[Grim Dawn SSF Beginner Guide] Choosing Which Skills and Gear to Keep or Discard [Warder from a Fresh Start #2]

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This is the second entry in my project to raise a Warder from scratch in Grim Dawn, without relying on any previously accumulated gear or resources.

In the previous entry, I explained which parts of the screen you need to pay attention to and which parts you can safely ignore while progressing through the game, before eventually defeating the first boss.

[Grim Dawn SSF Beginner Guide] What to Pay Attention to—and What to Ignore—in Your First Hour [Warder from a Fresh Start #1] – Kaburanai Games

This time, I gained quite a few levels and picked up a whole mountain of equipment, so I continued raising the character while deciding what to keep and what to throw away.

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Leveling Up While Collecting Scrap

To expand the inventory, we first need to complete a sequence of connected quests.

We will begin by tackling the quest that asks us to collect Scrap.

To obtain Scrap, all you have to do is beat the hell out of every enemy you come across.

You will find some eventually.

We have also reached Level 7, which means that the fun skills are finally beginning to unlock.

Sorry about this, but because of how I handled the screenshots, this particular image was taken quite a bit later in the playthrough.

Anyway, the first skill we are taking is Thunderous Strike.

In exchange for reducing Primal Strike’s damage to roughly half and shrinking its area of effect to around two-thirds of its original size, this skill cuts its Energy cost in half and completely removes its cooldown.

Once you acquire this skill, Primal Strike’s role changes from a special finishing move that you save for the right moment into a convenient attack that you can fire repeatedly.

The other skill is Torrent.

This causes additional bolts of lightning to shoot out from the point where Primal Strike lands, striking nearby enemies.

The really nice part is that Torrent’s lightning is not affected by the damage reduction imposed by Thunderous Strike.

As a result, this becomes a rather terrifying combination that dramatically increases how often you can attack without reducing your practical damage output by all that much.

I wanted to squeeze out just a little more damage, so I raised Torrent to Skill Level 2.

To test it out, I also went back for a rematch against the boss from the previous entry.

Compared with the previous video, I think you can clearly see just how much faster the enemy’s health bar drops.

Because we can repeatedly fire both Primal Strike and its additional Torrent lightning, the weaker enemies that periodically spawn are also killed almost instantly.

After defeating the boss, it even dropped some Scrap for us.

Ignore One-Handed Weapons and Shields, Even If They Are Rare

The boss dropped a Rare one-handed mace and a shield, but I immediately sold both of them.

Primal Strike is the core of this build’s combat power.

That means equipment that cannot satisfy Primal Strike’s activation requirements will never become a serious candidate, no matter how high its rarity may be.

These items might have an absurd number of different bonuses attached to them, but at this stage, the only question you really need to ask is:

“Is this a powerful two-handed weapon?”

Head Through the Trapdoor for the Slith Nest-Clearing Quest

Once you hand the Scrap over to the quest giver, they will ask you to clear out a nest of Slith—snake people.

It is a little difficult to notice, but you can enter the quest dungeon through the trapdoor shown in the screenshot.

Learn Wind Devil and Defeat the Boss

After defeating some enemies and gaining another level, I learned a skill called Wind Devil.

As you can see in the video, once you use this skill, three tornadoes will automatically follow you around and attack enemies entirely on their own until you quit the game.

These things have a surprisingly respectable amount of attack power.

Against ordinary enemies at this point in the game, they are strong enough to gradually kill everything even when you do nothing but run around and avoid attacks.

On the way to the boss, you will find a Totem like the one shown in the screenshot.

When you interact with a Totem, a large number of powerful enemies will appear.

Defeating them rewards you with a huge quantity of items and experience points.

Defeating enemies summoned by Totems is one of the game’s primary methods of farming equipment.

Whenever you find one, go ahead and kill everything it throws at you.

Defeat the Boss and Complete the Inventory Expansion Quest

The boss waiting at the deepest part of the dungeon is fairly tough, and it creates magical circles that function as damaging ground effects.

Just like the boss from the previous entry, keep moving away from its attacks when necessary and gradually wear it down.

Grim Dawn contains a great many bosses that create this kind of damaging ground effect, so it is worth learning how to deal with them while you are still at the beginning of the game.

Once the boss is dead, teleport back to town through the map and report to the quest giver to complete the quest.

Now, let’s sort through our loot.

How to Decide Which Equipment to Keep—Prioritize Damage-Type Bonuses and Attack Speed

We obtained a massive quantity of items during the quest, and our character has also reached Level 10.

It is time to decide which equipment and skills we actually want to use.

Among the weapons I found this time, for example, there was a gun like this one.

The weapon on the left is the one I am currently using, while the one on the right is the new weapon I just obtained.

So, which one do you think deals more damage?

When you are faced with a situation like this, try firing both weapons at the training dummy on the left side of town.

First, let’s test the old gun.

It appears to deal around 73–130 damage, along with roughly 5–30 damage over time.

Now for the shiny new gun.

Its damage appears to be around 67–120.

Anyone looking at these numbers might be wondering:

“Isn’t the old weapon dealing more damage?”

The old gun also has a slightly faster attack speed.

This is because the old gun has a percentage-based bonus that increases the Lightning damage provided by the Cracked Lodestone, along with a bonus to attack speed.

Our primary skill, Primal Strike, contains Lightning damage, just as its visual effects would suggest.

That is why the old gun deals more damage than the new one.

You can check how much percentage-based amplification each of your damage types currently has by opening the character sheet’s statistics screen and clicking the tab marked with the Roman numeral II.

If you scroll down, you will find entries for Lightning Damage and Lightning Modifier.

Lightning Damage indicates the amount of additional Lightning damage being added to your regular attacks.

Lightning Modifier indicates the percentage multiplier applied to the Lightning damage you deal.

The damage dealt by Wind Devil also benefits from this Lightning Modifier.

Gradually increasing the damage modifier for the damage type used by your primary offensive skill is one of the fundamental principles of choosing equipment.

Using similar standards, I will sort through the rest of the equipment while prioritizing the following:

• The weapon must be two-handed.
• For weapons, prioritize high base damage.
• For armor, prioritize a high armor value.
• After satisfying those requirements, prioritize bonuses to the damage type used by the build.

As for the balance between offense and defense, Grim Dawn is a game where you can sometimes be killed in an instant.

For that reason, I recommend building your character as defensively as possible.

There was an especially good bargain.

It provides a bonus to Elemental damage—which includes Lightning damage—along with a bonus to Electrocute damage, the damage-over-time version of Lightning damage.

It also buffs both Offensive Ability and Defensive Ability.

To put those two statistics very roughly, Offensive Ability affects your accuracy and critical-hit chance, while Defensive Ability affects your evasion and ability to avoid being critically hit.

On top of that, the amulet boosts Energy regeneration, increases maximum Energy, and even throws in some Bleeding Resistance as a bonus.

It has a little bit of everything.

There is absolutely no hesitation here.

I am equipping it.

There is no particular reason to keep most of the other items, so I will aggressively sell them and put the money toward our operating expenses.

There is even an Epic one-handed axe among them, but I am selling that without mercy as well.

Put One Skill Point into Raging Tempest and Brute Force

The first skill I acquired was Raging Tempest.

With this skill, Wind Devil’s attacks gain additional Cold damage.

Wind Devil will also begin reducing the enemy’s Elemental Resistance, meaning its resistance to Fire, Cold, and Lightning damage.

In other words, even when you run into an enemy with high Lightning Resistance, this skill allows you to force your way through using the Lightning damage your build specializes in.

One of the standard principles in Grim Dawn is not to switch between several different damage types.

Instead, you specialize in one damage type and use resistance reduction to force that damage through.

Raging Tempest is simply an extremely effective way to make sure your damage continues to work.

The other skill we are acquiring is Brute Force.

While using a two-handed weapon, this skill adds extra Lightning damage to your attacks, strengthens your Physical and Internal Trauma damage, and even increases your maximum health.

It is a great skill for two-handed weapon fighters that provides a straightforward boost to your overall combat strength.

Fill Out the Toad Constellation with Devotion Points

In the previous entry, we acquired the Purple Crossroads node, which gave us one point of Purple Affinity.

That now allows us to begin unlocking constellations that require one point of Purple Affinity.

Here, I am going to begin filling out the Toad constellation.

There are two reasons for this.

The first is to gain more Purple and Green Affinity, allowing us to eventually connect our path to the Rhowan’s Crown constellation.

The second is to acquire the “3% of Attack Damage Converted to Health” bonus located along the path through the Toad constellation.

Aim to Unlock Storm Surge Next

For the time being, we will continue raising the Shaman mastery bar with the goal of reaching Storm Surge, which adds further damage to Primal Strike.

Just to make sure I did not forget, I also placed one point into the Soldier mastery, officially making this character a Warder in both name and reality.

To be completely honest, there is no need to force yourself to choose a second mastery at this point.

You can simply take it whenever you actually want it.

There is also another reason for waiting.

Generally speaking, the skills unlocked deeper within the mastery you are already developing often provide direct improvements to your current combat strength.

Therefore, when you want to become stronger as quickly as possible, it can actually be better to continue raising your existing mastery until you have unlocked everything you currently need.

Unlike individual skill-point allocations, your choice of second mastery can never be changed.

Think carefully before making your decision.

Summary

Now that we have acquired the skills that form the core of our combat strategy, we will begin learning skills that make this playstyle more consistent and reliable.

Finally, let’s go over the main points from this entry and include a link to the build on Grim Tools.

• Get Thunderous Strike, Torrent, Wind Devil, Raging Tempest, and Brute Force.
• When looking at bonuses on equipment, increased damage for the damage type your build uses and attack speed are especially important.
• Even if an item is Epic or Rare, it is perfectly fine to sell it for some working capital when it does not suit your build.

Grim Tools

Enjoy your gaming life!!

Thank you so much for reading to the end!!

Previous Log: [Grim Dawn SSF Beginner Guide] What to Pay Attention to—and What to Ignore—in Your First Hour [Warder from a Fresh Start #1]