Best Class In Titan Quest

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Jun 13, 2019

A very simple and reliable class setup for clearing out any difficulty.

Titan Quest is one of the big AARPGs (or Diablo-like, if you prefer. Or hack-and-slash) of the 2000s. Or hack-and-slash) of the 2000s. Released in 2006, it improbably resumed receiving patches and adjustments in 2016, as the “Anniversary Edition”. Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities. Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Attack Speed is one of the most efficient ways to increase your overall DPS in Titan Quest, and outperforms nearly everything else (if you’re a caster then the equivalent would be Recharge Time). Some of the best items in the game have high Attack Speed, and many Relics or Charms can also help to increase it via Enchanting.

Other Titan Quest Guides:
  • Super Tanky Caster (Summoner) Build.
  • Conqueror (Defense / Warfare) Build Guide.

Titan Quest Wiki Character Classes Class Guides This page serves as a hub to class guides, both external and internal. With the loss of the titanquest.net forums, this is an attempt to recreate a centralized resource for class guides.

Quest

Introduction


This is the pure pet based build. Pets will be your only source of damage. I recommend trying this if you like steady gameplay as a support character.
The Summoner class is a combination of Earth and Nature masteries.
Pros:

  • Good for beginners. Smooth gameplay on any difficulty.
  • Very simple. You use only 2 skills most of the time.
  • No rare gear needed at all. All necessary items are common and can be bought from vendors.
  • A lot of spare atribute points.
  • Many ways to increase resistances. Large hp pool.
  • Earth mastery will provide a perfect tank summon (Core Dweller). Just keep him alive and you will be ace.
  • Summoner is good in multiplayer. Heals, buffs and debuffs you can provide are very useful in co-op.

Cons:

  • Summoner has average self survivability.
  • Your character is basically dealing no damage. Pets will do the work for you, but passive playstyle can be a real disadvantage for some players.
  • Pet survivability and killspeed varies quite a bit until endgame build status is reached. Progression speed will decrease by the end of the game on every difficulty.

The summoner is an overpowered class combo overall. Only a few enemies can hurt you and your pets really bad during the first playthrough (Typhon), Dactyl (can be avoided) and Toxeus (optional)). But properly geared summoner will tear apart everyone on any difficulty.

Pet Knowledge


  • Pets do not benefit from your attributes.
  • You can scale pets with gear and talents.
  • Affected by pet gear and pet specific buffs are only creatures summoned by player skills. Any item summons or converted monsters are regarded as allies.
  • There are physical, vitality and elemental damage type buffs on gear (Bonus to All Pets:). Any bonus damage type can be added to the standard damage type a pet has.
  • The Sylvan Nymph deals flat piercing damage, it is not regarded as physical damage. You can add different flat damage types to her standard attack and buff these.
  • Pets get +75%/+150% to all damage types in Epic/Legendary difficulty.
  • Except Pierce and DoT Damage, those are increased by +60%/+110%.
  • Difficulty buffs now also give some (flat) damage through extra STR and INT rather than just high +% to damage.
  • This leads to high damage spikes in early acts and decreasing killspeed nearing the end of each difficulty mode.
  • Pets gain +200/+400 health in Epic/Legendary difficulty flat. They gain +100% health from difficulty changes and +100% health from a quest mid act 3 each difficulty, resulting in +500% Health overall.
  • Pets receive some Movement and Attack Speed each difficulty.
  • Pets are subject to Offensive Ability and Defensive Ability calculations. They obtain about +350/+600 OA and DA in Epic/Legendary difficulty respectively. About 850 for both is considered 'normal' for heroes in legendary (OA needed for melee only obv.), so the pets are somewhere in that territory.
  • Pets have Resistances.

Attributes


Unlike skill points, attribute points can't be reset. You will get 2 attribute points every level. Every attribute point towards Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity is raising it by the value of 4. Every attribute point put in Health / Energy gives you extra 40 health/energy.
Since you are not dealing damage by yourself, Str/Int/Dex stats are somewhat irrelevant. Increase these stats only to meet the requirements of the gear.
Total stats gained from masteries:
Masteries give you only Int and Dex, so you are supposed to wear Int/Dex items.
Bonus Stats

By the end of the game, the player would have recieved a total of 855 Health, 42 Strength, 18 Intelligence, 18 Dexterity and 18 attribute points.

The Nature Mastery


The Nature is very strong mastery by it's own.
Regrowth
Great healing ability. Put some points into this and max out when needed.
Accelerated Growth
Nice recharge boost. Put a couple of points into this. Upgrade some more if needed.
Dissemination
Irrelevant in this build. Put one point into or skip this. Maxed out skill can be used during bossfights, but it's not worth 12 skill points.
Call of the Wild
Our main source of damage. Max out ASAP.
Maul
Needed to reach the next skills. Put one point into this.
Survival Instinct
Nice damage absorption an physical damage boost while dropping under 33% health. Makes the wolves almost ukillable. Put some points into this and max out when needed.
Strength of the Pack
Outstanding physical damage and total speed boost for everyone. Minor armor and mana regen boost. Max out ASAP.
Heart of Oak
Great hp and total speed percental boost. Max out when needed.
Tranquility of Water
Needed for the next skills. Put one point into this.
Permanence of Stone
Slight elemental resist to you and your pets. Put some points into this and max out when needed.
Plague
One of the best debuffs in the game due to its auto spreading ability. Not necessary though. Put one point into this. Improve the skill if you want to increase the duration.
Fatigue
Nice flat and percental damage reduction plus total speed reduction. One point into this. Improve if needed.
Susceptibility
Nice resistance reduction. Max this out.
Put points in Plague and Susceptibility if you really need to boost your pets' damage or if you have spare skill points. These skills are very good against bosses and tanky enemies.

Briar Ward
Never used this skill a lot. High cool down and stationary. I tend to skip this skill branch.
Stinging Nettle
Skip this.
Sanctuary
Maxed out Sanctuary provides decent damage absorbtion. Skip this anyway.
Sylvan Nymph
Nice single target damage dealer. AI is quite buggy though.
Overgrowth
Not very useful, but somewhat convenient. Improve if you have spare skill points.
MageNature's Wrath
Elemental damage boost. Improve if you have spare skill points.
Refresh
Flat cool down reduction. Very useful for summoning full party quickly. Improve if you have spare skill points.

The Earth Mastery


The Earth is great mastery providing decent offensive and defensive skills.
Earth Enchantment
Minor flat fire damage bonus. Good percental fire and burn damage boosts. Medium aura radius. Invest in this skill branch if you have spare skill points.
Brimstone
Minor percental physical damage bonus. Burn DOT. Invest in this skill if you want to further boost physical dmage output of your pets.
Stone Skin
Flat armor bonus. Okayish fire resistance.
Flame Surge
 For casters only. Skip this skill branch.
Heat Shield
Outstanding fire damage absorbtion. 15% Damage resistance. Put a couple of skill points into this skill if you really need fire protection.
Ring of Flame
Great skill to gain some levels in early game. I tend to skip this skill branch anyway.
Volcanic Orb
Perferct skill for a caster. Skip this skill branch.
Stone Form
A one point wonder. 6 seconds of full damage immunity. Put one point in this skill.
Molten Rock

Titan Quest Best Builds

Skip this.
Summon Core Dweller
Core skill of the build. Perfect tank unit with innate Provoke ability. Low dps, kinda squishy on Normal mode. Absolute beast on Epic and Legendary. Max out ASAP.
Inner Fire
Dexterity, Health Regen and Total Speed percental boosts. Max out when needed.
Wildfire
Put one point into this to reach the next skill.
Metamorphosis
Health, Armor, Armor Absorption and Elemental Resistance percental boosts. Max out when needed.
Volativity
Great skill for caster. Skip this.
Eruption
Can be cast anywhere. Good damage. I use this only to kill enemies in the sealed cage in Secret Passage.

Gear


Gearing up the Summoner is as simple as it could be. Every piece of gear you will need can be bougth from Arcanist merchants. Therefore you main problem will be money and/or time, depending on your luck.

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Your aim is to find gear with damage pet bonuses: rings, amulet and staff. Arcanists can sell magical (yellow) and rare (green) items with pet bonuses.
There are 7 tiers of damage pet bonuses (staff, rings, amulet):
Other pet related affixes:
  • Puppetmaster's prefix - (staff, amulet) +200 Health +10% Total Speed, lvl 24.
  • Convocation suffix - (amulet) 20% of Attack damage converted to Health +20% Total Damage, lvl 35.
  • Servitude/Subjugation/Enslavement suffix - (amulet, rings, staff) +40/75/100 Health +10/25/40 Armor, lvl3.

Rings, amulets and staffs can have both prefix and suffix with pet bonuses.

When choosing armor and swap gear look for:
  • Light/Lithe/Weightless prefix - (chest, head, arms, legs) - 8/13/18% Reduction to all Requirements, lvl 8/15/25.
  • Wanderer's/Druid's prefix - (staff, amulet) +1/2 to all skills in Nature Mastery, lvl 12/25.
  • Sacrificial prefix - (amulet) +30% Increased Experience -50% Health -18.0 Health Regeneration per second, lvl 38.
  • Divine/Sacred prefix - (amulet) +1/2 to all Skills, lvl 25/50.
  • Hallowed prefix - (head) 50% Vitality Damage Resistance +1.0 Health Regeneration per second +1 to all Skills, lvl 15.
  • Any armor suffixes with +Health flat bonuses.

Artifacts (optional):

  • Razor Claw
  • Summoner's Totem
  • Druidic Wreath
  • Hand of Gaia
  • Glorybringer
  • Thoth's Glory

Relics and Charms


  • Amun-Ra's Glory
  • Dionysus' Wineskin
  • Hermes' Sandal
  • Li-Nezha's Guile
  • Herakles' Might
  • Shen-Nong's Dark Medicine
  • Ankh of Isis
  • Code of Hammurabi
  • Cunning of Odysseus
  • Monkey King's Trickery
  • Demon's Blood
  • Crystal of Erebus
  • Rigid Carapace
  • Pristine Plumage

Gameplay and Levelling


Act 1 Normal

Start with the Nture mastery and max out wolves. Set pets behavior as 'aggressive'. Fell free to change the behavior settings depending on situation. Reassign 'Choose all pets' button to any convenient for you. Try to find Beastcaller's staff, rings and amulet. I prefer physical damage boost because it synergize perfectly with Strength of the Pack skill. Also try to improve your self survivability - keep an eye on armor pieces with +Health and - to all requirements affixes. This will allow you to be beefy and always have spare attribute points.
Lvl 10 Build example.
Act 2 Normal

Your next goal is to find Wanderer's staff and amulet to recieve +2 to all skills in Nature mastery. This will allow you to summon 3 wolves. Use the staff and amulet as a swap gear - cast full pack and swap back to damage. Tier 2 rings and staff are also available. Start climbing Earth skill tree, invest in Summon Core Dweller. Put a couple of points in Regrowth before Act 3. Consider completing these side quests to recieve bonus skill points.
Lvl 20 build example.
Act 3 Normal

This is the most difficult point. Invest in Regrowth untill you feel comfortable. Max out Core Dweller. Consider using scrolls if needed.
Act 3 final boss strategy: Buy a couple of Scrolls of the Sky's Rage before the bossfight. At the beginning of the figth run to the Battle Marker shrine, choose all pets and force them to stand near the shrine, use it. Cast Sky's Rage. When your pets are dead retreat to the bridge and Typhon will stop attacking you. Try to finish him off with scrolls, because he will definitely heal back from your resummoned pets. I believe that it is possible to kill him just using Scrolls of the Sky's Rage.
Lvl 30 build example.
Act 4 Normal

You can now find Tier 3 rings, amulet and staff. Amulets of Convocation and Hallowed headgear can be found as well. Nothing particularly difficult in this act, just try to avoid aoe vitality damage and bring scrolls in bossfights. Max out wolves. Invest in Heart of Oak and improve Core Dweller.
Lvl 40 build example.
Epic - Legendary

With Epic difficulty buffs your pets will become stupidly overpowered. Invest in Plague skill branch to make the bossfights easier, be careful with damage reflection though. Shen-Nong's Dark Medicine and Monkey King's Trickery combined with Plague will allow you to trash literally any boss in a matter of seconds.
Lvl 60 build example.
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Many things have changed since THQ published their mythos-based hack ‘n slash RPG Titan Quest back in 2006, and most of those changes have been to the way that Stats work within the game. With the console release just a week old now, I thought it would be helpful to let the new console players (PS4 and Xbox One) in on many secrets that we PC veterans have known for years. This is particularly pertinent to Builds, and is information you may have a harder time finding now that the Titan Quest forums are no longer online.

Titan Quest Stats and Build Guide

The first thing we’ll talk about is Attributes because they are extremely important to the way you build your character, and unlike Skill Points, you cannot refund Attribute Points, so if you spend them incorrectly then you are pretty screwed. You gain 2 Attribute Points per level, and gain a few here and there through various quests, giving you a total of 166 Attribute Points to spend if you complete all three difficulties and do all related Side Quests. It is unlikely you will reach level cap though as it takes hundreds of hours, so realistically you’re looking at some where around 140 ish Attribute Points. Each Attribute you spend will give you either 40 Health, 40 Energy, +4 Strength, +4 Intelligence or +4 Dexterity.

There are 5 main Attributes in Titan Quest and loads of other Stats.

Attributes

Health

Health is pretty straight forward. You gain +40 Health per Attribute Point spent, and you will also gain Health when spending Skill Points on the Mastery of each of your two Skill Trees. How much you gain depends on which Skill Trees you have, and I have listed them in the table below, along with other Attributes. You will also gain permanent Health bonuses from completing quests for a total of 855 (if you complete all 3 difficulties). Melee Builds will obviously need more than Ranged Builds so plan accordingly, but generally you should not need to spend Attribute Points on Health.

Energy

Class

Like Health, Energy is a pretty straight forward. You gain +40 Energy per Attribute Point spent, and you will gain Energy when spending Skill Points on the Mastery of any Skill Tree that gives Energy. Again, like Health, this will depend on the Skill Tree, and not all Skill Trees provide Energy. Unlike Health, however, there are no quests that reward permanent increases to Energy. Casting Builds will consume much more Energy than Martial Builds, so depending on how you make your character you may need to add points into this Attribute. Hybrid Builds generally need to spend points here because one of their Skill Trees provides no Energy.

Strength

Strength increases the Physical Damage of the player, and not only adds this increase to the base damage of the Weapon you are using, but to any Skills that deal Physical Damage. The only exception is with Staves, which do not deal Physical Damage. Each point of Strength increases your Physical Damage by 0.2%, or 0.8% each time you spend an Attribute Point (since you get 4 Strength). In addition, you also gain 0.04 Physical Damage for each point of Strength (0.16 per Attribute Point spent). This means at 500 Strength you would gain +100% Physical Damage and +20 Physical Damage flat. Each Skill Tree gives a different amount of Strength, and you will gain a total of 42 Strength from quests, if you play all the way through the Legendary Difficulty.

Intelligence

Intelligence increases Elemental Damage done by the player, this includes Vitality Damage as well as Burn Damage over time (Frostburn, Burn, Electrical Burn). Each point of Intelligence increases Elemental Damage by 0.15%, Vitality Damage by 0.2%, and Burn Damage by 0.2%. You also gain 0.025 Elemental Damage and +0.01% Energy Regeneration per point. As with Strength, each Skill Tree gives a different amount of Intelligence, and you will gain a total of 18 additional Intelligence throughout the course the game (if you play through Legendary).

Dexterity

Dexterity does many things in Titan Quest. It increases your Pierce Damage (which penetrates all Armor), it adds Pierce Damage to your attacks, increases your Offensive Ability and increases your Defensive Ability. Players gain 0.01% Pierce Damage and 0.03 Pierce Damage for each point into Dexterity, while Offensive and Defensive Ability will both increase by 1. Just like Intelligence, you will gain 18 Dexterity from quests through out the game.

Table of all Attributes total gained from each Mastery. Click to enlarge!

Armor and Blocking

Armor and Blocking in Titan Quest isn’t extremely complicated but isn’t as simple as you would think. Obviously having more Armor and higher Block Chance are good, but how to make a Build revolving around these concepts requires some knowledge of the game (especially if you are to survive higher difficulties). Let’s take a look how these two things work, starting with Armor.

Armor

When the game determines that you have been struck by a Physical Damage attack Armor comes into play, and the game rolls to see which part of your Armor is struck. You have a 40% chance of being struck in the torso, 20% chance of being struck in the legs, 20% chance of being struck in the arms, and finally a 20% chance of being struck in the head. The game will use the piece of Armor in the location you are hit to calculate how much damage you take. This is the reason you will sometimes take huge spike damage, and others you will not. Be sure to have good Armor values on all your pieces to prevent this.

You are most likely to be hit in the Torso, but you will be hit in other places as well. Be sure to have good Armor Values there or you will take high damage when you are.

Once the Armor piece hit has been determined you will take 66% percent of that Armor piece’s Armor Value and subtract it directly from the damage of the enemy’s attack. Yes you read that right, you actually only mitigate 66% of the Armor number listed for that piece. If you have rings, amulets or Skills that increase your Armor, these are added to the Armor Value each piece of Armor you are wearing before this calculation takes place. For example if you are struck in the legs and have 120 Armor there, but you are using the skill Battle Awareness and it says 12 Armor, you will take 66% of 132 instead of 120.

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Players can reduce the amount of damage that their Armor “lets through” by increasing their Armor Absorption. Armor Absorption adds directly with the 66% modifier that all players have by default, so for example if you have +14% Armor Absorption then your modifier becomes 80%, making your Armor more effective. The easiest and most notable way to do that is by taking the Armor Handing skill in the Defense Mastery Skill Tree. Armor Protection is not the same thing, and only increases the Armor Value of each piece you are wearing, not the modifier.

Armor Absorption increases the percentage of damage your Armor can mitigate.

Best Class In Titan Quest Guide

Blocking

In Titan Quest Blocking works passively for any character equipped with a Shield, and unlike Armor, Shields can Block any type of Damage (as well as projectiles). Each Shield has a Chance to Block a certain amount of Damage, but this Block can only occur a maximum of once every 3 seconds by default. Block Chance is additive, so stacking it will help to increase the frequency that you Block, but it is equally important to reduce the “cooldown” between Blocks. Thankfully the skill Quick Recovery in the Defense Mastery Tree helps with this, as do some equipment you can find.

When you successfully roll a “Block” you will attempt to negate the damage done, however, if the damage is more than your Shield is capable of Blocking then you will take 100% of that damage. Yes you read that right, if you cannot Block ALL of the damage you will take ALL of the damage. The good news though, is that the damage you must Block is calculated after Armor and Resistances, so there is a much higher chance for you to succeed. Damage over time you take can also be Blocked as well, and if the initial tick of damage is Blocked then ALL the damage is Blocked. This is why it is important to have the highest Block Damage you can on your Shield, and you may want to consider replacing an old Shield with a new one if you haven’t in awhile.

Reducing your Shield’s Recovery Time is key to making Blocking more effective. When you’re being hit by 6 enemies at once, Blocking once every 3 seconds won’t do much…

Offensive and Defensive Ability

Offensive and Defensive Ability play a huge part in your character’s Build and are often overlooked by new players in favor of just straight Armor Value. In this section we’ll take a look at why these are so important and why you might want to consider paying more attention to them. Not all players need Offensive Ability, but all players can benefit from Defensive Ability.

Offensive Ability

Offensive Ability is used to calculate whether you strike your target and whether or not you do critical damage. This only applies to melee combat, so players casting spells, using Staves or using Bows do not need to worry about this stat and should not invest in it.

When attacking your Offensive Ability is compared to the Defensive Ability of the target. If you have a higher Offensive Ability then their (Defensive Ability – 9) then you have a 99% chance to hit and you can Critically Hit as well. The higher your Offensive Ability is above the defender’s Defensive Ability, the higher Critical Modifier you will have and the more damage you will deal. This is why it is so important that Melee Builds have high Offensive Ability, not only to make sure they don’t miss, but also hit harder. These same rules apply to enemies, and that is where Defensive Ability comes in.

If you aren’t seeing those yellow numbers with regularity your Offensive Ability is too low.

Defensive Ability

If your Defensive Ability is too low then enemies will always connect with their strikes and will hit you for Critical Damage more often. Again this only applies to melee damage, so we’re talking about melee enemies here, and only the Physical Damage they deal. You always want your (Defensive Ability – 10) to be equal to or higher then the enemy’s Offensive Ability (preferably higher), so that you cannot be critically struck. The higher your Defensive Ability is the more often your enemies will miss, and on top of that when they do connect, it will be for reduced damage. This reduced damage is calculated before Armor and Resistances, so it is a very effective way of protecting yourself.

When making a Melee Build, be sure that you have not only sufficient Armor, but also sufficient Defensive Ability to help reduce the overall damage you take. As you progress into higher difficulties this becomes even more important and can be the difference between succeeding and failing. Ranged characters can benefit from this as well, although ideally they should not be near enough to melee units to be hit in the first place.

Final Tips

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Attack Speed is one of the most efficient ways to increase your overall DPS in Titan Quest, and outperforms nearly everything else (if you’re a caster then the equivalent would be Recharge Time). Some of the best items in the game have high Attack Speed, and many Relics or Charms can also help to increase it via Enchanting. Keep in mind that Blue and Purple items cannot be Enchanted, but Green ones can, which is why they are often superior in some cases.

Two really good weapons with really good attack speed. The bow drops in act 2 (Egypt) from Pillagers and the sword drops in act 3 (The Orient) from Tigers.

Dexterity might be the single most important Attribute in the game because not only do Weapons require a good amount of it to use, Intelligence-based Armor require a certain amount of it to be equipped. This means that every single Build will need SOME Dexterity, and is once of the reasons that nearly every Mastery in the game provides some when improving it.

Chance to Dodge and Chance to Avoid Projectiles should not be overlooked by players. Stacking these up high can make you nearly immortal (pun intended), and there are Builds that revolve completely around this. Previous versions of Titan Quest allowed you to become completely immune to damage this way, but the game has since been patched and now both of these are capped at 80%, which is still rather good. Especially considering your base Resistances get reduced with each higher difficulty, but these do not.

Find Cover is a great passive skill that lets Hunters Dodge Projectiles more easily than other Masteries.

Last but not least, gear plays a HUGE role in the success or failure of your character in this game. You might have the best concept for a Build, but if you cannot find the right equipment for it, it may be underwhelming. Most Builds are viable in this game, so if you are struggling you should consider farming previous Bosses for gear until you get something that helps. You cannot breeze your way through the game without ever farming if you wish to make it all the way through Legendary.

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Best Class Titan Quest Android

Stay tuned for our Titan Quest (console version) Review, and be sure to check out our other Guides!