How is endgame?

[Macksson]

I got a ARPG itch to scratch and I'm just wondering how endgame is like in Grim Dawn. I found a video from 2021 with a overview of endgame but since this game seems to still get updates, what is the endgame experience like for you guys?

[tutzdes]

If endgame is what fully leveled character is used for then there are several options:
1) Farming bosses, nemesis enemies and monster totems
2) Challenge dungeons (harder than normal areas, you can't portal in and out and death kicks you out)
3) High level Crucible (horde mode)
4) Farming Superbosses (not applicable for many builds)
5) Shattered Realms (basically an endless dungeon with gradually increasing boss enemy concentration and difficulty modifiers)

[Macksson]

Originally posted by tutzdes:

If endgame is what fully leveled character is used for then there are several options:
1) Farming bosses, nemesis enemies and monster totems
2) Challenge dungeons (harder than normal areas, you can't portal in and out and death kicks you out)
3) High level Crucible (horde mode)
4) Farming Superbosses (not applicable for many builds)
5) Shattered Realms (basically an endless dungeon with gradually increasing boss enemy concentration and difficulty modifiers)

Thanks, I might give it a go then :)

[krickerd]

And don't forget hardcore, if you dare. Death is permanent.

[Holiday]

Ya hardcore. Unless you backup your save file. End game is a joke in this game.

[boy i'll whip ya head]

For me endgame mostly consists of the skeleton key (roguelike) dungeons and the superbosses. Not much else besides that, never found interest in crucible or shattered realms.

[Tsel13]

Endgame is dependent on how much flagellation you enjoy.
As krickerd and boy i'll whip ya head have already posted. 😊

[Paco]

Endgame kind of reminds me of mmo raids, but in a good way. The roguelike dungeons, shattered realm, and crucible are all pretty cool and have insanely tough bosses stuffed away in them.

[Obsidus]

There is plenty to do in the endgame as others have mentioned, however it isn't really designed to be endless (unless you want to make a character that can do endless crucible/shattered realm runs). Once your character is strong enough to clear all content on ultimate difficulty, and can get to high levels in the shattered realm, the last test there is are the super bosses like Scion of the Sands and Mogdrogen. If you can kill them its pretty much a seal of approval that your build and character are top tier.

After that however, this game is REALLY designed for people who LOVE theory crafting builds and making many different alts. By the time you do all of the above on one character, your head will be bursting with ideas about new mastery combinations and builds. Grimcalc is your friend. This game has near endless replay value if you love trying out new build ideas. Not ALL of them can be good enough to kill the super bosses, but it's close. Anything you can come up with can clear 99.98% of the content on ultimate.

So endgame is very solid for one character, but this isn't like World of Warcraft where you can endlessly play one character and always feel like you're chasing the next goal, or carrot. However if you don't mind playing the game multiple times with different characters, getting them to endgame as well to test your ideas, this game is practically endless in what it has to offer.

[Tode[BTC]]

"endgame" is a bit of a bad way of thinking about things. This is not a live service, continuous, never-ending game. Too many people seem to think this has to apply to every game every made. It doesn't and it not the normal. Too much spoilage by PoE, Diablo 4, and other such nonsense.

Most games, including this one, have a set end to the game. You can beat the game and it is done / over. If you want to play more you start a new game and play it again.

With that said, there are options past the point of the natural end of the game. There are included, but optional, super-bosses, dungeons, and 2 alternative modes of play. One is an arena boss rush / mob wave mode. The other is an "endless" mob farming mode that progressively gets harder the longer you play it.

But once a character is "done", has gotten all their best gear and killed the boss. The game is done. This is mostly a single player game with a linear story and game-play. It is not meant to go on forever. This is not a bad thing.

[Mortiaris]

Like people above said, i will just add, that game is mostly single player oriented, so loot is much better than for example in Path of exile. There is more vailable builds for end game, one wall are super bosses. Grim Dawn have one of best lores, i like it more than Diablo or Path of exile. Grim Dawn have basically 2 minuses, not enough storage and specific graphic, rest is masterpiece.

[chris23162]

Originally posted by Macksson:

I got a ARPG itch to scratch and I'm just wondering how endgame is like in Grim Dawn. I found a video from 2021 with a overview of endgame but since this game seems to still get updates, what is the endgame experience like for you guys?

Just a heads up don't play a warder, came back to this after not playing it for like 5 years. Have it on GOG and never had any of the dlc as well there was non when I originally played it. Needless to say I started as a shaman then went and muti classed into soldier and the game has provided near zero challenge, I went super tanky as in with my near finished build I have just under 40K hp and when just using procs and no potions I have 180K dps, 24K hp regen, over 4K armour, just under 3K offensive ability and around the same for defensive ability, 3 attacks per second and a crit chance of like 18%.

Only used the savagery for the entirety of normal and elite, then threw in warcry and a few others for mobility and debuffs on ultimate. This build so far has face tanked everything with the hardest thing I've had to fight being the Avatar of Mogdrogen on elite which I originally was dodging until I realised how fast his health regen was and then just began face tanking him as I needed to put out enough dps to kill him and thought I might as well try face tanking him. Was a bit worried as it's a hardcore character but did it anyway.

This was and has been the only challenge for the build as in it's the reason why I swapped out my equipment and changed my skills around as before when I fought him I had just over 2K offensive ability and only 125K dps but over 30K health regen and close to 44K hp. So it forced me to drop health regen and max hp for damage. I was never in danger of him killing me but I was worried it would become an unwinnable fight as what I now know was low offensive ability and low dps to be taking on super bosses was meaning I wasn't hitting as often or as hard as I really should have.

This is not my highest dps build so far that goes to my Aether Ray spellbinder who has a dps of over 260K but he is a glass cannon and I fear he would die horribly against any of the super bosses as he only has 14K hp and not even 2K armour. For the normal game even on ultimate he murders everything but I've seen super bosses hit for over 12K against my other build with more than double this guys armour and as he is also a hardcore character he will not be taking on any bosses.

Right now I'm doing a pet build and a siphon souls build on two separate characters but I have had a fair few near death experiences already with the siphon souls build as I'm still trying to not play like a warder as every character I am trying now feels like they are made of paper. So what I am trying to say with this massive wall of text is the game is amazing and there are a ton of builds to try and have fun with just avoid making a warder for your first character as while they are amazing they will make everyone else feel very squishy.

From what I have seen though my warder despite my best efforts seems to have the lowest potential dps but the highest survivability and my spellbinder has my highest potential dps but my lowest survivability.

[Faust Wither]

grinding.... ALOT of grinding.

[kharille]

Late game seems easy though I'm still reluctant to spend too much time in the far northern city. Maybe I need to increase my resistances. Using a cabalist so my summons do all the work for me.

[Rewind]

Late game will turn into trying to find efficient loot per hour to try to get good drops. I put it similar to trying to find primal ancients in diablo 3, however you get drops from the global loot pool instead of things which are mostly good for your class you are playing at the moment. You end up having to do a lot of grinding for a single player game. Lots of the best gear is also locked behind a blueprint system which also suffers from this global random + depreciating drop rate which can add to that grind. Then you need to augment which requires grinding various factions which is probably the easiest part.

I personally enjoy crucible waves. I think it's done well. However, it gets kind of ruined when you get instakilled and aren't fully sure what hit you. Chances are you have a gap in resistances, low regen, or too low health pool. That means back to the grind to close the gaps.

[Obsidus]

Originally posted by Rewind:

Late game will turn into trying to find efficient loot per hour to try to get good drops. I put it similar to trying to find primal ancients in diablo 3, however you get drops from the global loot pool instead of things which are mostly good for your class you are playing at the moment. You end up having to do a lot of grinding for a single player game. Lots of the best gear is also locked behind a blueprint system which also suffers from this global random + depreciating drop rate which can add to that grind. Then you need to augment which requires grinding various factions which is probably the easiest part.

I personally enjoy crucible waves. I think it's done well. However, it gets kind of ruined when you get instakilled and aren't fully sure what hit you. Chances are you have a gap in resistances, low regen, or too low health pool. That means back to the grind to close the gaps.

The best way to cut down on grinding if you're getting sick of just clearing zones and playing the game and not getting stuff, is to find an area that has a chance to spawn enemy shrines/totems, activate the totem, kill, loot, quit to menu. Reload, and repeat. Farming shrines is the BEST way to just dispense with it all and get right to loot drops. They also have a VERY high drop chance for recipes, in my experience.