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Torchlight II |OT| Good things come to those who wait
- Thread starter jim-jam bongs
- Start date
I also didn't realize I forgot to mention the Staff part of the Eviscerate test :|
HiddenWings
Member
It works on whacking them with the staff and any ability that uses weapon damage in its damage calculation (arc beam, the starting frost spell).
Arc Beam (and Shocking Burst) don't trigger Staff or Wand Mastery since they're channeled spells.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Sorry if this has been answered, but can someone explain to me exactly what changing the difficulty does in this game? Is there any beneficial aspect to it?
I've been playing with my wife, and we're finding normal to be a bit too easy. However, when we switched to Veteran, we were getting absolutely destroyed by monsters (dying in 3 or 4 hits).
With that said, I didn't really notice any increase in the quality or frequency of drops while on the harder difficulty.
What exactly does the difficulty setting affect?
I've been playing with my wife, and we're finding normal to be a bit too easy. However, when we switched to Veteran, we were getting absolutely destroyed by monsters (dying in 3 or 4 hits).
With that said, I didn't really notice any increase in the quality or frequency of drops while on the harder difficulty.
What exactly does the difficulty setting affect?
UncleSporky
Member
The difficulty of monsters. You do not get a better item drop rate or anything. Devs say that this is because in voluntarily choosing a difficult mode, they're not going to give you better items to reduce the impact of that decision.
In my opinion it simply means you're playing the game for longer for no real benefit, but everyone has that point they feel comfortable with, and different reasons they're playing the game.
I would say keep playing normal, act 1 is easy in every difficulty (IMO, didn't have too much trouble in Elite), every new act bumps up the difficulty quite a bit until you're nearly getting one shot in act 4 even in normal mode. New game + just keeps getting harder too, it goes all the way up to NG+++++ when monsters are level 120.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
No. The game only supports white people.
razgriz417
Member
Just started this game today and got to lvl 10 on an embermage. Question about stats, should I be just focusing primarily on Focus for damage or does strength play a factor on embermage skills? Anyone have any newbie builds for this class yet?
UncleSporky
Member
Strength increases all weapon damage including physical and elemental, but only weapon damage.
Focus increases all elemental damage, both on your weapon and on skills.
Thus skills that say they deal damage as a percentage of weapon DPS use strength.
Skills that say they deal a flat amount of damage (or scaled to your level) and make no mention of your weapon use focus.
So whichever affects the abilities you are using the most. Generally embermages will go all focus, though.
The newbie build is 1 point in Prismatic Bolt and 1 point in each of the three passive Brands, that alone could probably get you through the whole game, though it'd be quite boring. Max the Brands first to keep Prismatic's mana cost low.
Invest in Charge Mastery, it's super important to get your meter full and have 12 seconds of 0 mana costs!
Put exactly 1 point in Frost Phase, it is amazing and you will love it.
People like to invest in Blazing Pillar or Thunder Locus (to a lesser extent) to go along with Prismatic Bolt because they keep doing their own thing while you can run around or keep spamming those bolts. Great to toss out when your bar is full.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Thanks for the explanation.
I... I don't think I really like this idea at all. Games like this really need some incentive for harder difficulties. They are skill based to a certain extent, but depending on your class or playstyle, the difficulty is far more often just a gear check. Without the incentive of more or better loot, or even more interesting encounters, it seems like an odd choice to simply increase the damage output and survivability of enemies.
I may be wrong, but I think he means Chinese text.
razgriz417
Member
Thanks this helps a ton. As for defense do you suggest putting points in vitality or dexterity? Or should I just focus on Focus for now?
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
I think it only triggers off Magma Spear, Icy Blast, and Shockbolts. Magma Spear is best if you want to quickly reduce a single target's resistances (and anyone behind him). Icy Blast is best if you want to work on a crowd's resistances. It's a bit slower, but at Tier 1, it also reduces any damage they deal by 20%. Shockbolts just sucks in my experience.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Hit level 30 this morning. Still addicted as hell to the game. Even when I'm not playing the game, I'm still constantly thinking about dat phat loot.
Anyway, as a connoisseur of Diablo clones, I'd say this is probably the second best one I've played. The best is still Divine Divinity. But then, I'm only like 11 hours in, so maybe that'll change.
Anyway, as a connoisseur of Diablo clones, I'd say this is probably the second best one I've played. The best is still Divine Divinity. But then, I'm only like 11 hours in, so maybe that'll change.
Blasphemy. Prismatic bolts rock!
UncleSporky
Member
Sadly, vitality does not grant much HP at all, and armor is just a straight reduction of damage. If you have 150 armor and an enemy does 1000 damage to you, you'll take 850 damage. The armor mechanic's not the best in this game. And block only applies if you're using a shield, which mages certainly can do if they like, I know some people swear by it.
Dex is similar to vit for mages, you don't necessarily want it just for dodge, and it has some serious diminishing returns for crit % as well. There's even some question as to whether dodge is working correctly.
I wouldn't worry too much about defense unless you're playing elite or hardcore. The best defense here is a good offense, that and Frost Phase used strategically.
Mages do have some neat auras for defense though, and a Prismatic Bolt build leaves you with a lot of points you can play with. Immolation Aura can take the edge off quite a bit of incoming damage and finishes off melee monsters who get close. Elemental Boon can help defend against enemies' elemental damage, and later pays for itself in mana!
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
Different spell. Shockbolts is the level 35 spell in the Shock tree. They run randomly all over the ground. In order to reliably hit anything, you have to get closer than I'd be comfortable with.
Shockbolts is unlocked at a later level than prismatics. I'm not a fan of it.
Prismatic will not trigger the staff/wand passives.
UncleSporky
Member
I agree, but the game definitely has good incentives for New Game +, you get some amazing stuff at high levels, and the difficulty keeps growing as well.
It's sort of like Diablo 2 in that respect; New Game + is Nightmare mode that you have to unlock, and by the time you get to New Game +++++ it's thoroughly Hell mode.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
So wait... are there still different difficulty levels in new game+? I started on veteran, but I'm kinda hoping that doesn't mean I'll end up playing through a dumbed down version of NG+.
You can choose to play elite once you get to NG+ IIRC.
Dog Problems
Banned
But whatever difficulty you started with, it's locked to that, right? You have to make a LAN game if you want a higher difficulty for solo?
UncleSporky
Member
No you can't. It's locked at what you first choose. When I talk about higher difficulty in NG+ I just mean in general, even normal isn't easy.
You can always make local LAN games to play at any difficulty by yourself, though. You don't need internet or a network anything.
Ah, yes. Now I just quickly started a game I see that that is one of the few skills where I used the respec vendor on to retrieve my skill point...
Yeah, I noticed that prismatic sadly doesn't do that
. I'm pretty happy with a magmatic spear + prismatic volley combo, though.
Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Teamwork is awesome. ^_^
Though, this this frost mage project has only just begun. I finally got frost wave to the 3-wave form and that's a huge help. Ice Prison with my higher procs on other things is when it will get really crazy, and eventually I'll have my astral ally on perpetually since he'll last longer than the cooldown. Plus I'm giving this pet minion spells as well.
SPEAKING OF PETS, I learned something and tried it out and it worked: If you want rare fishing stuff, just fish in town for a long time. Try go fishing for a couple hundred or so times. You'll probably catch a giant fish/egg before you run out of inventory (if you're not loaded with potions) I got one to turn my pet into a spider. I might give it to my Outlander since the dragon turkey thing is just a bit too weird for me.
glaringradio
Member
I can't get into the game
Tried re-installing (as well as re-installing Steam), no dice.
Tried re-scanning the game cache, no luck.
Tried disabling my anti-virus as others have hinted, not a chance.
Just keep getting "Torchlight II is unavailable" every single time. Bloody Runic, only started happening after the recent patch.
Tried re-installing (as well as re-installing Steam), no dice.
Tried re-scanning the game cache, no luck.
Tried disabling my anti-virus as others have hinted, not a chance.
Just keep getting "Torchlight II is unavailable" every single time. Bloody Runic, only started happening after the recent patch.
plasticpassion
Member
So I'm 16 levels into the game and I just realized there are two other tabs full of skills you can choose when you level. o_____________________________o
This is my first torchlight. lol
Anyway, I'm building a crit based dual wielding beserker. Right now crit is at 26% (99 dexterity). My weapons are 0.46 speed with crit dmg bonuses. I've chosen talents that augment the crit bonuses including Blood Hunger, which heals me every time I crit. The speed generates my Frenzy very quickly and I end up mauling through enemies without taking much damage at all. I can enter instances a few levels above mine and finish them without difficulty. I'm on normal difficulty btw.
I'm curious at what point the dexterity crit bonuses start showing diminishing returns though. I haven't put that many points in strength yet (and none in focus or vitality), but maybe I should since I'm at 26% crit chance.
This is my first torchlight. lol
Anyway, I'm building a crit based dual wielding beserker. Right now crit is at 26% (99 dexterity). My weapons are 0.46 speed with crit dmg bonuses. I've chosen talents that augment the crit bonuses including Blood Hunger, which heals me every time I crit. The speed generates my Frenzy very quickly and I end up mauling through enemies without taking much damage at all. I can enter instances a few levels above mine and finish them without difficulty. I'm on normal difficulty btw.
I'm curious at what point the dexterity crit bonuses start showing diminishing returns though. I haven't put that many points in strength yet (and none in focus or vitality), but maybe I should since I'm at 26% crit chance.
DeathGlobe
Member
I can't get into the game
Tried re-installing (as well as re-installing Steam), no dice.
Tried re-scanning the game cache, no luck.
Tried disabling my anti-virus as others have hinted, not a chance.
Just keep getting "Torchlight II is unavailable" every single time. Bloody Runic, only started happening after the recent patch.
Did it not launch at all or it worked at first then now it doesnt?
I am not sure if our issues were related but if you access your runic account while the game is launched the game will not exit properly without closing your web broswer via task manager. This was causing my steam status to say i was in the game even thought I wasnt
Just to note, Blood Hunger doesn't directly heal you, it gives you a +HP Regen buff that lasts for 1s when you crit. Critting again just replaces that buff with a new one. It's semantics, I suppose, but Blood Hunger really loses out in usefulness on Veteran/Elite because of that. Then again, if it stacked, Berserker would be broken.
Every +10% Crit/Dodge% it slows down. So 53 DEX (10%), 113 DEX (20%), 184 DEX (30%), 276 DEX (40%), and 500 DEX (50%). I generally recommend around 113 DEX for most builds as that's where you'll get the most out of it offensively. 184 DEX is worthwhile for Hardcore builds, though maybe 146 DEX (25%) is enough.
I'm planning on a 1H Engineer for Elite Hardcore. Focus build that uses Seismic Stun for CC, Dynamo to generate Charges, and Emberquake for Damage eventually.
I don't think you can play hardcore without a shield due to the limited use of dodge. Hardcore comes down to first mitigating damage so that you can't be killed in one hit and then mitigating the number of hits you take; blocking gives you the ability to flat out remove half of the attacks you take.
plasticpassion
Member
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
Click the magnifying glass icon on the bar at the bottom of the screen. It should be green to automatically show items and stuff.
Sounds interesting, I think I was just too focused trying to make my damage come from melee which might not be all that viable. I haven't fully thought out mana conservation/regeneration outside of upgrading the healing bot and using pots when needed.
Honestly I think a cannon engineer is fully viable. I only died with mine due to making a stupid mistake, getting over confidant and trying to nuke everything down rather than making space and playing safe.
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
Fame goes up to level 33, so you can get up to 132 points.
I've noticed there is a bug where items won't show when it's green but will when it's red. It usually happens when item comparisons vanish too so it probably has something to do with ALT getting stuck.
Tokubetsu
Member
Life saver.
Damn, that changes things. For some reason Torchlight2armory doesn't stop you after 132, so I was crafting these kick ass builds thinking I was going to have at least 150 points or so to play with.
Worth some mention since I did the work over on the Ruinic forums, +Elemental Damage% does in fact work with skills that deal WeaponDPS as Element.
One of those things that's probably "obvious" but some people were passing around that they didn't scale so I went ahead and tested it.
scy said:
One of those things that's probably "obvious" but some people were passing around that they didn't scale so I went ahead and tested it.
AdawgDaFAB
Member
Talk to the same NPC that brought you there. You can't portal between Acts, but you can go back to them without any issues.
Once you unlock the Mapworks you can travel to any city from there by portal as well.
AdawgDaFAB
Member
Ah nice. I'm still on Act 3 so I didn't know this. Does Mapworks stay unlocked when you begin a NG+ and is it unlocked for normal new games right away, like the Shadow Vault in TL1?
TheGreyHulk
Member
HE IS THE SAVIOR!!! Use him!