anyone else play grim dawn?

So, I managed to finish Veteran playthrough. Was pretty easy, dind't even realize I was fighting the final boss, cause I'm not really paying attention to the story, lol.

Now in Elite difficulty I'm having a bad experience with progression. Defence-wise my gear totally sucks (20 - 30 lvls below my char lvl), esp. armor & non-elemental resists. I got to Act 2 at lvl 52. The content is not that hard, except the occasional "boss" monster who can destroy me pretty fast. So I decided to farm Act 1 boss for better gear. But he's lvl 57 and is dropping items with lvl 58 or crap. I have a tab of epic gear I can't use, because its 5 lvls above me and leveling in this game is really, really slow...

Should I go back to Veteran difficulty and farm the last zone (Bastion of Chaos)? Feels kinda off to do that, since I was able (= the game allowed me) to push it to Act2 in Elite diff. But most of the monsters don't drop shit. The only reliable way to get good drops is Act boss.

Faction sellers are selling outdated items. When you finally reach the next status level, you are already using superior gear from drops. And a random vendor sold me a magic weapon, that totally outclasses epic gear 20 lvls above it.

Progression in this game seems kinda not yet balanced. Or maybe it's because I'm a noob.

E:
Well, damn. Bastion of Chaos in Veteran also has bosses >5 lvls above me, dropping items I can't equip. Seems I'll need to grind that level gap first...

I feel that leveling in this game is too slow. The whole playthrough I was 2-6 levels below content.

you basically have two "end game" options per difficulty, Morbo: Bastion Of Chaos and Steps Of Torment.
you can pick either one depending on how high your ele resists (Torment) or chaos + vitality res (Bastion. plus fire res for boss) are, and if you are better dealing with Undead or Void things.

can't really farm either since it's Roguelike and requires a Skeleton Key per entry - but one or two runs should level you and gear you nicely if you can go all the way + boss.
and you probably can, because you're in act 2 Elite.

also go for some farming spots in Elite like East Marsh... or do it even in Veteran if that poison damage is as bad for your char as it is for mine.

Elite only gets tougher from here man, so come prepared.
and that Final boss? yeah let's just say this time you'll know he's the final boss.
I had to death-zerg the thing before finally gaining entry into Ultimate.
on a char that fully cleared Elite Steps Of Torment.

So, those two places are the best to get XP/gear? I've been doing BoC, but just the first zone, up to the door which requires the key. At this stage it would be pointelss to waste a key, since I'd most likely get killed. Already the champion mob in front of the door is always 6-7 levels above me and scaling, apparently >.<

What pisses me is that from lvl ~52 I'm looting gear upgrades (good epic items) with lvl req. of 58. So while I slowly level up, I'm getting kinda destroyed by champion mobs.

I accidentaly entered Steps of Torment, the first time you reach the gate and get a free key, at lvl 35 or something. I got completely destroyed :) I'll check that again, if it's any easier now.

I meant Steps Of Torment on Veteran.
assuming your char can handle Elite Act 2 after beating things like The Warden in Elite Act 1, and maybe Darius Cronley in Elite Act 2 - you should be able to survive the "end game zones" of previous difficulty.
don't try the current (Elite) ones yet. you'd want to do that when you're in late Act 4 at least (and preferably starting Ultimate). then it would be worth the Skeleton Key.

other than that... not much in Veteran is useful at this point if you did side quests and haven't rushed through, except maybe taking on Avatar of Mogdrogen and getting slaughtered :)
you can farm some Act 4 or nicely-scaled Act 3 zones a bit - but personally I prefer taking on the bonus areas of Elite Act 1 to gain what you need for Acts 2&3: (in ascending order of difficulty)
Hallowed Hill, Sunken Reliquary, Salazar, East Marsh.

in my opinion it's always good to re-visit side zones of an act you just completed.

from this point monsters will be higher level than you most of the time, but +6 is a bit rough unless it's a challenge zone (and even then, +4 is better).
try aiming for +3/+2 for normal content.

P.S: I also made the mistake of entering Steps the first time I got a key... and I walked right into the death room because I was curious.

Interesting, I've missed many of those secret zones. I guess I'm used to D3 & PoE "rush for the endgame" kind of play. Grim Dawn is more slow paced, which is actually good for a change.

Except those damn champion monsters seem to scale with my lvl and are always ~5 levels ahead of me :) At lvl 58, I'm now encountering lvl 62+ champion mobs in Bastion of Chaos on Veteran difficulty.

I am playing Grim dawn as well. Entered the Steps of Torment the first time at lvl 33 and made it to the end boss who slaughtered me in 2 hits :P

I fucking loved that content, i went back 3 lvls later with life-crafted gear and destroyed him. I got items that i am still using 10 lvls later.

Regular content seemed pretty easy after the steps and with the gear i got from it, all other areas seem trivial.

Fort Ikon Prison is also a place of interest for farming... assuming you killed the witch and sided with the Black Legion.It's a short but sweet dungeon,has a unique Boss loot drop with a Rift gate just outside and somewhere to sell right above it.It's also a great source of allied reputation for the Black Legion and in higher difficulties you can opt to help her instead of the Legion (purchase the Black Legion Mandate first),and in doing so have access to her fantastic range of Aether resistance options in the difficulty it really counts.

Since discovering the first Nemesis while doing warden runs though I've opted to farm it for gear,blueprints and such.He's a bitch for my Conjurer to kill in a timely manner but the Nemesis Chest usually coughs up some interesting loot ... just not very useful loot for my build as of yet.

EDIT: Word of warning

While I'm only playing on elite difficulty currently I've found the Nemesis Boss to be the greatest threat as an adversary (had zero deaths until this Boss).This may be due to my build and current gearing but I still advise caution and clearing the area before taking him on in combat.

I just finished the first difficulty and i am not sure what to do. Should i go back and finish some areas and quests that i probably missed, gain reputation with the factions by doing bounties or just continue on in the next difficulty? I hate leaving stuff behind, but everything's so easy. I am sitting at lvl 50 6,6k health and pretty much autoattack everything to death. I have so many unspent stat points and as far as skills are concerned, i just maxed bladed whirlwind for the heck of it. I didn't even need it...

Maybe i should proceed to elite since no challenge atm.

"

Pyrokar wrote:

I just finished the first difficulty and i am not sure what to do. Should i go back and finish some areas and quests that i probably missed, gain reputation with the factions by doing bounties or just continue on in the next difficulty? I hate leaving stuff behind, but everything's so easy. I am sitting at lvl 50 6,6k health and pretty much autoattack everything to death. I have so many unspent stat points and as far as skills are concerned, i just maxed bladed whirlwind for the heck of it. I didn't even need it...

Maybe i should proceed to elite since no challenge atm.

I feel the same about having "unfinished business" and do my best to do total clears of all difficulties in games if forced to complete lower difficulties first.

But .. I figure if I missed something important to character progression or such then I'll likely pick up said quest/area/task in the higher difficulty and be able to gauge whether or not it's worth going back to complete in normal difficulty.

As you,I was around level 50 at the end of veteran had no *obvious* loose ends to tie up quest wise bar a inactive portal somewhere around the Pine Barrens area ... but I had no quests or pressing reason to go back to the area at the time and felt it better to move on to Elite where it's likely I'll get better value for my money exploring that particular area challenge wise.If it ends up some really cool quests/rewards are hidden away there,I'll head back to veteran and clean it up real quick.

So rather than looking at it as a loss,think positive in that you're moving on character/challenge wise with the option of going back any time to clean up loose ends.

=)

EDIT: About reputation.

Take a good look at what goods they offer and the level requirements to use them if you see something you'd like.It may be in some cases that farming rep for a faction is a moot point seeing as a regular play through the campaign will likely net you the required faction standing to purchase said gear ... but more importantly you'll also be around the level required to use the gear.

Lastly,by farming faction relentlessly it's also a possibility that you may find gear better than the stuff a faction is offering.What makes the faction gear so attractive is mostly it's availability if you've found nothing better and the opportunity to purchase Writs/Mandates.

nope what is that?