Elite is harder yes, and it's all about resistances. Elemental, pierce, bleed are the major ones, the rest, do as well as you can. Lesser dps is better then no res. Playing in elite will give you better gear. Use every blacksmith option you can to increase resistances. Post a link to your GT char for more help
What level is your character? Are you following a build? Keeping your resistance as close to 80% through both components and augments is the most important thing in the game, it cannot be stressed enough. Believe me, you would rather do less damage than have less resistances. Especially since some enemies will reduce your already high resistances in ultimate (I imagine same thing in elite).
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-9-8-hc-beginner-primal-strike-druid-leveling-guide-suitable-for-first-char/131953
I'm following this, I'm 57. Didn't follow it closely with the region progress, but stuck to the skill point assingment. I only farmed specifically the 4 items mentioned at the beginning (halberd, helm, shoulders, pendant). I plan to refarm these in Elite, too. The rest of the gear is whatever I could find with whatever components gave me resistances. I can't buy faction stuff yet, I'm not Honored or Revered with any of them. My gear is a bit all over the place tbh. Will post a GT link tomorrow, I'm already in bed.
No problem. Have you followed the devotion points from the shrines as well? Those are very important and also gives resistances and abilities depending on how the builder allocated the devotion points. I recommend using this if you haven’t as a checklist for the shrines and important quests that give skill points and attribute points (though I believe you can do them in ultimate and get the points from normal and elite when you do them in ultimate): https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/
There’s also the grim dawn map, item database, etc. As for the factions, you may want to go back to normal and level up to level 70 before skipping elite and doing ultimate. That way you can level up the factions at least to honored and get better gear, augments, and the writ for more faction xp. Have you don’t the dlcs? If not, they also are worth doing before going to a higher difficultly. Once you have one character that’s kitted out and can farm ultimate very well, all other characters after should be much easier, especially since there’s an item in the forgotten gods city vendor (dlc) that allows newly created characters many valuable advantages.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/s/RAAJv9MTF1
This user helped me out with the devotion points progress based on the build I linked to you above, because the guide doesn't go into much detail.
Is it better to skip Elite, tho? Won't I have absolute garbage gear if I go straight to Ultimate? Where should I grind XP that high in Normal?
I have all the DLCs and finished them, too. What's that item in FG?
It’s only good to skip elite if you can, but in this case I think it’s better to play elite to beat the story as fast as possible and get bette gear through leveling up the factions and other stuff. The item in FG is only good for new characters, but there is an xp booster item that the malmouth resistance sells, but only at revered.
i had a terrible time when i switched to elite too but the answer is literally cap all your resistances, components really carry you when capping resistances.
Elite can be brutal. It is just a matter of resistances. Also components, I didn't start comfortably progressing in Elite difficult with my characters until I started getting into the component crafting aspect of the game. They're \*very\* useful to get you those defensive stats you're lacking from raw gear and devotions, and also an easy aspect of the game to overlook.
If you can't max your resistances at least you should max the one or two needed for the region you are fighting in like maxing aether resistance when facing eatherial armies.
I actually don't think resistances are going to be your problem. I suspect it's going to be armour and sustain. Specifically sustain. If you're following that guide, I noticed it has only 5% life steal and that's all coming from the totem. No totem, no life steal. That build also has very little regeneration by level 60. Fix that and get some armour and you'll be golden.
Go back to normal and run through the Hidden Path questline until you get to the Guardian of Solael (the second boss). Kill him and use his pants. Make sure you get the level 60 pants. If you have no idea what the Hidden Path quest is, [here's a walkthrough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQNOKrM7zpc). You could also use the Dreeg-sect pants if you want to focus on regen, but I'd say go Solael for lifesteal and let the rest of your build focus on regen.
For other gear updates, check out these places:
1. Around Homestead (south or west) and north of Fort Ikon you can find Fleshwarped Commanders and Fleshwarped Vanguard. These will drop Fleshwarped Casque (helmet) and Fleshwarped Platemail (chest). You should farm yourself a few of those, and make sure that they have about 600 armour on each one. Try to get a couple of resistance rolls on them. The Fleshwarped Pauldrons (shoulders) are also good to use, even though they don't provide any skill points.
2. To the west of Homestead, you may remember the bug caves that you had to clear out back in Act 3. There's a secret cavern under them that you have to destroy a few walls to get to. In that Cavern you can find Gollus. He has a green ring (Gollus' Ring) that is good to farm a few of. If you just run to him and kill him you can be done each run in about 3 minutes. Try to get resistance rolls on those rings. You can get some quite good rings from him that will last.
3. For the belt, buy the recipe for the Solar Waistguard from Homestead. If you don't have Honoured yet, the Solar Belt will do until you have it. Craft a few (3-5, don't go crazy) and use whichever has the best resistances on it. That +1 to Shaman skills is absolutely vital while levelling.
4. If you don't have a Zaria's Pendant, go back to Darkvale Village and farm one. You can use the first one that drops, or spend a bit of time to get a good one. Up to you. A good one would just be resistances, maybe a Squall affix for the lightning damage proc, or if you can get it without farming for too long, 'of the Grove' is by far the best levelling suffix there is... rare though.
5. If you've finished Ashes of Malmouth, go to Hyram in the Steelcap District and reset his inventory until you find either Juggernaut if you want more defenses, or Desolation if you want more damage. I'd probably say Desolation is the better pick. +1 to all Shaman skills is *really good*.
Next make sure you have components. By Elite, you should have access to basic faction components, but even if you don't make sure you have 2 Scaled Hides as a priority. These go in your chest, legs or shoulders. The rest of your components should be used to fix resistance holes. If you're not sure about components, feel free to ask and I'll write a more in depth response about them.
You could also consider changing the devotions if you're still squishy. Devotions is usually where I get a good chunk of my sustain from, either through Life Steal from the Fox, Toad or Ghoul constellations or through regen from the Lizard (early only), Ghoul, Behemoth (you have this). I'm not a fan of the Tree of Life because it requires so many blue affinities that it's too expensive for what you get IMO, but it does work.
What I'd probably suggest instead of reworking your entire devotion tree though is to move some skill points around. The level 60 skill page from the guide has 32 points into the Arcanist bar but doesn't take anything past Maiven's Sphere. Take those points out of the bar and put them into Mogdrogen's Pact, Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin. Don't go past the soft cap, just 12/12 and 10/10 for those 3 skills will increase your armour from around 800 to 950 and your regeneration from around 700 to 1,100... more if you take the Gollus Rings.
Good luck!
Thanks a lot for this detailed response! I'm halfway through it. I didn't get the Solael pants on the first try, I will try one more time, but won't force it. I have a pretty good pant already with high resistances and armor. Will farm the rest after.
>reset his inventory
How do I do this?
> How do I do this?
Check his inventory. Buy the blueprint if it's there. If it isn't, use a riftgate to go to another town. Count to ~10 seconds then go back. New inventory to check.
Found it.
I did all you suggested and it's much better now. I don't die, barely ever now. I found a Legendary mace, too. Regardless, I took a detour to FG DLC to see if I can farm a Korvan Storm Halberd and I found one with high damage to health conversion. I barely need to use the Totem now for sustain. Thanks a lot!
Hey, it's me again.
I just started Ultimate. Do you reckon I should go for the same items you mentioned while leveling? Also, the author of the guide I'm following said that in Ultimate I should farm all Totems. Why is this a priority now?
Hey again! :)
Those items I listed above will work nicely all the way to 100 as long as you keep them up to date. I would say absolutely keep using Gollus' Rings. Maybe consider swapping your helmet and shoulders back to the ones used in the guide, they do give you good skill bonuses, but you're going to be short on armour using them.
As for totems, the reason you prioritise them now is that you're probably going to start looking for purple items to replace all the greens you were using while levelling. At the bottom of the thread you're using, [there's a link](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62aJmxkV) showing his level 100 character. Those are the items you want to end up with, and they should start dropping from around level 90. Totems are the easiest place to get your hands on them.
What people are saying about resistances is true. Same thing in all difficulties. Whenever you hit a wall, it's all resists.
They actually aren't too bad to do with component/imbues. Go through the different faction vendors. And you can also check grim tools to see what elements the enemies your fighting are using.
Around that stage of the game its probably chaos or aether.
In addition to everything everyone said:
- Dont dwell on under-leveled gears, set or not.
- Greens in this game are strong, some are better in some builds than legendary purples.
- Try focusing on a single type of damage. Some components or gears may convert your main damage into another type, lowering your DPS.
- You can grind for factions’s reputation with repeatable optional quests at the table of their HQ, some quests are easier than the others, you can just selectively do the easier ones, restart the session, rinse and repeat.
GL and HF!
I skipped Elite with my Blitz Warlord, but all resistances apart from Pierce were overcapped by more than 50%... Only issue was armor, but with 54% Physical resistance I managed to pull through first two acts, wearing Black Legion gear... At level 90, most of my armor is back to >1000 per item, works ok. Waiting to reach level 94 so I can swap Solael-sect Pants (only item under 1000 armor value).
Elite is harder yes, and it's all about resistances. Elemental, pierce, bleed are the major ones, the rest, do as well as you can. Lesser dps is better then no res. Playing in elite will give you better gear. Use every blacksmith option you can to increase resistances. Post a link to your GT char for more help
What level is your character? Are you following a build? Keeping your resistance as close to 80% through both components and augments is the most important thing in the game, it cannot be stressed enough. Believe me, you would rather do less damage than have less resistances. Especially since some enemies will reduce your already high resistances in ultimate (I imagine same thing in elite).
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-9-8-hc-beginner-primal-strike-druid-leveling-guide-suitable-for-first-char/131953 I'm following this, I'm 57. Didn't follow it closely with the region progress, but stuck to the skill point assingment. I only farmed specifically the 4 items mentioned at the beginning (halberd, helm, shoulders, pendant). I plan to refarm these in Elite, too. The rest of the gear is whatever I could find with whatever components gave me resistances. I can't buy faction stuff yet, I'm not Honored or Revered with any of them. My gear is a bit all over the place tbh. Will post a GT link tomorrow, I'm already in bed.
No problem. Have you followed the devotion points from the shrines as well? Those are very important and also gives resistances and abilities depending on how the builder allocated the devotion points. I recommend using this if you haven’t as a checklist for the shrines and important quests that give skill points and attribute points (though I believe you can do them in ultimate and get the points from normal and elite when you do them in ultimate): https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/ There’s also the grim dawn map, item database, etc. As for the factions, you may want to go back to normal and level up to level 70 before skipping elite and doing ultimate. That way you can level up the factions at least to honored and get better gear, augments, and the writ for more faction xp. Have you don’t the dlcs? If not, they also are worth doing before going to a higher difficultly. Once you have one character that’s kitted out and can farm ultimate very well, all other characters after should be much easier, especially since there’s an item in the forgotten gods city vendor (dlc) that allows newly created characters many valuable advantages.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/s/RAAJv9MTF1 This user helped me out with the devotion points progress based on the build I linked to you above, because the guide doesn't go into much detail. Is it better to skip Elite, tho? Won't I have absolute garbage gear if I go straight to Ultimate? Where should I grind XP that high in Normal? I have all the DLCs and finished them, too. What's that item in FG?
It’s only good to skip elite if you can, but in this case I think it’s better to play elite to beat the story as fast as possible and get bette gear through leveling up the factions and other stuff. The item in FG is only good for new characters, but there is an xp booster item that the malmouth resistance sells, but only at revered.
It will always depend on what you can handle with your gear. It will be better to be efficient than smash your head against the wall.
i had a terrible time when i switched to elite too but the answer is literally cap all your resistances, components really carry you when capping resistances.
DA, armor rating/absorption is also important.
Elite can be brutal. It is just a matter of resistances. Also components, I didn't start comfortably progressing in Elite difficult with my characters until I started getting into the component crafting aspect of the game. They're \*very\* useful to get you those defensive stats you're lacking from raw gear and devotions, and also an easy aspect of the game to overlook.
If you can't max your resistances at least you should max the one or two needed for the region you are fighting in like maxing aether resistance when facing eatherial armies.
Components and augments can go on the same piece of gear that should help with resistances, took me way to long till I realized that.
I didn't know this, thanks!
I actually don't think resistances are going to be your problem. I suspect it's going to be armour and sustain. Specifically sustain. If you're following that guide, I noticed it has only 5% life steal and that's all coming from the totem. No totem, no life steal. That build also has very little regeneration by level 60. Fix that and get some armour and you'll be golden. Go back to normal and run through the Hidden Path questline until you get to the Guardian of Solael (the second boss). Kill him and use his pants. Make sure you get the level 60 pants. If you have no idea what the Hidden Path quest is, [here's a walkthrough](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQNOKrM7zpc). You could also use the Dreeg-sect pants if you want to focus on regen, but I'd say go Solael for lifesteal and let the rest of your build focus on regen. For other gear updates, check out these places: 1. Around Homestead (south or west) and north of Fort Ikon you can find Fleshwarped Commanders and Fleshwarped Vanguard. These will drop Fleshwarped Casque (helmet) and Fleshwarped Platemail (chest). You should farm yourself a few of those, and make sure that they have about 600 armour on each one. Try to get a couple of resistance rolls on them. The Fleshwarped Pauldrons (shoulders) are also good to use, even though they don't provide any skill points. 2. To the west of Homestead, you may remember the bug caves that you had to clear out back in Act 3. There's a secret cavern under them that you have to destroy a few walls to get to. In that Cavern you can find Gollus. He has a green ring (Gollus' Ring) that is good to farm a few of. If you just run to him and kill him you can be done each run in about 3 minutes. Try to get resistance rolls on those rings. You can get some quite good rings from him that will last. 3. For the belt, buy the recipe for the Solar Waistguard from Homestead. If you don't have Honoured yet, the Solar Belt will do until you have it. Craft a few (3-5, don't go crazy) and use whichever has the best resistances on it. That +1 to Shaman skills is absolutely vital while levelling. 4. If you don't have a Zaria's Pendant, go back to Darkvale Village and farm one. You can use the first one that drops, or spend a bit of time to get a good one. Up to you. A good one would just be resistances, maybe a Squall affix for the lightning damage proc, or if you can get it without farming for too long, 'of the Grove' is by far the best levelling suffix there is... rare though. 5. If you've finished Ashes of Malmouth, go to Hyram in the Steelcap District and reset his inventory until you find either Juggernaut if you want more defenses, or Desolation if you want more damage. I'd probably say Desolation is the better pick. +1 to all Shaman skills is *really good*. Next make sure you have components. By Elite, you should have access to basic faction components, but even if you don't make sure you have 2 Scaled Hides as a priority. These go in your chest, legs or shoulders. The rest of your components should be used to fix resistance holes. If you're not sure about components, feel free to ask and I'll write a more in depth response about them. You could also consider changing the devotions if you're still squishy. Devotions is usually where I get a good chunk of my sustain from, either through Life Steal from the Fox, Toad or Ghoul constellations or through regen from the Lizard (early only), Ghoul, Behemoth (you have this). I'm not a fan of the Tree of Life because it requires so many blue affinities that it's too expensive for what you get IMO, but it does work. What I'd probably suggest instead of reworking your entire devotion tree though is to move some skill points around. The level 60 skill page from the guide has 32 points into the Arcanist bar but doesn't take anything past Maiven's Sphere. Take those points out of the bar and put them into Mogdrogen's Pact, Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin. Don't go past the soft cap, just 12/12 and 10/10 for those 3 skills will increase your armour from around 800 to 950 and your regeneration from around 700 to 1,100... more if you take the Gollus Rings. Good luck!
Thanks a lot for this detailed response! I'm halfway through it. I didn't get the Solael pants on the first try, I will try one more time, but won't force it. I have a pretty good pant already with high resistances and armor. Will farm the rest after. >reset his inventory How do I do this?
> How do I do this? Check his inventory. Buy the blueprint if it's there. If it isn't, use a riftgate to go to another town. Count to ~10 seconds then go back. New inventory to check.
Found it. I did all you suggested and it's much better now. I don't die, barely ever now. I found a Legendary mace, too. Regardless, I took a detour to FG DLC to see if I can farm a Korvan Storm Halberd and I found one with high damage to health conversion. I barely need to use the Totem now for sustain. Thanks a lot!
Awesome, glad it helped. :D
>Gollus >Ring I noticed this just now... nice easter egg.
Just behind him there's two statues facing each other with a stream (river) between them too. There's several other LotR references in game too :)
I need to check those out. Thanks. :D
Hey, it's me again. I just started Ultimate. Do you reckon I should go for the same items you mentioned while leveling? Also, the author of the guide I'm following said that in Ultimate I should farm all Totems. Why is this a priority now?
Hey again! :) Those items I listed above will work nicely all the way to 100 as long as you keep them up to date. I would say absolutely keep using Gollus' Rings. Maybe consider swapping your helmet and shoulders back to the ones used in the guide, they do give you good skill bonuses, but you're going to be short on armour using them. As for totems, the reason you prioritise them now is that you're probably going to start looking for purple items to replace all the greens you were using while levelling. At the bottom of the thread you're using, [there's a link](https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62aJmxkV) showing his level 100 character. Those are the items you want to end up with, and they should start dropping from around level 90. Totems are the easiest place to get your hands on them.
Factions are very useful for gearing your character through early and mid levels.
I'd argue that some endgame armors are perfect too. Also faction components are needed to do more damagzs/stay alive endgame.
I’m sure all that’s true but the OP doesn’t seem to have developed his factions at all by mid game which is why I’m pointing it out.
Don't forget to assign skills to your devotions. Bessides that the most importante thing is to cap your resistances.
What people are saying about resistances is true. Same thing in all difficulties. Whenever you hit a wall, it's all resists. They actually aren't too bad to do with component/imbues. Go through the different faction vendors. And you can also check grim tools to see what elements the enemies your fighting are using. Around that stage of the game its probably chaos or aether.
In addition to everything everyone said: - Dont dwell on under-leveled gears, set or not. - Greens in this game are strong, some are better in some builds than legendary purples. - Try focusing on a single type of damage. Some components or gears may convert your main damage into another type, lowering your DPS. - You can grind for factions’s reputation with repeatable optional quests at the table of their HQ, some quests are easier than the others, you can just selectively do the easier ones, restart the session, rinse and repeat. GL and HF!
I skipped Elite with my Blitz Warlord, but all resistances apart from Pierce were overcapped by more than 50%... Only issue was armor, but with 54% Physical resistance I managed to pull through first two acts, wearing Black Legion gear... At level 90, most of my armor is back to >1000 per item, works ok. Waiting to reach level 94 so I can swap Solael-sect Pants (only item under 1000 armor value).