- Dragon's Dogma is an action adventure RPG whereas Grim Dawn is an ARPG/Dungeon Crawler. Two very different games but both are extremely fun to play. I have over 2,000 hours on the PS3 version of Dragon's Dogma, 200 hours on the PC version, and currently sitting on around 500 hours for Grim Dawn. Get them both if you enjoy both genres.
- May 26, 2018 According to Grim Dawn’s lore, Demolitionist are part engineer, part sorcerer mastery that is absolutely good when it comes to explosions. This hybrid mastery is proficient in dealing both physical and magical based damage by laying traps, throwing grenades, and putting any kind of pyrotechnics into its attacks.
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Even though Grim Dawn is an Indie ARPG, its Diablo-like look and feel has made it popular among many gamers. The good thing about such a game is the wide range of possibilities. There are so many ways to complete a mission hence increasing the number of times you can explore the Grim Dawn world.
One of the most interesting options, though not so productive, would be dual wielding pistols.
A Grim Dawn dual wield pistols build isn’t necessarily superior or easier to play but it is definitely fun once you master it. You can use cheats and hacks to give you some edge when mastering the art. In this guide, we are going to see how to dual wield pistols in Grim Dawn and explore some of the pistols you can easily use in this awesome game combat configuration.
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Dual Wield Pistol Builds
There aren’t many dual wield pistol builds at your disposal in Grim Dawn. The most popular and perhaps easies build is the Occultist/Demo Fire/Chaos damage build. While you might find such guided builds interesting, it is wise to learn the basics of dual wielding builds and knowing what equipment will let you bring them into life.
Here is the equipment that will let you duel wield in Grim Dawn (one item in the list will give you the powers. Combining multiple items will increase your dual wield efficiency)
- Gunslinger’s Jacket
- Marauder’s Ammo Belt
- Barrelsmith’s Salvo and Crossfire
- Gunslinger’s Talisman
- Marauder’s Talisman
- Plunderer’s Talisman
- Pyroclasm’s Mark
Gunslinger’s Jacket and The Empowered Variant
The normal Gunslinger’s Jacket gives is rated at 110 Armor. You will require:
- Physique: 136
- Level: 20
- Item Level: 18
To unlock this item. The Gunslinger’s jacket grants you:
- +14% pierce damage
- +26 cunning
- +3% total speed
- -15 percent cunning requirement for ranged weapons
The skills are the most important additions this Gunslinger’s Jacket brings into the equation. At level one, you will be deadly with a gun or two guns. It will give you the power to dual wield ranged weapons with:
- +5% critical damage
- 15% chance of 30
- Piercing damage
- +4% offensive ability
The Empowered Variant of the Gunslinger’s jacket gets the same job done only better since it has a higher armor rating (712) and it grants you Level 2 Gunslinger skills. Atoz mp3 songs download bollywood. You will need 473 physique, level 65 and an item level of 65 to gain access to this variant.
Marauder’s Ammo Belt, And The Empowered Variant
The Marauder’s Ammo belt is another way to earn the dual wield powers. The belt gives you:
- 26 armor
- 12% bleeding resistance
- +15 percent fire damage
- +15% cold damage
- +10 cunning
When dual wielding with this belt on, you can sometimes lay down a devastating salvo of arcane infused ammunition. In addition to this, the belt also grants you skills like:
- +80% weapon damage
- 42 burn damage over 3 seconds
- 10-12 fire damage
- 10 cold damage
- 25% slow target effective for 3 seconds
![Best Commando Build Grim Dawn Best Commando Build Grim Dawn](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6i3o8K8PDiE/hqdefault.jpg)
To unlock the belt, you will require physique: 197, Level requirement: 26 and item level: 26.
The alternative is the Empowered Marauder’s belt that gives you more weapon damage, better burn damage, more armor but requires more physique and level bonus to unlock.
Barrelsmith’s Salvo and Crossfire
This is a handgun set that lets you dual wield by firing a salvo from your twin guns or send aimed shots down range with the intent to kill. The skill you will get with the Barrelsmith’s Salvo is Salvo Level 1. It is part of the Brrelsmith’s Twins item set whose slogan is ‘Forged together, fight as one’
You will need :
- Cunning: 411
- Level: 68
- Item level: 65
The Barrelsmith’s Crossfire will also let you fire a barrage from the twin guns, setting down a good amount of suppressive or deadly fire towards the enemy. This comes naturally with the power to dual wield ranged weapons. This gives you almost the same stats to the Salvo skill only that the Crossfire skill focuses on sending more lead downrange. You will need the same requirements to unlock it.
Gunslinger’s, Marauder’s and Plunderer’s Talisman
These talismans aren’t weapons in themselves but they will give you the power to dual wield ranged weapon. You can always deactivate the two-handed technique when you feel that it is not working to your advantage.
Gunslinger’s Talisman
This talisman will give you Level 1 Volley skill. This lets you send a well calculated volley of bullets towards a target. In addition to this, you can use the dual wield or double handed technique on compatible ranged weapons. The talisman belongs to the Devil’s Crossing faction and the unlock requirements are:
- Required level: 25
- Item Level: 28
Statistics:
- 15% Pierce Resistance
- +8% Total Damage
- 6-8 Elemental Damage
- +6% Attack Speed
When dual wielding, you will get:
- +70% Weapon Damage
- 16 Physical Damage
- 10% Chance to be Used
- 1 Projectile
Marauder’s Talisman
The Marauder’s Talisman will also give you level 1 Volley skill that lets you dual wield and send a strategic volley of bullets towards the enemy. You will have to be at Level 35 and have an item level 25 to gain access to this talisman. When double wielding with it, you will get:
- +75% Weapon Damage
- 24 Physical Damage
- 25% Chance of: 20 Fire Damage, 20 Cold Damage
- 12% Chance to be Used
- 1 Projectile
General Marauder’s Talisman Statistics
- +26% Total Damage
- +15% Fire Damage
- +15% Cold Damage
- 8-14 Elemental Damage
- +122 Health
- +7% Attack Speed
Plunderer’s Talisman
The Plunderer’s Talisman sits at the apex of the dual-wielding talismans in Grim Dawn. It will give you level 2 Volley skill and has a generally higher weapon damage. When dual wielding with this talisman, you get:
- +80% Weapon Damage
- 35 Physical Damage
- 33% Chance of: 35 Fire Damage, 35 Cold Damage
- 15% Chance to be Used
- 1 Projectile
You will need Level 60 and Item Level 60 to gain access to this powerful talisman
General Statistics
- +50% Total Damage
- +25% Fire Damage
- +25% Cold Damage
- 12-17 Elemental Damage
- +200 Health
- +7% Total Speed
Pyroclasm’s Mark
This is your last avenue to double wielding. It has a whole range of perks attached which makes it very interesting when making your build. The skill you will get from using the Pyroclasm Mark is the level 1 Blazing Fury. This lets you unleash a fury of projectiles from your dual wielded ranged weapons. In this mode, you will have:
- +115% Weapon Damage
- 180 Burn Damage Over 2 Seconds (90 Per Second)
- 106-172 Fire Damage
- 12% Chance to be Used
- 8 Meter Explosion Radius
- 1 Projectile
The Pyroclasm’s Mark has a level requirement of 58 and an item level requirement of 58.
General Statistics
- 16% Fire Resistance
- 16% Lightning Resistance
- +3% to Maximum Fire Resistance
- +3% to Maximum Lightning Resistance
- +44% Burn Damage
- +44% Fire Damage
- +44% Lightning Damage
- +44% Electrocute Damage
- 8-11 Fire Damage
- +4% Attack Speed
- +2 to Vindictive Flame
- +2 to Ulzuin’s Wrath
The Pyroclasm Mark is the sure way to a dual wielding status. You can buy it’s blueprint from the Devil’s Crossing faction vendor when your stats are right and craft it at any blacksmith’s.
Doubling the items that let you dual wield in your possession combines the perks each item brings to your character. The perfect Grim Dawn dual wield pistols build will depend on how you mash up the above items to suit your style of play.
In the first part of this beginners guide, I gave players some useful Grim Dawn tips to help them make their way through in a more efficient manner (and find joy in doing so!). In this second installment, I will continue to give more advice, focusing on the leveling and endgame aspects, and how they are different.
Part Two: Leveling v.s Endgame
This concept took me some time to get use to, and when I started playing as a newby, I would spend hours looking at Guides. I was perturbed to find in my searches that there were NO beginner leveling guides, so I instead just skipped to ones covering builds. Other times I’d play another build, following it’s leveling guide on “veteran” difficulty, and would think, “Wow! This build is going to be the easiest to run.” In both cases I came out with false impressions of the game, as what I thought were hard facts, were simply a lack of understanding. I have since come to the realization that Grim Dawn is simply unfriendly to beginners… Although, this I consider is totally fine, as Grim Dawn has a very steep learning curve, as I explained in my Grim Dawn review.
The reality is: There are many ways to level a build, some of which are easier than others, with the endgame result being very different. I’ll try to go into more detail about some of these differences between endgame and leveling in hopes to give new players an idea of what to expect and what to not to.
Endgame Skills Might Not Be The Same As Leveling Skills
Yes it’s true, you could choose “Arcanist” for the first mastery and pick up one of strongest leveling skills such as “Olexra’s Flash Freeze” or “OFF” as some call it. This can be your focus early on and one hit the entire screen as you begin leveling. Or you could pick up “Fireblast/Greater Fireblast” from components and think it’s a strong build… but you’d be wrong.
The build is neither strong, weak or anything yet as it’s way too early in the game for you to make your judgement. These skills might not even apply to your endgame build, just like “Fireblast”. Or you may reduce its level to one, just like “OFF” in a “Albercht Aether Ray” build.
So enjoy being overpowered for the first few levels, but be smart about it while leveling as some skills (such as “Primal Strike” for “Shaman”) have good scaling with “weapon damage”, others have extensive modifiers like “Panetti’s Replicating Missile,” and might be suitable as a main skill for you endgame if you build around them. But other skills are good only for lower levels such as fillers until you get your upgrades so don’t get too attached. If you’re not following a step-by-step leveling guide make sure to ask questions, ask other experienced players forums and/or experiment around with different variations.
How Early Game Offensive Priorities Differ To Endgame
I’m talking about the most common question asked in the game: “What bonuses do I look for, for gear and weapons?” The answer is…it will differ, sometimes greatly depending on which build you pick. Let’s continue with the “Fireblast” example from the previous point, this spell does pure fire damage. So while leveling, picking up “Fire Damage %” will be the best bonus for you to choose as you can increase your damage with it. When you reach 50% and have found a good “Aether” weapon, start to invest in “Albercht Aether Ray” (which is “Aether/Fire damage”). Keeping fire might sound good for few more levels (as it’s a part of the damage spec anyway) but soon you’d be better off looking at getting “Convert X damage to Aether”, “Aether resistant reduction” along with “Aether damage %”. Also be wary of “Reduce Energy Cost” , because this skill can drain you dry in no more than a couple of seconds. See the difference now between endgame and leveling?
Another example would be a “Fire Pets” build, where you might see some drastic differences from stacking “Pet damage %” early on. However, as you level up, things gets quite different. “+Level to Flame Touched” should be your biggest concern, I won’t explain about it here but if you’re interested go read DaShiv’s extensive guide as it will give you more insight into it.
How To +Levels To All Skills
This part can easily trick novices, as it did to me. As I said before, most builds are easy to play early in the game and everything turns out fine. But not all builds can keep up throughout the game, the reason being is the need for more skill points. It’s a serious concern for builds which need many skills, these include “Damage”, “Damage Mitigation”, “Resistance Reduction”, “Health”, “Armor”, “Procs”, “Defensive Ability” and “Offensive Ability” reduction etc. All these require skill points to be at max, and then “+ levels to skills” to go over max for example 22/12 and 26/16.
“+ Levels to skills” only comes from gear which come from random drops and are from a huge drop table. You are never know what you will get and if it’s what you want at endgame (with few exceptions for granted drops).
So know this: If you plan to go with something that requires many skills, don’t let the leveling process fool you into believing it will be easy, it will be an uphill battle unless you have the right gear. That’s why a build which is gear dependent isn’t that friendly to newer players. You might want to shelf characters that lack the right gear and level another character who can gain you gear more readily and are easier to be kept content.
Relics Will Not Level As Fast As You Do
You will learn this very soon, relics will NOT progress as fast as you do, so don’t be disappointed when you see this happening. The recipes for relics are obtained in random drops, meaning they are harder to get than gear, and they have a progression system that can hinder you for several playthroughs. Even something as simple as a level 35 relic can be very hard to craft. You finally get the recipe for it only to discover it’s not enough and you are not ready to use it yet as you still require another few relics. Each of those relics will need an additional recipe and each of those need rare materials you probably used for some other task. Not only will they require components but, some might need certain faction reputation in order to be made available. That’s normal, you aren’t slacking so don’t blame yourself for not having a proper relic yet. Make do with whatever you can craft (or trade) and make sure whatever build you are making it is not dependent on a certain relic (for example some pets are exclusive to relics).
Resistance Reduction (RR) Is Mandatory At Endgame But Not While Leveling
That one might not be very obvious, but it’s true for most builds “Restistane Reduction” is essential later on. Whatever damage type you decided to go with, you will most likely need to de-buff the enemy, reducing their resistance to that type of damage. It’s good to know that beforehand, and plan your devotion path/items accordingly. You will not need them on “Normal/Veteran” difficulty, but you will need them in the end, so remember this!
Grim Dawn Best Solo Build
Faction Reputation Is Important At Endgame But Not Early On
Well, the gear these factions provide might be good for your build, bad or anything in-between. But what is mandatory from factions are the little flasks named “Augments” as these put bonuses on your gear. Again, this is something you might not want to bother with early on, but when you hit “Elite” and “Ultimate” difficulty, you will need to get them on every item. Weapons and accessories become accessible when “Respected” and “Honored” faction status are reached, but armor ones need a “Revered” status, these are crucial to compensate the higher resistances and counter the difficulty level.
Grim Dawn Beginner Soldier Build
Read Part 1 to this guide here or check out our Grim Dawn Review here.