Grim Dawn: Crucible Mode DLC Review (Wingthor)
"This is so easy, I'll be done in no time. Only 50 waves left" I thought, and during the first 100 waves my character was a killing machine, obliterating everything in his way. Suddenly, some random boss came along an killed him in one hit. I had -25% Aether resistance. Damn.
That's pretty much how my first crucible match went down.
Grim Dawn's Crucible DLC is a kind of arena survival mode where you have to kill waves of monsters and try to survive as long as possible. Every 10 waves you gain "tributes", which is a currency exclusive to the crucible mode. Tributes can be spent by building turrets or buying buffs to make things a little easier. You can even buy devotion points!
Once you die, give up (by telling the crucible overlord you don't want to continue) or complete all 150 waves, the crucible ends and you will be able to grab your reward. The reward consists of several chests that drop tons of loot; the number of chests available and the quality of the loot dropping depends on how many waves you've beaten and how many points you achieved in the crucible.
Sure it is fun. However, the rough depiction of my first crucible match points out one of the big problems here. The crucible favors tanky builds with lots resistances and self heal, glass cannons barely stand a chance, especially on the highest difficulty. You definitely shouldn't play the crucible mode with hardcore characters, because it is very likely that you WILL die at some point.
This DLC is a great way to farm items and build your character if you don't want to play the main campaign, and it's ideal if you don't have much time to play. It's quite fun and definitely worth the money, but I actually prefer "the real thing", aka the campaign.