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If you’ve ever played an RPG before, this section should be relatively straightforward. If somebody says you need “32 nightblade” to use a skill, this is what they are referencing, not the overall character level.
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There are checkpoints at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 32, 40, and 50 where the skills directly above the checkpoint will unlock. The Mastery bar can be levelled up to 50 for each of your classes, for a total of 100 skillpoints required to max out both classes. Simply click the big + to add a point to the bar. This bar represents your ‘mastery’ of that particular class and is how you unlock new skills inside the class, as well as your primary source of attributes such as physique, health, and energy. At the bottom of the Skills screen for a class, you will see a bar with a big + sign to the left. I put this first because it is one of the most important features for a new player to understand and one of the most often overlooked. The mysterious mastery bar is a crucial concept relatively unique to Grim Dawn and Titan Quest. We will start by defining some basics about the game so you don’t misunderstand important concepts and so that you have some orientation for what skills actually do when we get into the details of each class later. I highly recommend reading the official game guide on Crate’s website and the incredibly excellent Grim Tools website for more information and the chance to really dig into the details of the game. I will not go into item-granted skills or in depth into the constellations on the devotion tree, because there are already good guides for that. To aid in this monumental decision, I’ve listed below every class and skill in the game, its basic characteristics, and a brief overview of why you might want to use it.
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Worry not, we’ve all been there at the skills screen, wondering what the heck to do with those first three skill points or maybe even what the heck to pick as our first class. There are all these skills and nodes and lines connecting some of them and a big ol’ mess of stars that are grouped by color, and who even knows what a mastery bar is? Starting your first character in Grim Dawn can be daunting. Defense and How to Not Die Like a Chump.Offense and How to Kill Everything and / or Everyone.
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