Torchlight 2 Catch-All

Started a Zerker and got him to level 18 before I hit some kind of DPS lag. The Snow-Breath Yetis are tearing me apart again and again, and after being soundly smacked around by the Boss at the Water Temple (something like 18 deaths) I decided that maybe I was playing the game wrong.
And I did some checking and I WAS playing the game wrong. I had decided to use dual-fist weapons. And this is wrong for a solo character. Fisties don't do splash damage. Which means you will be mobbed.
After chatting with my brother about his experiences I started over with an Engineer. Night. And. Day.
I shredded through bosses that gave me trouble. I laughed at my foes as they fled before the might of my flaming pike and scattered under the chattering staccato of my Gun-Bots affections (They only want to love you! With bullets! Don't Run!)
I played to about the same area I got to with my Zerker and then switched back to Torchlight Classic. I REALLY want the arcane stats (J) screen to be patched in... unless it exists and I've just never found it.

Rezzy wrote:

After chatting with my brother about his experiences I started over with an Engineer. Night. And. Day.
I shredded through bosses that gave me trouble. I laughed at my foes as they fled before the might of my flaming pike and scattered under the chattering staccato of my Gun-Bots affections (They only want to love you! With bullets! Don't Run!)

I went into the Beta this weekend with an Engineer. Really fun class to play. I put a lot of points into her passives and between a 6% Aegis shield passive, the Forcefield and my badass fire-enchanted epic unique Charge proc-ing wrench I made short work of the last half of the Beta. I tried the spider bots and that Ember strike swing based on Charges but they didn't seem nearly as effective as just turtling up, using the Forcefield and Hulk Smashing my way through everything. It was almost a little too easy... Hoping it's not a balance issue.

So yeah, I'm sold. Pre-ordered 1 copy and considering a 2nd so my son can play with me (with the blood turned off!). He was absolutely loving me being a hero, helping people, etc etc.

I was out of town most of the weekend, but got a chance to hop on the beta last night. I played as an Outlander on Normal and made it to level 10 in about an hour. I really like the UI reorganization from the first game, the voice work is solid, the graphics are maxed out on my mid-range PC, and overall, I have zero complaints. It runs smooth-as-silk and everything works great. It seems ready to launch, as far as I can tell!

I'd pre-order (through Steam), but I already own the first game, so I don't have much incentive. I'll definitely pick it up when it comes out!

...which should be...tomorrow! Get it out, Runic! It's perfect as it is!

The ember mage has a lightning vortex type thing that she plops on the ground that acts like a turret/trap.

I had a lot of fun with the zerker and engineer which is odd as before I played the beta, I was gravitating towards the ember mage and outliander.

I started with the Outlander because I liked their aesthetic, but didn't find much that interested me in their skill set. That may have been because one-handed pistols were so rare in the build I played. I'd get like 4 cannons and 2 shotguns for every one pistol.

I like the look of the Berserker, too. These aren't noble Viking warriors. They're pants-on-head crazy, as you'd expect of one who runs head-long into battle (in other words, they look like they're going "berserk").

I kind of expected each class to maintain their own specific look regardless of armor, kind of like in Diablo III, but didn't really notice that very much. Maybe I need to look closer, but it seemed like stuff I put on my Engineer looked identical to stuff I put on my Outlander.

I didn't get on very well with the outlander, but I can't claim to have tried many weapons with it. It does seem to be basically the vanquisher from TL1 updated, and I found the charge bar effects to be a little dull (a flat increase). It might of been the character, it might have been me not getting it out of the character.

Engineer is easily my favorite class. I would never expect the Engineer class act like a "warrior/tank" class. My favorite Engineer weapon is the giant cannon. EXTREME!

I took the Engineer too. I really liked the James Bond-ness of the class. Between the gunbot and the spider mines and my gynormous electric wrench to deal out quick, efficient death, and the health bot watching my six, I had a blast with the character.

The comment I made to my girlfriend ran along the lines of: It feels like I turned on Godmode.
With the Berserker I was constantly kiting mobs and woe if more than one named critter attacked me at once. Maybe I didn't find the right weapons. Maybe I backed the wrong skills.
With the Engineer I find myself able to wade into almost anything and stand my ground.

I think they need to do something to encourage people to change away from the 'signature' weapons on the outland and berserker, or encourage swapping depending on circumstances.

I also tried the outlander first, but it seemed weak and less fun that I expected, so I abandoned it once I reached level 10. Then I made an engineer and proceeded to complete the beta (reach the "congratulations" screen), reaching the beta level cap of 21. The difference in power and effectiveness to the outlander was huge, to the point where I wondered if maybe the engineer is slightly overpowered.

I'm currently playing a mage (level 14 at the moment), and it's also really fun to play. Before the beta ends, I'll check out the berserker, but I have no intention of playing one when the game releases.

[edit to fix a typo]

Rezzy wrote:

The comment I made to my girlfriend ran along the lines of: It feels like I turned on Godmode.
With the Berserker I was constantly kiting mobs and woe if more than one named critter attacked me at once. Maybe I didn't find the right weapons. Maybe I backed the wrong skills.
With the Engineer I find myself able to wade into almost anything and stand my ground.

I loved the Berserker. I focused on abilities that helped me regain health, went with a strength/dexterity focused build, and went two-handed with one claw, one sword. Add to that using freeze to control mobs, I found myself tearing through enemies and having a massive surplus of potions I wasn't using.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Does anyone currently have a 4-pack pre-purchase of this going that isn't full up and if not, are there 3 more people interested in getting in on one if I start it?

If you start one I am interested. Let me know.

I was thinking about this a bit and I wish that there was some kind of infographic icon they could implement for equipment.
Part one: For weapons a wedge that shows the width of the attack cone, colorcoded for the percent of damage that is done to targets in cone. Use a common scale for the cone to indicate the range of the weapon.
Part two: For weapons and armor a 'synergy' icon that changes color when your character has certain skills which utilize or boost that particular item beyond its base stats.

It would be nice to be able to quickly glance at a store page and see if anything is marked with a green dot for me vs the usual orange/red.
Or to quickly see that the short sword has a reach of 1m and a 60 degree 25% damage cone while the two handed broadsword will reach 1.5m and hits 120 degrees for 50%... which means that even at a lower DPS the broadsword is a better room-clearer, while the short-sword would be better for boss-battles. Something that I, intuitively, would have flipped around.

SuperDave wrote:

I found myself tearing through enemies and having a massive surplus of potions I wasn't using.

Oh I'm definitely not discounting the possibility that I was just not playing him right and drew a horrible randomizer. I ended up having to buy some weapons because no one-handed weapons worth a damn ever dropped naturally. Lots of staves, wands, 'improved cast-time' trinkets... Engineer and Embermancer specific uniques... It constantly felt like I was the wrong class.

EDIT: Oh... I DID get a matched pair of 'set' maces. However I think they are woefully under-DPS for the area I'm trying to clear... but again. Nothing better has come up yet.

Rezzy wrote:

I was thinking about this a bit and I wish that there was some kind of infographic icon they could implement for equipment.
Part one: For weapons a wedge that shows the width of the attack cone, colorcoded for the percent of damage that is done to targets in cone. Use a common scale for the cone to indicate the range of the weapon.
Part two: For weapons and armor a 'synergy' icon that changes color when your character has certain skills which utilize or boost that particular item beyond its base stats.

It would be nice to be able to quickly glance at a store page and see if anything is marked with a green dot for me vs the usual orange/red.
Or to quickly see that the short sword has a reach of 1m and a 60 degree 25% damage cone while the two handed broadsword will reach 1.5m and hits 120 degrees for 50%... which means that even at a lower DPS the broadsword is a better room-clearer, while the short-sword would be better for boss-battles. Something that I, intuitively, would have flipped around.

I don't think there's really that much to keep track of, especially if you specialise in one character rather than swapping around. Guides are helpful, but I think you have to be careful to avoid funnelling players down a pre-set "this is the right way to play a certain class"

Scratched wrote:

I don't think there's really that much to keep track of, especially if you specialise in one character rather than swapping around. Guides are helpful, but I think you have to be careful to avoid funnelling players down a pre-set "this is the right way to play a certain class"

I don't mean for keeping track of, but for quickly sorting through a full page of information. There are usually a couple dozen items in a shop in a visually cluttered grid with huge popups that obscure the rest of the items on display. Allow me to tell the system to highlight certain items for me, starting with the ones that are relevant to my character. An automatic watch list. The automatic 'synergy' check is so that I don't accidentally miss a piece of the set I'm using because it's an item I don't usually scan for in the shop.
Hey Shop-Keeper... Do you have any items from this set I am collecting?
What am I? Some kind of shop-keeper? Sift through these barrels yourself, plebe!

Edit:Hey Shop-Keeper... Do you have any items like the stuff I'm using right now but with better stats or different enchantments?
Go Eff yourself! I hate money! I hate Your money! I hate YOU! Now get out of my stall and go back to saving my home from the horrors outside these walls with your horrendously substandard equipment!

Edit2: After thinking some more on it that is my biggest gripe with the series so far... comparing lots of items is painful!They have an excellent mechanic where it immediately pops up what you have equipped, but what they haven't done is provide some mechanic for leaving that comparison up on the screen or locking the locations of the popups. The boxes seem to arrange themselves dynamically depending on where on the screen the item you're comparing is. So sometimes the item you're looking at is in the middle. Sometimes on the left. Sometimes the boxes are different sizes. Sometimes they're side-by-side, sometimes they're staggered. It makes for a very visually exhausting experience when you want to quickly check the store or when going through your loot to see if anything is worth keeping.
More than once I've moved between items and started reading the wrong box because suddenly the orders or contexts had shifted. So it would be nice, in my opinion, to have a quick visual way to tell at a glance if an item is even relevant.

Edit3: All that said... any guesses as to what I'll be doing once I get home?

I found comparing was something I 'tuned into', you learn what you're looking for and what you needed to upgrade. That said, I wasn't examining every single item from every source at every opportunity.

I hardly looked at the shops
Grey and green items get a very fast skim for the unlikely event they're better than what I've got.
Blues and better get a little more attention, but chances are I looked at them when I looted them.

The real fly in the ointment comes when I'm trying to think of gear to save for other characters, but I'll probably just ignore that in the final release.

Finished the beta with an Embermage, and played a bit with all classes. Super happy, wish I could keep going. I ran into zero problems with bugs; this feels like releasable code. Did a bunch of 3-player multiplayer and no-one complained about lag at all.

I liked the Embermage and Outlander best, although I'd like to go back and replay with the Engineer. It didn't really click for me off the bat. Also, I tried that first one on 'normal' difficulty, which I did think was a bit easy. All my subsequent games were on Veteran, which was much better. I also died quite a bit more, but had a lot more fun

Did anyone else feel like spell drops were too rare?

DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

Did anyone else feel like spell drops were too rare?

YES! Especially with no vendor for them.

Scratched wrote:

I hardly looked at the shops

Both my current characters found their main weapon in the shop. It is tedious as hell, but worth checking... Which is why I wish they would make it just a tad less punishing. At least let me sort the items or something.

blackanchor wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Does anyone currently have a 4-pack pre-purchase of this going that isn't full up and if not, are there 3 more people interested in getting in on one if I start it?

If you start one I am interested. Let me know.

I will get in on this.

Speedhuntr wrote:
blackanchor wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Does anyone currently have a 4-pack pre-purchase of this going that isn't full up and if not, are there 3 more people interested in getting in on one if I start it?

If you start one I am interested. Let me know.

I will get in on this.

Count me in as well please.

Dramatic Marlin wrote:
Speedhuntr wrote:
blackanchor wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Does anyone currently have a 4-pack pre-purchase of this going that isn't full up and if not, are there 3 more people interested in getting in on one if I start it?

If you start one I am interested. Let me know.

I will get in on this.

Count me in as well please.

And that's 4! PMing Parallax ....

EDIT: looks like Parallax Abstraction hitched his chakawary to another wagon already so there's still one open spot left on our 4-man dream team! Who wants in?

Well, I'm weak. I'll be your fourth.

And the 4th is set! (again) I've PM'd you all.

I knew that Runic had stated that the beta would end "soon" after the stress test, which was this past Friday - Monday. I just saw this on the beta launcher screen and thought I'd share.

IMAGE(http://s16.postimage.org/p0zjfsxzp/image.jpg)

So this obviously means that the game should be releasing in the coming weeks, hopefully sooner rather than later. I've already put well over 20 hours into the beta (engineer FTW), and I'll be jonesing for some TL2 after Thursday.

The lag in Diablo 3 is giving me more stress than it's worth, particularly with my fragile hardcore wizard. In any event, I haven't touched the beta, but based on your impressions, I feel good about my pre-order.

MeatMan wrote:

I knew that Runic had stated that the beta would end "soon" after the stress test, which was this past Friday - Monday. I just saw this on the beta launcher screen and thought I'd share.

IMAGE(http://s16.postimage.org/p0zjfsxzp/image.jpg)

So this obviously means that the game should be releasing in the coming weeks, hopefully sooner rather than later. I've already put well over 20 hours into the beta (engineer FTW), and I'll be jonesing for some TL2 after Thursday.

Awesome! Good to know I've got something to do tomorrow night.

Are their other pre-purchase bonuses than the Steam bonus (i.e. extra copy of Torchlight 1)?

ilduce620 wrote:

Are their other pre-purchase bonuses than the Steam bonus (i.e. extra copy of Torchlight 1)?

As far as I know, the only other place you can pre-purchase is at perfectworld.com but I don't see any bonus listed, so I guess Steam is the only one.