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[MasterShotgun]

anyone know any good crowd controls for an embermage?

i always get pumped if i suddenly get rushed
maybe some aoe that stuns so i can run away

First off, stick a single point into Frost Phase. It's probably the single most useful spell any Embermage can get no matter their build. Teleporting out of danger has saved my ass countless. Make sure to stick it on a button within easy access.

Personally, I spam Frost Wave (post-tier 1) and Prismatic Bolt if I'm suddenly rushed. Those also build Charge very fast, so mana is rarely an issue. Blazing Pillars and Thunder Locus are also good, but those are best used if you have a little breathing room. I've heard good things about Hailstorm and Firestorm, but I didn't test them much myself.


EDIT: Holy shit. Infernal Collapse is insane at higher levels. The reduced cooldown really helps what I initially thought was a poor spell. I think I'm going to use it over Blazing Pillars for a while.

 

[hittman]

First off, stick a single point into Frost Phase. It's probably the single most useful spell any Embermage can get no matter their build. Teleporting out of danger has saved my ass countless. Make sure to stick it on a button within easy access.

Personally, I spam Frost Wave (post-tier 1) and Prismatic Bolt if I'm suddenly rushed. Those also build Charge very fast, so mana is rarely an issue. Blazing Pillars and Thunder Locus are also good, but those are best used if you have a little breathing room. I've heard good things about Hailstorm and Firestorm, but I didn't test them much myself.


EDIT: Holy shit. Infernal Collapse is insane at higher levels. The reduced cooldown really helps what I initially thought was a poor spell. I think I'm going to use it over Blazing Pillars for a while.

thanks for the info!

 

[MagicWithEarvin]

First off, stick a single point into Frost Phase. It's probably the single most useful spell any Embermage can get no matter their build. Teleporting out of danger has saved my ass countless. Make sure to stick it on a button within easy access.

Personally, I spam Frost Wave (post-tier 1) and Prismatic Bolt if I'm suddenly rushed. Those also build Charge very fast, so mana is rarely an issue. Blazing Pillars and Thunder Locus are also good, but those are best used if you have a little breathing room. I've heard good things about Hailstorm and Firestorm, but I didn't test them much myself.


EDIT: Holy shit. Infernal Collapse is insane at higher levels. The reduced cooldown really helps what I initially thought was a poor spell. I think I'm going to use it over Blazing Pillars for a while.

Blazing Pillars and Infernal Collapse is such a hot combo.

 

[MasterShotgun]

There's a pretty good Embermage guide on the Runic forums. I think the guy is still updating it (he comments on the Inferno tree but not Frost or Storm yet), but the initial sections are great for anyone just starting out.

Link.

The one big thing I learned it was that Focus also affects Magma Spear's fire damage over 3 seconds (6 if tier 2) My current Focus bonus to magic damage is +130%. So while my Magma Spear tooltip says 8016 fire damage over 6 seconds, it's actually dealing about 18436 fire damage over 6 seconds. And that doesn't take into account any other boosts I may have active. In other words, Magma Spear can be nuts against strong single targets.

 

[scy]

anyone know any good crowd controls for an embermage?

i always get pumped if i suddenly get rushed
maybe some aoe that stuns so i can run away

Ice Prison is pretty much the best CC in the game. The walls get taken down fast but Tier III bonus makes it a spammable skill. It can also CC bosses, something basically every other CC cannot do.

The one big thing I learned it was that Focus also affects Magma Spear's fire damage over 3 seconds (6 if tier 2) My current Focus bonus to magic damage is +130%. So while my Magma Spear tooltip says 8016 fire damage over 6 seconds, it's actually dealing about 18436 fire damage over 6 seconds. And that doesn't take into account any other boosts I may have active. In other words, Magma Spear can be nuts against strong single targets.

Focus buffs everything Magic damage. Really, you could go 5 Focus/level and probably not care too much on an Embermage. 53 DEX for 10% Crit/Dodge possibly but it's overall less total damage.

Oh god I have no idea what I'm doing. Started an Engineer on Elite and it is not working. Was trying to do two-hander+bots but it seems that the survivability just isn't good enough. Should I be putting points into strength and vitality equally? Or forgo the bot line and go two-hander+tank build?

No comment on the bots as I've basically avoided them all (sans Healing) for my Engineer but I will say that I don't really think VIT is all that big of a deal. 3.5 HP/point and some small +Armor/Resists% isn't that big of a deal when you look at the amount of HP you can get on equipment and due to how Armor/Resists function (flat reduction, not percentage). 100 points of VIT is 350 HP and +25% Armor/Resists at the cost of around 20% Damage so value that however you want I suppose.

3 STR, 1 DEX, 1 VIT or 4 STR, 1 DEX is probably the way to go until you get to one of the DEX break points (53 DEX for 10% Crit/Dodge, 113 DEX for 20%) before swapping to 4 STR, 1 VIT. Even then, you could probably just ignore VIT and itemize HP/Damage Reduction% and not even care.

There's a few Engineer skills that scale with Focus (basically anything Elemental damage) but many are WeaponDPS scaling as well so STR is the better option. Mana per Focus point isn't really noteworthy so raising Focus doesn't do anything useful ultimately.

 

[QisTopTier]

Oh god I have no idea what I'm doing. Started an Engineer on Elite and it is not working. Was trying to do two-hander+bots but it seems that the survivability just isn't good enough. Should I be putting points into strength and vitality equally? Or forgo the bot line and go two-hander+tank build?

Use one hander shield, do 2 str 3 vit. Unless you really want to do two handers. Then 3str 1 dex 1 vit

 

[MasterShotgun]

Focus buffs everything Magic damage. Really, you could go 5 Focus/level and probably not care too much on an Embermage. 53 DEX for 10% Crit/Dodge possibly but it's overall less total damage.

I'm getting the feeling that DEX just isn't reliable enough for a mage to pump a lot of points in, at least on Elite. A 10% dodge chance sounds nice, but it still won't save you often enough from one-hit kills or mob rushes. And I'm firing off spells fast enough that crits are usually overkill.

If I ever make an Elite mage, I'd probably go 3 FOC 2 VIT and fight with wand/shield. I'd switch to 4/1 or maybe even 5/0 once I hit the diminishing returns on VIT. I'd gem for DEX if I got a piece of gear that I wanted to equip early.

That's all depending on if I could still survive cheap one-shots. Otherwise, then you're right. 4-5 FOC every level. Kill enemies before they can kill you.

 

[Fugu]

For a gun-wielding outlander, I assume I want dexerity? Anything else?

You need all four stats.

Most of the time:
Single weapon, no shield: Dex > Str = Vit > Foc
Single weapon, with shield: Dex > Vit > Str > Foc
Two weapons: Dex > Foc = Vit > Str

When you start to get itemized for critical hit and poison damage, things change a little bit.

Single weapon, no shield: Foc = Dex > Vit > Str
Single weapon, with shield: Foc = Dex = Vit > Str
Two weapons: Foc > Dex > Vit = Str

That's all depending on if I could still survive cheap one-shots. Otherwise, then you're right. 4-5 FOC every level. Kill enemies before they can kill you.

You can't play hardcore as any class by trying to just burst all of your opponents to death. You're going to get hit at some point.

 

[scy]

If I ever make an Elite mage, I'd probably go 3 FOC 2 VIT and fight with wand/shield. I'd switch to 4/1 or maybe even 5/0 once I hit the diminishing returns on VIT. I'd gem for DEX if I got a piece of gear that I wanted to equip early.

You'll pretty much want Staff Mastery at all times so you'd be better off with a Staff and playing better. Frost spec is the best survival spec for an Embermage so just do that.

Edit: Tier 1 Icy Blast is -20% Damage dealt, Tier 3 Immolation Aura is -15% Damage taken, Elemental Boon is -36% Elemental Damage taken. Sockets will basically all be dedicated to Damage Reduced socketables.

You need all four stats.

Most of the time:
Single weapon, no shield: Dex > Str = Vit > Foc
Single weapon, with shield: Dex > Vit > Str > Foc
Two weapons: Dex > Foc = Vit > Str

When you start to get itemized for critical hit and poison damage, things change a little bit.

Single weapon, no shield: Foc = Dex > Vit > Str
Single weapon, with shield: Foc = Dex = Vit > Str
Two weapons: Foc > Dex > Vit = Str

It depends a lot on what your build is. If you use, say, Glaive Throw and Cursed Dagger, STR is pointless, DEX is only used for Crit Chance/Dodge Chance, and VIT depends on if you gear with a Shield or not. DW Weapons is generally DEX until you cap Dodge% and then just STR as the damage bonus from Execute doesn't outweigh STR's Damage% or Crit Damage%. 2/2/0/1 until Dodge caps and then 4/0/0/1 (or 3/0/0/1) or just ignore VIT altogether.

Generally speaking, you'll pump whatever your core damage stat is. Raising STR for Crit Damage% or DEX for Crit Chance% themselves is an inefficient use of points for raising damage. So a Focus build (Glaive Throw Outlander, Tundra Berserker, anything Embermage) should never raise STR, for instance.

You can't play hardcore as any class by trying to just burst all of your opponents to death. You're going to get hit at some point.

While this is true, the impact of VIT is practically negligible. .25% Armor/Resists per point, 3.5 HP per point, and Block Chance suffers diminishing returns. The greatest benefit of VIT is going to end up being earlier access to better Armor rather than the HP/Armor it gives per point itself.

That said, I personally think ~100 VIT is most likely worth it. The tradeoff is usually 300% Damage vs 250% with +25% Armor/Resists (and +350 HP or +~8.2% base HP at 100). I need to see more damage values for NG++++ on Elite, however, to see if those Armor/Resists actually matter, however. And I need to double check that Armor/Resists are truly flat functions (e.g., 500 Armor == -500 Damage per hit).

 

[Izayoi]

No comment on the bots as I've basically avoided them all (sans Healing) for my Engineer but I will say that I don't really think VIT is all that big of a deal. 3.5 HP/point and some small +Armor/Resists% isn't that big of a deal when you look at the amount of HP you can get on equipment and due to how Armor/Resists function (flat reduction, not percentage). 100 points of VIT is 350 HP and +25% Armor/Resists at the cost of around 20% Damage so value that however you want I suppose.

3 STR, 1 DEX, 1 VIT or 4 STR, 1 DEX is probably the way to go until you get to one of the DEX break points (53 DEX for 10% Crit/Dodge, 113 DEX for 20%) before swapping to 4 STR, 1 VIT. Even then, you could probably just ignore VIT and itemize HP/Damage Reduction% and not even care.

There's a few Engineer skills that scale with Focus (basically anything Elemental damage) but many are WeaponDPS scaling as well so STR is the better option. Mana per Focus point isn't really noteworthy so raising Focus doesn't do anything useful ultimately.

Thanks for the pointers, will roll another tonight and try again.

 

[Fugu]

It depends a lot on what your build is. If you use, say, Glaive Throw and Cursed Dagger, STR is pointless, DEX is only used for Crit Chance/Dodge Chance, and VIT depends on if you gear with a Shield or not. DW Weapons is generally DEX until you cap Dodge% and then just STR as the damage bonus from Execute doesn't outweigh STR's Damage% or Crit Damage%. 2/2/0/1 until Dodge caps and then 4/0/0/1 (or 3/0/0/1) or just ignore VIT altogether.

By the logic of its design, right now the most damaging skill is venomous hail by no small margin, so I assume that people are using that. You can technically do more damage with flaming glaives, but that skill is nearly impossible to aim. Venomous hail builds from weapon DPS (str/dex) but also benefits from items that increase straight poison damage; as a result, focus ends up contributing to weapon DPS more than strength does by virtue of the fact that if you're boosting your poison damage already, you're getting the same benefit applied twice. I don't really think that glaive throw makes a good primary skill because it scales so poorly compared to the skills pegged to DPS; similarly, I don't think a focus-oriented Outlander is particularly viable. I suppose I should have explained that initially.

The tangible benefit of putting points into dex depends almost entirely on how bad your gear is. The crit bonus is outstripped vastly by critical percentage boosts on gear by around level 30 or so; yes, you need a lot of dex to build up a high enough base critical percentage, but the paradigm shifts pretty quickly towards charge gear and critical percentage. Somewhere around 200 base dex it starts becoming significantly more worthwhile to invest elsewhere, specially considering you can get absurdly high dodge numbers with the dodge passive and some gear.

Generally speaking, you'll pump whatever your core damage stat is. Raising STR for Crit Damage% or DEX for Crit Chance% themselves is an inefficient use of points for raising damage. So a Focus build (Glaive Throw Outlander, Tundra Berserker, anything Embermage) should never raise STR, for instance.


While this is true, the impact of VIT is practically negligible. .25% Armor/Resists per point, 3.5 HP per point, and Block Chance suffers diminishing returns. The greatest benefit of VIT is going to end up being earlier access to better Armor rather than the HP/Armor it gives per point itself.

If you're playing softcore, maybe. Hardcore is basically only doable due to the fact that you can block almost anything; you need basically as much block as you can get, and because you can build up dodge with a passive, vit presents itself as more important than the damage stats until you can actually live long enough to deal that damage.

On softcore, build discussion is sort of irrelevant because survivability is mostly just a footnote.

 

[scy]

Thanks for the pointers, will roll another tonight and try again.

Also worth noting, Elite is going to be a rather frustrating 2H experience and 1H/Shield will definitely benefit from VIT (3 STR/2 VIT or 2 STR/3 VIT). There hasn't been an immense amount of theorycrafting or mechanics checking in general yet (that I'm aware of, anyway) so "optimal" is still not really a known thing yet.

For basically most characters, I'd just suggest 10% or 20% base Dodge chance (53 DEX, 113 DEX) and then raise their primary damage stat and get to around 100 VIT. Raising STR for Crit Damage% or DEX for Crit Chance% is basically not worth it in the long run vs just raising your base damage so unless it's your primary Damage stat, just don't raise it.

By the logic of its design, right now the most damaging skill is venomous hail by no small margin, so I assume that people are using that. You can technically do more damage with flaming glaives, but that skill is nearly impossible to aim. Venomous hail builds from weapon DPS (str/dex) but also benefits from items that increase straight poison damage; as a result, focus ends up contributing to weapon DPS more than strength does by virtue of the fact that if you're boosting your poison damage already, you're getting the same benefit applied twice. I don't really think that glaive throw makes a good primary skill because it scales so poorly compared to the skills pegged to DPS; similarly, I don't think a focus-oriented Outlander is particularly viable. I suppose I should have explained that initially.

Glaive Throw's per point scaling isn't that great but the base damage is fairly good. It makes for a far better basic attack than ... well, basic attacks. 5/15 Glaive Throw keeps the mana cost low and it has a high rate of fire. Cursed Dagger outdamages it, though it does so via a DoT rather than burst damage. Venomous Hail is elemental WeaponDPS so Focus benefits it still. As for it vs Glaive Throw, I think it's more that Glaives are easier to kite with and spam.

Edit: Worth noting that the general consensus is that Focus Outlander is probably one of the best specs right now next to Prismatic Bolt Embermage.

The tangible benefit of putting points into dex depends almost entirely on how bad your gear is. The crit bonus is outstripped vastly by critical percentage boosts on gear by around level 30 or so; yes, you need a lot of dex to build up a high enough base critical percentage, but the paradigm shifts pretty quickly towards charge gear and critical percentage. Somewhere around 200 base dex it starts becoming significantly more worthwhile to invest elsewhere, specially considering you can get absurdly high dodge numbers with the dodge passive and some gear.

Raising Crit Chance just has lower returns per point than raising base damage as far as your stats are concerned. It's nice to have some base Crit Chance but you'll see better average DPS by raising your primary damage stat rather than using some of those points for Crit Chance. Low amounts of DEX scale Crit Chance at .2% per point vs STR/Focus giving .5% Damage per point. It just doesn't compare favorably without a high Crit Damage%.

If you're playing softcore, maybe. Hardcore is basically only doable due to the fact that you can block almost anything; you need basically as much block as you can get, and because you can build up dodge with a passive, vit presents itself as more important than the damage stats until you can actually live long enough to deal that damage.

Blocking is basically the one aspect of VIT that's worth note :/

 

[MasterShotgun]

I'm so close to clear casting Frost Phase. Walking will soon be a thing of the past.

 

[fresquito]

No comment on the bots as I've basically avoided them all (sans Healing) for my Engineer but I will say that I don't really think VIT is all that big of a deal. 3.5 HP/point and some small +Armor/Resists% isn't that big of a deal when you look at the amount of HP you can get on equipment and due to how Armor/Resists function (flat reduction, not percentage). 100 points of VIT is 350 HP and +25% Armor/Resists at the cost of around 20% Damage so value that however you want I suppose.

3 STR, 1 DEX, 1 VIT or 4 STR, 1 DEX is probably the way to go until you get to one of the DEX break points (53 DEX for 10% Crit/Dodge, 113 DEX for 20%) before swapping to 4 STR, 1 VIT. Even then, you could probably just ignore VIT and itemize HP/Damage Reduction% and not even care.

There's a few Engineer skills that scale with Focus (basically anything Elemental damage) but many are WeaponDPS scaling as well so STR is the better option. Mana per Focus point isn't really noteworthy so raising Focus doesn't do anything useful ultimately.

It depends on the build you go, really. For istance, when using Aegis of Fate, VIT is very important, since it adds to the armor. Add Builwark to the equation and you've got one little good tank there. Since for a tanky engie, most damage is given through Shield Bash, spending 4 points in STR is a total waste. It can work for other builds though.

 

[scy]

It depends on the build you go, really. For istance, when using Aegis of Fate, VIT is very important, since it adds to the armor. Add Builwark to the equation and you've got one little good tank there. Since for a tanky engie, most damage is given through Shield Bash, spending 4 points in STR is a total waste. It can work for other builds though.

Aegis of Fate isn't that great of a skill in general, however. Well, maybe. The Shield from it seems rather insignificant but it's also a free shield. And you'll be taking a lot of hits so the low proc rate isn't as bad as it seems at first glance. Though, I wouldn't really pump VIT for the sake of Aegis of Fate anyway.

And the advice was for a 2H Engineer :x Shield would definitely be 3/0/0/2 or 2/0/0/3 instead most likely.

 

[Skeyser]

I ditched my 2H engineer to start a sword and board one and man does it make things easier on elite. I haven't even died yet in act 2, with the 2h engi I was getting massacred by every mob packs lol.

I took the heal bot, gun bot, sword & board, shield bash and Coup de Grace so far as my skills. Coup de grace is just insane, any mob/bosses that can be stunned by shield bash just gets murdered by CdG procs.

Also I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but since I got that helmet with +9% loot luck I'm getting insane amount of uniques, even got one from an urn. I didn't think 9% would make such a big difference, it's pretty cool.

I got this shield too, first time seeing the same stats on an item twice, notice the +14% and +15% block chance, my engi is loving it.

 

[Shoogoo]

Stupid question maybe, I have either 2 wands (DPS 199 and 189) or a staff (DPS 280), what does the most damage?

I suppose it's the staff?

Also, what do you guys think of Elemental Boon? I put a point in it but it doesn't last very long! Is it worth it?

 

[vareon]

I'm playing an Outlander and a rapid-firing shotgun. It might not be viable (I suck at this kind of game) but it's fun as hell. What should I focus my points on, actually?

 

[Zizbuka]

I'm in the first town, 15 levels in. A round little hub, with a portal in the middle. There's 2 vendors, and a few quest givers. I'm at work, can't get the town name. When can you enchant your armor/weapons? I remember in the first game there was basically 1 town, everything was there.

 

[Sarcasm]

I'm in the first town, 15 levels in. A round little hub, with a portal in the middle. There's 2 vendors, and a few quest givers. I'm at work, can't get the town name. When can you enchant your armor/weapons? I remember in the first game there was basically 1 town, everything was there.

I think on act 2.

Man i love this game. 3 lvl 20 haha! Two i coop on elite other is vet. Wish is was elite zerker kinda op. Game is keeping me away from soul and gw2.

 

[scytheavatar]

Oh god I have no idea what I'm doing. Started an Engineer on Elite and it is not working. Was trying to do two-hander+bots but it seems that the survivability just isn't good enough. Should I be putting points into strength and vitality equally? Or forgo the bot line and go two-hander+tank build?

If you want an easy time build a cannon engineer, which is ridiculously overpowered and easily better than any possible Outlander or Embermage built.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

I found a bottle of lotion in the Slavers' Stockade, but I can't figure out what to do with it. Anybody know?

 

[FtHTiny]

I found a bottle of lotion in the Slavers' Stockade, but I can't figure out what to do with it. Anybody know?

A bit further in the dungeon is a spot to place to get some gold. Some easter egg i didn´t get.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

A bit further in the dungeon is a spot to place to get some gold. Some easter egg i didn´t get.

Muchas gracias. Dat helmet.

 

[derFeef]

Create new character, get unique gem with health regen in the first few drops, awesome.

 

[Ceebs]

A bit further in the dungeon is a spot to place to get some gold. Some easter egg i didn´t get.

Was there a basket to put it in?

Aegis of Fate isn't that great of a skill in general, however. Well, maybe. The Shield from it seems rather insignificant but it's also a free shield. And you'll be taking a lot of hits so the low proc rate isn't as bad as it seems at first glance. Though, I wouldn't really pump VIT for the sake of Aegis of Fate anyway.

And the advice was for a 2H Engineer :x Shield would definitely be 3/0/0/2 or 2/0/0/3 instead most likely.

You want a lot of Dex for 1H+Shield as well. Boosts your dodge chance.

 

[FtHTiny]

Was there a basket to put it in?

hm yes i think so.

 

[Ceebs]

hm yes i think so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQb2m6VJ-eo

 

[QisTopTier]

I just want to say supercharge on a warrior using a claw is hilarious. Free mega fast aoe damage

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Was there a basket to put it in?

A bucket, actually. Nobody tells you to put it in there, though.

 

[Johnlenham]

It may not be much consolation, but GOG has Nox for $6.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/nox

Oh my god. This is THE game my mind jumps to when I play torchlight/diablo etc. I had this when I was younger and loved it! always played as the guy that could summon bears and such.
Could never remember the name and its only because I clicked the link and saw the box art did it hit me.

 

[Scala]

What´s the bes class to play ranged?

 

[UncleSporky]

You need all four stats.

Most of the time:
Single weapon, no shield: Dex > Str = Vit > Foc
Single weapon, with shield: Dex > Vit > Str > Foc
Two weapons: Dex > Foc = Vit > Str

When you start to get itemized for critical hit and poison damage, things change a little bit.

Single weapon, no shield: Foc = Dex > Vit > Str
Single weapon, with shield: Foc = Dex = Vit > Str
Two weapons: Foc > Dex > Vit = Str

You put too much emphasis on dex. It appears to be coming out that dex is one of the least useful stats for DPS (sort of as scy was saying). This guy claims to have done the math and found it lacking:

I was just having an argument about dexterity on the Torchlight forums, and I figure I might as well mention the conclusion here in case it helps anybody:

Dexterity is not a useful stat to have in large quantities. Ignoring skills and item properties, putting your first 50 points into dexterity doesn't match the damage from taking 50 points in strength instead until your strength is already at 200, after which strength* becomes better again for a while. Berserkers and Outlanders benefit even less than this in practice because they already get extra crits from charge (Engineers ironically benefit the most from the dexterity stat).

So if you want to maximize your DPS, you probably shouldn't have more than 50 in dexterity by the end of your first playthrough and probably don't want more than 100-150 ever. In a focus build, the first 50 points of dex aren't worth it until your total magic damage multiplier is at least 400%, so you basically don't want to level it ever (except maybe if you're relying on the Embermage's brand passives for DPS, since I think crits guarantee the elemental effects).

* I assume he means dex here

Another post on the subject:

I haven't really considered fumble damage yet. Since it only affects 1/5 of your attacks instead of all of them, and strength also indirectly increases the damage of your fumbled attacks (since the base is larger), I doubt it's a major factor. I have no idea how to measure the value of elemental procs, so I've been ignoring those too. Item requirements can be met with level rather than stats, but I guess that could potentially delay your damage by too much for it to be worthwhile (at least in the short term...at max level it'd be a non-factor, but I know it's silly to judge builds only by how they perform at level 100). I don't know what high-level requirements look like.

But in general, the way stat systems work is that the more damage you have, the more crit is worth relative to more damage, and the more crit you have, the more damage is worth relative to more crit. That's true in Torchlight as well. But your crit multiplier starts at a measly 50% while being hugely increased by strength, which massively skews the weighting in favor of the damage stat. Additionally, dexterity has straight-up diminishing returns (the amount of crit/dodge% gained from each point diminishes as the total goes up). And on top of THAT, Berserkers and Outlanders have better-than-base crit chances right off the bat, which gives strength even more of a head start. It's really no surprise that you'd want 3-4 strength for every one dexterity.

Dexterity as a compromise between offense and defense is pretty reasonable, but you still need a big strength pool to support it and dodge hits diminishing returns if you overcommit to dexterity, so you're still probably going to want to be favoring strength at least two to one.

(And for the record, I was the one arguing against dexterity in the aforementioned debate. This person was claiming that you should go pure dexterity and vitality in a build based on Glaive Throw because focus was a waste on top of the percentage-based bonuses you can find on items.)

EDIT: Another way of looking at this: 50 strength and 0 dexterity gives you a 25% damage boost. 0 strength and 50 dexterity gives you less than a 5% damage boost. Since strength is a rapidly-increasing percentage of your base damage and dexterity is a gradually-increasing percentage of your overall damage, it takes a very, very long time before the marginal benefit of strength has decreased enough for dexterity to start looking good by comparison.

So maybe something to keep in mind and look into further.

Glaive Throw's per point scaling isn't that great but the base damage is fairly good. It makes for a far better basic attack than ... well, basic attacks. 5/15 Glaive Throw keeps the mana cost low and it has a high rate of fire. Cursed Dagger outdamages it, though it does so via a DoT rather than burst damage. Venomous Hail is elemental WeaponDPS so Focus benefits it still. As for it vs Glaive Throw, I think it's more that Glaives are easier to kite with and spam.

Edit: Worth noting that the general consensus is that Focus Outlander is probably one of the best specs right now next to Prismatic Bolt Embermage.

Focus outlander using what? Glaive Throw or Venemous Hail, or something else? And obviously investing heavily in the elemental passive, what else?

What´s the bes class to play ranged?

Cannon engineer. But every class is good in its own way and you may or may not enjoy any given play style. Only the berserker lacks a really great ranged game.

 

[Izayoi]

Totally fucked up my Outlander. Focused way too much on Dex at the beginning, and now I'm seriously hurting because of it. I really wish they'd allow respecs for at least the first month because now I've got a useless level 35 character that I'm going to end up deleting. Really sucks.

What´s the bes class to play ranged?

Embermage, followed by Outlander.

 

[Shoogoo]

Totally fucked up my Outlander. Focused way too much on Dex at the beginning, and now I'm seriously hurting because of it. I really wish they'd allow respecs for at least the first month because now I've got a useless level 35 character that I'm going to end up deleting. Really sucks.


Embermage, followed by Outlander.

Use the console. I did!

 

[Izayoi]

Use the console. I did!

Marks you as cheater, unfortunately. There's a way to reset skill points without getting marked I think, but stat points are out of the question entirely if you don't want to get kicked immediately from online games.

 

[Dog Problems]

Totally fucked up my Outlander. Focused way too much on Dex at the beginning, and now I'm seriously hurting because of it. I really wish they'd allow respecs for at least the first month because now I've got a useless level 35 character that I'm going to end up deleting. Really sucks.

Here's a "mod" that puts a bunch of respec potions in your shared stash. It apparently doesn't mark you as a cheater.

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=35925

Edit: Oops, you are talking about stats. Just woke up and didn't read right haha

 

[Izayoi]

nm

 

[daxy]

Totally fucked up my Outlander. Focused way too much on Dex at the beginning, and now I'm seriously hurting because of it. I really wish they'd allow respecs for at least the first month because now I've got a useless level 35 character that I'm going to end up deleting. Really sucks.

Same situation here (grinded two levels to 37, but it's useless anyway). I didn't put any points in vitality or focus. Fast attack speed and hitting crits often was working out well, but I'm completely stuck now because this quest limits where I can move and puts me in the dead center of a bunch of mobs that I can't defend against or kill fast enough. It's the complete opposite of how I play Outlander. I had died two or three times prior to that. And one of those was just me standing on a spike trap. Maybe it's not a viable build (though it works fine if I have space), maybe it's bad quest design, maybe I'm just bad, but I'm pretty bummed out.

 

[vareon]

Same situation here (grinded two levels to 37, but it's useless anyway). I didn't put any points in vitality or focus. Fast attack speed and hitting crits often was working out well, but I'm completely stuck now because this quest limits where I can move and puts me in the dead center of a bunch of mobs that I can't defend against or kill fast enough. It's the complete opposite of how I play Outlander. I had died two or three times prior to that. And one of those was just me standing on a spike trap. Maybe it's not a viable build (though it works fine if I have space), maybe it's bad quest design, maybe I'm just bad, but I'm pretty bummed out.

Now this happens to me! I just take things very slowly and carefully now. My character looks badass but is killed in like two hits.

Edit : I even think I'm in your place now. Is it a quest on Act 2?

 

[daxy]

Now this happens to me! I just take things very slowly and carefully now. My character looks badass but is killed in like two hits.

Edit : I even think I'm in your place now. Is it a quest on Act 2?

Yep, Act 2 alright.

Spoiler

Djinni's Next Task with the moving circle.

 

[Morokh]

From runic forums :

travisbaldree wrote:
Honestly we fully expected people to hack like crazy. With moddability, how could we not? That's the primary reason for a friend/block function.
In the future we are hoping to introduce guild functionality such that you can have a pre-approved, administrated 'group' that you can play with, without having to individually friend a load of people.
That way you won't have to go through the tedium of adding individual friends ( Which is also why we do Steam friends linking, um, when our account system isn't being beaten to pieces ), but still play with people you don't really know.
And when they are ejected for cheating, they are ejected from the ENTIRE group.
That's the plan anyway.

 

[Izayoi]

From runic forums :

Ejected for cheating by who, guild leader or if you're flagged for using console etc? I hope they clarify.

 

[vareon]

Yep, Act 2 alright.

Spoiler

Djinni's Next Task with the moving circle.

Now that's a bitch. I'm doing it right now.

 

[UncleSporky]

Same situation here (grinded two levels to 37, but it's useless anyway). I didn't put any points in vitality or focus. Fast attack speed and hitting crits often was working out well, but I'm completely stuck now because this quest limits where I can move and puts me in the dead center of a bunch of mobs that I can't defend against or kill fast enough. It's the complete opposite of how I play Outlander. I had died two or three times prior to that. And one of those was just me standing on a spike trap. Maybe it's not a viable build (though it works fine if I have space), maybe it's bad quest design, maybe I'm just bad, but I'm pretty bummed out.

Strange, I didn't have these problems with my all-dex pumped Outlander. At level 63 I have 165 base dex (stopped when I read it is not such a good stat) and the rest in str (so they're about equal now, probably 165 str). However I am playing Normal.

I've had Repulsion Hex at tier 1 for ages and keep it up all the time, I use Blade Pact and Stone Pact all the time, and I was very fortunate with spell drops so my pet has had Heal All and two sets of Skeleton Archers for ages. Generally with all the buffs up I'm fine and can kill things with my glaive quickly enough that I don't get hit a ton.

Marks you as cheater, unfortunately. There's a way to reset skill points without getting marked I think, but stat points are out of the question entirely if you don't want to get kicked immediately from online games.

Does this really happen, or is it theoretical/assumed? I don't join random games. You've joined a bunch of games with a flagged character and got kicked 9 out of 10 times?

 

[RS4-]

Does this really happen, or is it theoretical/assumed? I don't join random games. You've joined a bunch of games with a flagged character and got kicked 9 out of 10 times?

I'm 2 for 2 when getting kicked out of random games. This was on day 2 or something when I didn't know resetstats marked you in game lol.

Oh well. I just ended up playing with friends anyway.

 

[vareon]

Finished the Djinn's second task. That took way too much Potions than I expected.

 

[Toma]

Now that's a bitch. I'm doing it right now.

Finished the Djinn's second task. That took way too much Potions than I expected.

There is a hidden room in that second Djinni task. 2 golden chests plus a unique item. Farmed it for about 6-7 levels, lol.

 

[Dice]

After experiencing the joys of long-range with the Outlander, I respec'd my Engineer to use cannon instead of 2-hander. You guys weren't kidding about being OP! Nothing stands a chance. Nothing. I also have the forcefield and sledgebot now. The sledgebot has this annoying habit of going for small baddies when a boss is around, but for crowd control he is completely amazing. I also found some unique gear and now I look the role.

Only thing is this gun pretty much sucks compared to what I could have. I sold so many awesome cannons earlier.

 

[_machine]

Totally fucked up my Outlander. Focused way too much on Dex at the beginning, and now I'm seriously hurting because of it. I really wish they'd allow respecs for at least the first month because now I've got a useless level 35 character that I'm going to end up deleting. Really sucks.

A total respec potion should be easily moddable when the GUTS gets released so you should probably hang on to that toon of yours.