Grim Misadventures #4: Herald of Good Things

[Zantai]

Greetings from the trenches! Zantai reporting with another view at the secrets of Grim Dawn. The last two weeks have been very interesting. It is safe to say at this point that I have gotten a good hang of the skill system, though it never ceases to surprise with its nuances.

With a depressing lack of real functional lightsabers and our discovery that we do not indeed have force powers, my lightsaber duel against Medierra had to be postponed until we develop such powers (working really hard on shooting lightning from my fingertips guys).

At least I can hurl lightning in Grim Dawn…and fireballs…and blasts of freezing cold…and life tearing beams…and kittens! (No kittens were harmed in the writing of this article. We here at Crate appreciate kittens and all that they do for society. Kittens may not be available in the current, earlier, or final versions of the game). I should know, as I have made a wide selection of skills for monsters, items, and masteries.

In my last entry, I was very mean, evil villain mean stuff. I teased you guys with vague hints of things to come with nothing more to show for it than “it will be cool, bros”. Sometimes, vague information is necessary if something isn’t quite ready to show off. We do have a quality bar to meet after all (I have to stand on my tippy toes to reach it). This time though, I bring you a little sampler of the good things to come. I present to you, the Herald of the Apocalypse:

Disclaimer: the following images are work in progress and may not reflect the final product. Item stats are work in progress. Item level is for testing purposes and not intended for a level 1 character.

Guaranteed to bring about the end of your world 65% of the time


What does Apocalypse do? Do you enjoy raining down burning meteors onto the battlefield, with little regard for your surroundings? Then that’s the item for you.

In today’s installment: blowing up Cairn


Some questions were raised earlier regarding how our item skills will work. To get your mental gears rolling, here are some possibilities:
- Activated on hit by enemy (any / melee / projectile)
- Activated on your attack
- Activated on your low health
- Granted (you can add it to your skill bar)

The chance of the activated skills triggering is not modified by attack speed (yours or your enemy’s), so faster attacks will benefit more from item procs. Slower weapons have their own benefits though.

Two weeks, one item done! Whew, what a workload. I may need a holiday. What! Considering the possibility that I may have actually worked on something else, something even more awesome? How much awesome can we handle in an update?!

Well, alright. Here is a little hint. It starts with “Nightbl” and ends with “ade Mastery”.

But you will have to check back next time (08/19/12) for a chance to hear the first details on our master of blades and illusion!

[Thelionheart]

Is it a sword? A dagger? Am I missing something? I guess the real question here would be what weapon type it is. Also, does that spell hurt yourself if you get caught in the blast? I can see some major face palming instances if that's the case, not to mention hilarious possibilities as well.

[Jyndal]

Whoo-hoo!!! Devastation!!! That's what i'm talkin' bout!!!

Gdftw!!!

[medierra]

The actual weapon itself isn't finalized and there is no art for it yet, so the skill was attached to a common sword for testing purposes.

The skill won't harm the caster.

[Solace]

Definitely looking forward to the item possibilities in Grim Dawn.

[nighteyes]

Looks pretty good, I can't wait to watch some skeletons go flying as the meteors come crashing down, with bones going all over the place.

[Prosoro]

THAT is AWESOME! In particular, I really like how you guys have given a short sentence about the lore surrounding the item! Thats that kind of stuff that gives an item that extra intrigue and adds so much to the game immersion.

My excitement for Grim Dawn has just increased ten-fold!

Thanks for the great update!

[999]

"Have that thou tarnished hatcheeeeeet! Raaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

One detail I really like up there is the Speed:Moderate text being text and not a number. That mix between digital and 'analogue' information (in addition to the piece lore snack) is really gonna add to the character of items. Hope it stays.

[Executioneer]

Been waiting for this update, although i expected a totally different post. (mind you, it turned out great, much better than i expected!). I will eagerly wait for an update on the new mastery. but thanks for letting us know that the Apocalypse will be ours to deliver...

[FlapJacks]

Hey, on the items that have procs via enemy attacks/hero attacks, could you guys be sure to include the proc chance and cooldown in the stats for the somewhere? It's always sort of difficult to figure out how good an item is by just looking at it when it has some insanely good sounding proc, but then you equip it or spend time crafting it to find out that it only happens 0.5% of the time, and can only occur once every 10 minutes.