Torchlight II (not the MMO)

[eldaec]

I respecced into 'having my high level engineer ship hundreds of red potions to the mage'.

All the 'chance to freeze' abilities seem to help until the bosses. For the bosses I just run away and toss prismatic bolts over my shoulder.

[Merusk]

Embermages are squishy, you have to dodge and back off and keep out of the melee.  It's not kiting as you can take a hit or two, but you can't let the elites and bosses say close or you're dead.

If you're terrible at that, pump Immolation armor as high as you can for more survivability since it grants 5% absorb at each tier.   I also keep the Hailstorm skill at 5 pts since that gives a nice chance to freeze or stun and debuffs mobs to elec/ ice.  A few points in Frozen Fate (chance to freeze enemies when one dies) doesn't hurt.

I haven't given death's bounty a try to see how that helps survivability, though.  Hailstorm & Frozen Fate have worked fine for me thus far.

ed:  Oh, I've also been pumping Elemental Attunement. Embermage seems very DOT based and that one ability does a ton of damage for me.  The increase to % of "Burn/ poison/ freeze.. etc" alone is worth the points, but tack on the increased chance for secondary effects and sometimes you just have to tag a guy once for him to DOT to death.  DOT, DOT, run.

[MrHat]

Got bored of my Ember, so I ran an Outlander up.

I only put points into the poison corpse explosion and the shadowbats on death.  Two passives.

Seems fun, but that's because I've bee lucky with drops.

[apocrypha]

Death's Bounty was the skill that turned my Embermage into an unstoppable immortal.

[Hoax]

Who was the braintrust at Runic that decided to make your limited skill buybacks cost so much money? Super fucking obnoxious.

[Reg]

It's stupidly expensive and you can't buy back enough points to save a truly botched build - which is why I just went for the cheat mode.

[koro]

Frost Pillar. If you've got a squishy Embermage who's having surviability issues (as you probably will on most difficulties at 60+), Frost Pillar is a godsend. I swapped out my 11 points in Astral Ally for Frost Pillar, and I don't regret it even a little bit.

If you have a build with the points to spare for it, getting tier 2 or 3 of Immolation Aura isn't bad either, if only for the % damage reduction, which is far more powerful than flat Armor.

Speaking of Tier 3 in stuff, I wish they all didn't require level 92 to get the final one.

[Hawkbit]

By Frost Pillar, do you mean Ice Prison?  I have had a tough time getting into my embermage and would like to have a focus with him before really investing time.  What starter abilities did you use?

[Ironwood]

Ice Prison seems to be a bit of a good 'un.  It manages to keep them back and can trap the big chaps.

As to the respec screaming, just get some respec potions.  I have a shared stash file full of them which I can swap in and out as I need them.  It was a bit of a silly idea and it's a shame you need a cheat, but even Diablo II took years and years to patch in a full respec option.

[koro]

I meant Ice Prison, yeah. I don't know why I keep thinking of the wrong names of things.

For starter abilities, I went with Prismatic Bolt and it's basically been my only attack since.

[apocrypha]

Couple of links:

Respec mod - potions available on general goods merchant for both stat and skill respeccing. Doesn't flag you.
Increased item stash mod - allows you to put items in the spells/consumables tabs. Bit buggy.

It's early days for mods yet so these are a bit rough, but it's a start.

[Ironwood]

I do like the way the enchanting works.  I've found a socket chap and an electrician in the dungeons who have made one of my maces massively overpowered for its level.  Downside is that gems have level restrictions, so I can put better gems in the item, even though it outperforms almost everything I've found since.

Electric damage with an engineer is just mega overpowered, given the ability that increases your damage to stunned targets.

[Xanthippe]

Just finished the game with my embermage (level 52? 54? something like that). Died 4 or 5 times since hitting the last town.

Used Hailstorm and Prismatic Bolts as main attacks, added Elemental Boon and Prismatic Rift, got a 1point Ally, and 1point Blazing Pillar (for charge).

Also used 2 scrolls: Elemental Overload and Elemental Protection

Very squishy but mostly ran from everything, while storming and bolting. Used a lot of potions (ended up buying 20 or so toward the end).

Had amazing luck on drops in the second Act and crap luck since.

Now I want to play something where I can smash things and take hits - suggestions? Berserker or Engineer? Builds/skills?

[Tebonas]

Definitely Engineer.

Personally I went for Heavy Lifting and Coupe-de-Grace for maximum consistant damage output with Healbot, Bulwark and Aegis of Fate for Survivablity.

[koro]

Ugh, I really want to slip into the Hexenjaeger armor pieces on my Embermage, but the slightly-lower-level 7/10 piece Sentinel set I'm sporting happened to be rolled with nearly two thousand health in enchantments on it.

Not sure what to do with this one.

Also:

 

[Ironwood]

Class.

[koro]

Well after some gemming shenanigans, I managed to get the Hexenjaeger armor stuff I had along with the few pieces of the Emberweave set done up in such a way that I only lost about 700 HP instead of the 2000+ I lost before, and now I have much higher mana and damage to boot. Now I just need to find some fire ember and shore up my now-hideous Fire armor stat. And I look fucking rad to boot:


I normally use a wand+shield, but that doesn't make for a good character shot.

[Slayerik]

Not sure if I posted in here yet, but my girlfriend and I are enjoying the game greatly. Have 30ish Berzerker and I have focused mainly on Raze and the Wolf Shade skills (with some points in basically all the passives). I use a mana on hit gem in my offhand Axe that allows me to spam Raze. Been focusing lately on crit/execute. I just switch between Axes, swords, claws depending on when I get a big upgrade. Keeps it interesting!

All my fiancee seems to do is walk around and machine gun everything with rapid fire. Works for her, I guess!

So anyway, i love the loot in this game. I like the stat juggling. I've found uniques (unlike D3) and it feels.....GOOD  !!!

[Fabricated]

It's basically a gigantic lootfest with some questionable balance, which is fine by me. As long as I get pleasantly surprised by the rng on a semi-regular basis and alternate between fighting tough enemies and feeling like a god as I slog through weak enemies it's all good.

[Ironwood]

Still having immense fun with this.

Just thought I'd let you all know.

[eldaec]

Didn't want xcom to unlock until the 12th anyway.

Still fun. My emberdudette is starting to cruise through the forties. Prismatic bolt kills non-bosses in 2 hits and charge mastery provides endless mana. Starting to get into the stock of uniques my engineer stashed away, plenty of +plus elemental damage% goodness.

Ice teleport is proving an amazing survival skill. As is the prison thing.

[Tannhauser]

My Engineer uses Seismic Slam (aoe) which stuns enemies.  Then I use Coup de Grace on the toughest enemy which drops great electrical damage to stunned enemies.  I also add in Fire and Spark which adds even more damage to fire and electrical damage.  This is more than enough to cruise through normal enemies.  My Spider Mines also benefit from these fire buffs with their fire damage.  I also have Heal and Gun bot, and Blast Cannon for my ranged needs.

The only downside to this spec is that bosses take a while to kill, they seem immune to stuns.  I do feel very tanky though, so I just stand there and wail away on them with Gunbot summoned to add firepower.  The passive skills rock.

So yes, I love the Engineer.

[amiable]

 My Spider Mines also benefit from these fire buffs with their fire damage.  

No they do not, they are considered a "companion" and only benefit from +minion damage, same with gun and sledgebot.  Actually that's wrong, the dot does benefit from fire and spark!!!!   Actually that may be wrong as well, focus and +fire damage definitely do not work, but fire and spark is untested.  I'm a dedicated engineer myself but I am getting a bit frustrated with traps ending the career of my hardcore elite engy's!

[Ironwood]

My Spider mines stun like hell, and I've added a metric shitton of electric damage, so I suspect the mines benefit from this...

[Fabricated]

Man, my pistol outlander is getting the shit owned out of her on Veteran. My guns are reasonably up to date and my equipment is good and I just do shit for damage and take tons myself. Rune vault works okay on some mobs but it seems to not work on bosses which is well, not helpful at all.

Not sure if I want to take tangling shot or the wall...

It's also not 100% clear what stats I should weight heavily; Dex is absolutely required of course since all the good weapons/equipment require it, but strength/focus are often secondary requirements on Outlander-specific uniques as well, and of course vitality is key.

[Musashi]

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=35599

I've been doing this.  You can use a pistol or a wand.  I haven't put a single point in anything but focus.  It's kind of glass cannony.  But with Repulsion Hex, you don't get meleed alot.  And when you get into trouble drop down a Stone Pact and it's usually enough to even tank a little of the damage and then run around until you get your health caught back up.  I'm up to level 60 something and I'm having virtually zero trouble outside of the occasional accidental gib here and there from being silly.  Glaive Throw scales very well even with only 5 points.

Once you get enough points into Venemous Hail it starts to feel like a Meteor Sorc ala D2.  Albeit VH doesn't really feel like it hits that hard.  But it's still enough to put damage in places you don't have line of sight.  Then just mow down the oncoming traffic with Glaive Throw which is the build staple.

[rattran]

What turned me off in Torchlight II is that all the builds in the end need lots of focus, and not really anything else. If you try to melee or shoot, you just get gibbed after about level 50. It's all about skills, and they scale off focus better than anything else.

[Slayerik]

Found a red! Wife is so jealous.

http://torchlight.wikia.com/wiki/Two_Thousand_Maniacs!

[Hawkbit]

deadlink - the ! in your link is not part of the URL and needs to be. 

Oh, and grats!

[Slayerik]

deadlink - the ! in your link is not part of the URL and needs to be. 

Oh, and grats!

Fixed, and thanks!

[Ratman_tf]

What turned me off in Torchlight II is that all the builds in the end need lots of focus, and not really anything else. If you try to melee or shoot, you just get gibbed after about level 50. It's all about skills, and they scale off focus better than anything else.

I wonder if that's what's killing my Outlander. Things are getting mighty fucking obnoxious in Act III, and I'm starting to dislike playing.

[Fabricated]

I'm playing my Embermage now and I'm actually capable of killing stuff pretty easily focusing entirely on fire (with Death's Bounty as the only outlying active ability), but I have ridiculously good equipment and I can still get nearly instagibbed on veteran. I have like 360+ armor and 200+ resists for everything early in ACT TWO and I can still get owned if I get cornered.

Edit: I just scored a pretty ridiculous necklace so I'm even more powerful now.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/1137419435243144878/D761FE8A03C10780DB9B0C712905E807E240959B/

[Ratman_tf]

Finished the campaign on normal. I've decided that I hate allocating stats and skills. I wasn't fond of it in D2, and I've grown to hate the various iterations of the system in games over the years. If D3 did one thing right, it was ditching the retarted stat and skill allocation garbage.
The game got pretty grindy towards the end of Act III for me, and I hate having movement critical gameplay in a game with click-to-move. Clicked on a monster instead of an open area? TOO BAD! 
But aside from that it rocked.

And the story was way better than D3. 

[Fabricated]

Still in act 2, with armor in the 400+ range and 300+ resists and I still get instagibbed off and on. Wowzers.

Also I now have so many fire spells I can pretty much set the entire screen ablaze. I was getting framerate issues in the Luminous Arena for some reason too.

[Megrim]

Try investing in some summon spells for you and/or your pet. I find that having some Imps or Zombies or whatever to give some space helps tremendously.