Author Topic: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]  (Read 53425 times)

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Offline Firebrand

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #30 on: 28 June 2018, 21:29:26 »
Fire and brimstone you'll have enough. You probably couldn't have chosen a better class.

Small Torch is a really nice throwing weapon for the early game. Might last quite long, in fact, especially because you're focused on fire.

You have two energy-related skills; I'd say that Energy Drain is the more useful as it also gives you attack damage converted to health, which will be pretty much a necessity to survive later on. The energy leech is really nice to have, too. I haven't tried Runeword: Absorb yet, as I'm dual-wielding, so can't say much. Keep in mind that neither skill is going to help you cast Energy Armor. The problem is not any kind of energy drain, but that it has a gigantic energy cost. Minor spoiler: at maxed level with at least +4 to all skills, it's going to cost 3460 energy! So you either have an energy pool that big (not really a good idea), or you use items to reduce the energy cost for you. But this is all the future.

And yes, Runeword: Explode applies all effects of your weapon attack to all enemies affected. This includes the energy drain, the burn damage (which should be, again, between Brimstone and Runeword: Burn and any other bonuses, phenomenal), and the attack damage converted to health.

I have one piece of advice for you. While your melee abilities are certainly strong, don't expect to be able to take on everything with a sword alone later on. Rune offers you some decent spells (dual-wielding thrown weapons is where Thunder Strike truly shines, but it's quite good with melee as well, and Runic Mines complements a melee character really well - it's a skill I personally have neglected), but Earth offers some of Titan Quest's finest mass destruction in the form of Volcanic Orb and Eruption. Learn them well, and they'll serve you throughout the entire game. They're quite fun, too!

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Offline botebote77

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #31 on: 29 June 2018, 00:05:30 »
i want to add something.. I've played rune as a melee so i know this: runeword: burn does not work on melee weapons.. runeword:explode does but not runeword:burn.. not sure if the burn damage still applies to the enemy you are hitting but I'm sure there will be no fragments

edit: when runeword:explode procs from a melee weapon, you will notice it by its animation.. the animation is just like the gouge skill from hunting, which will cause a little delay.. but it will hit adjacent mobs

also, there will be no fragments from thunder strike even if you use thrown weapons

unless they changed it in v1.57 but that seems unlikely

@Hector i used to use enslave spirit on my melee bonecharmer.. works well against archers.. mind control one of them then retreat.. the others will not follow you they will just attack the one you mind controlled.. you're now free to attack them one by one
« Last Edit: 29 June 2018, 00:40:10 by botebote77 »
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Offline Hector

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #32 on: 29 June 2018, 01:28:23 »
Excellent idea!! just like the necromancer with his attract curse, eh 8)

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Offline botebote77

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #33 on: 29 June 2018, 02:24:40 »
Excellent idea!! just like the necromancer with his attract curse, eh 8)
yes.. now if you can just cast iron maiden too...

heh the closest would be trance of empathy from dream

old school gaming ftw O0
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Offline Mook

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #34 on: 29 June 2018, 10:32:04 »
Rune weapon does work on single throwing weapons?  My gladius fires up immediately, but even after a room of undead, the small torch, or a skeletal dart doesn't seem to charge Rune Weapon.
 I'm looking forward to eruption in particular, and have just taken the first level of "throwing a grenade" with the volcanic orb branch.

I can see why fire ele's have an reputation in the early game. He is outperforming my champion, hunter and diviner, though I suppose I am getting a bit more street-wise. And the odd bit of hand-me-down gear doesn't hurt either.

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #35 on: 29 June 2018, 11:11:44 »
Far as I know.  Only thing it doesn't work with is staves I believe.  Certainly hope it does anyway, just started a Stonespeaker which will pretty much be wiped out if it doesn't.

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Offline botebote77

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #36 on: 29 June 2018, 12:26:47 »
Mook, it does

Medea, it doesn't

I've read people wanting rune weapon to work with staves but really up to now i fail to grasp the idea.. maybe because staff deals ele damage and it would scale with rune weapon? but transmutation converts any weapon damage to elemental anyways so the ele rune weapon scaling reasoning would be moot. the only reason i can think of is less skill points needed but eh that's it?

can anyone enlighten me on this?

edit: ahhhhh i think i get it now.. because throwing weapons or bow would require some dex whereas in staff, one can solely focus on int?

ok.. but i still think ternion is the best staff skill

edit 2: come to think of it, maybe the devs deliberately made it this way because a full int rune weapon staff character could potentially become overpowered at least damage wise.. actually, I've tried charging with a throwing weapon before then switching to staff to attack with thunder strike but no it doesn't work that way.. rune weapon aura instantly vanishes when you switch to staff.. thunder strike works with staves
« Last Edit: 29 June 2018, 13:52:20 by botebote77 »
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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #37 on: 29 June 2018, 12:52:07 »
It would just be nice to have another LMB skill for staves.  We have Ternion which gobbles energy and I think Psionic Touch works with staves, but that's it.  Melee/ranged has Psionic Touch, Onslaught and Marksmanship.  None of the other caster masteries have an LMB skill which is a shame.  Since it works with everything else, why leave staves out?

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Offline Hector

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #38 on: 29 June 2018, 17:16:29 »
Just as botebote explained; it would be moot.. transmutation converts non-elemental into elemental, yes? so what's it gonna convert from staves? it is already elemental..

I believe makers did not want to create something that would look amateurish/inconsistent on the surface, so they came up with this restriction.. I mean if ragnarok was rather a mod, none of us would care about any issues such as this and just omit transmutation totally when playing with a staff (the maker of the mod would most probably allow this skill to be used with anything even if meant leaving transmutation out of context when playing with staves).. anyway, just like you, I also would like to utilize staves with different skills other than that boring ternion skill..

Actually, I would greatly appreciate if someone suggest me some fun builds with staves as primary weapon.. I sell almost any staff I find while playing due to not having an idea about what to do with them save for ternion.. and it is absolutely not an option.. at least not for me..
« Last Edit: 29 June 2018, 17:28:59 by Hector »

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Offline Firebrand

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #39 on: 30 June 2018, 03:40:51 »
Rune weapon does work on single throwing weapons?  My gladius fires up immediately, but even after a room of undead, the small torch, or a skeletal dart doesn't seem to charge Rune Weapon.
 I'm looking forward to eruption in particular, and have just taken the first level of "throwing a grenade" with the volcanic orb branch.

I can see why fire ele's have an reputation in the early game. He is outperforming my champion, hunter and diviner, though I suppose I am getting a bit more street-wise. And the odd bit of hand-me-down gear doesn't hurt either.

Don't forget to manually assign Rune Weapon to your left mouse button for your second weapon set as well! That might be the cause of your problem.

Rune Weapon definitely should work with a single thrown weapon as well.

It would just be nice to have another LMB skill for staves.  We have Ternion which gobbles energy and I think Psionic Touch works with staves, but that's it.  Melee/ranged has Psionic Touch, Onslaught and Marksmanship.  None of the other caster masteries have an LMB skill which is a shame.  Since it works with everything else, why leave staves out?

I actually think that Flame Surge and Ice Shard are pseudo-LMB skills, actually, or at least substitutes. Now if only the game allowed it to bind them to the left mouse button...

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Offline botebote77

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #40 on: 30 June 2018, 04:25:00 »
actually all caster masteries have LMB skills.. for dream, it has many.. for earth, it's volcanic orb which I'm sure firebrand already knows.. for storm, it's lightning bolt and thunder ball.. for nature, it's summon nymph.. yeah summon nymph.. apparently, the devs see something we still don't after all these years

if the devs allowed us to bind ice shard to LMB, i for sure would try it.. but after playing storm many many times already, i just got used to binding lightning bolt to LMB

Actually, I would greatly appreciate if someone suggest me some fun builds with staves as primary weapon.. I sell almost any staff I find while playing due to not having an idea about what to do with them save for ternion.. and it is absolutely not an option.. at least not for me..
I'm still thinking but the best i can come up with is reducing resistances or mind controlling.. i don't think that's what you mean.. frankly, i still don't see the importance of staff except for ternion and perhaps a full int caster like a druid.. but still in that case, a druid doesn't use a staff for attacking.. I love casters and I've had tons of experience with them and i don't think a staff is an ideal weapon.. well except perhaps for a druid.. and ternion which i don't consider as a caster.. how can it be a caster if it doesn't even rely on casting speed? :o

edit: and maybe an elementalist.. although iirc, my elementalist pre-AE wears santas shield.
« Last Edit: 30 June 2018, 04:36:25 by botebote77 »
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Offline Mook

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #41 on: 30 June 2018, 12:07:20 »
Rune weapon does work on single throwing weapons?  My gladius fires up immediately, but even after a room of undead, the small torch, or a skeletal dart doesn't seem to charge Rune Weapon.
 I'm looking forward to eruption in particular, and have just taken the first level of "throwing a grenade" with the volcanic orb branch.



Don't forget to manually assign Rune Weapon to your left mouse button for your second weapon set as well! That might be the cause of your problem.

Rune Weapon definitely should work with a single thrown weapon as well.


Woops. Thanks, that was the problem. :]

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Offline Thanatos

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #42 on: 07 September 2018, 05:19:22 »
Hey everybody. It's been awhile since I've posted or played TQ. I've been playing a lot of Dark Souls on PS4 lately. Thanks for this well thought out guide Firebrand, especially your skills breakdown. That helps someone like me who's not familiar with Earth mastery. Before I go further, as I was making this post, I got the feeling that I might have made a very similar post here ages ago in another thread.  :-[ I honestly can't remember. lol Forgive me if that's the case!

I recently started a new character that's currently only level 12. My plan is to make this a caster build mostly focused on Volcanic Orb. Right now I am focused on putting points into this skill and its modifiers. I see a lot of people saying that they point their main skill on LMB. I don't really understand why. Maybe I'm missing something... Even in Grim Dawn I'd put cooldown skills like Canister Bomb on Right Mouse Button. I have been using Staff of the Magi and its default fireball attack on LMB with VO on RMB. This playstyle is sort of how I like to play.

I haven't decided on a secondary attack skill yet. I tried Flame Surge, but I personally didn't like it do to its short range and cooldown. Playing with Volcanic Orb makes me feel like a bit of a Demolitionist. I read what the OP said about Eruption, and I'll probably try that out once I get my mastery leveled up.

Defensively I will probably take Core Dweller and Stone Form. I haven't decided on a second mastery yet, although I am leaning toward Rune mastery due to all of the elemental synergies.

How I progress kind of depends on items of course, because I don't have a lot of items in my vault that support this character at the moment, but perhaps that'll change.

Here is a question, are there any good epic/legendary staffs that have a good default attack like Staff of the Magi in later levels that you guys recommend I keep an eye out for? I don't think I have any other good fire related staffs. Also, will playing this type of caster be impossible in Legendary? I know I've only given you 1 mastery because I'm undecided. Essentially I want to build a caster built around Volcanic Orb... any tips suggestions would be great!

And again, it's good to be back here catching up one what's going on. Once Autumn/Winter comes and the weather will be rotten here for about 4-5 months I will probably be playing a lot more TQ and GD, and involved with this wonderful forum.

Thanks!

*edit* I should also add that I am really wanting to make good use of burn as a secondary effect so I'll definitely be taking Earth Enchantment and its line along with Volativity
« Last Edit: 07 September 2018, 05:25:16 by Thanatos »

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Offline botebote77

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #43 on: 07 September 2018, 06:21:43 »
it's been a while.. i hope you remember me  :)

I'm probably not the one to answer because earth has never been my forte.. but I'm planning to play again this time also as an earth caster with volcanic orb as main attack

I've tried volcanic orb a bit before and i might have some answers to your question:

1) a true pure spellcaster doesn't attack with a weapon

2) a staff main attack that doesn't involve ternion just wanes later on.. i can say storm is a strength of mine and a staff attack with no ternion can never match ice shard.. even lightning bolt if not for the cooldown.. staff also is no match for distortion wave.. or throwing knife if you support it with something

3) volcanic orb is best used with shift key even if you bind it to RMB because if you press shift, volcanic orb seems to have no range limit.. and if your LMB is a spell attack, you press shift..  so there's that

although attacking with a staff is easier to reduce resistances.. so if your secondary mastery has no reduced resist, it makes sense to attack with a staff

of course early game when you have no enough CDR yet, you bind VO to RMB

as for your other question, eruption is very good
« Last Edit: 07 September 2018, 06:23:35 by botebote77 »
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Offline Thanatos

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Re: Earth: An Attempt at a Comprehensive Guide [Ragnarök]
« Reply #44 on: 08 September 2018, 04:39:52 »
Yeah I remember you, botebote77.  : :D You dropped all kind of knowledge on me back when I made some casters. You helped a lot! I gotta go back and actually start playing some of those. lol

1. Interesting tidbit about staffs. Don't the also scale with Attack Speed? I am 100% indoctrinated into Grim Dawn's system of caster offhands, so it's a little weird to me understanding how casters work in TQ.

2. Thanks for reminding me about resist reduction. I'm not sure if Rune has RR skills or not, I should go check before I pick a secondary class.

3. So are you implying that with CDR gear later on, I will be able to semi-spam Volcanic Orb? That'd be cool!

4. Let me know how your Earth Caster goes, maybe we can provide each other with some feedback here in this thread. I'm planning to finish Act 1 and Act 2 Normal with my VO Mage this weekend. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks again!

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