Grim Dawn builds

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MrSmiley21 wrote:

I'm not sure if it's still viable in the latest patch, but I was running a Krieg's Set Aether-melee Death Knight, and it was pretty awesome. The only real threat was against packs that could drop your toggles. But everyone could die to that.

Yep heard about it, just there are like countless guides for that so it's hard to decide which one to follow as a newbie hahah

I find most Grim Dawn build guides unhelpful for reasons already mentioned, and one more besides.

Many builds in guides were put together and tested by using "GrimStash" (I think that's the right name), which allows players to give themself any item in the game. In other words, many build guide makers give themselves the gear needed to make the build, rather than earning it in-game. If that's your thing, then you can copy such builds with a fair amount of mouseclicks, but no actual in-game play.

There are some build guides, here and there, that were made to be played through the game. They're not *too* hard to find in case you're looking to play through and learn more about the game in the usual way.

I have a build guide for a "solo self found" pet build on the GD forums which is meant for beginners and is (still) hardcore viable. It has a lot of "extra" info helpful for newer players, whether they play pets or not, in case you're interested. The link is here:



The first post contains a "table of contents"; you can either "pick and choose" by topic or just read from the first post to the last.

I also have a current project with a Ritualist (Shaman / Necromancer) who focuses on vitality damage. There's an easy-to-find build guide on youtube for a broadly similar ritualist (thoughtfully done by the guide maker). Here's the link:



Vitality ritualists are remarkably tough (especially for a caster) and they do very good damage. The "Grimtools" notes I took when making my own version of the build are here, in case you wanted to check out a different way of putting things together:



Both the pet build and the vitality ritualist are good "starter" characters that can fight their own way through the entire game based purely on what you naturally find when playing the game.

Good luck, however you decide to move forward.

I found a link to a section of the GD forums devoted to beginner builds. Here's the link:



I didn't notice earlier, even though I ran across it multiple times. Hopefully it helps.

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EnjoyTheJourney wrote:
Many builds in guides were put together and tested by using "GrimStash" (I think that's the right name), which allows players to give themself any item in the game. In other words, many build guide makers give themselves the gear needed to make the build, rather than earning it in-game. If that's your thing, then you can copy such builds with a fair amount of mouseclicks, but no actual in-game play.

AND don't forget most build guides you have to be lvl 94 to use the items. Crazy!

This sort of thing actually ruined the game for me for a long time as I was hesitant to create my own builds since I was new and overwhelmed by all the stuff.

I will check out your guide. Love the pet builds in GD.

Thanks for posting.

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kolyaboo wrote:

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EnjoyTheJourney wrote:
Many builds in guides were put together and tested by using "GrimStash" (I think that's the right name), which allows players to give themself any item in the game. In other words, many build guide makers give themselves the gear needed to make the build, rather than earning it in-game. If that's your thing, then you can copy such builds with a fair amount of mouseclicks, but no actual in-game play.

AND don't forget most build guides you have to be lvl 94 to use the items. Crazy!

This sort of thing actually ruined the game for me for a long time as I was hesitant to create my own builds since I was new and overwhelmed by all the stuff.

I will check out your guide. Love the pet builds in GD.

Thanks for posting.

Glad to hear it!

I'll admit I haven't updated it in a while. A handful of the links may not work. The build and gameplay tips will still work well, though, in spite of the guide's age.

A key change is that the Familiar (Occultist pet) is much stronger now, and so the former criticisms leveled at it don't hold much weight anymore. In other words the build can perform even better now.

Here's a link to a key set of helpful posts that explore some technical issues.



You can find information about the link between OA and hits / critical hits in the second post. Knowing that information makes it easier to see the reason for why DA reduction for mobs and OA boosts for pets get so much attention in the build.

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TheFrostmourne wrote:

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MrSmiley21 wrote:

I'm not sure if it's still viable in the latest patch, but I was running a Krieg's Set Aether-melee Death Knight, and it was pretty awesome. The only real threat was against packs that could drop your toggles. But everyone could die to that.

Yep heard about it, just there are like countless guides for that so it's hard to decide which one to follow as a newbie hahah

I remember a poor-man's Blademaster build that could complete all the content in ultimate, and it mostly used faction vendor gear. It's a throwback to the old Warder budget build a lot of people used to run that used exclusively faction gear, and craftable stuff. I don't think you could take out Grava'thul, or Iron Maiden, or a couple other nemesis mobs, but for Ultimate story mode, it was good for that.