https://www.reddit.com/r/Torchlight/comments/1kc9f4f/a_new_love_now_i_need_some_guidance_for_best_mods/

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I have written some basic recommendations (near the bottom of this linked page) regarding how to manage the mod load order and other useful aspects to be aware of if swapping mods and such over on the Nexus for Ace:
https://www.nexusmods.com/torchlight2/mods/73

If in need to unbind mods after changing a bound mod in the load order:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=137868436

And I do have a guide on what to choose regarding the older mods on the Steam Workshop:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2418154311

Most players use Synergies and Essentials (mods) together along with the Compatibility (mod) above them plus any other feature and item mods of their choice:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1691341222&searchtext=compatibility

Ace has grown since 2016 and can be used with Synergies - recommended to begin new characters if both mods are present for best results.

Ace has some UI-Stash issues with Essentials however there are Inventory mods when placed above that can override that issue:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/654068491/4353365446950849460/

Ace crashes when Bob's Mod is present together. Use those two separately.

Class mods are usually best when placed as Class-packs like Variant Classes (mod) and similar options.
Refer to the mod-guide link farther above for recommendations on those.

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That addresses most of everything I could think of for now... I think I'll also link a Discussion that mentioned the best Minion-style mod classes in case that's of interest:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/discussions/18446744073709551615/133257324788954314/?appid=200710

This Discussion's (Link below) advice isn't perfect however it gives an idea on how to order mods:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/TLM2H/discussions/5/1768133742960293946/
That same Link is also inside the TLM2H Steam group whose Discussions-Tab addresses much of TL2's hidden aspects or archive for tactics.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torchlight/comments/1k11lhb/i_just_got_the_game_whats_the_best_class/

There's a "deep" and unlisted "best" required affixes in TL2 to thrive including Damage Reductions.

Berserker and Engineer both natively have 25% DR and that helps much for survival; Berserker also has easy access to skill-based health-steals while Engineer gets Forcefield. Both are the best at survival.

Outlander and Embermage both have easy access to elemental damage skills and can passively combo with Poison Burst or with skill Brands respectively.

Outlander and Berserker have easy access to raising Critical Chances leading to greater consistent damage.

All classes have mobility-skills, resource-skills, big-area damage skills, and so on.

Play the affix game, patch any lack of survival with health reactions, look for weapons that react to strikes.

Save lots of Gold to spend on the randomly located "Boris the Stat Enchanter" on high-level equipment.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Torchlight/comments/1kbyw7g/wow_ive_been_sleeping_on_outlander/

Originally posted by heckingincorgnito:

Honestly, all the classes can do damage. I think what sets classes apart in TL2 is how survivable they are, and embermage just doesnt bring much to the table.

True, I know of players who choose Embermage Frost Phase over Outlander Rune Vault as a preference between the forward vs backward mobility.

I myself enjoy Engineer Storm Burst both as a main attack (if it's the build) or as a one-point mobility skill.

And Berserker with Shadow Burst, Wolfstrike, and Savage Rush gets the most of all mobility options.

Yet without (25% native for Zerk and Neer) 75% Damage Reductions and the nice random Block of a Shield (possibly with 33% Missile Reflect) - survival is the difference whether new players may wish to leave some classes for later after getting acquainted with the affix systems.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/595146853490664198/ = = = =

Originally posted by Cannonaire:

I've been browsing old posts, and I came across a comment in which someone mentioned enemies reflecting damage. I've finished up through the end of NG+5 and beaten Tarroch's Tomb on Elite several times, but I don't recall seeing any enemies reflect damage back onto me. I feel like I would have been gobsmacked by such a thing with the ridiculous amount of damage some builds can dish out (and presumably get reflected back on themselves). Are there really enemies in vanilla Torchlight 2 that reflect the player's damage back onto them? Have I somehow gotten so lucky that in 1,274 hours of playtime I've never witnessed such a thing?

Could be player preference regarding how much time is spent combating specific enemy factions (TL2 has many) - that determines whether a Player notices this trait. The one enemy faction I can affirm does carry one such enemy is the Ezrohir faction and specifically the "Ezrohir Brute" whom will activate a Forcefield-like skill in appearance yet unlike the Engineer-Player version - will Reflect any Skill or Weapon-shot that counts as a "Projectile" (anything that doesn't "lob" like a tennis-trajectory). Synergies-mod is where this trait is further utilized - as many mods try to keep the difficulty near vanilla+ while Synergies does everything in it's power to challenge the player beyond usual methods. = = = = My conclusion? Not luck - more a matter of spending time with specific enemy factions to try and spot if there's any unique traits amongst them (including their Mages and Brutes). Also worth noting that not all skills or weapon-strikes count as a "projectile" hence it's entirely possible for a player over 1000 hours to miss this. TL2 is much like that - I still have unanswered questions even today from certain players - one of them being: "Does Critical Damage affect Splash (Secondary) Damage?"I still don't know and not certain how to check for that in-game (or Editor) either. = = = = Extra Note : I recognize this initially asked for "Damage Reflection" hence may include "Melee" sources besides "Missile Reflection" as well. The "Ezrohir Brute" counts as a Missile (hence Damage) Reflect example. Whether the vanilla game makes enemy Melee Reflection evident ... is not easy to see.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/600775381612532589/ = = = =

Originally posted by ☠:

**I figured something out about +% Damage. It will only affect things that say "+ (insert element) Damage." For example, +50% Fire Damage will increase skills that do Fire Damage, but it will not increase skills that do % Weapon Damage as Fire Damage or Fire Damage Over Time.Skills that do % Weapon Damage (regardless if it changes the attack to an Element), can proc effects that your normal attack can proc. For instance, if your weapon does Electric damage, then a skill that does % Weapon Damage can add Shock to the target. This also includes effects like "Conveys Silence" or "Conveys % Chance to Stun."Any effect that says "% chance to do something on kill" will work with any damaging non-minion skill (including DoT skills). This is opposed to "Conveys % chance to do something," which only affects skills that work off of Weapon DPS.Life steal, mana steal, "+ life on hit," and "+ mana on hit" will never trigger off of skills (except for that one Berserker skill that allows them at Tier 3) . You have to do a normal attack for these four effects to work.**https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/604445-torchlight-ii/64152461

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/598515896185524230/

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Originally posted by Cannonaire:

Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

For convenience, yes, but other weapons can be used with the right skills.

So I already had a couple lying around, but I finally discovered the stats on "The Final Embrace", and I think I finally understand now. That's the best weapon for Shocking Orb, isn't it? (Provided the character has enough strength to wield it.) Works out that I hadn't gotten around to enchanting Ophidian's Endgame on my new build yet. :embermage:

Now I just need to do some math and figure out whether it's best to enchant it with more elemental damage (likely electric) or Focus from Borris. My guess is Borris will be better.

*EDIT*
I ran the calculations, and my stats should be very close to the point where the bonus damage from additional Focus (Borris) will be almost equal to the bonus from more Elemental Weapon Damage (Telsor).

At lower Focus and Strength, Focus pulls ahead, but at higher Focus and Strength, Elemental Weapon Damage pulls ahead. I'm going to go with Weapon Damage because it's much easier to get good enchants and it will scale higher if I can increase my stats somehow.

*EDIT 2*
On second thought, I might just go with the Focus. They're very close, but I will probably need the extra Mana for Shocking Orb.

Eye of the Siege (Mana) Guardian:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/595144308454079607/

Originally posted by HiFive:

Telling everyone how things got fixed. The issue was that the name of the Bob's Mod file in the game's mod folder was "test", so I didn't think the mod was still in there. In spite of me unsubscribing to the mod and taking it off of my mod list, the original problems remained on every single older backup file I put in the game files.

When I learned what the name of the file was, I deleted it from the two backup files that were created on the day I added the mod, and I checked to make sure the mod was not in any other backup of the mods file (I backup these 3 files after every play session: mods, modsave, save).

I then reinstalled the game and placed a pre-Bob's Mod backup into the game's files and launched the game. Voila! Everything was finally there!

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/604148808450924068/

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Originally posted by HiFive:

I always like to put Frost and Fireball on my pet, because they have short cooldown times and at the higher levels of the spells, the blast is very strong and can wipe out a horde of minor enemies. I also give Archers to my pet. Again, if they are surrounded, the archers will help get rid of the mob faster. Haste is another good one for pets.

For the vanilla game, I like to use skeletons and archers for my character, along with Animal Handling (reduces pet town travel time and increases pet damage) and Treasure Hunter.

Originally posted by Cannonaire:

Pet: Animal Handling, Heal All, Retribution, Dervish, Frost (crowd control). :hype:

Originally posted by steffire3:

Early in the game; special Fishing spots may drop "Web". Only one rank exists in the game yet it's also great for trapping enemies especially when placed on the Pet.

Equipping 2 or 3 different ranks of Dervish on the Player is great for rapid use of Skills if sufficient Mana Regen or economic-cost skills are present.

Originally posted by Cannonaire:

On player I always, ALWAYS use Haste VI at higher levels. I also like Adventuring for the potion boost, as well as Blocking, Concentration, and Willpower based on the character's needs. Depending on how my character does damage, I might use some kind of Expertise scroll and/or Dual Wielding.

My hotbar is always full, so I prefer passive spells on player (aside from Haste) and active spells on pet, mostly CC for assistance like frost. At the start of a new character I'll probably put Web on pet and Repel + Rumble on the player character.

Originally posted by HiFive:

I agree that it usually depends on what character you are playing as to which skills are more important. I often give my mages the Concentration spell so their mana will be replenished faster, along with putting mana regeneration embers in their armor.

To reiterate your comment on which type of scrolls to learn, in general, for pet or character:

1) Tomes (passive) are best for your character.
2) Active spells are best for your pet.

Keep in mind that a pet will usually only spawn one skeleton at a time, so that is not a good pet spell, since your character can successively spawn skeletons up to a max of 5. Unless you are using a mod that allows archers to move, the archers will remain where they were spawned. Zombies will somewhat follow you, but they are slower than skeletons. You only get one Nether Imp, but it's stronger and will last until it is killed.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/592887157683699362/

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Originally posted by LittlePureWater:

This game seems interesting, do you recommend buying the game?

Originally posted by potterman28wxcv:

... ... that you can equip spells on your Pet and your Pet can go sell/buy things to town so that you do not need to go back to town to sell gear. In my opinion it's one of the best things about Torchlight 2, you can just grab everything, identify on the go, and give the extra to your pet.

... ... The story does have some long part (especially the wide wilderness areas filled with monsters), I particularly remember Act 3 as being quite long and painful... ...

One big caveat of this game is balancing. On Elite difficulty only a few builds are actually viable, and those usually involve taking the most powerful skills for your characters. Some skills are just leagues better than others. On Elite, some builds will destroy everything while some other builds will be a constant struggle. So I would advise you to play on Veteran, in my opinion it's a much better experience for the first time TL2 player.

But one great thing about this game is modding support. There are a lot of mods out there to customize your experience. You might end up with a half-broken game that has bonker stats of course but it can still be very fun!

Originally posted by chris.ferrantegerard:

It's a pretty good Diablo clone. A bit too overtuned damage wise at max difficulty imo, too many reliance on ramming damage reduction gems into gear, damage always felt a bit too spiky to me. A level below Titan Quest, Grim Dawn or Path of Exile to me but still a nice game in the genre.

So very true.

TL2 Pets are a huge benefit especially for Loot-Sales not usually seen in other games within the genre and should be compared to certain Metal Gear games where supplies can be ordered on-the-go and discovered-Loot sold for a profit without the need to return to Town.

The story / campaign can be longer or shorter depending on whether the Player wishes to complete most of the Side Quests. Otherwise Main Quests average 2 per large zone twice per Act. Side Quests do have great rewards for Exp and Fame however.

What makes TL2 great for certain players is that it's much faster to level-up including the completion of builds compared to Grim Dawn. TL2 Main Quests can be speed-ran within a day and NG+ campaigns are the same with the addition of the secret ultimate Build test in the form of Tarroch's Tomb enemy waves up to Lv199 in the Ossean Wastes.

Map-works and Phase Beast maps enable other sources of mid-farm, alt-leveling, and post-game content.

Mods can help to extend the game-play in various ways for Pc versions and some mods even disable or reduce the infamous Critical-Enemy-Damage Bursts.

TL2 Console versions don't have modding however do have Potion-Respec craft-recipes built-in and Controller-support. Something Pc wishes it had in vanilla.

True that some skills are better for survival, mobility, or damage however games like these favor building specific rare Affixes and tactics rather than dependencies on Skills.
And I can say the same for games like Grim Dawn where this is even more pronounced.
In fact - TL2 is very accessible and less complex than Grim Dawn regarding Types and Defense mechanisms. Sometimes less is truly more. Depends on what a player seeks.

As to how a player will acquire the "correct" survival affixes will either be from farming Phase Beasts or mods that supply good equips.

Not every class is an Engineer and not every skill is Forcefield and not every weapon allows a Shield hence alternative strategies are needed to thrive even on late-Veteran difficulty. Especially when factoring NG+ Tarroch's Tomb and especially when Replay-Value is everything for any potential buyers.

As for the note on Act_03's length and difficulty - that also holds true for certain enemy factions when encountered again in NG+ loops.

A1 Icy Hills - rushing Yakitaur
A2 everywhere - ranged Ezrohir
A3 Blightbogs - enhanced Undead
A4 final rooms - draining Netherim

Among other factions that only get more pronounced on their accurate skill combos or other noticeable tactics in higher NG+ levels.

In fact - Hardcore players avoid certain Side Quests altogether especially when faced with rare yet present cramped rooms forcing close-quarters combat.
Wide-open spaces are a good friend in this game.

For all the hidden basics during campaign-runs worth remembering in a game that fails to note such things; we do have certain Steam Guides that can help with that:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1709334997

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https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/200710/discussions/0/592887031601896812/

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Originally posted by Mike:

So I know this is an old game but its one of my favorite aRPGs up there with TQ and GD and I had the itch to play through it again recently.

I usually play on the hardest difficulty and sometimes I like hardcore (very brutal in this game), but this time I wanted something more casual, so I came up with my own semi Rogue-like mode (in the default game so no mods) that makes the game very very fun.

Well the rules are simple:
- Create a character and set the difficulty to the hardest (Elite).
- Play the game like normal but every time you die you have to re-roll your game/map and start from scratch. This gives a semi-hardcore feel to dying and progression since your still keeping your character but you have start your map over from scratch (not the whole game, just the maps you-re on).
-If you don't know how to re-roll you campaign all you have to do is, go to "resume" and when you get to the menu that says single player, LAN,..etc. Select LAN, create game, then check the re-roll box. If you want to have the ability to pause the game again, once you have re-rolled the campaign, simply save/quit and select single-player this time.

Since the game naturally has procedural map generation when you re-roll your campaign, it fits perfectly into that rogue-like feel as you will have a different map layout everytime, new mob locations, different elite enemies, new activities,...etc.

The best part is that the character progression fits perfect for this style of rogue-like, because Elite is very hard to gear through without re-rolling maps to farm things. So naturally (unless your a pro) you will run into enemies/bosses/encounters you're not properly geared for yet. When you die you simply re-roll, start the map from the portal, and grind to get better gear to keep pushing further and further into the game until you beat it or max out your build/character.

Whats also cool is that side quests you started or main mission objectives you already did will stay so it still has that feel that some rogue-likes have where there is permanent progression even if you die.

I'm not expecting many people to reply given how old the game its but, if anyone wants to experience this game in an interesting way I recommend to give this a try ;)

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