How does combat play out? Is it all about maximizing DPS on a few skills like D3, PoE, etc.? Or does it really encourage mixing up your skills due to enemy styles and resistances?
The DPS model is tedious as hell at this point.
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- Thread starter NoblesseOblige
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How does combat play out? Is it all about maximizing DPS on a few skills like D3, PoE, etc.? Or does it really encourage mixing up your skills due to enemy styles and resistances?
The DPS model is tedious as hell at this point.
Oh, and I forgot to erase the test character I created, is there an easy way to redo the Name/Appearance stuff without restarting the game? Not a huge loss I guess if not, I'll just keep playing as "Test"
It was a test to see if the game would run on my laptop at lowest settings (it won't) and to test the Steam Cloud (works great)
Steam Controller will take a little bit longer to get used to but it's functional at least, something I can't say for the PC version of Diablo 3.
It was a test to see if the game would run on my laptop at lowest settings (it won't) and to test the Steam Cloud (works great)
Steam Controller will take a little bit longer to get used to but it's functional at least, something I can't say for the PC version of Diablo 3.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Just FYI the PS4 controller works great, some minor issues but completely playable.
Wait, PS4 and 360 controllers work?
I tried playing with my 360 controller and it seemed like nothing was happening, so I got my Steam Controller out and launched the game from BPM and everything worked then... Wonder what I was doing wrong for my try with the 360 controller...
Ok, so I'm more addicted to this game than I've ever been to any game in my life. I don't even love the game, just think its ok but I've put like 13 hours in over two nights and am nearing the end of Act 3 on Veteran. Kind of just want to finish the game once and call it a day to break the addiction lol.
Starting around mid-Act 3 my Trickster (Shaman + Nightblade) is having SEVERE survivability issues on boss heros. I'm doing a lightning centered build focusing on primal strike and its torrent extension while having a pet and smashing things with 2H melee. I also use Wendingo totems for life supports and Storm Wendingos for damage while doing that. The only points I've put into Nightblade are for the HP heal/regen one that increases casting speed. Generally I do ok. But strong boss heros basically 1 shot me and kill me faster than I can heal. Especially ones that use any kind of magic/poison/elements.
Any advice on what I can do to survive more on veteran? I'm also underleveled since I go pretty fast. Just hit lvl.31 and some of the boss heros are like lvl.34 in Blood Forest. But leveling feels so slow. Also being 2H melee focused it's rare that I ever get a great new weapon drop. Probably once every 3-4 hours. Most of the drops I get are 1H.
In retrospect with this build, I shouldn't have picked Nightblade for the subjob. I wish the respec would let you respec your subjob. I think since I'm so lightning based, a shaman + mage would have been better. Or maybe a shaman + warrior would've helped VIT/DEF and surviving. But I'm stuck with Shaman+Nightblade so I gotta figure out what my best options are at the my moment.
Uh, my impressions of the game at this point are that the combat is alright, the loot is just ok, the story/quests are forgettable, the level design is huge areas and lots of mazes and easy to get lost on quests, also leveling is slow.
...but the character build options are amazing and there's 8,000 ways you can make a unique character. So that + the easy respec for the most part means it's fun constantly messing with your character and trying new build ideas. That's the really addicting part.
Starting around mid-Act 3 my Trickster (Shaman + Nightblade) is having SEVERE survivability issues on boss heros. I'm doing a lightning centered build focusing on primal strike and its torrent extension while having a pet and smashing things with 2H melee. I also use Wendingo totems for life supports and Storm Wendingos for damage while doing that. The only points I've put into Nightblade are for the HP heal/regen one that increases casting speed. Generally I do ok. But strong boss heros basically 1 shot me and kill me faster than I can heal. Especially ones that use any kind of magic/poison/elements.
Any advice on what I can do to survive more on veteran? I'm also underleveled since I go pretty fast. Just hit lvl.31 and some of the boss heros are like lvl.34 in Blood Forest. But leveling feels so slow. Also being 2H melee focused it's rare that I ever get a great new weapon drop. Probably once every 3-4 hours. Most of the drops I get are 1H.
In retrospect with this build, I shouldn't have picked Nightblade for the subjob. I wish the respec would let you respec your subjob. I think since I'm so lightning based, a shaman + mage would have been better. Or maybe a shaman + warrior would've helped VIT/DEF and surviving. But I'm stuck with Shaman+Nightblade so I gotta figure out what my best options are at the my moment.
Uh, my impressions of the game at this point are that the combat is alright, the loot is just ok, the story/quests are forgettable, the level design is huge areas and lots of mazes and easy to get lost on quests, also leveling is slow.
...but the character build options are amazing and there's 8,000 ways you can make a unique character. So that + the easy respec for the most part means it's fun constantly messing with your character and trying new build ideas. That's the really addicting part.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Blade Barrier and Pneumatic Burst are both pretty good skills to pickup for survivability for someone in the nightblade tree. Even at 1 point P.Burst will restore 10% of your HP and you can use it every 15 seconds. Its first upgrade will also increase dodge on melee/ranged attacks, and the third will increase elemental damage if you want to increase it that high. Blade Barrier on the other hand is good for emergency situations when fighting a lot of foes, or one who does particularly high damage. This is because it has a 100% damage absorb/reflect, along with high HP regeneration. I personally go the dual wield route in my trickster, but I'm sure there's ways to make 2 handed character work just as well.
Ah, ok I didn't realize you could go dual-wielding. I thought almost all the shaman skills are tied to 2H, but it looks like only about 1/4th are. That's nice, now I can use either dual wield or 2H whichever one has the stronger weapons at the time.
Yeah I have P.Burst at level 5 and Wendingo Totem at lvl.7 (Storm Totem at lvl.5). Blade Barrier is hard because I'm only lvl.5 on Nightblade so it'd take me another 10 skill points to even get to it.
Are there any other life leech type skills I should be using to keep my HP replenishing with Shaman/Nightblade?
controller support seems ok
it's a bit annoying to set it up, and controlling the camera with a joystick rather than a mouse was personally cumbersome for me (bcuz I have a tendency to just move it around like I'm playing a tps or something, when in a ARPG it's best to just keep it still and get as much info as possible imo)
it works fine on my xbox 360 wired
it's a bit annoying to set it up, and controlling the camera with a joystick rather than a mouse was personally cumbersome for me (bcuz I have a tendency to just move it around like I'm playing a tps or something, when in a ARPG it's best to just keep it still and get as much info as possible imo)
it works fine on my xbox 360 wired
dude I'm in the same part of the game as a 2H soldier. I only changed my weapon like 6 times since the beginning
I fiended like 12 straight hours the past 2 days from act 1 to the middle/end of 3...like wtf am I doing I don't even like arpgs LOL sitting there dull eyed spamming my mouse click through mob after mob of giant bugs
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Only nightblade can dual wield with the Dual Blades skill. Every other class unlocks it through specific items. You could maybe buy back 2-3 skill points and redistribute them towards raising Nightblade so you can buy Blade Barrier. Not only will that give you a defensive measure, it will also raise your HP a bit (because you get physique/cunning/spirit/hp/mp with every mastery level).
As for life leech, Shaman's grasping vines has a modifier that adds it. It's also a good skill to slowing enemies. Shaman also has an upgrade to Brute Force which replenishes health, but that requires a 2-handed weapon. Nightblade has some higher level skills with some life leech. I haven't used them extensively though. There's probably some others but I can't check check right now. There is also a component (Hallowed Fang I think) which adds a skill that steals health.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
For sure, I tested it using a PS4 controller with DS4Windows and it worked great.
...and after 3 nights of playing, I just beat the game on Veteran with my build, lvl.38 at the final boss, ~19 hours. All quests done that I could find, but I didn't go out of my way to explore at all. Can definitely see the game being much longer if you explore every map out since there's a ton of them and they're huge.
Pros:
+Combat feedback is good. Normal sucks. But Veteran solo play is a good challenge for the first time through. Died a bunch, but the personal riftgate system made it not really frustrating, and it was way more satisfying getting through boss heros or boss fights on veteran.
+Character build system is amazing. So many options, tons of varieties even within a single class, let alone within a dual-job class + constellation options.
+Cheap respec is really nice since there's so many options and lets you change up your playstyle until you find one you like
+Nice looking world/game from an art design perspective. Armor sets all look pretty dull is the only downside.
+Decent amount of quests; could be more, but it's not bad
+Big ass map and tons of them, lots of secrets
+Fairly polished. No real bugs encountered or anything. Ran smooth.
Cons:
-Honestly, I think the loot isn't very good in this game, which makes me sad. I got soooooooo much junk. I'd only get a cool new weapon upgrade about once every 5 hours, so I'd be using the same weapon for 5 hours straight. Even armor, I'd get a noticeably better piece of armor about once every 2-5 hours. For most of the game I'd never get a single piece of useful loot. I thought playing on Veteran with better drops there'd be some decent loot, but in my experience the loot drops were dozens and dozens of the same damn item over and over.
-For all the character build options, you have so few skills points, especially for dual-jobs, that the game really limits how much of the character's skills you can use at one time. I think at 39 levels in, I had about 1/5th of the skill tree done on my main job, and 1/20th of the skill tree done on my 2nd job. And on Constellations, I only managed to find 10 shrines of the 50, so with only 10 points I got like 2 constellations done (though tbf my falcon dive added to my main melee attack was pretty sweet; but man there's soooooooooooooooooooo much other stuff out there I never even got to see; I get that being a loot game that is for higher difficulty runs/extra characters, but still I feel like because there's so many skills I actually ended up seeing far fewer % of them in a single run than I would in most other loot games so it's a little unsatisfying there). I think I would've liked it if you got about twice as mainly skill points on leveling up and you got a few constellation points on leveling up as well.
-Game lacks any theaterics what-so-ever. When I beat the final boss and it just died like a normal enemy and the game just said "go see someone to report it" and I do and it's just a quest finished...yeah. It was really hard to care about any of the story or characters or quests because it just felt like they put so little effort into the presentation of it.
-Inventory management is a pain in the butt like a lot of loot games. No real quick way to see which armor stuff is better without studying it in-depth. Warping back to sell stuff is boring as always.
Still the core gameplay is fun and on veteran it was the perfect challenge with my build so it was always satisfying pushing forward. I think they definitely made a good diablo-game, even if it's not as good as diablo except for the character build options.
Thanks for your tips. Blade Barrier really helped save my ass a ton of times in the final dungeons. Being able to alternate between P.Burst, Potion and Blade Barrier as HP restore tactics while using a Wendigo Totem and attacking kept me alive through a bunch of fights where just having P.Burst & Potion wouldn't have been enough.
Pros:
+Combat feedback is good. Normal sucks. But Veteran solo play is a good challenge for the first time through. Died a bunch, but the personal riftgate system made it not really frustrating, and it was way more satisfying getting through boss heros or boss fights on veteran.
+Character build system is amazing. So many options, tons of varieties even within a single class, let alone within a dual-job class + constellation options.
+Cheap respec is really nice since there's so many options and lets you change up your playstyle until you find one you like
+Nice looking world/game from an art design perspective. Armor sets all look pretty dull is the only downside.
+Decent amount of quests; could be more, but it's not bad
+Big ass map and tons of them, lots of secrets
+Fairly polished. No real bugs encountered or anything. Ran smooth.
Cons:
-Honestly, I think the loot isn't very good in this game, which makes me sad. I got soooooooo much junk. I'd only get a cool new weapon upgrade about once every 5 hours, so I'd be using the same weapon for 5 hours straight. Even armor, I'd get a noticeably better piece of armor about once every 2-5 hours. For most of the game I'd never get a single piece of useful loot. I thought playing on Veteran with better drops there'd be some decent loot, but in my experience the loot drops were dozens and dozens of the same damn item over and over.
-For all the character build options, you have so few skills points, especially for dual-jobs, that the game really limits how much of the character's skills you can use at one time. I think at 39 levels in, I had about 1/5th of the skill tree done on my main job, and 1/20th of the skill tree done on my 2nd job. And on Constellations, I only managed to find 10 shrines of the 50, so with only 10 points I got like 2 constellations done (though tbf my falcon dive added to my main melee attack was pretty sweet; but man there's soooooooooooooooooooo much other stuff out there I never even got to see; I get that being a loot game that is for higher difficulty runs/extra characters, but still I feel like because there's so many skills I actually ended up seeing far fewer % of them in a single run than I would in most other loot games so it's a little unsatisfying there). I think I would've liked it if you got about twice as mainly skill points on leveling up and you got a few constellation points on leveling up as well.
-Game lacks any theaterics what-so-ever. When I beat the final boss and it just died like a normal enemy and the game just said "go see someone to report it" and I do and it's just a quest finished...yeah. It was really hard to care about any of the story or characters or quests because it just felt like they put so little effort into the presentation of it.
-Inventory management is a pain in the butt like a lot of loot games. No real quick way to see which armor stuff is better without studying it in-depth. Warping back to sell stuff is boring as always.
Still the core gameplay is fun and on veteran it was the perfect challenge with my build so it was always satisfying pushing forward. I think they definitely made a good diablo-game, even if it's not as good as diablo except for the character build options.
Thanks for your tips. Blade Barrier really helped save my ass a ton of times in the final dungeons. Being able to alternate between P.Burst, Potion and Blade Barrier as HP restore tactics while using a Wendigo Totem and attacking kept me alive through a bunch of fights where just having P.Burst & Potion wouldn't have been enough.
Oh and one thing was pretty annoying was having loot level locked because leveling is super slow. In the last couple of dungeons, if I ever got any slightly better loot it'd be locked at 2-4 levels above me so I couldn't even use it. When I beat the game I got a cool 1H legendary weapon that I'd like to use in my elite difficulty run...but it's locked at lvl.50. And seeing how beating the game just took me to lvl.39...that means I can't even use the legendary weapon for like another 10-13 hours, which is so lame.
I liked locking the equipment behind stat requirements much better.
I liked locking the equipment behind stat requirements much better.
It's definitely different than Titan Quest. There is no grindy element from what I have played so far (Veteran Difficulty, and New characters). I have not experimented much with builds, but I have been just playing through it without doing any prior research about which would be the most optimal build, and I am in act three. There are two additional difficulties above Veteran, but they only unlock after you beat them (At least that's what I think will probably happen). There is an option for shared loot, and individual loot. We have been using the shared loot option because it makes the much more interesting, and most of all... Fun.
I can't say I'm a fan of the way the loot is handled in the game. The requirements to be able to equip it, apart from level, are something I don't like. Add to it that loot can drop that I can't equip because I'm not at the right level and it feels... off-putting.
On the other hand, I love the ability to set what rarity of loot I can see on the ground and pick up and what to ignore and not show at all. That's a pretty great thing to have in a loot game.
I like the atmosphere, but I liked that even when Early Access started. The little details are pretty great, like the salt to keep the undead out, or the stories you can hear from certain characters, or the choices you get from some quests.
The combat is OK. It improved a lot over time, although it still feels somewhat clunky to me. I prefer the fluidity and feedback from the combat in D3 (which I consider the best in the genre), so while it's still good here, it feels on a lower level to me. Still enjoyable, but I was hoping for more.
I'm also not a fan of having to buy the same skill 12 times and having to waste the few skill points received at level up on leveling a class to unlock skills that need those same skill points to be bought and raised. The whole system offers good freedom of choice for people that don't want to be pigeonholed into a specific role with specific abilities and I can appreciate that, but it's not something I like too much. It makes me feel as if I'm progressing slower than I'd like.
As of now, I've just finished the first act at level 24 with my Witchblade I made at the start of EA and I have to admit I regret having picked Soldier/Occultist at the time (maybe I did because those were the only 2 classes available at the start? I don't remember, been so long) so I'll have to restart at some point with some other character, maybe go single class so I'll have more skill points to use on skills.
On the other hand, I love the ability to set what rarity of loot I can see on the ground and pick up and what to ignore and not show at all. That's a pretty great thing to have in a loot game.
I like the atmosphere, but I liked that even when Early Access started. The little details are pretty great, like the salt to keep the undead out, or the stories you can hear from certain characters, or the choices you get from some quests.
The combat is OK. It improved a lot over time, although it still feels somewhat clunky to me. I prefer the fluidity and feedback from the combat in D3 (which I consider the best in the genre), so while it's still good here, it feels on a lower level to me. Still enjoyable, but I was hoping for more.
I'm also not a fan of having to buy the same skill 12 times and having to waste the few skill points received at level up on leveling a class to unlock skills that need those same skill points to be bought and raised. The whole system offers good freedom of choice for people that don't want to be pigeonholed into a specific role with specific abilities and I can appreciate that, but it's not something I like too much. It makes me feel as if I'm progressing slower than I'd like.
As of now, I've just finished the first act at level 24 with my Witchblade I made at the start of EA and I have to admit I regret having picked Soldier/Occultist at the time (maybe I did because those were the only 2 classes available at the start? I don't remember, been so long) so I'll have to restart at some point with some other character, maybe go single class so I'll have more skill points to use on skills.
I cant attack and sometimes there is a huge delay hitting a button,the window pops up 5 seconds later..I tried with the Steam Controller,used the recommended set-up and all,it's not the kind of game for a controller I guess...once I am in the inventory I will be damned if I can figure out what to press to split a stack for example...some got it working but I just gave up and went back to K/M.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
Found out about this game yesterday and I'm so glad I did. Reminds me of Diablo 2. Game is worth more than just the $25 price tag.
edit: Play on Veteran, much more enjoyable.
edit: Play on Veteran, much more enjoyable.
TharpDaddy
Member
This is my main issue I think. I have insane build ideas in my mind but I don't think i'd have enough skill points to pull it off. I wonder if there's a way to use a trainer and give myself more skill points? It'd no doubt break the balance but I play ARPGs for the loot and mowing enemies down, not for a challenge.
mysocksarepink
Banned
absolutely loving this game
Robofish
Member
You cannot respec classes but you can respec skill points all you want.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
There was a trainer during Early Access which I'm sure is going to be updated for the release build if it hasn't already. You can give yourself as many points as you want with it, but I personally would get bored quick of it. I find that with restrictions being imposed it allows for better understanding of mechanics and point allocations, allowing for more interesting game play, But that's just me.
Raising masteries and attribute points are the only things you cannot respec without a trainer (or possible future update/mods). What is it about Pyromancer that you're not feeling? Is it not performing well, or do you just find it boring?
Also, you can't respec skill points that go into your job level. So you have to be very careful there. You can totally screw yourself up if you put too many points into your job level on both jobs and not leave enough for the actual skills.
TharpDaddy
Member
I probably wouldn't do it for my first character, or even give myself all the points right away. At the end of a session i'd just give myself like an extra 2 points for each level rather than having 200 at level 1 or something crazy
I like the Demo aspect but I'm not really digging the occultist. I have the raven and the dog pet from the occultist tree but it just feels a bit boring because the only thing I have from that tree are the pets and one passive skill. It's not like I'm hating it, I just wish I could quickly try out something else.
HappyPuppy
Member
So I stuck with it, wasn't feeling the game and went for a little bit of Titan Quest on the side. After I reached a level where I could unlock more skills (spamming two skills was a bore) and leveling my devotion the game got a lot better.
My dot build now feels a lot more satisfying, my pet can proc my devotion skill which makes it really cool, got a skill where I can fling my own feces -_-. Overall I'm enjoying the game a lot more.
The performance is still kinda iffy but thanks to St3v3 telling me to lower the lighting my fps did improve but now I have a visual bug (fixed by moving the shader).
My dot build now feels a lot more satisfying, my pet can proc my devotion skill which makes it really cool, got a skill where I can fling my own feces -_-. Overall I'm enjoying the game a lot more.
The performance is still kinda iffy but thanks to St3v3 telling me to lower the lighting my fps did improve but now I have a visual bug (fixed by moving the shader).
Game is pretty fun but I hate that it doesnt give comparison tool tips apart from dps. It would be nice to see how much effect on other stats a magical item will make. Also the lack of info about how much an attribute will increase is very annoying when investing points. You shouldn't have to click then cancel it to find out.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Hey, quick question; is the highest rarity loot restricted to the highest difficulties like in Titan Quest?
NoblesseOblige
Banned
From: http://www.grimdawn.com/guide/settings/difficulties.php
It implies they can drop in any difficulty, but much more rare in normal. I've personally gotten legendary drops from Elite, which isn't the highest difficulty.
TatteredHat
Member
There's a specific piece of armor that lets you dual wield ranged weapons, but it is pretty low level, I'm not sure if there are any higher level options.
Edit: looks like there are a few talisman options as well.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
There's a relic which also adds dual pistol support: http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Gunslinger's_Talisman_(relic)
And probably some higher level gear which also adds it (like Empowered Gunslinger Jacket). Some fans think they'll add a dual pistol mastery in the future.
Something really neat I figured out late yesterday evening. For those that are a bit further into the game.
You get the special components that you can buy from factions which are generally related to the particular faction. They like weird Pear shaped things or whatever (unlocks after reaching honored with a faction). These stack ON TOP OF any "normal" components you add to your equipment. Pretty neat imho!
You get the special components that you can buy from factions which are generally related to the particular faction. They like weird Pear shaped things or whatever (unlocks after reaching honored with a faction). These stack ON TOP OF any "normal" components you add to your equipment. Pretty neat imho!
Don't go into the pet tree if you don't want to specialize, pets fall off the cliff hard if you don't focus all of your gear on raising their damage and life (go occultist + shaman if you want pets). Occultist and Demo mesh well for the CHaos + Fire damage builds and you can also add a few points into the slow from Occultist to have good CC. To be honest, the Shaman is a better class for ranged rifles than the Demo right now.
The game punishes you quite hard if you don't focus on one to two damage sources and a jack of all trades will die quite easily once you get to Act 3, a good rule of thumb is to have 1 main focus skill + 1 support skill + a bunch of passives. I also invest all my stat points into str for the first 30 levels in order to raise the character's survivability, though it's not a must.
The only viable single class is the Arcanist as far as I know (may be soldier as well, but I can't find a single soldier build right now), for every other class you will need to multi class eventually in order to raise your DPS and HP.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Augments are what Crate calls those, and I tend to use them to bump up the weaker resists in the end game. Except for the weapon one anyway, which I use to bump damage output.
http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Augments
Yeah, I've been using pets but I'm not really convinced by them. Guess I'll get rid of them completely and put the points into the passive I've been using, don't remember the name off the top of my head though.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I think that there's actually a couple of Demolitionist / Nightblade skills that work best if you've got a 2 handed ranged weapon anyway.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Played 'til about level 9 last night as a Nightblade. Definitely getting flashbacks of Titan quest with the skill point system. They start with a nice AoE skill I can throw on left click and then hope for the "scissor" passive to proc when it's on cooldown.
How does respec work in the game? I'm putting points into these early skills but I'm not sure if I should be doing this D2-style where you very carefully look at what you want to use then scrape by with the minimum skill points until you can get to it.
Another thing I don't really understand is where I should be putting my stat points. If I'm doing mostly nightblade stuff I'm going to guess mostly "cunning"? Nightblade gear is probably going to need cunning the most I hope. (Putting points into the profession gives mostly cunning, so it's probably an important stat for the class right?)
Also is there just 0 character customization outside of gear? I made a dude and basically got to choose male/female and that was it, haha. Not really a big deal but usually there's a little bit of customization.
How does respec work in the game? I'm putting points into these early skills but I'm not sure if I should be doing this D2-style where you very carefully look at what you want to use then scrape by with the minimum skill points until you can get to it.
Another thing I don't really understand is where I should be putting my stat points. If I'm doing mostly nightblade stuff I'm going to guess mostly "cunning"? Nightblade gear is probably going to need cunning the most I hope. (Putting points into the profession gives mostly cunning, so it's probably an important stat for the class right?)
Also is there just 0 character customization outside of gear? I made a dude and basically got to choose male/female and that was it, haha. Not really a big deal but usually there's a little bit of customization.
It's the single target damage part, just ruins it.
It's completely viable but you'll probably want to skill significantly into Flash Freeze and Mirror for the crowd control. I found lots of Aether Ray gear show up once I hit Elite on a number of my characters; easy to make a build around them. You'll be squishy though.
Robofish
Member
I agree. The beam should have pierce.
I just tried to it and no way i can play a character like that.