An Engineer and a Magician Part 2– Stats & Gear

This is the second part of our two part guide to the Alchemist in Torchlight.  We focus on the stats of the Alchemist: what they mean, what you should focus on, and how you should allocate your stat points; additionally, we give our impressions of the gear you’ll find while scouring the depths of Torchlight’s dungeons.  If you have questions about skills, or the skill tree, please refer back to part 1 of our guide.

Stats

Character stats in Torchlight define how your character’s strengths and weaknesses will appear while playing the game.  Every character gets five stat points to use when they level up, and can allocate them into four different categories:  Strength, Dexterity, Magic, and Defense.  A lot of people suggest pooling points, because a good piece of gear may drop and you want to make sure you meet the stat requirements; however, we suggest that you shy away from this strategy, and instead come up with a plan of point allocation. A stat point plan will give your character better attributes all around, and you’ll ultimately have a stronger character throughout the game.

Stat Point Allocation

The simple rule of thumb is the “3/2 method.”  When you level, put three points into the stat you want to be the strongest, and two points into your second strongest stat.  For an Alchemist, we recommend you have Magic be your primary stat and Defense be your secondary – this rule only changes if you’re going to be a Battle Alchemist, in which case, you have Strength be your primary and Defense still the secondary.

Magic as the primary stat means your spells and abilities will become quite powerful when used on enemies, and your gear will be tailored around a magic user because of the high Magic stat.  Defense is important for every character, because it is required by most pieces of gear, and it reduces the amount of damage you take from monster attacks.

Strength & Dexterity – Still Important?

While Magic and Defense are the primary stats, Strength and Dexterity are still important to a well rounded character.  For this reason, we suggest that you stick to the 3/2 method, but every three levels or so, spend your Magic points into Strength and your Defense points into Dexterity.  This strategy lets you keep Magic and Defense high, but also bring up Strength and Dexterity while you level.  This point allocation is important, because high level gear will require a certain amount of Strength and Dexterity to equip.

Gear – What to Wear

Monsters in Torchlight drop a massive amount of loot, and you’ll be sure to find a plethora of options that your character can equip.  Runic designed the game to unrestrictive in equipment usage, so we won’t define what you should wear; instead, we’ll discuss what we found useful during our play time, and what we think to focus on.

Weapons

I’ve seen countless forum posts asking, “Wands or Staff,” and the answer is both.  Torchlight allows your character to have two weapon sets: the inventory/gear screen has a small “1/2” symbol between the weapon slots.  If you’re a well rounded player, you’ll want a good set of Wands and a nice Staff, which one has a priority is up to you; however, both have their strengths and weaknesses:

From the table above, you can see that Wands have a few more strengths than Staves, but really their use comes down to your character type and their level.  A high level staff will be better than two lower level wands, simply because of the higher DPS and the higher elemental and magical points, and vice-versa.

My Tips for Weapons

·         Choose the weapon you enjoy the most.  Torchlight has a ton of gear, so play around with both Wands and Staves, and see which you enjoy the most.  We prefer to shoot from afar with Wands, but we can’t deny a nice Staff with big stats.

·         Focus on elemental bonuses.  Look at which ability you’re using the most and maxing out, and then pick a weapon that has a high increase in that elemental ability.  For example, if you use Ember Bolt as your main ability, than focus on getting a weapon with a high +poison attribute.  This +poison will make your Ember Bolt even more powerful.

·         Don’t be afraid to upgrade.  Again, Torchlight has a ton of gear, so don’t hesitate to move onto another weapon type.   Even if you use a weaker weapon for awhile, a new, more powerful one will drop quickly.  Legendary weapons will drop, but they’ll get replaced eventually.  Keep upgrading your weapons to increase your Alchemist’s offensive abilities.

General Equipment

Because of the large amount of gear, and how quickly you’ll be upgrading your gear, we won’t tell you what piece of gear is important; instead, we’ll give you some quick tips on what to look for in gear, and when to hold out for a gear set.

My Tips for Gear

·         Find gear that boosts your abilities.  This tip seems obvious, but many people just focus on one stat and go for that alone.  You want to make sure your gear is improving your character’s attacks, because that’s how you’ll survive in Torchlight.  Keep upgrading your main attributes, but don’t neglect your secondary ones either.

·         Don’t forget about Armor.  This tip is even in the game, but it’s worth mentioning here.  The Alchemist can be one squishy scientist, so while finding the best gear to make your spells devastating is great, be sure to pick up some nice Armor benefiting gear too.  Armor will protect you when your spells can’t.

·         Hold on to +experience gear.  Being a lower level in a dungeon really makes the experience much more difficult.  If you find gear with “+2 % experience,” or something similar, equip it and hold on to it for awhile.  Having enough of these makes a huge difference, and swapping them all on at the start of a level – when you’re a lower level – makes you reach that dungeons monster level quickly.

·         Don’t worry about meeting every gear’s stat requirement.  Torchlight is all about tailoring your character to your play style, which means not every piece of gear will work for you.  Most Alchemists won’t be able to wear Vanquisher gear, which is fine, since a high amount of Dexterity isn’t helpful to you.  Again, focus on stats that benefit you, not just what a particular piece of gear offers.

·         Don’t go too crazy over a gear set.  Often times people will rerun a particular dungeon level, because they found a piece of a gear set, and they want the rest of the set.  You have to remember that you’re going to level quickly, and that your gear is also going to change quickly with you.  Gear set bonuses can be powerful, and having a good one is great, but don’t stress out over it too much.  Use what’s beneficial and move on.

That’s All, Folks!

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our guide on Torchlight’s Alchemist.  We had a fun time playing this character, and talking about it as well.  We’ve gone over the Alchemist’s abilities, his strengths, his weaknesses, his stats, his gear, and his general play style.  Torchlight is an interesting game, because every character is possible of so many different play styles that you can’t cover them all; instead, we tried to give you our honest opinion of the Alchemist, and hope it helps guide you along your journeys in the bowels of Torchlight.

We appreciate any constructive feedback and your thoughts on the Alchemist as well.  Be sure to share your thoughts, and to provide other players with tips too.  Until next time, good luck and good huntn’.