Huge chaos damage spike.

[Deuce Loosely]

Without a commensurate way to boost resists. What am I missing?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

when you say that it means you're already maxed/at 80? -otherwise resist bumps are significant
aside from that the 2½ most usual reasons are, debuffs, like enemy resist shred, or ex Sunder, or attacks you're supposed to avoid (benji bombs) and/or target prioritization like Zaria crystals
otherwise it's usually a basic mitigation thing where if you're capped on resist you'll be looking at additional defence layering, damage reduct, racial, regular absorb etc

[Deuce Loosely]

I'm earlier game than that. All the sudden chaos bolts are flying everywhere and the only items so far that have dropped have been utter vendor trash with mostly unhelpful affixes and like 3-5% chaos resistance at most. Certain named unique mobs that would otherwise be just another trash mob are one shotting. Clearly the oversight must be on my part. What am I SUPPOSED to be doing?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

unsure what you mean, because you say early game, but early game you also shouldn't face any meaningful chaos dmg at all *not counting Depraved Sanctuary/Salazar since that's sorta "late" in act 1 or optional challenge
what you can do depends on level and stage of the game, at level 15? you can craft Imbued Silver component that gives you 20 chaos res, stacks if you use 2/have 2 weapon slots/"not using a 2hander"
other than that just resist fishing at the merchant if you lucked out and got 0 drops (make sure your loot filter is not restricted too)
*if it is Salazar then you can sorta deal with it by killing the harbinger first, avoid standing in sigil, don't go long range so he doom bolts you, run in circles 😅 and tiny hit and run (if you don't have vit res (corpse dust) or regen, antivenom salve etc)

[Deuce Loosely]

All my resists are pretty good except for aether and chaos, and not for a lack of trying. I am in the mid 40's and doing the content after you choose a between 2 factions.

The fact that that silver aug is the only one and it takes up both weapon slots to be effective and I don't use chaos kinda sucks a huge d**k though. It's also super annoying because the paltry damage it adds will be easily resisted and not at all scaled while the damage type I built around gets a massive nerf.

I was hoping there was a better solution than partially breaking the build that was working fine until now. I'm calling this a major screw up on crate's behalf and press on.

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

It's not a screw up by the developer. You have the option to make different choices. One of them is to look for chaos resistance through devotions (use the Search bar at the top) and rework your choices as needed. To help with that, if you own the Crucible DLC, you can farm some easy devotion points in there to fill out your build. If you have some decent faction (press J), you can visit faction vendors and look for gear that specifically has chaos resistance to get you through this part of the game.

[Deuce Loosely]

I've sat and read every single piece of vendor trash I've sold, and I pick up everything. Nothing has dropped but VT with garbage affixes and 3-5% chaos resists at best. That is not appropriate itemization to prepare the player for an upcoming challenge. Whether you accept it or not, this game has balance issues. These occur proportionally with the level of complexity in a game and this game has pushed all of it's chips on the complexity square.

I consider this conversation to have run it's course. Thank you for your kind attention.

[DeMasked]

One shots are either due to going into a challenge area possibly with a bad mutator for the enemies or you haven't invested that much into the Mastery itself resulting in having little health.

Maybe the enemies are higher level then you as well which would mean more damage for them and higher offensive ability (chance to hit / crit).

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Deuce Loosely:

with garbage affixes and 3-5% chaos resists at best.

that should not be possible at level 40, like mechanically so https://www.grimtools.com/db/advsearch?query=N4IgLgngDgpiBcoCSYYFsAKAnGAzAlgB4JhYCuMANCCugMpm4HHykUC%201WAhlvpAlABZbgHN8AY24AbEuSogASrzit5nEDwDuAegAmeGADsAzvgBuMAMIALbgHsTgkGnxGEARg1Rp3CDCwAGRhLWUQXbhYAFgAGDW1nA1xjM0tbBydw13d4L3Z2IA
anyways, if you're level 40 and in Homestead you're way farther into the game than expected for "early game"
and now you should have access to 3-4 chaos res components https://www.grimtools.com/db/advsearch?query=N4IgLgngDgpiBcoCSYYFsBKMA2BLAxgmAE4CuMAvgDQjECGA7gPQAmMAZjAHYDOuAbjADCACzoB7HglBpcXBAEZqIKNjoQYxADIxB2aSDR0AHggAsABmX0GBtp14DhYyQdnz4SihSA (it doesn't show imbued silver for some reason but already mentioned that earlier)
you should also have potentially access to faction items with chaos res, and ofc certain MIs(Monster Infrequents), tho ofc the MIs require knowing about so that might be trickier for a beginner, but i assure you they exist

Originally posted by Deuce Loosely:

and I don't use chaos kinda sucks a huge d**k though. It's also super annoying because the paltry damage it adds will be easily resisted and not at all scaled while the damage type I built around gets a massive nerf.

ahh okay, that's a common misconception for newer players, it's not really about whether or not it boosts your dmg/adds an "unfitting" dmg type, it's about whether it gives you a useful stat/stat you need, if you're short on chaos res then it might be worth swapping a dmg boosting comp for if you don't have other options/don't manage to fix it elsehwere.
Some players also get a bit surprised when learning that dmg focus or bonus dmg isn't really the nr 1 or even 2nd or 3rd priority in Grim Dawn necessarily during levelling, and resistances matter alot since they are a key core defence.
by end of act 3 i like to have all my resist to 60 as example (can technically get them higher by then), it's not necessarily completely necessary, but can make things very smooth.
In essence it's a simple concept if you have all your res at 50, you reduce incoming dmg by half, that's a lot of dmg avoided. Meanwhile the way dmg stacks in grim dawn just stacking bonus dmg on certain items might not be as useful and dmg scaling can be handed more directly in ex skill tree, weapons chosen, devotions, etc until later.
Depending on how far you wish to take it you will also have to mind or "abide" by that mechanic/design about resistance, on Ultimate for instance (or even halfway through Elite) the game simply expects you to have 80 all dmg res, and enemy dmg will be largely scaled based on that notion.
Aside from resist since this was mainly about chaos dmg, you also have armour rating, which can be kinda sneaky in Grim Dawn since many/most enemies actually also deal a portion of physical dmg, either direct or mixed in with their other dmg types. This the means armour rating during levelling largely serves as your main mitigation against that, not to the same degree like resist having "expected" xy values at certain point, but to a point where you will want "some", and sometimes a bit more can be better than less.

TLDR a difference from Grim Dawn and other games can be in their stat priority/stat orientation focus, and in Grim Dawn resists is just very important and a main defence, and bonus dmg (on item stats) early game can come second to that or further behind.

[Deuce Loosely]

The enemies have stayed 4-5 levels ahead of me since I started. I thought this was natural progression since I wasn't grinding or farming thinking that it's way too early to start with that. Though I would rather grind up a few levels then break the build to get over a temporary impasse, but I may wind up doing both.

I guess I am rushing, even though it didn't feel that way. I STG and RNGesus for whatever reason I have yet to see an 'ancient' affix. Apparently I DO have some farming in my future. Time to cue up the podcasts.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

game is scaled for enemies to always be higher level than you/enemy scaling doesn't work on a per level basis in grim dawn like it does in other games stat/difficulty wise
in fact if you ever find yourself on "even" level with a boss or hero, it technically means you're sorta overlevelled the area
base game areas are scaled to be 1-6 levels above you, expansion areas 6-10 higher
the way enemy stat scaling works they could be 30 levels higher than you and mostly really wouldnt' matter (once build was sorted/char stats was in order ofc)
i legit think the biggest difference is GD's more main focus on resist as main defence, vs dmg priority. That and the armour rating upgrade(maintain level relevant armours don't hang on to stuff way lower than you just because epic/blue) really makes a huge difference once people get around to it.

On Normal, if you get 80 res by act 3 it legit feels like you're cheesing the game, because the game isn't really scaled to that point with you having 80 res yet in mind. - also means 80 res isn't necessary ofc, just trying to highlight the impact it really can have.
other thing that's sometimes missed is healing, Heal pot isn't your main source of sustain neither is a class heal like Word of Renewal or Blood of Dreeg, you will want some form of maintained outside sustain/healing to bounce back from dmg.
Once you combine the basic defence/dmg mitigation with reliable or regular sustain you'll having a much simpler time with even tough tasks.

I linked this video in another thread to showcase for a different example but i think it might also help to illustrate how much it can change things up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mCLAl-SE7w
*nevermind the level, it's the concept of having so much healing even the trap floors are no threat (aetherfloors do not get reduced dmg by aether resist, so even tho my aether res is maxed it has no impact there)

here's another post to sorta showcase the potential stat focus difference in GD vs other games (atleast for levelling)
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/required-stats-from-equipment-during-levelling/100859

[Tsel13]

Some of my characters get very bad gear RNG drops for resists.
Sometimes those characters are down to three or four resists being around 15% nearing the completion of homestead.
I have the advantage of knowing what types of resists are needed for the area I'm in or coming to.
I save all kinds of gear with different resists.
Sometime the armor rating is a lot lower than what I need, but I use it any way because it'll give me the resist I need for the area to get me to 80%.
I've had a couple of characters finally reach 80% on all of their resists halfway through Malmouth.
Sometimes you just need to regrind areas until you finally get a decent RNG drop.

[Faust Wither]

you can always try to buy keymon badge from benevald, it increase atleast 25% chaos resist.
https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/merchants/11336

[KG]

Imbued Silver and Purified Salt don't give you unnecessary damage conversion anyway, they give you "damage vs X" which never hurts.

[Deuce Loosely]

I just found a good ancient chest and invested in Mark, which while not making me more resistant, makes the cthonics pay for their output.

[Whitey]

Yeah, one thing I had to get over was trading +X% damage for +X% Y Resist. I had to keep in mind that those damage modifiers are additive (obviously, but I had to consciously think about it). So if you have +500% physical damage (or whatever you're focusing on) losing 20% isn't that much. The difference between 500% and 480% isn't going to make your attacks hit like wet tissue paper all of a sudden. What is that...like...5% less damage? Nothing.