Titan Quest character builds my way

This is a post I wrote ages ago for my personal Web site, which has since died horribly. Just to show I haven't only played League of Legends (and am equally obsessive in all games with understanding the mechanics and thinking about character builds) :-)

Background

I did it my way.
Image source: Paste (Sinatra image)

I've played a fair amount of Titan Quest Immortal Throne and, on the whole, really enjoyed it. It's something you can play in short chunks and still make decent progress each time (handy when you're a father). The skill system is satisfying and the game mechanics subtle. (However, it's a big gripe of mine that the mechanics are so opaque and inaccessible. It's taken me ages piecing together bits on the excellent titanquest.net forums to properly understand them. There is some vital stuff that is really hard to figure out through trial and error in the game. In general, this is a big topic for a game-design debate, but let's leave that for now.) Luckily, I don't get particularly sucked in by the randomised loot addiction-inducing design, though I do get a little obsessive about build strategies.

I blasted through Normal difficulty TQ with three mates, which proved very underwhelming since we had an uber (for Normal) Ice Shards build, an uber Eruption/Core Dweller build, a Warfare smasher and me as a 'support' Ranger who just managed to look at corpses 90% of the time :-) I then played around with numerous half-baked builds in TQ IT (which addresses nearly all of the glaring omissions in vanilla TQ; there really is zero point playing vanilla TQ). I finished the pre-IT bit with an Oracle (Storm/Spirit), but got tired of the 'glass cannon' style in Act IV. I then finished Normal fully with a Warden (Defence/Hunting), which I enjoyed but had planned as an 'ultimate versatility' character, using both spears and bow. In theory it makes sense but, in practice, skill points are too thin. Plus switching to bow loses all the shield blocking, so you have an awkward playstyle where attacking at range makes you more vulnerable. I ended up focusing primarily on the bow skills, with just a point in the two Shield Charge skills to have a gap-closing stun to transition from ranged to melee. (This is after maxing all the crossover skills which work for bow and spear so my melee is at least still OK.)

One of the main aspects of TQ is that, even if you get to Legendary, you still haven't really got skill points to put in all the skills from both masteries, and you generally wouldn't want to because your character loses 'focus' (and thus effectiveness) and too many active skills become unmanageable in terms of actually microing them. So, in the Warden example, I'll never 'see' the Defence shield skills used 'properly' (with synergised skill points and equipment). You can roughly generalise most masteries into two or three optional skill areas where you'd generally choose one: Defence has shield skills and the Rally/Adrenaline tree health buffs (most builds would take some points in Iron Will, Armor Handling and Colossus Form); Storm has weapon-attack buffs (lightning/cold mix), lightning-based spells and cold-based spells (every Storm build would normally take Squall, with Heart of Frost or Static Charge depending on lightning or cold focus, and virtually none would take more than a point in Energy Shield or Freezing Blast); Rogue has piercing, traps and poison-based (nearly all builds would take 1 point in Envenom Weapon to get Mandrake's confusion and fumbling; virtually none would emphasise the bleeding-specific aspects since they are a very secondary adjunct in terms of damage); etc. So, basically, I'd like a mix of builds which try out as many of these optional areas as possible, but in a minimum number of characters.

Farming and creating some optimised uber-build do nothing for me (why have an end goal to make the game ridiculously easy and pre-planned?) I use TQVault, but more as a trophy cabinet. I'd like a set of characters which are each pretty flexible with regards to equipment, and have a couple of damage types to make things more interesting. However, I'm aware that the game mechanics mean that straying too far from a powergamer max-one-damage-type build can be a problem in Epic and Legendary. This is a delicate balancing act, since one of the main appeals of TQ is the visceral glory of it all, which tends to be lost if you have a slow, ponderous character. I think I've now got a good enough understanding of the detailed mechanics to achieve this without severely gimping the builds.

I also don't generally like pets: it feels kind of disconnected having something else do the killing for you (which you don't have tight control of without awkward keying). It's kind of a very lite version of an RTS game; if I wanted to do that, I'd play a proper full-on RTS :-). It's also a big skill point sink and doesn't allow me to explore a range of skills from each mastery. However, I also prefer to tactically control the enemies, rather than running around like an idiot (not very heroic IMO), so aggro-keeping pets/skills are very useful add-ons in this regard; it adds to the builds' versatility if each of them has some such option (primarily traps, monster lure and core dweller; the other pets/allies don't tend to keep aggro so well though are still reasonable, especially Outsider and Liche King).

Finally, TQ is a very visual (and visceral, as just mentioned) game. Part of the fun is in the look of the characters (which improves as the equipment gets better and cooler-looking) and the visual effects, especially those from the Earth, Storm and Dream trees. Thus, though it may sound a little childish, this is always something to bear in mind when designing characters.

General Criteria

Given all this, I want a set of character builds with the following criteria:

• Use all the eight basic masteries (ignoring Dream due to it being stupidly overpowered). I want to explore the various skills and possibilities, given that I already have a lightning-focused Oracle and bow-focused Warden. I'll start with the minimum four characters to cover all the masteries, and will probably not have enough time to venture much beyond this.
• Cover different playstyles (but not too one-trick-pony-like) and, over all four combinations, have good item coverage with little overlap and different visual styles. (That basically means two male and two female, two with STR/DEX-based gear and two with INT-based gear, and using the range of weapon types.)
• Each build has some flexibility in damage types and equipment (especially not being ranged-only or melee-only absolutely exclusively, which also helps with some bosses that are much harder one way than the other). Survivability therefore has to be carefully thought out, since these won't be uber-builds that kill things quickly enough that defence is largely irrelevant.
• Pets for tactical control of enemies, rather than in a pure pet-focused build.
• Minimal use of potions. For me, gulping pots all the time is the most unheroic, atmosphere-breaking way to go. There's a real satisfaction in balancing your health and energy regen (or avoiding damage) so that you rarely need them.

The desired playstyles are:

• predominantly melee dual-wielder;
• predominantly ranged bow user (but something more unusual than my Warden);
• ranged caster;
• predominantly melee shield user.

The Builds

After a ridiculous amount of thought, the 4 chosen builds are... (drumroll please)...

• Spellbreaker (Warfare/Spirit)
• Ranger (Hunting/Nature)
• Magician (Rogue/Earth)
• Paladin (Defense/Storm)

Spellbreaker (Melee Dual-Wielding)

I wanted to use the up-close auras of Spirit, and heavy life leech nicely complements the pure damage-dealing of Warfare. The 'deal damage or die' playstyle seems like a fun one. Plus I've got Ancestral Horn, Outsider and Liche King as backup if I really need it. General tactic is just to wade in there (via War Wind), using the Deathchill tree and War Horn to stun and slow enemies whilst leeching their life like crazy to offset damage received. Rather handily, I have a Soul Shiver artifact recipe and set of ingredients from previous characters which will fit in nicely.

Undead are an issue with a life leech build, though maxed Necrosis with -resistance charms should mean I still do leech some life from them. I'm resigned to having a switch-out set of undead-specific equipment, though I really dislike the concept (if I can minimise it to rings, amulets and weapons that would be good). At least I can get some use out of Djed of Osiris charms...

Ranger (Ranged Bow with some Spear/Shield Melee thrown in)

I'm actually going to build this as an Int-based ranger, despite the importance of Str to bow damage output. (Point-for-point, Str adds much more bow damage than Dex.) This is for a combination of energy, energy regen, mixed-in elemental damage and caster gear (so that two builds use caster gear and two use melee gear). I also suspect that monster armour scales much more quickly than resistances, so an elemental focus might work out better in the long term. (The 'strength is best' conclusion comes from the formula for piercing-capable weapon damage, but this effect gets weaker if physical resistance (including armour) is much higher, relatively, than pierce resistance. The main point is that the percentage conversion to piercing is done after physical bonuses have been factored in, so Str will add to this physical and the base piercing damage.) The physical/pierce/elemental damage mixture also guarantees that I can 'evenly' damage all monsters. A Pierce-focused build is heavy going against some critters (e.g., those turtles).

Therefore, I'll eventually be focusing on elemental damage gear, with some +piercing% thrown in, and a fair degree of items with attribute boosts (since I want enough Str to use a reasonable shield and not completely nerf my pierce damage). Nature doesn't give me any elemental damage directly, but I have the killer combination of Study Prey/Flush Out (Hunting) and Susceptibility (Nature) for a double elemental resistance debuff, a double physical resistance debuff, and a single pierce resistance debuff. (Despite the confusing % signs in their descriptions, they are all absolute reductions to resistances and these do stack for skills, at least according to Apocalypse80's excellent detailed analysis.) Plus, skills like Tranquility of Water are a nice complement to Hunting's energy-constrained build.

For a breath of fresh air with Hunting builds, I'm also going to heavily use the unfashionable Nymph (with Nature's Wrath) as a nicely-synergised sidekick (and no wolves). Whilst she won't benefit directly from any personal +elemental bonuses, she will from the treble debuff and all my auras (Heart of Oak, Art of the Hunt and Call of the Hunt). I also like the 'pair of sassy bowmasters' vibe. (Of course I'll play a female skin :-) Caster gear looks terrible on male characters.) This has the novelty that I'll be focusing on aura skills in a Hunting build, rather than the almost-instinctive maxing of Wood Lore, Volley and Scattershot. I may lose some overall killing potential, but it will be fun and gives me loads of flexibility (see later).

Though I hold out little hope, I'm also curious to see how the Nymph's Overgrowth will work out. (I'm avoiding Briar Ward due to many people saying that it is buggy and doesn't really hold all monsters out. I assume the same is true for Overgrowth. It also misses out on the other Briar Ward tree benefits, though I wouldn't have the skill points to invest heavily in that anyway. I might still go 1/1/1 in Briar Ward just to get the handy Sanctuary regen aura, which will also help the Nymph.)

Super Item, Skill and Role Flexibility with this Ranger Build

Following Tyr's nice guide, the Nature/Hunting combo also allows me to choose whether to use the Nymph more as support (focusing on damage-dealing skills for me) or emphasise her as the main damager (focusing on defensive skills for me). The former is less of a her-or-me-for-damage choice, because prioritising damage auras will boost both of us. The latter, given Hunting's extreme paucity of defensive skills, relies on Fatigue (Plague tree) and Heart of Oak's HP boost. (Having complained about Hunting's defence, I've always really liked the few defensive gems it offers: Herbal Remedy is great to cover poison resist and some health regen, and one point in Find Cover is awesome for the complete entrapment avoidance.) I'm tempted to go for the latter just for the novelty.

In either case, I can choose whether to do more melee (shielding her more easily from attention) or more ranged (with more kiting and emphasis on mowing mobs down as quickly as possible), though melee is obviously trickier with caster gear. If I don't want the Nymph to die a lot, the latter might mean more manual positioning of her (thus a bit more RTS-style gameplay). I can also use Monster Lure if I want better tactical control, especially in Epic and Legendary. Monster Lure also acts as a pet, so should benefit from the pet-specific gear I'm likely to use for the Nymph.

The other nice thing is that I can switch between standard physical/pierce and the elemental hybrid according to the items I find (attributes permitting), thus giving me more items to choose from. It also makes sense from a skills perspective to do most, if not all, of Normal with a largely physical/pierce build, because the elemental damage and debuff skills are at the top (Flush Out, Nature's Wrath) and penultimate tier (Susceptibility) of their skill trees. So one option is to sit at level 16 or 24 in both skill trees and pump the core skills a bit: Art of the Hunt, Sylvan Nymph, Heart of Oak, Study Prey, Herbal Remedy and possibly Call of the Hunt (especially if I can get any -%recharge). However, if I find some awesome elemental damage gear, I can go see the Mystic and rush to the top of the trees to get points in the elemental bits.

This degree of flexibility is something that I really like, and is hard to achieve with many class combinations.

Magician (Ranged Caster/Trapper)

This is my ultra-fun 'do as many ridiculous damage types as possible' build, whilst not relying on continuously running in circles. Sure, it will kill slower than a focused build, but it should be an enjoyable frenzy of skill-spamming. Traps keep aggro very well and will be a main part of the build. Earth adds in Eruption, Volcanic Orb and the Earth Enchantment tree (with Brimstone boosting the traps if I'm close enough). To top it off, Throwing Knives with the Envenom Weapon tree (and EE auras) add burning/confusing/poisoning/bleeding knives all over the place (grin). From a skill points and effectiveness perspective, I won't really be sinking many points into poison and bleeding.

All backed up with little me and my staff. Plus there's always Core Dweller to add in for extra aggro-gathering if necessary later in Epic.

Paladin (Melee Shield-Based)

I enjoyed the Defense shield skills from my Warden build. Paladin emphasises these whilst adding the opportunity for secondary elemental damage and a ranged AoE attack (Squall FTW!) so that I can always keep a shield whilst not being restricted to only melee. (This flexibility option is the main reason why I rejected other combinations such as Defense/Nature, which really restrict you to melee only.) Using something like a Folg with stun and lightning damage seems like good fun, though focusing on Cold gives me extra survivability benefits from Heart of Frost.

Attribute points will be tricky. I'll be wearing melee gear, so Str is still crucial though maxed Armour Handling helps, but not for weapons :-(. I want to pump Int a little but not massively beyond what Storm gives me. Dex will suffer the most, so I'll need plenty of +DA equipment (especially since DA also influences shield block chances). Or I can pump Dex more and mix in more +elem damage equipment.

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Sources
The TitanQuest.net site is an amazing source of information on game mechanics and strategies, though it can sometimes be tough sifting through to the essentials. I found the following threads really useful:

• The absolutely essential Titan Quest Knowledge thread. All the basics of game mechanics by one of the original strategy guide authors. He also updated it more recently to keep pace with discoveries by others in the community.
• Violos' pet damage thread. All collected details about pets and allies.
• Apocalypse80's reverse-engineering of the piercing-capable weapon damage formula.
• The various specifics linked from Whisk33's game mechanics thread. Nearly all of these uncover some subtlety of the mechanics which would be very difficult to ascertain just by playing and paying attention.
• Xaece's determination of the shield block formula. Useful to know that DA also affects shield block chances.
• Irma2 and Violos' details on Throwing Knives mechanics. Very much a special case skill: partly like a 'spell', mostly like a weapon attack.
• Tyr's Nature mastery and pet strategy guide. Violos' comments therein are enlightening, as are his other comments in a related thread (referring back to Tyr's guide).

TitanCalc is another must-have resource for planning builds and checking out the skill trees.

Edits
22 Aug 2013: Re-ordered and re-edited some text so it all reads a bit better and removes some stuff that wasn't really correct.
19 Aug 2013: Re-jigged for this blog.
8th May 2011: Added some sources and heavily updated the Ranger description.
1st May 2011: Initial text-only version without styling.