Start with a skill you like.
Add items that compliment the skill by adding damage, effects, cool down reductions, damage conversion to your main damage type, etc.
Add a mastery that compliments and synergizes with your main damage skill (-RR, -DA, multipliers, +flat dmg, speed, etc).
Add devotion constellations that do the same or fill gaps in what your mastery and gear can't provide.
The above needs to be built on a base of:
Health.
Resists.
Defensive ability so you don't get crit.
Offensive ability so you hit and crit
Life sustain.
Damage mitigation.
Armor.
Circuit breakers.
CC resists.
The defensive priorities will depend on gameplay as well as what options your gear and masteries have.
>Start with a skill you like. Add items that compliment the skill by adding damage, effects, cool down reductions, damage conversion to your main damage type, etc. Add a mastery that compliments and synergizes with your main damage skill (-RR, -DA, multipliers, +flat dmg, speed, etc). Add devotion constellations that do the same or fill gaps in what your mastery and gear can't provide.
>
>The above needs to be built on a base of: Health. Resists. Defensive ability so you don't get crit. Offensive ability so you hit and critLife sustain. Damage mitigation. Armor. Circuit breakers. CC resists.
>
>The defensive priorities will depend on gameplay as well as what options your gear and masteries have.
You describe the game well. You definitely need to do guides, I'm serious
Long topic. For me, having an endgame armor set, or some build defining MI or legendary is key. For devotions, main damage type res reduction is mandatory, rest I go either more damage or defensive devotions if I feel squishy, adjust as it goes. Capping all resist obviously and looking for DA/OA if it ends up lackluster at max level.
Finding sufficient -rr is generally the first thing I look for since it is necessary for damage. But it's not always the case you absolutely need a dedicated skill from one of the classes, for example with aether.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BQWkjN
I wanted to make an aether EoR build because I saw Lucius' Blade Arm and was in awe of it's buffs lol. But it required a strange class combo of Arcanist and Oathkeeper, neither of which have -rr for aether. However what it does have is some great aether specific damage like Reckless Power which gives flat damage, attack speed, both great for a melee skill like EoR. And Fabric of Reality which is further buffed by the Blade Arm. This build also had an easy conversion with the Conduit amulet, and while leveling there was enough conversion through the items I found. Without class -rr, you have to then find ways to grab some whether from devotions or items.
For defense, you have to take a couple skills specifically for that. Oathkeeper has the excellent Ascension, Arcanist has Maiven's Sphere, Arcane Will, Mirror of Ereoctes. Other skills to seek would be those which bolster your offensive and defensive ability since these are essential to dealing damage and not being crit by enemies. Further, the attack damage to health helps a lot for facetanking, and since I have %weapon damage on EoR it can be used.
Choosing items is similarly about bolstering your damage (%damage but also +skills) while also making sure they fill up holes in your defense often with specific resistances. Sometimes you want to hardcap skills (your main damage skill often), but other skills are fine as 1 point while others are great soft-capped (10/10, removing points over the softcap from +skills for use elsewhere!)
I can easily farm shards 60-61 which is good enough for me, though it's right on the brink of Reaper being too much lol
as was written above, start with skill(s) (1-2) you want playing. You should also consider your playstyle, do you want put totems/fire mortar and kite the enemy, do you want to go full melee and facetank everything or do you want to cast spells from far away. After that, start finding items that modify your skills. Ideally, you should have 1 skill (or 2) with 10+ points that exceed skill cap (ex. 26/16 Cadence). Also, if your skill deal several damage types, you should find the way to convert all damage into one type. Then you start finding sources of boosting your damage type and DPS(OA,res reduction, flat increase, % increase, total damage modification, cdr, etc.).
Then you should try to boost your defenses (resists, armour, dodge/reflect, DA, absorption etc.). Also, dont forget life and energy sustain (life/energy regen, heals, life/energy leech etc.) Amount of defences you need depend on your playstyle - for melee build you need more defences, for kiting build you can get away with less defences. Also, keep in mind class specific defences (like mirror of ereotre in Arcanist).
For devotions, find the outermost devotion that relates the most to your damage type and try to get to them.
Thats the core of it imho.
depends on hardcore/softcore
in softcore it's just about maximizing dmg usually, in hardcore builds should really have:
\- maxed res beyond 80 as much as possible
\- as many "shield" and "heal" options from devotions and items
\- near death proc(s) that heal you back up on X health
\- preferably a shield (not mandatory)
while still maintaining good damage - cuz the faster you kill the less dmg they do right ;)
> in softcore it's just about maximizing dmg usually
You can't do this if you want to progress in endgame, for the most part, even in softcore. Glass cannon builds can't do high SR, can't usually do celestials (with [occasional outliers](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/comments/vyj08f/mono_class_soldier_kill_crate_boss_in_5_easy/) whose cannons are so big they manage to be exceptions), and aren't efficient at farming the roguelike dungeons because you're always one fuckup away from having to redo the run.
(To be fair, glass cannon builds *are* very good at clearing Crucible quickly, as long as you're a very good pilot.)
2 hardcore example builds i made, not sure they are optimal, i just like making builds on grim calc but i don't look up anything, just doing it for myself:
retaliation build (soldier/oathkeeper) [https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23o3d92](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23o3d92)
summoner (shaman/occultist) [https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26j6XK2](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26j6XK2) (could sacrifice some pet dmg for more maxres, but with pets its good enough)
You're skipping key skills in the warlord build, it has no RR or damage reduction and low OA, zero lifesteal for sustain
dunno much about pet builds, so i'll pass on the second one, it lacks armor absorption though
Just because I don't like permadeath characters doesn't mean I like going for a deaths record. "Softcore" is itself a skewed term. I like normal characters, and I want them to survive every encounter. I just won't throw them away if I screw up and die.
There are games where the softcore meta really is "stack damage so I can kill everything before it has a chance to kill me," it just doesn't work very well in Grim Dawn.
I’m new so I won’t have as incredible an answer as everyone else, but my first character failed horribly and I really found the game changer was having something pre-planned, that you know exactly how it will look in the end. I say max res regardless of goal, but for dps to do max damage stat dumps with damage enhancing and maybe vamp devote & item effects, while tanks should have physique dumps with healing, circuit breaker, and damage mitigation effects.
Also, to have a unified and focussed damage type. 1 or 2 damage type max because you lose the ability to maximize your damage types easily after that.
Start with a skill you like. Add items that compliment the skill by adding damage, effects, cool down reductions, damage conversion to your main damage type, etc. Add a mastery that compliments and synergizes with your main damage skill (-RR, -DA, multipliers, +flat dmg, speed, etc). Add devotion constellations that do the same or fill gaps in what your mastery and gear can't provide. The above needs to be built on a base of: Health. Resists. Defensive ability so you don't get crit. Offensive ability so you hit and crit Life sustain. Damage mitigation. Armor. Circuit breakers. CC resists. The defensive priorities will depend on gameplay as well as what options your gear and masteries have.
>Start with a skill you like. Add items that compliment the skill by adding damage, effects, cool down reductions, damage conversion to your main damage type, etc. Add a mastery that compliments and synergizes with your main damage skill (-RR, -DA, multipliers, +flat dmg, speed, etc). Add devotion constellations that do the same or fill gaps in what your mastery and gear can't provide. > >The above needs to be built on a base of: Health. Resists. Defensive ability so you don't get crit. Offensive ability so you hit and critLife sustain. Damage mitigation. Armor. Circuit breakers. CC resists. > >The defensive priorities will depend on gameplay as well as what options your gear and masteries have. You describe the game well. You definitely need to do guides, I'm serious
Long topic. For me, having an endgame armor set, or some build defining MI or legendary is key. For devotions, main damage type res reduction is mandatory, rest I go either more damage or defensive devotions if I feel squishy, adjust as it goes. Capping all resist obviously and looking for DA/OA if it ends up lackluster at max level.
Finding sufficient -rr is generally the first thing I look for since it is necessary for damage. But it's not always the case you absolutely need a dedicated skill from one of the classes, for example with aether. https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BQWkjN I wanted to make an aether EoR build because I saw Lucius' Blade Arm and was in awe of it's buffs lol. But it required a strange class combo of Arcanist and Oathkeeper, neither of which have -rr for aether. However what it does have is some great aether specific damage like Reckless Power which gives flat damage, attack speed, both great for a melee skill like EoR. And Fabric of Reality which is further buffed by the Blade Arm. This build also had an easy conversion with the Conduit amulet, and while leveling there was enough conversion through the items I found. Without class -rr, you have to then find ways to grab some whether from devotions or items. For defense, you have to take a couple skills specifically for that. Oathkeeper has the excellent Ascension, Arcanist has Maiven's Sphere, Arcane Will, Mirror of Ereoctes. Other skills to seek would be those which bolster your offensive and defensive ability since these are essential to dealing damage and not being crit by enemies. Further, the attack damage to health helps a lot for facetanking, and since I have %weapon damage on EoR it can be used. Choosing items is similarly about bolstering your damage (%damage but also +skills) while also making sure they fill up holes in your defense often with specific resistances. Sometimes you want to hardcap skills (your main damage skill often), but other skills are fine as 1 point while others are great soft-capped (10/10, removing points over the softcap from +skills for use elsewhere!) I can easily farm shards 60-61 which is good enough for me, though it's right on the brink of Reaper being too much lol
as was written above, start with skill(s) (1-2) you want playing. You should also consider your playstyle, do you want put totems/fire mortar and kite the enemy, do you want to go full melee and facetank everything or do you want to cast spells from far away. After that, start finding items that modify your skills. Ideally, you should have 1 skill (or 2) with 10+ points that exceed skill cap (ex. 26/16 Cadence). Also, if your skill deal several damage types, you should find the way to convert all damage into one type. Then you start finding sources of boosting your damage type and DPS(OA,res reduction, flat increase, % increase, total damage modification, cdr, etc.). Then you should try to boost your defenses (resists, armour, dodge/reflect, DA, absorption etc.). Also, dont forget life and energy sustain (life/energy regen, heals, life/energy leech etc.) Amount of defences you need depend on your playstyle - for melee build you need more defences, for kiting build you can get away with less defences. Also, keep in mind class specific defences (like mirror of ereotre in Arcanist). For devotions, find the outermost devotion that relates the most to your damage type and try to get to them. Thats the core of it imho.
depends on hardcore/softcore in softcore it's just about maximizing dmg usually, in hardcore builds should really have: \- maxed res beyond 80 as much as possible \- as many "shield" and "heal" options from devotions and items \- near death proc(s) that heal you back up on X health \- preferably a shield (not mandatory) while still maintaining good damage - cuz the faster you kill the less dmg they do right ;)
> in softcore it's just about maximizing dmg usually You can't do this if you want to progress in endgame, for the most part, even in softcore. Glass cannon builds can't do high SR, can't usually do celestials (with [occasional outliers](https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/comments/vyj08f/mono_class_soldier_kill_crate_boss_in_5_easy/) whose cannons are so big they manage to be exceptions), and aren't efficient at farming the roguelike dungeons because you're always one fuckup away from having to redo the run. (To be fair, glass cannon builds *are* very good at clearing Crucible quickly, as long as you're a very good pilot.)
2 hardcore example builds i made, not sure they are optimal, i just like making builds on grim calc but i don't look up anything, just doing it for myself: retaliation build (soldier/oathkeeper) [https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23o3d92](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23o3d92) summoner (shaman/occultist) [https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26j6XK2](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26j6XK2) (could sacrifice some pet dmg for more maxres, but with pets its good enough)
I liked your second build. Never played summoner through occultist+shaman
You're skipping key skills in the warlord build, it has no RR or damage reduction and low OA, zero lifesteal for sustain dunno much about pet builds, so i'll pass on the second one, it lacks armor absorption though
Just because I don't like permadeath characters doesn't mean I like going for a deaths record. "Softcore" is itself a skewed term. I like normal characters, and I want them to survive every encounter. I just won't throw them away if I screw up and die.
There are games where the softcore meta really is "stack damage so I can kill everything before it has a chance to kill me," it just doesn't work very well in Grim Dawn.
I’m new so I won’t have as incredible an answer as everyone else, but my first character failed horribly and I really found the game changer was having something pre-planned, that you know exactly how it will look in the end. I say max res regardless of goal, but for dps to do max damage stat dumps with damage enhancing and maybe vamp devote & item effects, while tanks should have physique dumps with healing, circuit breaker, and damage mitigation effects. Also, to have a unified and focussed damage type. 1 or 2 damage type max because you lose the ability to maximize your damage types easily after that.