my faq about soothsayer :o

[doome]

Hi guys. Nice forum .

So, onto the questions now.

I've decided on a soothsayer after my ranger. And soothsayer's management until lvls 45-50 seems really hard now (he's lvl 20 currently).

I have reeeal trouble distributing my skill points. For now I've been pumping masteries (spirit is 17, nature a bit higher i think), and just enough into pets so i dont exaggerate. with my divine amulet, i have 8 points in wolves, 4 in lich king, 2 in heart of oak and 2 in mind control, and some in heal for my pets to be alive all time (6 regrowth, and 6 in reduced cooldown - so i can spam it al the time now). I'm using some low level -recharge gear (staff of the magi, and some egyptian piece of crap epic chest, but with -20% recharge, have a green helm with -18% recharge waiting in my bank). I understand soothie is really +skills intensive, but theres something else that bothers me.

1) I have epic stonebinders (farmed by my ranger on epic), which will be a really nice addition to my +to all skills. But the problem are the requirements, i can carry them at lvl28 providing i have like 300dex and 120 str. Can i afford myself wasting so much points in dex (ignoring int) for the stonebinders? Is it smart to rush myself to them, or are there any better +skills items i should farm for? I'm going for a toolboxy build (head, weapon & helm will be -recharge gear, while all other equipment will be +skills, atleast for now, because i really don't have better gear, but i will probably switch gear later when i have it)

How is my build supposed to be in levels 20-40 to maximise my potential? Are there any good +1 to all skills greaves/rings which i should be on the look out for? Where to farm the equipment?

2) The thing that bothers me most, tbh, is normal act 4. I really don't think my low-level normal wolves/lich king will be able to survive more than, dunno, 2 seconds out there. Enslave spirit will be helpful (especially with the -55% recharge and refresh i should be having till then), and outsider, but i really don't know if i'll have enough skill points to have him till then (figuring i will have to invest some in nymph, plague, dark covenant and it's upgrade, and on top of all that i don't even have ternion yet). What to do in hades? Redistribute skill points to some entirely different build? go with healing them and hope for the best?


Oh, and what kind of endgame gear should i be aiming for? Any suggestions?

[Matseb2611]

To be honest I haven't got IT so have not played act 4 Soothsayer, but I have killed Typhon on normal with a soothsayer. Enslave Spirit I found helpful, but in some situations it was really helpful, while in others the moster that I enslaved died within seconds. So it depends on who you enslave and in what group.
As for Dark Covenant, I don't think I will ever accept that skill as friendly as health is way more important to me than energy.

[vegachow]

1) A good Stonebinder's Cuff is worthy of the sacrifice in Int.

2) You should rely more on your Liche King.
Max out Summon Liche King and appropriately add some points to Wraith Shell, it will make your lich king survive much longer.
Don't waste your points on outsider, unless you are 0% recharge.

[Argantes]

Welcome.

The best you can do, is posting your build from titancalc.com, so we can see what are your skills.

So, onto the questions now.

From what i can remember, at about lvl 20, I was investing mostly in the Spirit side of my build, that means working on ternion and Liche King - this is good combo to deal with most situations. But must confront my memories with old screenshots, I´ll tell you later


"I'm using some low level -recharge gear (staff of the magi, and some egyptian piece of crap epic chest, but with -20% recharge, have a green helm with -18% recharge waiting in my bank)."

If that helmet is with "of magus" suffix, you can throw/sell it away, that -x%recharge is bugged and not working ... however the Staff of the Magi is ok.


1) If playing caster soothsayer, then forget about epic and legendary cuffs (can´t recall the DEX and STR req. for the Normal ones), search on Titan Quest @ GameBanshee for items with +1 to some mastery or even to all skills instead.

2) I finished the game on legendary before IT arrived, so I can´t tell you much about Act 4 and your progressing build, but yes, Act 4 is a pet killer .. maxed Liche King with decent Wraith Shell should be ok, but the wolves will have their butts kicked hard I quess.

Plague is a great skill, but I didn´t need it until legendary: it´s a skill providing damage in %, not massive flat damage, so on Normal you´ll be dealing much more damage with your staff. Maybe you can use it on bosses, but as I said, I would place 1+1+1 skill points + rely on the points from items and max it later on end Epic or Legendary, when the -%res. part of it´s synergies will make wonders as well.

And same for Dark Covenant and synergy, fine skills, but not that needed to sacrify precious skill points, 1+1 point + these from items, maxed it later.


And the list of (my) endgame gear will follow, when i come home back from work I´ll try write down what i can remember, maybe will be edited later:

chest - Vestment of the Overlord - +2 to all skills, pierce res.
head - some hallowed crown with +1 to all skills and Incarnation of Cunning of Odysseus relic with +30% INT compl. bonus (because I haven´t found any Shard of Erebus relic with +1 or 2 to all skills compl. bonus yet, although I´ve already completed about 20 of them )
hands - Scourge Wrap - +50% less damage from undead, +1 to nature skills, +2 to plague
legs- Demonskin Walkers - 1 to all skills
weapon - Hecate's Rod - +2 to Spirit mastery, attack conv. to health
amulet - some green with +2 to all skills
rings - Archimedes' Cogwheel + some green
artifact - Ethereal Veil

btw that build is absolutely immune to all undeads

[doome]

well my current skill trees look like this

TitanCalc by stonedonkey - A Titan Quest Calculator - Soothsayer

and yeah the crown is of the magus :|. sucks that it's bugged, figured i would spare 2 points in refresh on it, and it nicely boosts int&energy :|.

oh, well i guess my ranger is going to have to find a new helm now (he's been having a stately helm from level 15 or so, an added bonus is that it's enchanted with an erebus crystal that actually turned out to be with +1 to all skills, and with the added bonuses to str and dex it's gonna be much easier to catch those stonebinders.)

[Matseb2611]

I absolutely loved the plague skill. Plague and Regrowth I found to be the only really useful skills in Nature mastery.

[bajams]

I have a Soothsayer. For casters, it's pretty much items that will prevent them from getting owned. Without a lot of the damage and items my character has, she would be almost useless. And she was until I got those items on another character.

[RaindancerAU]

I might just share a bit about my experience playing a Soothsayer (level 51 currently) as it may be of interest to anyone who comes across this thread.

I have played every one of those 51 levels partnered with my g/f who plays a Templar (dream/defense). She therefore plays tank and I play support. I'm a Diablo I/II veteran, but she is completely new to this game .... and this combo lets us all but walk through everything we have come across ... so far ...

I don't have time to post a build, but may do so if anyone requests at a later stage but here is the basic idea:

Wolves / Liche King and the Nymph (though I'm not sure if I will hang onto her) on normal attack mode providing support for the Templar.

Plague+Synergies, Dark Covenant + Unearthly Power, Refresh, Heart of Oak+Synergies to boost the crap out of the Templar and Pets.

Regrowth + Synergies is very important as well.

Level DC high enough and get -%recharge gear so that by the time DC runs out, Refresh is available again and you give permanent DC and more importantly Unearthly Power to your party. Counter the life drain with frequent healing via regrowth (Heart of Oak should help with your total life amount too) - with DC permanently running, you have no energy worries and you can constantly heal

It's a busy job - keeping an eye on the health of the entire party (and my own as DC is always draining it), making sure DC is always up and popping Plague onto the right monster so as to make it spread efficiently (and not draw aggro to you or popping plague on the first monster your team will kill). I don't have time to use my staff so no Ternion for me. I also try to put Deathchill on tougher monsters or groups and try to stay close enough to the Templar so she gets Spirit Ward when necessary.

Another fun little thing I do occasionally is plague a caster / ranged monster then hit them with vision of death so they run back into the crowd and infect them all However the well being of the party is my number one priority so I don't do the offense too often.

I bring out the Ether Lord for bosses - but really he's only needed for the toughest bosses and only to speed up the process. The only time potions are used by us is when I am having trouble targeting the Templar in a crowd, she'll sometimes pop one though mostly she just hits Rally.

Soothsayer is an incredibly rewarding support class and I highly recommend it to anyone who has permanent playing partners, particularly if at least one of them is a melee class, but DC/Unearthly Power and Heart of Oak benefit casters significantly as well.

Anyways, thought I would share that as it has been quite enjoyable to play so far - if anything changes dramatically in the coming levels I will update.

Disclaimer - I have no idea about a solo build for this class - this build has been awesome in a party of two (plus pets of course) but would not have the faintest idea on changes to make for solo.

[Chal]

I was at the same point you are now with my caster soothsayer. Late epic/early legendary you really struggle if you don't have the right gear. You will kill stuff, but it is slow. You really need tons of +skill gear to make a caster shoothsayer shine.

I tried farming with him, but it just took way to long to kill stuff. I shelved him for a while and used my Conquerer to farm gear for him. Once you have about +8 skills he will really start to shine. You'll basically use every skill available. Soothsayers are silly good once you're geared up.

If you're dead set on farming gear for him then you can search gamebanshee's database for +skill gear at your level.

Titan Quest @ GameBanshee