Updated 0.7.6 - Beginners leveling guide - Primalist (Ice Thorns focused)

[korimoor]

I have been seeing a lot of activity on discord asking about builds and guides so I wanted to post my thoughts since I now have characters in all 4 archtypes leveled up. This guide should get you through to the End of Time and to your mastery quest (around level 21-22).

General tips:

• Find a skill with good, spammable aoe damage and invest in that skill to start. You can always despecialize later on. At around level 50 your skill specializations level up quickly so dont be scared to invest in something early even if you dont use it later on.
• Use a shield. Especially for primalists, they lack defenses other classes have and unless you have twink gear having a shield is a good idea. Craft “damage reduction on block” and “block chance”. Block protection is another must have for end game.
• Invest in void protection for the first act. If there is one protection to invest in early it’s void. So many of the monsters have void damage types and they tend to hit the hardest.
• Do all of the side quests. There are 16 extra passive points in game currently and most of them are from side quests in the Ruined and Imperial Eras.
• 0.7.6 Update: Main and side quests also provide idol slots. This is taken from wowow2264’s list. Idol Slot Quests List
• Learn to craft ASAP. Press F in game and get comfortable with crafting. Keep AT LEAST your weapon up to around your level. If you dont know how crafting works, ask or search for a basic tutorial.

Starting out:

The skills you will use to level are Summon Wolf, Ice Thorns, Summon Thorn Totem, Fury Leap and Summon Sabertooth. The reason for this is that for any leveling build you want as many damage types going at once for max overall dps. This build allows you to summon a totem and let it do damage by itself, have your pets attack on their own while you leap around and spam Ice thorns.

Skills and Specializations:

• Ice thorns is quite strong. At level 4 you get your first skill specialization slot. Put Ice thorns in this spot and invest in the damage nodes. Cold Prison and Piercing Cold are very strong since +1 base damage (of ANY type) is possibly the strongest dps increasing affix you can get in game. After that you can go Dagger Thorns and Ritual Briar. I would NOT invest in Thorn Burst as the homing on thorns is much stronger in my opinion than the extra thorns.
• At level 9 you get your second skill specialization. Put Thorn Totem in this slot and go “up”. 1/3 in Forested Expanse, then 3/4 in Eternal Forest, then 1/1 Grove Mind. After that go 2/4 in Ancient Power, 1/7 in Oaken Protection and 3/3 Frenetic Attunement. Finish with 3/3 Forested Expanse. I still use Thorn Totems in my end game Arena Shaman build as it is a very useful skill for many reasons.

Passives:

• 5/8 Natural Attunement
• 5/5 Tempestborn
• 5/6 Wisdom of the Wild
• 5/5 Thorn Bond

Note: Once you get 20 skill points in Primalist click the button to UNLOCK the MASTERY TREES. This button is just above the passive skill tree you have been putting your points into.

Gear:

For gear, get a nice wand or sceptre for the base spell damage. Craft spell damage and crit where you can. For your other gear nothing is really mandatory. Health and dodge are always good. Protections also help. Minion damage/health is great and can go on many of your slots.
100% Glancing Blows are now easier to get and you should aim for this ASAP. Look for the prefix Set Chance Glancing Blows.

Uniques:

Required: none
Recommended: Invoker’s Static Touch x2

Playstyle:

1. As soon as you see a group of mobs place 1 or 2 thorn totems right on them. They will attack the totem. Having Grove Mind will drastically improve your dps once you get that node.
2. Leap or run in and spam Ice Thorns.
3. The Sabertooth will also leap in and the wolf will clean up what ever is left. Pets are also good for killing things off screen giving you even more experience at a faster rate.

Enjoy the game ! It is a lot of fun.

[korimoor]

Updated for 0.7.6

[Razguul]

Hi, a little confused as a new player. I am at L11 as a Primalist. After reading your info, I do not see how it is possible to have my wolf and sabertooth out and have fury leap and thorn totem also on my bar and then use ice thorns. That requires 5 slots on the bar unless you mean giving up my right click swipe abilitiy and put ice thorns there instead.

[DominicP343]

You can swap the abilities around as needed by either clicking on the art in your skill bar or dragging from the skill screen (default “S”). This build does not make use of Swipe, so you are correct in assuming you would replace Swipe with another skill. Ice Thorns is the likely candidate as it’s the one you would probably be casting the most.
If you like Swipe and don’t want to get rid of it, that’s where you’ll have to diverge from the build posted and start figuring out your own scaling/passives gear from there, along with figuring out what skills to specialize, etc.

[Razguul]

Thanks for the quick reply. Is it possible to free up the slots for wolf and sabertooth on the tool bar and keep them out and active once summoned?

[DominicP343]

No, if you remove them from the toolbar it will unsummon your companions

[Razguul]

Thx. I have now reached 20 passive skill points and found some builds for druid werebear and beastmaster. But they don’t use the special skills I have been leveling with (Ice thorns and thorn totem above). If I change to the skills recommended in the builds by respeccing, I have read that I will loose those points and have to start over again. Any suggestions? Thx.

[DominicP343]

Skills level up based on exp gained. Despecializing a skill will lose all levels in the skill and you’ll have to re-earn them, but as your character level gets higher the skills will level faster (higher level enemies give more exp = skills level faster). Respecializing skills becomes pretty easy by even mid-game (levels 40-50). The only thing you cannot change is your mastery from the End of Time Mastery Quest.

[Razguul]

Thx. To try out different builds, is it better to respecc an active character completely or start a new character? Thx.