Torchlight II (not the MMO)

[Thrawn]

I JUST noticed today that TL2 is only $20, why did no one point this out to me?  I was going to wait for it to go on Steam sale for like twenty bucks or less. 

May pick up a copy for me and my wife since TL1 is one of the very, very few "real" games she ever really got into.

[Musashi]

This game has the perfect amount of Jay Wilson.

[Ratman_tf]

I JUST noticed today that TL2 is only $20, why did no one point this out to me?  I was going to wait for it to go on Steam sale for like twenty bucks or less. 

Plus a few comments in this very thread about the $20 price tag. 

[koro]

Beat the game with my level 52 Prismatic Bolt Embermage, and started on the New Game+ while fiddling with the random dungeons. Only gripe so far is that my mage is so squishy. Even with 400+ armor across all resistances, 25% block chance (I use a shield), 24% dodge chance, and 3200 health, I die way too quickly. Large enemies can do more than 1700 damage per hit, with certain champions (Varkolyn brute champions especially) can do more than 2500. The Embermage doesn't have much in the way of defensive cooldowns, and sometimes you just can't Frost Phase in time.

I still kill quickly enough, but I wish I had more tools to deal with incoming damage.

[apocrypha]

Abandoned my Embermage until there's non-flagging respec available. Messed around a bit with an Outlander and some console commands/respec potions until I'd kind of picked a spec, then deleted and remade from scratch properly.

Glaive Throw is awesome. Elemental damage weapons - currently dual wielding wands - with Elemental Mastery and Cursed Daggers as an opener. Don't know how it'll survive in higher difficulty levels but at level 30 it's a totally overpowered spec.

[Ironwood]

I'm given to understand you can make a character called 'MacCheaty' and have him spawn respec potions, shared stash them, and then use them with no flagging from another Char.

Just a thought.

[Reg]

Yeah I saw a post about that over on the Runic forums. Apparently it does actually work.

[apocrypha]

Yeah I read that too, been meaning to test it. I've even made a couple of test characters (called "Potion Maker" and "Test Dummy") but then whenever I'm online and playing with any of my friends I forget because we're all too busy killing things.

[Fabricated]

The transmuter doesn't give better gems I think, I think you just get a gem of a different type than you put into it. Basically for getting rid of the piles of similar gems you need to hopefully get something with more USEFUL stats rather than higher ones.

Three of the same type will give a different one. Four of the same type will give you back one of a higher quality.

I just tried this last night and I absolutely did not get a better gem back when I tried putting 4 of the same quality, same type of gem into the transmuter. It just ate 3 and spat out a different one of the same level, and left the 4th in the slot I put it in.

edit: also, I'm already wishing for more shared stash space. 20-something uniques and 3-4 nearly complete item sets are choking it up for the characters I plan on starting after I finally finish the game on my berserker. This game is actually surprisingly long. You don't really notice it since it doesn't divide the "overworld" sections up real neatly like D2/etc did and just makes them one massive fuck-off map.

[Ironwood]

I'll admit that I thought the space, particularly the shared stash, was rather pokey.  I think they'll probably end up patching in a growth mechanic.

[Fabricated]

Or someone will mod extra stash in, or you can just make item mules and REALLY relive your D2 experience.

[Merusk]

Abandoned my Embermage until there's non-flagging respec available. Messed around a bit with an Outlander and some console commands/respec potions until I'd kind of picked a spec, then deleted and remade from scratch properly.

Glaive Throw is awesome. Elemental damage weapons - currently dual wielding wands - with Elemental Mastery and Cursed Daggers as an opener. Don't know how it'll survive in higher difficulty levels but at level 30 it's a totally overpowered spec.

What's the flagging do when you respec?  I did it the other night because I realized I had too many points spread across too many skills and it was killing me.  I'm not knocked off of any steam achieves or anything now am I?  I could give less of a crap about being kept from MP items.

[Reg]

From what I saw over at Lum's where one of the Torchlight devs posts, getting flagged for cheating doesn't turn off the characters access to shared storage.  I think that all it does is flag you as a cheater in multiplayer games so you might have problems getting into public games with strangers.  I don't ever do that so I'll respec whenever the hell I want. 

[Merusk]

Yeah, screw that then. I could give two squirts about random multiplayer.  I did it in D3 for achieves, no real reason to here.

[caladein]

I'm given to understand you can make a character called 'MacCheaty' and have him spawn respec potions, shared stash them, and then use them with no flagging from another Char.

Just a thought.

And there goes $20...

[apocrypha]

From what I saw over at Lum's where one of the Torchlight devs posts, getting flagged for cheating doesn't turn off the characters access to shared storage.  I think that all it does is flag you as a cheater in multiplayer games so you might have problems getting into public games with strangers.  I don't ever do that so I'll respec whenever the hell I want. 

Oh, is that all it does? Right, respec time for the Embermage then!

I'll second the need for more shared stash space. Like 10x as much!

Couple of links:
Transmuting recipes.
Skill planner.

[Numtini]

Yeah, screw that then. I could give two squirts about random multiplayer.

Is there any sort of random online game? I thought it was just join a game you choose through the lobby, then you get plunked wherever you started rather than the instant teleport to the team thing in D3.

[Signe]

The only people I mostly ever play online with are you guys and all of you already know I cheat.

[Ironwood]

Just so people know :

Last night had an issue where I killed the manticore and wife had died at the start of the fight.  It hadn't flagged her as completed and her game was then borked due to, well, dead manticore.

What to do is start a LAN game and tick the 'randomise map' tickbox that repopulates the world.  Then you'll be able to rekill the beastie and get back to the same stage.

It's a little bit of a nuisance, but not too much so.

[Merusk]

Yeah, screw that then. I could give two squirts about random multiplayer.

Is there any sort of random online game? I thought it was just join a game you choose through the lobby, then you get plunked wherever you started rather than the instant teleport to the team thing in D3.

No idea, I haven't tried it at all. Hell, I haven't even done the online registry thing yet.

In other news the cable crapped out last night due to a lighting storm hitting the local relay.  I was pleased to be able to play my game while the internet was totally unavailable while I would have been fucked with D3.  It's the little things, sometimes, and fuck the folks in the old D3 thread who said "Online all the time" wasn't a big deal.  You know who you were.

[Fabricated]

Just so people know :

Last night had an issue where I killed the manticore and wife had died at the start of the fight.  It hadn't flagged her as completed and her game was then borked due to, well, dead manticore.

What to do is start a LAN game and tick the 'randomise map' tickbox that repopulates the world.  Then you'll be able to rekill the beastie and get back to the same stage.

It's a little bit of a nuisance, but not too much so.

On the upside, the Manticore will still drop good loot because bosses in this game don't stop dropping good shit after you kill them the first time!

[Ironwood]

Yes.

Two uniques, in fact.  One each time.

Suck on my big erect cock, Diablo III.

[Slayerik]

I'm getting together a 4 pack, PM me if anyone wants in.

Will be trying this tonight!

[eldaec]

Finished the end of the main quest with my engineer, for some reason the last encounter seems to be based on the last mission of Freedom Force.

It all continues to be fun. Playing with the random dungeon-o-matic at the moment.

For those interested in specs, some thoughts on building a 2H melee guy with lots of pet support....

[Megrim]

As a level 40-ish cannon engineer, I can definitely say that Spider Mines are not terrible. Quite the opposite in fact.

[eldaec]

Do you just spam them for DPS or is there some nefarious purpose they serve that I'm missing?

[koro]

Shock Grenade is thoroughly mediocre (but not useless!) and Fusillade is, in my opinion, one of the flat-out worst skills in the entire game, across all classes. The way its projectiles travel means it'll never hit bosses, and Blast Cannon outperforms it for every other task. Thankfully a cannon Engineer has more than enough really good toys to play with that Fusillade won't be missed.

I toyed around with a tank Engineer a bit, and I really dig it. Shield Bash (which can do crazy damage) for champions/bosses combined with Dynamo Field, either Overload or Tremor, and the Fire & Spark passive can make for a very hard to kill character that can dish out some surprisingly high damage. Get Med Bot up to at least tier 2, Force Field up pretty high, about 10 points in Aegis of Fate, 10+ points in Bulwark, and 5+ points in Charge Reconstruction, and you're pretty set. You can probably even get away without Overload/Tremor, but they're both quite nice for clearing huge packs.

[Megrim]

Do you just spam them for DPS or is there some nefarious purpose they serve that I'm missing?

I can't remember exactly how many I have, but with around eight points into it, they have a 50% chance to stun for 3 seconds, and a 50% chance to deal 33% more damage. Per mine. They have a 3 second cooldown, low mana cost, and hang around for ~20 seconds, and you can have up to nine out at once. Oh, and unless I'm mistaken, they are affected by +Minion Damage bonuses. So, DPS and crowd control both. Plus you know, SPIDER MINES! (I played a lot of Starcraft)

 * Edit: I guess what this actually translates to, is that you can pretty much keep a constant stream of them out while playing, so they work as a "tank" for you, in addition to your pet. The 50% aoe stun plus Coup de grâce is retardedly good when combined with the cannon blast ability thing, because it passes through multiple targets as well.

[Fabricated]

Berserkers are just kinda brokenly powerful in your first playthrough. I imagine they become squishy as the elemental attacks ramp up crazily, but I attack so fucking fast it's disgusting. I wish there was a high level version of The Haymaker unique claw, because it has a 45% execute rate and with my current stats I have 85%+ chance to execute (hit with both hands), and the execute animation for claws at least (I don't know if other dw weapons use the same animation) is really really fast and hits easily 3-4 times per second with both hands.

And it's usually a crit every single time since I have bonus charge rate from Battle Standard and 30-40% more from gear so I spend most of my time with my meter maxed out.

To give you an idea of how fast I attack, you can take a passive that lowers an enemy's armor and gives you extra armor for 3 seconds with every hit. This stacks and at about 5-6 points in at my level I get like 45-50ish armor per hit. On enemies tough enough to last more than 3-4 seconds (bosses and tough champions) I've gotten up to about 800 armor. Combine this with stormstrike (regular melee hits arc electric damage to other enemies, up to 5 jumps at tier 3), roar (debuff, slows/raises damage by x%), and the frenzy passive (a separate "berserk" that gives you a chance to move/attack 25% faster after killing something), everything kinda explodes.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, but the downside on higher level difficulties is that you can get swarmed and die quite quickly.

[eldaec]

OK I experimented with Spider Mines and they are in fact, good.

Also found out that the transmuter will take two spell scrolls and return one random one. Which is an effective way to roll the dice more times for the spell you actually want.

[Yegolev]

I found more and better loot in 30 minutes of the Torchlight II demo than I did in a week of D3.

[koro]

So apparently some numbers have been crunched, and it's been found that skills that use flat damage that scales up as you level as opposed to scaling off of weapon DPS can easily eclipse weapon-scaling skills in damage, even with shitty gear.

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=38358

[Lemming]

I found more and better loot in 30 minutes of the Torchlight II demo than I did in a week of D3.

I ran through a phase beast challenge in my early 20s and literally had 3/4 of my screen fill up with gold and loot, well before we even opened the newly spawned chests. Here's a screenshot from another player that played the same encounter, minus a few chests a little bit up on the screen:

http://imageshack.us/a/img685/6957/2012092800001.jpg

I realize that the vast majority of that is just gold, but it was still a wow moment for all of us playing.  I don't even think there was a champ that spawned in that encounter, and we still walked out with a few useful rares and enchanted items.      

[lamaros]

Going back a few pages: nethack had identify scrolls because you had cursed stuff and equipping unidentified things was thus a huge risk.