Titan Quest - Anniversary Edition > Anniversary Edition - General discussion

Earth and Rune

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oldage:
I usually play a avenger, ranger or sage. I started a Pyro when i noticed all the throw items After looking at mastery's decided on trying Rune since I never tried before . I'm at level 12 Normal. was using bow and staff. Dumped the bow for throw weapon and shield. Already see it will be interesting with the short range of the throw weapon. Years ago used knives with a rogue, and enjoyed.
I'm not thinking of playing beyond Epic I'm old and slow.

mammoth_hunter:
Stonespeaker has to be one of the better combinations left for earth in ragnarok. I haven't tried it, just judging from the surface. Fire elemental damage needs to deal with fire resistance and fire damage absorbtion some mobs have. For absorbtion there is rune weapon that hits with 3 elements, and for resistances - a debuff in aftershock, even if not very convenient, it should suffice for bosses.

Comparing it with hybrid attack builds like avengers and the like, everything that elemental mastery can do, rune can usually do better. It has inbuilt skills for that and is more about using weapons than casting spells. Rune weapon, runeword feather and runeword explode.

Stonespeaker would rather be a spellcaster occasionally using weapons. Spells primary, weapons secondary. Though maybe you aren't forced to do that and can build the opposite.

Laionidas:

--- Quote from: mammoth_hunter on 13 July 2018, 15:28:57 ---Stonespeaker would rather be a spellcaster occasionally using weapons. Spells primary, weapons secondary.
--- End quote ---

Oof,.. I'd really have to disagree on that one. I'm currently playing a dual-throw Stonespeaker, which is 100% a weapon user. It works because of Runeword: Feather allowing for a much smaller strength investment, while Transmutation makes sure that even the points invested in strength (and dexterity), are not wasted.

Hector:
Shouldn't it be weapons primarily, spells secondary ? build up int%, then bombard with buffed up spells..

I'm also running a pyro at the moment and I thought about using flamesurge as a primary attack but man does it suck so much..

So I bought the points back, chose nature and now aim to create a strong summoner.. but I have no idea if it would worth the hassle.. core dweller dies so quickly even in the first act and even when I use pet jewelry.. I mean how could a "40HP + 10 Armor" help him when he already has 600ish health to being with? is it worth to build his tree that early in the game? that %100 health bonus reward in Act III may also change how they fare in normal but I'm not sure..if its not worth it, I'm gonna remove nature and choose rune instead.. stonespeaker might actually be fun with all that offensive stuff..

Firebrand:
I'll butt in, but only because Earth and Rune are likely my favorite masteries, and while I haven't played too much recently, I'm still a pretty avid fan of both.

For the Stonespeaker, I think it's technically possible to go three ways, but one of these makes no sense to me. You could focus almost exclusively on weapons, or on spells, or you could mix the two.

Focusing only on spells makes next to no sense to me, because there are better classes for that. Rune is not that great as far as spells are concerned (Thunder Strike, of course, uses weapon stats), and for example a Summoner or pretty much any other Earth-caster class will do better.

I guess it's easily possible to go only for weapon attacks, which lends itself to an unusual character, but I personally wouldn't do that. The reason for that is that Earth has fantastic spells, probably some of the best in the entire game. Volcanic Orb and Eruption are the two I mean, of course. They affect a huge area and deal tremendous damage. They both outrange throwing weapons; and while you can use Rune Weapon to pump up your intellect, and throw your spells afterwards - when I tried this, the problem was that after pumping my intellect, nothing was left standing to throw my spells at!

On the other hand, you can use Volcanic Orb's extreme range to draw the attention of enemies to yourself, and then put those throwing weapons to use. I personally like throwing an orb, popping an Eruption in around Thunder Strike range, then using Thunder Strike to stun them in the middle of my Eruption so they take some more damage, and then clean up the stragglers with weapon attacks.

I'm sure there are other ways to go around it. In fact, I change it a lot. Sometimes I go heavier on spells, sometimes I rely more on my weapon attacks. The Stonespeaker is a shockingly powerful class, but besides that, I think it's a lot of fun to play, and this variety of strategies it allows is a big part of it in my opinion.

Long story short, enjoy! I find it an excellent choice.

As for Flame Surge, I don't think it's viable to rely on it primarily, because of its short range; but then it's not its job, anyway. I'd still invest points in it, personally. As a Summoner, you should be able to put Volcanic Orb and Eruption to good use, and then clean up the rest with Flame Surge. Minor spoiler, but as you advance in level and skills, you'll be able to reduce its cooldown to zero, and with enough casting speed, it's going to be incredibly powerful against melee mobs that try to gang up on you (especially combined with the low chance of fear, which actually procs a lot when you're spamming the Surge non-stop with 5-6 projectiles each).

It's easy to underestimate, but can be devastating in the right hands.

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