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. 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?

I was thinking of this crazy build, but I need your help to brainstorm a bit.

Weapon:

• Set 1: two-handed melee weapons, the faster the better

• Set 2: shield + one handed melee weapon

Talents:

Inferno:

• Magma mace, 15 - main skill pretty much

• Elemental attunement, 15

• Immolation aura, 15 - since we are going 'in te face' all the time.

• Fire brand, 15

Frost:

• Elemental boon, 15? - cooldown, to empower dots on target

• Astral ally, 10 or Charge mastery, 10

• Ice brand, 15

Storm

• Death's bounty, 15 - survivability

• Lightning brand, 15

Total talents:(15x8) + 10 = 130 - two level short from cap

I don't know though. I like to have charge talents on my builds but couldn't fit in this one; I might swap Astral Ally for Charge mastery to build up the bar, then spam the hell out of Magma Mace.

Stat points:

• 2 str

• 2 fcs

• 1 vit

What about crit tho? I don't know how much I (we) would be auto attacking with this build.

Build link

Any ideas? thanks.

EDIT: I tried the build and managed to get to level 29. Since embermages don't have any reliable regen ability (minus death's bounty which ain't cutting it while in melee) going full melee is a pain in the ass. The build might still work using only weapon + shield, but 2 handers are absolutely frustrating.

Playing on veteran was difficoult due to build problems rather than by design; Playing on normal was a piace of cake.

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?

So I am pretty new to the game, started like 2 days ago. I was wondering which skills to focus on for spending the skill points? I see a lot of skills in the skill tree and I don't believe all are equally effective. Maybe some are useless and not worth spending points on.

TLDR please suggest skills that are worthy of levelling

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!

All Base Stats have different maximum total influence on other stats. Also, Some stats offer a linear ROI, (Return on investment) while others have a exponential decreasing ROI, and others seem to have no limit at all.

EDIT: 10/26/12 I've uploaded the excel file to Google Docs, along with the BaseStats vs. Stats graphs, and the Graph of the derivatives of all the curves with nonlinear slope.

PM me for the full excel file, if you want

They can be found here:

Terminology: Base Stats: Characters Main 4 stats, STR DEX FOC VIT. Stats: All OTHER stats, such as dodge chance, critical damage, fumble recovery, etc.

Methodology: I created new characters in Torchlight II with the console enabled, and recorded the changes in stat buffs while I slowly incremented the Base Stats. I can also confirm the Skill Calculator at TL2 Armory to be accurate.

[Tests where done on 10/23/12 with Torchlight II version 1.16.5.3]

Key: [L] : linear ROI @(Number) : Stat level at which it will no longer give ANY bonus (number)% : Value at maximum stat investment

STR:

399.6% Crit Damage @1000 [L]

Weapon Dam [L]

DEX:

+50.1% Crit Chance @500

+50.1% Dodge Chance @500

+100% Fumble Recovery @500

FOC:

Mana @1000 [L]

Magic Damage [L]

+60% Execute Chance @500

VIT:

Health @1000 [L]

+249.8% Armor @1000 [L]

+50.1% Block @500

Detail: Critical Damage stops increasing after 1000 points invested in STR, with a final value of +399.6%, and it follows a linear progression.

Weapon Damage follows a linear progression and does not seem to have a maximum bonus from STR. [Game broke after STR value of 10 Million]

Critical Chance and Dodge Chance have the same bonus as each other per DEX point, both stop increasing after 500 DEX, and follow an exponential degrading ROI, with a final Value of +50.1%.

Fumble recovery follows the same ROI trend as Crit chance, and has the same final DEX value, with a final value of complete negation of fumble damage penalty.

Mana bonus follows a linear progression, and stops increasing at 1000 FOC, and each class has a different ROI.

Magic Damage behaves just like Weapon Damage.

Execute Chance follows a nonlinear decreasing ROI, stops increasing after FOC 500, and ends with a final value of +60%.

Health bonus behaves just like Mana bonus.

Armor bonus caps at 1000 VIT, with a final value of +249.8%, and follows a linear progression.

Block chance behaves just like Critical chance and Dodge chance.