Defense + ???

[Xeno]

OK...

I asked before what a good complimentary class would be to defense.

Many said hunter (defense+hunter=warden) due to the insanse dps of the spear and shield combo. This certainly looks good.

Others said rogue (defense+rogue=corsair) due to the solid defensive addition of poison. I still hesitate on this one.

Yet other said storm (defense+storm=paladin) due to the retaliation and potential spell breaker. I like the idea of disenchanting the enemy, but question in this game how much a "tactical" build will actually matter.

I now have two defenders leveled to the point that it may be time to choose their secondary.

One is 18 and the other is 11.

The one that is 18 I think will become a Warden (nice spear currently) and the other I am undecided about.

Please post your leveling suggestions for the Warden - what should I get when and why... thanks.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Hey Xeno, check the thread titled the same as yours about halfway down the page:
http://www.titanquest.net/defense/9184-defense.html
for warden info check:
http://www.titanquest.net/defense/73...ed-warden.html

[deception5]

I know you said you hesitate about the corsair, but you should definitely consider it. I have mostly average/store-bought equipment with a few nice legendaries I have found as this is my first character (currently level 49 end of act 2 legendary). It is fun to play and the skills between the two masteries synergize extremely well together.

The greatest thing about being a rogue is that you have great crowd control. You can quickly apply negative effects like slow/confuse/fumble (envenom weapon/nightshade/mandrake on your throwing knives OR maxxed flash powder) to a large group, lethal strike the biggest threat (or just a random monster to thin the ranks) batter the closest 3 (slowing their attack speed by 80% with your slow poison + maxxed batter) and greatly increase your damage with calculated strike and the piercing passive. Rinse and repeat as they say.

A lot of tough bosses can be killed with a lethal strike every 12 seconds (in normal / early epic this would nearly kill a lot of tough bosses instantly, but even in legendary it does significant damage... +500% damage +390% piercing is nothing to sneeze at!) or you can batter bosses to the point of super-slowness where you can easily dodge attacks that would normally be lightning fast (scorpion king or minotaur lord for example are much easier when they attack at 1/5 speed).

[Xeno]

Originally Posted by deception5

I know you said you hesitate about the corsair, but you should definitely consider it. I have mostly average/store-bought equipment with a few nice legendaries I have found as this is my first character (currently level 49 end of act 2 legendary). It is fun to play and the skills between the two masteries synergize extremely well together.

The greatest thing about being a rogue is that you have great crowd control. You can quickly apply negative effects like slow/confuse/fumble (envenom weapon/nightshade/mandrake on your throwing knives OR maxxed flash powder) to a large group, lethal strike the biggest threat (or just a random monster to thin the ranks) batter the closest 3 (slowing their attack speed by 80% with your slow poison + maxxed batter) and greatly increase your damage with calculated strike and the piercing passive. Rinse and repeat as they say.

A lot of tough bosses can be killed with a lethal strike every 12 seconds (in normal / early epic this would nearly kill a lot of tough bosses instantly, but even in legendary it does significant damage... +500% damage +390% piercing is nothing to sneeze at!) or you can batter bosses to the point of super-slowness where you can easily dodge attacks that would normally be lightning fast (scorpion king or minotaur lord for example are much easier when they attack at 1/5 speed).

What build would you recommend -- for the end game? What is the build plan... start as ?? and add until xx and then do ??

[apocalypse80]

IMO anything is going to work , so just pick whatever strikes your fancy.
Defenders are mighty in this patch , primarily because shields got such a massive boost.

Let me put it this way ; my conqueror - by using just defense skills (armor handling , focus , quick recovery) and obviously top-end armor and shield - has no problem cutting almost all legendary hits down to double digits or 0.
Blocking arrows and staff attacks down to 0 damage is also possible (with help from resistances).

It's hard to die when you can barely even get damaged.
And all defenders can get that by the defense mastery alone.
Anything your second mastery might add is just icing on the cake.

[deception5]

Originally Posted by Xeno

What build would you recommend -- for the end game? What is the build plan... start as ?? and add until xx and then do ??

My current build is pretty close to this:

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-6-0-0-1-6-0-0

I am pretty much finished with the rogue tree (although I will probably end up putting 1 point in mortal strike for the stun). Traps are great too actually, but my machine can't handle the top trap skill (brings my frame rate way down) so I spec'd out of them (also you'd have to give up a lot of nice defensive skills for them as they are really only worth it when you specialize). They were awesome in normal though. Also flash powder is worth trying, but I ended up picking flurry of knives instead (there is some duplication if you pick both).

For defense, I'm still experimenting with the rest of the tree - probably more shield passives as those are very good. I'm going to test the adrenaline/rally combo and may add shield charge in again. Quick recovery is nice but since archers were nerfed I'm not sure it's necessary so I'll probably leave it out.

For levelling up, I went up the rogue tree first and had a lot of points in traps (these work phenominally well at low-mid levels), but one of the guides recommended maxxing out envenom weapon which seems like a pretty good plan (100 poison damage over 5 seconds is huge at lower levels - I think this would work with ranged weapons too which would be phenominal). Eventually you'll respec to keep only one point in there and use it for its synergies.

At the middle levels I found 1 point in lethal strike was enough to kill most things, but eventually you need to max it. Late normal, flurry of knives was enough to take down most groups as well and with the newly increased damage throwing knife skill you could probably be pretty lethal to groups for a while, probably until mid-epic I imagine.

Hope this helps!

[ZombieBunny]

Ive played all three hybrids and they all work fine, basicly it comes down to how you want to specilize your skills and gameplay.

Warden is pretty much just about pure dps and youll most likely have to restrict yourself to using Spears due to most of the skills benefiting from its use.

Corsair uses poison to confuse and fumble the enemy, basicly minimizing incoming damage due to monsters wandering around or outright missing you. It can be a bit annoying sometimes when mobs wander off and you have to chase them down to actually finish them off, but hey at least your not taking damage. Unlike the Warden you dont have to restrict yourself to just Spears, although a piercing weapon would benefit dps from certain skills. The Corsair is more about crowd control and you have to adopt your figthing style accordingly.

Paladin is my personal favourite. Youll use elemental (lighting & Cold) damage and effects on your weapons to debuff and damage your opponents. You also have a pretty big option of adding various spells (both castable and passive that add to your weapon) to further increase damage and debuffing. My personal favourite is Thunderball which both causes electric damage and a insanly long stun to monsters caught in its area effect. The fact most of your spells have stun effects works very well for a Club/Mace Paladin since youll benefit from the prolonged Stun effect from Concussive Blow. Although you can do just fine with other weapons, infact the Paladin is kinda nice in that portion since you dont have to restrict yourself to any one type of weapon, although a fast weapons will most likely benefit you more since your attacks all have a chance to cause various elemental effects. The faster you hit the more you elemental damage you cause. Unlike the Warden and Corsair, you dont have any single target weapon attacks that cause huge damage. The Paladin is probably the closest you can get to a Tank, youll often be right in the middle of a group of monsters wearing them down with your weapon and its elemental effects.

[KAuss]

I play Spellbinder as I'm working on the ultimate % attack to life build...

I still have crappy store bought stuff on my player, and crap for armor... However, I can regain life much like in Diablo with their life leech... I know potions are easier and faster acting, but it's just fun to steal life back... I'm currently on legendary and can cake walk epic... The new patch made bats and bores insanely strong though... Bats totally pwn me for some reason...

The liche king is also a tank that helps the solo game a lot... Along with the auras and outsider, you got a pretty good comination to tackle most anything that's thrown at you...

[frustaro]

spellbinder too is a good choise imo, lich is usefull to have as a defender, and the aura rly helps... Corsair is good too, imo it should have a good build rally tree and 1 point in adrenaline will be enough (you use less adrenaline imo due to the less amount of hits you recive thanks to poison effect. While you are going to use a lot of mana, and rally is usefull to get it back)