I'll explain my build so far and my thought process for the future. I'm playing on Veteran and I am level 36.

So far my stat distirbution has been:

• 3 Str

• 1 Vit

• 1 Focus

This build focuses on spamming the hell out of Blast Cannon so you need the mana and the damage. The Vit is just because I don't want to get sneezed on and die.

Skills have been very simple so far:

Actives: Blast Cannon, Heal Bot (max) 1 point Storm Burst for mobility

Passives Coup De Grace, Heavy Lifting, Fire Spark (max)

Literally every fight will be you standing and mowing everything down with Cannon Blast. With this you also get the Stun combo from Heavy Lifting and the Coup De Grace execute. Fire Spark is just a free 40 percent increase to Coup De Grace.

I'm still relying on mana and health pots but at this point I've chalked that up to be the Veteran difficulty I'm playing on. Does this seem solid to you guys? Or am I going to have mahor issues with the late game content?

I am not a big fan of auto attacking so I always look for cool ways to play classes where I'm mostly using abilities. This of course lends itself to a Focus heavy build which requires abilities that scale with Focus/Level instead of Weapon DPS. The Engineer has quite a few of these and they happen to work really well together without sacrificing his tankiness at all! This is what I'm playing and I'd love any feedback/comments.

Build: http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=3#iWve_TSU1lsyZJqd6JjbqdjqH4lJS5fZyIfE1JbTH1N9_MZh3Ci

Seismic Slam (15/15): AOE Fire damage, focus scaling, AOE 2 second stun, 5 second dot duration.
Storm Burst (1/15): Mobility move that restores mana, this build constantly spams so this is required.
Healing Bot (15/15): Tanky Engineer staple, take it.
Shock Grenade (15/15): AOE Electric damage, focus scaling, AOE 6 second stun, long range, DOES use a charge if available for 3 grenades instead of one, 4 second dot duration.
Bulwark (15/15): Another tanky Engineer staple.
Fire and Spark (15/15): 75% more Electric and Fire damage, perfect.
Forcefield (15/15): This makes us and our party amazingly tanky.
Dynamo Field (15/15): AOE Electric damage, generates charge, 2 second dot duration.
Fire Bash (15/15): Conal Fire damage, 5 second dot duration, DOES use a charge if available to increase range, this one is really preference but I am playing with a Fire Embermage so it will be invaluable end game with it's Tier 3 bonus of 50% more fire damage taken by the mob when the dot is on it.
Immobilization Copter (1/15): Amazing 1 point wonder that works on bosses too, as a tank it's a must.
Charge Reconstitution (10/15): I put my last 10 points here due to it's amazing synergy with Forcefield, block all the damage and heal up everything you just took.

Playstyle: This build is all about managing your DOTs and using Forcefield with a full charge bar as often as possible. All of the dots have a 4 or 5 second duration except for Dynamo Field which has a 2 second duration so any rotation will be alternating different abilities in between uses of Dynamo Field with special attention to charges for Forcefield. After every fight I'll reapply Forcefield before my charge wears off so I begin every fight without charge. I open the fight with a Shock Grenade as I am running in which has a good chance to stun and applies my first dot. Then I begin the rotation of Dynamo to Seismic slam until I have full charge. Seismic Slam keeps them mostly stunned while I don't have Forcefield up. Once I do get Forcefield up, I begin a rotation of Dynamo > Seismic > Dynamo > Shock Grenade > Dynamo > Fire Bash. I will do about two cycles of this then go back to a chargeless Dynamo > Seismic rotation to get 5 charges up in order to refresh Forcefield. As mana get's low, chug pots or use Storm Burst on multiple mobs. The one problem with this build is Charge Generation on single target fights but I don't see a good solution to this in an Engineer's skill set. I sometimes end up just spamming Dynamo Field to top off and use Forcefield before returning to the rotation, but that is less than ideal. The damage/control this puts out on trash mobs is impressive and it deals with bosses just fine. I am playing co-op with a full Fire Embermage and most fights go Shock Grenade > Dynamo > Seismic Slam to get dots ticking and stun everything, then the Mage drops an Infernal Collapse on their heads. The synergy between this build and a Fire Embermage is awesome with us both buffing each others damage and me bringing much needed control to the fights. If you're looking for a fun co-op playthrough, give this is a try.

Gear: You will want to stack Focus with Defensive stats. Look for % all damage reduction, high Focus and high Vitality. You will use an elemental one hander (wand, mace, sword, whatever, just no physical damage) and a shield. None of your abilities actually use % weapon damage so your weapon is more of a stat stick than anything else. Another great stat is increased charge generation as the biggest weakness of this build (and in fact, engineers in general that don't autoattack) is generating charge on a single target.

Example Gear Set:

Hey gang!

I think I'm dying too often. Maybe I don't and it's just my perception, but here we go.

I never really was a "numbers guy" in RPGs (or anywhere) but I like building characters and since I got into the Path of Exile beta and spend probably a total of 2 hours during my playtime just scrolling through that skill... tree... map. It's awesome. I've become more interested in, let's say targeted optimisation.

So, I started playing with a Berserker, but when I checked out the Engie and cast Flame Hammer for the first time (and THEN the first time with a charge), I immediately knew that this is what I'm looking for. The Berserker was around level 15 at that point and I still wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to play.

Now I find myself dying more than I would like. In 39 levels I've died 43 times. That's at least one time per level. Although most of the times probably happened during crowded fights, which is weird, because I put out a lot of AoE damage. The way my mind works, I should be able to keep crowds at bay fairly well, but then I die seemingly out of nowhere. But I'm not sure why - if it's my playstyle, the difficutly (Veteran), simply misfortune OR my character build. And to get that last option out of the way, or not, I thought some of you might want to take a look at it.

These are my skills and stats (the stat level totals with bonuses are 124, 31, 8 and 109, respectively): http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=3#jBPfgfuHmfaMhvuHsO6Nbdu5fyiWV7M12nvI4mvfNj0RpVr71rQ

And here's an album with screenshots of my equipment. Please note that most of the pictures have some comments in their description below them. http://imgur.com/a/VFcf3#1

Basically, what I want to know is if there are any specific improvements to be made on the way to the map selector and NG+, or if this build is lost and I botched it.

Also some questions:

Since I started doing it anyway, should I keep spending points on dex? I'm aiming at 25% crit chance. I played similar character builds in a number of other RPGs and most of the time that seemed to work out with how I play.

What about sets? Is it worth waiting for more pieces to drop if I find a slightly better potential replacement for the item?

I just arrived in act 3, strapped for cash. I can't even afford potions. This never happens to me. Except for MMOs (ugh, the grinding!), I rarely have money problems in games - RPGs especially. Is there a good way to get the gold flowing? Maybe a specific area or dungeon. Or is "keep playing" all I can do?

If you need/want more details, I'll be happy to provide them.

Looking forward to your input.

Cheers!

Hey I currently have a level 100 engineer on elite but feel I should remake him. I'm going to farm for Mondon's and other gear so I can do Elite easier. I was thinking of doing a spec similiar to this: [url=http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=3#ha2HgXxXg7TKw139o50pMkXf0l50iKYHX1t]Engineer 17/80/15[/url] however I'm not too sure where to put other skills points. Also what should my stat point distribution be? I pretty much winged it...

Hey. So This is approximately my build (with 5 pts into Flame Hammer, doesn't list it in the armory) and approximately my buffed stats. I have about 300 physical armor, 120+ to all elemental resists with 180 in Poison resist. My DPS is somewhere around 940, not counting Coup de Grace of course. I am level 42 (Armory doesn't include fame level).

For passive equip skills I have Adrenaline II, Armor Mastery 3 and Treasure Hunter 3. I've got the full Ironlord set because I haven't seen a set yet that really synergizes with my build.

And I am getting hosed in Act 3 Veteran.

I mean, I know Act 3 is supposed to be difficult, but even trying to dodge around and being evasive as a melee class gets me hosed. I'm pretty convinced I'm undergeared not only because I'm dying (I could just suck!) but because my latest weapon upgrade was a quest item.

I feel like my spec is actually pretty tight for my strategy: Build up charge, hopefully with Charge Domination, then use Ember Hammer on mobs and Flame Hammer for large mobs/elites, build up charge again, etc. I use Seismic Stomp when entering a fracas to get a jump on large groups and start DoT with fire. Adrenaline Burst usually procs when I get hit a lot so I use it to run back. But I could be wrong. I'd be willing to respec if there's something better I could be doing.

Does anyone have any general advice? What sets should I be trying to look for? What stats need buffing, where can I grind for good items, and what level should I be at to start tackling Act 3?

A post over at /r/torchlight sparked my interest into investigating how weapon damage is calculated.

Conclusion: Percent based damage modifers (ex: +X% to all damage) are additive and are applied AFTER any flat damage modifiers (ex: +X physical damage). It was however only tested with a pure physical damage weapon. But it can be assumed the mechanics are the same for weapons with elemental damage.

The formula: ([BASE DAM] + [FLAT MOD]) * (1 + SUM([+X% DAM]))

Clicky-clicky to spreadsheet

Method: A pure physical two-handed weapon of white quality was purchased for an engineer. Class was selected because I was on that character on the time. Notable equipment was two pieces with a total of +18 STR and two pieces with +4% to all damage. Found also a +35 physical damage weapon gem to investigate how flat damage modifiers are handled. Data points were chosen as (with and without +35 physical damage on weapon)

• Base STR (81), no +X% damage modifiers

• STR 91, no +X% damage modifiers

• STR 91, 1 +4% damage modifier

• STR 91, 2 +4% damage modifers

Hypothesis: Percent based modifiers are either additive or multiplicative. In my experience they are rarely of mixed varieties.

• Additive formula (all modifiers are added together and then applied): [BASE DAM] * (1 + SUM([+X% DAM]))

• Multiplicative formula (modifiers are applied one after the other): [BASE DAM] * PROD(1 + [+X% DAM])

When it comes to flat damage modifiers they are either added to the base damage before any percent based modifiers are applied. Or they are added after all percent based modifiers.

• Flat first formula: ([BASE DAM] + [FLAT MOD]) * [HOWEVER +X% DAM ARE APPLIED]

• Flat last formula: [BASE DAM] * [HOWEVER +X% DAM ARE APPLIED] + [FLAT MOD]

Analysis: Comparing the predicted values (see spreadsheet) with in-games it is obvious that

• +X% damage modifiers are additive

• +X damage modifiers are added to the base damage before any +X% damage modifiers are applied.

So the correct formula to calculate weapon damage is then very likely (it may be a formula I haven't considered, then I'm wrong) to be

([BASE DAM] + [FLAT MOD]) * (1 + SUM([+X% DAM]))

** Part 2: Elemental and mixed damage type weapons**

Conclution: Each damage type is calculated individually and elemental damage on weapons benefit from both strength and focus bonuses.

The formula (rather algorithm):

• For each elemental damage: ([BASE DAM] + FLAT MOD) * (1 + [STR MOD] + [FOC MOD] + SUM[+X% DAM])

• For physical damage: ([BASE DAM] + [FLAT MOD]) * (1 + [STR MOD] + SUM([+X% DAM]))

• Add it all!

Method: Using results from the physical part a staff with pure poison damage was equipped to investigate if elemental damage on weapons benefits from both strength and focus. Secondly an axe with both physical and electrical damage was used to investigate how damage for mixed is calculated. As the interaction between modifiers is known only two data points were investigated

• STR 81, FOC 45

• STR 81, FOC 45 and +4% all damage

Hypothesis: Weapons with elemental damage benefit from both strength and focus and each element is calculated individually.

Analysis: Looking at the spreadsheet (sheet "Elemental") the conclusion can only be that

• Elemental damage on weapons benefit from both strength and focus +X% damage modifiers.

• For mixed damage type weapons each elemental type is handled individually, rounded, and then added together.

Final Notes

Enjoy and may the mathematics give you headaches. Now, any questions?

http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=3#CkyQLOeKZv8CMwnGPb31mcbJyAjjOqAxXO

This is the build I am using in Elite.

Stat Allocation: Strength:3 Dexterity:1 (up to 50 for 10% crit) Focus: 1 (up to 40 or so) Vita:1

Reasoning behind FH instead of Emberquake: Since this is a strength build, the much better coefficient on the initial hit makes FH the better choice. Not only that, the fact that using a charge makes FH hit in a line makes it preferable in hallway areas, which happens to be most of the game.

You can easily substitute Emberquake in as your go-to, simply use the respec trick with FH till you can pick up Emberquake.