Torchlight - Runic Games

[rattran]

Very hard on the barbarian got very hard around level 23. Then I got better gear, and it was okay.

[Aez]

I don't mind some light homage to Diablo but the pygmies are 

[Kageh]

I'm kind of hitting a difficulty wall on my summon alchemist, very hard, dungeon level 20. Stuff kills my imps and my golem too fast, and then proceeds to kick my butt and 3-4 shot me. I got 4 imps and the passive talent up to 5/10, and a couple uniques and sets with +% pet damage/armor. I either need to grind some or I'll re-roll with lots more magic.

[Ironwood]

That was a harsh lesson for Diablo II as well;  summons had a shelf life.  If you really wanted a summoning Necro, you had to pump it into REVIVE, which made much better summons because you were basically pumping out better versions of the monsters you were fighting.

It's a hard one to get right and I'm not surprised they didn't.

[Merusk]

I'm kind of hitting a difficulty wall on my summon alchemist, very hard, dungeon level 20. Stuff kills my imps and my golem too fast, and then proceeds to kick my butt and 3-4 shot me. I got 4 imps and the passive talent up to 5/10, and a couple uniques and sets with +% pet damage/armor. I either need to grind some or I'll re-roll with lots more magic.

What level are you and how's your equip?   I started having problems at DL20/21 as well, shit was starting to hurt and my formerly uber gear wasn't helping anymore.  I ran a few side dungeons and the maps you buy off the enchanter chick and replaced my uniques from level 5-15 with Green and Blues that had fewer enchants* but better armor, then bought a weapon upgrade off the blacksmith.   It's not as easy as it was, but it's not difficult anymore.

* TBH I was bummed about the enchanting 'nerf' in a single player game at first, but I realize I was holding on to gear for too long because of it.  Not to mention the sheer number of enchants you could toss on WAS fucking stupid.  I had a unique chest armor I'd been using since level 5 that had at least 10 enchants on it.   I may have fewer upgraded stats now but they're higher quality.

[Aez]

Crashed while loading, lost my character WTF?

[Malakili]

Crashed while loading, lost my character WTF?

This bug should have been fixed with the patch, did you update?

[Aez]

Yes, I updated.  I found a file named backup.tmp in my save folder but I have no idea what to do with it.
I can't find any info on how to use it, I'm only finding info on how to find it

Found hundreds of sites saying "save backup are now generated" but none saying how to actually use those backup 

[Musashi]

Normal is probably a little easier than D2 Normal.  Very Hard is a lot like D2 Hell in that you gotta get resists, have stuff, and some builds are just better than others.  Necros Summoning Alchemists, man I don't know how they can solo Very Hard.  You're probably going to have to twink the ever loving shit out of them.  But I don't know what kind of gear there is at the top end that might help yet, so it's too soon to say it's impossible.  Also, having every level of the heal all spell ready to go when you are at a level to use it would probably help them out a ton.  Someone needs to mod in unit frames with health bars for your summons.

[Ratman_tf]

Well, I just downloaded the trial and took this for a spin last night. Very fun. I kinda wished they'd take the damn quests out and just let me run around the dungeon on my own without some knob in town asking me to find his car keys, but since it's a Diablo-alike, and the quests are pretty linear compared to my progress, I don't mind too much. They don't add anything to the game, though.

[Malakili]

Well, I just downloaded the trial and took this for a spin last night. Very fun. I kinda wished they'd take the damn quests out and just let me run around the dungeon on my own without some knob in town asking me to find his car keys, but since it's a Diablo-alike, and the quests are pretty linear compared to my progress, I don't mind too much. They don't add anything to the game, though.

Aside from the main quest line which just sort of happens as long as you keep going deeper into the dungeon, there isn't any need to do a single side quest.  So, you can ignore them if you want.

[sidereal]

But to Ratman's point, there's really nothing you have to do to complete them, at least the main gem and kill quests.  It's not like you weren't going to kill that guy anyway.  Those are just the cost of talking to those clowns every couple of levels and in return, free stuff. 

The portal and map quests, on the other hand, I could see skipping.

[trias_e]

It crashes often after the patch on steam for me.   

[Ratman_tf]

I'll probably do the quests for the goodies. Not because I find them fun or interesting.

And my trial timed out! 

[Yegolev]

I'm going balls-out with a summoner.  I'll see if I hit the wall at 20, but I have a plan.  Well, not much of a plan, but we shall see.  I did my time as a necro in D2, and I retired a summoner in Fate.  My biggest challenge right now is Borderlands.  I turned off Dragon Age to play Borderlands.  I might not even google up any porn.

[Pennilenko]

I'm going balls-out with a summoner.  I'll see if I hit the wall at 20, but I have a plan.  Well, not much of a plan, but we shall see.  I did my time as a necro in D2, and I retired a summoner in Fate.  My biggest challenge right now is Borderlands.  I turned off Dragon Age to play Borderlands.  I might not even google up any porn.

Don't give up on porn man, just don't.

[Setanta]

Currently I'm a level 41 vanquisher (hard mode). Blood Skeletons are freaking awesome (pet cast). They keep themselves, my pet and me healed up and the pet is running heal-all V. I'm using maxxed pet passive plus ranged/crit/dual weapons passives maxed and an item that increases range. I run haste/heal self VI and skeleton archers IV. 17% crit is nice plus knockback is at 65% for most mobs and I have explosive at 10 and am working on magic find with a few points in utility spells and more than a few in ricochet. I also have missile reflect at 80% and most resists up to 65% (needs more). I have to do a fair bit of kiting and working out choke points/when to line them up but am having a blast.

I'm not sure if I'll retire her soon or not and go to VH mode or try another class. I was toying with an alchy pet build running Blood Skeles and heal all again - maybe en-mass is the way to go.

One thing I have found for a DW gun Vanq is firing ahead (explosive/ricochet) and listening for the crunch of a hit. Then I can move in cautiously.

I'm loving this game - bang for buck it beats a lot of the big name games hands down :)

[Kageh]

I'm kind of hitting a difficulty wall on my summon alchemist, very hard, dungeon level 20. Stuff kills my imps and my golem too fast, and then proceeds to kick my butt and 3-4 shot me. I got 4 imps and the passive talent up to 5/10, and a couple uniques and sets with +% pet damage/armor. I either need to grind some or I'll re-roll with lots more magic.

What level are you and how's your equip?   I started having problems at DL20/21 as well, shit was starting to hurt and my formerly uber gear wasn't helping anymore.  I ran a few side dungeons and the maps you buy off the enchanter chick and replaced my uniques from level 5-15 with Green and Blues that had fewer enchants* but better armor, then bought a weapon upgrade off the blacksmith.   It's not as easy as it was, but it's not difficult anymore.

23 myself and the gear is mostly blues/greens with +% pet damage/armors modifiers where I found them, with a twink unique wand (don't recall the DPS, I'll look it up).

The thing that annoys me is that my summons could actually achieve something if they would work together and focus fire. Instead, we're just zerging every encounter, every imp picks it's own target and gets slaughtered, with the golem happily trudging behind them and getting swarmed. My spells also don't seem to cut it anymore, there's "minion level" stuff that I need to cast 5-6 spells on to kill them, and miniboss rooms have about 10 of them plus the boss inside.

I'm siding with Musashi there, I just don't know how a summon necro alchemist would be technically feasible at higher levels. I'll keep trying a bit - maybe there's some cut-off point past where it gets easier - and if it doesn't work, I'm shelving and re-rolling.

[Ironwood]

'Blood Skeletons' ?  I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm interested...

[murdoc]

I really need to look at a build website because I'm applying stats and skills way too randomly. Luckily I'm just playing on normal, which is easymode.

[Xanthippe]

That elemental resist spell is a good one to have as you move up in levels.

I've heard that magic find is worthless.  Don't know if that's true or not.

[trias_e]

Insert Quote
That elemental resist spell is a good one to have as you move up in levels.

Very true.  It also scales very nicely with raising your defense stat.  Defense and resists are absolutely essential for my melee alchemist, even just on hard difficulty.  Defense>Magic>Strength for him.

Right now Elemental Overload+Elemental Protection+Dervish is where its at for me.  With my pet running around with a rare healing gel pet and heal all to keep me topped off.

I have died an embarassing amount of times on hard, starting with those damn poison breathing trees. I can't even imagine very hard.  Melee alchemist would take a ton of farming and outleveling to be viable me thinks.

[Setanta]

'Blood Skeletons' ?  I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm interested...

Blood Skeletons is a rare drop - they are the same as regular skeletons but do more damage and leech health as they hit and disperse it back to themselves (100% of life stolen) and from what I can see your pet and you (50% of life stolen). 11 ranks as of the patch. I've only seen one at the vendor, the other was a drop.

[Hoax]

Did everyone see the Steam character screenshots?  I'm now wondering why you fucks haven't been posting character ss's some of those looked really cool.

[trias_e]

Finally beat the game on hard with my melee alchemist.  Took about 20 hours, died 55 times.  Pretty pathetic.  Ended up with 10 in the shield, ember shock, frailty, and a few points in the zappy crystal thing, fear, mana regen and armor expertise.  I had to do quite a bit of grinding to get strong enough to deal with the last few levels of the dungeon.  I'm tempted to start a new melee alchemist and try it on very hard/hc, with my newfound knowledge on how to build one (strength is not a good statistic to raise very often.  Defense>Magic>>>>>STR).  I still doubt I'd last very long though.

[Aez]

Did everyone see the Steam character screenshots?  I'm now wondering why you fucks haven't been posting character ss's some of those looked really cool.

[Aez]

Finally beat the game on hard with my melee alchemist.  Took about 20 hours, died 55 times.  Pretty pathetic.  Ended up with 10 in the shield, ember shock, frailty, and a few points in the zappy crystal thing, fear, mana regen and armor expertise.  I had to do quite a bit of grinding to get strong enough to deal with the last few levels of the dungeon.  I'm tempted to start a new melee alchemist and try it on very hard/hc, with my newfound knowledge on how to build one (strength is not a good statistic to raise very often.  Defense>Magic>>>>>STR).  I still doubt I'd last very long though.

Doing well right now as a melee alchemist on very hard (only lvl 15).  Quite a different build than yours.
I'm not using Ember Shock at all.  Not planing on touching Frailty.

I'm maxing Shield, Critical Strike, Defensive Spell Mastery and planing on using Ember Sentry and Block and Parry in the future.  I also put 1 point into Infuse and some into Armor and Martial Weapon Mastery.

Main advantages are:

• Lots of money since I don't have to buy health or mana potion. Only casting buff doesn't take much mana. Shield and rank 5 heal means I don't really need healt potion.
• Shield take care of the physical dmg, Elemental Protection is amazing for other type of dmg (+20 resistance for every type of dmg, only at rank 5)
• Haste is also great to kite mobs, only problem is the duration of the spell at low lvl, will use it more once I can cast it at lvl 4 or 5.

Main problem:

• Swarms of mob since I don't have any AEO. Currently debating if I should splash some skill point in ember lance or ember phase (would ember phase help at all?)

I might write a short guide if the build stay interesting until the end.

[trias_e]

    * Swarms of mob since I don't have any AEO. Currently debating if I should splash some skill point in ember lance or ember phase (would ember phase help at all?)

Can't say for ember lance, but 1 point in ember phase should be mandatory for any alchemist.  But I don't think it would be a great AE solution, although I could be wrong.  More than one point seems pretty meh in my experience, unless perhaps you max the ember sentry and have alot of minions out.  With mana regeneration you could simply teleport constantly for survival and small damage while your minions and sentry do consistent damage.  I actually did that for some fights with just blood skeletons at rank 1 and my dog and it worked, so it could work very well with more summons.

What stats are you raising?  If you are using martial weapons then you generally need strength for damage, and defense seems pretty mandatory especially once you get to the elemental breathing monsters which will rape your meleealch's face like you've never seen before (although elemental protection at high rank will be very useful for this part).  Are you raising strength, magic and defense?

[Ard]

Ember phase does not work as advertised, is the only real problem.  I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but it only does the aoe damage to the mobs around you where you started, not where you appear.  It's mostly usable as a defensive ability, but it's a damn damn good one.

[Aez]

Yeah, I'm raising Strength, Defense and Magic.  I keep my Magic stat lagging a little bit.  That's why I'm spending some point on Armor and Martial Weapon Mastery, it decrease the requirements.

[Merusk]

Did everyone see the Steam character screenshots?  I'm now wondering why you fucks haven't been posting character ss's some of those looked really cool.

Nope I didn't.

Not posting shots because my char doens't look particularly uber.  I ran into the pants-less problem now myself.  No pants + assassin hood = funny lookin.

[Aez]

Good night, it's raining uniques!

[Ironwood]

You would appear to have a jwilson as a pet.

Nice one.

[IainC]

I have a level 32ish Vanquisher and balance is way off for me at the moment. It's raining yellows and purples at me and I don't actually even see most of the enemies I face. I have been pumping points into explosive shot and I just launch it speculatively down corridors and into dark corners then go in and hoover up the loot. At level 10 Explosive shot is doing 156% of my weapon DPS; the fact that my most damaging attack is also an untargeted AoE seems to be... off. Unless I'm missing something there isn't a massive damage single target shot to compete with that.

My pet has fireball and lifedrain which seems to help quite a lot as well.

Enchanting is very broken. I enchanted a purple chest piece which failed and stripped all the stats from it (although it kept the set boni), I then spent about 20k on re-enchanting it and it's now twice as good as it was originally and has 2 gem slots.

[trias_e]

Enchanting is very broken. I enchanted a purple chest piece which failed and stripped all the stats from it (although it kept the set boni), I then spent about 20k on re-enchanting it and it's now twice as good as it was originally and has 2 gem slots.

How many enchants did that take?  If it took 8 or more at 2-4-6 disenchant progression you had an over 50% chance of disenchanting it at some point along the way, so I'm not sure if it's broken unless you have a ton of money at your disposal...which it sounds like you might.  But, that said, the fact that purple items keep their set bonuses after getting disenchanted is definitely OP and makes them superior options to enchant.