Destroyer Help

[BugJuice]

I want to be efficient at playing the destroyer class but i really don't know much about it.

-Where should i be dumping my stat points?
-Like whats the best tree to put my skill points into? Or do i put points across the trees?
-Dual wielding versus two handers.
-Shield and block information.
-Gear.
-Gems.
Importance of Weapon speed?
-Scrolls.
-Enchanting.
-etc?

Thank you.

[burbs]

I want to be efficient at playing the destroyer class but i really don't know much about it.

-Where should i be dumping my stat points?

Depends on difficulty level. 2 strength 3 defense on very hard, 3s/2d on normal. Maybe one in magic every now and then
so you can equip certain unique items.

-Like whats the best tree to put my skill points into? Or do i put points across the trees?

Across all 3 trees. I like to put points in my passive skills first (armor/weapon mastery) and only one point in any offensive skill (slash, titan stomp) I plan on using until I get Spectral Echo and/or Devastate. MAX FROST SHIELD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I continue to to put points in passive skills such as Critical Hits, Treasure Hunter and Barter while keeping my offensive skill as low as I can tolerate (relying on gear). Then I max spectral echo or deviate.

-Dual wielding versus two handers.

Polearms don't yield 2x dps and you lose a equipment slot for bonuses.

-Shield and block information.

Look for:
+X% chance to block
X% chance to reflect X% missile damage.
+defense
+armor
+resists

-Gear.

+armor
+defanse
+strength
+crit
+crit damage
+resists

-Gems.

Very very useful.
+defense, +strength, +fire, +poison for armor
+damage, +ice, +electric for weapons.

Importance of Weapon speed?

Very important for skills like Spectral Echo, not at all for skills like devastate. Also faster weapons gain more dps from enchanting than slower weapons (the enchanter doesn't care if the weapon is fast or slow, and +25 damage adds more dps on a fast weapon because that 25 damage is being applied more often).

-Scrolls.

Whatever you like. Elemental protection is good, haste, dervish..

-Enchanting.

Will make your purple rares more powerful than your best uniques and you uniques insane. It costs next to nothing to enchant rare/magic items and is very expensive for uniques. The more you enchant the more the price goes up, and the more your chance of clearing the item of all bonuses goes up.

Also gamble for uniques. A good tip is to put an item with a socket into your pets inventory, then when you mouse over the items in the gamblers inventory if the socket on the item in your pets inventory lights up, you know the gamblers item has a socket. If it also has 2 or 3 requirements like strength and defense odds are it is a unique item.

Oh, and fish. You can find lots of good stuff, just not in the town.

[BugJuice]

Thank you! This helped a lot. Great straight forward answers.

After reading this I am going to have to delete and re-roll my character now.
I was playing my character on hard and I pretty much dump all 5 points every time into strength and occasionally defense.

My build is wacky. My level 11 destroyers build looks like this...
http://calc.torchlightinsider.com/index.php?c=1#?b=0,6,8,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

Should I have my off-hand as a shield or stick to dual wielding? Or should I have a shield as my second weapon set to quick switch to when I am taking heavy damage?

[burbs]

So here's the thing with dual wielding, most skills that use weapon dps as the base for damage calculation only use the dps from the weapon in your right hand, AND they don't gain the added damage from Dual Wielding because they go by dps, not the damage you see listed in the character screen. So most skills only use the dps from your right handed weapon.

There are at least 3 big exceptions to this rule. Slash, Spectral Echo and Devastate. Both Slash and Devastate use the combined dps from all equipped weapons, meaning Devastate will gain a lot of dps when having 2 weapons equipped. BUT neither slash nor devastate will gain from having 60% added damage from the Dual Wielding skill because they don't use the normal attack.

Spectral Echo is the complete opposite. It relies only on the dps from the right hand for the AoE effect, but because it uses the normal attack to spawn the "shock waves" it gains from the 60% damage from dual wielding. Not the shock waves, just the normal attack.

There's one other issue with 2 x 1h weapons. Your attack speed does not increase when dual wielding. The rate at which you swing will be the same if you have 1 fastest-attack weapon and a shield equipped, or 2 fastest-attack weapons equipped. And it will go down if one of your weapons equipped is slower than the other. Also, since you alternate swings between the left and right hand for each hit, the dps from each weapon is applied on alternating hits. More times than not one of your weapons will have less dps than the other, so you'd actually do more damage with just the higher dps weapon equipped, which will hit on each strike (and at the same speed or faster), and a shield to boost stats and block. This does not take into account the damage bonus from the dual wielding skill though, and only applies to the normal attack.

Aside from a normal-attack only build, there is only one build I can think of that would benefit from 2 x 1h weapons (similar dps, fastest attack) and maxed Dual Wield skill. A semi-high damage Spectral Echo build. But because much of the damage from spectral echo comes from its aoe effect and its ranged nature, the normal-attack just doesn't land all that often (except against champions or bosses if you choose). But you will lose 9-15% block chance and any good defensive buffs from a shield. And devastate will still do more damage, without Dual wielding maxed.

Devastate would benefit from 2 x 1h weapons, but it doesn't need the Dual Wielding skill. But, again you lose your shield.

So it all comes down to how you want to play, do you want to do as much damage as possible and go 2 x 1h Devastate and risk dying (more often), or do you want to take a more defensive approach and go sword-and-board + Spectral Echo. Or like you said, you can do both by using the quick switch. Either way I don't really see the need for the Dual Wielding skill until much later in the game when you need all the dps you can get or have nothing better to spend skill points on.

Sorry this ended up being a lot longer than expected.

[BugJuice]

Ah i see. Well I decided that i am going to go with the devastate build. Can someone post the default build for devastate and how should I allocate my points. (I am playing on hard difficulty)

[BugJuice]

Well then i am planning on playing at this build.
http://calc.torchlightinsider.com/index ... ,0,0,10,10
Putting my points into a 3/2 ratio. (Str/Def) at Hard difficulty.

[burbs]

looks good, you might put 1 point in Titan Stomp for its AoE knockback, until you get devastate.

[Rattlehead]

Looks like a decent build, but I agree with burbs, 1 point in Titan Stomp. Will definitely help for the times you get mobbed, and it will happen at some point.

[Roberticus]

Well then i am planning on playing at this build.
http://calc.torchlightinsider.com/index ... ,0,0,10,10
Putting my points into a 3/2 ratio. (Str/Def) at Hard difficulty.

Why 10 points in Advanced Spellcasting? Your mana burn rate won't be that high. Hell, my summoner and vanquisher don't need more than 6 points in ASC. IMO, those points would be better spent on an AoE skill like Titan Stomp or Doomquake.

[Qwal]

http://calc.torchlightinsider.com/index ... 0,0,0,10,0

using this atm, putting points for eual str/def on very hard at the moment.

DO NOT PUT IN DUALWIELD BEFORE YOU MASTERED WEAPON EXPERTICE, yes it is in caps and this is because if you put dualwield before you do not gain as much dmg.

For example a while back i tested it with respec mod, put all in dualwield then all in weapon expertice, the dmg was about 1k, other way around i had 1.3k, no other difference in equipment at all.

[LtDrebin]

Since we're talking about the expertise skills, do Martial and Dual-wield expertises stack? If so, are they additive or multiplicative? The wiki states a lot of damage calculation is multiplicative, but Torchlight is pretty inconsistent regarding skills I'm finding

[Qwal]

as i said in my post just above you if you read it, i answered your question but i can say it again.

They stack yes, but put points into weapon expertice first, max it first THEN max dualwield. Not buts, it directly increases your overall dmg by a lot(i would say 30% cus the other way around i had 1k dmg, and with weapon first and dual later i had 1.3k).