Torchlight II (not the MMO)

[Merusk]

I found that a lot of use of the aoe ice stun spell kept me alive, but I don't think I was playing on veteran.  Do the mobs become stun immune on higher difficulties?

[Megrim]

I have a strong suspicion that it actually depends on how much hp they have. I went through Veteran with my ranged Engi practically stunlocking everything with Spider Mines, Stomp, and a cannon, yet the bosses had a much lower stun rate even with some skills having a 80%+ percentage. You could still stun them but much less frequently. Oddly enough, Blind abilities worked much more often.

 * Edit: that is to say that some bosses could also be stunned more often, but they were also the more glass-cannon types; high damage output but low hp. Conversely, the high-hp ones seemed to get stunned less often.

[Fabricated]

$10 today. Pay $10 and get a better game than Diablo 3 which we all were dumb enough to pay $60 for.

[Ironwood]

$10 today. Pay $10 and get a better game than Diablo 3 which we all were dumb enough to pay $60 for.

THIS.

[Ingmar]

Does it improve vastly after the demo? Because the D3 I have installed is a vastly more entertaining game to me than at least that part of Torchlight 2.

EDIT: Whoops, I thought this was the Steam sale thread. Feel free to disregard any derail this might have caused.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Does it improve vastly after the demo? Because the D3 I have installed is a vastly more entertaining game to me than at least that part of Torchlight 2.

EDIT: Whoops, I thought this was the Steam sale thread. Feel free to disregard any derail this might have caused.

D3 demo is the best of D3, it doesnt get any better, imo TL2 does get better.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, that's how I look at it too.  I haven't actually played the Torchlight 2 demo, but I would imagine if it's the first couple of missions, you're losing out on a game that actually does get better in pretty much all areas.  Character Development, Monsters, Loot (though even I won't try to tell you the story is anything to write home about.)

I bought Diablo 3 on the strength of the demo, since up to the Skeleton King, it's interesting and looks like it might go somewhere.  It didn't.

[Typhon]

I'm with Ingmar on this one, I played D3 all the way through on 4 folks, have 3 of them to paragon 5ish.

Could get past the desert in T2, just got terribly bored, not sure why.

[Ironwood]

I could maybe understand getting bored by it, if that type of game bores you.

Being bored of it while still playing Diablo 3 is nuts tho.

[Xanthippe]

I left D3 when TL2 came out and haven't been back to D3. I go back to TL2 whenever I get a Diablo itch.

[Merusk]

Torchlight isn't BRUTAL and METAL enough and clearly is the inferior game for it.  Goddamn carebear color-fest with its awful cartoon-like graphics and useful item drops.  I actually completed a set before hitting the level cap and grinding for 60 hours! How the hell can you call that a game!:?!

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Thing is, I LOVED the D3 aesthetic, I enjoyed the brutal and metal but in the end, it's substance over style for me.

[Zetor]

ADOM is better than TL2 -and- Diablo3! /troll

Anyway, I think D3 vs Borderlands2 would be a more fair comparison. Similar price range and all that.

[Ironwood]

ADOM is better than TL2 -and- Diablo3! /troll

I agree.

[Threash]

Is this like D3 in that once i finish a difficulty i move on to the next one, or is my character "finished" once i beat the game with him in any difficulty?

[koro]

You can either consider the character "finished" and stop him there, or you can move on to New Game+, where enemies start at a base level of 50 and loot is scaled up accordingly. There's also New Game++, New Game+++, New Game++++, and so on.

The difficulty you pick on character creation is the one you're stuck with. You can get around that by either cheating with the console to swap difficulties, or make a LAN game by yourself, which lets you choose the difficulty.

[Fabricated]

Is this like D3 in that once i finish a difficulty i move on to the next one, or is my character "finished" once i beat the game with him in any difficulty?

Also an area called the mapworks opens up after you complete the campaign if you want to stay on the current difficulty level and not do the campaign in order again. You buy randomized maps from a vendor in a system that's sort of like the one from Path of Exile; completely randomized maps that can be selected from any of the tilesets in the game, with stats (like better/more loot/gold, but mobs do more damage/a specific type of damage/have more HP/etc).

[Pezzle]

Easily worth the ten bucks.  Very easy to play small bits and make progress.  Worth the standard rate if you really enjoy this style of game.  Well done Runic.

[Typhon]

I could maybe understand getting bored by it, if that type of game bores you.

Being bored of it while still playing Diablo 3 is nuts tho.

1) I didn't like the choice of characters.
2) I didn't like the ability selections.  I could see how to make a decently powerful character, I just didn't feel like I could put something thematically and have it work.  Best path was gaming a bunch of different abilities that had little to do with each other thematically.
3) I didn't like way the 'tree' worked. Not a big gripe here, really, but since I already disliked the ability and character selections, this is just more to not like.
4) It bothered me that auto-attack was not something that was productive in anyway at all.  Honestly it probably wouldn't be a big deal if I liked the abilities.

So 'bored' was a poor choice of words.  I love Diablo-likes, loved T1, was put off by the T2 design decisions and ended up not getting any further than the desert.  Y'all seem to love it though, so apparently it's just me (Guild Wars 2 and Secret World left me flat as well, maybe I'm just in a game-loving slump).

[Ironwood]

1) I didn't like the choice of characters.
2) I didn't like the ability selections.  I could see how to make a decently powerful character, I just didn't feel like I could put something thematically and have it work.  Best path was gaming a bunch of different abilities that had little to do with each other thematically.
3) I didn't like way the 'tree' worked. Not a big gripe here, really, but since I already disliked the ability and character selections, this is just more to not like.
4) It bothered me that auto-attack was not something that was productive in anyway at all.  Honestly it probably wouldn't be a big deal if I liked the abilities.

So 'bored' was a poor choice of words.  I love Diablo-likes, loved T1, was put off by the T2 design decisions and ended up not getting any further than the desert.  Y'all seem to love it though, so apparently it's just me (Guild Wars 2 and Secret World left me flat as well, maybe I'm just in a game-loving slump).

1 - Ok.  Because Shaky McParkinsons was a great choice in D3
2 - I'm not even going to ask what the 'theme' was that you managed in D3 either.
3 - Wat.
4 -

I'm going to stick with the 'nuts' theory.  Diablo 3 was either exactly the same or worse, depending on your point of view.

Also, the Democrats are just as bad.

[Ragnoros]

My thoughts mirror yours Typhon (GW2 and TSW also).

[Fabricated]

Still playing, now on my 3rd character which is a 2h Engineer.

Unlike Embermage and Berserker which were pretty easy for me to find a small set of skills to focus heavily on, Engineer seems to have just a shitload of good passives so I'm all over the place. Fire and Spark, the Armor bonus passive, supercharge passive, 2h buff passive, charge->HP passive, etc are all great. The melee tree actives however I've been a lot less impressed with so far.

For 2h though I noticed that slow weapons suck. I mean, the front-loaded damage is great but when stuff has huge knockbacks (i.e. all the fucking bosses and most champions) I've gotten knocked away before I could swing over and over and over again when rocking a slow two-hander.

[Xanthippe]

ADOM is better than TL2 -and- Diablo3! /troll

What is ADOM?

[Ironwood]

Ancient Domain of Mysteries.

It's a roguelike and it's awfully good though awfully hard.

[Soulflame]

I never cared much for ADOM.  Nethack, Moria, or Angband were much more my style.

I'm also enjoying the game more on Casual.  I can play on Veteran or Elite, it's just that making enemies giant tubs of health that can sometimes gib you isn't terribly fun for me anymore.

 

[Merusk]

I'm also enjoying the game more on Casual.  I can play on Veteran or Elite, it's just that making enemies giant tubs of health that can sometimes gib you isn't terribly fun for me anymore.

 

We all get old and have 'other shit to do' eventually.  Welcome to the club.

[Rendakor]

Just got this, fired up an Embermage on Veteran. This is the Diablo 3 I was looking for.

[Azazel]

I picked up the 4-pack during the Black Friday sales and now I've been playing this in 4P-LAN mode with my wife and our friends in few-hours at a time sessions over the past few weeks. We've played 3 or 4 times, have gotten to ACT2 and killed the Manticore and are having a good time. The three of us who bothered with D3 are finding this a lot more fun and interesting.

The respec thing is a bit stupid, but I've just decided to summon potions instead.

[Hoax]

The respec thing is so bad. Also horrible? If you drop an item out of your inventory other players wont see it and therefore can't pick it up. Instead you have to use a trade every time you want let someone have a piece of loot.

[Azazel]

I just got into the console and so I've spawned respec potions on Cheaty MacCheat into my shared stash. The trade thing hasn't bothered us. I guess we're used to that sort of thing via WoW etc.

[Rendakor]

I just got into the console and so I've spawned respec potions on Cheaty MacCheat into my shared stash.

Yea this is what I ended up doing; it's silly but not a huge deal. I've only had to do two respecs so far anyway.

I switched from my Embermage to an Engineer pretty quickly as I wanted something more melee oriented; made a female named Winry (pet: Owlphonse) because the random appearance I got looked perfect and now I get upset whenever I have to upgrade to a non-wrench. Got her to the 30s but kept finding a ton of Berzerker gear; I didn't like the look of the 'zerker skills at first glance but rolled one up anyway. Holy shit, I'm an unstoppable killing machine. I almost wish I'd turned the difficulty for the 'zerker up to the one above Veteran.

There are so many things about this game that I love: plentiful oranges, the phase beast portal things, hidden rooms in dungeons, etc. aside from things brought back from D2 but absent from D3 (gambling, transmuting, sets). Haven't tried multiplayer yet but I'm pitching it like crazy to my buddies.

One question: how does dual wielding work vis a vis skills: do they go off your main hand weapon's DPS or the average of the two?

[koro]

What are you doing with that Berserker that really clicks for you? I've tried them a few times but couldn't really get into them.

[Lantyssa]

One question: how does dual wielding work vis a vis skills: do they go off your main hand weapon's DPS or the average of the two?

They alternate attacks, unless you get an Execute, in which case you attack with both weapons.  They have to be similar types, such as two melee or two pistols, to do so.

What are you doing with that Berserker that really clicks for you? I've tried them a few times but couldn't really get into them.

I dropped the starting skill and went with the first skill in the third tree.  The charge is just fun as hell.  Putting points into the second skill on the same page which summons a badass looking spirit wolf that heals you.  Then the rest of my points go into the passives, but I actually hate having a lot of active skills in these games.

I'll go with whatever paired claw or melee weapons I find that are best, although I heavily favor Vampiric as the primary stat.

My pet is a badger.  It's the only reasonable choice for a Berzerker.

[Rendakor]

Like Lanty it's a lot of passives: I keep Eviscerate and Shadow Burst at max, with 1 point in Raze for bosses and a few in Chain Snare to help keep the mobs packed up. Eviscerate is my primary attack, I just use SB for healing. Blood Hunger and Executioner are the two passives I've got the most points, and I've got 1-2 points in most of the others. Rampage is awesome but doesn't need a lot of points because you're killing tons of things at a time and extra points just make it happen sooner.


I can't tell if Ice Cold Steel is useful for my build or not; does it add ice damage to my melee attacks, or only improve existing ice damage?

[Fabricated]

When I made my zerker I went with almost all passives and only leveled eviserate, stormstrike, the knockback charge skill, and battle standard with a few points wasted in the debuff shout.

Duel-Wield claws with the passive duel-wield, crit, and weapon expertise spells. Pop stormstrike and just wade in, hitting eviserate to bleed tougher enemies and the charge to move around within clumps. When your attack speed gets high you're just obliterating groups of mobs with stormstrike.