Polearm Outlander Build (need HELP)

[Wasserblaffer]

So, my brother and I both got Torchlight 1 for free, and liked it so much we bought a 4-pack of Torchlight 2 when it was on sale last monday. We're now created our first character, are on our first normal playthrough with a friend, but I haven't allocated any skill or stat points yet. The friend is an Embermage, my brother is a (1H) Engineer, and I'm an Outlander.

As the title says, I intend to go with polearms. I did some forum strolling and came up with the following base build:

Primary:
- Dodge Mastery
- Share the Wealth
- Elemental Mastery
- Poison Burst
- Burning Leap
- Rune Vault

Secondary:
- Blade Pact
- Stone Pact
- Glaive Throw (rank 5 max)

The Glaive Throw isn't strictly necessary, but seems to benefit nicely from the Poison Burst and Elemental Mastery buffs. Also, a single ranged ability is always handy to open those pesky TNT barrels and such. Now about stats; I'm not quite sure what to do here. Str:Dex 1:1, 3:2, 2:1, or do I need to invest some points in Focus as well? If so, how much? Str:Dex:Foc 1:1:1, 2:2:1, 3:2:1? Will I need the mana from Focus, and is the elemental damage increase it provides worth it? Also, the advantages of Dexterity are capped, but when should I stop investing in the stat? As this is my first Torchlight 2 playthrough, I am really clueless, and could use some help/advice.

Thanks,

[Tiomasta]

Two things...
Outlander just isn't a melee class (people look at Stone Pact and get interested, but it regens HP slower than a cheap potion, it won't actually make you take more hits to die in a short burst just from standing inside it... Plus, dodging only works against monster autoattacks, monster skills never miss... And enemies have even higher damage in multiplayer, so tanking is even less viable than it already is).

And Glaive Throw deals flat damage instead of weapon-based damage. Anything in the game that isn't "X% of your DPS" will scale their damage from the Focus stat, and is weak without mage-like Focus builds. You're not doing one so you don't want those skills.

Also, Burning Leap is crap, Rune Vault is better in every way. Burning Leap even has a bug where it deals less damage than it should.

That skill build would have really really low damage output because it doesn't have any good active attack skills, and all the good Outlander stuff is just for guns/bows or supposed to be used with Focus builds. Change builds or change classes. If you want a melee character, make an Engineer (Forcefield and Healbot are a must, Flame Hammer is strong and later Emberquake is even better) or make a Berserker (get Howl and Raze).

For a Strength+Dex build, you can do 4:1 or really close to that. You can just boost only Dex until you reach like 109 Dex so you actually get a noticeable crit chance from it, then dump everything you get next onto Str.

Just for information: the Vitality stat is crap from the numbers it gives, and blue/orange armor parts that increase your max HP are actually very very good, get a lot of those. It makes all the difference.

[gytfunke]

Hi OP,

I'm actually playing a melee outlander right now and here are the things I've found:

You'll be fine as a melee outlander as long as you're not playing multiplayer Elite difficulty. Melee outlanders have no problem with survivability, but they do have problems with damage.
So:

Style:
You're going to run with a polearm, good. Two-handers are best for auto-attack damage. The slower the better due to the way armor mitigates damage (you want your top-end damage to be as high as possible, not necessarily your DPS).

You'll be starting fights with your buffs/debuffs and then auto-attacking, refreshing your buffs/debuffs every now and then. Anticipating where to lay your pacts and then fighting inside of them will allow you to spend more time doing damage.

If you get surrounded, use Glaive Sweep to give yourself some room. Glaive Sweep will allow you to target high-priority back-line targets like casters and spawners with relative safety. Just Glaive Sweep to knock your target into a wall, lay down your pacts, then Glaive Sweep if any adds try to surround you.

You'll really need to be careful of high-damage area spells like flame pools and poison pools from slimes and some casters. Berserkers and Engineers get an innate 25% damage reduction to all damage sources. You don't and some high-damage effects will drop you really fast. Rune Vault away from them. It's usually faster and more reliable than mouse moving. On that note, if you want to force move use the ` key. It won't attack or pick up loot.

Stats:
Just boost strength. If you want a little dex, the crit bonus is nice and the dodge helps as well, but I wouldn't put more than 100 points into it. No focus. No vitality. They aren't going to help you deal more auto-attack damage. You don't need more mana because you have no spells to spam. Vitality is only good for shields.

Passive Skills:

Share the Wealth 15/15
Poison Burst 15/15
Elemental Mastery 15/15
Dodge */15

The first three are the only Outlander passives that will increase your damage. Get a lot of Dodge at first. It does in fact help you in melee combat and since that's where you want to be, great. However, I don't know how much you'll need by the end of the game. Some people say you only need up to ~8 in Dodge because you can hit the dodge cap of 75% mostly with items.


Active Skills:

Blade Pact 15/15 - This skill is great, especially since you're running with a party. You deal more damage, enemies deal less. What more can you ask?

Rune Vault 1/15 - Just an escape/teleport. Unless you want to tank. If you want to tank, it could be argued that you could go all the way to 15/15 with this skill, or at least 10/15. The blind chance is incredibly OP if you get it high enough as it completely disabled enemies for its duration.

Glaive Sweep 1/15 - This is a great defensive skill, mostly for the 360' knockback and stun chance. The damage is really low, though and doesn't increase significantly with level. The bleed is weak and doesn't scale with STR. 1 point is preferable. You have lots of defensive and disabling powers.

Cursed Daggers 10/15 or 15/15 - This is a decent AoE skill, a good enemy debuff AND a good self buff. Totally necessary for a melee outlander.

Stone Pact 15/15 - Yup. This is really good. Especially with a party.

I can't comment on any of the higher level skills as I've only gotten my melee outlander up to level 33.

Items:
Pretty standard. To begin, go with big stat bonuses that let you equip a big ol' unique polearm. Gamble at the gambler starting in Act 2 every now and then for a chance at getting a unique polearm. Having a unique will greatly increase your damage because most do about 50% elemental damage, which will synergize with your Elemental Mastery. Damage reduction and health bonuses are going to be really useful on items. Missile reflect and dodge are also good. Next up, get crit damage/crit chance.

Spell Scrolls:
Dervish is always good. Martial Weapon proficiency as well. Your pet should have heals and minions. Repel is also a surprisingly nice spell to pop on your pet as it will keep enemies from getting too dense and can make your pet into more of an off-tank.

Anyways, good luck! I'm back to playing my melee outlander.

[gytfunke]

Oh, another note:

Use Glaive Sweep to build a full charge bar. If you're out of charge, go pin an enemy to a wall and Glaive sweep away on them. It'll help you fill your charge bar pretty fast, which you want to always keep full.

[Wasserblaffer]

Hmmm,.. I might actually go Str:Dex 1:1 then, untill I hit 152 Dex. That way I should easily hit the dodge cap, have decent crits and meat the Dex requirement of any polearm ingame. The dodge cap could probably be reached sooner with items, but not having to look for dodge stats on items saves modifier room for other bonusses, so I expect that to even out.

I am playing NORMAL multiplayer, so there shouldn't be any problems there, and there should even be some margin for error.

Good tips too on the one point wonder character of some skills, and I definitely did not know about Burning Leap's flaws/bug. I had actually seen it suggested as on of the main skills in another melee outlander thread.

Regarding the Cursed Daggers though, don't they suffer from low Focus, and can they be spammed reliably without much of a mana pool?

[gytfunke]

Sadly none of the DoTs the Outlander has (that I've encountered) stack. So spamming Daggers is going to deplete your mana while still doing the same amount of damage over 6 seconds. The damage is only improved by Focus, true, but that's not as important as the reduced enemy damage and the bonus crit/damage they give you at T2 and T3.

[Wasserblaffer]

Well, we have been playing up to lvl 28, and I can now tell it does NOT work. It is not necessarily a bad build, in fact I have been outdamaging my teammates by a large margin for most of the game, but the problem is that most of the builds survivability comes from CC and escapes. That in itself is not necessarily a problem either, but it is when you're playing with an Embermage and an firey Engineer that are consistently blasting all kinds of effects all over the screen. It is just very difficult to properly time your attacks and escapes, as you're basically blinded, making it very frustrating to play. "Share the We/alth" and the Pacts are absolutely amazing though.

It's still a nice build to play, just more for singleplayer I think. I will keep playing this Outlander character in a party, but convert to a Shotgonnne build:

Primary:
- Shotgonne Mastery 15/15
- Share the Wealth 15/15
- Rune Vault 01/15
- Stone Pact 15/15
- Venomous Hail 10/15
- Shadow Shot 15/15
- Poison Burst 10/15
- Master of the Elements 15/15

Secondary:
- Venomous Hail 15/15
- Dodge Mastery 05/15
- Poison Burst 15/15
- Blade Pact 10/15
- Rapid Fire 10/15
- Bramble Wall 01/15

Tertiary:
- Dodge Mastery 10/15
- Blade Pact 15/15

Str:Dex / X:110

Tell me what you think :)

[Wasserblaffer]

Well, I got a pretty good idea about where to take my Outlander now. That only leaves me with some 2H gear, and a concept I hate to let go to waste. I'm keeping the Shotgonne Outlander for multiplayer, and am making a singleplayer Polearm Zerker to satisfy my 2H craze :P

I will be playing normal singleplayer, and the polearm concept and animations are more important that efficiency. That means I will pass on e.g. Eviscerate, because that skill's animation does not in fact involve your main weapon.

What I got set up so far is:

- Raze 15/15 (for raw single target damage)
- Rampage 01/15
- Cold Steel Mastery 15/15
- Red Wolf 15/15


Str:Dex / X:110

Ravage is an option, but might be redundant next to the "natural" AoE of my normal attack. I'm also thinking of:

- Howl 15/15
- Shred Armor 15/15
- Battle Standard 15/15
- Howl 15/15
- Northern Rage 15/15
- Shatter Storm 15/15
- Frenzy Mastery

The thing is, with Frenzy Mastery and Shred Armor, I don't know whether they're worth it, while the Northern Rage & Shatter Storm combo might require (a lot of) Focus in order to be effective.

[Wasserblaffer]

Made some modifications based on feedback I got on the Runic forum.

PRIMARY:
- Raze 15/15
- Rampage 01/15
- Cold Steel Mastery 15/15
- Northern Rage 15/15
- Shatter Storm 15/15
- Frenzy Mastery 15/15
- Rage Retaliation 01/15


SECONDARY:
- Red Wolf 15/15
- Howl 15/15
- Battle Standard 15/15
- Stormclaw 15/15
- Wolfstrike 15/15 or Shadow Burst 01/15

Str:Dex / X:152

The extra Dex would be because without Dodge Mastery on the Zerker, it will be harder to reach the dodge cap, those 32 extra points not spent in Str are not seriously gonna hamper your damage output, and they do allow you meet any in game polearm's Dex requirement: http://torchlight.wikia.com/wiki/The_Shardlance

I've picked Northern Rage over Permafrost because it has a better chance to freeze, thus syncing better with Shatter Storm, and has weapon DPS based damage. Since we're using polearms that have the highest raw melee DPS ingame, that should be a win. Similarly Stormclaw should prove to be a nice simple buff. Finally, I am not quite sure yet about whether to take Wolfstrike or Shadow Burst. I want either mainly for the movement and "ski'ing" across maps, but Wolfstrike looks like it has a lot of damage potential, being weapon DPS based too, and it appears to have superior movement qualities, as the distance covered increases with the tiers.