Titan Quest Character Builds. By LowFatMilk. With the release of Titan Quest Anniversary Edition comes a large number of brand new TQ players. Veterans of the game would have booted the game and seen with delight that all their previous characters were still here, ready to play. All that grinding, still worth it. Strength-based, super tanky caster (Summoner: Earth + Nature) build for Titan Quest AE: Ragnarok. Introduction This is a guide on a strength-based, tanky caster (summoner: Earth + Nature) build. My goal is to build a super tanky caster and I had a lot of fun playing this class. Why Nature and Earth for a super tanky caster build.
Titan Quest | |
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Developer(s) | Iron Lore Entertainment[a] |
Publisher(s) | THQ[b] |
Producer(s) | Jeff Goodsill |
Designer(s) | Brian Sullivan |
Programmer(s) | Max McGuire |
Artist(s) | Michael Sheidow Rich Sullivan Josh McHugh |
Writer(s) | Randall Wallace |
Composer(s) | Scott Morton Michael Verrette |
Engine | PathEngine |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Action role-playing, hack and slash |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Titan Quest is an action role playinghack and slashvideo game developed by Iron Lore Entertainment for Microsoft Windowspersonal computers. It was published by THQ in 2006. It was released on Steam in 2007, and later ported to mobile devices by DotEmu and released in 2016; later versions were published by THQ Nordic. Versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch were released in 2018.[1] The story follows a player-created protagonist as they navigate Ancient Greece, Egypt and China on a quest to defeat the Titans after they escape from their ancient prison. The gameplay is similar to the Diablo series, with player navigation being handled with a mouse-driven tile-based interface, and gameplay revolving around role-playing mechanics and real-time combat. Three expansions were released for the game: Titan Quest: Immortal Throne in 2007, Titan Quest: Ragnarök in 2017 and Titan Quest: Atlantis in 2019.
Titan Quest was envisioned by game designer Brian Sullivan as a role-playing game set in Ancient Greece similar to Age of Mythology. Production began in 2004 after a successful pitch to THQ. The script was written by Randall Wallace, while Sullivan acted as the designer. Despite being in a mythical setting, the team wanted to make the environments and towns feel as realistic as possible, leading to a large amount of research into ancient cultures. Enemies were inspired by the game's regional mythologies, with designs inspired by the stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen. The music, composed by Scott Morton and Michael Verrette, was created to avoid the looping tracks of other games.
First announced in 2005, Titan Quest received generally positive reviews when released, being both praised as a good example of the genre while at the same time being criticized for its traditional gameplay. Sales of the main game and its expansion have been estimated as approaching one million units. The mobile port was tricky for its developers due to adapting the game for touchscreen controls: like the console version, it received positive reviews upon release. The engine and gameplay of Titan Quest later became the foundation for Grim Dawn, a video game developed by team members from Iron Lore following the studio's closure. In 2016, an improved and expanded Anniversary Edition was released and received very positive reviews. On November 17, 2017, THQ Nordic released an expansion over ten years after Immortal Throne, entitled Titan Quest: Ragnarök.
- 3Development
- 6Expansions
Gameplay[edit]
Gameplay for Titan Quest: shown are the UI, and combat between the protagonist and multiple enemies in a Grecian environments: the attacks use magical powers linked to the 'Storm' Mastery.
Titan Quest is an action role-playing game set in the pre-Roman Ancient World: these include Ancient Greece, Egypt, and the Silk Road leading through Asia. Players take control of an avatar: players are able to choose gender, name and tunic color.[2][3][4] The three-dimensional world is navigated through an overhead third-person view, with the player character being controlled with the mouse through a point-and-click interface, while abilities are mapped to keyboard buttons. The environment is obscured by a 'Fog of War' effect which blacks out unexplored environments on the minimap. Optional text tutorials for gameplay elements are unlocked progressively throughout the game and can be viewed at any time.[2][4][5]
As they progress, players gain experience points through defeating enemies and completing quests for non-player characters (NPCs) scattered around environments: these raise a character's experience level, which grant access to fresh skills and points that can be used to upgrade character attributes such as health and energy levels, dexterity, intelligence, or strength. If the player dies, they respawn at rebirth fountains scattered through the world, although they lose some accumulated experience points. Quests are divided into Main Quests related to the central narrative, and side quests unique to particular areas of the world. Other NPCs can be found in towns and cities that act as Merchants selling equipment and items: these can be both bought and sold. Player characters have multiple equipment slots, which can take armor for limbs and torso, weapons or shields, and accessories that grant passive boons.[2]
Fighting takes the form of real-time hack and slash combat, with players attacking randomly-generated enemies highlighted by the mouse. Available weapon types for characters include swords, clubs, axes, and staves. In addition to the standard attack with an assigned weapon, offensive skills can be deployed. Using active skills triggers a cooldown meter, rendering that skill unusable until the meter depletes.[2] Items and equipment can also be looted from fallen enemies and chests scattered through environments: these range in quality, with grey standing for low-quality gear while purple stands for a 'Legendary' item, and orange denotes a Relic or Charm which can be equipped to the player to increase an attribute such as elemental damage resistance. The majority of items and equipment are randomly generated, and are associated with particular types of enemies. The world's currency, Gold, can be gained through quest completion, opening chests and defeating certain enemies. Gold is used with the various shop NPCs in exchange for their services.[2][5]
After leveling up for the first time, the player can access Masteries, skill tree-based upgrade systems where skill points unlocked upon leveling up can be used to access and boost different skills. Mastery abilities expend energy, which is replenished over time when skills are not in use or by using energy drinks. There are eight available Masteries to choose from (Defence, Warfare, Hunting, Rogue, Earth, Storm, Nature and Spirit). Players can access two Masteries at any one time, mixing skills from both trees. The combination of different Masteries create different character classes: for instance, combining Nature and Earth Masteries grants players the 'Summoner' class, while Defense and Warfare Masteries create the 'Conqueror'. There are 36 possible Classes, which include pure disciplines within one Mastery and hybrids between different Masteries.[2][4][5] After a certain point in the game, the player has access to Mystics, NPCs which can reallocate skill points for a fee.[2]
In addition to single-player, the title features cooperative multiplayer, where players can accept invitation from up to six other players to join their game session through either LAN or online connection. Alongside being able to fight enemies together, players can swap messages and exchange loot. There is also a Level Editor available, where players can access developer tools and create their own levels which can be shared with other players. The editor features a large number of options for environment customization, including adjusting the shade of environmental elements like roads.[2][4]
![Quest Quest](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125859976/734748071.jpg)
Synopsis[edit]
Titan Quest begins with a narration, detailing how the Titans once ruled the primordial darkness before the light of the Olympian Gods appeared: after a great war, the Titans were exiled and imprisoned, and the Olympians ushered in a golden age for the mortal world. An unknown time later, a trio of lesser Titans known as Telkines broke the communication conduit linking Olympus with the mortal world, and summoned armies of monsters to terrorize the world and prepare for the release of the Titans. The player character begins their quest at the village of Helos, where beasts are destroying the local crops. Fighting their way through Greece, they learn of Telkines from a group called the Order of Prometheus. After defeating the first Telkine beneath the palace of Knossos, the player then travels to Egypt and attempts to restore the connection between Earth and Olympus. The ritual fails, and they must defeat a second Telkine. The player then pursues the final Telkine along the Silk Road to China. Pursuing the Telkine to the Wusou Mountains, the player is too late to prevent the release of the Titan Typhon, who travels to Olympus to destroy the gods. After the player defeats Typhon, Zeus speaks to the player, telling them that they, a human champion, have proved humanity can live without the protection of Olympus.
Development[edit]
Titan Quest was the brainchild of game designer Brian Sullivan: while he was working on Age of Empires, which sported a Grecian setting, he came up with the concept of creating a similar game while including the region's mythology.[3][6] The concept work for Titan Quest began in 2000, when its developer Iron Lore Entertainment was formed by Sullivan and Paul Chieffo. The two brought together a skeleton team to create a demo with which to find a publisher. During this time, the game was described by producer Jeff Goodsill as being 'on the drawing board'.[7][8][9] The creative leads on the project were Sullivan, Chieffo, programmer Max McGuire, and artists Rich Sullivan and Josh McHugh.[8] According to Sullivan, the pre-production process lasted over a year.[3] Iron Lore's January 2004 pitch to THQ was successful, and development began once they had secured a contract in 2004. The initial staff up to that time was just nine people working in a small office area: when production started and further staff were hired, the team size grew to 38, which included temporary and late development additions.[3][7] Sullivan was involved in multiple areas of the development, but his main responsibility was game design and overseeing content creation.[10]Titan Quest was aimed at both casual and hardcore gamers, as the necessary prices for games necessitated reaching out to a wide audience to get a profit. For this reason, the team chose the action role-playing genre.[3] Developing the game was made more difficult by the necessity to create Iron Lore around it, recruiting and training new staff.[9] Other studios were also involved with development. Towards the end of development, Demiurge Studios was brought in to help with the final stages during the alpha-beta-ship stages. Demiurge first helped with memory optimization; then worked on the level editor and modification functions so they worked as an independent function; and finally created installers for both the demo and the main game. Demiurge's involvement gave Iron Lore more time and energy to devote to fixing bugs and polishing gameplay.[11] The CGI opening cinematic was created by Blur Studio.[2]
According to designer Ben Schneider, the basic story was built around the recurring motif in multiple mythologies where a younger generation of deities defeat older primal beings, with the main premise being that victory being overturned.[12] They stayed within their mythological subject matter rather than straying into historical events: this was due to an incident during the release of Age of Empires where the developers needed to cut a scenario showing Korean people coming under attack from invading Japanese due to potential political and popular backlash in both countries.[13] The game's story and script were written by Randall Wallace, a screenwriter who had written recent successful films Braveheart and Pearl Harbor. Titan Quest was his first time writing for a video game.[14] Together with Iron Lore staff, Wallace created a story where humans and the Olympians faced both the Titans and the mythical beasts allied with them that had retreated to the forgotten parts of the world.[12] According to Wallace, Iron Lore wanted story to be a priority in contrast to most other video games, with the player experience focusing on growing their character and learning the world's lore from NPCs. Speaking about his experience writing for the game compared to his work on films, he needed to work within more rigid guidelines and the need to make the story fit in with the gameplay and content. This meant that some scenarios needed to be cut either due to budget limitations or some sequences working so well that they were extended. A major change from his writing for films was that it was the side characters rather than the main character that drove the story forward, so he needed to make them entertaining and important to furthering the plot.[14] The team wanted a world with a scope beyond the main story, with material covering all of its locations. They also included NPC storytellers that would relate local legends and myths to the player in a similar way to storytellers of the time.[12] Later, lead gameplay designer Arthur Bruno faulted the presentation as unappealing compared to the version of Greek mythology portrayed by God of War series, saying that the original atmosphere 'was seriously lacking a sense of dread and mystery'.[15][16]
Design[edit]
Concept art of helmet types designed by Michael Sheidow, the game's art director.[17][18]
The game's art director was Michael Sheidow, who had done concept work for Dungeons & Dragons Online before joining Iron Lore. Initially hired as lead artist, Sheidow was at the time feeling 'burnt out' by the design approaches used for Dungeons & Dragons Online. He became art director after the then-current art director proved inadequate for the job, and after the initial shock, set to work managing the general artwork for the title. He was in charge of a 12-strong artistic team, and they needed to create a cohesive experience without a clear narrative to guide them. They also needed to account for the four months 'wasted' time under the previous art director.[17] A large amount of research went into what environments, architecture and other elements could be put into each environment so it fit in with the game's setting.[10] Sheidow personally did several helmet designs for the game, all based on surviving examples of early-Bronze Age helmets, along with added elements from other ancient helmet types. He created a broad range of helmet shapes which could be then adjusted with different materials to create high variation.[18] The majority of weapon design was handled by Joe Mirabello, who claimed to have created nearly 1000 different weapons split between six types.[19]
Enemy creatures were taken from the various mythologies the team drew from, and their designs inspired by the stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen.[13] Sheidow valued the chance of working with mystical creatures, as his previous work had been limited to stock fantasy monsters from the Dungeons & Dragons universe. According to him, the process started when the chosen enemy monsters were given initial designs by lead concept artist Rich Sullivan. Each design was reviewed, and the most suitable was chosen. Creature designs needed to incorporate design choices from the game, such as the monsters' environments and individual fighting styles. They also needed to consider how much detail to put into character models depending on their relative position to the camera at any given time. When it reached the modelling stage, the monster designs were further refined to work within the restrictions of the game, then it was sent to the art time again for final adjustments and mapping of unique animations.[20] The particle effects were handled by Travis Doggett: one of the more prominent pieces of his work were the mastery skills, which had particular themes related to their abilities.[21] According to animator Brian Labore, model animation proved a taxing task, as there were over eighty different monsters which ranged from typical mythical beings to more exotic and unique enemies from each region. The player character also had 'hundreds' of animations to incorporate.[22]
The game used a specially-developed proprietary engine developed by Iron Lore staff. This was done as, when development started, no third-party engines existed that could support the team's vision for the game: in Sullivan's words, there were 'plenty of technology solutions for someone creating a shooter, but not as much for a role-playing game'.[23] One of the key parts of the new engine was an environmental creation tool dubbed 'the editor' by staff. This tool combined a tile-based horizontal plain with a height-based map, and allowed for subtle adjustments to environments and terrain with easy-to-use developer tools. Level and plain boundaries were set using cliffs and plateaus within the environment. Objects such as chest and enemies could be then 'dropped' into environments using a point-and-click system, some of which could be directly integrated using special 'tile' elements which stitched into the wider environment for objects such as bridges and crags. All of this necessitated a large amount of research on multiple subjects, including the flora of Egypt and the appearance of Ancient Greek roads and paths.[23][24] This development tool was the version released with the retail version so players could create and share their own levels.[9] Level and map creation was handled by a three-person team, with each one needing to agree upon a specific layout and design before it went into full production. While early builds used a high amount of detail along level boundaries, the team switched to simple boundary designs as they 'read better' for players and allowed better technical performance. The challenge the content creation team set themselves was creating these areas while making boundaries seem natural.[25] This combination of height and grid-based navigation and environments had not been done when the system was being designed in 2002: most of the map was shaped using the height map, while specialist features and horizontal navigation used the grid.[26] In a preview about the game, the developers said the game was built around 'database driven modular proxies', a system where different elements within environments were seamlessly interacted and could interact freely. The artificial intelligence (AI) was designed so individual units would behave differently depending on situation and combat ability.[27] The pathfinding for AI units such as NPCs and enemy units was handled using the PathEngine, a licensed middleware engine dedicated to this task. Titan Quest was one of the first major Western titles to use PathEngine.[28]
Gameplay was compared frequently to Blizzard's Diablo series. According to Sullivan, the comparison was inevitable as Diablo helped define the genre, and was emphasized by the lack of action RPGs at the time. While the core gameplay remained traditional, they attempted to innovate in other areas.[6] Character creation was simplified to simply choosing a name and gender rather than character types being tied to classes or chosen proficiency. They also effectively removed tutorials so players could get straight into gameplay, using games like Neverwinter Nights as an example of tutorials impeding players during early stages.[13] When creating the skill system, the team looked at earlier successful RPGs and considered how they could improve on them. They also wanted to avoid creating characters who had 'a little of everything' while offering replayability. The result was the creation of the themed masteries, with the added element of skill acquisition not being tied to level progression, allowing for players to bank skill points for different purposes. This system was built to encourage player freedom and represent logical character progression rather than tying one character to one class.[13][15] Spawn points for enemies were governed by a random generation system, of what monsters are spawned depending on both environment and player level. Loot was controlled by a database system which mixed and matched characteristics to produce 'over 100,000' item combinations.[27] Loot drops were also made to fit the types of creatures killed, in contrast to other games such as World of Warcraft which had animals dropping currency and weapons regardless.[13] Loot types were also designed to be clearly visible on enemies so players could pick and choose which enemies to engage and which defeated enemy to loot.[29] According to Bruno, the team were limited with the amount of impact and realism they could put into combat by the necessity of keeping the game within its prescribed ESRB age ratings of 'E for Everyone' and 'T for Teens': this meant that blood was non-existent and hit reactions were minimal, negatively affecting player impressions of the game.[16] Multiplayer was part of the game plan from its beginnings, with the main goal being to foster a community around the game.[9] Bruno later faulted the lack of secure multiplayer as one of the major faults with the game: THQ apparently was unwilling to invest in this.[16]
Audio[edit]
The music and sound design for Titan Quest was handled by Scott Morton and Mike Verrette.[30][31] In his role as sound designer, Morton worked from specifications sent by other parts of the Titan Quest development team. This enabled the free modification of sound elements, but also meant that unexpected and large work loads with short deadlines were a constant possibility.[31] The sound design process for each object and character that needed sound effects was the same: based on their appearance, a new sound effect would be created. In the case of monsters, different sound effects were created for different scenarios, such as them seeing the player for the first time or when in battle. The sounds within environments were designed to be 'real' and 'visceral'. The game's audio engine enabled these sound effects to be dynamically shifted depending on their setting.[32]
The music was challenging due to drawing from multiple cultures, then being brought together into a cohesive score while keeping each region distinct from the other. To get the right feeling, the team did research into the historical musical instruments used in each of the game's regions.[31][32] Rather than a linear progression of looping musical tracks, the norm for most games at the time, the score was broken up into stingers that were brought into the environment when needed. This cuing of themed musical pieces was coupled with a second system tied to environmental progression: musical pieces were arranged in the playlist, then could be cued in depending on the circumstances and environment on-screen. For vocal tracks, the lyrics were written in Ancient Greek: the main vocal piece, 'When Gods Fall', was infused into the other vocal tracks and acted as a 'cornerstone' for the score.[30][31][32] The vocals were provided by Taunia Soderquist.[2]
Release[edit]
![Titan quest build calculator Titan quest build calculator](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125859976/321052129.jpg)
Titan Quest was first announced in May 2005, with its first public exhibition being at that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.[33] The game released on June 26, 2006 in North America, and June 30, 2006 in Europe.[34][35] According to Bruno, when originally shipped, the ESRB raised the game's rating to 'M for Mature' due to the scantily-clad Nymph familiar, although the rating was later amended to its current one.[16] In Japan, the game released on September 1, 2006: it released in English with the manual translated into Japanese.[36] The game was released on Steam on July 17, 2007 alongside its expansion by THQ.[37] An updated version, Titan Quest Gold Edition, was released on October 22, 2007 in the West and April 25, 2008 in Japan. It contained both the main game and its expansion.[38][39] The Titan Questintellectual property was purchased by Nordic Games after THQ began selling off its shares in the wake of its 2013 bankruptcy. Beginning in 2016, Nordic Games began supporting the game's Steam version with patches to fix gameplay and multiplayer issues, along with glitches and bugs.[40][41]
A port of Titan Quest for mobile devices was developed under license from Nordic Games by DotEmu, a French developer who had previously developed a successful mobile port of Ys Chronicles I.[42][43] The controls and interface were redesigned from the ground up to work for touchscreen controls, something the team spent months on. Despite the changes, the team worked to make the gameplay as close as possible to the original experience. They also put in additional options for actions such as targeting enemies with mastery abilities and searching for loot[44][45] It released on May 19, 2016 for iOS.[46] The Android version was released on July 7.[47]
Reception[edit]
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On its release in the US, Titan Quest debuted at #3 in the dedicated PC game charts.[63] In the UK, the game debuted at #25 in the multi-platform charts.[64] In a later interview, Bruno stated that the title had sold 'surprisingly well' despite a slow start, with combined sales for Titan Quest and Immortal Throne reaching over one million units by late 2008. It also continued to sell well on Steam, though exact figures were not given.[16]
Titan Quest received positive reviews upon release: aggregate site Metacritic recorded a score of 77/100 based on 51 critic reviews.[48] Eric Neigher of 1UP.com enjoyed Titan Quest while noting that it stayed within genre traditions: he rounded off his review by saying 'While it may not break, or even dent, any new ground, Titan Quest features a beautifully realized game world based on a tried-and-true core mechanic, with tons of replayability'.[53] Jim Rossignol of Eurogamer said that, while it stood high among its contemporary peers, Titan Quest did not evolve the genre enough for him to really enjoy it.[54]GameSpy's Miguel Lopez praised the visuals, gameplay, character customization and editing tools. His main criticisms were performance difficulties and the large potential for cheating in multiplayer.[56]GameSpot's Ryan Davis called it 'the next-best thing' to a new Diablo title, praising its single-player campaign and multiplayer while faulting its familiar feel, inventory system and recurring technical issues.[55]
IGN's Tom McNamara generally praised the gameplay despite some awkward elements, called the sound design 'well done', and positively noted its graphics despite some technical troubles. He also cited the multiplayer as the main part of the game's replay value, as it was otherwise fairly linear in design.[57]PALGN reviewer Mark Marrow called Titan Quest 'one of the best PC games on the market for the year', saying it revitalized its genre despite some minor issues with gameplay and presentation.[58]PC Zone's Sam Kieldsen praised the gameplay and leveling system, along with its graphics and soundtrack. His main criticisms were its low difficulty, repetitive structure and weak storyline.[59] VideoGamer.com's Tom Orry said the game 'doesn't really do anything new', but praised its presentation and noted that it was more accessible than others within the genre.[60] In his review of the mobile port, Shaun Musgrave of Touch Arcade shared many points of praise with earlier reviewers, along with calling it a good port despite some minor issues such as framerate drops.[61]Gamezebo's Rob Rich praised the gameplay elements carried over from the original, and positively noted its graphical detail despite persistent framerate drops. His main complaints were the inventory system, and problems with contextual commands such as picking up items.[62]
Expansions[edit]
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne[edit]
Development on an expansion pack began shortly after the release of Titan Quest, with preparatory work happening during the final stages of the main game's development.[65] The expansion, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, was first announced in late 2006 and eventually released in March 2007.[66][67][68] Set immediately after the first game, Immortal Throne followed the player as they investigated a new outbreak of monster attacks originating from the Underworld.[65]
Titan Quest: Ragnarök[edit]
Over eleven years after the release of the original Titan Quest, the expansion Titan Quest: Ragnarök was released for the game's Anniversary Edition in November 2017 by THQ Nordic.[69]
Titan Quest: Atlantis[edit]
In May 2019, another expansion, Titan Quest: Atlantis was released.[70][71]
Anniversary Edition[edit]
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition was released on Steam on 31 August 2016. According to Steam Spy, it exceeded 1.6 million owners within a month of its release.[72]
Sequels[edit]
Titan Quest would be one of only three projects Iron Lore worked on in its lifetime, and the only original project alongside Immortal Throne: after completing work on Soulstorm, an expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, the studio was forced to close in February 2008 due to difficulties in securing any funding for future projects. The team founded a new studio called Crate Entertainment and licensed the Titan Quest engine to develop Grim Dawn, dubbed by staff as a spiritual successor to Titan Quest.[16][73]
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- ^DotEmu (2016-05-13). Titan Quest Mobile Edition - Dev Diary 2 (Video). YouTube.
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- ^ズー,「Titan Quest」の拡張パック「タイタンクエスト〜イモータル スローン〜拡張パック 日本語マニュアル付 英語版」を3月23日に発売. 4Gamer.net. 2007-02-09. Archived from the original on 2008-05-04. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
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Notes[edit]
- ^Additional work by Demiurge Studios. Mobile port developed by DotEmu. Ragnarök and Atlantis expansions are developed by Pieces Interactive.
- ^Later releases and expansions after THQ bankruptcy in 2012 was published by THQ Nordic
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Titan_Quest&oldid=901990162'
Credit goes to the original poster of this guide, Primorac. His original post can be seen by clicking hereGreetings everyone!
First of all, I’d like to make 3 things clear:
1 – This is the first guide I try to write, so please apologize in advance for whatever you think is wrong, incomplete etc.
2 – English is not my first language, so don’t expect me to have a vast vocabulary or perfect grammar. I just hope I can make myself understandable.
3 – Feel free to use, publish or translate this guide, but please do it without any changes. I don’t see how anyone could profit from this, but if this opportunity ever exist, it’s a wrong thing to do. Don’t do it. J
I – Introduction
I’m a long time action-RPG fan, and always believed that area of effect spells is the way to go. Most of the times there are quite a few monsters to kill, so why kill one at a time when I could damage a whole area and take them all out in a single strike? It’s generally the fastest way to advance in this kind of game. With that in mind, my first impulse while checking TQ’s skill trees was to build an Elementalist (Earth/Storm) based on the area damage spells (Volcanic Orb / Eruption). And so I did. I gathered with a group of friends and played the whole game, on all difficulty levels.
After playing through all the game, I think I learned a lot from my mistakes, so I went on and built a second char (again, an Elementalist). I played much better with her, picked the skills more wisely and also got a few more nice items, either found or traded ones. Finally, with a better knowledge of the game and a nice item inventory, I built a third (and last) Elementalist. This guide was written based on my playing with this guy. As you can see, it was made based on a twinked char (a char who got items from other chars – generally higher level ones), which has affected a lot of my decisions and play style. Oh, it’s important to say that this is for PvM only. You’ll find no considerations about PvP here, since I’ve never even played PvP on TQ.
Here I’ll try to show you what I did regarding to attribute, skill and equipment choices. I’ll also try to tell you how I advanced through the game. By no means it’s the right or best way. It’s just a way I found to be effective and fun. So, if you have other items or if you’re playing untwinked, you’ll probably play the Elementalist class quite differently than me. Like I did, I strongly encourage you to find your own play style, even if it’s not the most effective in terms of killing power. What you should get most of your game is FUN. One of my intentions in writing this is that you adapt things to your own play style and have the most effective and fun build for you without having to play the whole game to discover things for yourself, possibly saving quite a long time.
As a final word on this introduction, let me say that this guide is more intended at new/inexperienced players, as I consider myself one of them. The game is fairly new, I’ve been playing it for just about a month, and there’s still A LOT to learn. There’s a lot of stuff regarding the mechanics I don’t know about, so this guide won’t go into deep details of how things work in the game. That said, even if you are an experienced player you might find some useful information (at least I hope so).
Now, on to the guide.
II – The idea
Ok, the basic idea of this build is to be able to kill things as fast as possible, but without neglecting safety. I tried to find a balance between killing speed and survivability. That said, the way I achieved it is to keep monsters stunned as much as possible. If it’s stunned, it can’t hit you. And to do that, the greatest strength of this build is the possibility to spam spells that stun or disable monsters in a big area.
III – Attribute Points
This is a very controversial area, and from what I read in forums most people disagree with me on this one. But to my experience and my play style, it’s better to get enough attributes to use your gear and then dump the rest in health. For this build in particular, getting super high int won’t make you kill monsters much faster, but having over 1500 more HPs can mean staying alive after one or two hits.
So, when I finished the legendary mode, at level 55, my attribute points, including equipment bonuses, were these: Health – 5261 / Mana – 2021 / Str – 50 / Int – 519 / Dex – 150.
IV – Equipment
This is a very important section. Any build, of any kind, will greatly benefit from proper equipment. This build in particular is extremely dependant on proper gear. I say this because it’s main characteristic come from an equipment bonus: -x% recharge. This is what allows us to spam VO, Squall and Eruption, thus stunning and killing everything on the screen very fast, even if each spell on it’s own doesn’t deal much dmg. I’d say a good bonus percentage to recharge time is 90. 80 is still quite good, but less than this will start to bother when you keep clicking the mouse button but VO doesn’t come out. Of course, if you can get to zero recharge time (-100% recharge), do it, but don’t sacrifice too much of other bonuses for it.
Another thing to consider are resistances. It’s very different playing with negative resists and maxed ones. With high HP and high elemental resists, you don’t need to worry about a lot of one-hit-kills that annoy most people. Sure, there are still a lot of dangerous threats out there, but at least you got this part covered.
+HP, +energy, -x% energy cost, +energy regeneration: these are also nice mods to have on your items. +HP will help keep you alive. The energy bonuses will help you use less energy potions. This build demands a lot of energy, since you will be spamming spells non-stop when fighting. More energy always helps, even though it’s not necessary at all given that you can buy potions from vendors.
One other bonus I really like is +x% movement. It doesn’t really help us much in terms of dmg output, but once you have it, it’s tough to let it go and run slowly again.
Regarding +x% to elemental dmg and +x% casting speed, the more the better, but imho they’re not more important than any other bonus listed here;
The thing is finding a balance of all the available equipment you have. For example, if you can have -70% recharge and +300% elemental dmg, it is better than having, say, -85% recharge and no bonus to elemental dmg at all. In my case, I have -91% recharge and +30% elemental dmg. I know a lot of people would say this elemental dmg is ridiculously low, but it’s enough for me. I could easily lose 15% on recharge to get another 40-50% elemental dmg, but I prefer the way it is. The same thing goes for resists. Find your own balance according to your own gear availability and you’ll do fine.
Now, the gear I’m currently using: The Full Archmage Set (chest, hands, legs, head), Aphrodite’s Favor amulet, Heka Staff, Eye of Horus and Seal of the High Priest rings. I won’t display all the stats of the items because this guide is getting quite long and you can check them on various websites.
One last thing about the equipment: plan ahead to use better gear as soon as possible. Use the +int bonuses to equip higher items. The attribute bonus from an item can be used to equip itself, differently than the latest versions of D2. For example, if you have 100 int and two staves, one that has an 100 int requirement and gives +50 int, the other has 150 int requirement and +50 int. Equip the first one, than the second. I know this seems logical to a lot of people, but since we’ve had games with a different system it’s good to emphasize this point.
V – Skill Points
Here’s the TitanCalc link for my skill choices up to level 55 (when I “finished” the game), followed by a brief explanation of each skill: CLICK HERE.
Volcanic Orb (12 points): this is the basis of the build. It’s an aoe spell that recharges very fast. With all the gear on, it recharges faster than the time to cast, so you can spam it at will.
Conflagration (1 point): important for the area increase, I don’t think it’s worth it to max this skill. Burn dmg takes a while to process, and I don’t like to have to wait for things to die. Instead of waiting, I’d just throw another VO anyway, so only 1 point in this skill.
Fragmentation (12 points): VERY important skill, it grants the much desired stun effect to VO. Also, the fragments from it cover even more area than VO itself, damaging and stunning additional targets. You just have to get used to the timing. Once you do, this skill is great! For untwinked play, I max this skill before VO.
Earth Enchantment (12 points): it works on spell dmg, so it basically increases the damage from VO and Eruption, which is a good thing.
Volativity (12 points): has a chance of increasing dmg from fire attacks, including spells. This is what we want: increase the dmg of our attacks. So, max it.
Core Dweller and it’s tree: this is really unnecessary. I just put points here after all the rest was at the target level. I picked this skill instead of others because the Dweller sometimes serves as a shield, which can be handy and life-saving. But this is occasional, don’t expect much (at least on this build) from your lava friend.
Summon Wisp (3 points): this little fella is useful because of Eye of the Storm. I’ve put 3 points because, together with +2 from the amulet, it gets the Thunderclap skill, which sometimes stuns enemies.
Eye of the Storm (8 points): this skill from the wisp is very handy, as it adds quite a lot of elemental dmg (including fire, despite the skill description). It doesn’t trigger always, but it happens often enough to deserve 8 skill points.
Squall (12 points): I still didn’t actually use all the skills in the game, but I dare to say this one is the best of all. Squall has so many benefits, both defensive and offensive, that I can’t imagine this build without it. I’m sure if I were responsible for the game, I wouldn’t allow it to be this powerful. Anyway, let’s list it’s goods:
- it has HUGE radius, often hitting foes offscreen.
- it’s recharge time is very quick, allowing you to spam it at will
- it’s duration is long enough to deal with any situation – just recast it if needed.
- it deals quite a lot of dmg, often killing monsters by itself.
- it ALWAYS makes ranged attackers (including casters) miss their attacks. This is like having 100% dodge ranged attacks.
Obscured Visibility (6 points): as if Squall weren’t good enough, this skill boosts it to an almost unfair level. It lowers the damage output of monsters and, most important for this build, it reduces their resistances. Reducing resistances are a big plus, especially at later stages of the game, where monsters have higher resists. It’s better than improving your damage by the same amount in this case, obviously.
Static Charge (12 points) and it’s pre-requisites (1 in each): I got this one for the sole purpose of enhancing Squall dmg. Yes, Squall is so good that it deserves this boost.
VI – Level Progression
If you’d like a somewhat detailed description of game progression, in this section I’ll present the most important events in each stage.
Normal Greece:
The beginning of the game is quite easy, just go around killing stuff and use potions when you need – don’t forget you can teleport back to town to get more of them faster. The first thing on my mind is to be able to wear a set of good items as quickly as possible. That said, instead of getting abilities, for the first levels I just pumped the masteries themselves for the int and dex bonuses. Of course, regarding to attributes, I’ve just put points on int and dex. Plan according to your own equipment availability to use better gear asap.
If you’re playing untwinked, you’ll do better if you get VO early on. But I wouldn’t recommend spending more than a point – I’d say it’s more important to get Conflagration and Fragmentation before that. After you have all 3, start putting points only in Fragmentation and VO. Conflagration is more important for the radius, which doesn’t increase with more points – leave it for much later. Anyway, don’t be scared of experimenting with skills, you can change them later by using the mystics. It costs gold, but that should be no problem. What you CAN’T ever change are the skill points you put on the masteries and the attribute points.
At level 18, I got to the first Telkine. As expected, he didn’t pose any problems. I had 1 point in VO, 1 in Conflagration and 1 in Fragmentation. The rest went on the masteries. Regarding the equipment, I was wearing the Pyromancer’s Set, Loratian Greaves, the Staff of Nabukhuthnusar, 2x Cartouche Ring and a green amulet.
Normal Egypt:
As I hit level 20, I maxed the Storm Mastery, thus allowing me to wear the Archmage’s Set using the least possible dex (I don’t count equipment bonuses because I don’t intend to wear +dex gear). Also, I can use pretty much any staff in the game, and I start using Heka Staff. Now the game will be a breeze for a long period. I’ll just max Earth Mastery and finally start allocating points in the skills.
The second Telkine was easier than the first one, given that my gear and my skills were better. I took him out at level 26, by using Squall to lower his resists and spamming VO and Eruption. Having the Wisp’s Eye of the Storm to help me, he lasted about 10 seconds.
Normal Orient:
This is, as expected, the toughest part of the game. But we’re still on normal mode – compared to what is coming, it’s piece of cake. The third Telkine was as easy as the second, dying in about 10 seconds and taking almost no life from me. Typhon himself took a bit longer, but was also very easy. Just spam Squall and Eruption on him, while running in such way that you avoid being hit and also keep him taking the damage from Eruption.
I finished the normal mode at level 32, pretty much what I expected. All side quests were done, my char has zero deaths, so it’s safe to say that this build was working so far. Then again, pretty much every build can finish normal with no problems, especially with good gear, so the real test is still to come…
Epic Greece:
The Greece part on Epic is still quite easy. No monster will be a big threat if you’re playing focused. Melee enemies are generally easy and will die before ever getting to you. For the ranged foes, you’re gonna have to make a better use of Squall, a skill that gets more important as you advance through the game.
Of course, Talos is quite hard (he’s found just before the Minoan Labyrinth). His Fire attack will stun you for a long time, and then he’ll use a stomp attack to keep you stunned even more, and finally unleash powerful critical blows. Another problem is that he won’t get stunned by your attacks, so you have to be constantly on the run. I advice you to clear the area of monsters, leaving him for last. Then, keep your distance, avoid get hit by him (especially by the stunning fire attack), and use your normal staff attack to take him down. It takes quite a while, but it’s not that hard. And keep potions ready, because you can use them while stunned (and that will probably save you life).
The Telkine should pose no problems. I took him when I was level 38. As usual, just spam Squall, Eruption and VO on him while using potions as needed (I didn’t have to use any, but we never know…).
Epic Egypt:
Egypt is actually easier than Greece (imho), since the Stalkers are fast and sneaky bastards. Just pay attention to the boss of the library. It’s poison attack actually took my HP bar to less than one fourth because I went too careless to the fight. I pressed the potion number on the quick bar like a maniac… lol, that was a close one.
At level 40 there’s a good gear upgrade as you’re able to wear some legendary amulets and rings. So, I used at that point 2x Celestial Band and the Polaris, which gave me a bit more of –recharge.
Of course, if you wanna kill the Manticore, it’s a particularly tough part. But it’s not that tough. Just run in circles around it, while spamming both Squall and Eruption. It took me a while to take it out, maybe a minute or two, but at least it didn’t hit me. The same goes for the Telkine, but he was faster than the Manticore.
Epic Orient:
Now playing on epic, I took my chances against the Dragon Liche. By using the “run around in circles spamming Eruption and Squall” technique, I took him out easily.
By level 45 there’s another important gear upgrade: it’s possible to equip the Eye of Horus. At this point, I used just one of it, because I was still wearing the Polaris. When I switch to the Aphrodite’s Favor (therefore losing the –recharge on the ammy), I’ll put another Eye of Horus on. At last it’s possible to spam VO and Squall as fast as they can be cast. Eruption, too, will have a very quick recharge time, which allows us to cast it almost as often as desired. By this point, it’s a safe bet that more energy potions are going to be needed. But you should have tons of gold by now, so it’s no problem.
Again, there was no trouble in this part of the game. Just spam VO and Squall, with the addition of Eruption to quicken the kills, and it’s not that hard. I got to the Telkine at level 46, and took him out easily. Typhon was himself even easier. In under 10 seconds he’s down.
At this point the char is pretty much complete, apart from a few item switches and getting more skills to increase damage output. But the way the char will be played from now on won’t change. Therefore, I made a 2 min video of an Olympus run. So, if you’re interested on seeing how this char plays out and performs, check it out!
Legendary Greece:
Ok, this is where the game really starts. Normal mode is kind of a tutorial. Epic’s just a warm up. In the legendary mode is where the fun really begins. Now every action must be taken with caution, every foe is a dangerous threat… Alright, not EVERY foe. But it’s pretty hard, so we gotta play focused, keep those potions ready, and avoid as much as possible ANY hits.
If you hadn’t understood yet what I meant when I said that Squall is possibly the best skill in the game, now you probably will. You’re gonna use it in practically every ranged enemy, and a lot of melee as well. It makes our lives so much easier and the kills much faster.
At this point I reached level 48, time for the final equipment upgrade: I was finally able to wear Aphrodite’s Favor and the second Eye of Horus. The main skills are also almost maxed. So, to tell you the truth, I exaggerated a bit when I talked about the difficulty. We just have to play focused and slow down the pace a little bit. Just don’t expect to run right through the hordes of enemies while spamming your spells. Careless gameplay will often result in a quick death.
The Hydra shouldn’t be tough. Just keep moving and throwing Squall and Eruption at her, and in about a minute or two she’s dead. The same goes for the Telkine, but it’s faster. I finished Greece at level 50.
Legendary Egypt:
Just like in Epic mode, Egypt is easier than Greece in legendary for this type of char. I didn’t have any problems at all through it. One minor detail: while in this part of the game, I decided to swap one Eye of Horus for a Seal of the High Priest. This gave me a bit more poison resist, and I only lost 2% in –recharge, so I think it was a good swap. I kept this setup to the end.
I got to the Telkine by level 52 and it was piece of cake. At this point, all the needed skills are maxed, so from this point on the new skill points gained won’t help much, but since they are no good unspent, I put them in Core Dweller.
Legendary Orient:
Again, there’s really no secret here. I kept doing the same things I did the rest of the game, only much more carefully. Some monsters hit very hard, but none of them could one-hit-kill me.
The big Neanderthal fella has killed me a few times before, so I knew what was coming and took precautions. Just don’t let him stun you – it would probably mean a quick death. The Telkine was pretty easy, as was Typhon. As many people have said, there are far more dangerous monsters populating TQ’s world, which might seem illogical given that we expect the last big bad boss to be the toughest one. I don’t know what to think about it, except that it must be really hard to make a great game, and Nival has done a great work on this one.
VII – Videos
I’ve captured some videos in an attempt to show how the char plays out. I’ve uploaded all the Telkine duels, my first Olympus run on legendary, plus one or two others. I think this is enough to get the picture of this build. There are both high and low quality videos, for those who have slower connection.
http://rapidshare.de/files/30032232/Legendary_1st_Telkine_-_Low_Quality.avi.html (2,28 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30034584/Legendary_1st_Telkine_- _High_Quality.avi.html (15,5 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30034846/Legendary_2nd_Telkine_-_Low_Quality.avi.html (1,56 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30036004/Legendary_2nd_Telkine_- _High_Quality.AVI.html (10,3 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30036309/Legendary_3rd_Telkine_-_Low_Quality.avi.html (1,43 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30037912/Legendary_3rd_Telkine_- _High_Quality.avi.html (9,75 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30039266/Legendary_Olympus_1st_Run_- _Low_Quality.avi.html (5,94 MB)
http://rapidshare.de/files/30044370/Legendary_Olympus_1st_Run_- _High_Quality.avi.html (41,2 MB)
VIII – Final Words
It was great fun playing this build, and I found it to be very effective. It’s viable to play untwinked, and it’s a great “farmer”. I’d like to present a lot more detail and ideas in this guide, especially in the equipment section, but I think it’s very long already. Maybe we can discuss it in the forums. Oh, and btw, you can contact me about errors, or with suggestions, on [email protected]... Just please don’t send flaming emails, as those will be promptly ignored.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. And I’m sorry for any mistakes. See ya around!