Torchlight 2: Berserker & Embermage

If you though Diablo3 was good, this game will make D3 look like game made for 5 year olds, with a 8 year old game engine. Just in beta alone, I have played 5 characters of all classes to max beta level and trying out my sixth now. Compared to D3, I only played 1 Witch Doctor to max beta level, a Wizard to level 5 and didn't even bothered with the rest. Proves to show how much more polished Torchlight2's beta is with almost all game mechanics in (I though I saw all the quests in game after 4 characters, on my 6th character, I still managed to find a new random quest dungeon.)

Sadly, the beta has passed (I manage to find a source for offline, single player mode of the exact beta, message me if you want the link), but I have made a short compilation of the classes and skills available so you can prepare yourself on which class to pick when the game releases.

Initially, I decided not to write a class review/preview on Torchlight2 cause there would be many out on the interwebs. But to my amazement, I could barely find any that provided eager fans or new players, a glimpse at how each class functions.

More information about the game features can be found HERE

To start it off, each class has a unique charge bar which charges up when attacking (normal attack and some skills) enemies (gradually loses charge slowly when out of combat). Once full, it activates and grants bonus for a duration (except for Outlander and Engineer which I will describe below:

• Berserker's charge bar, when full, grants increased attack speed and critical chance for 5 seconds (can be increased with passive skill), before diminishing. Once charged, it is triggered after dealing the first attack to an enemy. (tip: you can charge the bar full in town on a dummy before leaving town)

• Similar to the Berserker, Embermage's charge bar fills up as you cast and hit enemies with your spells (not all spells grant charge). Once full, it grants free spell casting and increased spell damage for a short duration. The countdown to diminish starts the moment it triggers.

• Outlander has slightly varied charge bar which grants the Outlander increased move speed, attack speed, critical chance and critical damage as the Outlander gains more charge (cap at 10% for all bonus when full) (eg. at half charge bar, you will get 5% bonus)

• The class that runs on a totally different charge usage is the Engineer. Instead of getting bonus on full bar or incrementally, Engineer can hold up to 5 charges on his charge bar (basically a bar with 5 points that light up with each charge). The Engineer has number of skills which will deal bonus effect/damage by expending charges. The Engineer also comes equipped with skills to help gain charges faster.

Next is a rundown of each of the 4 classes available in Torchlight 2 and I will start it off with the Berserker!

Berserker

If pointy claws, upclose and brutal melee, icy breaths and feral wolves are your thing, then this is the class for you. The Berserker has 3 main skill trees which a player can choose from:

• Hunter

• Mainly focuses on dual claws engaging in constant melee bloodlust while dishing out powerful single target damage and maintaining crowd control with deafening battle cries.

1. Eviscerate (active): req. melee weapon, deals damage to all units in front, cleave
2. Howl (active): debuffs all enemy in medium AoE, slows attack, lowers defence
3. Raze (active): single target, heavy damage based on weapon, interrupts
4. Wolfstrike (active): lunges foward, damage all in path, chance to stun
5. Battle Recovery (active): heals players based on current rage charge, reduce incoming physical damage by %
6. Rupture (active): single damage, knockback, explodes on death
7. Blood Hunger (passive): heals players for % of total health whenever critical hit on enemy
8. Rampage (passive): chance to trigger, increase rage charge rate
9. Executioner (passive): req. dual wield, increase chance to exeute and increase dual wield damage 

• Tundra
• If blood soaked claws alone can't satisfy you, then it is time to throw in some ice and lightning. Packed with bellows of Icy breath, lightning imbued claws and thunderous throwing axes, this class offers single target claw-ers with much needed AoE utility.

1.  Frost Breath (active): short range cone damage to all in path, increase damage taken
2. Stormcloaw (active): over period, imbued basic attack with chance to deal lightning damage to nearby enemy
3. Storm Hatchet (active): long range, single target, slows, damage based on weapon damage, generates extra charge
4. Northern Rage (active): ice shard spreads from player damaging nearby enemies
5. Battle Focus (active):  recover player's mana based on current rage charge, increase % resistance for period
6. Permafrost (active): large AoE, ice damage over time to all enemies hit
7. Cold Steel Mastery (passive): increase % physical damage, increase % ice damage
8. Shatter Storm (passive): chance to freeze enemy, frozen enemy explode on death, explosion freezes enemies around.
9. Rage Retaliation (passive): chance to auto retaliate to enemy attack

• Shadow
• There is nothing hairless about the feral wolves here in Torchlight2 and Shadow lets the Berserker control summoned wolves or even choose to transform into one him/herself temporarily to wreck havoc on poor little monsters.

1.  Shadow Burst (active): player lunges forward, damage all in path, 100% shield break
2. Saveage Rush (active): transforms player into a wolf with increase move speed, does melee range AoE damage, damage done heals player, cost mana per second to sustain
3. Shadowbind (active): links group of enemy, damage dealt to 1 target spreads as % damage to all those linked
4. Wolfpack (active): summons a few wolves for a duration to attack enemies for physical damage
5. Wolf Shade (active): summon a short duration wolf that deals damage and heals players
6. Frenzy Mastery (passive): increase duration of rage staying active
7. Red Wolf (passive): critical strikes causes extra damage to hit nearby enemies
8. Shred Armor (passive): reduces enemy's armor per hit and player gains armor per hit

Embermage

An ARPG is never complete without a spell blasting caster and Embermage does just that, and very well for that matter. Armed with an arsenal of spells, this glass cannon dishes out a fury of elemental damage able to topple an island. The 3 elements which the Embermage can harness are:

• Inferno

• Pyromaniacs can rejoice as this skill tree offers enough burning spells to set even the coldest heart on fire. Focusing on large area damage, Inferno makes short work of grouped enemies in a jiffy.

1. Magma Spear (active): channeled, deals fire damage to enemies in a path
2. Magma Mace (active): 270 degree melee arc damage, knockback, chance to stun
3. Fire Bomb (active): throws 3 fire bombs at location, sets location on fire, chance to cause enemies to flee
4. Blazing Pillar (active): summons 4 pillars that seeks out enemies, damages enemies touched, generates charge, short duration,
5. Infernal Collapse (active): places a ball of fire on target location, detonates after short duration, medium AoE, high damage
6. Immolation Aura (active): medium duration, medium AoE, fire damage aura around player
7. Charge Mastery (passive): increase charge gain, reduce charge diminish rate
8. Elemental Attunement (passive): increase duration of all elemental effects
9. Firebrand (passive): increase fire damage taken by enemy if they are on fire

• Frost
• Fancy turning your foes into ice statues or turning warm beer into nice mug of freezy chilled beer fit for a king? There is always little Mr. Freeze in all of us and this skill trees is right down that alley.

1. Icy Blast (active): fires multiple ice projectiles, deal frost damage, chance to freeze
2. Hailstorm (active): large AoE, ice damage, chance to freeze
3. Frost Phase (active: blink/sends player to target location, chance to freeze enemies at cast point and travel point
4. Frost Wave (active): wave of ice, damage all in path
5. Astral Ally (active): summons a untargetable companion that cast spells. medium duration
6. Stave Mastery (passive): enemy attacked by player with stave takes 10% extra magic damage
7. Frozen Faith (passive): chance to freeze, chance to explode dealing ice damage to enemies around
8. Ice Brand (passive): increase ice damage taken by enemy if they are frozen

• Storm
• This probably a direct reference to Storm from X-men and it does her a whole lot of justice. Dishing out millions of volts to all who oppose, I would dare say Tesla himself would approve of this electrifying can of ass-whoop.

1. Prismatic Bolt (active): cast multiple bolts, seeks enemies, deals all elemental damage, chance for elemental effects
2. Shocking Burst (active): short range, small con AoE, channeled damage to all in path, knockback
3. Thunder Locust (active): places a ball of lightning at location for duration, auto attacks enemy around it with lightning damage
4. Arc Beam (active): medium range, channeled beam, damages all in path, explodes enemy, chance to bounce beams to enemies nearby upon explode
5. Deaths Bounty (active): AoE debuff enemy, refunds health and mana to player if debuffed enemies are killed.
6. Prismatic Rift (passive): chance to teleport enemy away upon hitting player
7. Wand Chaos (passive): require wand, chance to cast random negative effect on enemy attacked by wand (meteor, wind, poison, electricity, etc)
8. Lightning Brand (passive):  increase lightning damage taken by enemy if they are electrified

The other 2 classes, Outlander and Engineer will be explained in a separate post to make it easier for reading cause I think it is getting a little lengthy here.