Adrakh's Sickle of Kronos Build

This guide will show you how to make a powerful Sickle of Kronos wielding character for Titan Quest Rangarok.
What is THE Sickle of Kronos , you ask? Well, it is an Easter Egg item sporting ridiculous requirements, but being fairly powerful and infinity +1 cool.

Introduction

Greetings stranger!

This guide will show you how to make a powerful Sickle of Kronos wielding character for Titan Quest Rangarok.

What is THE Sickle of Kronos, you ask? Well, it is an Easter Egg item sporting ridiculous requirements, but being fairly powerful and infinity +1 cool.



(For the sake of nomenclature, it is not a dev tool, because it had it’s stats adjusted for the Ragnarok patch; it has clearly been made for the players to use.)

“What is the use of a guide here?”, you may ask; “Getting the reductions is easy!”.
Getting the reductions and all legendary-recommended stats at the same time however… requires some research…
I put ‘sick’ in sickle and devoted 20 hours to calculate and create an optimal core for characters worthy of the titan-bane weapon.

The best thing about my build is that it is fairly mastery-independent, so you can try out variations on it.

0. About the Sickle of Kronos

As you can see, it slugs for 500 damage and throws a thousand-points bleeding curse, with a +100% anti-Typhon bonus. The Ether Strike is that attack which The Outsider from Spirit Mastery performs and the Sickle of Kronos deals it depending only on your attack speed and mana pool.



For those who never encountered this stat, % Health Reduction is the most powerful type of attack in Titan Quest.

The Sickle of Kronos is a fancy weapon more than anything else, but it is interesting, it is good looking and it is sufficiently powerful for the endgame.

Obtaining The Sickle

The Sickle can be only obtained in a glitchy way.

You need to head to the Typhon’s prison under Wusao mountain, sneak to the scene where the Telkine is talking to the Titan, and, before coming too close, find a way of sending a pet creature down to Ormenos. If you succeed, the freeing of Typhon will be triggered not by you, but by your animal getting downstairs. As a result, the Telkine will (think that it has nothing to fear and will) not destroy the weapon, leaving it for you upon being slain. The Sickle drops only if you have none in your possesion already.

Farm the one with 1020 Bleeding Damage, not some tri-digit 900.

Building Your Suit of Armor

We need all seven main resistances at around 150%, to counterweight the legendary’s base -100%.
Physical resistance, health, secondary resistances, energy, regenerations and armor protection are also welcome, in this order.

Reductions are important, because if you decide to just tought it out and cramm a millenium of intelligence or strength, you will miss on crucial stat points, which should be saved for energy, health and dexterity.

“Why?”; Let’s review the rules of thumb:

• Under 4000 health you will need to be very APM-fast to stay alive.
  
• Under 1200 mana abilities like Energy Armor will break your mana pool.
  
• Under 300 dexterity your character will have considerable difficulties hitting their enemies.

None of the aforemantioned conditions is lethal, but all are annoying.

So, let’s get dressed right; starting from the most inflexible element here: the rings.

You will need two Alke rings. Over 20%+ strength increase and -20% strength requirement per piece are unsurpassed by any other finger-jewel even before counting the side gifts. Also, getting two of them renders you a set bonus. And what a bonus it is!

As you can already see, this Alke features 18 armor and 19 dexterity bonuses that are not present in a vanilla ring… all courtesy of the two Dvergr blacksmiths from Act V!

As one of them said, to paraphrase, “we won’t enchant you more than one purple item unless the world is rejuvenated”. Which for me meant: upon the completion of their ridiculously long quest but before using their gift, you should save the spawn near their forge and copy your character using TQ Defiler several dozen times. The stats of an item are always remixed in the process and the twin bonus is random, so you need around five trials per object.

Hint 1: TQ Defiler is quite outdated now and not yet befriended with Ragnarok, so many bugs are bound to occur. Always prepare a backup of Ragnarok characters you plan to tinker with.

Hint 2: Objects can be copied, have their stats remixed and be passed to other charactes, using TQ Vault. Take note that this does not include a remixing between Dvergr enchantments.
You can also use TQ Vault to see the hilarious enchanted legendary item names, though! :)

The second most inflexible element of my build are the leggins:

This -30% Intelligence Requirement bonus is nearly mandatory, because to be fair we are making a melee character, so it does not take a 1000 intelligence to realize that going full brain, no brawn might be risky. Poison resistance of Archmage’s Leggins is also great and since the greaves are quite fast at +30%, the item is good.

My favorite Dvergr enchantment here is the one that gives them regeneration bonuses.

Third comes the cuirass:

This item is not ordered by it’s necessity, but by it’s superiority. The Robes of Sidiros Loros with the enchantment of %health/%strength and flat/%health regen appear as if they have been tailored to our needs. Large elemental resistance, over a 100 bonus intelligence, +15% total speed and the enchantment described above form together a beautiful (both logistically and aesthetically) piece of equipment.

What we badly need from our items, are these seven main resistances. So when it comes to the next items, we will take special care to pick the ones which provide us with the most exhaustive lists (literally: lists) of resistances.

Then the gauntlets:

Armlets of Freyja offer not only great resistances, but also % total damage and % elemental damage. The short cooldowned aoe-stun-health-reduction passive is just a cherry on this torte.

And the necklace:

As for the amulet, the Myrmidon’s Pendant’s northern cousin, the Torc of the Ancestors, is our best pick. In a variant with very high resistances AND a high % total damage it has no equal, save maybe for the aforementioned Witcher medalion. In times of need feel free to juggle between the Torc, the Myrmidon’s and, if you feel particularily bloodthirsty, Pendant of Immortal Rage.

I did not get an enchantment for that one, because such lovely stats are hard to obtain and the bonuses weren’t that great anyway. One of them was -8% to all requirements, nota bene, but it is only relevant much if you plan to avoid picking a certain mastery, which I shall discuss shortly.

If you plan fighting with a shield, the following is probably the best:

Priam’s Gate not only features a pretty image of the gates of Troy. It boasts a list of resistances as long as the list of Troy’s allies in the Illiad. My favorite bonus is the sacrificial one, mostly because others are really weak. 300+ poison retaliation is nothing to sniff at even if as a trade-off your health regen gets nullified. Alternatively, Hades’ Aspis and Aionios are also decent picks here.

Finally, the headpiece:

I went with Orpheus’ Garland, first of all because it gives up to +30% Chance to Avoid Projectiles, and secondly, because the utility stats are good. The former is not to be underestimated when Machae archers, Dark Elfs or Dragonians try to make you fight in the dark (figuratively speaking).

The mind control chance is hilarious, especially when level 82 mob-bosses join you, or two sudden minions aggro everything.

Since The Sickle (how long did I go without even mentioning it???) has great over-time bleading effect, these temporary minions will often die on their own before they get rabbies again.

If it does not convince you, feel free to choose other helmets. That is why I mentioned it the last, if you recall the ordering of this list.

Choosing the Artifact

After the clothing pieces are complete, time to pick the artifact.

For me the choice was obvious with Elemental Rage—the coolest workhorse I have ever witnessed in RPG games. The killing wave (I mean the beauty of animation; notwithstanding the magnificence of aoe 6600 damage*IQ) is worth it in itself. Plus 10% attack damage converted to health, good elemental resistances and an attack speed steroid are only more handy.



When going gets tough, however, switch please to Marduk’s Tablet of Destiny. Vitality damage bonus for your Ether Strike health reduction, +20% intelligence and the resistances not far behind Elemental Rage are all great, but it is the 10 second philosophical break whenever a fight gets too complicated, that really seals the deal.

And the item section of this build.

The Sickle in Combat

Finally you can understand what this plus on the bottom right meant whole this time. You see, the Sickle of Kronos is not tagged legendary, but a quest item. As such, it cannot be upgraded by the Dvergr blacksmiths, to my great disappointment. However, since it is both a weapon and neither an epic nor legendary one, it is open to relic enchantments!

The second best here are the Incarnation of the Blade of Thanatos with % total damage and bonus % attack speed or Incarnation of the Valor of Achilles with % attack speed and % physical damage. The best one for this very slow weapon, par none, is however the Achilles’ in a variant of +53% attack speed total.

Now, 1660 DPS looks feeble when compared to 500 000 critical strikes of those tacti-cool Brigands, but what only matters is whether it is enough. Depending on your masteries, the steroids may increase it to multiple thousands while in the fray. And THEN you should remember the 200-degree-cone -33% health reduction, which means hitting most enemies only 3-4 times before they drop neatly in pairs or trios if only you have enough dexterity to hit, independently of your base damage output.

If something does not compute here, it is the -47% strength requirement reduction missing from the calculations. That I solved by choosing the Rune Mastery, available from a passive worth 6 points.

The Rune Mastery also gives the Sacred Rage steroid, which is perhaps the best ability of it’s type in the game, a Herbal Remedy’s cousin Rune of Life, which gives: Vitality and Bleeding resistances, 10% movement speed and 10% strength; and… the godly Energy Armor ability, blocking mountains of damage. All of this does not cost many points and you can invest a lot in a second mastery; whichever you like.

If you seek percent reduction sources alternative to Rune Mastery, get Tiresias’ Guide (-10%) for the helmet, hunt that 8% reduction bonus for the amulet, and either replace the great Sidiros Loros with Etruscan Cuirass (-20%) or deprive yourself of real artifacts by picking Thot’s Glory (-20%)

Final Thoughts

I recommend the Ether Strike to be placed under mouse’s left. It appears not to trigger any kind of passive attacks (Runewords, for example) and of course blocks alternative left-mouse abilites. However, all things considered the Ether Strike seems worth it to me.

On dual wield:

With the Achilles Incarnation’s +53% attack speed bonus, The Sickle is fairly fast. For dual wield a pack-punching weapon is recommended. //Hammer and Sickle ftw//
If you wish to dual wield Sickles, then uh… why not. I am not certain of the synergy between the Ether Strike and dual wield passives, but you can find out what suits you.

In practice:

I picked Spirit Mastery, which after rebalances of The Anniversary Edition stands in a strong spot. For a start, it gives our hero the badly needed intelligence, mana and dexterity, when compared to some other masteries (mana-less or strength-based ones).

The passive aoe health percentage reduction and increased vulnerabilites for Vitality and Bleed damages are great, especially when coupled with 100% bonuses also available from this mastery; the Death Ward has been recently buffed to give a burst of extreme resilience (83% damage absorption in my case) and ontop of all that a bonus against the only type of enemies that are resistant to Bleeding and Vitality—the undead.

Plus a mana-regenerating damage steroid (Dark Covenant) and a good heal in the form of the Life Drain.

And THEN The Liche King and The Outsider to aid.

I predict the strongest Runes-based combinations for The Sickle wielder to be:

• 1. Runes + Spirit (Shaman)
  
• 2. Runes + Defense (Runesmith)
  
• 3. Runes + Warfare (Berserker)
  
• 4. Runes + Hunting (Dragon Hunter)
  
• 5. Runes + Rogue (Trickster)
  
• 6. Runes + Dream (Seidr Worker)
  
• 7. Runes + Storm (Thunderer)
  
• 8. Runes + Earth (Stonespeaker)
  
• 9. Runes + Nature (Skinchanger)

Non-Runes combinations will also work, however less well rounded, for example Warfare+Defense+blue potions.

Depending on the masteries, your stat point distribution will be different. Always fulfill your intelligence requirement first, then get as much mana as you think you will need in combat, and the rest balance between dexterity and health gains.

Exemplary result:



Cleaning the entire palace of Hades, including 3 Machae generals and the god himself, cost me brutto -10 health potions and -17 mana potions on the first run.

The character is thus ready for XMAX and other challenge modes.

Q.E.D.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

Cheers,
Adrakh

P.S. For the record, my character was calculated without any Oracle resistances, Nymph hitpoints, Chiron’s stat points or other quest-related bonuses from any difficulty.

P.P.S. After the bonuses from quests the character gains an additional 1000 health, over 80 points of str/int/dex and +20% total damage, plus a dozen of stat points and even more skill points... and some more resistances.

[Fa310tx]

If you use Ether Strike, is the weapon damage added or is the elemental used alone?
I'm wondering if Ether Strike or Rune Weapon/Transmutation would be better for elemental damage.

[wizard73]

Joker, first time playing Epic (back from the game 10 years ago), and I got 5 Sickles so far..

You need to watch him break the chains, and look to see if the sickle dissappears or not. If not, you are in luck, but check it's level. Lvl65 I got one with 700 bleeding (my first one was 1050, then 990) Anyway, it takes 1 minute from the portal to get to him, escaping all mobs, killing 3 demons and a dragon sometime. I think Lvl67 is a good one.

So I think I did around 20-25 runs on that Telkine, and I got nice drops, so it's super worth it. I even sold yellows to tackle the Dice Vendor in Atlantis that charges you 2,500,000 for an Epic treasure orb, which I got a Legendary on my first try! :D (and then I lost 5 millions lol)

Good luck, You'll get one for sure.

[[CoH] Joker]

Tried getting the Sickle. The Telkine never talked to the Titan, it just broke it's chains and left. I tried getting my pets to go down in front of me, but it didn't accomplish anything.

Is there a video of this being done? Unless I have a broken save, I can't see how it's workable.

[JewelryStar]

/txhuy88

* You forgot to mention deeply to OA for character. You need about 850-900 OA to hit enemies accurately. More is better if you go with physical dmg, so your mele hit can crit and deal more dmg. Less will make your melee hits have more chance to miss on attacks. From what you show, i think your character has too low OA (smaller than 500), your character will miss alot on attacks.
- %reduction to enemies health good on "living" monster and nearly useless vs almost bosses since they have specific resistance to resist this dmg type beside Vitality dmg resistance.

* I have some build with Sickle of Kronos, and its good enough to run xmax. I don't use any upgrade items for my builds. Classes without Rune still can be good with this sickle too..
Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzthm9eBB0

[HOLY WALTER]

@Quanyails Did you? Haha good memory
Your find is very interesting. Either Seal of Fate is considered a non-targetable construct, or the Telkine reacts not only to the the presence of enemies, but to any sort of nearby aggression.
I will test it in the future with the lightning bolt.

[Quanyails]

Hey! I saw you on TV Tropes!

I just wanted to mention that I was able to get the sickle by spamming Seal of Fate from the Runes mastery from afar, so presumably any long-range form of damage should trigger the event and keep the Telkine holding the sickle.