Or "How I survived a solo-suicide"
I guess the most important thing to know about this game is that it was one of those hugely anticipated titles not everyone knew about. What happened then? Well, no one was really disappointed in it. They enjoyed, loved it and it slowly began to wither away like so many other attempted Diablo clones. Gone, but not forgotten, here's a couple of reasons for you to dust off this gem and give it another run.
1. They added multiplayer
Talk about armageddon!
Okay, so this isn't really a reason to give it another go, but it is THE reason why it was so anticipated. Everyone loved the first game, but it was plagued by that one massive flaw no one could forgive - there was no multiplayer. Oh my god! Say it isn't so!
Runic Games fixed it and fixed it well by implementing the multiplayer option in their second title, rather than desperately trying to shove it into the first one (smart move guys!). I know it's nothing fancy, but it was long awaited, so there you go.
2. Save skill points
So many skills, so little points
Remember how there were so many level restrictions on skills that you could practically spread out your skill points across everything? True, up until the very end, when you have access to every skill and not enough points to max any out. Ever screw up your build like this? Lesson number 1 - save those skill points.
I can't emphasize how important this is to keep your character from falling apart mid-game. Just pick a few skills that sound cool and could work together and stay with that. Don't rush to spend each point as you gain a level. That well will dry up pretty soon.
3. Don't be fooled by the difficulty
The forgot to mention the frustration...
This is something that happened to me. Being a Diablo 2 veteran and having a decent run through the first Torchlight game, I decided to start at a modest difficulty setting. After breezing through the first couple of quests I was feeling unchallenged. So, before I got too far in the game, I decided to start over at the max setting. Whoops!
While the first quests offered a challenge I was happy with, they were followed by some utterly merciless monster hordes. That difficulty scaled up quite quickly and had my health scale down from max to zero in 2 seconds. I sure asked for it! Of course, it probably would've been easier if I wasn't such a glutton for punishment and decided to solo the whole damn game on this setting.
4. Your necromancer pet
Torchlight 2 has some of the best pet choices I've seen! Have you noticed the headcrab?
Following my masochistic example of choosing to solo the highest difficulty setting, I had to take some serious advantage of what Torchlight 2 had to offer. So I thought: "Why not use this little bugger who keeps following me around and biting the big baddies?"
While a melee character, or even a spellcaster, doesn't have much use for the spells (especially with their own combat abilities draining away their mana), pets have no real abilities so they're perfect for it! Guess which spells they work best with. Yep, summons. Each time a fight begins your pet will summon whatever he can before even taking a bite out of a monster.
Since he (or she?) has a few slots for spells and doesn't use mana for anything else, he could effectively summon a decent angry mob as soon as you approach a threat, even if it's just one skeleton. Now that's a real pet for you.
5. Iron skin is worth more than a sharp blade
Nothing's getting through these defenses!
This is again, something I learned in my masochist play-through. The glass cannon builds I was used to, following the philosophy of "kill it before it kills you", failed as soon as the first massive group of monsters surrounded me. Yep, there's a lot of 'em. No matter how much crowd control you have and how much area damage you can do, you will get hit - a lot. Did I mention there's plenty of ranged enemies too?
So, get your defense up. By this, I don't mean just physical defense, but resistances too. Make sure you can take at least a few punches, energy blasts or bad breath, before you collapse. It's not about getting them down fast, but about staying alive long enough to get them down.
6. Get your hotkeys in order
Most of these are actually mapped to a gaming mouse. *wink, wink*
Like Diablo 2, Torchlight 2 demands hotkeys if you want to be effective. While you do get to preselect 2 skills and swap them out, it's far more valuable to ignore that feature and just use quick keys. Best part is, you can program them however you wish. Perfect!
Keep in mind, I don't mean the slots you see in the middle of the UI. If you hover over a skill when selecting it, you can press a hotkey for it. It's something taken from Diablo, but not everyone knew it even then. Quite the hidden feature eh? So, open up that skill selection bar and start marking your skills. It's a fast-paced game and you'll want to be able to swap from offense to defense in a split second.
7. Save ember
Those higher level embers can really make a difference!
It's a thing. Like perfect gems in Diablo, ember can be quite valuable in Torchlight 2. Keep all the ember you find and just upgrade it over and over. It's not uncommon to find incredible gear that has sockets (or add sockets to incredible gear) and high level ember can really make a difference.
Remember what I was saying about defense and resistances? Well this is your absolute best source for it. You can still keep the great stats of the unique gear you collect, but at the same time give yourself high resistance values by socketing ember. It's there. Take advantage of it.
8. Merchants have a few surprises
Merchants never have what I need...
I was used to the idea that a set item is something that has to drop and you have to be lucky enough to have them all drop for you, so I didn't really bother saving anything just for a potential set bonus. Boy, did Torchlight ever pull a fast one! Just as I was getting ready to sell a pair of set boots, lo-and-behold, the merchant was offering me a matching pair of gloves. Naturally I bought them, gave him a nice tip and was quite happy with my fashionable attire.
Not only that, but it seems like there's more than one way to skin a cat...I mean complete a set. After I had that matching pair of gloves and boots, I found the ring that goes with it and got the maximum bonus the set allowed (3 items in this case). Imagine my surprise when I also found a matching hat. Hah! So the set has four pieces, but the bonus only goes up to three. Interesting. This meant that I could swap out a piece for something better and still retain the bonus. Good job, Runic Games!
9. If you get a unique drop, it's for another class
I'm a berseker too, where's my Iceshard Dominator?
Something really irks me with this game... It's like it wants that shared to stash to mean something, rather than just being extra storage space. I'm not used to having unique items drop, even with bosses. For me it's always a "if I'm lucky that boss may be nice enough to drop a minty swirl" way of thinking. Image my surprise when even some chests (granted, they're big chests) dropped uniques.
I was bouncing and cheering all the way back to town to identify and see what amazing stats I could get, only to find that this particular unique is for a different class. Oh well, I'll get another one soon. Yay, another one... for another class... and again... and again. Guess I'd better just throw them in the shared stash for a future play-through. *grumbles*
10. Automap is your best friend or your worst enemy
Now THIS is an automap!
Now this thing was annoying me all the way to Siberia and back. No matter what mode I chose for it, it was in the way, or wasn't really helpful. Worse yet, if I wanted to toggle it, I had to go through all those modes each time.
That is, until I looked around the options a bit. They give you an opacity feature for the automap. Wow! That's some great thinking. Sure enough, I could now splash the map across the entire screen and make it barely visible. Still, it bothered me in big fights. Another run through the options and I found a button that would just toggle it on or off, without switching through the modes. Really great thinking! Automap is my best friend now.
There you go. Now, because I love to torture myself and solo the game on the hardest setting, some may have different ideas for what the most important things are. How about you online guys? What are the most important things in Torchlight 2's multiplayer aspect? Let us know in the comments.
