Category: aRPG

So you made it to level 21 in Torchlight Hardcore Elite aye?  Think it was tough?  Think it was a slough and many of your characters died even with my other list of tips as reference?  Well Act 1 is fucking CHEESE CAKE compared to Act 2 Elite.  I want to tell you straight away: you will not make it through Act 2 Elite hardcore.  It’s really best to give up now.  Act 2 comes down on you so hard that you will need aircrash coroners to piece you back together again.  That said, here are ten more tips if you do choose to keep going past level 20.  These are not class specific.  You better know your build and how it’s going to both deal out and survive damage.  There are tons of solid builds out their on the interwebtubes to look at for all classes.  After my level 23 or so Embermage bit the dust, I ran Elite Hardcore with a Berserker and used THIS build strategy.  I cannot comment on any other classes above 20 because, pathetic as it is, all my other characters died in the second part of Act 1.  I didn’t cry, I promise.

You will spend most of your time in that second part of act 1– the winter part.  Obviously make sure your ICE armor is 100+ or you’re meatpastecicle.  There is a lot to look out for in that region– but be especially careful of bosses that shoot out ice/earth in a line straight at your character (Ice Elementals and Chillhoof are examples of this).  This type of attack seems to do MASSIVE damage and can one hit you if you let it connect.  You will eventually build up to level 27-28– that is the time to hit the Grand Regent (boss of Act 1)– not before unless you are very sure of yourself.   GR has a couple of attacks that do huge damage and unless you’ve fought him oodles of times before on Elite Normal, you won’t know the visual triggers for those attacks until you are already a corpse.  That said, here is the list!

• Play alone or with one other person ONLY.  Damage modelling, which I won’t pretend to understand, seems to go off the charts when you have more than two people playing together, and it’s really not worth the risk of untimely demise.  This is sad because TL2 is all about the multiplayer but it gets really tough when you just can’t take down mobs and take tons of damage more than you are used to.  This is Elite remember, ELITE so if you want to go have a jag with your friends, go back to Veteran.
• Stay in Act 1 for as long as you can stand it.  You could conceivably spend levels 21-30 IN Act 1 because the end dungeon is fairly difficult, but you will yearn to go to Act 2 because level ups will become painfully slow and, because you are not dying, you will build up a lot of ember chips to merge up.  However, you need to grind for gear, especially stuff that gives you elemental protection and armor.  You need as much armor as you can load on and will  you need to level up to at least the late 20’s before hitting Act 1’s boss.  Act 1 may start to seem pussy to you after a span of time and this is a good thing.  Use that to build up gold reserves and farm for items.  The items are FAR better in Act 2, but your chance of survival coming right out of Act 1 is close to zero if you haven’t taken precautions.
• Level up more than you think you need.  If you are used to Disgaea and the like you know what it is to level up prematurely.  With Torchlight Elite Hardcore, you only have one shot at this or you’re back to square one.  If you think you need to be at level 24 for a dungeon– make sure you are at least 4 levels higher.  This will take time– but less time bringing another character up to level 20 again!
• Play super conservatively.  You cannot survive against anything mobbed up in Act 2 when you first get up inside the act.   Get that into your head straight away.  Go very slowly through the main map and break up mobs by running off.  Use your summons (both from scrolls and from your class skills) to take out enemies as you run away to safety.  I’m  assuming you have seen the enemies you need to watch out for from previous plays, but if you haven’t make sure to study the enemies you go up against before diving in. Some of the mobs in Act 2 are insanely brutal.
• Remember: One critical from a boss and you are done.  If you get a critical hit against you from a boss, you’re character is dirt.  There is no way to prepare for those types of hits.  You will never have enough armor or vitality to survive it– so DO NOT GET HIT.  One of the advantages of Torchlight 2 as a game is that you can dodge attacks and don’t have to stand there and be hit from across the screen due to hit lag like Diablo 3.  Use this to your advantage.  Don’t stand toe to toe against anything unless your build allows it.  Engineers– don’t get overconfident that you can tank.  You can’t.
• Run Grell– Go back and run General Grel from the first part of act 1.  Grell sometimes drops an EYE that reduces ALL damage by 3%.  You could do worse than to fill ALL of your available sockets with the Eyes of Grell.  This will take time not so much on the run itself, but finding the Dungeon can take awhile.
• Use both your weapons sets. (switch with W)  One should be for defense and one should be for offense.  Ideally the offensive one would give you health steal and the defensive would give mana steal.  Shields are great for any class– yes they reduce your damage output compared to the 2-handers or dual-wielding  but what’s most important in hardcore?  Survival!
• Map your Keys – I’m not going to go into class specifics but hunting and pecking for shit on the number row in the middle of a fight (which you are doing right now aren’t you?) = DIRT for a character. So remap your main keys for a fight to WASD or QWE and remember Z and X are already mapped to heal.
• Monsters to look out for in the second part of Act 1: Mirka Frostbinder (really watch out for these), Blackfist Assassins en masse, Bosses: Ice Elemental (make sure to kill all of his mob before taking him out), King Ice Gel (he can one hit you like nobody’s business).
• Monsters to watch out for in Act 2 (the early part): Basilisks in a Mob with anything.  Dune Mothers. Ezrohir Snatchers.  Bosses: Caius the Fleet, almost all the dungeon bosses are tough.
• (bonus number eleven) Don’t wander into any Act 2 dungeons until level 29+.  Some of these drop you immediately into a big boss battle during which guess what? Your character dies.

In explanation of the previous post: a few days ago, our brave hardcore, elite, blind heroes had still not made it to Act 2 of Torchlight.  The first 20 levels or so were manageable  but after that, they found constant permadeath in the dungeons and regions of the second half of act 1 (the ice region!).  One fateful night, three of us decided to make a run on the final Act 1 dungeon, but had to level up one of our fellows in the process so running around the ice region was in order.  Much to our surprise, a random boss not even in a dungeon fired off an attack that killed both the level 25 Engineer (with a LOT of hit points) and the level 17 Berserker.  My character, Blactaculus 2, was hit about as hard as possible, but managed to survive.  After all the deaths, this was the final straw for Elite hardcore blind.

What caused both characters to die in one attack we cannot determine.  The attack itself was an ice shot that hit multiple times along a straight line.  Chillhoof has this same attack and I have lost at least one character to it– but he’s a major boss. This ice guy was just a dude running around.  Were there criticals rolled at this time?  Multiple criticals?  We can’t be sure.

That said, we’re putting away the hardcore mode for awhile to see the rest of the game together.  We will be back to Hardcore Elite, but as of now, the blind run is over and we— we failed!   This is a testament to the difficulty of Torchlight 2 on the higher levels for anyone stating that the game is too easy: be more ELITE.

A list a list a LIST!!! Torchlight 2 is good fun. Torchlight hardcore is crazy tense awesome fun. We’ve played hardcore since the release (and many of us in the beta back in May got on the Hardcore train) and lordy we have learned some harsh lessons and want to impart them to YOU dear reader (and Matt and Steve who are waiting for the Mac version). By Hardcore, I mean hardcore Elite– so the most damage to your character, the most hit points on monsters and whatever nastiness Runic wanted to throw deep inside the Elite hole. We started with a blind run (well, those of us not in the beta) so we haven’t seen most of the game and every piece of content has had to be EARNED with hardcore deaths (sometimes piles of them). Only one of us has gotten beyond level 20 (sensless) and they died shortly after while heading back and farming ACT 1 (!?).  Here’s stuff to help you get to level 20.  It’s not easy but with these tips and some conservative play, you may yet survive.

1.  Choose your class carefully for Hardcore. The Berserker has the most exposure to damage and the most risk/reward when he goes berserk, so we’ve found that that class takes the dirt nap more than the others. The Engineer heal bot helps a lot– but a lot LESS than you think early levels. The Embermage and Wastlander are ranged characters, so they get to sit back and shoot stuff from a somewhat safe distance.
2. Defense > Offense – There’s quite a bit of importance in not dying in hardcore because, well, that’s it. So Defense is a core focus. Vitality should be the number one stat increased. While this is tough to do when you know your damage deal out isn’t very high, it’s much better to have armor and health than to take down those Ratlings a second or two faster. While a good offense usually trumps a good defense, you can worry about doing tons of damage later.
3. Make sure your elemental armor is up to par. You can likely ignore elemental damage at lower difficulties, but, at Elite, if you have a weak area, say fire, you will get burned to the ground. Make sure you are using your elemental ember specks in your armor sockets whenever you find them.  Once the gem orcs unlock, upgrade your gems when you find the larger types. It makes a huge difference.
4. Remember to RUN AWAY. There are points where your character (or group of characters) cannot possibly survive a fight. For example, I woke up the lightning boss in Skull Hollow and ran directly into the “Chest Trap Valley.” I thought he was far enough away to lose aggro from Mr. Lightning and popped the chest. As the swarm of skellingtons rose out of the ground, I saw him up on the ridge ready to fire lightning down. And he did. Good bye level 5 Wastelander!
5. Use your rare specks. As soon as I pick up a rare speck, I drop it in a socket. Don’t save these, use them!  You will find FAR better gems later in the game.
6. Shared Stash is your friend. About the only way to “advance” when your hardcore character dies is to make sure choice (and low level) items are in the Shared Stash for your next character. Make sure you fill your stash when going up against bosses or phase beast challenges. This is called “Making your Piece.”
7. Play as a group! TL2 is fun alone but Hardcore is simply meant to be played as a group. The group dynamic, from being able to have a bunch of heal bots around to going crazy with Embermages increasing elemental damage or freezing enemies so they can be pummeled, just makes the path to level 20 easier.  Sometimes due to your lack of elemental armor, you have to sit back in some fights.  While in a group, you will still get experience in the same area.  This makes it harder on the other characters (with the increases in damage and enemy hitpoints) but can help in a pinch.
8. Phase Beast Challenges are deadly. Be very careful when entering the portal from a murdalized Phase beast–these are no joke.
9. Basic monsters to watch out for: Pirate Ghosts with Pistols, Skellington Archers, Chest Ghosts (their first attack is a doozy), Infernal Skellingtons (fast runners with fire damage)
10. Bosses to Watch for: One Eyed Willy will punch your ticket – I’ve seen many characters bite it in the One Eye Willy quest because they go in overconfident. There is a potential Teleporting Boss Stormbeornennnenen in the beast highlands that is brutal if you don’t have a lot of armor, but the worst is the Wraith Boss in the Bone Dungeon (Modox) that summons ghost bats.  He slows you down and then you get swarmed by the bats and put inside the ground right quick.  Soloing this guy at low levels is near impossible with a close combat character and even as a group, it’s a tough fight early on.  Last but not least, prepare for death the first time you fight General Grell if you are lower than level 17-18.

So that’s the 10.  Once you hit the Winter area things get a lot more difficult, especially with elemental damage (obviously ICE armor should be your first priority).  Get it up to at least 80 if possible as a ranged character– over 100 for a melee type is really going to make it easier not to be hurt so bad you can’t live.

Looking for tips after level 20? Here you go!

Hardcore elite has taken it’s toll! I had a level 11 and level 9 embermage go down for the count last night, one during a phase beast challenge (tough stuff!) and once in the Grell dungeon to one of those estherian(sp) spheres (and when I was far too low level to be in there). Here are some pictures of the group from the first night.

Let’s get a list of people up for the Elite hardcore blind run (as in, hardest difficulty, one life, never played the game before) when TL2 comes out next week.  As far as I know, it’s max 6 players per game, so if we have more than 6 (unlikely!) we can split into two groups.   The only rule is that you cannot play the game at all before your hardcore character bites it (and they will bite it!).

Now– some of us that got to play the beta in May will effectively be cheating until the first big boss (which only one person got past).  To make it fair, we will tell you when one of the three points of likely death are about to happen.  There’s one main quest point, one optional quest area and, of course, the first real difficult boss.  That should even it out a bit.

So if you are up for it, reply to this post and we’ll try to get things rolling about 7-8PM Central time on the 20th (unless stuff is out at midnight…).