anymore.

I'm thinking right now that I may set my sights on another Ritualist build, and start target farming for the drops to it. I just pulled up Grimtools to look at my options, and I found this build posted yesterday:
https://forums.crateentertainment.c...et-build-ghol-set-sr-90-mogdrogen-kill/126362
Now I just tried to take on Mogdrogen and even just on Elite, I couldn't even put a scratch on him. Also, the build I'm using is older, and may have had some changes. It will depend on IF I can farm the pieces for it. Hopefully I can do the farming in Elite, because I don't think my build is quite ready for Ultimate. I mean, I'm getting around, but bosses that should have been easy would kill some of my skellies. Pretty sure as I'm going through the Warden's place, some of those acid pools will mean I'll have to stop to resummon.

 

[mogbert]

Most of my faction rep has been natural for now, but for some reason some factions have just not been going up for me very fast. A few quests have faction hits (goes up for one side and down for another) and so the faction table can fix that quickly or you can wait for it to tick up on its own. Once you have an established character, you can buy and pass on the boost from the final shop tab to you next characters and it shouldn't take as long to get them up to speed.

I made it TO Port Valbury, but I didn't go in because I didn't have a key at the time. Ground effects are my bane, so I wasn't very happy leading up to there.

It's funny, because I have all these items, but then I go to look at a build, and I often haven't even seen any version of the items they are using. I'll probably need to get to farming...

 

[mogbert]

I just ran into a Nemesis for the first time today. And the second. It was on Ultimate. I'm just doing runs to try and get a good Warden's Judgement. I'm almost to the door when I notice my pets are all dying. I resummon them, and then I'm dead. I run back but then take it slow. I get to where I was and see a boss monster where I've never seen one before. I start fighting it and it is HARD. Not Moggie hard, I'm doing damage, but hard enough that I'm having to kite and resummon and use several pots... repeatedly. I eventually kill him and that's when I find I'm at the lowest rank with Aetherials. Who knew? Well, I had heard of farming Nemesis's, at least in the phrase "Don't bother farming Nemesis's" because it was random where they spawned, so it was very rare to just run into one randomly.
So I started my next run (very bad luck as the Warden didn't drop anything five times in a row, and then a junk Judgement) and I ran into them AGAIN! I was doing alright, but at some point when I was doing a resummon kite, he two-shotted me. And I'm not too shabby in the defense department, but I guess not up to those standards. Having thought ahead, I had a portal set down and was able to return and finish them off, but OUCH. Luckily I'm not doing these runs for exp. I think you only get a portion back from the grave sites.
So how 'lucky' is it that I ran into the Nemesis twice? Is it something I'm going to have to deal with on my Warden's runs for now? Is there anyway to get on their good side? Maybe sacrifice a town or two? Because I'm just trying to get some equipment to go through the two expansions on elite. Kind of tempted to just portal out if I see one again. They don't drop just about anything useful that I saw yet. At least the one I fought didn't. Maybe if it dropped a legendary or even epic it might be worth the several minutes it takes to kill it with my current equipment. Meanwhile I drop the Warden like he was a sack of potatoes.
I think what I need to do is drop back to elite and see what augments I can get that raise my pets resistances and maybe base damage?

Edit: OK, picked up two augments to raise their poison resists. And they are just running through stuff now. Still haven't found a good upgrade to my weapon, but other than running into a nemesis again, I don't think I have anything to worry about in that first act. Well, I DO lose a few skellies when I get jumped by four or more heroes at once, but I think that is to be expected. I've found a an important thing when you are running a mass pet build. You HAVE to bind Pet Attack to either left or right click. It seems to be the only way to move them. Also, it helps to make them disengage rather than fighting enemies while standing in ground effects. Also, when you drop a wendigo totem, keep pulling them back to it. Some enemies will chase you back to them and the pets can fight in the (relatively SMALL) aura. And when the enemies don't chase you back, it gives the ranged skellies a chance to unload on them before the melee skellies close the distance again. You also REALLY need to focus fire with multiple heroes at once. You take a ton more damage spreading out your attacks to all the heroes than if you take them down one at a time. This is for Ultimate, I didn't really have this trouble in Elite.

I had been worried about playing Ultimate, because it just seemed it was the super hard part of the game I thought I'd never reach. But the truth is that as long as you update your equipment from time to time, there really isn't much to worry about. Keep your eye on your resistances, though. I have several buffs that help, and once I get my upgraded equipment, I'll shore up the weak points with augments. The only part that is really weak at this point is Chaos resistance, but once I start upgrading parts and such, I don't know where my resistances will be.

 

[mogbert]

I was looking at that build, I had pasted earlier (https://forums.crateentertainment.c...et-build-ghol-set-sr-90-mogdrogen-kill/126362)
I wanted to start getting the parts for it... but then I noticed that the main weapon was a perfect triple rare, with not just the right affixes, but in the case of the prefix where it could roll with different ones, it was the best one they could roll. Basically, it is a one in a billion weapon. From what I can tell, the MI is the important part, and if I can get a good roll on it, then even better.

Still haven't seen a single piece of Ghol's set. The ideal is if I could get the one blueprint for a piece, then I can roll to change it to a different piece of the same set.

Anyway, a lot of the equipment I need for either build is faction equipment from Forgotten Gods, so I went back to elite and I'm running through the two expansions. I'm level 96 now. I feel kind of squishy in Ultimate, but pretty OP in Elite. Once I get my level 90+ equipment, I'll start putting on more augments and components, and maybe I can fix that a bit. I've had a few really nice component blueprints drop in ultimate. I actually unspec'd out of one of my skills because the component attack was better.

I just found that as you respec points, the price keeps going up. I didn't realize that. I had been redistributing my points when I found a +1 all skills in X piece, then I'd remove some poitns and put them in other places. Now I'm worried I may have painted myself into a corner. My current plan is to back up my whole save file when I go to respec into the poison build, and if it sucks worse than my current build I can just restore my save file. Definitely going to have to use those respec potion for it, though.

Apparently the build I'm in is one of the stronger ones (at least it feels that way if I'm not having any trouble in Ultimate). I might have just been lucky with some of my equipment. I got the Mythical Fiendflash greaves, which seem pretty nice. One thing I did which REALLY helps out in the first few acts, well in most of the acts, is max out the pets acid resistance. I may have to change things later, but SO many things leave GIANT acid pools as they die that if you don't have maxed acid resist on your pets you will wind up having to resummon skellies all the time.

I have a really nice head piece, with +1 nec and +1 shaman, so I don't really think I want to switch for the one that makes summoning skellies easier. I mean, if I found the PERFECT one, maybe, but otherwise all it is doing is making it easier to resummon skellies, which is nice in the middle of a log fight, and might be needed for super bosses (or maybe later Ultimate bosses) but my current headpiece, Mythical Wreath of Souls is a great general purpose one for my build, giving me the equivalent of 24 skill points (at least, once I settle on my final equipment and go back to redistribute those that are over the cap). That's pretty hard to beat.

Also, I'm getting a lot of achievements that Steam claims are rare, like killing 100,000 monsters (5.5%). I'm guessing most people don't get very far into the game or something.

Edit: OK, I was wrong. I got a Mystic Ascendant Cowl of the Wild, and while it isn't PERFECT, it is pretty darn good. It doesn't give me 24 skill points, but it does give me 12. But for one thing, when I'm farming, it REALLY speeds up my login time because I can have all my skellies up in (X-4s)*2 rather than X*4. And resummoning all of my pets in the middle of a fight is super easy now. Also, and I haven't done much testing on this, they seem much sturdier now. All my skelly points were capped, I think (I have a lot of over capped skills, but until I get my equipment straightened out, I don't want to mess with them much)m but I just did an ultimate totem for the first time since switching, and then weren't even slightly down.

I think it is because a lot of their resistances are maxed out. They (and I) are still very weak against Chaos. Going to need to pump that up somehow. Anyway, because totems kind of give you random heroes, I decided to test how strong my pets were against the Warden in Ultimate. SO I brought them into his room, and didn't help them at all. I left my permanent buffs up, but didn't activate any of my temp buffs, temp pets, proc buffs, proc pets, etc... They still wiped the floor with the Warden, losing only two skellies and three others were a little low. Normally, trying ot fight him with no help would have taken forever and they would have lsot the war of attrition, eventually doing less and less damage as they fall away until he would be after me.

Jury is still out between Primal Instinct and Dirge of Arkovia. On one hand, I tend to stack up the resummoned swarmlings pretty fast, but they seem to be much slower than the rest of the boys. I'm not sure how much help they are actually being. The big skelly golem from Dirge is is a hefty chonker, and I'm pretty sure he holds his own weight, but I also figure he falls behind my other tanks a bit in damage and sturdiness. He has more HP then all five swarmings put together, but I figure the swarmlings keep getting resummoned on my dot ticks. The damage on my swarmlings might be lower due to them taking longer to walk to the enemy and getting squashed real easily by AoE's. Hard to say.

BTW: Hit level 100

 

[mogbert]

I guess everyone is either posting elsewhere, or not playing anymore.
My aether pet build is pretty good, and I am rolling ultimate so far. There were some optional bosses that gave me some problems, Rashalga, the Mad Queen for example. My Chaos resistance on my pets is low, and there aren't a lot of options to fix it. Now I know my defenses aren't max, and there is no way I'm getting high scores in shattered realm, but I should be able to roll the story missions.
Also, I've been collecting the equipment I need to pivot to that poison pet build using the Ghol's set. I have the whole Ghol set (not sure what happened. Went from never seeing it to getting several pieces, and I was able to roll a dupe to get the missing piece. I don't have great rolls on some of the pieces (spent a few hours farming bysmiel guardian to try and get decent pants). Still missing some pieces. Figure I'd push the story along so everywhere is unlocked on ultimate, which should help my farming.
I DID just find out something VERY nice. I had been having trouble with Nemesis', but I've boosted some resistances and I'm holding my own pretty well now. What I found was that the Nemesis doesn't drop the treasure. You have to go back to where they spawned and there is a sort of lump that gives some NICE stuff. Like a couple of legendaries and a blueprint. Just ran into two of them, and sometimes you have to look pretty far to find the trove.

Something I'd like to fix, preferably WITHOUT a save file editor, is I'd like to reset and lock the cost of respecing points. Right now I have a bunch of wasted points because I got equipment boosting things that were already maxed. But since I'm going to pivot to poison, I didn't want to screw up the costs by fixing them. I'd much rather have it set to a fixed, low cost and I can do it as much as I'd like. I didn't realize the price would go up and keep rising, so when I was low level I did a ton of respecing and screwed myself over. Didn't notice the price going up.

 

[mogbert]

I'm kind of seeing if I get the parts needed for a Avenger build before I get the last drops for a poison pet build.
My arcane pet build might be good enough for me to count the game "finished". There will always be some bosses that are harder than others, but most of the non-optional bosses were a cakewalk. Compared to my first character, which I never got past Act2, the differences are day and night. Most optional bosses are easy as well. Occasionally, I'll run into one that is difficult, but no real explanation why. Like I'll take down a nemesis five times, no sweat. Then one time he has me kiting and resummoning over and over, maybe even dying. I suspect there is some aspect that I'm missing.
If I could find another game to hold my interest, I'm close to calling this done. Only thing left is the Forgotten Gods expansion in Elite and Ultimate. I really should finish it in Elite before running it in Ultimate.

 

[mogbert]

Well, Grim Dawn is complete on Ultimate difficulty (and elite and normal).
Not sure if I'll roll another character, farm some more, or move on to another game...

 

[mogbert]

I decided to roll a pure melee character just to fart around and get to use some of the things I've picked up. Not really having "fun" but the game is a bit different with exp potions, all bags unlocked, all teleports unlocked, all factions getting fast boosted, etc... Second characters (technically third, but my first character was so broken they didn't get past 24) really get speed boosted.

The BEST suggestion I can give for anyone starting a character out is to have a build to follow (even if you make it yourself) and DON'T start the main game first. Sure, you can get in there and fart around on a trial character, but one you are ready to start playing for real, take your brand new, fresh rolled character, and run the crucible a few times. When I STARTED the game, I was level 15 with five devotion points. I don't play crucible for almost anything else, but it is great at getting a fast start to your characters. You get decent starting equipment, a bunch of levels, and a chance to try out combat on the class to see how it goes.

 

[mogbert]

ALMOST have what I need for this:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jv0D42
Still missing the Mythical Windshear Greaves, and of course perfect rolls on all the greens. Also, I don't have THAT cowl, but I have something from that set and I'm pretty sure I can roll it into that cowl. My character is only 84, but my current farming character is 100. I finally got the second ring to drop, or rather the first ring to drop a second time, but since it was a two piece set, it was a guarantee when I rerolled it at the inventor it would become the other ring. Again, I tell a lie, I rerolled the first one because the second was better

I'm leveling using this build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NO6jAPZ
So far I mostly just die to floor puddles. Can't see them well when the whole screen is exploding and there are so many corpses you can't even see chests on the ground. 100% of the times I've died, I went form 100% to 0 faster then I could tell what killed me. When I look at my defense for last hit, it is always some scrub, non-elite. Best I can tell I was standing in a puddle and didn't see it.

I'd like some sort of ability to break down equipment to salvage the prefix, suffix, or MI base, then be able to make one yourself, even if it was limited to the same equipment and tier. Like you would put three of the same pieces of equipment into the window, one for prefix, one for base, and one for suffix. It would take all three, a ton of iron, and rare materials, then spit out a single custom piece.

 

[mogbert]

Well, in order to race to lvl 94, elite wasn't doing it because I had already outscaled it. So I started Ultimate. Act 1 was doable with my equipment, but as soon as I started Act II, I ran into problems. I could take down most elite mobs, but the bosses kept one shotting me. Doesn't matter how fast I was healing, I'd watch my life bar and it went from full to empty in a snap. I only had a couple of levels to go, so I grinded act 1 some more. When I hit lvl 94, I switched to that first build up above. I still don't have a good roll on the pants, a good medal, or the right boots, but I have "close enough" to make it work. I have all the 'needed' parts and I can farm for the others while using it.

The difference is like day and night. Ultimate is going as fast as elite was when I was overleveled. I just made it to Homestead. Enemies that one-shotted me on the previous build can't touch me now. My resistances aren't great, I haven't finished putting on all of the augments and components and I already said I need pants and the boots. My medal is a temp one. Because I don't ahve the right pants and boots, my poison resists were in the toilet. I have a medal that doesn't have great stats, but gives about 80 points in poison resistances.

Also, forgot to mention I don't have the right relic or medal augment either. But, again, I'm making due with what I do have, and that seems to be enough. Weird part is I'm level 99, but seem to be several points short on skill points. I know I will pick some up here and there, but I don't think the missing equipment has the difference. I need to double check I'm not capped anywhere, work out exactly how many I'm short, and try to determine where I'm missing them. Since I used the merit token, I should have gotten all of the points I could have from normal and elite, so I should just be missing a few from Ultimate.

Meh, I'll work on it when my head is working better...

 

[mogbert]

Maybe someone could give me a hint here (if anyone is left).
So, I really like the new build, almost nothing can touch me... almost...
See, I'm running into a big problem with the Grava'Thul, the Voiddrinker (cthonic nemesis).
So far, he seems to be the only one who can one shot me. Generally, when I see he is up, I drop a portal to be able to get back quickly after he kills me.
I've been trying to see what ability he does that is killing me, so I can try to figure how to counter it. I suspect that my pieces of equipment that are missing resistances are probably to blame.
At first, I thought it was his pool pets he keeps summoning. It is difficult to keep my HP full after three or so of those are summoned under you, but I was noticing that I almost always die the SECOND I disengage (using wither Vire's or my leap).
He does mostly chaos and physical. He CAN debuff you, but I've noticed I die in one shot whether I'm buffed or not. As far as I can see, he is either doing the charge from a short range or the damage wave (maybe both quick together?). Neither should be doing that much to me, I've got 16.5k buffed or 11.8k unbuffed. I don't see any resistance lowering, but they do have health percentage damage, though I have defense against that (I think). I can sometimes get lucky and disengage him, then try to fight where his puddles aren't, but eventually, he does either a shout, shoulder check, or hand swipe, and my health immediately drops form full to zero. My defense stat says he has a 2% chance to crit me. I have 2.8k armor rating, 2.4k defense. I'm only at 75% chaos resistance, but as I said I don't see him dropping that with his attacks and I don't see the 5% making a huge difference.
So what is happening that is one shotting me? I've held off putting augments or components on my legs and boots since they are temporary, but I may put something on it if it will surely make a difference there.

 

[mogbert]

Not really sure how to do that.
I'm following this guy's build:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jv0D42But I don't have the 'right' pants and medal, and I don't have the relic or shoes at all. I also seem to be about 5 skill points short, not sure why. There is probably a couple I can get through shattered realm quests. The stats were saying he only had a 2% chance to crit me, but who knows since the numbers may change depending on buffs. If I could roll the right affixes on the green gear, I could get up to 2600. He puts a lot of points in cunning instead of physique for all the crit procs I think.

In the mean time, I'm just farming for the right affixes on the soleal pants. I occasionally get one green affix. So far haven't seen ANY with both prefix and suffix as green, so I'm SURE that rolling the correct combination of two green affixes with high rolls in each stat is JUST around the corner... I was just farming it because each run there are a ton of elite mobs on the way and one altar, so I get about 5 or 6 epic/legendary items each run. Hoping I eventually find the boots I need or the blueprint along the way. Then it will be off to farm for the deathstalker, and there are a handful of ryloks there as well, so maybe a good medal will drop.

I really like this build so far, but I'm more than half tempted to just pack up all the epics and leges I've gotten and go for either a ranged build (first one I made failed spectacularly) or a pure caster build. Once I've done those, I think I'll be 'done' with the game. I've never going to get the "right" equipment to drop. the odds are astronomical, and I don't want to cheat an item into the game. I think my best bet might be to look over my triple rare stuff and see if any of it is worth building a character around...

I just checked, and the WHOLE time I've been playing, all three of my characters (only two to 100), I have found FIVE triple rare items at level 94. So they idea that I will find two triple rare items of a specific type with the right two affixes on them is ludicrous.

Only one that seems to have any synergy is a "Demonic Korvan Reaping Halberd of Solael's Malice" which would only work if I was doing a chaos/vitality damage ritualist.

The other four triple rares I've found just spread things out, like adding piercing damage and nightblade skills to a elemental focused caster helm.

 

[mogbert]

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zPodkZ
As I said, I could probably shore up those resistances a bit and change my augments around for the ones that are too high, but I was really hoping to replace some equipment soon and so didn't want to make all these changes and then have to change around again in a moment.

Here are the five skill points I'm missing:
https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/quests/ultimate
Pocky, I checked my Item Assistant, and I have mythical versions of those two items. How would I get them to you? I've already done two Shaman builds, so whatever I roll next wouldn't be a Shaman.

 

[mogbert]

I think the only thing is Mythical Windshear Greaves. I've been farming so long I have multiple copies of a lot of boots, but one of those hasn't dropped. No worries if you don't have a spare, you can have these anyway. I haven't ever done multiplayer on this game, so let me know when and what to do. I'm on est time in the US.

 

[mogbert]

Add me as a friend, and shoot me a message when you are online. I'm going to assume you are using steam, but if not, we should still be able to play: https://steamcommunity.com/id/pockyisgod/

I'm gonna go through my characters to see if I have the mythical version of Windshear Greaves.

Edit:: its a Blueprint item, and I don't think that I have seen the blueprint anywhere. Sorry bud.

Sent an friend request. I'll be online for another 3 hours or so, send a message when you can.

 

[mogbert]

Well, I went ahead and gave up farming for better equipment on my Avenger Archon, so I added the components and augments to cap out my resistances. I'm not high enough over capped to go against the guys who drop them by a bunch, but at least I'm not taking extra damage. I also capped my armor absorption, so that should help.

I've pretty much chosen to do a Skater Paladin next. I'm farming the parts I need on my Archon. I'm carving through those challenge dungeons like a hot knife through butter. Just hoping I don't run into any nemesiseses in there. I did get one of the pieces I need that was a random drop to actually drop (legendary belt) which was awesome. I'm probably going to substitute the pants and the gloves with what I have. Although, I'll be keeping my eyes open in case they drop.

Luckily, the Vanquisher set has set drops, so I just have to run the challenge dungeons over and over until the final chest drops what I need.

I've also been keeping my eyes open for the pieces I'm missing for converting my skelly pet build into a stronger poison pet build.

edit:
Port Valbury is the last one I have to farm. I left it for last because I hate it. In fact, I hated it so much, I had never been in there until I had to farm this piece. Ground effects suck.

I have most of what I need for the next build. Not sure if any are good rolls, but I just wanna go fast, and that is already in there.

One thing I've noticed is that 90% of the stuff I seem to be missing are legendary blueprints from Ashes of of Malmouth. I've had 777 legendary items drop (yes, exact number per Item Assistant) and that is not counting legendaries that are equipped or in personal stashes. Meanwhile, I get MAYBE one blueprint a day. Sometimes not even that. And I'm opening every dynamite trove and doing every alter and fighting every nemesis I've come across (btw, haven't been one shotted since I almost finished kitting out my defenses).

Makes me think I'm doing something wrong in trying to find Ashes of Malmouth blueprints. From what I've head, they should drop at any point in the game, possibly only after you have reached level 50, 75, or 90 depending. From what I've seen, after you are finished getting the easy ones, they don't drop, or are on some sort of timer. Right now, not really an issue, since I have possible substitutions that just won't be as optimal.

I had been frustrated by seeing I had 27 blueprints for legendary helms, but none for chest, feet, hands... so I went to grimtools and checked how many there were. Helms has 100 legendary blueprints. Gloves, boots, and pants have 2 each.

But even then, there are 73 legendary helm recipies, and at least 20 other legendary other armor recipes, why are none dropping, or dropping so rarely that I was thinking my game was bugged (up until I got another helm recipe yesterday). I don't think these are all locked in shattered realm, since a lot of the blue prints are from AoM. I'm running challenge dungeons constantly in the last couple of days (before trying to get Deathstalker, and now finishing the vanquisher set) and the whole time I've seen one blueprint, and these are from runs that regularly net me ten or more legendaries.

So, if there is something I'm missing, like a cap on how many blueprints can be found with one character, or something like "Of course you haven't found more blueprints, you need to run the blueprint quest!" then just let me know. I'm already doing everything I can think of.

 

[mogbert]

I did die there when I was farming for the Vanquisher's Mantle. What I found is he has a stacking fire damage (I think?). Run up to him, hit him until the second stage starts, then, while he is still invulnerable, run to the bottom of the arena. Stay out of the fire sprays. He will run down to you, hit him a few times, but as soon as he pauses to wind up a big attack, I run back up top and kill a few of the plants there (I have a heal on kill ring set). Then I run to some other clear area and wait for him to come over to me and I beat on him until he winds up again.
Since I started that strategy, I haven't died to him since. However, my character is pretty tanky.

Speaking of which, I went ahead and rebuilt my aether skelly ritualist into a poison blightfiend ritualist. I don't have all the right pieces, so not all the skills were maxed out, but I have all the important pieces, and decent rolls. I managed to overcap the resistances on me and my pets. And they did well. I have one alter where they needed healing after (though I'm not sure if I put the totem down during that fight, it was one of the early fights with the build and I wasn't used to the buttons yet). During the port Valbury boss fight, I did have to resummon them right at the end of the fight, but I was never in any danger.

However, while it is probably a bit more powerful and tankier then my skelly build, it is still much slower and less tanky than my Archon. I'm still farming for the Vanquisher's Helm so I'm having to run through the port a BUNCH. So the faster I can go through it, the better. I've run it well over 30 times (didn't think to check how many keys it was taking until I had to make a bunch more). I had a theory that if you got three parts of the set, the game would lower the drop rate of the final piece because of all the people on the net talking about how easy the first three pieces dropped for them, and how they were on their 70th run of the last place to get the final piece. I was hoping that by changing characters, I might have a better chance of it dropping. It didn't work, and this might all just be superstition, but it at least broke up the monotony of running the same place over and over again.

I got the MEHmesis and Unequaled Slayer achievement because I've been running these dungeons so much.

Edit:
Woot! Got it! I now have all four pieces. I just looked at the rolls, and it they aren't really good rolls, but I'll make due. I think I have most of the other pieces I need... other than a level 94 templar. Guess I'm rolling one tomorrow and will grind to get it up.

 

[mogbert]

OK, so here's my plan:
I've -kinda- done this once, sort of, so it SHOULD work. Since my character isn't doing 'self found' stuff, I'm pretty much free to funnel them stuff to boost their leveling. I load them up with EXP potions, best merit, and EVERY faction boost in the game. I hate having to side with Kymon's Krazies or Marrowholm, but I also don't like missing out on their augments. Can't pass those between characters either. So in my normal playthrough, I side with both of them, I use iron farmed on my other characters to buy plenty of augments and any of the equipment that looks like it might be useful for a templar. Then, I skip from Normal right to Ultimate. By gobbling exp potions constantly, I can usually finish Normal around level 70 or so, which is about high enough to run ultimate. In my last build, it wasn't ready until level 94, so I wasn't really 'good' at ultimate for 20 levels. I found that Act 1 isn't too bad, even in ultimate, as long as you cap poison and aether resists, you can farm act 1 until you hit 94 (since ultimate scales to your level, I think).
See, by doing this, I can side with Order of Death's Vigil and also go hostile with the bone chewers of Sunnydale, and if it winds up later that I absolutely HAVE to switch sides, then I THINK I can go back to Elite, run the plot up to them, and side with them again, and it should fix my faction in Ultimate... I think. But in the mean time, I have a character I can use to farm endgame wendigo items with. Also, I'm going to side with Solael in ultimate, even though I hate him, because they have a mini cthonic rift near the end which is supposed to be the best for farming some endgame cthonic MI's.

For right now, I'm only KIND of following the leveling guide. I kind of screwed up earlier, and I COULD fix it, but I want to keep my respect costs low for now so I'm just running a slightly unoptimized leveling build. Once I get to Ultimate and my final equipment, I can see how many points I need to spend on attributes, can redo all my constellations at once, and fix my skills.

Also, I still really like the flash freeze for a huge aoe nuke/dot/cc/debuff, so I haven't pulled my points out of it when they suggested to.

 

[mogbert]

So I'm grinding in Ultimate, though my gear is outleveled. I wanted to see how far I could go since the last one (my archon) couldn't even make it past the beginning of Act 2 before I leveled them up to their final equipment.
Well, this one could get to the first part of the ghost ruins of Act 3. But the second hero you are supposed to hunt down is just a nightmare to this guy. I'm maxed out on resistances, I don't have 'end game' defense, but enough that I think the guy has only a 3% chance to critical. I had JUST leveled up before I got there, so I didn't lose too much exp failing to fight him over and over. This build counts on hit and run, and kiting, but the guy teleports to you and launches huge AoE attacks. I can stay alive for a few moments by hitting my health potion fast enough, but that just seems to hold my hp steady for a few moments before he teleports to me and kills me off.

Well, back to the grind. Now, I could optimize my build, drop back to normal and buy augments for my gear, but honestly levels come so fast I don't see the point. I can just find some enemy rich areas and grind them a bit, as I level the enemy levels and the exp gain doesn't drop. I still need 10 more devotion shrines (that is a downside to skipping Elite and not doing absolutely everything in normal, you are coming to ultimate with your devotions about 3/5 done).

I have put together my full outfit for level 94. I even made a couple of the volcanums to pick the best one. I have two each of the rings (hard to tell which does more damage, a couple of points in flat damage or a few dozen percentage points, I'll be able to tell once I put on the equipment). Couldn't make a couple of Serenity because of how long the recipe is, but I got a decent one, so I'm cool with it. For anyone who doesn't know, you need to make a LOT of mistborn talismans in order to craft things, but you can BUY troll bonecrushers for them at a secret shop. Just buy a handful and craft some talismans in advance. They don't take up much storage room.

Funny thing about the belt. I saw it has a blueprint and started to despair because I had only found the white lotus blue print, but a crimson lotus belt had dropped at some point, so I don't even need to craft it. I'll see if I can't get to 94 today, depending on how busy I get.

Edit:
Woot! Hit 94! Loaded up my equipment and I... AM... SPEED!
Now I just need to work on my defenses and resistances so I'm not also dead.
But FIRST... the hardest part of finalizing a build... I have to find the most stylish illusions so I that when I knock 'em dead, I REALLY knock 'em dead.

Edit2:
I overcapped my resistances by about 30% (except bleeding and piercing) and my DA, OA, and AR are all about 2800. I haven't spent all my ability points or gotten all my levels yet, and I still have several devotion shrines to find. But the build is online. That boss that was repeatedly wiping the floor with me, to the point where I gave up trying to fight them? I wiped the floor with them, without using any temporary buffs, and I took none or next to no damage.

OOO! Forgot I could do this:
GrimTools Build, level 94 Templar
Hmm... my AR in the game is 2818, but in grimtools it is 2716.

Edit3:
Hit 100 and 55 devotion points. Still need to do certain quests to get my missing skill points. I did finally run into a mob that managed to get me to half life (by then, my 'circuit breakers' kicked in and I kicked their butts). It was Loxmere Nightmage, and apparently what they did was wipe out all my buffs, and they kept teleporting to me. Still beat them before I even thought of using my temp buffs or any potions. My main goal for this character is to run Shatter Realm, which I've only peeked in before. But even then, I'm not likely to try and push as high in SR as the creator of the build. I mostly just want to get the skill points from the quests and be able to farm some of the blue prints I'm missing.
Also, some of the MI's only drop from ONE monster in the game, and that one monster is in a dungeon that is five minutes from the nearest rift gate, and three floors down, so it takes like 10 minutes to even find the guy, then there is a 20% chance they drop something, and a 5% chance on top that it will be decent. Having a Speedster can cut that down to just a few minutes.
Current build @100

 

[mogbert]

Life has been... difficult lately, so I haven't gotten to play in a while. I logged on today and decided rather then pushing through Forgotten Gods, I was just going to push through some Shattered Realm. I hadn't really done it before. My best character I took 5 levels in, but I wasn't having fun. With the ATV build, I can move fast enough that I don't feel bad when the portal to the next place spawns so far from me. I also wind up killing a lot of enemies that I'm not focusing on, so I get through quickly.

I made a rookie mistake when I first went in. In my defense, I hadn't played in a bit. I got to around the 4th shard before I realized I had forgotten to put on my buffs. I thought things were dying a lot slower than usual. Once the buffs were on, I went a lot faster. Later on when I ran into an enemy that debuffed me, it wasn't that big an issue.

I went down to level 15 so far. I want to try and get deep enough to get a set of that fancy armor. So far I got two skill points from it, I think I need to go do the three gods quest line to get that skill point, and soon I'll have finished the build.

Edit: I worked my way up (down? across?) to floor 50 to finish those quests. Think I'll try to get to 65 as that is where most people say the farming is the best. You go in at floor 65, finish floor 66, then exit for the sweet, sweet loot. I'm also getting two or three blue prints per run right now, which is nice because the blueprint fountain had dried up until this point.

 

[mogbert]

New patch out now. I'm seeing lots of buffs across the board. Haven't had a chance to look at the whole thing. I'm JUST about done with Grim Dawn, I think. If I can make it to level 65 in shattered realm, and finish Forgotten Gods, I think I can pretty much count it finished.

If you haven't done the ATV build, I highly recommend it. By far the most fun I've had in the game.