Battlemage suggestions?

[frdnwsm]

I didn't have any experience with GD before, but I have 5 other aRPGs in my library. Titan Quest, in particular, uses game mechanics very similar to GD. So, I figured I'd start with the basic warrior prototype, then grab some magic later on. Lo and behold, at level 10 my Soldier became a Battlemage. Cool beans.

Anyway, I've hit level 17 and looking for some suggestions. Currently, as far as skills, I have:

Soldier - 12/50
Forewave -12/16
Cadence - 4/16

Arcanist - 6/50
PRM - 11/16

I have 3 skill points still saved up. The obvious thing to do would be to pump up Cadence more, but I was also thinking of something like Markavian's Advantage. Or, I could add some more Soldier points to get more Physique. Or split them; one more Soldier and 2 Cadence, perhaps? Or even beef up PRM, although this isn't my main attack mode.

Any suggestions?

[󠀡󠀡]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMwEfpIHn0c

[frdnwsm]

Oh, and I have 4 Divinity points saved up. I looked at the Constellation map and have no idea what to do with it. I do see that some constellations apparently do nothing at all. What's up with that?

[Smokey]

Now, this may be a downer, but you need to specialise in one or two damage types, and/or one main attack to do well later.
A mixed sword and magic build may be ok now because it is very early on in the game, but as enemies' stats ramp up it will get harder.

Forcewave and Cadence are both Physical attacks whereas PRM is Elemental.

You seem to lean towards physical attacks, so I'd suggest going to Sahdina in Devil's Crossing and removing points from PRM to allocate in other skills when you find PRM's damage starting to fall off.

For Soldier/Arcanist, an interesting build is using Iskandra's Elemental Exchange to convert your Physical damage to Elemental, then using Forcewave or Cadence to attack with Elemental damage. Some weapons and Components will also help convert Physical to Elemental.

You should also put a point in the supporting skills like Mirror, Nullification and the Soldier passives like Veterancy etc. when they are available. Putting points in the Mastery bars is important for stats and unlocking new skills.

[frdnwsm]

Messaggio originale di `DevourUall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMwEfpIHn0c

Umm, yes, I actually did some research on the net, and saw this video, along with several others in the same vein, on YouTube. I have NO idea what he's doing, since the print is too small for me to read and it goes by so fast. If he really wanted to be helpful, slowing down the the visuals of the process and adding a voiceover explanation would have been much more useful.

Thank you for taking the time to find and post the reference, though.

[frdnwsm]

>>"You seem to lean towards physical attacks, so I'd suggest going to Sahdina in Devil's Crossing and removing points from PRM to allocate in other skills when you find PRM's damage starting to fall off. "<<

I was thinking the same thing myself, since I use PRM so infrequently. Passive magical support skills might be the way to go.

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di frdnwsm:

Oh, and I have 4 Divinity points saved up. I looked at the Constellation map and have no idea what to do with it. I do see that some constellations apparently do nothing at all. What's up with that?

You put a Devotion point into any of the starting 5 nodes to get 1 of that colour, which unlocks Constellations that require 1 of said colour.

Completing a Constellation by putting points in all its nodes, will give a certain number of one or two colours, which allows you to access more Constellations that have different/higher requirements.

[frdnwsm]

Yes, I know the basic process, but am not sure what tree to go after. It can wait though, since I don't have that many DPs accrued yet. Naturally, I will be looking for those things that enhance physical combat, since I am emphasizing Soldier skills. That having been said, I'd like suggestions as to which ones might be the most helpful in that regard.

Any why would someone choose a constellation with NO bonuses listed?

[Smokey]

Messaggio originale di frdnwsm:

Any why would someone choose a constellation with NO bonuses listed?

Do you mean those Constellations that don't give any colour when completed? Those are the "top" constellations which have high requirements, give strong bonuses in its nodes and usually give access to a special skill.

You can look at the Constellations, decide which ones you want and build towards its colours. For Physical damage it is usually the right side with the purple constellations.

[frdnwsm]

OK, that's helpful. I'll check out the right side of the map when I have the chance.

[Smokey]

http://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/Constellation

Much easier to plan by looking at this page, and there's some explanation at the top if you are still unclear about unlocking Constellations.

[Finnvbot]

I'm currently levelling a sword and board aetherelemental (I'm pretty sure it's not a "real" word lol) Battlemage and I'd say you have a couple of basic choices:

1. Physical-focused Soldier with a few passive skills (Inner Focus, Maiven's Sphere) and a life-saver (Mirror)
2. Tanky caster
3. Elemental melee which is fairly gear-dependent but powerful if you can pull it off

Assuming you want to go the third route, keep cadence as your main attack (don't max it just yet) and get 1 point in fighting form (it doesn't scale very well and you can't convert bleeding into elemental, hence 1 point) asap. Also, get 1 point in Blitz for mobility. Item-wise, you want a high physical to ele dmg conversion (blessed steel component is great). Devotion-wise, you want to get Rhowan's Crown for the Elemental Storm proc (I'd bind it to Blitz so that you debuff a whole pack of monsters) and Viper for even more elemental debuff.

Of course, I always encourage experimentation but these are some of the pointers I can give. Cheers, good hunting!

P.S. Get Flash Freeze, it's super powerful early on.

[Intuition?!]

Messaggio originale di Finnvbot:

1. Physical-focused Soldier with a few passive skills (Inner Focus, Maiven's Sphere) and a life-saver (Mirror)
2. Tanky caster
3. Elemental melee which is fairly gear-dependent but powerful if you can pull it off

4. A Ranged Battlemage...! No?
What are the other advanced Choices?

[Finnvbot]

Messaggio originale di Intuition?!:

4. A Ranged Battlemage...! No?
What are the other advanced Choices?

I was about to dismiss this claim but then the Fleshwarped rifles (greens) crossed my mind. They are pretty sweet for aether builds. However, for maximum effectiveness I'd go with Arcanist + Shaman on this one, especially since two three of the aether-focused devotions give bonuses to lightning as well. The beauty of Grim Dawn lies in the plethora of build options, including some ridiculous oddball combos that somehow work in the end, with the right combination of constellations and items.

I hinted at a gear-dependent and a bit awkward devotion-wise option: aether/elemental sword and board melee. The tier 3 devotion (Spear of the Heavens) is really expensive (7 chaos 20 primordial), meaning that you have to sacrifice something to get it. Also, Battlemage doesn't have access to aether and elemental resistance debuffs, meaning that you have to obtain it from items and constellations (Blessed Steel component grants Sacred Strike which gives n reduced all resists to a single target; Elemental Storm proc from Rhowan's Crown constellation gives n reduced elemental resist to an area; Arcane Bomb from Widow constellation gives n% reduced lightning and aether resists to an area; Viper gives -n% elemental resist). To make it shine, you need to have a higher physical to aether and elemental conversion so Mindwarp (legendary sword) and Will of the Living (legendary shield) are pretty mandatory. For 2H builds, Temporal Arcblade (legendary sword) is awesome. The thing is, both of these weapons are pretty darn rare. Finally, since the devotions for aether, elemental, and shield bonuses are scattered all over the place, you'll have to make some sacrifices. In my case (because I really wanted to try out the Spear, lol), it was at the expense of HP, lifesteal, and passive shield buffs. It's fun but I can't facetank 24/7. ;)

You could make a "turret" build by focusing on Albrecht's Ray and stacking defences to become the Death Ray Incarnate. I'm not sure how it'd perform in practice, given the outrageous energy consumption and the fact that you're immobile while casting it. Another one could be using Callidor's Tempest as main attack. I'm pretty sure there's plenty more but that's all I can think of right now.

[The Blazing Moon]

I've just finished levelling an oddball battlemage 'crowd-control tank'. 20/50 Soldier. 20/50 Arcanist. Maxed Flash Freeze + Absolute Zero. Maxed Trozan's Sky Shards + Frozen Core. Maxed Mirror. Maxed Maiven's Sphere. Maxed Inner Focus. Maxed Iskandra's Elemental Exchange. Maxed Military Conditioning. Maxed Cadence + Discord. Heavy Blitz. Heavy War Cry. Heavy Arcane Will. Gear for + skills, Elemental>Cold>Frostburn>Lightning>Aether>Fire, cooldown reduction, CC skill procs.

Lots of fun to play while levelling, though not quite as sturdy as other tank builds I've played, but can hold its own in Ultimate thanks to Mirror and Sphere. For being somewhat tanky it has decent damage output (cold-resistant enemies can take some time to kill, though it's still much speedier than retaliation builds against casters).

The main idea was to lock things down in multiplayer games. Since aggro can be difficult to manage, this would be another effective way at shielding the glass cannon dps from harm - keep everything on ice. An 18 meter range on Flash Freeze at rank 22/12 makes this possible (+ lots of cooldown reduction), along with the knockdown from Blitz and Callidor's Tempest and odd items with freeze/stun/etc.