Titan Quest gold...should I.............

[GreenGoo]

Ok, is it me or does a dual wield build take an unreasonably large amount of damage for at least the first 15 levels, as compared to just about any other build?

I have 3 dual wielders, each in the 10-15 level range, and they are CONSTANTLY drinking potions. I'm putting in a solid effort on my harbinger, and I am constantly buying health pots. I don't think I've had to buy potions for any other build. Some use more than others, but buying them en masse doesn't exist, except for my dual wielders.

I have started getting comfortable with drinking a potion with every cool down even when just taking on groups of trash mobs, but it is not how I like to play, usually. And man, I had a terrible time getting past the (3) cyclopses, even with kiting, and even died to the archer undead (3) brother right before the cyclops(es). No other character has struggled that badly.

Now, I expect them to come into their own a bit more as they start topping off certain skills, but even then I can't see them being tougher defensively.

It's a bit frustrating, but as I said, I'm getting used to it. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, my bone charmer didn't even use a health potion until Act 3. Ok, maybe the very occasional one against a boss, but nothing between bosses.

I think with my harbinger I'm going to put aside climbing the warfare tree for awhile so I can reach trance of convalescence and put some points into that to see if it helps. My spell breaker is just screwed for now though, as far as I can tell.

[Paingod]

Ok, is it me or does a dual wield build take an unreasonably large amount of damage for at least the first 15 levels, as compared to just about any other build?

It's not just you. I recall being a Potion Fiend as a dual-wielder, even into higher levels. You're light on defense, but heavy on offense, and need to always be in melee range. It makes for a lot of pounding on you. I would look for a lot of +Regen stuff, but there was always a chance I'd just have to take a little break and drink a couple before I could keep going.

... and thanks for the cap info. I was left scratching my head. 166% is fast, but I wanted to go faster. Playing any other character now feels like I'm mired in mud, crawling along.

[silverjon]

Underlord Mod Question:

Spoiler:

In the "Secret Passage" cave added by the mod, everything attacks with Blood attacks - assuming Vitality damage. My resist is 20% and I'm finding it very difficult. I checked my inventory and it seems like a very rare resist type. What other ways are there to get this bumped up?

Footnote - I died three times getting to Act III (one was in the very first Satyr area of the first town), and now that I've tried this cave my total death count is up to 15. It's just brutal. Most of these deaths are actually due to mis-stepping on environmental hazards, which is easy to do with 166% run speed.

Is it vitality damage or bleeding damage? Bleeding is not usually a priority resistance, so I could see something being added just for kicks.

Vitality resistance probably best comes from a Hallowed helmet, which can give a 50% or more boost (and +1 skills). I got one as a drop from a Tigerman, so they're available in Chapter 3, but they're fairly common in Chapter 4 shops (probably because you really need one then). I socketed the one my Warden was wearing with a Ch4 monster charm that added even more vitality resistance.

@dual-wielders and potions
My recently started Assassin is a big potion addict, though not to the point of outstripping loot, but I'm also not playing with monster-adding mods. Died to the Minotaur Lord (after a perfect run of 0 deaths) due to my failure to dump the minor potions prior to entering his room (had been using them up for top-ups). My Harbinger is much higher level, with several points in ToC, which helps considerably.

@run speed cap
On the bright side, depending on gear and skills, there comes a point when you don't need to worry about increasing it further. If I can do rare boots and a Hermes relic, that's easily +30% right there.

[Paingod]

Is it vitality damage or bleeding damage? Bleeding is not usually a priority resistance, so I could see something being added just for kicks.

I'm almost positive that the mod creator talked about Vitality damage and everything is Blood colored - attacks, creatures, scenery. Everything does DoT down there - so even of you run away, your life is hemmoraging for a few seconds. The casters you fight drop staves that do Vitality damage. There are AoE "pods" you have to contend with; they explode when you touch them, and each one is good for 500 damage + DoT, in Normal . My regen rate slows down the DoT, but a fatal issue arises when I bump 3 or more. At this point, the regen offered by a Greater Healing Potion only counters the DoT, it doesn't heal you after the bump. There are several places where you have to skirt closely or even pass through these things. Having a pet, I simply send him through first - he plows the way and dies a second later... and I get to wait 90 seconds for him to pop back up. At 166% run speed, it's depressingly easy to hit several accidentally while trying to run from a group of enemies that will easily kill you.

Vitality resistance probably best comes from a Hallowed helmet, which can give a 50% or more boost (and +1 skills). I got one as a drop from a Tigerman, so they're available in Chapter 3, but they're fairly common in Chapter 4 shops (probably because you really need one then). I socketed the one my Warden was wearing with a Ch4 monster charm that added even more vitality resistance.

That's good to hear. I'm going to skip this place and come back later. At level 33 in Normal it's basically impossible without higher resistances. I even encountered a "Yellow" creature down there that dodged about 80% of my attacks while hitting me for 400 damage per shot, quickly (I have ~2500hp). Harsh. If I made it that far with my Pet character, those Skeletons I have would be going like popcorn; they've all got 350hp...

[Semaj]

been playing the non underworld mod, which looks mightily snazzy. I didnt know it existed till about today, lol.

What are those purple things, I am so jealous... lol. let me guess, i wont see any of these on normal eh?

Should i finish the game once through (I am midway through act 4 with my templar atm) then install said underworld mod and make time 2 through way more interesting/violent, or just add it now and weep as I redo the whole thing to see what it adds.

Any other mods I should consider?

[Paingod]

The Underlord Mod will require you to abandon all hope and restart with new characters; the classes and skill trees are not the same and your "Vanilla" characters cannot be ported over (nor can Underlord Mod characters become "Vanilla") ...

... that said, all of your items can be moved in the TQ Vault and carried over into Underlord - so it's worth it to experience the game in an unmodded state, collect a ton of cool stuff, and then once you've gotten as far as you want you shift into Underlord and start over, but with gobs of items to use. The game is different - and there's really nothing wrong with unmodded Titan Quest... I'm playing in Underlord because I played Titan Quest for 200+ hours without mods, and this makes it a little fresher and newer.

It's also possible to create two "Installs" of Titan Quest and have both a Normal and an Underlord install - Just rename the folder from your install, install again, and apply the mod. When you want normal, just rename the Underlord folder, rename the Vanilla back to it's original name, and play away.

[GreenGoo]

On my dual wielder, I found some shin upgrade with more armour (in fact that's all it offered, higher armour with a bonus +9 armour). I then dropped a completed Boar's charm in it for another 14 armour or something.

Magically I am able to fight without drinking 2+ potions per massed group of bad guys. Sometimes I can get away without drinking any.

So that had me thinking this morning on the bus. I want to lay out what I think I know about how armour works. If you can could confirm or correct me that would be great.

Armour location is meaningless. It doesn't matter if you have 5 pieces that add up to 200 or a single piece that is 200 while wearing nothing on the other slots. Both scenarios provide identical protection.

Armour absorption is capped at 66%, unless you have defense mastery and points in the armour skill, which can bring armour absorption up to a max of 72%.

I am unsure if items with armour absorption can increase this cap. I assume so. So the in game cap might be 100%. Which doesn't mean you'll never take any damage due to the nature of armour absorption which I'll comment on next.

If I understand how armour works, it is something like this:

Scenario a)
hp = 1000
Total Armour = 200
Armour absorption = 66%
dam/attack = 100 (how much damage is being delivered to the defender, prior to any defensive reductions like armour absorption)

with the above numbers, each attack would look like this:

Attack = 100 dam - 100 dam x 66% (up to a maximum of 200) = 33.33 dam taken

number of attacks to kill 1000 hp = 1000/33.33 = 30ish depending on rounding.

So 200 armour turns a 100 dam attack into 33.33 dam.

Scenario b)
hp = 1000
armour = 100
armour absorption 66% (default value)
dam/attack = 100 (same as before)

damage taken = 100- 100x66% (up to a maximum of 100) = 33.33 dam taken (exactly the same as scenario a) despite having 1/2 the armour)

Scenario c)
hp = 1000
armour = 100
armour absorption 72% (66% + maxed defensive mastery skill)
dam/att = 100
damage taken = 100 - 100x72% (up to a maximum of 100) = 28 dam taken
attacks to kill = 1000/28 = 36

So the skill clearly adds some survivability. But what happens when the incoming damage is much larger than the armour value?

Scenario d)
hp = 1000
armour = 200
armour absorption = 66%
dam/att = 500
damage taken = 500 - (500 x 66% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 200) = 500 - (330 or 200, whichever is less) = 500 - 200 = 300 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/300 = 4

let's compare that to defense mastery

Scenario e)

hp = 1000
armour = 200
armour absorption = 72%
dam/att = 500
damage taken = 500 - (500 x 72% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 200) = 500 - (360 or 200, whichever is less) = 500 - 200 = 300 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/300 = 4

Exactly the same outcome as Scenario d) without 6 skill points spent in the defensive tree. Is this correct?

Now let's double the armour being worn to 400

Scenario f)
hp = 1000
armour = 400
armour absorption = 66%
dam/att = 500
damage taken = 500 - (500 x 66% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 400) = 500 - (330 or 400, whichever is less) = 500 - 330 = 170 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/170 = 8

Scenario g) (add defensive skill)

hp = 1000
armour = 400
armour absorption = 72%
dam/att = 500
damage taken = 500 - (500 x 72% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 400) = 500 - (360 or 400, whichever is less) = 500 - 360 = 140 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/140 = 8

So despite absorbing more damage, this character still dies after the exact same number of attacks as a non-defensive character (with these numbers). Is this correct? Is this how armour works?

Last 2 scenarios with an additional 100 damage being given

Scenario h)

hp = 1000
armour = 400
armour absorption = 66%
dam/att = 600
damage taken = 600 - (600 x 66% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 400) = 600 - (396 or 400, whichever is less) = 600 - 396 = 204 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/204 = 5

Scenario i) Same as h) but with 6% more absorption

hp = 1000
armour = 400
armour absorption = 72%
dam/att = 600
damage taken = 600 - (600 x 72% up to a maximum of armour value, in this case 400) = 600 - (432 or 400, whichever is less) = 600 - 400 = 200 damage taken
attacks to kill = 1000/200 = 5

So it is important to have lots of armour if you are going to take the defensive skill and add 6% absorption, otherwise it's not too useful. Luckily the defensive skill also gives a +% to armour. The skill gains in value as you progress in the game, and all the numbers get bigger. That 6% starts to help a lot more when hp, armour and incoming damage are larger numbers.

[silverjon]

Eef, don't ask me to check your calculations. I've read that the rating on individual armor pieces does have some effect, in that you can get hit in different body parts, but that other bonuses are global. This means a necklace adding 10 armor effectively adds it to each piece of armor, not just to your total, and the same with any skills increasing armor protection.

I think the boar hide charms might work the same way, applied globally and not just to whatever you've socketed them into.

[GreenGoo]

Huh.

Ok, I better go find some detailed reverse engineering posts for more info. Maybe tonight.

[Paingod]

I almost feel like I've just been missing out on parts of the game - all I do is play it. I try to get good resists and good armor, but never paid attention to things like armor bonuses and how that affects me, or hit locations, or damage types... I just go "Ow - that hurt. I'll have to avoid that guy" ...

Never even dawned on me that there were more involved mechanics aside from straight numbers shown.

[silverjon]

Oh sure. I could just "play the game", and probably even have fun with that.

I don't generally get quite so deep into mechanics as to start performing calculus, but I do enjoy figuring out what complements what and trying to get optimal results out of skills and gear. I like quirky builds as much as the ones with the biggest baddest DPS, but I'm still going to try to kit them out with suitable equipment and not purposely cripple them with poorly matched skills.

[GreenGoo]

It was the changing from 2 pots a battle to 1 pot ever 2 battles (when I put 1 new piece of armour on) that made me more curious about how armour works, although I had already read up on it.

I admit, I'm a sucker for the game mechanics of most games that involve min/maxing.

[Kasey Chang]

It's kinda PITA when you have to tweak armor for half an hour to achieve some sort of optimum result.

Right now I got a config that sacrifices cold resist (-2) for medium to high resist in everything else. I am also carrying alternate headgear that offers like 90% cold resist (61% plus Yeti Fur charm bonus), so I think I'm all set, at least for now. However, I'm a potion fiend. Almost every battle I hit like 3-4 potions. I hit one "just in case" when my health starts dropping

[Kasey Chang]

Argh! The minotaur king is kicking my ****. Every time he hits me, I slow down, and the more I slow down, the more he hits me. Can't go toe to toe with him either.

Looking through my archive of goodies and trying to find stuff that would help me move faster. I think I found enough to give me a 44% speed boost, and enough armor boost (none in matching sets) to pump things up to 1700 armor. Where's slow resistance items, darn it? I've seen them for sale, but there doesn't seem to be any charm or relic that will defend against it.

The longest I've survived is due to me I tring to call a corpulent Djinn, and I run in front, trying to lead the minotaur, while my Djinn tries to damage it. Didn't help much, but at least I survived a bit longer.

[silverjon]

Yeah, my Warden's butt got slightly kicked by Epic Minotaur Lord tonight. His Hamstring attack reduces your armor by a percentage every time he hits you, so it adds up fast. Did manage to run around until his Onslaught mostly dispersed, get a few hits in, run again while swilling potions, etc.

Slowing the Minotaur is supposed to help in this fight. I'm ticked because he seems to be immune to skill disruption, or at least the effect from Shield Charge, because I'm pretty sure I didn't miss.

Quick Recovery could be (ab)used to block his hits. Iron Will of Ajax relic is supposed to prevent slow.

[Kasey Chang]

Ajax, hmmm... I think I have that somewhere...

I have one of the rings that grants the skill "ensnare", but I doubt it will hold him very long as he's pretty darn fast (and my bow/arrow sucks, as my DEX sucks).

[silverjon]

Bosses are immune to being ensnared anyway (or anything else that immobilizes a target).

[Kasey Chang]

Figured that (no ensnare).

Finally killed the **** Minotaur Lord. Died like 15 times total. I've uped my armor to almost 2000 (1917?) AND speed to 144% though the speed didn't help at all. Once you get hit you slow and then you die. Decided to get rid of all resistances and up the damage to the max with every jewelry I got. Got dps to almost 1200. Then just get in and start whacking, and I think I got lucky. One of the stun hits slowed him down long enough to give me a chance to quaff potion and bash was enough to finish him off, but it's pretty darn close. He dropped only ONE blue item, the rest are yellow.

Compared to the Minotaur Lord, Telkine was almost too easy. The four statues are nothing (no tougher than the automatas) and he only spawned ONE set of Limos (which I whacked within 5 seconds). Then it's melee all the way. (Had to reconfig my resistances, of course). Telkin's drop's pathetic as well. I think I got one purple and two blue items, total. Rest are all yellows.

Decided to take a break at Rhakotis.

Noticed that this RNG mod gives you dupes... a LOT of dupes. So far I've seen at least THREE dupes in blues and purples. Though I am seeing a bit more special stuff. Green's are actually quite rare. 99% yellow.

[Kasey Chang]

Decided to play a little further. Clear the library, though the giant scarab got me a couple times. I clearly didn't have patience as I forgot to reconfig for max poison protection. Once I went back to town and did that, the huge scrab went down. Those chests did drop a couple purples and blues, so I have a decent collection now, less than half I can use, of course.

Got a legendary shield called horrible visage EDIT: Hideous Visage or something like that. Tried to equip it... ended up with no torso armor and no weapon. I forgot my existing shield have a +10% strength bonus on it and that's what's keeping the armor and weapons on. Guess I have to wait a bit to use it.

Made it to the village of SAIS, and helped them get rid of croc-men near the shore. Save and that's it for tonight.

[Kasey Chang]

Continued into memphis, nothing too special. Wearing my +50% damage to demons ring so I can clean out those nasties in the desert. I actually have a relic that also has +50% damage to demons so if I put that on a weapon... Hmmm...

Found a legendary ring "Archimedes Gear" or something like that, actually has useful resistances that I can use. (Not enough epic or legendary magic jewelry in the game, IMHO, only found like 4-6 so far)

Found a pharoaic mace that's actually BETTER than my Coven Nex mace when equipped with a relic enhacement. The only catch is it kills my health regen. But with my damage now at 1121 (possible to boost that with a pendent to 1300+ but sacrifice a lot of resistances) I guess I don't really care. Just drink more potions.

[Kasey Chang]

Made it to Fayum, and grabbed the hand of fate from Sphinx as well as fulfilled that quest where I have to defeat the family guardian beast.

Strangely, found the pharoah's guardians quite easy (they never really did much damage to me, even with stomping), and the family guardian was not that difficult either.

What was difficult are those sand wraith demons that hides in sand and materialize out of the sand. I can take on one or two at a time, but if I get crowded I die. They like drain 1/3 of my life in one hit!

One question though: do arcane formulas obtained in Epic work in Legendary? They seem to call for Epic ingredients, but obviously I won't find them in Legendary.

[silverjon]

With Defiler, you can set it so recipes work with higher level ingredients, so you don't have to go down in difficulty to farm for the right ones. Otherwise, nope.

[GreenGoo]

Leveled my Haruspex up to 29 this weekend. She finally got enough points in hunting so that volley and scattershot started being effective. I eventually stopped because gameplay at this point is exactly the same as my Bone Charmer, as both rely heavily on Hunting to progress in Normal.

Spent some time with my Naturalist, who's gameplay is significantly different and slower, but still fun. Skill points are all over the place, but she gets 1 tough(ish) wolf (2 with mastery shrine) a nymph (who is actually pretty good in Normal) and a nightmare, while she mixes it up in melee. Works pretty ok against some bosses too, if I can keep aggro on me and the boss doesn't have any serious aoe. If I throw on Plague, the dps from the pets climbs, as well as mine, and we can actually snuff out Normal bosses fairly quick.

She also looks pretty good, wearing the head gear, shins and forearms of the...crap, what is it? I want to say Onyx but that's not it. The black with blue highlights set. Helmet looks like a statue head. Anyway, it's fun wrangling the pets while psionic touching and plantom striking. With the wolf pack howl we all get a nice boost to dps and I'm working towards the nightmares pet boost skill.

[silverjon]

Obsidian set.

I got a new-to-me graphics card on Saturday, and while I already knew how much better the game looks on a higher-end system, I'm still pleased with the improvement for my own use. I can have shadows.

I played with my Diviner, using a combination of Distortion Wave, Life Drain, and Psionic Touch (with a staff) for offensive power, all with their synergies. Haven't invested many point in the Liche King, and nothing in the Nightmare yet, and standing up fairly well without the distractions, so we'll see how that goes. Reached level 25 and a good chunk of the way through Egypt, able to equip a Book of Dreams, which is a much better artifact for a caster than a fighter.

[GreenGoo]

Obsidian set.

Yeah, that's the one, thanks.

[Kasey Chang]

Made it to Thebes and through Valley of the Kings, and killed the second Telkine. This one dropped 3 purples and 2 blues. Didn't even die once. The trick is avoid his major attack, but otherwise stay close and keep whacking.

I now have like three different purple helms. Right now, the best fit for my Conquerer is Ares' War Helm, which is +1 warfare mastery, 40% elemental resistance, plus poison and piercing resistance, plus extra strength and damage. That pumped my DPS up to 1434.

[Kasey Chang]

With Defiler, you can set it so recipes work with higher level ingredients, so you don't have to go down in difficulty to farm for the right ones. Otherwise, nope.

I can't find the option in Defiler to do this. Care to enlighten me?

[silverjon]

With Defiler, you can set it so recipes work with higher level ingredients, so you don't have to go down in difficulty to farm for the right ones. Otherwise, nope.

I can't find the option in Defiler to do this. Care to enlighten me?

Ok, I seem to have looked at "Relics/Charms are Relative" and thought it was the same as how recipes work in the Occult mod. All I can find now is discussion for the (not happening) balance patch talking about adding this to the regular game.

Sorry.

[Kasey Chang]

Ah, the relative Mod. If I read Defiler correctly, it basically says you can use ANY ingredients you got to make that recipe, instead of the "required" ingredients.

[Kasey Chang]

Decided NOT to fool with the artifacts now, but merely push ahead to Babylon. Made it through the portal, though that sand wraith boss gave me a bit of trouble. I said before I had problem with sand wraiths as they hit like 1000+ damage at a time, and 3-4 of them will drain your life in an instant. This was confirmed when I use the mod to turn on "display numerical damages for all combat" (instead of just criticals), and the the sandwraiths are doing like 1000+ damage, almost the same as the damage I'm doing to them! Dang! It's also interesting to see how the little damage adds up. This actually helps you prioritize your kill list. (i.e. kill the big guys first, they do more damage).

Decided to haul out my ace in the hole: +50% damage to demon ring, and yes, this time it went down, and then played through Babylon up to the first rebirth fountain. Decided to take a break.

Previously at the Telkine #2 dropped a super pendent (something of the Gods) that's like 41% elemental resist, highest I've seen in ANY jewelry thus far.

[Kasey Chang]

Ah, the relative Mod. If I read Defiler correctly, it basically says you can use ANY ingredients you got to make that recipe, instead of the "required" ingredients.

Correction: relative mod means you can "finish" any relic or charm with some OTHER relic or charm fragments. This basically means if you get a TON of one type, you can use it to finish OTHER stuff. (Clearly, I can't read) It doesn't, however, convert any relics or whatnot.

(Can't be that hard, can it?)

[silverjon]

Gawd, I farm so much crap I have tons of relics. Never enough spectral matter though. I could do with using bat fangs to make spectral matter. (But I won't.)

[Kasey Chang]

Made it all the way to Chang'An. Only died twice, mostly from my own stupidity. Here's an amusing death:

Went through the caves to confront the Warlord. Actually died once as I forgot to wear my anti-stun pendent. Wore that, and avoid his avalanches thus far. He's down to last sliver of life. He triggered one more avalanche, and I ran BEHIND him, to avoid the hit, and keep whacking. Blam! Blam! He died. My finger's still clicking like mad... and I clicked just past the dead guy...

Right into the path of the remaining second of avalanche.

Compared to the warlord, the Yeti Lord is a pushover. Whacked him quite easily.

[GreenGoo]

Still playing. Been spending time with various alts as a change of pace in terms of gameplay. I realize I don't have many pure casters. Everyone is melee, bow or staff. Out of 10ish characters I think only 1 is a pure caster (most damage comes from spells). Maybe 2 if I count my aura-mancer, which I probably should.

[silverjon]

I played a big chunk of Epic Egypt with my Warden. Was surprised by how much the giant scorpos was kicking my ass, until he died and dropped this Spinebreaker hammer. Too bad the Warden is a spear fighter, but it'll be put to good use eventually by one of the other Defender classes, of which I have several.

Died twice while fighting the Manticore, mostly due to getting pinned down and unable to dodge the special attacks. Once I got the hang of tossing down a Monster Lure for it to play with while I attacked from the side, it was no problem. Keep away from the rocks and the holes in the floor so you always have dodging room. No good treasure from this one.

[Kasey Chang]

Yeah, I was pretty much going to use a scroll to call in like "Mad God" or something to bait the boss while I whack it. Made it to the "undead bull" but decided to quit for the night.

[silverjon]

Revisited the giant scorpos for kicks and he's rather more like I remembered if you take away the legendary weapon. Died twice with the Egyptian telkine due to poor positioning when he does his sunbeams of instant death attack, the second time right when he died too. Not sure if there were fewer beams in Normal, or if he's just always avoided standing in them himself so it's never been an issue.

Got killed by the Chimera once too, and stopped at the second portal in Epic China.

Notable loot has mostly consisted of formulas for greater artifacts for which I need to find one of the lesser artifact components to make it (and hope I have the parts for that in turn).

[Kasey Chang]

Attack on the undead bull didn't go as planned. I engaged Mad God as expected, and the undead bull DID go after it... So I approached it from the side and start whacking...

And immediately got killed when the bull did the "bucking" routine. WTF?!

Decided to do a variation of the "bridge peek-a-boo", as I'm a VERY bad archer. I wait until shieldbash recharges, walk across the bridge, bull charges. Just as it stops, I shield bash, then run for the bridge. Repeat ad infinitum. If the undead bull release those demons, I just retreat to the bridge and start whacking.

Did kill the darn bull and made it to Jade Palace and is working my way down the stairs into the mountain, and out the other side. Working my way to the Wusao mountain now...

[Kasey Chang]

The bull dropped 3 purple items and one blue... None of which are for a Conquerer. *sigh*.

Made it all the way back to Chang'An, then out into Wusao, and now into the Obsidian halls. The Dragonians are giving me a little problem as they are pretty darn big and thus tough to kill. They must have like 6K-10K hitpoints. Even when I'm doing like 1600 dps it takes a while to kill one. I've resorted to tease one or two off the main group and pick them off that way. I can't handle a mob at all.

[GreenGoo]

I'm still playing every night, although some nights more than others. I still haven't had any characters progress past Normal, although my Bone Charmer is in Act 4.

I get more enjoyment out of the various play styles of the different builds than I do with progressing to different bad guys to kill, which is why I have 10ish alts all in normal.

I don't have anything new to add, but I could probably make some comments on some of the builds I've been playing.

As I mentioned earlier, My haruspex (hunting/dream) and bone charmer (hunting/spirit) are playing nearly indentically at the moment, with maxed scattershot, volley and puncture (whatever the pass through skill is). I just shoot everything and aoe does the rest. They are both too low level to have many points in their 2ndary masteries, so spirit and dream have not added their unique flavours yet.

My ritualist (nature/dream) is just a mishmash of skills that I've mostly been winging it. I don't think I've found a build that was exactly what I wanted, so I'm just doing what feels best. This may be my only character that is not following someone else's guide. She uses a wolf, dryad/nymph and nightmare. Both the wolf and nightmare have points in their skills that boost other pets, so they can be fairly tough at times. I seem to be getting the buffs from those skills as well, so maybe I'm getting the boost(s) too? If so, awesome. She has most of her points (if not all) in strength and dex and so wields heavy armour, shield and weapon. With some of the Dream skills her melee is pretty decent, and if she has subpar dps for her level, the pets more than make up for it. Also I can't tell how strong she is on defense since the pets will often tank a mob or 2 as well. It works well so far. Dps is spread across 4 of us, and hp is too, which mitigates risk somewhat.

I've been trying to level up my spellbreaker (warfare/spirit) but it has been tedious at the lower levels. She's finally hit 20+, and so has enough points in all the dual wield skills that her dps has started to really ramp up. She's not nearly so tedious any longer. I don't have any health drain/steal/leech/whatever so her play style hasn't reached the general approach one would use with a Spellbreaker, but she is still fun anyway. Finally.

I've got a few others on the go (including an aura-mancer (earth/dream) who just put 1 point in core dweller. Easy street) but I'll leave them for later.