Class Selection (EN)

Overview

This guide is about how to choose a class that suits you.Most information is about capability of each mastery and each combined class

Introduction

Good beginning in Grim Dawn is to choose the class that suit you. The key of having a fun in this game is to play what you really want, using the skills you want to see, able to beat the end of the game at Ultimate difficulty.

The most common problem is choosing the right class for their play style. Grim Dawn has 15 combined classes and 6 single masteries. So it is hard to choose among those for newbies. The purpose for this guide is to help people solve the mentioned problem.

Play Style

You can find play style by these 5 keywords after press Ctrl+F

1. Melee : Anything base on Melee fight
2. Ranged : Any build with main damage from Ranged Weapon
3. Hit&Run : Mostly with Damage over Time build or build that need to kite very often
4. Caster : Mage style
5. Tank : Wear shield and more durable than ordinary melee

Mastery

Introduction to 6 Masteries

1. Soldier : Warrior+Knight. Ideal for every melee combat. With a lot of buff and very good passive. The community claim that soldier is the best for survival in ultimate difficulty.

• Focus in Physical, Internal Trauma, Bleeding damage
• Auras and Passive skills are very good in all aspect
• Weak and boring in early game. Need to be patient before getting extremely strong at end game

2. Demolitionist : Destroyer of Grim Dawn. Has every destructive skills of a mere human could have. Fire, Explosion, Grenade, Molotov, Flashbang or even a Mortar. Also has massive debuff to his foes.

• Focus in Fire, Lightning as a primary damage. Physical and chaos is secondary.
• Auras are very good and versatile
• Explosive and trap skills are very strong at damage/debuff/crowd control

3. Occultist : The one who borrows power from 3 witch gods. Emperor of Chaos and Vitality, Solael. King of Damage over Time like Acid&Poison and Bleeding, Dreeg. The last one who can take control of beasts and devilish creatures, Bysmiel. The skills are obviously divide into 3 by the witch. It may be hard for newbie to understand the mechanic make the full use of this mastery. Advice is to skipped it to 2nd choice or learn how to play it right from internet.

• Focus in Chaos, Vitality, Acid&Poison damage or Pet style
• Has very good buff and massive debuff. Exclusive auras are very strong in their type.
• Have Few Dmg Skills. So it may be difficult at first. Not recommend to choose as a first mastery.

4. Shaman : The one who use power from the nature. Has versatile skills. Master of Two-Handers and totems. The skills can divide by a similar method to occultist.

• Focus in Lightning, Vitality and Damage over Time(like Electrocute, Frostburn, Bleeding)
• Master in Two-Handed weapons
• Pet viable
• Exclusive Auras and Passive skills aren’t strong as others, but totems and normal auras are very good.

5. Arcanist : Truly mage. Has everythings a mage could have and contain best skills in games. It is best for ultimate difficulty after Soldier. Impressive Auras and crazy AoE skills. Eye candy and very destructive spells.

• Focus in Elemental(Fire+Cold+Lightning) and Aether damage
• All active skills are the best
• Flexible to build
• Very good auras

6. Nightblade : Assassins, Hunter, Rogue or whatever to call him. Specialize in Dual Wield. Master of speed and sharpness. Good technical auras and have life saver buff. Has various of bursty damage skills.

• Focus in Pierce and Bleeding as a primary damage. (Optional primary is Cold or Acid&Poison)
• Master in Dual Wield
• Auras is good at end game. Buff is very good for entire game.
• Half of Active skills aren’t popular because of many reasons(Mostly is not as effective as others)
• Squishy but has melee concept. So it may be hard to start with melee. Anyway his melee at end game is extremely strong.

Combine Concept

1. ***Picture yourself at end game by Seeking through Legendary sets and Epics.
Seek and try to build your character with end game items. Figure what will your character should be then you’ll play it with goal to achieve. It will encourage you to play and find the right item to prepare for the future. If you can’t decide I recommend you to try playing in multiplayer. Meet other people and exchange ideas or just see their concept and gameplay will inspired you.

2. Select the appropriate damage type and skills between two class
Figure which skills you want to use and appropriate damage type. Also debuff to amplify your damage type too. It will make your build very strong.

3. If something or mastery concept isn’t fit, then try to find Items to fix them
Some items can convert a type of damage into another. Some provides good skills or extra auras those may fit the build and make the build able to play at good performance.

4. Does it suit your play style
You’ll have your own conclusion from above topics to figure out that the build you think will suit you or not.

Don’t worry about weapons. There’s relic or items that can have you Dual wield pistols or melee and can make you strong even your mastery aren’t specialist in those weapons.

Items reference
[link]
[link]
[link] <old one>

Combined Classes

These are conclusion from each class

1. Commando (Soldier+Demolitionist)
[Melee/Tank]
Combination of raging warrior and destructive bomber. They’ve various strong buff and passive. He is the real vanguard of the army.

• Weapon : Sword&Broad, Two-Handers
• Choose your default attack modifier between Cadence(Physical) or Firestrike(Fire). It will determine your primary damage type
• Popular Build : Firestrike/Blitz/Cadence Commando

2. Witchblade (Soldier+Occultist)
[Melee/Tank/Ranged/Caster]
People often use Soldier as a primary mastery and a very strong support skills from Occultist. Various support from Occultist can make variety of the build. One of the popular class.

• Weapon : All
• Soldier Primary – Focus in Cadence and Physical damage. Very high damage tanker.
• Solael Primary – Focus in Chaos+Vitality. High attack speed and life leech.
• Dreeg Primary – Focus in Acid&Poison. High DoT damage tanker.
• Auras and buffs cover almost everything. Strong debuff. Devotion routes are diverse.
• Popular Build : Cadence/DEE Witchblade

3. Warder (Soldier+Shaman)
[Melee/Tank/Caster]
From both mastery made Warder to be the toughest tank with very high regen and health pool. Strong Retaliation auras and master of Two-Handers.

• Weapon : Sword&Broad, Two-Handers
• Choose your default attack modifier between Cadence(Physical) or Savagery(For Bleeding or 2-H)
• Focus in Physical, Lightning or Bleeding damage
• Can play Retaliation build.
• Popular Build : Bleed/Physical Warder

4. Battlemage (Soldier+Arcanist)
[Melee/Tank/Spamming Caster]
After 1.0.1.0 There’re few item changes affect this class. It’s more like a physical skillful mage or an aether berserker. [There’s an item can convert elemental to physical]

• Weapong : One-Handed melee/ranged + Shield/Focus
• Focus in Elemental damage (Fire+Cold+Lightning), pure Aether or pure physical
• Playing Cadence for melee. Calidor’s Tempest(CT), Panetti’s Replica Missile(PRM) or Albreacht’s Aether Ray(AAR) for caster
• Popular Build : Cadence Aether/DW Aether Battlemage

5. Blademaster (Soldier+Nightblade)
[Melee/Tank]
Overpowered in old patch, but has been nerf. Anyway it is still good. Another strong but gear dependent class.

• Weapon : Sword&Broad, Dual-Wield
• Focus in Physical or Pierce.
• Popular Build : S&B Warborn/DW Deathmarked/Poison Crucible Blademaster/

6. Pyromancer (Demolitionist+Occultist)
[Melee/Ranged/Caster]
The name tell you everything. If you want to play dual wield gunslinger who shot with twin pistol. This is your answer.

• Weapon : Dual-Wield Melee and Ranged, One-Handed Melee + Shield/Focus
• Focus in Fire and Chaos.
• Popular Build : DW Gunslinger/BWC Pyromancer

7. Elementalist (Demolitionist+Shaman)
[Melee/Ranged/Caster]
Best of Lightning class

• Weapon : All
• Focus in Lightning and Fire damage
• Popular Build : Stunjack/Firestrike Elementalist

8. Sorcerrer (Demolitionist+Arcanist)
[Melee/Ranged/Caster/Hit&Run]
Most versatile class. Support every style and eye candy skill.

• Weapon : All
• Focus in Elemental and Aether damage. Mostly focus up to 2 damage type. Example Fire&Aether, Pure Aether, Fire&Lightning.
• Popular Build : DW gunslinger/Stunjack/BWC/AAR/CT Sorcerer

9. Saboteur (Demolitionist+Nightblade)
[Melee]
One of newbie friendly class and non-geared dependent. People mostly follow jajaja’s guide in the official forums. (It’s popular thread, you may find it in any search engine.)

• Weapon : Dual Wield
• Focus in Fire and Cold. Using high attack speed to get best damage from Firestrike.
• Popular Build : Tri-Element/Nex&Ortus Saboteur

10. Conjurer (Occultist+Shaman)
[Caster/Pet]

• Weapon : One-Handed melee + Shield/Focus
• Focus in Vitality and Bleeding damage for caster.
• Pet style is popular to use very strong buff on your pet.
• Popular Build : Pet Conjurer

11. Warlock (Occultist+Arcanist)
[Spamming Caster/Pet]
Best of Laser beam

• Weapon : One-Handed melee + Focus
• Focus in Chaos or Aether as a primary damage. Fire and Vitality for secondary.
• Can also play pet style too.
• Popular Build : Aether/Chaos AAR Warlock

12. Witch Hunter (Occultist+Nightblade)
[Melee/Caster/Hit&Run]
It is witch who hunt down their prey. Assassin-like class. It is not gear-dependent but not seems newbie friendly too. It need to know how to play and get good at it. Wrong skills and devotion can ruins this class entirely. So be prepare.

• Weapon : Dual Wield Melee, One-Handed melee + Focus
• Focus in Acid&Poison or Chaos+Vitality damage.
• Popular Build : DEE Dreeg/DW Venomblade/DW Chaos+Vit Witch Hunter

13. Trickster (Shaman+Nightblade)
[Melee/Tank/Caster/Hit&Run]
Rare class.

• Weapon : Dual Wield melee, Two-Handers
• Focus in Bleeding and Pierce. May choose Cold or Vitality as a secondary damage.
• Popular Build : Bleeding/Savagery Trickster

14. Druid (Shaman+Arcanist)
[Melee/Caster/Hit&Run]
One of rare caster, but fun and beautiful skills. Often play Trozan’s Sky Shard(TSS)caster. Weakness is lack of resistance reduction and squishy

• Weapon : Two-Handers, One-Handed + Focus
• Focus in Cold and Lightning damage.
• Popular Build : TSS/Ultos Druid

15. Spellbreaker (Arcanist+Nightblade)
[Melee/Caster/Hit&Run]
Meta game at patch 1.0.0.8 or later. Cold-hearted Assassin and bursty damage. Viable in most situation and seems to be overpowered in main campaign

• Weapon : All except shield.
• Focus in Cold damage. Secondary may be Aether or Pierce damage.
• Popular Build : Shadow Strike/PB/TSS Spellbreaker

• Test your own build at : [link]
• Information about builds are from Official Grim Dawn Forum : [link]

How to define how good a build is

We use these milestone

• Finish solo play Ultimate main campaign
• Beat all boss in “Hidden Path” questline including Madqueen, Rashalga (ultimate difficulty)
• Beat Nemesis solo. (Often use cronley’s nemesis Fabius as a tester because easiest to find)
• Beat Crucible solo. (Gladiator>>>Challenger)
• Beat Avatar of Mogdrogen solo. (Actually, this is not necessary. Beating him is waste of time.)

Other

หมายเหตุ :

• CC = Crowd Control
• DoT = Damage Over Time
• AoE = Area of Effect
• Elemental = Fire+Cold+Lightning
• There are various type of dmg. Flat and DoT use different buff keyword, but may affect by the same resistance keyword
  Normal Dmg

  DoT Dmg

  Resistance

  Physical

  Internal Trauma

  Armor, Physical Res.

  Pierce

  Pierce Res.

  Bleeding

  Bleeding Res.

  Acid

  Poison

  Poison&Acid Res.

  Fire

  Burn

  Fire Res.

  Cold

  Frost Burn

  Cold Res.

  Lightning

  Electrocute

  Lightning Res.

  Chaos

  Chaos Res.

  Aether

  Aether Res.

  Vitalty

  Vitality Decay

  Vitality Res.