Best build for casual that wants to finish ultimate

[Zhen2010]

As said what is the best build combo that is least dependant on farming but will still be able to 'finish' the game. I don't need the "best" character. just the easiest to go throught he game without needing special gear

thanks

[DeadByDefault]

The problem is that there is no such thing. There are so many variables to consider here, it remains up to you how to build your character. That said, the most powerful builds I have seen all require special gear (legendary quality) which is not always easy to come by because the drops are random.

Some general advice:

(1) Keep a good balance between offence and defence. On the one hand, you need high resistances to most damage types in order to survive, but if you fail to deal proper damage, you will take too much damage over time, anyway, because you cannot kill fast enough.

(2) Offensive ability is very important for every character except pure spellcasters. Both offensive and defensive ability should steer towards a value of about 2000 at the very least as you close in on maximum level.

(3) Surplus items can not only be sold but also destroyed with the help of dynamite and the inventor. This is an alternative (and easy, provided you have the dynamite) manner of acquiring rare crafting materials.

(4) Do not -- I repeat: do NOT -- pick a second mastery too early. At the beginning of the game, most points should be spent in your mastery bar of your first class in order to push your stats and thus be able to wear better armour and gear in general.

(5) Do not spread your skill points to too many skills. Also, levelling can be done with a different build than the target build because you can respec at any time. Please notice that this does not apply to skill points spent in the mastery bar. Only skill points spent in actual skills can be reclaimed.

I know you were looking for an easy way through the game, but, as I said, it does not exist. I hope you can have fun with the game nonetheless.

[Matthew]

^
Can't say I agree with all of that.

Anyway, vitality based conjurer (shaman + occultist) is a popular newbie build. A lot of mechanics other builds look for from items are built into the core skills, which makes it not very gear dependent. A ton of resist reduction, a ton of life leech and regen.

It is a very sturdy caster build which does consistent damage. About the only time you will have trouble is against void leeches, but a bit of patience for the 3 times you will actually encounter them in any large numbers, and it is fine.

[DeadByDefault]

Originally posted by Matthew:

^
Can't say I agree with all of that.

No one said you had to. ;) The problemm for casual players with Grim Dawn is that there is no such thing as the best build with the best gear. Some builds may be more effective or efficient than others, of course, but since you get so many customization options, there is more than a couple of ways to get through the game with any given class or class combination, while none of them will be super easy.

[Zhen2010]

Thanks for replies.
But as I said Dead, I don't need the "Best", just good enough with least gear required to finish ultimate.

[Shadow_Actual]

Hmm. A while ago, I encountered a build on the official site that is ostensibly indestructible. You could try this one: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36239&highlight=invincible

or this one: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42424 , both of which are ostensibly unstoppable. You might be hampered a bit by the need for grinding, but if they live up to the hype, you shouldn't be having much trouble anyway.

[Geir]

Well to be honest the quickest way would just to have a high lvl join your game and run with you all the way and just save points till you are ready to use them really. Unless any patch of late fixed the xp gains I doubt you even need to lift a finger before ultimate at best and the legendary you find on the way can define your build.

[Scissorlips]

I found a Chaos Witch Hunter worked super easily, but it's super squishy once you get progressing

[zverozvero]

Check this one too.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24703
Put on tanky or +pet bits you find and strap some more tanky/pet faction vendor gear if stuff that dropped wasnt enough.

Big one for every 'no-gear' build is 50/50 mastery to compensate for stats and one focused skill that'll sqash mobs. With pet conjurer works incredibly.
10 in Shaman, max Briar. 10 in Occultist, max hound. Then you can push Mastery bars to max and add some healing in Blood of dreeg and you'll be set for long. Pets scale incredibly in normal/elite without +geat and will do all on their own.

[Raviel]

Originally posted by Shadow_Actual:

Hmm. A while ago, I encountered a build on the official site that is ostensibly indestructible. You could try this one: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36239&highlight=invincible

or this one: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42424 , both of which are ostensibly unstoppable. You might be hampered a bit by the need for grinding, but if they live up to the hype, you shouldn't be having much trouble anyway.

WoW i have 400 hours in game and don't nearly have the gear for second build, nice noob poor mans build you got there.

first tank warder can definetly work with very poor items, but the damage is relatively low and it will take time to kill things and pass the game.
you will be so tanky, you would rarely die if at all.

Originally posted by zverozvero:

Check this one too.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24703
Put on tanky or +pet bits you find and strap some more tanky/pet faction vendor gear if stuff that dropped wasnt enough.

Big one for every 'no-gear' build is 50/50 mastery to compensate for stats and one focused skill that'll sqash mobs. With pet conjurer works incredibly.
10 in Shaman, max Briar. 10 in Occultist, max hound. Then you can push Mastery bars to max and add some healing in Blood of dreeg and you'll be set for long. Pets scale incredibly in normal/elite without +geat and will do all on their own.

this should be good, pets do the killing you dodge skillshots and resummon when needed.
might die easily if get caught.

i would probably go for this build if i wanted to complete ultimate relatively easy and without it taking ~100 hours, i don't care much about dieing so don't mind to die if i make a mistake.

other option would be to make a couple of characters, completing elite is reasonably easy (compared to ultimate) without much items and on most builds, and you have access to many legendaries in elite and from leveling 2-3 characters you will get a reasonable collection of items to finish ultimate with on most builds, atleast... something as expensive as the witchblade build will require quite alot of grinding or trading to get the sets complete before it becomes viable.

[MobySlick]

Originally posted by Raviel:

first tank warder can definetly work with very poor items, but the damage is relatively low and it will take time to kill things and pass the game.
you will be so tanky, you would rarely die if at all.

Hyarr hyarr, don't forget about standing in aetherflame or voidfire for 5 seconds, that'll kill any build faster than a gang of Loghorreans. I love it when the Ch'thonic messiah can't kill me but hey, them trashmob Voidfiend Incinerators sure got my number

[Shadow_Actual]

Originally posted by Raviel:

WoW i have 400 hours in game and don't nearly have the gear for second build, nice noob poor mans build you got there.

first tank warder can definetly work with very poor items, but the damage is relatively low and it will take time to kill things and pass the game.
you will be so tanky, you would rarely die if at all.

You don't need all that gear to make the build viable, that's just the end state you should aspire to achieve. As I said, the need for grinding might hamper you a bit, but that shouldn't be much of a problem for a veteran like you.

And the Warder doesn't deal damage directly; it depends on Retaliation to inflict harm. The idea behind it is to ensure that anything that hits you doesn't hurt too badly while anything that attacks you gets smacked for massive retaliation damage. I will note that I don't know whether it has been nerfed since the build was posted, so it might not be quite as effective as advertised.

[Raviel]

Originally posted by Shadow_Actual:

Originally posted by Raviel:

WoW i have 400 hours in game and don't nearly have the gear for second build, nice noob poor mans build you got there.

first tank warder can definetly work with very poor items, but the damage is relatively low and it will take time to kill things and pass the game.
you will be so tanky, you would rarely die if at all.

You don't need all that gear to make the build viable, that's just the end state you should aspire to achieve. As I said, the need for grinding might hamper you a bit, but that shouldn't be much of a problem for a veteran like you.

And the Warder doesn't deal damage directly; it depends on Retaliation to inflict harm. The idea behind it is to ensure that anything that hits you doesn't hurt too badly while anything that attacks you gets smacked for massive retaliation damage. I will note that I don't know whether it has been nerfed since the build was posted, so it might not be quite as effective as advertised.

I have a witchblade with 2handed blade arc, similar to what he proposes to do for leveling, before i got legendaries and epics going it was pretty rough he is squishy and doesn't have builtin healing, blood of dreeg is a joke compared to what you need to survive.
Sure with 29k dps 18% lifesteal he kills packs in 2-3 autos on ultimate and heals to full while at it, but this is ony possible thanks to handpicked items..
The autor says that he recommends going 2 handed for leveling and only respect at lvl 80 to cadence and shield + sword + full set. This build meant for solo 3rd difficulty crucible it is way harder than main campaign on ultimate so indeed you could complete ultimate witchout full build but only becose it doesn't require nearly as much survivability as the full build can offer.

Still it would require quite a few particular items, while on warder you can go full green and still be nearly unkillable.

Retaliation damage doesn't affect ranged mobs, you need reflect for that and you need items to stack high enough reflect/retaliation. I personally don't have a tank warder, but from what i heard it kills much slower than any other build while not dyeing at all.

[DeadByDefault]

Originally posted by Raviel:

Retaliation damage doesn't affect ranged mobs, you need reflect for that and you need items to stack high enough reflect/retaliation. I personally don't have a tank warder, but from what i heard it kills much slower than any other build while not dyeing at all.

This is right. I do have a warder specialized in retaliation damage and reflection, he cannot really be killed, but it takes for ever to kill some enemies, especially spellcasters and ranged enemies, because he doesn't deal any active damage (~8k with buffs!). While dying is impossible, it is also nigh on impossible to enjoy playing. :/

[Shadow_Actual]

Originally posted by Raviel:

I have a witchblade with 2handed blade arc, similar to what he proposes to do for leveling, before i got legendaries and epics going it was pretty rough he is squishy and doesn't have builtin healing, blood of dreeg is a joke compared to what you need to survive.
Sure with 29k dps 18% lifesteal he kills packs in 2-3 autos on ultimate and heals to full while at it, but this is ony possible thanks to handpicked items..
The autor says that he recommends going 2 handed for leveling and only respect at lvl 80 to cadence and shield + sword + full set. This build meant for solo 3rd difficulty crucible it is way harder than main campaign on ultimate so indeed you could complete ultimate witchout full build but only becose it doesn't require nearly as much survivability as the full build can offer.

Still it would require quite a few particular items, while on warder you can go full green and still be nearly unkillable.

Retaliation damage doesn't affect ranged mobs, you need reflect for that and you need items to stack high enough reflect/retaliation. I personally don't have a tank warder, but from what i heard it kills much slower than any other build while not dyeing at all.

I will admit that the practice is a bit above my head, so I will concede the point. Pity that it wasn't as helpful as I was hoping.

[FlyingFrills]

I've been playing a self-found Sorcerer, no farming needed and kills stuff quick enough (Slower against bosses, but still safe.). Very limited respeccing as well and zero deaths to Act 3 Ultimate so far; I don't personally enjoy the idea of grinding up to 60 before switching to real builds.

rough grim calc: https://grimcalc.com/build/1006-vy0LoQ

Arcanist is very defensive; Nullification will get rid of debuffs, and Mirror will get you out of pinches. Flash Freeze has a huge radius and also a nice debuff for your fire attacks. These are skills that get better on higher difficulties without a lot of points too. However, I think Arcanist offensive skills like Callidor's Tempest are not so strong until Elite or Ultimate, where you have the points and maybe some +skills to max them out.

Demolishionist has spammable skills with big radius, which work nicely with devotions. For example, Aetherfire devotion(gettable early) with Blackwater cocktail or Canister Bomb will do a lot of damage on first difficulty. It'll mop stuff up in that dificulty at a brisk pace. Flashbang is good crowd control, but with a devotion like Widow, will also contribute to your damage. Basically, this is main damage on first difficulty, and transitions to control in the second and third difficulty when Arcanist takes off.

For Devotions, Behemoth and Chariot will give a lot of burst heal. Chariot gives lots of OA to get critical hits too. These classes don't have health, so I think patching up that aspect is important.

For items, just anything with +Health, +Fire/Burn/Aether, or Cooldown Reduction. For the entirety of Elite I used an Aether Dagger from the Black Legion that gave about ~160% Aether damage and ~80% elemental.

When I had sufficient Cast Speed I swapped Reckless Power for Star Pact, and I'm feeling that the the cooldown reduction is more important for damage than the +%fire. Not sure what the actual numbers would bear out tough.

Anyways, lots of flexibility with the classes and stuff to cast. I think it's a fun combo.