Caster Alchemist on VH - thoughts

[belgarathmth]

Hello, friends; I'm currently playing an Alchemist on VH softcore with the intention of using Ember Lightning as my "nuclear option", if I can ever live that long.

I just deleted my first attempt - he was using Ember Shield and Ember Bolts and spreading his attributes according to equipment. I found that the Ember Bolts, even when maxed, made for a very poor survival spell, because they kept crashing harmlessly into stair wells and other obstacles, but even worse, they made me into a blue potion junkie. I kept spending all my gold on blue potions!

Also, I had very, very bad luck at the spell caster's shop. A very successful strategy that I always use is to equip Kitty with both Heal Self and Heal All spells - that way, she turns into an unstoppable healing machine - she takes care of herself and me, and drastically cuts down on red potion consumption. I managed to get to level 10 with the failed character without ever finding a single healing spell, or in the rare times when there was one available, I could not buy it, because I had spent all my money on blue potions!

I learned a very important lesson here. The caster should focus on points in Magic and wands for main damage, with a lot of running back and forth and dodging. Ember Bolts, at least for levels 1-10, should be for backup in cases where Alchy gets surprise-attacked by a mob. This makes Ember Shield, which I always max, hugely more effective. Plus, you can keep the Shield on right mouse button most of the time for quick casting (I play with mouse only), and keep the Bolts on tab for emergencies.

With my new Alchy, I am building Magic attribute, finding the best wands I can equip and dual wielding them, and maxing Ember Shield. I have a few points in Ember Bolts for emergencies only. This way, I hope to survive long enough to get the all-powerful Ember Lightning (fires around corners and obstacles - what more could a caster want?), and I will have enough money to get Heal All for Kitty as soon as the magic saleswoman has it.

Bottom line: If you are a red or blue potion junkie throuh levels 1-10, your build is NOT working! Scrap it and try something else.

[belgarathmth]

I got my Alchemist to 10th level and took Ember Lightning. It wasn't so great on VH.

My Alchemist at level 12 has 6 deaths (six!)

My Jedi at level 15 has only two.

What is wrong with the Alchemist class? It seems badly underpowered on VH. (I saw another thread about underpowered Alchys that I can't seem to find at the moment.)

Could I please hear some thoughts from successful Alchys who can defend the class?

I wonder if the 1.15 update has upped the ante on VH difficulty and inadvertently made the entire class unviable unless one doesn't care about dozens of deaths.

[belgarathmth]

Hookay, since nobody seems terribly interested, I thought I would post some of my latest experience with Alchy builds, just in cast there's some kindred lonely soul out there who is still trying to figure out the Alchy on VH difficulty.

I started yet another character tonight, and this one is the most successful yet. What I tried this time, since no true caster build seemed to be working, was to concentrate on maxing Armor Lore and Ember Shield. I also split 50-50 on Magic and Defense attributes.

The third time seems to be the charm. My previous two attempts were far too weak on defense. The moral of my little story is, first you max Armor and Shield all the way to 10 ranks, then Wands/Staffs, and then and only then, consider building a nuke spell. If you go for the nuke spell from the beginning, you will be so squishy that you will get owned right from the first undead manor level, and it will get worse from there.

Defense, defense, defense, and only when you can stand and fight with a wand or staff, then nuke.

[Lunarez]

I've try caster alch on VH in many ways like you provide. Going glass cannon doesn't make things go well as the mobs will 1-shot you after the 6th floor even you have the best of your gears...And there is no way you can dodge all of the attacks alone either.

My solution is the same as yours, but I also got through lvl 1-10 with Summon Skeleton I to tank myself. While my toon focusing on maxing Armor Mastery and Wand/Staffs first with no Embershield. I also relying on another offensive spell like Fireball or Frost for clearing the map out in no time. And after I reach lvl 10, I put a point at Ember Lightning. The purpose of this spell is not about its damage (even it's quite high at 10) but for its ultities at sniping the mobs from the cliff+through the wall. I don't need my weak skeleton after that though.

For gears I focus on heavy defense and casting speed, the more defense of the gears the more you gain from mastery. While casting speed boost your damage significantly. And if you can, try invest a wand that have manasteal. This save a lot of your gold that spent into mana potions.

Now i'm level 13 with 4 death, I'll keep trying if this works later level or not since Alchemist has a very poor ability scaling.

PS. I just notice this topic is 2 years old..
PS 2. yeah, I've just brush up my Torchlight and start playing

[belgarathmth]

Lunarez, thanks for joining the discussion I was trying to start. My first post was September 2011, so the thread is fairly recent, not two years old. It's hard to tell with the forum so sleepy, I know. I guess most people have moved on to other games now.

I see what you mean about "glass cannon". I finally got a good alchy built who was doing quite well with Ember Lightning, mostly by avoiding direct combat by taking cover and firing around obstacles, just as you describe.

I've left off playing him for now, since I've been into the Jedi mod lately, and gotten into a Star Wars frame of mind philosophically - I started feeling guilty frying everything with lightning since it was making me feel all dark-sidey. I kept hearing Master Yoda's voice in my head, chiding me for "turning to the dark side".

[Lunarez]

@belgarathmth

You sure are a starwar fan. Hope you'll come back to the art of alchemy soon

For my progress, I have fought my way through Lvl 20. With a level in Ember Lightning. I also try max Ember Lance since it's a nice mobsweeper. However, it's not good though. The mobs start to rush to you so fast that it's hard to line a shot. It also drains your mana so fast and there is no way you can stand and hit mobs with your manasteal wand also. (They start to nearly instagib me after lvl 17) I try picking up something with Knockback option. It seems to work a bit in a narrow place since your lance will push them away. But the damage is still so poor that even you're out of mana, sometimes there're the things that still able to come through your pet to you, even I have around +30% Fire damage from my gears and 75 int at this point.

For the next plan, I decide to try Crit-Lance build that focus on Critical Hit and Ember Lance. The critical damage should solve both your damage and mana junky. I'll share about it soon after I've tried that.

[belgarathmth]

Sounds good, Lunarez.

I read a guide where the author said he got an Ember LIghtning alchemist through the end of VHHC. He maxed Armor Lore, Adventurer (for the levels and better potions), and Defensive Spell Mastery. He also maxed Ember Shield, but he says he saved that for next to last. His final points went into Block and Parry (more defense).

The Defensive Spell Mastery was for the Elemental Protection spell.

He says he went 2:2:1 on Magic, Defense, and Strength (for armor). For gear, he said getting Reflect Ranged Damage to 100 percent was vital, with everything else increasing elemental resistance.

Also: he said a key to his success was keeping Web and Frost spells on the pet at all times. He said the pet so equipped could hold the mobs back long enough for him to electrocute them. He called his build "the Electrocutioner".

I'll be taking a break from my Jedi and starting on an Ember LIghtning alchy this weekend. I'll probably switch back and forth among my characters according to my moods.

[belgarathmth]

This weekend, I made it to the Lost Fortress, dungeon level 28, character level 30, with no deaths.

The build is 10 points Adventurer, 10 points Ember LIghtning, 10 points Ember Shield, 6 points Armor Lore, 10 points Critical Hit, 1 unavoidable point Ember Bolts.

Personal spells are Identify, Town Portal, Elemental Resistance, Elemental Overload, pet is casting Web and Frost.

With the character level high enough and supporting Defense attribute and skills, Ember LIghtning rocks!

I seem to be owning the game at this point, although I don't know what's coming (I've never actually finished the game). Like most action rpg's, success in Torchlight is about finding the perfect build for the character class. There are always several builds that work, and many that don't, for each class. For me, the main fun in the games is in finding good builds, combined with what I call the "slot machine effect" of finding good equipment drops.

[Lunarez]

Look nice , belgarathmth. I still not got much time playing lately ,heh. But enough to reach level 25.

I have 8 death, 4 comes from my stupidity that dragging the mobs into the respawn point in the phrase portal (and also by my ignorant to try fighting there.) It's a bit hard at first, until I get myself Ember Lance. And it's amazing! The critical Lance does crazy damage that even the fame boss can't stand it. The crit also reduce a lot of mana potions that I need to use also. I must say I have good luck gambling since I got a +6 Critical wand early.

My build right now is 10 points Armor, 10 Points Critical Hit. I have a point in Ember Lightning (for sniping) and on my way building up Lance to level 10. While putting some spare points in Barter and Adventurer.

For my spells , I pick up Frost, Elemental Overload, Haste, and Summon Flamesword (good damage and tanking ability). My pet has Heal All and Heal Self.

My next plan is to see how Ember Strike seems to be. It has a huge base damage.

[belgarathmth]

I used to also like to put Healing spells on my pet, until I saw how devastatingly effective Web and Frost on the pet are for crowd control, so now I recommend that. Try it, you'll like it.

[LordGarth]

Hey Guys,

I'll lend my thoughts on a caster alchemist.

First off, I initially played Torchlight as a Destroyer as getting into the thick of the fighting is the most appealing to me. So I have played with a number of Destroyer builds and some of my base thoughts about a build has come from it.

I have now completed Torchlight on VH HC with a Alchemist caster. It was much harder than a Destroyer build because of the lack of strong armour, and the lack of Frostshield. So here we go.

My platform is XBox360, and you start with a Respec potion and the spell iluvbees. In my builds, the use of a respec potion is always part of the equation. If you don't have access to respecing easily, much of what I say would have to be heavily tweaked. Also, I do not know many of the game mechanics. I have many questions, but don't have a good resource for answers. I'm sure the answers are somewhere in the forums, but not compiled.

I died 3 times on HC before beating it. Each time I died it was because I played too riskily/sloppily. I was just used to Destroyer builds that could take a pounding and got myself into situations that I couldn't spam potions out of.

Alchemist VH Build
Thoughts
The start of a build should begin with a vision I think. I wanted to play a traditional wizard, and this seemed the route to take.
After playing a number of Destroyer builds, my thinking was around offense, offense, offense. The reasons for this was because the more offence you have, the faster you can kill monsters. The faster you can kill monsters, the faster you gain XP, gold, and better equipment. With a defensive build, it takes so much more time to go through monsters, and I really don't think an Alchemist is cut out to be a slugger. Not a traditional caster anyways. So the key to the build is Web/Frost, and high damage output. And running away. I mean, strategic retreat.

I can't stress that enough about my builds; going half-way doesn't cut it. It seemed as I played that if I went a middle route, I would do horribly. So if you're lacking in skill points (and who isn't?) focus on ONE offensive spell, and Critical Strikes. Respect to switch spells.

I also never worried about using potions. If I thought I might need a potion, I used it. If mobs were coming towards me and I was at full health but about to be jumped, I downed a potion as I was running. The cost of potions isn't insignificant, but it's much, much cheaper than buying gear. For the cost of a single piece of gear around the 2000 range, you can buy 20-30 potions, depending. By the time you go through those potions, you might find a piece of gear almost as good or better. So spam those potions! Also, even if you're not playing on HC, death can be expensive. Either in time, money or both.

I would almost never buy gear. At the start, I bought non-magical gear as it was very cheap. I grabbed a high DPS staff with a socket, and threw a poison gem in there to help with Ember Bolt.

Stats
I dumped my stats like so:
Magic 3, Defense 2. No exceptions. I used gems I created to add to stat points to make sure I could use the gear I needed. Magic is Key. My destroyers weren't nearly so skill reliant, and magic really increases damage output. 100 magic stat w. Ember Bolt = +50% damage. With LIghning, = +100% damage. Very effective.

Skills
Need to have
Ember Bolt:
Level this up every chance you get until you can switch to Ember Lance or Lightning. Even when you have the option for Ember Lance/Lightning, Ember Bolt is still really good with a fast cast speed and a knockback. With a bunch of +% casting gear, I could cast fast enough to just stand still and knock Trolls back so they could never hit me. It gets a 50% boost based on magic score (eg. if your Magic score is 20, it adds +10% damage) and if you slot your weapon with a gem for + poison damage, it combines. So early I bought a non-magic staff with a slot, and slotted it with a Discoloured Green Gem and it really brought my damage level up. High Skill level, +good gems, +high magic score = high damage output and lets you spam this spell dropping enemies like flies.

Critical Strikes:
I leveled this up a lot as well. Ember Bolt takes priority though. It works with all your Damage skills.

Ember Lightning:
Another Great damage dealing spell. This is good for spread out enemies as it auto hits for you, or enemies with a high protection against poison. I found it wasn't as hampered with terrain as well, so found it more accurate. It was also easier on the mana bar. All those pros being said, Ember Bolt leveled up could usually dish out more damage, faster (with the right gear).

Ember Lance:
Awesome spell. Level this up to maximum. I would heavily rely upon this, luring enemies to choke points and then unloading. The only thing that bolsters this spell I think is +% fire damage. Best against low powered groups, but still can work against bosses. You just sit still when you're using it so against enemies that I'm trying to maneuver, I prefer lightning.

Pyre:
Good when it's available. The damage doesn't scale well though; there's no way to add damage to it, so later on it loses it's shine. But right away it's nice especially if you have Web as well. Eventually I would get rid of it through a respec though.

Ember Strike:
I haven't done enough testing on this to see whether it's worth it. It's good when you get it though.

Armour Expertise:
Best thing is it lowers the requirements. I put 2 points into this when I didn't have points for anything else. Later on I'd add to it. It is definitely worth it to put in a couple points here early IMO; being able to wear stronger armour helps so much.

Block/Parry:
Something you invest in endgame.

Nice to have
Advanced Spellcasting:
I put only a single point in here. The only thing worth having is the mana regeneration, and I find it's nice to not burn through many potions. However, as enemies generally come in waves, for difficult fights you'll still need to spam potions. The mana regeneration just doesn't cut it. So as the big fights are more concerning to me, I've only ever spent a single point. Another 'nice to have' skill.

Adventurer:
I think this skill isn't as good as people make it out to be. Think of it like this: if you can go through monsters 2% faster (by increasing damage output), then that's just as good a 2% experience/fame gain. I only level this when I have nothing else to get.

Barter/Treasure Hunter: no real explanations needed here.

Special Mentions
Ember Phase. I did not use this on the 360 as it didn't have a point and click mechanism for fine control. On the PC it might work a lot better.
Thorned Minions: This may help against bosses combined with a pet that heals itself. As it's a reflection of an opponents damage, it might work really well. Haven't tried it yet, but want to.
Offensive Mastery:
I haven't had lots of extra skill slots, but if I do I think this will come in handy. With Web/Frost I assume it would freeze them longer, Elemental Overload would last longer/do more damage, and Dervish you would greatly increase your attack speed. At high, high levels this is probably very important.

Bought/Found skills
Good spells to get are:
Dervish
Elemental Overload
Web or Frost
Elemental Resistance (key in the end game)

Web and Frost are really good and you should have one of them. Used correctly at choke points, it can allow you enough time to unload magic to take out enemies before they get to you. Highly valued, although Web is the best but much more rare.

Pet spells
Heal Self or Heal All
Some kind of summon
I just relied upon potions for myself; your pet can't heal you fast enough. I need to look at the cool downs/mana cost, but if Heal Self is cheaper (and it should be) I'd rather have that on my pet early, and then Heal All when he gets a good summon. I see people recommending crowd control; web is so rare I haven't had a chance to try it on my pet, but my pet makes such dumb decisions and these are such tactical spells I definitely wouldn't rely on it. I'd use web/frost on myself first, and if I had spares send them to the pet to try.

Gear
Increasing damage output decreases the need for protection and decreases potion consumption (both red and blue). It also busts through an opponents resistances. Therefore, I focused on high damage output, armour, and resistances. As most spells damage output is the spell itself, faster casting is EXTREMELY helpful. It also helps with combos (Elemental Overload, Web, spam attack spells).

Usually I would go with a high damage Staff slotted with the best offensive gems I could find. I would try and stack damage (if my main spell was Ember Lance I'd stack fire damage on it). The reasoning for me is if an enemy has a variety of resistances, it's better to lay it on thick with one damage type and 'punch through'. I do not know if this is true or not; haven't tested it. Just a logical assumption. The staff is also good for weak mobs that make it through your spells.

Adding gear that adds HP is important as well so you don't get 1-shotted. A Destroyer hsa plenty of hit points so reducing the damage each attack will do is key, but I've had better luck just loading up on +HP gear. My current build is around lvl 20 and has over +500 HP in gear (looking for more as well). I think this will help protect you against most attacks better than resistances.

Pet Gear: My pet is to distract long enough for magic to do its work. I stack it with +Magic Find, +Defense, and +HP in that order. I try to make sure I have a couple of fishes to feed it even though I hate fishing. It can be invaluable. Finding good magic items is the best way to increase your effectiveness so that's my first priority with my pet.

Money Management
Make sure you have enough potions, and don't cheap out on them. You normally use potions when you're low and in a big fight, so get the good stuff. It can really save your bacon.

I almost never buy gear. I would rather invest in potions. The only time I do is if a piece of gear is really lacking and a buy greatly increases its effectiveness. Buying a spell is OK, but I wouldn't do it to merely increase it a level. Elemental Overload 2 works just as well as 3 pretty much. Same with other spells. If it's a jump of 2 or more, I think its worth it, or if I just have money to blow.

I never sell magic gear; I always transmute it into Gems. Having a good stockpile of gems allows me to tweak my stats to wear the next best gear available, and stack elemental damage.

Armour I focused on Elemental Resistance and Armour. Both are important. Faster cast is also really good because it translates into damage.

My money went into potions. All magic gear I didn't want I transformed it into gems and socketed it. If a particular piece of gear was lacking, (if I could find a decent pair of gloves for awhile for example) I would buy one. I chugged a ton of potions but it didn't bother me.

Strategy
Depends what spell you're using, but the most dangerous part of a dungeon is the first little area. Once you go in, you can always retreat, especially if you have web/frost. If you're in a pinch and looks like you'll be overwhelmed, use a town portal to escape, then do some other dungeon.

WIth a high focus on Offense, this build is riskier. However, if I didn't feel comfortable descending in levels, I would buy a Map and clear that level, or go to a higher level in the dungeon. Remember that higher offense means you can clear enemies faster, and get magic items/gold/XP/fame faster as well. Thats why I think it's a stronger build than a defensive one. If you go defense, it may be stronger at a particular point in time (may; haven't tested) but you won't improve your guy faster. Once he's improved you can always switch to defense.

Final notes
As long winded as this is, I have not taken any builds past level 35. I do not know how they scale from 35-100; once the main quest is done it feels too much like a grind. Once I've experimented with all the classes I'll continue past level 35 and see if I can make it to the end of the Shadow Vault. My strategy may change from that experience.

[belgarathmth]

Wow, Lord Garth, that's a fantastic guide packed with great advice. If we ever had an organized source for build guides, I think your post should definitely be in it.

Thanks for spending so much time playing the class and then sharing all that experience.

[LordGarth]

I'm not an expert by any means. This is just personal experience, a bit of experimentation (without mods) and based on XBox360 game play. PC may be totally different. It's fairly easy to move and shoot with a XBox controller.

If you decide to follow the guide, let me know how it works for you. Interested to try and throw ideas around with other people. I'm just getting into this game now (got it when it went on sale on the XBox arcade; didn't know about it until then).

Rereading my post, I feel I left some out as well.

For example, your equipment will depend on what spell you chose. If you go with Ember Bolt, having a high Damage weapon, with damage upgrade gems is helpful. If you go with Ember Lance, all that matters is +%. You could have a weapon that does 10k DPS, and it won't help it a bit. Higher casting rate, and +% fire will. If you have neither, then go with a Shield.

Consider +Magic items like a +% damage depending on what spell you've picked. If an item gives you +20 to magic, for some spells that's the equivalent of +20% damage, and others +10% (I believe).

Elemental resistance is also very important. On the later levels, that's the biggest danger I think.
I just found how Defense works:
For physical attacks, it's your Armour Value * Defence /100 = points of damage absorbed.
For elemental attacks, it's Elemental Resistance * Defence /100 = points of damage absorbed.

So if your elemental resistance is say 200, and your defence is 50, that means each attack based on that will lose 100 points of damage.

My current character is Lvl 23, with 151 Electrical Defence (I find electrical and fire defence is what's needed in the last levels). Defense score is 65. I currently have a pair of gloves that give +300 health and have been debating getting rid of them soon. At low levels, the extra HP is terrific. The further I go, I know they'll have less impact then just getting +Defense and +Elemental resistance.

So I think I understand how the Damage fully works now and hopefully defense as well. Which means my gut was right when going full damage. If enemies defence works the same (and it should) then, for example, say an enemy has 200 HP, and I do 50 damage per cast of Ember Lance. Let's also say their elemental resistance equates to 10 less damage per hit with fire. So at 40 damage per cast, it takes 5 casts (mana and time it takes to cast that many times). If I increase my damage by 10, it would take 4 casts saving time and mana. Its even worse if it's lower. If I do say 30 damage, then reduced to 20 per hit means 10 successful castings; add 10 damage and it goes to 7 castings. So busting through their protection is key I think.

Elemental protection IV is what I currently have, and apparently it adds +18 to all elemental protections. With a Defense score of 65, that's 11 points of damage absorbed per spell. Meh. Doesn't seem like much. But it lasts 60 seconds, so its easy to cast and lasts awhile. I'll see what it does by the time I really need it.

Current tactics are I throw Pyre, run a bit (to get them grouped up), turn and fire Frost into them, then hit them with Ember Lance. When they get in range I either whack them with my staff (if they're weak enough) or run for it and with the Summon Archer spell my pet has combined with the pet itself, hopefully it provides enough of a distraction I can escape unscathed, or at least break up a mob into two or more groups. I decided on Summon Skeleton Archers because it provides 5 targets that don't move, and the cooldown is only 5 seconds. Also, if there are skeletons already on the map, the pet won't waste magic summoning more. So far, so good. Only did 2 Map runs, nothing form Hatch, and haven't replayed any maps although I'm tempted to go back to the Etherian levels to hopefully grab fish (I hate fishing).

You also said you had Town Portal and Identify as spells. Xbox doesn't have that option; all identify/town portal are in the form of scrolls, which seem to drop in plentiful supplies. I have 80 town portal scrolls and haven't bought a single one. They sell so cheap they're not worth selling; I may if I get a bunch of ranks in barter, but that won't be until much later.

Also, it could be my imagination, but when I use Pyre and Ember lance it seems to stack. I wonder if this is because if its hit with multiple effects at once it punches through resistances better? Could just be my imagination. I'll try to test with and without pyre, but its very hard to test anything on the xbox. No punching bags.

[LordGarth]

Experimenting with Ember Strike again, and I don't like it at all.

On the XBox, it just fires at the edge of the screen every time. I experimented with a troll point blank, the troll had focus, and still I was shooting really far away missing everytime. It seems to have a set range on the xbox. Unsure how it behaves on the PC; I expect you can click where you want it to go.

I'll try it a bit longer but already I feel I won't be able to use it, except hitting something at the edge of the screen, and then switching tactics when they come charging at me.

[belgarathmth]

That's more great advice and information, LordGarth. Thanks again.

I've got my caster alchy at character level 30 and almost ready to start the Black Palace. With me at 30 and them at about 26 or 27, things looked like they were going to kick my butt as soon as I got crowded in anywhere, so I decided to do some storebought maps for a while and toughen up.

So far, he's never died. His attack spell is Ember Lightning, maxed. I never needed the Ember Lance, which is very effective but not mana-efficient, plus it has to have a line of sight to work. With Pyre and Ember Strike, I think the general consensus is that they don't scale as well as Ember Lightning and Ember Lance, and are more difficult to control, as you have pointed out.

I took a couple of points in the Ember Sentry. I find that it does way better than advertised in multiplying your damage plus providing bonus damage of its own, and it acts as an alarm and for target acquisition as you watch the directions in which it fires.

I have Critical Strikes, Ember Shield, and Adventurer maxed, with several points in Armor Lore. I use Identify and Town Portal for convenience, just because I hate managing the scrolls. Elemental Protection and Elemental Overload are the only spells I've ever needed; I like to play with just the mouse and no keyboard, and I've found that my Kitty Kat does excellent work with Frost and Web such that I haven't needed to wield direct control over them.

I never knew the damage and defense formulae before - that info will be extrememly helpful.

[LordGarth]

I'm going to start a thread with a bunch of posts on Game Mechanics. I have lots of gaps and I hope some of the more experienced members will help fill in the gaps.

It will just be a compilation of stuff on this forum and others; I'm really getting into the game now and I think it'll be beneficial to myself and hopefully others.

Good to know there's others out there that are still enjoying this game.

[belgarathmth]

I'm going to start a thread with a bunch of posts on Game Mechanics. I have lots of gaps and I hope some of the more experienced members will help fill in the gaps.

It will just be a compilation of stuff on this forum and others; I'm really getting into the game now and I think it'll be beneficial to myself and hopefully others.

Good to know there's others out there that are still enjoying this game.

(invoking T'ealc from Stargate, raising eyebrow and pulling corner of mouth, with deadpan seriousness.) Indeed, Lord Garth.

Your hard work and shared enthusiasm for Torchlight is greatly appreciated by me. I wish we had a more active community to share our enthusiasm with. I think that most people have moved on to other games or are waiting for Torchlight 2. Perhaps the release of the new game will generate renewed interest in this classic, which will join my list of beloved games on my yearly rotation of interest through all games (two sub-genres, this sub-genre includes Torchlight, Fate, Sacred, Divine Divinity, and Titan Quest, the other includes Baldur's Gate I and II, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter NIghts I and II, Dragon Age, and KOTOR).

See my other thread "Why isn't this Classic Getting More Love?"

[LordGarth]

Generally I play FPS, such as COD.

Out of all your games listed, I've only played KotOR (awesome) and Dragon Age (really good difficulty level). Grabbed KotOR II but never played it really. Didn't appeal as much to me. Bioshock also had an awesome story line. Very Ayn Rand.

My post is up here:
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=19563

It's under XBox Live as I didn't see a better place for it. I currently play XBox so seemed as good a place as any. Also it doesn't get as many visitors, so less likely to be 'pushed down'.

[Lunarez]

I guess I can help you fill some of this up. Well, I don't know if I should post it in that topic or not (since you still need to fill it a lot) but hope this help.

Strength
1 point of Strength increases melee weapon damage by one percent. Melee weapons are specifically swords, axes, maces, & polearms.
(Staff also calculated by Strength, have tried that)
Dexterity
1 point of Dexterity increases ranged weapon damage by one percent. Ranged weapons are specifically pistols, bows, rifles, and crossbows.
(Wand also calculated by Dexterity, have tried this also.)

Questions:
I have an Axe that does 100 Physical Damage, and 100 Fire damage. If I increase my Strength by 1, is the total damage 201 or 202?
I have another Axe that does 100 Physical Damage, and has a slot. I insert a Poison Gem for +100 Poison Damage. I then increase my strength by 1. Is the total damage 201 or 202?
(It calculate on the base damage of the item, both physical and elemental. I think gem exclude. (need more testing) This mean your first example should do 202 damage in total.)
Defense: Does Defense work per hit? For example, does getting hit by 5 poison bolts simultaneously mean your resistance works per bolt?
(Works per hit, really sure about this)
Damage Reflected: I believe you still take this damage, and then it is reflected back.
(It reflect the exact amount of number it show. and doesn't reduce damage you take)
Damage Blocked: I don't think I've encountered this, except as a % Block.
(There's no fixed damage block, only % to fully block an instance of damage)

Wands
Attribue: MAG
Speed: 0.77-1.43
Avg. Speed: 1.1-1.2 (Slow)
Avg. Range: ?
(The range is up to the type of attack, Fire and Froze are the shortest but doing small AoE attack, Lightning is the same range as bow and can bounce walls and mobs, not sure about poison since it's homing projectile. The value should be varie from 6-12 I guess)

Questions:
What exactly does the speed number represent?
(The amount of time you use in unleashing 1 attack in second unit. 1.2 means you use 1.2 second to unleash an attack)

I hope someone will fixed this if i'm wrong or so

[LordGarth]

Thanks a lot!

Yeah there's lots to fill in, and as I go along I'll fill it in. It's taking the place of asking individual questions.

Cheers!