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The Guiding Principles and New Rules
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Wherein we discuss the wonder that is TITAN QUEST (NSF56k)
Posts
your just upset my druid is better at tanking and dps'ing!
And you saw how badly my LB was raping things. :P
Decided I'm going to drop plague and pick up the thorn wall spell. Plague is nice, but shit dies too fast for it to spread.
Well, I've managed to double the range of Flame Surge.
I've got a few other ideas in mind for skills:
Oh, and about the notation... something listed as 16-25/65-85 (see Wildfire) means that at one point, it deals 16-25 damage, and at max points, it deals 65-85 damage.
STORM
Nobody takes this skill. The 85% damage resistance is just too much of a penalty. But sans that penalty, this skill would be way, way overpowered, given its ease of use, recharge time, and duration. So, by reducing the damage resistance it confers, it's still not going to be an all-the-time power, but it won't be a huge detriment to your team, either.
EARTH
These changes are just to bring some under-performing abilities into line with others. Ring of Flame and Soften Metal are woefully inferior to similar abilities in Storm and Spirit. This is because those abilities debuff resistances, stun, deal extra elemental damage, etc. So instead of adding a bunch of crap, it's easier (and I think thematically better) to just make these abilities do what they already do, but better.
The Wildfire change is because this ability is one of those things that no one invests in. The damage is just trivial. Truth be told, even doubling its damage probably won't make it any good in the later stages of the game, but it'll at least make it worth a second look, and maybe some use beyond the first half of normal mode.
Conflagration is improved because right now, the damage is laughable, even in normal mode.
Flame Surge's range is increased to bring it more in line with Ice Shard, and not make using it a constant near-death experience. Because of the spread, it's more difficult to hit at longer range, but at least it's possible, now. Think of it as TQ's take on a shotgun. Now, Flame Surge will do slightly higher impact damage, and slightly higher burn damage over a shorter period of time, plus the new Earth Enchantment will boost its burn damage further. This is to compensate for Ice Shard being slightly more spammable, with a slightly longer range, having a slow effect, and being able to score multiple hits on a single target at long range.
ROGUE
E.g. Toxin Distillation will go from +76% duration and +144% damage to +38% duration and +216% damage when maxed. So if you had an ability that did 100 damage over 10 seconds (base), that's 10 damage per second. The current Toxin Distillation would improve that to 24.4 damage per second for 17.6 seconds. You go from 100 damage to 429 damage; a 329%% increase in damage.
With the new Toxin Distillation, you'll take that same ability and change it to 31.6 damage per second for 13.8 seconds. You go from 100 damage to 436 damage; a 336% increase in damage.
The net effect is that your damage increase is the same, it just doesn't take as long to deliver the damage. This change is because, right now, poison does fine damage for the higher difficulty modes, but the problem is duration. It takes so bloody long to deliver that damage that it is in every conceivable way out-performed by other damage types (except bleeding).
HUNTING
As I've pointed out before, bleeding damage is just disgustingly underpowered. Making it competitive with other damage types would basically require a complete itemization overhaul, but I'm hoping that by increasing the potency of the bleed attacks and the damage multipliers available, bleeding abilities might actually be useful beyond normal/early epic. The intent isn't to make it a primary damage type, but to make it a helpful form of additional damage.
NATURE
The Nymph is an alright pet, currently, but the vast majority of players skip her because while she's good, she's not worth the point investment. She takes about the same amount of points as the Lich or Core Dweller, but isn't good at tanking or dealing damage. And her Overgrowth buff is awful. This is just a general improvement to make her worth the points.
SPIRIT
WARFARE
DEFENSE
DREAM
My intention isn't to reinvent the wheel, here. I just want to do two things: improve abilities that aren't worth using right now, so that they are worth using, and to take some of those one-point-wonder skills and make them more scalable.
I WANT FEEDBACK
Storm:
Energy shield. Only protects against cold and lightning, which aren't that common from what I remember?
Wisp - pretty one shot wonder point wise as well, theres little point to putting any more in, as it doesn't get a huge damage increase, and only doubles in hit points.
Earth:
Molten rock. Does a measly 15 retaliation damage with the max 8 points in it, on a power that won't be used very often.
Spirit:
Life Drain. At max points this heals a whopping 250 while only dealing 100. Unless this is very spammable it seems both a shitty heal and dd. At same exact points, natures heal is healing for 1500. And lightning bolt is hitting a 1.5 meter area for 180-360. Bumping it to max at 200 would heal for 520, which would actually make for a decent heal for a caster. Again all depends on spammability of the power.
Dream:
Lawl dream.
Distortion Field. Does this ability provide 39 damage absorption per attack for 15 seconds, or just 39 damage absorption once per 15 seconds when it activates?
Everything looks good though, I approve. Also looking at the actual values for a lot of the skills makes my OCD kick in, I can't stand seeing all those abilities cap out at odd fractions. 5.8 seconds, 3.9meters. God ironlore, just make it 6s and 4m.
The values are low, but it's also type-agnostic, so I didn't think of it as particularly broken. I can certainly see it being a bit... underwhelming, though. I'll add it to the list, but I'm going to focus on the really egregiously broken (and easy-to-fix) stuff first.
Life Drain's not very spammable, either. Not without a lot of -recharge. I'll have to check the cooldown time on it, but I seem to recall it being quite long; like 10 seconds or something.
As for Molten Rock, it's one of those abilities like Stinging Nettle... it's so horrible and so poorly-designed that I don't see how I could possibly make it worthwhile without basically reinventing the whole power.
I'll likely change Energy Shield to behave like Heat Shield, too, where it provides damage reduction to all damage types, but only absorbs cold/lightning.
Molten rock might be ok if it just had 3x the damage or so. I guess you could run up and aggro everything do some damage until youve taken damage, then pop stone form, heal, and maybe finish off some of the mobs?
Still wouldn't be worth taking to specifically do that, but then if you did want to use stone form it might be plausible slightly.
They should have just made it an aoe dot while stoneform was active, with lava spurting from the ground.
I'll probably actually make a brigand once you finish this, since bleed will be useful.
I'm going to do something I haven't done in years: go to McDonalds, get some breakfast, and then come back and keep plugging away at this.
I'm done with all of the Earth and Storm changes, although I'll revisit the Wisp later on.
Welcome to my insomnia! Only I never actually get anything done!
I did watch tropic thunder though, hilarious movie. I'm suprised it was written by ben stiller to be honest.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Hes modifying a difficulty mod to fix some of the shitty skills. The game is way too easy on default.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
I was following this guide to the letter:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/spirit/26587-guide-pwning-spirit.html
which basically has you max arcane lore, ternion before anything else.
The guide says once you have arcane lore maxed (with only one point in ternion, mind you) that you should be seeing some nice dps.
Well, not exactly.
I'm level 8 or 9, have arcane lore maxed, and have 3-4 points in ternion.
I'm using a blue staff, called "the shepherds crook" which does some nice cold damage, and has a +% cold damage modifier to boot.
What I see in-game, is that ternion still lags WAY behind my normal staff attack.
-First of all, there's 3 projectiles, and the fan spread is REALLY wide - even when i'm toe-to-toe with a critter, 2 of the 3 missiles miss due to wide spread.
-If there is a mob of mobs on me, and all projectiles hit, sure I see some splash damage but it's weak as shit. It takes forever to burn them down - I can burn them faster one at a time with standard staff attacks.
Plus, killing them off one at a time means i'm taking less damage as well, since they're not all still beating on me until they all die at the same time from ternion.
I'm wondering if the fanpatch has fucked something up, or simply downgraded ternion, or if there's something majorly wrong with what i'm doing (or expecting)?
Thanks!
I also have a 5 Storm that I can break out, or start at 1.
I'm in AZ, so later tonight is like 10 or 12 hours from this post.
Can you type chat in TQ like Diablo? I know I've got a mic somewhere, but I haven't found it since I built my new PC (my other one was out of commision for more than a year).
IT+Fanpatch, Steam version.
With one point in Ternion, you're doing -70% of your normal staff damage. Max it ASAP, and it goes down to -20%, which isn't so substantial.
Personally, I think that guide's retarded.
Here's my Ternion guide:
1) Max Ternion
2) Max Arcane Lore
3) Pick up Earth, Storm, or Rogue
4) Max Earth Enchantment if you want to go fire, and Heart of Frost for cold or Static Charge for Lightning. Use that kind of staff.
5) If you went Rogue, max out Mandrake ASAP; you won't have the damage output of Earth or Storm, but you'll confuse and blind everything you shoot.
Ternion used to be way, way, way overpowered pre-IT. They nerfed it hard. But I might see about switching it back a bit. I think the damage value nerfs were fine, but they changed the projectiles so that they're fixed; you used to be able to control the choke of Ternion to some degree.
I was aiming for a Spirit/Dream build, with maxed Ternion (+Ternion related skills), maxed Lich (+Lich related skills), and Maxed Nightmare (+Nightmare related skills).
Here's a Titan Calc for your review/comment:
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Diviner&master1=2&master2=9&sa=0&m1=32-6-0-12-8-0-0-0-0-16-0-6-8-0-12-0-12-0-1-1-16-0&m2=32-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-16-0-0-0-0-1-1-0-0-0-0-8-0-0
That's the core build, with a few points in one-point wonders.
Please let me know if there's a better way to spend the points, or if i'm overlooking something major.
Also, since i'm aiming for a Ternion/Pet build, is there better solutions for this type of ranged magic attack + pet setup?
Maybe earth is better than dream/nightmare with the lich?
Maybe earth/storm has a better direct-damage spam skill for me instead of ternion?
I'm open to all suggestions!
Unfortunately, your damage will be awful. The reason I suggest Fire and Storm is so you can get access to Earth Enchantment/Static Charge/Heart of Frost, because those skills boost their respective elemental damage by 100%. That applies to staff damage.
So, say you have some theoretical staff that does 100 per shot. With your build, you'll do 100 damage * 80% (because it's reduced by Ternion) = 80 damage per shot.
The other guy is going to do 100 damage + 100 from his damage buff = 200 damage * 80% = 160 damage per shot. Then add in the AoE damage from Arcane Lore's splash, and you can see why this is the way to go.
I think the claims in his guide are absolute bullshit; that build has no oomph behind it at all.
Here is a sample end-game build.
I love theorycraft!
Thanks for the clarifications and revised link.
Here's some additional questions:
1. Since Volcanic Orb is eating a lot of skills - wouldn't that be my main attack in lieu of ternion+earth enchant?
If so, could the points be taken out of ternion and used elsewhere?
As it is, it looks like I have two ranged DD spells maxed and will only be using one at a time...
2a. If Ternion is expendable, then is Lich by itself worth keeping Spirit?
Can Dream, Storm, or other specialization enhance the CoreDweller/Volcanic Orb build moreso than the Lich alone?
2b. If Ternion is > Volcanic Orb, can I dump the VOrb and spend more points in skills that augment the up-close-and-personal playstyle of Ternion attacks? Ring of Fire and Deathchill Aura both seem like nice PBAoE debuffs/damage to have running...
I also put points into the Lucid Dream Tree.
This is my end goal, without the added skills I get from quests.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
The short of it is that if you want to play up close with a staff user, you're going to die. A lot.
Volcanic Orb has several advantages over Ternion; has a longer range, larger AoE, and does more damage per activation. Same deal with Eruption. The idea is to fill in the gaps with Ternion. I mean, why only use one? Unless you're some obnoxious -recharge build that no one wants to play with, Volcanic Orb and Eruption are very slow attacks that don't make for a good primary attack on their own. Ternion is spammable.
The Lich is a good pet. A very good pet. But it's not worth it by itself. After normal, its damage starts lagging behind, and it becomes something of a distraction, rather than a killer.
Seriously, normal mode is so easy that you could probably beat it naked and with a copper knife. Give whatever you want to a go, and if you don't like it, respec later. Earth/Spirit gives you a lot of good options.
Well, it sounds like Earth is a much better compliment to the Spirit tree than Dream is, based on how i'm playing at the moment anyway.
I've already chosen Spirit/Dream however - when I reach the first respec NPC (Delphi I think?) can I respec specializations as well as skills? Or do I need to make a new character if I want to drop Dream for Earth?
You can't change your masteries via respec.
Dream's still very potent with Spirit. I wouldn't bother with Ternion attack with that build, but Dream has plenty of other goodies to work on.
Awesome, right?
1. Are lightning damage and electrical burn damage treated as separate damage types?
Or do they both fall under the "lightning" resist category?
For example - if I shot a mob with say, Chain Lightning... would Lucid Dream's +15% damage help out?
2. Eye of Storm (wisp ability) description says it increases cold/lightning damage, but the skill itself simply says +x% Elemental Damage.
Does it help fire as well? Or not?
Also I am surprised that Harbinger (warfare/dream) wasn't mentioned on the easy classes list.
The build below is what I based mine on and I was around level 72 when I stopped playing it. Keep in mind this was before fan patches so the build may be improved, not sure if it fixed issues like Triumph not working, or nerfed abilities like hamstring (that -28 to defensive ability is a %)
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Harbinger&master1=3&master2=9&sa=0&m1=32-6-0-8-6-8-6-1-6-0-10-0-6-6-0-0-0-0-6-6-0&m2=32-0-0-0-0-8-12-6-0-0-8-0-12-0-8-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Also for those of you just starting it, yes Act IV is a great difficulty leap (damn you machae archers), but its worth it.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
I finally understand their bizarre layout for monster attribute scalars. They're laid out in an array of values that are indexed 1-18; I thought that was odd. Obviously it's not a level range... I didn't know what it was supposed to represent.
Turns out, it's a representation of difficulty and number of players in the game. So index 1 is normal mode with one player. index 6 is normal mode with 6 players. Index 7 is epic mode with one player, etc.
I can make my own difficulty mod, now, instead of relying on those absurd ones I've found at the TQ forums. This makes it far easier to build the changes into the fan patch, too.
As for difficulty, all I've done so far is increased mob HP. Mobs will have a 50% bonus to HP in a single player normal game right now (used to be no bonus), and it scales 50% per-player (it used to scale 30%). So in a two-player game, now, mobs will have +100% HP instead of +50%.
It's only the first of a series of changes I plan to make, but I want to test it incrementally.
So, anyone up for helping me test this out? It's simple, really. All you have to do is download the database file (~25MB), back up your existing database file, and replace it with this one.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Epic and Legendary are rather difficult because of things like mobs gaining new resistances, a huge bonus of offensive and defensive ability, and a rather large penalty to your own resistances.
All I've done is tweak the HP scaling so that it takes more than a stiff breeze to kill mobs in normal mode.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Also, like I said, this isn't some major, serious ordeal to use. It's a single file. If it doesn't work out, we delete it, replace it with the old one, and everything's the same as it is now.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577