[Outlander]: Weapon Choices

[Koolich]

I noticed in the the Outlander's first talent tree on the very right there are four passive buffs they can spec into! The first talent buffs all weapons except the shot gun. The second one buffs all weapons (except the wand, which Outlands should not be using anyways). The third one buffs the shotgun and the fourth one buffs the pistols. Not to mention that by wielding two pistols instead of 1 box/x-bow/shotgun, you can get twice as many enchantments/gems and therefore be even more powerful.

Is Runic Games doing something to ensure that you two handed ranged weapons have twice as many gem sockets and have twice as powerful enchants as pistols?

[kesvalk]

i know it sounds crazy, but one of the best builds for outlander is dual wands...

yeah, just kinda throw your ARPG knowledge out the window cuz this game seems to have a complete diferent build system...

i made a dual wield claws outlander and got a VERY cool ninja with it...
a sword and shield Embermage is awesome too...

[TankHunter678]

Wands, or even a staff melee build Outlander can be done very well, especially with the Elemental Mastery from the Lore Tree, in particular for Poison weapons. Since that gets a double bonus. Within the beta it was a 40% increase to poison damage, throw in some Poison Damage percent modifiers on your armor and double poison wands, or a poison staff would result in quite the powerful wand glaive Outlander, as the starting bouncing glaive deals poison damage, cursed daggers deals poison damage and combined very well with Stone Pact for survivability.

I plan to make a Poisonlander build when I get the game.

[CouchKraken]

i know it sounds crazy, but one of the best builds for outlander is dual wands...

yeah, just kinda throw your ARPG knowledge out the window cuz this game seems to have a complete diferent build system...

i made a dual wield claws outlander and got a VERY cool ninja with it...
a sword and shield Embermage is awesome too...

...and this is the reason why I find Torchlight very appealing. Shredding the typical and making the unusual work.

My summoner Destroyer approves!

[TheRani]

Yep, I did a wand Outlander, too. If you're specializing in poison skills instead of the gun/bow skills, you'll want to put lots of your stat points into Focus to increase your poison damage, and wands rely on Focus for damage, as well as stat requirement, so wands simply make more sense for a poisoner build. There are some people who've had fun with melee Outlanders, too. I love it when a class can be played multiple ways. That's part of what gave Torchlight so much replayability for me, so I'm glad it's also like this in TL2.

[Lights]

Hmm i hadn't tried wand in my outlander build. I did happen to find a shield that only an outlander can use. To bad beta ended before i could get my new outlander up to a lvl where he could use it. Was hoping to wield a shield and pistol. I love that they want to push you to try different builds and push the limits of what a class can do. The shield had inspired me to make a build that focused around vit and strength over dex. Was off to a good start too.

[kesvalk]

the only char in the game is a little biased is the berseker with dual wield, but then, you can dual wield ANYTHING

they should have made possible to dual wield shields just for lolz.

[vampirekid13]

the only char in the game is a little biased is the berseker with dual wield, but then, you can dual wield ANYTHING

they should have made possible to dual wield shields just for lolz.

i support this idea, ever since diablo 1 i have been wanting to play a game where you can have a warrior/barbarian/melee fighter dual wield shields.


im guessing his block chance would go to 100%, his block dmg % would go to somewhere close to 75%-80% and his only skills that would work would be stuff like "shield bash"...

[kontankarite]

I think out of all the builds, I found the outlander to be the most interesting.

Can't wait for the release now.

[tanej]

the only char in the game is a little biased is the berseker with dual wield, but then, you can dual wield ANYTHING

they should have made possible to dual wield shields just for lolz.

i support this idea, ever since diablo 1 i have been wanting to play a game where you can have a warrior/barbarian/melee fighter dual wield shields.


im guessing his block chance would go to 100%, his block dmg % would go to somewhere close to 75%-80% and his only skills that would work would be stuff like "shield bash"...

This sounds like Captain America.
Defensive: nearly 100% block
Offensive: Shield Charge/ Boomerang Toss

[Caspid]

i know it sounds crazy, but one of the best builds for outlander is dual wands...

yeah, just kinda throw your ARPG knowledge out the window cuz this game seems to have a complete diferent build system...

i made a dual wield claws outlander and got a VERY cool ninja with it...
a sword and shield Embermage is awesome too...

...and this is the reason why I find Torchlight very appealing. Shredding the typical and making the unusual work.

My summoner Destroyer approves!

I doubt it was intended that all classes should do so well speccing Focus and dual-wielding wands. "Making the unusual work" is cool, but only if it's because everything is so balanced that ANY build you choose is viable and about on par in terms of caliber. Which is impossible, but something to strive for. And I think this should only apply within classes; classes should be sufficiently unique and specialized. e.g. Barbs should not be doing more damage (and taking less) using wands than swords.

[V2Chu]

i made a dual wield claws outlander and got a VERY cool ninja with it...
a sword and shield Embermage is awesome too...

Dual wielding claw outlander needs a bit of tweak imo, especially for hardcore elite players. The reason I say this is because outlanders have a +10% to crt/atksp/dodge/castsp based on their charge meter. Ideally you'd want high dex to increase yr crit/dodge so that with the 10% increase u are virtually untouchable if u throw down the blade pact as well as glaive whirl stun. This build has a flaw in the sense that claw weapons don't seem to have any dmg benefit from the dex attribute. I made a post about this a couple days back and I am certain that there is a hidden dmg modifier based on stats with each weapon drawing upon a particular stat for dmg calculation.

For wands and magical staffs the tooltip clearly states that it draws upon focus
For claws/axes/swords they draw upon the str attribute which is also stated in the tooltips
For Spears & Staffs I am certain they draw upon the dex attribute as I had a high dex outlander that did a considerable amount of dps, much higher than the number displayed on the tooltip

The problem with dual claw wielding is that u will be doing minimal damage with your melee attacks unless u have a high str.

I know wat yr thinking, "just put more points into str then" but to that I say I need higher focus for execution as well as dodging with leap attacks and spamming blade pact as well as glaive whirl. I also need moderate vitality for those high dmg nukes that can potentially 1 hit KO. Although I could make a moderate dex outlander and spread the points evenly for str/dex/focus I feel that a dex modified claw weapon would be much apperciate

[V2Chu]

I feel that a dex modified claw weapon would be much apperciate

That or give us a more accurate tooltip that displays whether or not there is a dmg modifier for weapons, especially for the dex attribute because I did find myself doing more than 66 dps for a physical dmging staff with my high dex outlander

[DarkTails]

Lol...

The last class I tried was an Outlander, I was surprised with how the playthrough went.

I started off using a gun because it seemed like the appropriate weapon. Then I tacked on a shield just because. Later I noticed I was just dodging and running away, that got boring so I ditched the shield and gun and used two claws. HUGE damage increase. I was doing like 50 dmg with the gun and the claws (they were good claws though) were doing almost 200.

I wasn't even paying attention to the build, I was sleepy most of the time. I do remember I was pumping the skill that juices your elemental damage and adding a ton of focus and dex. The first Glaive skill was ridiculously useful, especially because it was doing so much damage and because I couldn't take that many hits in melee using claws.

Eventually the claws just because a cosmetic thing because the Glaive was so much stronger and the claws weren't doing enough damage. I was almost 21 and someone gave me a cool unique Greathammer. The thing boosted my damage to 500, it was doing about the same as the Glaive. The character could tear ass in almost any situation but it still had crappy defense (and no vitality though I had almost 1.8k health with items), so the 3-bounce Glaive did most of the work at a distance and the hammer could make everything caught in its arc go SPLAT!

It was crazy, and I even wasted like 10 skill points on ranged skills, imagine if I had put them to better use?

[skiwi]

Outlander with Pistol + Shield for the win.

Also was using mainly passives on the skilltree, and having 28% chance that the enemy will explode is just too freaking awesome

This was the pistol I was using btw:

Spoiler: show

[Lhayze]

Outlander being my main focus upon release, I've been having hard debates on which build I'd like to take.

I know the potential with wand/focus is unreal. Though... when you come across mobs with very high poison/acid resist, it becomes a very hard grind for the simplest of things.
I also can't pass on the Akimbo passive, coupled with the 'Bulls Eye' (the crit % and dmg%?) I just love the pistols.

As to the enchantments/sockets, there isn't many that apply global buffs with your weapon, as to whichever weapon you are using, only use the enchantments/gems you have on it. Not too sure if you have say 5% attack speed gem socketed, that it applies to the other weapon as well? I would've guessed yes, but I can't say I'm 100% sure.

[CouchKraken]

i know it sounds crazy, but one of the best builds for outlander is dual wands...

yeah, just kinda throw your ARPG knowledge out the window cuz this game seems to have a complete diferent build system...

i made a dual wield claws outlander and got a VERY cool ninja with it...
a sword and shield Embermage is awesome too...

...and this is the reason why I find Torchlight very appealing. Shredding the typical and making the unusual work.

My summoner Destroyer approves!

I doubt it was intended that all classes should do so well speccing Focus and dual-wielding wands. "Making the unusual work" is cool, but only if it's because everything is so balanced that ANY build you choose is viable and about on par in terms of caliber. Which is impossible, but something to strive for. And I think this should only apply within classes; classes should be sufficiently unique and specialized. e.g. Barbs should not be doing more damage (and taking less) using wands than swords.

Well I also wouldn't want to have a situation wherein a melee character NEEDS to use a wand in order to maximize his damage and survivability. In my experience from TL1, that is not the case. My summoner Destroyer who uses a gun does not do damage faster than a normal melee build Destroyer. And if he does take less damage, it's not because he innately takes less from hits, but because he stays back more than the melee guy that charges in. Just an example but you get what I mean. The fact that I can make it work and simply make it viable, not dominant, but just viable, is what appeals to me. I'm a min-maxer in Dungeons and Dragons. But not here. I'm not looking for the strongest and easiest to face-roll build. I'm looking for the fun. TL allows me to have that.

Of course all my experience comes from TL1 because TL2 has yet to come out and there will be rebalancing after beta. All I'm saying is that I have confidence in the devs. I believe they will deliver a second Torchlight game, balanced in some way, and definitely versatile enough, to allow me to experience again what I loved about TL1.

[V2Chu]

I also can't pass on the Akimbo passive, coupled with the 'Bulls Eye' (the crit % and dmg%?) I just love the pistols.

I wish Akimbo also worked for dual claw wielding =(

[Lhayze]

I also can't pass on the Akimbo passive, coupled with the 'Bulls Eye' (the crit % and dmg%?) I just love the pistols.

I wish Akimbo also worked for dual claw wielding =(

You'd have nothing to correlate claws with? I mean... Pistols you get the previous 2 passives of increased damage, range, crit chance and crit damage. Pistols are perfect

[V2Chu]

You'd have nothing to correlate claws with?

lol true but I do wish there was a bit more passive love for the melee outlanders