So... Torchlight 2?

[Keyrock]

My Engineer is a Flame Hammer + Blast Cannon physical damage build (weapon switching).

 

The plan is to get Focus to 50, Dex to 50, Vitality to enough for gear, then max Strength. The extra Strength will increase my physical damage, and the points in Dex will give me a big critical hit chance boost.

 

Both Flame Hammer and Blast Cannon cause Coup de Grace to proc. So when anything is stunned, it will kick in and cause a huge amount of Strength-dependent damage. It's a significant boost to damage output, and makes the playstyle more tactical - you try to ensure enemies are constantly stunned so that Coup de Grace nukes them.

 

Attack:

15 Blast Cannon (weapon DPS based means it is physical governed by the strength stat! also, this skills reduces enemy physical resistance when it hits them! and makes them blind!)

15 Flame Hammer (physical damage as above... yeah, I know it's odd. The burning status does however cause fire damage... which I estimate to be about 1/3 of the total damage of this skill... not enough to justify Fire and Spark, as it would only increase damage output by 25%, and wouldn't work at all on Blast Cannon I don't think)

 

Other:

15 Tremor (a huge, multi-facted skill that complements every aspect of this build, especially with stun and physical damage increase)

15 Coup de Grace (if an enemy is stunned when you hit them, you cause damage equal to a large multiple of your strength (around 15 times your Strength I think at max)

 

Defence:

15 Heal Bot (mana regen! life regen! armour boost for aegis!)

15 Max Bulwark (much coveted percentage damage reduction as well as an armour boost for aegis)

15 Max Aegis (tanky tank tank! forcefield costs mana and this build will likely need mana. also, forcefield feels more like being a glass cannon... not for me at the moment. Also, forcefield eats charge, which I want to save for Flame Hammer)

 

If by any chance any skills remain, I will put them in Heavy Lifting for the extra chance to stun.

I'm a sword & board max tank/summoner build. The vast majority of my stat points have been going into Vitality for maximum armor and blocking. I don't worry about stat requirements for items because every item I've seen so far has a level requirement that can take the place of the stat requirements, thus if I don't have the stats necessary to use a certain item that only means I have to wait a couple of levels before I can use it. I'm currently concentrating on Heal Bot and Forcefield since both of those benefit my allies as well as myself. My plan is to max out Bulwark, Forcefield, Aegis of Fate, and Heal Bot for maximum survivability, Gun Bot, and Sledge Bot for summoning support (and Immobilization Copter if I have the skill points left over). For offense I go with Seismic Slam since it does AoE, damage over time, and is fantastic for stunning multiple targets, Coup de Grace (to go with Seismic Slam and obliterate stunned targets), and Sword & Board to increase my damage. I have a couple of skill points in Shield Bash since it's terrific for generating charge but I'm unlikely to get more points in it, maybe just enough to get tier 1.

 

My main goal in battle is keeping enemies busy, absorbing damage, stunning with Seismic Slam, and making sure I keep everybody's Forcefields up so my allies don't die. Getting Forcefield up to tier 2 was a big step since now all my allies get 100% shield instead of the 50% they got before. Makes everyone happy.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Keyrock

[Gfted1]

Thats one thing I do think hurts D3, the lack of a healer.

[Gorgon]

Is there any way to destroy an item to reclaim the enchantment. I didn' know critical bonuses were so hard to find.

[Humodour]

I'm a sword & board max tank/summoner build. The vast majority of my stat points have been going into Vitality for maximum armor and blocking. I don't worry about stat requirements for items because every item I've seen so far has a level requirement that can take the place of the stat requirements, thus if I don't have the stats necessary to use a certain item that only means I have to wait a couple of levels before I can use it.

 

Your build sounds interesting. I might try it just for a significant change of pace one day.

 

There is good reasoning behind getting every stat to at least 50, although Strength and Focus are by far the two dominant stats in the game. Which is itneresting, because Focus's equivalent, Energy, from Diablo 2 was one of the most useless stats.

 

Critical chance increases very quickly for the first bunch of points in Dexterity, then tapers off rapidly. Since crits proc so frequently with Blast Cannon and Flame Hammer, this is a huge boon. Focus and Strength never taper off, but this isn't a Focus build, so 50 is good. I still do some elemental damage, so it's great to have a fairly cheap and huge elemental multiplier from Focus.

 

Sometimes the level required to use an item if you don't have the stats is like 10 levels away. By that point the item is generally obsolete anyway. But if you've patience, it is definitely viable.

 

The next build I try (if I play as Engineer... might get bored of it) will be elemental focused.

 

Fusillade is **** at first, but when maxed and when combined with Fire and Spark and Heavy Lifting (stun) plus Coup de Grace apparently it can own. It does fire damage and Ember Hammer does electrical damage.

 

So the build idea would basically be focus on Focus (Strength is irrelevant since these skills don't do physical damage)..

 

50 Dex (crit hits)

Vitality for gear

Strength for gear

Max focus

 

15 Fusillade

15 Ember Hammer

15 Fire and Spark

15 Heavy Lifting (apparently the stun procs really well with the two attacks above)

15 Coup de Grace

15 Heal Bot

15 Forcefield (not enough room for Bulwark + Aegis)

1 Blast Cannon (a lot of its utility comes at level 1, since it does piercing and 120% weapon DPS)

1 Stun grenade or Seismic Slam just for the stun

 

What I am very interested to see about this build is how Coup de Grace works with Ember Hammer and Fusillade. Coup de Grace says it only triggers once per second. However, I've been told by people who've combined Ember Hammer with CdG that a single Ember Hammer swing can proc CdG on EVERY target, if every target is stunned. It's as though the game considers the single Ember Hammer swing one attack for the purposes of proc'ing CdG, rather than each time it hits a target in the swing. And I suspect this applies to each salvo of rockets in Fusillade as well.

 

Even if the above isn't the case, CdG is still a nice addition for to damage output.

 

I only play on elite, so I'm not sure this level of defence would be enough, though. Especially for Ember Hammer.

 

 

Is there any way to destroy an item to reclaim the enchantment. I didn' know critical bonuses were so hard to find.

 

Not that I know of it. You can only save gems, destroy gems (save items), and destroy enchantments (as well as give totally new ones).

 

 

Thats one thing I do think hurts D3, the lack of a healer.

 

Torchlight also has spells anybody can find and learn. I currently have "Heal All Level 1" on tab (alternates between the two skills assigned to the right mouse button) just so I can support a bit more.

[Keyrock]

Is there any way to destroy an item to reclaim the enchantment. I didn' know critical bonuses were so hard to find.

You can reclaim gems but, to the best of my knowledge, not enchantments, those get destroyed with the item.

[Gorth]

I haven't really tried the demo much. Ended up getting the first one though (bought Humble Bundle 6). Might give it a shot and see if it's anything for me (never was a Diablo fan though)

[Maria Caliban]

Torchlight II is basically a Diablo III that doesn't take itself too seriously.

 

And is cheaper.

[Keyrock]

It's almost as if the game knows I want to play an Embermage for my next character as my Engineer just picked up two sweet Embermage-specific uniques. I'm up to lev 51 and am (presumably) really close to the end of the game (Broken Mines).

 

/places items in shared stash

[melkathi]

It's almost as if the game knows I want to play an Embermage for my next character as my Engineer just picked up two sweet Embermage-specific uniques. I'm up to lev 51 and am (presumably) really close to the end of the game (Broken Mines).

 

/places items in shared stash

 

My engineer gets awesome embermage, outlander and berserker loot

 

I also play a summoner engineer by the way, but I seem to use a lot more spider mines than you.

I was very sceptical about them, now I absolutely LOVE them. Every time I enter a dungeon I go through the same motions: summon first set of three spider mines, summon heal bot, summon second set of three spidermines, summon stun copter, summon third set of three spider mines. Then I walk down the corridor and watch the spider mines rush ahead and exploding the monsters ahead

Also really like how the Heal Bot will randomly run up to you and salute.

 

Has anyone linked this yet?

http://i.imgur.com/83lWz.jpg

Devs seem to be really cool.

 

Other random thoughts:

 

I used the alchemist and threw in 4 uniques. Was not worth it as they turned into a random unique that wasn't even usable by my class.

What is usefull though is the fact (which isnt listed by the alchemist as a recipe) that 2 set items will transmute into 1 random set item. So if you have 3 sentinel boots like I did, 2 of those chucked into the alchemist and tada a new item (exorcist gloves in my case). My spare two ghastly shoulder pads turned into nice clovenhoof pants as well.

Unique socketables (such as skulls) combine the same was as socketables and not as uniques. Extremly not worth doing though as the fact that they are unique does not affect the outcome. Socketables in general are only worth transmuting if they are lowest quality. Blue ones and unique ones, if you are not going to use them are best sold.

 

Started an Embermage on Elite. The game suddenly has become really challenging.

 

Also started an Outlander on Veteran Hardcore. And quickly found out that hardcore and normal characters do not share a stash...

 

Last patch broke the textures on some engineer armour pieces. Hope the fix will be up soon. Until then my engineer is running around wearing pure white armour,

http://steamcommunit...s/?id=100999438

 

Going to farm some random maps with my engineer for loot and cash. My embermage drinks potions as if there was no tomorrow

Edited October 7, 2012 by melkathi

[diablo169]

Torchlight 2 is a great game, the music in particular is great. It's what Diablo 3 should have been.

[melkathi]

Thought I'd share my experience with the Embermage.

 

I play on Elite which had me die a lot at first. It is quite a challenge and has me running away a lot and drinking more potions on one map than I drank with my Engineer throughout normal mode.

 

I was going to try and use any skill that can keep my character alive. I ended up using skills that make the character fun as heck to play and the survivability seems to have started building up as a side effect.

 

So far I have Magma Spear (starting skill) which hits every enemy in a straight line and has a chance to set them on fire. It has a nice range (pretty much the length of the screen and can be spammed.

I also have Magma Mace, a melee skill that has a high chance to Stun enemies. I have this on tab, in case enemies come too close, to buy me time to run. While it was useful at first, it is loosing its usefulness very fast. It does not build up charge.

Charge Mastery (passive) I am increasing quite a bit. It improves the rate charge builds up and reduces the rate at which it decays. Charge for the Embermage allows the use of skills without mana cost for a short time once the charge bar is filled up. Very useful skill, obviously.

Frozen Fate (passive) gives a chance to freeze up to 4 enemies around any enemy you kill. I hope this to icnrease my survivability.

Frost Phase is a teleport with a very short cooldown, allowing me to get out of trouble (and even cause some damage as I leave),

Prismatic Rift (passive) has a quite nice chance of randomly teleporting enemies that hit me. Especially usefull against melee enemies. And especially fun during fights with already teleporting enemies as they zip around the battlefield like crazy

Wand of Chaos (passive) adds a chance for a "strange" effect to happen to targets of your Wand attacks, but also Magma Spear, Magma Mace, Icy Blast and Shock Bolts. The effects seem to include: Acid Rain, Fire Rain, huge rock crushing down, poison, burn, freeze, panic... and can even summon a little flying critter to attack your foes. The chance for effect starts at 8% at rank 1 and increases by 2 per rank - a 10% chance at rank 2 for your weapon attack to deal AoE damage isn't shabby.

 

At the moment I mostly run away from enemies, try to line them up for Magma Spear, spam that and watch Wand of Chaos effects happen. It's a lot of fun.

 

I had a wand that actually had homing attacks... will try to figure out which wands have that.

 

edit: So far I have beaten General Grell, which isnt far at all. But in Elite it is taking me a while to clear maps.

Edited October 8, 2012 by melkathi

[MrBrown]

I'm at the start of Act 3 with my Embermage, on Elite. It's not really "challenging" as such, since you can die as many times as you like. I've died 20 times in some sections or bosses, mostly because the location wasn't big enough for kiting. Hardcore would probably be actually challenging, but it seems it's really easy to level up on areas below your level, so I'd assume that's what Hardcore boils down to.

 

I've mostly spent my points on DPS. I didn't start spending on Vitality until the 2nd half of Act 1. I had the teleport passive melkathi mentions, but found it more annoying than useful (I actually also had a unique staff that did that on 30% of hits, very annoying). I used to invest alot on mana and mana regen stuff, but noticed that if you spent a lot of your points on Focus (even 3 per lvl should be enough) you have so much mana anyway that those becomes meaningless. Recently I mostly invest on damage bonuses.

 

 

I wouldn't be having half the fun I have with this game if I hadn't cheated myself a bunch of respec-potions, though.

Edited October 8, 2012 by MrBrown

[melkathi]

Ah see, I already try not to die on non-Hardcore

Did One-Eyed Willy, Modrox (or how he's called) and General Grell without dying and was really proud of myself after that

But Frost Phase really helps with those tight places that make kiting difficult.

 

Agreed on the focus. You have so much mana and it regens so fast, you hardly need potions outside long boss fights.

[Keyrock]

I just started an Embermage on Elite. Granted I'm not very far into the game, but I'm already hoping someone mods a higher difficulty setting into the game. Elite is challenging, but not as brutal as I'd like the highest difficulty setting to be. We need an Absurd difficulty or something like that.

[melkathi]

Yeah. I just managed to get ahead of the leveling curve so did the spider cave while two levels above the critters. There was danger of dying, but it was far from the first couple of maps that had me drinking potions like crazy. I think at the moment the difficulty is just right for me. But that may mean its too easy for people who realy wanted elite.

[Keyrock]

Yeah. I just managed to get ahead of the leveling curve so did the spider cave while two levels above the critters. There was danger of dying, but it was far from the first couple of maps that had me drinking potions like crazy. I think at the moment the difficulty is just right for me. But that may mean its too easy for people who realy wanted elite.

Yeah, I'm not saying Elite isn't challenging, I'm just saying there should also be a difficulty level that's downright brutal and ridiculously difficult.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Keyrock