Grim Dawn | Cold Poison dual-damage concept | Part 1 | April 2024

Experimental dual-damage (Cold/Frostburn + Acid/Poison) character.
This video is a full walkthrough (using a merit and some speed-levelling tactics) of level 1 to 30.
For this character, I'm using a merit and the lore-note levelling tactic involving going into Ultimate at level 5 and speed-levelling a bit before going back into Normal to grab shrines and various quests. This is not exactly 'new player friendly' but anyone can do this stuff once they have another character into Forgotten Gods at Elite difficulty to buy a merit.
Other stuff like the mandates for the +200% faction rep boost and the iron bars for cash transfer are entirely optional.
Level 32 Grimtools for the video character www.grimtools.com/calc/p25jm6yV
(Oops, forgot to take a GT snapshot at level 30 but it's very similar)
Timestamps
0:01 Intro waffle
1:20 Gameplay starts
2:39 Level 2 - mastery choice
7:40 Reanimator fight in Normal
8:39 Using the merit
11:08 Start of lore-note collection (Normal)
19:18 Lucky double-rare medal drop!
20:22 Cashing in the iron bar for 50k
20:53 Going into Ultimate (level 5)
22:58 Burial Cave - spawn Reanimator at level 7
23:24 Level up to 20 in Devil's Crossing before returning to Burial Cave
29:20 Gain 3 levels just from Scrap quest (reach 30)
30:20 Back into Normal to collect some gear and shrines
Devotions that buff Cold/Frostburn Damage AND Acid/Poison Damage
Murmur
Yugol
Owl
Link to Crate's patch notes for 1.2
forums.crateentertainment.com...
The mod I use to change item and skill text colours is Rainbow Filter
Find out about it here - • Grim Dawn - Rainbow Fi...

[@BarbeqdBrwniez]

This looks so weird. I love seeing your builds that go "against the grain". Reslly shows the crativity possible in this game.

[@pierreavon3456]

love your unique character creations. This one looks very interesting

[@Arcadelife1]

Should be fun, thanks for the comment 👊🙂

[@mullima]

John, what the grim Dawn world needs is a guide for Commando Devotion Progression. Help a brother out who is lost in the weeds, please!

[@Arcadelife1]

Thanks for the interest in this stuff. Do you mean a devotion path for the retaliation Commando? I’ve been looking through old videos to see if it’s there and it looks like I made some significant changes to the final devotion setup. Let me know if you want a text version of the ‘final’ devotion path in a reply here and I’ll sort it out.

[@mullima]

Yessir, a sequential devotion path… I.E. start with this constellation, then get this one next, etc). I’m thinking of a force wave/physical build… but that isn’t viable, then I could attempt to switch to a retail build. Thanks mate!

[@Arcadelife1]

@@mullima Here's the devotion path for the Retaliation Commando - anyone else, please note this is NOT for this Cold/Poison build. Devotion path for Retaliation Commando Crossroads purple node (Ascendant) Anvil Reclaim purple node Crossroads gold node (Order) Tortoise Reclaim gold node Scarab Shield Maiden Messenger of War Rat Targo the Builder Stag Crossrods Green Node Affliction Reclaim green node At this point, you should have 55/55 devotion points, with 6 remaining to complete the final constellation Obelisk of Menhir Forcewave/Physical damage devotions would be quite different. I recommend experimenting with Devotion paths in Grimtools to avoid loads of respeccing in game.

[@arekwisniewski6933]

How are you going to spec this char? Dervish? Witch Hunter? Spellbreaker? Also since you're already playing with weird damage options would you like to try and make use of one of the two handed MIs that convert the damage on Menhir's Bulwark? Doing something like Aether Forcewave DK or Fire Forcewave Commando, Fire Blade Arc Warlord, Cold Cadence Warder etc. There is so much potential in these weapons, I'd love to see that ngl

[@Arcadelife1]

That first question is a good one. The answer is not quite as good, because I haven’t decided yet. I’ll get the Nightblade stuff sorted out and see what options I have depending on remaining skill points. Both damage types scale with spirit, so Arcanist might get a look in and I always like a bit of Maiven’s Sphere … still not sure though, so I’ll see how it goes. Second question - ‘weird damage options’ is my middle name 😂. But seriously… yeah, that sounds like something I need to do. Thanks for the suggestion 👊🙂

[@arekwisniewski6933]

glad you're gonna consider that! about that second mastery though - with Dervish you get a lot of melee damage options. on the other hand damage support wise WH is the best here since you get dual RR for both damage types although Spellbreaker can get you out of some sticky situations. one mastery that might be lowkey good for this build is Blademaster with Cadence

[@Arcadelife1]

@@arekwisniewski6933 Dervish is possibly the ‘best’ option but weirdly it’s because I don’t want to do that combo, so it makes sense to do it because I’ll have to make it work so I have fun with it. This was never going to be straightforward 😂 Edit - I want to do Witch Hunter because I like Occultist so much, but it’s getting a bit predictable now and I’d be on autopilot. At least Dervish would make me think a bit.