Titan Quest Atlantis “Untouchable Spellbinder” Guide(Retaliation, Reflect, and Life Drain Build)
Hello everyone. My name is Nuchy and I’m a veteran TQ Player. I’ve played for around 3500 hours and have built over 20 high-level characters, so I tried to make a character building guide I hope it’ll be useful.
I've been playing with my friend Torstein for a long time, we've built many characters together and often share items (which you'll notice in the next guides). Torstein also help me edit this guide.
Let start with my building style:
1. I don’t usually focus on high dps, but rather on being effective enough to kill packs of monsters.
2. My builds depend on skills combos and synergies between 2 masteries. (around 30% of a build)
3. The choice of gear is quite important (around 30%). I love to vary my gear as much as possible. For each build, I never wear the same torso armor.
4. Balancing is key. I love to make all-around characters, that can deal with every type of mobs or bosses in the game. That means, I opt for good resistances and different types of damage.(20%)
5. I get bored easily, so I try to make each character unique in terms of skills and play style. (10%)
6. Fashion! I love fashion, so my characters should dress well, or at least try to avoid ugly items. (10%)
Why Spellbinder?He’s so boring, everyone said that. Yes, I agree, this character stood in my barracks for a year. I just reached epic act 3 and stopped progressing. Back then it was boring as hell. After running him for 15 min I’d fall asleep. That’s why I decided to make a Spellbreaker instead (he’s hot as everybody said).
The good idea came from my friend (Emhyr), who made a reflection Templar using Ice Scale armor set. He said that enemies’ resistances are the main problem, when we spoke about reflect builds. Your toon must have good resistances, because you deal reflect damage upon being hit. The enemies also have good resistances, so your damage might be too low, hence he had to use Sapros The Corruptor (a club which applies -70 resistances to enemies). That’s the way to make reflect builds effective.
Why Defense+Spirit?Defense will give you, as the name suggests, defensive skills and an aura, as well as elemental resistance. The mastery also provides you with the best shield skills and a skill with damage reflect.
Spirit is used mainly for Deathchill Aura, that can lower enemies’ resistances (Vitality, Bleeding and Life Leech) and life drain skill, to sustain your toon’s hp.
Reflection & RetaliationIt’s a bit different. The simplest explanation would be:
Reflection works on every type of enemy: ranged, spellcasters, and melee mobs, all will be affected by reflected damage.
Retaliation works only on melee enemies. Archers and spellcasters won’t get any retaliation damage.
The best thing is, enemies still get affected by reflection and retaliation, even when they miss the target.
Stat DistributionThis is a STR based melee char. You’ll need around 650 STR to equip endgame gear.
DEX is still important for every melee, mainly for Offensive Ability (OA) and Defensive Ability (DA).
You’ll need around 400-500 DEX to equip DEX Gear (if needed).
OA for this character should be around 800. With too low OA, your melee attacks will start to miss the targets.
DA should be above 800, just to prevent enemies from landing critical hits on you.
HP should be around 5500-6000 for tanking, you can invest around 10 points to hp (if needed)
Energy and INT are optional.
SKILLDefense - Key Skills Overall, the key skill combo from Defense mastery is to make your toon moderately tanky. He’ll have to soak up a good amount of damage and reflect it back to enemies. He’ll also have to move fast to kill archers and spellcasters.
Rally tree : its a multi-purpose spell, that can benefit any build, but the main reason for getting it with spellbinder is to increase our reflected dmg. The skill effect can last long up to 21.2 sec if you max the skill tree.
1. Rally (base skill) – You can put more points if you want extra healing and armor.
2. Inspiration – Max this skill to make Rally last for 21.2 sec. The skill also provides you 10 energy regen per sec and 10% total speed, which is sweet.
3. Defiance – This is the key skill. It’ll provide you with 65% elemental resistance and 80% damage reflect at the highest level.
Battle Awareness tree : a defensive aura with multiple benefits.
1. Battle Awareness (base skill) - You should try to max this for 238 DA and 58 armor that will apply to all parts of your armor, that equals to 58 x 4 = 232 combine armor (leg, torso, head, wrist).
2. Focus - Consider to invest some points to get 80% block chance. You can get another 25% block chance from Quick Recovery skill. The end game shield already has around 50-64% block chance, so no need to max Focus
3. Iron Will – You just need level 7 of the skill to make your secondary resistances cap at 80%
Quick Recovery : Max the skill to get -81% shield recovery time (you’ll block incoming damage more frequently) +25% shield block chance and 45 sec duration.
Shield Charge tree : A shield attack that will hit multiple targets. I recommend to assign the skill to you left mouse click.
1. Shield Charge (base skill) – Max it, or if you don’t have enough points, just put some a few to increase the damage.
2. Disruption – Max this skill to make your shield attack up to 6 targets. The skill will cripple all enemies with 6 sec of skill disruption, good for tanking Dactyl.
Perfect Block : New skill in Atlantis DLC. It’s essential for dealing with archers and range caster. At level 1 already provide you 1.1 sec of 100% damage absorption and stun retaliation. Put some points to gain more movement speed, so you can reach ranged enemies faster without getting hurt.
Armor Handling : Max this for +24% armor absorption. Compulsory for even more tankiness.
Defense - Optional Skills These skills are mostly for killing bosses and making your melee attacks more effective. The things is, your retaliation damage won’t be enough to deal with bosses, almost all bosses are also be immune to HP reduction.
Shield Smash, Disable, Pulverize : Atleast, put one point to all of these shield proc skills. You’ll sometime attack with your weapon and shield.
Adrenaline tree : A good choice to improve your melee attack.
Concussive Blow : Put some points for both a chance to stun, as well as increased stun duration of your stun retaliation from Perfect Block.
Colossus Form : A top notch skill for killing bosses and tanking tough enemy. Works fine with only one point.
Unyielding Phalanx : A new summon skill in Atlantis DLC, this ghostly wall attacks every enemy which comes in range. A great boss-killing skill indeed (even stronger than Outsider, imo), just put it under a boss and see for yourself.
Spirit – Key SkillsMany reflection and retaliation builds weren’t viable in Legendary difficulty, because they focused on stacking huge amounts of reflected damage, yet didn’t think about enemy resistances that also increase with difficulty. Their killing rate would be too slow.
What’ll you want from Spirit Mastery? Surely a ton of resistance reduction from Deathchill Aura. The mastery also provides you with an aura directed at killing undead, and Life Drain skill, which is very powerful now with Atlantis DLC
Deathchill Aura tree : The most essential skill for the build. This aura will auto-apply various effect on every mobs that come close to you. Great both offensively and defensively. We should max everything in this tree.
1. Deathchill Aura (Base skill) – The more points you invest, the higher the radius of this aura.
The -33% total speed applied to every enemy helps a lot for tanking. Consider maxing this first.
2. Ravages of Time –The -45% armor absorption, will make the mob receive more reflect damage when they try to hit you.
3. Necrosis – Insanely high reduction to resistances. It’ll apply -119% vitality, bleeding and life leech resistance to every mob in its radius. Actually, -119% from Necrosis is absolute, meaning you can pull enemies’ resistances deep into the negatives.
Life Drain tree : This skill was mostly overlooked by players before the Atlantis DLC. However, I’ve found a use for the skill with many of my characters. The skill is great for every melee Spirit build, using it for sustain your toon’s life, especially when you need to get closer to a tough archer mob. Now this skill tree got buffed in the DLC by adding a new synergy. It’s even stronger now.
1. Life Drain (base skill) – Max this and your HP will be full after casting this spell on mobs.
2. Cascade – You’ll need it at level 12 or higher, and now you’ll drain health from multiple enemies in range.
3. Soul Drain - Makes Life Drain an AOE (area of effect) skill and adds HP reduction, energy drain and Sleep effect on mobs. A great crowd control skill, combined with Deathchill Aura, the HP reduction will Drain every living thing to death.
Spirit Ward tree : An aura that helps you own every undead mob. It’s essential, cause you’ll be very good at killing alive mobs, but not undead or construct. Now, invest some point to both Spirit Ward and Spirit Bane to easily clear 1/3 of all mobs in game.
Spirit – Optional SkillsDark Covenant tree : To make this build effective, you’ll need around -40% recharge time for permanent Rally and Quick Recovery. With this cooldown reduction, you’ll have an almost permanent Dark Covenant (-60 recharge would make it). So this skill is the best option to invest in.
Death Ward : Consider putting one point or more to the skill, just to help your toon gain some damage absorption and HP when in a near-death state.
Summon Outsider : One of the best temporary pets for bosses. Work fine with only one point though.
Soul Vortex : A new skill in Atlantis DLC that will leech life and energy from all living things around you. Long cool down, short radius (5 metres) and short period (4 sec ) make the skill a bit ineffective, but it can act as a panic button. It might work as melee supportive skill if you have more than -60% recharge. The skill is not great in low level, so either max it or ignore it.
GEARWith this setup, all melee mobs that touch my spellbinder will get : 235 Frostburn, 255 Vitality Decay, 100 Life Leech, 40 HP Reduction, 80% Damage Reflect and 50% chance to get more 60% Damage Reflect and…. 15% chance to get 500% damage reflect. Basically, the half of their HP will gone after the first hit. And on the second hit, they will kill themselves.
The essential item that you’ll need is “Legendary Atlantean Artifice” relic. It can be obtained by doing the Ancient Craft quest in Atlantis. The relic has an incredibly high, 40% HP reduction retaliation and can be sockets to torso armor and shield.
The Concept is: “layering different types of retaliation and reflection”. Your goal is to have
1. A good resistances and DA (for sure)
2. Good MI, green shield or torso armor to socket the relic.
3. -40% recharge or more, mainly for permanent Quick Recovery and Rally. After you get rid of one mob -recharge will also make all the key skills ready for the next round
4. Dps and attack speed is optional
5. A cocktail of vitality decay, bleeding, life leech and HP reduction retaliation items. All of these type of retaliations will be benefit from your Deathchill Aura (any retaliation are also welcome here). Most of them are DOT (damage over time) which I’m unsure of, whether it can be stacked. The more various damage retaliations you have, the more effective your character will be.
6. (If possible) An additional damage reflect gear. Archers and ranged spellcasters are annoying, however spike reflect damage will kill them with ease.
WEAPONMy Choice : Figurehead of Naglfar – provides 230-260 vitality decay retaliation, 230-260 frostburn retaliation and also great damage and +40% total damage which will boost your Life Drain spell. +1 to Spirit Mastery. Just perfect!
Alt Choices : Scepter of Thanatos is another great choice, if you want 11% ADCTH and also has around 150 Vitality decay retaliation
Mbuti’s Advocate, a spear that activates Sturdy Prey on attack, which will lower pierce and physical resistances and in turn make them more vulnerable to damage reflect.
Good green, MI or any good legendary weapon that synergy well with your Deathchill Aura.
I recommend to have secondary weapon for fighting constructs. Dvergr MI weapons grant +30% damage to constructs, for example.
SHIELDMy Choice : Deimos – Boosts your melee attack and DA, gives +1 to all skills, and the best thing is it has 70-130 life leech retaliation! Sound meh, but when used with your Deathchill Aura. All of the living melee mobs will be your free healers.
Alt Choices : Green MI shield of focus for -18% recharge with DA or any resistances that you want, socket it with Atlantean relic.
You can use Blacksteel Bulwark as a secondary shield for fighting archer mob, this MI shield will grant you Shadow Touch skill that will activated to any range enemy shooting projectiles at you. The skill will cause 83 vitality decay and chance of fumble attack, impaired aim and confusion which is good for crippling archers. I recommend to socket this shield with The Shade of Hector relic for 180 DA and 9% chance to avoid projectile.
TORSO ARMORMy Choice : Icescale Armor – the armor couldn’t drop in Legendary difficulty pre DLC. But now the DEV fixed this with the DLC already. It’s provide you a super spike 500% damage reflection that instantly kills archers when triggered (15% chance). Farm or pre-farm it until you get the good one (just some resistance would be fine). The armor can be socketed with Atlantean relic.
Alt Choices : Verdant Plate, with 15% chance of 70 pierce retaliation and 195 bleeding retaliation, synergizes well with your Deathchill Aura. This armor also provides +1 Defense Mastery, -10 recharge and great poison resistance.
Raiment of Xi’Gua, another great choice for 174 vitality decay retaliation and 34% less damage from demons, which will help a lot when facing archer mobs in Hades’ Palace. The armor also has some basic resistances.
Any good green, MI with high resistances socketed with Atlantean relic, or just good legendary armor that boost physical damage for melee-oriented character.
HEAD ARMORMy Choice : Resistant Serpent Headguard of the Tinkerer. Mainly for socket Crystal of Erebus relic (with all resistance bonus) and Troll Tusk charm (life leech bonus). It’d help leeching HP when you fight archers.
Alt Choices : Tracker’s Hood for -40 recharge (I recommend to use a spear in this case, since the hood boosts your piercing damage)
Huo Qubing’s Helm : -20% recharge and some good resistances.
HAND ARMORMy Choice : Gauntlets of the Necrolord – high resistances, +1 to all skill, boost your life leech and gives 4% attack damage convert to health.
Alt Choices : Hugin and Munin - high resistances and 4% HP reduction, this armguard will activate Sturdy Prey on the mob, making them more vulnerable to damage reflect.
Icescale Bracer is also a great choice for stacking another 15% chance to reflect 500% damage to mob. Or any bracers that have a lot of resistances.
LEG ARMORMy Choice : Trollwrestler Greaves – mainly for resistances and speed. +20% STR is also sweet.
Alt Choices : Barbarian’s Spiked Greaves - good resistances, DA and OA. Have a chance of piercing Retaliation.
Hermes’ Talaria - gives a bit of reflect and good movement speed, with 15% chance to dodge.
Murk Crawler - chance for poison retaliation and a good poison resistance.
Green / MI with Defiled affix leg armors - adds poison retaliation to your build and also has a good poison resistance (can socket a relic with +movement speed, with any bonus you want).
JEWELRY My Choices :
Ring1 : Hale Ring of Supremacy – Normal melee guy ring with boost OA. Socket with Golem Heart charm (25% Attack speed bonus), which boosts your melee combat ability and gives a bit reflection.
Ring2 : Adroit Loop – Another popular melee ring for some resistances, a boost to damage, DA and OA.
Amulet : Brisingamen – For -28 recharge and +2 to all skill. The amulet also gives you around 10% physical resistance.
Alt Choices :
Band of Souls - for vitality and energy leech resistances, boosts your life leech attack and… 30% chance of 120-160 Life leech or energy leech retaliation which is good enough when combined with your Deathchill Aura.
You can socket one green ring with any relic or charm that has less damage from demon bonus, if you found that Machae archers is your main problem. The best relic is Tortured Soul with Ritual bonus.
ARTIFACTMy Choice : Talisman of the Jade Emperor – great elemental resistances, +15% STR and… -25% recharge.
Alt Choices :
Arcane Mirror - Stack 15% chance of 100% damage reflect. The Artifact can also trigger a 300% damage reflect shield for 12 sec (long cool down).
GAMEPLAY and TACTICMelee mob : Actually you just cast Rally and Quick Recovery, run in to the mob, standing still, no potion. They will hit you and die in about 3-5 sec and your HP will be fully restored by life leech retaliation.
To speed things up : use perfect block to the mob – they will hit you and get stun retaliation - they will lost around half of their HP already – Your cocktail of DOT retaliations still doing their job – Cast Life Drain to leech their life and Shield charge them to death.
Ranged Enemy : When dealing with archers, I recommend to cast Dark Covenant combined with Rally and Quick Recovery to give your toon more movement speed – Run into the mob with Perfect Block, they will shoot you and get some damage reflect – Cast Life Drain to leech their HP and put them to sleep – You’ll get a lot of damage so consider using Perfect block and Shield Charge combined with Life Drain again and again, until they all die.
Undead : The most dangerous enemy is the Spellbreaker Lich at Wusao Mountain and Olympus. The build depends a lot on your aura. If you get dispelled, you’re done for. Fall back to re-cast undead aura and consider using boss killing skill like Outsider or Unyielding Phalanx on them.
Boss Fight : All of your retaliation damage is limited. So you’ll have to kill the boss with your melee attack. Fortunately, Spirit and Defense have a lot of good boss-killing skills. So just rain Outsider, Unyielding Phalanx and Colossus Form to crush them.
Thank you for reading, I'll gladly answer any questions, and if you want to see a particular one of my builds next, please say so
bye bye