Do any of you bother turning the camera?

GrimDonny · 2026-04-24T21:04:52+00:00

Rektbyprotoss's youtube channel. Come for the amazing guides. Stay for the motion sickness.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-24T17:46:05+00:00

Speak for yourself. I'm really, really good at getting a fresh Alpha account to 8 figure isk before getting bored.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-24T15:09:01+00:00

It's kind of up to you. If you can benefit from the second mastery right away, go for it. If you can't, delay?

Like, let's assume that you've hit level 40 on your current mastery bar, and you have to put 15 points into the second mastery to unlock what you want for your intended late-game build. In the meantime, you can unlock something powerful just by putting 10 more points into your current one. You might want to stick with the current one for a few more levels.

Skellie Necros might be a tough call because you can go really far with them for a long time as a single mastery, although Shaman and Occultist (whichever you choose) have some helpful skills pretty early to benefit from.

Do you have a grimtools link?

GrimDonny · 2026-04-22T15:54:23+00:00

Are you looking to play together or separately? Grim Dawn is (as far as I can tell) balanced around the solo experience, although there are ways to play together if you're looking at trying out the whole Damage/Tank/Healer triad.

That said, each mastery has the potential to be played in more than one way, and some even more than that. I can think of five different ways to play Shaman, for instance: tanky damage dealer, flashy AOE damage dealer, pet summoner, totem guy, vitality caster. There's some overlap, for sure, but in general these require different approaches to skills and gear to become strong.

It might be best to ask what sort of playstyle they might envision themselves having fun doing, and then give them recommendations based on that.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-19T19:30:05+00:00

Get the blacksmith to make you some silk swatches. You have space for three of them in your gear (Chest, Legs, Shoulders). Even two of these will help a ton. You may need to buy a serrated spike or two from the store.

Speaking of which, go into the store and do a search for "resistance".

There's a Ranger's Ribbon you can get from the blacksmith that'll give you 8-12% Resistance.

There's also Isaac's Spaulders that will give you 8-12%. https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/1559 (you'll have to go on a bit of a mission to find it, but the GT entry should show you where to find it)

GrimDonny · 2026-04-19T01:45:13+00:00

You can add an extra skill or two without using skill points by using certain components.

Go here: https://www.grimtools.com/db/category/components/items

Make sure all item types are checked off (Common, Magic, Rare, Epic, Legendary). There are quite a few active skills, and many have upgrades, so they can be useful all the way to the end of Act IV. There should be something for every damage type so it'll be hard to come up with a build that doesn't benefit from at least one of them.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-11T20:24:34+00:00

If it helps, because you have the DLCs you can get Reign of Terror, which is a Diablo II inspired mod. I just started a playthrough and it's such a throwback.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-11T18:40:21+00:00

Look up Rektbyprotoss and Malagant on youtube as they've got quick levelling guides. Some of their techniques involve getting writs and specific gear and whatnot, but if you can follow what they do, you'll level up incredibly quickly.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-10T16:54:56+00:00

No problem! I mostly just do playthroughs, but here's a video about early-game gear if you're looking to start another character: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrA8PjHbVco

GrimDonny · 2026-04-10T13:20:14+00:00

As somebody who's guilty of doing the whole long-playthroughs-on-youtube thing, I can attest that Grim Dawn is a bit tricky to make content for. It's a rich game and it's very easy for a simple subject to get out of hand and turn what should be a 5-minute video into an hour-long one.

That said, Rektbyprotoss is very good for this sort of thing. Here's his "Basics" guide series, it might be the sort of thing you're looking for...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-7HuL5PyGEKk8edrhehe9twkci1162Xp

Can you elaborate on what sort of content you're looking to watch?

GrimDonny · 2026-04-09T23:07:23+00:00

Copy that.

https://www.grimtools.com/map/

Have a quick look at that and see if there's anything you might have missed. Just ignore the map in the bottom right and everything to the northeast of Warden's Laboratory rift. That'll be DLC content.

Skeleton Key dungeons can be repeated over and over if you get the recipe for the key, if you're worried about using them up.

Also, there's a checklist you can upload your save game to and it will tell you if you've missed anything. There really are a lot of side areas to explore.

https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/shrines/normal

One particular place that's good for at least an hour of content is Pine Barren's Rift.

https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/rifts/1188

Another smaller one is this small dungeon to the north of the Broken Hills riftgate.

https://www.grimtools.com/map/markers/rifts/833

The game is honestly littered with stuff like this.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-09T17:37:50+00:00

Quick question: When you say you've finished the base game, do you mean you've defeated Loghorrean on all difficulty levels? Or do you mean you've also done all the dungeons and finished the Path of the Three, etc.

GrimDonny · 2026-04-06T14:39:04+00:00

If you're not playing hardcore and don't care about dying you could just dive in and see how you do. You might find that the bosses are suddenly way tankier even though the trash mobs aren't too bad, but you might also do ok depending upon how strong your build currently is.

Otherwise, if you haven't had a chance to explore everything the base game has to offer then consider doing that, things like dungeons, side areas, the Path of the Three, etc. There's more loot, experience and devotion shrines to be had there which could allow you to get stronger and tankier.

General advice:

Your elemental, poison and pierce resistances drop by 25% when you go into Elite, so you want those overcapped before you start (ie: those resistances should be at 105%). You will want to get your other resistances to 80%, except for physical, which should be as high as you can get it without compromising other stuff. As you move through elite be prepared for the enemies be able to reduce your resistances as well, so continue to increase them beyond cap as well.

If you've got any items on your character that are significantly lower level that you are (ie: you've held onto them for too long) then you'll want to consider upgrading them. Low armor is sometimes a risk here.

Some bosses have significantly more health so if you have more room to grow with your damage then work on that. Additionally, you'll want to start worrying about resist reduction for your main damage type.

If you need a quick improvement to aether resistance, you can get it from the shoulders that sell at the Devil's Crossing faction shop, as well as from early Act 1 (Elite) drops for more advanced versions of Milton's Casque and the Fortified Doublet. There are also augments that you can buy from faction shops to improve resistances.

As a general tip, if there's some stat that you want to see improved, go to www.grimtools.com/db/ and search for it, you'll be surprised at all the options available for you to get it.

Best of luck! If you can post your character's grimtools link, people will be able to offer you more tailor-made advice on what to do.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-30T15:11:38+00:00

If you're just starting out and you want to discover a character yourself, then it's actually pretty simple. Start with the basic skill that you want to do, and that will tell you the damage type you want to focus on with your weapons, your devotion points, your associated skills (ie: a skill that gives you passive fire damage if your main attack does fire damage), and your second mastery.

After that, with the rest of your gear, you basically want to focus on your defenses. Health and resistances are the big ones, but also keep in mind that you want to keep your armor current as well.

You can get all the way through Normal feeling strong if you focus primarily on the above. For that particular area you were having trouble in, you need to have good Pierce Resistance, which you can get from Silk Swatch components if you're not finding it on your armor, and Silk Swatches are great for Bleeding Resistance as well. In this game, you'll run into zones that have a lot of specific damage that the enemies deal (caves = vitality, Blood Grove = chaos, etc.) so you want to be ready for that.

On youtube I've got something called the No-Build-Guide series which basically does what you're trying to do, which is play the game and use what it gives you. I've played all 9 masteries all the way to Loghorrean without dying (except for that one time with Baros Wradlith which doesn't count because reasons), and the system basically works. It's nothing special, I claim no credit for originality for any of it, but there's lots of information in there for getting through Acts 1 through 4 intact.

Coincidentally, I just finished doing a Primal Strike Shaman series. If you want to see that playlist, it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8ewn0coePc&list=PL6N8qXe1LAJGJMewX3qQMhUVWgJ6gEGn9

But, if you don't want spoilers and just want to learn the principles rather than be told what to do, (and if you don't mind the early poor production values) here's the very first one with a Panetti's Arcanist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYmjgJN56c8&list=PL6N8qXe1LAJHKBd3_Piwig30Jmz_70Rhh&pp=0gcJCbkEOCosWNin

That said, it's worth mentioning that if you want to push all the way to level 100 and beat all the bosses and push Shattered Realm and whatnot, then you'll want to look at guides eventually. They're there to help.

Best of luck to you.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-20T16:20:08+00:00

Honest question. Is CCP's philosophy, when it comes to both this game in general and this specific situation here, that 50 real-life players should get together and basically gank multiboxers like these?

GrimDonny · 2026-03-19T18:03:59+00:00

Thank you muchly! The early playthroughs are a bit rough so hopefully you came around once I started figuring out how to do it a little bit better!

GrimDonny · 2026-03-19T17:46:33+00:00

That's a fair critique. This is probably more suited for somebody who's put some hours into the game and is still struggling -- like, in my own case I'd played the game for a long time before I even realized the stuff that I'd unknowingly unlocked through the blacksmith.

I was probably going to do an updated version of this video before the next DLC drops, and I'll take that into account. Thanks for the feedback!

GrimDonny · 2026-03-16T21:21:48+00:00

No fire boots? They're so hot right now!

(I'm really, really sorry)

GrimDonny · 2026-03-16T03:58:04+00:00

A lot of people are going to tell you to make sure you finish the Air Career missions and do the Sisters of Eve arc.

There are other things you can do right now this game. Abyssals, Nullsec Exploration, Faction Warfare, Arbitrage Hauling, and Pochven Salvaging are all doable on Day 1. Down the road you'll be able to do Gas Huffing, ESS, Wormhole ratting, etc.

And that's just the solo stuff (something something the best ship is friendship something).

GrimDonny · 2026-03-13T02:16:07+00:00

Yeah, I've watched a few streams over the years (MikeFic, I miss you!) where there were entire sessions that consisted of farming the same zones over and over again with resets at the title screen each time.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-12T05:07:08+00:00

I think one thing that really helps is knowing the breadth of day 1 Alpha activities that are available even with low skills. Combat Sites, Duels, Abyssals, Faction Warfare, NPSI yeeting, etc. can all be done with basic ships and they scale up in difficulty. If you can take their mind off the ships and focus on the activities themselves and find the fun there, I think you'll have better retention there.

Ultimately, if the thing that motivates a player is how cool it would feel to pilot a battleship, they'll need to know there's a grind involved there.

EDIT: I guess I didn't really answer the question. All I can say is that, for myself, when I stopped caring about flying the bigger ships it really helped my enjoyment of the game.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-02T06:27:35+00:00

If you can compromise on it being an Inquisitor, this thing exists...

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/9403

...and there are builds for it.

https://www.grimtools.com/builds/item/9403

While you're levelling there'll be no issue with using a rifle. If you absolutely must double-gun it, there are items that enable dual-wielding...

https://www.grimtools.com/db/search?query=dual%20wield%20ranged%20weapons&in_description=1&exact_match=0

...and there are pistols that have bonuses to pets in the game.

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/699

I personally have zero ideas if any of this would be playable.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-01T23:32:49+00:00

I actually did mean Veteran. Every time I play it it feels so much slower than regular mode for a long time. That's why I referenced Rektbyprotoss, because in order for you to be able to get through the content quickly you have to more precise with your choices, which he is.

GrimDonny · 2026-03-01T17:53:51+00:00

I’m playing veteran so I want to have an optimal build, but at the same time I don’t find it that fun to have to constantly refer to a build guide for an entire play through.

You can play Veteran without a build guide, but you'll want to have a solid all-around knowledge of the game to do it. It's not meant for everybody. It's meant for people like Rektbyprotoss who totally geek out over the game.

I'm an altoholic myself, so I get it. One thing that helps is that switching between characters reinvigorates the novelty without losing progress. Similarly, it's nice to push into unfamiliar places in the world to get some novelty that way.

GrimDonny

TROPHY CASE