The best character in general is considered to be the Conquerer (Warfare/Defense) followed by the Harbinger (Warfare/Dream) or Haruspex (Hunter/Dream). As these are all melee characters, I'll list the best caster as well, which is the Oracle (Storm/Spirit). From Age of Empires co-creator Brian Sullivan and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace comes an innovative action role playing game set in ancient Greece, Egypt and Asia. The Titans have escaped their eternal prison, wreaking havoc upon the earth. The gods seek a hero who can turn the tide in an epic struggle that will determine the fate of both men and gods.
Build guide for stereotypical tank and spank type physical warrior using the Conqueror (Defence / Warfare) class.
Introduction
- Beowulf, Bane of Grendel.
- Mastery: Conqueror (Defence / Warfare).
- Build: The stereotypical one hander and shield warrior.
The Conqueror combines the Defence and Warfare masteries. Defence provide shield buffs, defensive abilities and shield attacks while Warfare provides your primary offensive abilities and some additional damage avoidance.
Pros:
- The two masteries synergize well together, giving you a good supply of strength, dexterity and health.
- Good, spammable LMB attack.
- Good overall balance between offence and defence.
- Decent AOEs (Batter and Shield Charge).
- Good anti-boss trinity in Colossus Form + Ancestral Horn + Battle Standard.
Cons:
- AOEs (Batter and Shield Charge) have limited targets and hit box.
- Multiple ranged enemies can be annoying.
- Can be somewhat gear dependent but not extremely so.
Defense Mastery (AKA The Tank)
Batter
Batter will server as your RMB attack. It's on a cooldown so it's not something you can spam so you'll be using Onslaught when it or Shield Charge is on cooldown. With a point in Rend Armour you'll be able to hit three targets in a 160 degree arc. Decent for dealing with groups but remember that it has its limitations. Max out Batter to buff the base skill and Rend Armour to reduce armour on enemies.
Concussive Blow
Adds a chance to stun with axe and mace. Obviously, if you're not using an axe or mace as your one hander the skill is useless. If you're are using one then the stun can be useful. I maxxed out the skill in my build but the skill isn't mandatory, more nice to have. If you're looking to free up your points to put into something else then this is one you can bypass.
Battle Awareness
Aura that buffs armour and defensive ability. I only dropped a single point into the base skill. The base skill is okay but not mandatory while the synergy skills are more useful imo. Iron Will gives you all the secondary resistances you'll need and Focus gives you extra passive shield block chance.
Armour Handling
Reduces str requirement letting you equip good gear faster and gives you extra armour absorption. Worth picking up.
Rally
Provide an emergency heal on top of your potions. I dropped one point into it early on and forgot to remove it later. Rally really needs to be maxxed long term if you decide to use it so it heals enough to be worthwhile. I had too many other skills I was interested in, the skill can be nice to have but not mandatory.
Quick Recovery
Good one point ability. Gives a nice boost to absorption and block for a limited time. Good when fighting crowds. If you have spare points you can put more into it but even with one point it's pretty useful.
Shield Charge
Charges an enemy. Drop one point into the base skill and pump up its synergy skill Disruption first.Good way to get into melee range of casters and archers quickly, hits multiple targets, short stun and skill disruption. You can drop more points into shield charge when you have free points.
Shield Smash, Disable and Pulverise
This trio of passive skills should be maxxed out. When attacking with Onslaught (or basic attack, Batter / Shield Charge will not trigger) and a shield equipped, you'll get the chance to trigger their effects (reduced defensive ability, slower attack and 3 target reduced OA / skill disruption respectively). When they trigger, you'll do your normal weapon damage + the skill effect / damage.
Colossus Form
Grow to a large size and provides you with some substantial buffs. Great one point wonder anti-boss skill. Downside is the six minute long cooldown, the large size makes you harder to navigate and you can't enter caves and such. Unless you have substantial recharge reduction you'll want to save this for bosses and major fights. With extra points you'll get more damage absorption and strength.
Warfare Mastery (AKA The Spank)
Weapon Training
Boosts your offensive ability and attack speed. Nice passive to have, max it out
Battle Rage
Drop a single point into Battle Rage to unlock the chance of getting a big boost to offensive ability. Drop a single point into the Crushing Blow synergy. I don't care for the Counter Attack synergy. No other points are needed imo.
Onslaught
Titan Quest Classes Ranked
Your main LMB attack. Onslaught has stacks. When you use the ability you gain stacks. Stacks decay fairly quickly over time when you are not attacking. The more points you have in the skill, the more stacks you can get. The more stacks you have up, the more you get buffed. Obviously you want to max it out.
The Ignore Pain synergy buffs your physical and pierce resist. At 10/6 you'll gain +20% to both. You'll only have the buff when you have at least one Onslaught stack on. The physical resist is more useful as it's harder to get than pierce resist. If you need points for something else, this is something you can pass on as it isn't really a huge buff overall. You just need a single point here to unlock the later, more useful synergies.
Hamstring reduces defensive ability, armour and speed while Ardour increases movement speed and attack speed while you have at least one stack of Onslaught active. Max out both of these synergies.
Dual Wield
Dual wield is a rather useful ability in Warfare that lets you attack with two weapons at once. Obviously, a skill designed around attacking with two weapons will clash with skills that require shields. You are able to swap easily between two weapon load outs ('w' is default keybinding) so one can swap between a one hander + shield to dual weapon fairly fast. However, dual wield require a lot of skill points invested to become good. If you want to dual wield you should play a build more focused on that. Harbringer or Assassin come to mind.
Dodge Attacks
Increases your chance to dodge melee attacks. Worth dropping a couple of points into at least and can be maxxed if you feel like it.
War Horn
Best Titan Quest Builds
One point wonder ability. Applies a short stun to all enemies within range. Useful when you're fighting a big group to give you time to clear some first before you get mobbed, keep ranged enemies form running away or to interrupt annoying enemies (ex: casters or big damage dealers). Further points into the skill will increase the radius of the spell and the maximum stun length, however, the min stun length is always 1.5 seconds so it can be fairly inconsistent. Whether you want to invest more in the skill is up to you but a single point is effective.
The Doom Horn synergy skill is more valuable to put points into imo as it will debuff enemies' health and armour in addition to the base skill's stun. I wouldn't say it's mandatory through. Drop a single point into the skill and buff a little with +skill items or max it out depending on how you like the skill.
Battle Standard
One of the best skills in Warfare, Battle Standard will give you huge buffs if you're within its range. With one point, you'll get +1 skills, half-energy costs, a bit of damage absorption and some offensive ability and extra damage. Maxxed out, you'll get excellent damage absorption and even more offence. The Triumph synergy skill should be maxxed out as well and will debuff nearby enemies' physical damage, physical resistance and stun resistance. This will mean you'll take even less damage from them, your attacks will do even more damage to them and your stuns (from concussive blow and war horn) will be resisted less.
Battle Standard has a cooldown of 60s and only lasts 36s when it's maxxed. If you can get some recharge reduction then this will allow you to get it out more often. Also, as it's stationary, you may need to lure enemies towards it to get full advantage. There's a noticeable difference between it being out or not.
War Wind
War Wind is an another charge attack. It has a 360% degree arc but does terrible damage unless you drop tons of points into it. The base skill hits four targets at the beginning through and the Lacerate synergy skill will let you hit additional targets and add a bleed. It's a bit redundant when you already have Shield Charge which I think is the far superior option overall. I would suggest passing on War Wind and using the points elsewhere.
Ancestral Horn
Pretty effective with only a single point. Summon a trio of spectral minions to help fight for you. It has a long cooldown so will mostly be used for boss fights. The skill synergizes well with Battle Standard. Additional points will make the minions better and increase the number of spectral minions summoned. I only used one point in the build as I had other skills I thought were more important.
Stats
So what should you be dropping your attributes into?
- Health: You get quite a bit of health just from your mastery points actually. If you feel like adding a bit more, you can add a handful of additional attributes points.
- Mana: Honestly, you can just buy mana potions. There's no real reason to put points into mana.
- Strength: Primary stat so you can equip good warrior armour and hit people hard with your 1 hander. 600+
- Intellect: Not required.
- Dexterity: Your secondary stat. You need enough to equip your gear at a min and enough so you can hit things and avoid getting crit. ~450 should be fine.
Equipment
As you'll be in the thick of things you'll need to keep your resists up. This can be a bit of a pain in legendary. You can get away without resists in early normal but you'll want to start building them by act 3 and definitely by act 4. By Epic you'll want ~40% to all resists, legendary ~50% at a min if possible.
+4 all skills will allow you to max out ultimate levels on all your vital skills but is less important than getting your resists. If you need more damage just equip a better weapon. Try to max out resists against certain bosses and zones. For example, if you're fighting Cerberus in Act4 you'll want 80% poison as that's basically all his damage except for some physical. Having a few rings in your stash can allow you to change your resists as needed on the fly.
Recharge can let you cast your strong, long cooldown abilities more often. Being able to use Battle Standard, Quick Recovery, Colossus Form and your horns more often is good. Battle standard make you substantially stronger.
You'll burn through your mana fairly quickly using shield attacks but pots are cheap and you should just carry multiple stacks of them instead of worrying about getting mana or regen gear. Health is more useful as if it hits zero you die but still low on the priority list.
When leveling, a green weapon with a good prefix/suffix and socketed with a charm/relic is usually much better than any epics/legendaries for your level.
Use whatever good all around shield you have. If you have another shield(s) with good buffs to a certain resistance(s) then you can swap for certain bosses and fights.
Leveling
Defence is pretty nice but a little slow at the start. I'd suggest going with Warfare at the start. Put some points into Onslaught for your LMB attack and so you can build up stacks on it in combat. Drop a point into Weapon Handling and work up the tree. Point into Dodge Attack, War Horn and Battle Standard.
At level 8 you can pick up Defence. Drop a point into Batter for your RMB attack, Battle Awareness and Armour Handling. For the time being leave them at one point and level up your mastery for more stats. Drop a point into Quick Recovery for dealing with groups and Shield Charge to counter ranged.
From this point work your way however you want. +skill items will be very useful early as it will allow you to level the masteries and use the +skill items to bulk the skills for the time being until you have unlocked all the mastery points. Unlocking the masteries will give you access to more abilities and more stats.
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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
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.
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.
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
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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