Xmax Pwning with spirit & Titan Quest Anniversary Edition

[Skeleton Mage]

If you are familar with the above and have tried it could you tell me if you feel its still viable tith the changes made in TQAE ?

I'm doing it myself - loosely following the guide - and so far damage has been frankly unimpressive:

1) I can see the value of ternion attack maxed out but is a waste of points before then.
2) Deathchill aura ether does no damage or weak damage until later.

Having said that a point in summon lich & the first 2 skills for the lich has proven to be a decent distraction and source of additional damage - going to scrap the lich for trance of wrath then deathchill aura & ternion attack later - doing this untwinked so the low combat performance to be expected.

[Sebastian]

spirit didnt have all that many changes if I recall correctly. if anything, it fixed ternions increased projectile speed.

Originally posted by Sir Pent:

2) Deathchill aura ether does no damage or weak damage until later.

if you are using deathchill for direct damage, you are doing it wrong. deathchills main use is to debuff enemies into harmlessness.

[Skeleton Mage]

Originally posted by Sebastian:

spirit didnt have all that many changes if I recall correctly. if anything, it fixed ternions increased projectile speed.

Originally posted by Sir Pent:

2) Deathchill aura ether does no damage or weak damage until later.

if you are using deathchill for direct damage, you are doing it wrong. deathchills main use is to debuff enemies into harmlessness.

I'm aware that deathchill arua's primay function is debuffing - but if you are looking for a skill that deals additional fairly relyable damage is a poor choice - which is what I was refering to in the origional post.

Through based on what you said it should just be a case of lucky drops / shop faming for additional damage.

[sarcastic_godot]

I've got a char running aong that guide's line and it works out nicely for me. Though I'm twinking quite a bit - which you can to some extent compensate via farming some +AllSkill-stuff (Stonebinder Cuffs e.g.). It takes a bit to get the build to float freely, and it really ran smoothly after reaching a 20-ish Level with a total of +3 skills - and Dream Mastery as secondary.

The core effect Ternion does lies in the AoE due to the Arcane Lore booster skill, which is why you want to max that first. You'll nuke brute packs with one, maybe two blasts...

Deathchill doesn't only debuff, but it's most beneficial effect IMHO is the slow. Slow mobs => less attacks => less incoming ouch => better survivability, can become even better in combo with either a weapon effect "Slower Attack" (e.g. from a Relic as its completion effect) or an Armor with Slower Attack retaliation. The -VitalityResist thing also comes in nicely, especially in combo with Accursed ring(s) and amu, and a Staff with Vitality Damage (e.g. "Grim", and the life-leechy types) as high as possible. At maxLvl +4 the -VitResi gets to 119%, and IIRC negative resistances yield exponential damage increase.

Regarding the Dream secondary Mastery: That'll give you that desired baseline Dmg Aura - Trance of Wrath, though it's a long way to go to get it unlocked at DreamLvl 32. But then it's worth every point you invested. You'll love it. As a side benefit it makes those reflecting nasties you might meet melt away by running circles around them :D.

If you choose the Dream Mastery it can indeed be helpful to first max Psionic Touch, the Dream basic attack, and it's booster, then respec those points to Ternion later on, when you can top that off. Costs some gold, which is easily re-farmed.

Gear-wise the Guide tips are great - PierceRes so you don't get overly thirsty near archers, then up your EleResis. 50-ish is OK, topping off to 80 makes life easier. VitalRes is not so relevent pre-Hades. I personally love Mountaneer armor, due to the Slower Attack Retaliation and the 15-20 extra damage which doesn't hurt either... ...well, not you, to be precise. It can BTW be farmed with moderate repetition demand from sidequest-objective rashmob groups, e.g. those crocodiles just south of the village of Sais south of the "Lower Nile" waypoint, or the Ichtyans next to the "Babylon Outskirts" WP. Those QuestObj mobs - recognizable by the sparkle-circles around them - have somewhat increased chances to drop green loot, and quite a lot of the racial specific armors covertly do have green quality, even though they're labeled "Reptilian Mantle" or "Ichtyian Armor" in that off-white-not-quite-gold. You'll have to take a closer look, though. If you don't want to invest into Str, you'll have to farm for Dex-based racial gear - e.g. at the Gorgon Queens or the Raider Boss NW of Fayum Oasis, or later on the Tigermen drop Dex-based armour, and there even are some QuesObj Tigermen in that little camp where you rescue the 3rd Sister. And those Ichtyans near Babylon Outskirts and those Tigermen BTW also drop a good-ish number of green rarity staves, which can come somewhat handy...

HTH, HF!

[Skeleton Mage]

Thanks for the imput suicidal_godot.

I already know about how ternion & deathchill work but playing untwinked with mostly gargabe drops on xmax pretty much demads a decent AoE that is nonconditional to be effective.

Ternion requires a staff (generaly fire / ice / shock damage) then applys a heavy nerf that damage but gives an AoE effect for some energy - great if you are not using the staff for elemental damage but untwinked that is unlikely.

Deathchill aura deals weak damage to creatures that would be described as alive but does no damage to bosses or creatures that are alive but does offer some useful debuffs - more so if you have the ability to take advantage of the debuffs.

To get the most out of those two skills you need a staff that mostly deals some form of vitality damage then get close and spam ternion attack while putting you at risk and demading energy to keep up - Using a harrowing staff from memory is the ideal but shows up much later.

Trance of wrath just needs you to get close enough and you can continue running to minimise incoming damage.

Both auras require an energy upkeep which should be easy to mangage for mage / wizard / caster style characters.

Ended up getting annoyed at level 16 ish and used the defiler to refund spirit then max dream mastery & trance of wrath and then work on spirit mastery for the additional attributes. Ternion & deathchill can wait - trance of wrath is far more effective early game source of damage for me.