I really don't mind unusual items for using classes in unusual ways, don't get me wrong. I'm all for that. Bows for Defense still feel a bit strange because Defense is pretty much about the shield. What would a Defender do without a shield, anyway? I guess you could build one around skills like Rally, Adrenaline, and Colossus Form, and there's probably something I'm not seeing here. I understand it as a backup weapon, but why are there so many bows with Defense skill bonuses?
(I'm not complaining, just genuinely curious.)
All the references to different cultures and mythologies are a big part of what makes this game so good in my eyes. On a sidenote, it's the gripe I have with the original game's criminal treatment of China; Greece and Egypt were nice and well elaborated, and then China gets half a chapter and random prehistoric stuff instead of any in-depth exploration of the mythology. I think China would've deserved a separate chapter at least, too. (And then the great Babylon got a single dungeon and some huts, and the Chimaera instead of a boss that would've been suited to the area, oh well.)
I just totally ripped off Prosoro's previous topic for Ragnarök items, because consistency is nice, right?
Anyway, I've already found a few goodies. Only two in total, so it's not a lot, but feel free to post.
Can you say Hunting? Rungu already looked amazing, but lacked a pierce percentage, which seemed to limit its use, because piercing damage is central to Hunting. This is like a mix of Rungu and Hoi Polloi, and the best of two worlds at that. I already have two, and a Dragon Hunter who's just entered Act IV normal... Go figure.
Not sure who wants this, though. Ragnarök already had some bows with bonus to all Defense skills, but does Defense really want a bow? The rest on this seems pretty amazing, though. The slower attack speed is a hit, but this seems to be excellent damage all-around.
Sorry for the late answer; haven't been around too much lately. Screenshots in spoilers, and then comments below.
Spoiler for Hiden:
This is at level 83, with +5 to all Earth skills and +4 to all Rune skills and some points left over (before I undid some allocations at the mystic to free up enough points to try the new skills). I put only one point in the Core Dweller and all the appropriate synergies, and then only started levelling them further when I really had nothing else to do with my skill points anymore. Generally, there's plenty to do with them: Earth Enchantment and Brimstone, Volcanic Orb and all synergies, Eruption, Volativity, Rune Weapon and all synergies, Runeword: Burn and Runeword: Explode are the ones I'd say I'd give priority to max. Not necessarily in this order, though. I think Energy Armor is definitely worth maxing but only as you're picking up appropriate backup energy cost reduction equipment that lets you cast it. If you want to go down the dual-wielding route, Reckless Offense also; if you want a shield, you might want to try Runeword: Absorb instead. I never did that, I don't know how good it is. I think that at least one point in Thunder Strike and its synergy is a must, but I don't recall how exactly it scales. Seal of Fate is happy with just one point, but its synergy increases the resistance reduction, which is great. Naturally Runeword: Feather is a priority, but I think this one requires some planning.
On that note, Runeword: Feather and Transmutation could work together in an interesting way, but you do need to think and plan ahead. That is, you really don't need a lot of strength for this character. With maxed Runeword: Feather, Chakram of the Sun asks for about 120 strength, but since it also grants +10% strength (sadly not intellect), you can cheat the system by only increasing it up to 100, then equipping something that grants a strength bonus, then equip the two Chakrams, and using their total +20% strength to keep it at 120 and keep them equipped. The issue is that since throwing weapons require strength to use, earlier on you might feel forced to invest points into Runeword: Feather early so you can actually use throwing weapons, and right now I'm thinking that it might not be the best course of action.
You have Runeword: Feather from level two, but Transmutation is only available at the end of the tree. So if you pump intellect early, you need to invest into Runeword: Feather more heavily, making you comparatively worse, and since Transmutation is not available yet, your weapon damage is low. I think that the right course of action is pumping strength at first until you hit the limit of around 100, and trying to get to the top of the Rune tree while at it. You're attacking with thrown weapons, physical damage, and you have good strength. When you hit 100 strength and start pumping intellect, you also start dropping points into Transmutation as your intellect outstrips your strength. Dexterity also factors in. I do need to come up with a proper development plan here, but it could be interesting.
I wasn't sure if I was even supposed to post in the announcement or the patch note threads, so I decided to just make one.
I opened Steam, and I saw that Titan Quest and related stuff is on sale. Pretty big discounts, too. I thought cool, let's just look at how much I could've gotten it for had I waited for this long- Wait, new expansion?
Well, I couldn't resist so I got it. I have a level 83 Stonespeaker running around on legendary Act V (and quite a few others, although only on normal yet). So why not check out the new stuff?
I don't know who to tell it about, but there are a few issues; quite a bit of lag and stutter in general. The final area of Muspellheim was pretty bad, especially the outdoor areas of the stronghold; other than that it seems fine.
Anyway, I couldn't wait to check out the new skills, so I'll put a list of them in spoilers for those who are interested (only level 1, and while I have them on screenshots, if memory serves, we shouldn't upload pictures too much and cropping them would take longer than typing them out anyway, so here you go.
Spoiler for Hiden:
Earth
Meteor Rain: Call down a shower of burning rocks from the heavens. 19.4 Seconds Recharge 300 Energy Cost 4.0 Second Duration 3.5 Meter Radius 320 Damage 96 Burn Damage over 3.0 Seconds 3.0 Seconds of Stun
Fire Nova: Sends out a ring of flames that ignites everything in the area. 6.4 Seconds Recharge 130 Energy Cost 20.0 Meter Radius 99 Burn Damage over 3.0 Seconds 33 Fire Damage 11% Chance of Impaired Aim for 3.0 Seconds
Storm
Arc Discharge: Enhances the Wisp's Thunderclap ability, generating tendrils of lightning. 62-106 Lightning Damage 0.5 Seconds of Stun
Lightning Dash: Move between your enemies at lightning speed, becoming hard to hit in the process. Assign this skill to your left mouse button. 5 Energy Cost 10 Lightning Damage +444% Movement Speed 10% Chance to Dodge Attacks 10% Chance to Avoid Projectiles
Spirit
Soul Drain: Cause Life Drain to explode outward, causing harm to body and soul. 8.0 Meter Radius 12% Reduction to Enemy's Health 150 Vitality Damage 6% Energy Drain 2.0 Seconds of Sleep +200% Damage to Ghosts
Soul Vortex: Concentrate your Spirit power to voraciously absorb all life force and energy in your immediate surroundings. 70.0 Seconds Recharge 120 Energy Cost 4.0 Second Duration 5.0 Meter Radius 36 Life Leech per Second 12 Energy Leech per Second 50% Slowed for 1.0 Seconds 100% Life Leech Resistance 100% Energy Leech Resistance
Nature
Earthbind: Summons roots from the earth to slow and immobilize all foes around you. 20.0 Seconds Recharge 65 Energy Cost 22.0 Meter Radius 36-48 Poison Damage per Second 50% Reduced Defensive Ability for 1.0 Seconds 1.0 Seconds of Immobilization 66% Slower Movement for 2.0 Seconds
Sylvan Protection: The Nymph calls upon the vines of the undergrowth to keep enemies at bay. 12 Energy Cost 68-90 Damage 35-45 Piercing Damage 8% Reduction to Enemy's Health 66% Reduced Defensive Ability for 1.0 Seconds 1.0 Seconds of Immobilization 75% Slower Movement for 2.0 Seconds
Rune
Rune Storm: When the situation calls for it, combining mismatched runes can create a dangerous storm of unforeseen effects. 51.6 Seconds Recharge 300 Energy Cost 10.0 Second Duration 4.5 Meter Radius 30 Damage Chance for one of the following: 1.0 Seconds of Skill Disruption, 1.0 Seconds of Stun, 1.0 Seconds of Fear, 1.0 Seconds of Confusion 20 Elemental Retaliation
Rune Field: Create more runes across a larger area. (Improvement of Runic Mines) 25 Energy Cost 0.5 Second Duration 6 Projectiles
Dream
Dream Image: Draws forth a mirror image of yourself from the dreamworld that briefly fights at your side. 140.0 Seconds Recharge 150 Energy Cost Extra Lifetime 10 Seconds Doppelganger Attributes: Lifetime 10.0 Seconds, 3840 Health, 1920 Energy Doppelganger Abilities: 384-480 Damage
Psionic Beam: Improve the psionic focus within your magic staff to channel a rapid-fire attack. Works only with Staves. 10% Chance to pass through Enemies 10% Increase in Projectile Speed
Warfare
Slam: Hit all enemies in a straight line with staggering force, disrupting their aim and spellcasting. 7.0 Seconds Recharge 80 Energy Cost 60-80 Damage 20% Reduction to Enemy's Health 70% Chance of Impaired Aim for 1.0 Seconds 1.0-1.5 Seconds of Skill Disruption 1.0-2.0 Seconds of Stun
Lasting Legacy: Forming a deeper connection with your ancestors allows their spirits to remain at your side for longer. 4 Energy Cost Extra Lifetime 4 Seconds
Defense
Unyielding Phalanx: Summon the shades of fallen comrades to form a line with you once more, engaging any enemy that dares to approach. 80.0 Seconds Recharge 112 Energy Cost Extra Lifetime 6 Seconds Elysian Soldier Attributes: Lifetime 6 Seconds, 250 Health Elysian Soldier Abilities: Basic Attack, 141 Damage, 60 Piercing Damage, 40% Slower Movement for 2.0 Seconds
Perfect Block: Raise your shield to become temporarily invulnerable and stun any enemy attacking you in a melee. 15.6 Seconds Recharge 12 Second Duration 100% Damage Absorption -100% Attack Speed -100% Casting Speed 1.0-2.0 Stun Retaliation
Rogue
Blade Barrier: Summons a field of whirling blades that can transmit effects like a regular weapon. 30.0 Seconds Recharge 100 Energy Cost 10.0 Second Duration 2.5 Meter Radius 10 Bleeding Damage per Second 20 Piercing Damage 0% Reduction to Enemy's Health
Poison Mayhem: Throws multiple Poison Gas Bombs at a time. 1 Projectiles 0% Chance of Impaired Aim for 4.0 Seconds 2.0 Seconds of Fear
Hunting
Finesse: Increases your group's chances to inflict critical melee damage. (Improvement of Call of the Hunt) 2.0% Chance of 20% Reduction to Enemy's Health +100 Offensive Ability +10% Offensive Ability
Spear Dance: An impressive display of spear mastery causes surrounding enemies to falter. 18.0 Seconds Recharge 60 Energy Cost 360 Arc of Attack -20% Physical Damage 8.0 Chance of 1.0-3.0 Seconds of Fear -50% Slower Attack for 2.0 Seconds
Separate spoiler for personal comments:
Spoiler for Hiden:
Of course I'm pretty stoked for the new Earth spells. Earth still doesn't get resistance reduction, which is fine, and overall they don't seem that interesting, though both could go well with Stone Form, which is neat.
I don't know how Lightning Dash is going to work but I'm glad that Storm got a left-click skill. I never focused much on the Wisp so I don't know much about that, either.
Spirit gets some added viability to Life Drain and some flat life leech on a skill, those have to be pretty interesting!
Nature gets Earthbind and... Nerfed Earthbind on the Nymph. I wish they weren't so close to identical, but they look interesting, and the massive defensive ability penalty makes this look pretty good for supporting melee classes as well as the immobilizing and slowing for supporting casters and ranged attackers. Seems fun!
Dream gets a doppelganger (seems like a lot of fun!) and an improvement to a left-skill staff attack! Interesting. Not sure how it'll compete with Ternion, but I like some variety.
Rune didn't inspire me too much, to be honest. Runic Mines seemed like a fun skill so more range and more mines look good, though I'll need to try that one with my Thunderer. Rune Storm seems a bit odd.
Warfare gets Slam (I assume this is the attack Polyphemus has) and some improvement to Ancestral Horn. The former is more exciting to me - it's something to use against archers and casters, and might be a very real skill for Battlemages, for which I'm excited.
Defense gets a summon skill and... basically a second Stone Form that lasts a lot longer, and apparently allows you to move, which is honestly pretty huge. A Juggernaut with Stone Form and Perfect Block and then Eruption and all the new skills that do stuff over time... wow. This could be getting somewhere.
I really like Blade Barrier from Rogue from the look of it, and it seems that transmitting weapon effects with skills might be Rogue's specialty. Making an overlooked skill better is something I can definitely get behind.
The improvements for Hunting seem to focus on spears, but that's fine with me. I like Finesse on a dual-wielding Slayer I was planning for a while, but I think that the health reduction part could work on ranged attacks, too. Whether that's worth it, considering their DPS, is another question. Spear Dance seems like War Wind, minus the charge, that can only be used with spears (or so I assume based on the name, the tooltip didn't say so).
So I've never modded this game, and I'm not sure what's plausible or even possible within the ordinary limitations and what isn't. In fact, I haven't even played mods for this game yet!
But I was browsing the forums here, and I saw that there's some cheat that stops enemies from noticing the player, and it got me thinking. An earlier idea I had for the Rogue mainly was stealth, which, in my imagination, would make it harder for enemies to notice the player (that is, you could move closer to them without being noticed).
Now you could add stuff like passives that increase your damage against targets that aren't focused on you right now, although I imagine they'd be easier to set off using things like pets, stun, confusion, and the like. You could have a skill that would make you completely undetectable, but would be dispelled immediately after attacking.
Edit: an inverted Provoke effect, even?
I don't know if the game even checks facing for enemies (do they notice you easier if they're facing you, and harder if they're facing away)?
I might be straying too deep into RPG territory, really. I was just wondering if this sort of thing was possible, and if there was any interest in it (I'm not asking for myself, I have no idea how to mod this game).
The reasoning behind this is sound. Conveniently, I've just started a new game with a Thunderer, because thunder and lightning beckons to me just as much as fire does, and because my Stonespeaker found my second Mjolnir, which seem worth dual-wielding for a Thunderer.
Stories aside, I agree that Thunderer will benefit more from Rune than Stonespeaker in general, due to the fact that Earth employs quite a bit of physical damage, which scales with strength.
However, there's one thing that shouldn't be overlooked, but easily is: the Stonespeaker is a burn damage god. One of the few classes able to make good use of Brimstone, I always recommend maxing that - between Brimstone, Volativity, a high intellect, and any bonus to Elemental Damages and Total Damage you might have, your burn damage will be through the roof. It's something Storm doesn't have to my knowledge, and while you're most likely continuously hitting your enemies, the burn damage really is significant, especially when you hit multiple enemies with Runeword: Explode, or when you're fighting bosses which require a hit-and-run approach.
I'm not claiming it makes up for the Thunderer's advantage, but my Stonespeaker (albeit admittedly at a really high level) dishes out pretty absurd amounts of burn damage and it shouldn't be overlooked.
While I can certainly vouch for the Elementalist as one of the most fun classes out there (and easily one of my personal favorites), I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a first run (well, first as in without the additional items in the vault you can equip them from). As a caster, the Elementalist will need several stats that are hard to find on non-unique items, at least beyond late Normal, I think. You'll need casting speed, you'll need recharge reduction, and most likely you'll want some generic elemental damage increase (if you take only fire, ice or lightning, you might as well go Summoner or Druid). While all of these can be found on non-uniques, they're generally rare and honestly just not good enough.
My first character was an Elementalist; and by that I mean the very first one I actually took seriously. And while it suffered from me not always having an idea of what's the reasonable thing to do, it also suffered from the lack of proper equipment.
Personally, if you want something quick and not very gear-intensive, I'd probably recommend either a melee character (something with Warfare) or an archer (Hunting plus something). Though I'm not sure on the latter, since Scatter Shot Arrows have been severely nerfed in Anniversary Edition. Still, Warfare in melee and Hunting in ranged are probably the fastest you can get, and since non-unique weapons are often as good as uniques when it comes to DPS, they're much easier to outfit.
Sorry; I'm back for now, though I can't tell how long it'll last.
In a more or less random order:
Staves
In Normal Greece, Glowing Rod can turn you into an engine of destruction. +2 to Volcanic Orb when you likely only have one point in it is absolutely phenomenal and you'll see yourself one-shot entire groups with some good timing.
Pharaoh's Standard is what you want, early on. It might very well last into epic and even legendary if you don't get lucky with other drops. That thing can drop as early as Normal Egypt and it's absolutely fantastic. Recharge reduction, energy cost reduction, fire damage bonus, burn damage bonus, and a few minor things, but what else do you need? It's everything an Earth caster needs rolled into a very stylish package. If you have one, don't hesitate to give it a try!
Blastos Fotia: I've never had it drop, hard as I tried. It looks amazing until you get the late-game legendary staves. Huge fire and burn damage bonuses, bonuses to some skills, and even a casting speed bonus. The attack speed bonus seems largely wasted, however.
Eye of Osiris: I'm not entirely sure about endgame staves, really, but Eye of Osiris seems a really good candidate. Pretty good bonus to fire and burn damage, and +2 to all Earth skills means you're half-covered in your more important mastery already. The fire resistance is likely going to be redundant, but poison resistance is nice. Reduction to requirements and the other bonuses don't seem very impactful, though. On the other hand, if you're into that kind of thing, you can do a really good Eye-themed pyromancer with Eye of Osiris, Eye of Flame and Eye of Ra, all of which obviously work really well together! It might not be the most effective, but it's fun.
Goldbristle: I don't have one, so can't tell. The elemental damage bonus, recharge reduction and bonus to all skills look pretty neat, and it seems to have some decent resistances.
Heka Staff: While I'd personally probably stick to pure fire staves for thematic reasons, you're unlikely to use staff attacks at this point, and the huge recharge and energy cost reduction drives a hard bargain. No fire or burn damage bonus, though.
Staff of the Cosmos: I'm planning to revisit my Elementalist sometime, and this seems to be my staff of choice. Bonus to elemental damages, energy cost reduction, and an enormous increase in casting speed. This and Archmage's Clasp should have you pretty much covered.
Can't think of more right now.
As for Flame Surge, I agree: It's better, but it's still underwhelming. As a caster, you don't really want to be close enough to enemies for it to work. Still, if you get its recharge to zero (one of the few skills for which it is possible), you'll utterly mow down melee mobs before they'd have a chance to lay a hand on you. Still, almost all Earth casters will have better alternatives; Summoner seems to be the sole exception, and it actually synergizes well with Flame Surge with its superior durability and Briar Ward.
If you want to focus on Earth, and more specifically Volcanic Orb and Eruption, you'll probably want a supporting secondary mastery. I'd probably recommend Nature. You get more summons to distract enemies, Plague and especially Susceptibility to lower both their elemental and physical resistances to further increase the rate at which you murder them, a quasi-energy-cost-reduction in Tranquility of Water (bit ironic, though), and some other neat survivability stuff, though they're really not all that important if you ask me. Your secondary mastery's purpose should be to allow you to incinerate enemies even faster, and I think that most of the other masteries would more serve as distractions, and wouldn't be as effective at supporting your playstyle. But I could be wrong. (That said, Elementalists are still incredibly cool.)
Nerthus Armbands is pretty good, especially if you do go down the Summoner route, but I'm not sure I'd take it over Archmage's Clasp. Still, bonus skills, recharge reduction, and resistances. The casting speed bonus is pretty tiny, unfortunately.
Sorry I'm responding only now; I have been occupied with other things. I only recently started to visit the forum again.
I have tried strength-based Earth characters, but never got too far with them. Early-game, they seem to work well. Going pure strength with Earth characters seems to have one flaw; you're missing out big time on the damage-over-time component, which has been made pretty big with Anniversary Edition.
Dual Wield gives you a chance to hit simultaneously with both weapons; Reckless Offense will actually grant you three hits in rapid succession (four if you're using melee). I haven't tested Dual Wield with thrown weapons, but Reckless Offense definitely works.
Against Kalygoths and Blightcasters, I'd recommend a single point in Stone Form (probably one in Molten Rock, too). If you notice that you got hit, just activate it immediately, it prevents all the poison damage from then on, even if you got hit beforehand. It lasts long enough that you survive, and then you can retaliate after Stone Form ends!
I actually thought of something similar once, but it was a fleeting idea.
I thought that Ice Shards (which really is the only cold skill I can think of) could get some pierce damage (well, pierce, because it's still impaling them on giant spikes of ice, so).
I can easily see how physical damage on most Earth skills is justified, though. Notice that there's no physical damage on Flame Surge, which is the fire spray you mentioned; however, in the case of Volcanic Orb or Eruption, I think they're easily understandable, as volcanic eruptions themselves tend to spew quite a bit of solid rock around (after all, magma is just molten rock). It's why the mastery is called Earth, I think, and not just Fire.
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.
I generally don't like using things like the Defiler as well, but the drop rates in Act V do seem abysmal... And I'm mildly frustrated by the fact that due to a HDD failure I lost all my progress in Titan Quest a few years ago, when I had most of the items, in fact (although, as one might suspect, that was before Ragnarök or Anniversary Edition).
New characters having better (or at least different) drops would be a pretty interesting approach, actually. I'll try with other characters and see what happens.
Volcanic Orb has pretty much unlimited range. You can always throw it at the very edge of the screen, even if you're zoomed out as much as possible. You need line of sight, though, so it's less suitable for gimmicks like that.
That depends on what you consider terrible, actually. The elemental resistances are all maxed, but the rest are less impressive. Poison resistance is positive, but low; I think that vitality and bleeding are negative, but near to zero. Pierce is -100%, which is probably the most pressing issue.
Seriously, though, between the wasps and the water spirits, Ragnarök has given us the peskiest enemies. I don't know what damage type the wasps deal, but I think it has to be multiple - they destroy Energy Armor, so they must deal at least one from physical, pierce, and bleeding, as well as something that goes through the armor (most likely poison). But their damage is less of the problem, it's more annoying how you just can't hit them at all. (Though they seem to have no innate dodge, they're just hard to pin down with your mouse cursor.)
I've been neglecting the game for a good while, and came back to farm Fafnir some more. Some runs and some utterly unremarkable drops later, I've decided to fall back on desperate measures for desperate times disastrous loot.
I make no pretenses; I'd probably have used the Defiler for increased drops at this point. Even Fafnir drops uniques very rarely, and even then they're usually duplicates of what I already have, despite the fact that I most probably don't own the majority of Act V uniques (most of what he drops is Act IV gear). But since that option is not available, for better or for worse, as far as I'm aware, I did the second best thing I possibly could.
I was reluctant. As the previous video should demonstrate, one Fafnir is quite okay - I can rush it and remove the majority of its health before it stands up, and then finish it off. But what about three? That could be a problem.