Improving My Devastating Destroyer

[dwaynegand]

For the first time in years, I've finally beaten the game again. I'll admit I played on Easy, but I'm still familiarizing myself with the game. I made a Destroyer who maxed the following skills:

-Devastate
-Martial Weapons Expertise
-Defensive Spell Mastery
-Armor Expertise
-Frost Shield
-Critical Strikes

Spectral Decay is almost maxed.

Since I got it, I've been using Devastate to kill everything quickly. But as I levelled it up and ascended deeper into the Black Palace, I found that I was using too much mana so I needed a secondary attack. I found the humble Slash Attack to work best due to its cheap mana cost and its ability to strike multiple targets in front of me, but it was still at level 1.

As I levelled him up, I also picked up other skills to help deal with various situations and help him survive till better skills were unlocked. I also experimented with them to familiarize myself with their effects and what kinds of builds would benefit from them. The following skills have 1 point each:

-Stampede
-Shadow Armor
-Soul Rend
-Entrophic Aura
-Shadow Bowman
-Chain Vortex
-Titan Stomp
-Doomquake
-Spectral Echo
-Adventurer

I didn't put any points into any other skills, such as Seismic Burst, Aura of Thorns, or any other passives.

I haven't actually used any of the Ember pieces I used because the effects look pretty minimal, though I am running out of room in my stash.

I invested in Strength and Defense. I used a shield instead of dual weapons. My spells, other than Identify and Town Portal were Haste and Draining Touch. My pet was using Heal All and Silence. All of our spells were at level 6 and Defensive Mastery was maxed by the end of the game.

I bought maps in town and used them to level up and increase my fame level so I could put more skill points into the important skills I planned to max. I was approaching level 50 and fame level 31 as I finally went to confront Alric and Ordrak.

I took down Ordrak using Devastate and Spectral Decay. But even despite all the damage I was doing, it took about a minute of Devastating. Why did the game producers make him so much of a damage sponge?

If I was to remake this character in the future, what could I do differently to make him even better? What skills should I get or skip?

Some other questions:

-Do the effects of Entrophic Aura stack with the debuffs inflicted by Devastate? Or would I be better of using Aura of Thorns?
-If I was to dual wield weapons, would the bonus to my weapon damage from Dual Wielding be added to the damage dealt by skills that gain a damage boost from weapon dps? Is Dual Wielding even necessary?
-I read that Shadow Bowman increases your damage when you level it up and use it. Is that true? If so, should I use it or is Shadow Armor better for a melee Destroyer?
-What fish should I feed to my pet to best maximize their effectiveness.
-Does Pet Mastery affect the Shadow Armor and Shadow Bowman?
-How can I make Ordrak fall faster?

[dwaynegand]

I've been taking him through the Shadow Vault. I have maxed the following skills now:

-Advanced Spell Casting
-Pet Mastery
-Shadow Armor
-Treasure Hunter
-Adventurer

What should I max next? Entrophic Aura? Block and Parry? Slash Attack?

[Shrike Alfare]

Sharing the stuff I know:
-The downside of maxing active skills is that it'll make skills cost more Mana than you can afford. That's why I usually check out passive skills first, and then active skills.
-IIRC in Torchlight 1 Dual Wield basically gives percentage damage for both weapons. It's a pretty good skill in this game (unless you use two handed weapons or use an Alchemist, where it's better to build defense.)
-If you're already using Devastate, IMO it'd be more efficient to use Aura of Thorns.
-Yeah, Pet Mastery also effects summons.
-Yes, there's a bonus to your attacks and your defense against projectiles when using Shadow Bowman.
-You can combine ember shards to gain better quality ones. I really suggest you use them, especially the ones that gibe you Health Regen. They'll be a waste otherwise.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Shrike Alfare:

Sharing the stuff I know:
-The downside of maxing active skills is that it'll make skills cost more Mana than you can afford. That's why I usually check out passive skills first, and then active skills.

I usually just use mana regeneration gems to solve this issue. You can also put mana and health steal on your weapon, if you like, although I usually put health regeneration on my weapons instead.

[dwaynegand]

I've just reached level 100. I've maxed the following skills:

-Slash Attack
-Shadow Armor
-Devastate
-Aura of Thorns
-Adventurer
-Spectral Decay
-Treasure Hunter
-Martial Weapons Expertise
-Armor Expertise
-Defensive Spells Mastery
-Advanced Spellcasting
-Critical Strikes
-Pet Mastery
-Frost Shield

I have a point in the following skills which helped me level up and survive till stronger skills became available:

-Soul Rend
-Titan Stomp
-Entrophic Aura
-Shadow Bowman
-Doomquake
-Chain Vortex
-Spectral Echo

The rest of my points were put into Block and Parry.

My spells were:

-Identify
-Town Portal
-Draining Touch
-Haste

My pet's skills were:

-Heal All
-Silence

-If I remake this character or respec in the future, what skills could I do without? Should I change my spells or that of my pet? What skills could I get with the points I free from unimportant skills?