Synergies makes the guards target happy with the Dummy often blocking the path down to the other vendors.

Make an Embermage character with the Frost Phase Skill and teleport behind him. Use the Shared Stash to transfer items and money between characters.

Once Act 2 Salt Barrens is open just walk from there all the way back to the Estherian Enclave without using Portals which should reset the area along with the Imperial Guard.

One time I even got stuck on the other side because 3 Vanquisher Guards got target happy with the Dummy while on the stairs blocking my path. If that happens then just start a Lan game and reroll the world.

Ok cool, thank you for the help! I want to clarify what you mean by "walk all the way back without using portals [from the salt barrens]." Wouldn't that require using the ember train thingy? Or is that what you meant?

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

Ok cool, thank you for the help! I want to clarify what you mean by "walk all the way back without using portals [from the salt barrens]." Wouldn't that require using the ember train thingy? Or is that what you meant?

Yes, those Ember Transports manned by those Imperial Railmasters are considered to be walking by the game. A very useful status to reset areas, guards and vendors.

Cool. As it happens, when I loaded the game up today, the guys were on the lower level with the merchants and not even shooting the dummy at all... how very finnick-y.

This is unrelated but I'm wondering what happens when I am dual-wielding and the weapons I have equipped have different attack speeds. Does it take the average and use that? Or does it switch between them as my attacks alternate between the weapons? I.e, it attacks faster when my left hand fires, and slower when my right hand fires?

I found a legendary which is very good, but deals low damage in rapid intervals. I'm concerned that if I dual wield with a slower weapon it will negatively affect the resulting DPS contribution of the aforementioned legendary.

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

I found a legendary which is very good, but deals low damage in rapid intervals. I'm concerned that if I dual wield with a slower weapon it will negatively affect the resulting DPS contribution of the aforementioned legendary.

Yes the slower weapon will affect the faster weapon as they will alternate according to their individual speed.

I forgot if Execution Chance alternates or only relies on the Right Hand Weapon for it's speed.

Ok, thanks again for your help. Greatly appreciated!

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

Ok, thanks again for your help. Greatly appreciated!

You're welcome and feel free to ask more. ^_^

I will try to answer to the limits of what I currently know.

Ok then, here we go! Do +XX% (element) damage modifiers apply to "conveys XXX (element) damage over X seconds" effects on weapons? In other words, my ninja has +125% fire damage, and I have a weapon that has the effect "conveys 350 fire damage over 4 seconds." Does my damage bonus increase that to 788 (or maybe 787, rounding down) fire damage over 4 seconds?

Second question: I really thought that there was a way in Torchlight to view the "true DPS" of your weapon(s), but I cannot find this in any menus. What I mean by "true DPS" is DPS after all relevant bonuses are applied, such as +XX% attack speed, +XX% (element) damage, +XX flat damage effects from armor and skills, etc. Instead, all I can see are the weapons listed in my stats, with no apparent change compared to the DPS listed in the inventory screen. It's possible that I am confusing TL2 with some other game I played that had this feature, but I am unsure.

Third question: is there any way to get the stupid target dummy to display damage text for every DoT/damaging effect on it? I was TRYING to test my first question to find the answer for myself, but when I removed all confounding variables and attacked with ONLE my "convey XX fire damage" weapon (had no other relevant effects) and ONLY the skill that gave me a large % bonus to fire damage, the Target Dummy lit up with the "on fire" animation, but no damage was displayed! I was thoroughly confounded.

Final question: is there a spell/socketable vendor in Zeryphesh with the mod set I described, or do I have to wait till the next area? Because the spells being sold by the Estherian Enclave spell vendor are only tier 1, and most of the socketables sold by the Enclave socketable vendor are "speck" quality. Yet, I cannot find any such equivalent vendors in Zeryphesh--only the socket enchanter, the two pet merchants, and the far east vendor.

Thank you so much for your help! Much appreciated.

I've thought of another question: when an item has an effect that says "reflect XX (element) damage," does that mean I completely negate that amount of damage AND deal it back to the attacker? OR, does it mean I take the XX amount of damage, but the attacker takes it too? This would make a big difference in terms of defensive itemization.

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

Ok then, here we go!

question:

(1)
Yes and it rounds up (this can be seen in the stats where a decimal will round up the entire number).

Focus and +% Damage modifiers will increase Damage over Time. If limited to a specific element then only that element will be boosted.

(2)
It's true that Damage added from armor is usually not listed. If the Arcane panel doesn't show it in it's hidden menus then only the target dummy will reveal more info with the Verbose Setting On (found in Settings). Even then Damage over Time is difficult to track on the target dummy.

(3)
Try the Settings gear button in the upper left corner or when paused and turn on the Verbose option found somewhere in the lower right area of it's options. That should show more combat events like the number of damage taken per second appearing over the target.

(4)
Zeryphesh unlocks the Gem and Spell Vendor by completing the side quests after the Ossean Wastes area is completed and about to and entering the Salt Barrens with "The Missing Zeraphi" and "Shadow of the Skara". Destroy the poisoned skara nest boss and the Vendor will become available.

(5)
Reflect Damage does not protect in any way. The developers should have named it Counter Damage as that would've been a more accurate name.

The foe can deal low damage or high damage however after the player has taken the hit the "Reflect XX" will activate and deal it's damage listed to the foe. Small foes with small health are greatly affected by this. It does function with Missile Reflected Damage.

This seems unfair however the affix of "% Chance to Reflect Missiles at XX% Wdps" does defend against all damage from any Missile even Boss Projectiles when it activates.

So Missile Reflect affix is very good for defense. Better than Dodge against Missiles specifically. There are some Rare Shields that carry a 30% Chance to Reflect Missiles so that's a good choice although Synergies may have rebalanced it.

That's very good to know. I'm going to make a text file recording this information for my future reference.

So, relating to reflection/deflection, I have noticed that I cannot see an actual projectile leaving the character when I fire a Shotgonne or Cannon. Pistols I'm not sure about as I have not used any recently, and bows/crossbows I presume have visible projectiles.

My question, then, is: are cannons/shotgonnes unaffected by reflect @ % dps? I know some enemies have proejectile reflection, such as that big electric robot in the area guarded by the sphinx. Since the nature of shotgonnes/cannons seems to be that they are actually an AoE cone of damage rather than a projectile, do they bypass such shields completely?

I also have another, somewhat unrelated question. I understand that Focus benefits magic damage in general, but I am confused as to what that definiton means exactly. I believe I read in the actual in-game menu, that focus affects the elementall part of a weapon's damage; is this damage ALSO affected by strength, or does strength only affect PHYSICAL weapon damage? For example, I have a unique shotgonne that deals all of its base damage as fire damage, displayed as 150-200 fire damage. Is this boosted exclusively by focus, exclusively by strength, or both? What about elemental damage added as a blue-text effect in the item's enchantment?

Another way of asking would be, is all elemental damage considered magical, and thus under the exclusive domain of Focus? Or is some elemental damage 'different' in some way?

Can I always expect that elemental damage from a skill will benefit from focus? Let's say we have a skill that deals flat ("scales with player level") elemental damage (rather than %weapon dps). I feel safe in assuming that such damage would benefit from the relevant elemental damage modifier, but I am unsure whether such a skill would benefit from focus.

Extending this question even further, what if the skill simply says "deals XX as magical damage?" It's possible that this is a problem exclusive to mod classes--I'm not sure since I have only been playing mod classes lately--but the Dragoon, for example, has a few skills that claim to deal "XX as magical damage" or "XX% weapon damage as magic damage," without specifying an element. Would these benefit ONLY from focus, and not from any elemental +% bonus? Or would this be a question to ask the mod author directly?


With that out of the way, let me now ask a considerably shorter question about vitality. I have read in the past that vitality is, simply put, not worth it (in the base game at least). Do you know if any of the mods I'm using have rebalanced Vitality to make it better? The complaints I have seen are mainfly that it doesn't give enough hit points per point of vitality, but playing now with the mods as described, it seems to give me 11 hp per point of vitality, which doesn't seem so bad. Am I just being dumb, or has one of my mods rebalanced vitality to give more HP?

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

That's very good to know. I'm going to make a text file recording this information for my future reference.

So, relating to reflection/deflection, I have noticed that I cannot see an actual projectile leaving the character when I fire a Shotgonne or Cannon. Pistols I'm not sure about as I have not used any recently, and bows/crossbows I presume have visible projectiles.

My question, then, is: are cannons/shotgonnes unaffected by reflect @ % dps? I know some enemies have proejectile reflection, such as that big electric robot in the area guarded by the sphinx. Since the nature of shotgonnes/cannons seems to be that they are actually an AoE cone of damage rather than a projectile, do they bypass such shields completely?

I also have another, somewhat unrelated question. I understand that Focus benefits magic damage in general, but I am confused as to what that definiton means exactly. I believe I read in the actual in-game menu, that focus affects the elementall part of a weapon's damage; is this damage ALSO affected by strength, or does strength only affect PHYSICAL weapon damage? For example, I have a unique shotgonne that deals all of its base damage as fire damage, displayed as 150-200 fire damage. Is this boosted exclusively by focus, exclusively by strength, or both? What about elemental damage added as a blue-text effect in the item's enchantment?

Another way of asking would be, is all elemental damage considered magical, and thus under the exclusive domain of Focus? Or is some elemental damage 'different' in some way?

Can I always expect that elemental damage from a skill will benefit from focus? Let's say we have a skill that deals flat ("scales with player level") elemental damage (rather than %weapon dps). I feel safe in assuming that such damage would benefit from the relevant elemental damage modifier, but I am unsure whether such a skill would benefit from focus.

Extending this question even further, what if the skill simply says "deals XX as magical damage?" It's possible that this is a problem exclusive to mod classes--I'm not sure since I have only been playing mod classes lately--but the Dragoon, for example, has a few skills that claim to deal "XX as magical damage" or "XX% weapon damage as magic damage," without specifying an element. Would these benefit ONLY from focus, and not from any elemental +% bonus? Or would this be a question to ask the mod author directly?


With that out of the way, let me now ask a considerably shorter question about vitality. I have read in the past that vitality is, simply put, not worth it (in the base game at least). Do you know if any of the mods I'm using have rebalanced Vitality to make it better? The complaints I have seen are mainfly that it doesn't give enough hit points per point of vitality, but playing now with the mods as described, it seems to give me 11 hp per point of vitality, which doesn't seem so bad. Am I just being dumb, or has one of my mods rebalanced vitality to give more HP?

You defiantly have a mod which is improving vitality, its normally something like 3 - 4 HP per 1 point of vitality from memory

Ok thanks, that's what I thought. I thought I recalled that some people were lamenting that it was only 3 points per vitality, but I couldn't remember for sure.

Originally posted by Flame Noir:

That's very good to know. I'm going to make a text file recording this information for my future reference.

question,

I'm glad! I like to screen grab info then write it into text.

(1)
Shotgonnes and Cannons use a Hit Box (Damage Spray) which is quite useful according to some players. I'm not sure this can be reflected by foes which would ensure safety if it doesn't. Shields (both Held {Block Chance} and Energy {Damage Absorbtion} types) will still defend foes until they are broken.
Secondary (Splash) Damage and Ranged Damage increases the power for Cannons and Shotgonnes.

Crossbows, Bows and Pistols use an instant line projectile which can be reflected by certain foes therefore presenting a danger to the player.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/101791/which-weapons-have-splash-damage-in-torchlight-2?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

| Weapon | Hands | Range | Arc | Splash Damage |

|:------------|:-----:|:------|:-----------|:-------------:|

| Polearm | 2 | 3m |120 degrees | 50% |

| Greatmace | 2 | 2m |120 degrees | 50% |

| Greatsword | 2 | 2m |120 degrees | 50% |

| Greataxe | 2 | 2m |120 degrees | 50% |

| Greathammer | 2 | 2m |120 degrees | 50% |

| Staff | 2 | 2m |100 degrees | 50% |

| Mace | 1 | 1.8m |60 degrees | 25% |

| Sword | 1 | 1.8m |60 degrees | 25% |

| Axe | 1 | 1.8m |60 degrees | 25% |

| Claw | 1 | 1.7m |0 degrees | 0% |

| Bow | 2 | 10.2m |0 degrees | 0% |

| Crossbow | 2 | 13.2m |0 degrees | 0% |

| Cannon | 2 | 6m |55 degrees | 50% |

| Shotgun | 2 | 5m |30 degrees | 30% |

| Pistol | 1 | 7.2m |0 degrees | 0% |

| Wand | 1 | 7.2m |0 degrees | 0% |

(2)
Weapon Damage is boosted by both Strength and Focus except Physical Weapon Damage which is only boosted by Strength.

Blue Affixes are affected by Focus unless it specifically states Dps Damage.

Physical Damage found in Skills are boosted by Focus however if a Skill's Physical Damage is based on Skill Dps then it's only affected by Strength however if the Weapon used to empower the Dps Skill has Elemental Damage then Focus will indirectly empower the Skill because of the Weapon's Elemental Damage types.

If a Skill "deals XX% Wdps as an Element Damage" then it's empowered by both Strength and Focus.

Focus empowers all Elemental Damage yet usually not Physical unless it's in a Skill.

Focus empowers Flat Damage Skills while Strength cannot.

For Dps Skills if the Weapon used contains Elemental Damage then it benefits from both Strength and Focus.

If the Skill also deals a % of Dps as an Elemental Type then it also benefits from Strength and Focus.

Some Skills contain both Dps and Flat Damage and in theory can even have Dps % dealt as Elemental Damage and also in theory have Damage over Time (Sometimes refered to as Bleeding and Burning although Ice, Poison and Electric can be over time too and will be stated literally if so). In this extreme case when a Skill is just stacked with so many options then it will benefit heavily from both Strength and Focus.

Strength tends to be the more powerful option due to the way Damage gets calculated in the game mainly revolving around the Weapon however Focus Builds can be just as powerful both purely and when mixed with Strength.

"Magical" is another type of damage that is "hidden" and not accessible to the vanilla classes however some modded classes can access it (I heard a claim from a modder that the final boss can deal Magic Damage). In this case only Focus would empower Magic Damage.

Although a Modder could add Damage Types to a Skill without stating it (this is rare) yet Focus would still be a safe option in this case. Dps tends to be stated when used by modders.

Dexterity or more importantly Critical Chance is good to have. It doesn't need to be maxed just high enough to be a common occurance. Strength tends to be important because it empowers Critical Damage although this maxes at around 1000 Strength or 500% Critical Damage.

Even if a build only benefits heavily from Strength it still helps to have Boris the Stat Enchanter give some Focus on items for the Max Mana Regen % Boost (The higher the max mana the higher the % regen which is not the same as flat mana regen from items although they help too).

(3)
Vitality is normally poor however Synergies empowers it which is highly appreciated.

Originally posted by steffire3:

Shotgonnes and Cannons use a Hit Box (Damage Spray) which is quite useful according to some players.

| Cannon | 2 | 6m |55 degrees | 50% |

| Shotgun | 2 | 5m |30 degrees | 30% |

So, when the chart says that a cannon only has 50% splash damage, this means that the "targeted" enemy (whover your mouse is on) takes 100% damage, and all other enemies within the cone take 50%? I just want to clarify because at first I thought it meant the cannon always does only 50% base damage, since all of its damage is splash damage. This is much different from how i thought cannons/shotgonnes worked--I thought they dealt 100% damage to everything hit. If I do not have any enemies targeted (for example, if I press the button to hold still and fire in a general direction), would that mean that all damage dealt is dealt at reduced capacity as splash damage?

Originally posted by steffire3:

Physical Damage found in Skills are boosted by Focus however if a Skill's Physical Damage is based on Skill Dps then it's only affected by Strength however if the Weapon used to empower the Dps Skill has Elemental Damage then Focus will indirectly empower the Skill because of the Weapon's Elemental Damage types.

...

Some Skills contain both Dps and Flat Damage and in theory can even have Dps % dealt as Elemental Damage and also in theory have Damage over Time (Sometimes refered to as Bleeding and Burning although Ice, Poison and Electric can be over time too and will be stated literally if so). In this extreme case when a Skill is just stacked with so many options then it will benefit heavily from both Strength and Focus.

So the summation is that:
-Strength affects the "base damage" listed at the top of the weapon card, whether that damage is physical or elemental, but does NOT affect physical damage listed in the blue magic effects of the weapon.
-Focus affects anything elemental, whether it is "base damage" at the top of the weapon card or blue effects. Focus also affects physical damage that is expressed as a "magical" effect: e.g, a blue modifier on a weapon, or physical damage dealt by a spell/skill.

-Flat damage dealt by skills is modified by Focus and NOT strength, in all cases.
-Skills that deal damage based off of weapon DPS, have their damage modified by focus AFTER the fact. In other words, strength and focus have already applied their effects to increase the base and effect damage of the weapon, resulting in a final weapon DPS. This DPS is then used to determine the skill's damage (i.e 85% weapon DPS), and then the skill's damage output (which was based on weapon DPS) is modified by Focus. In this way, some skills can "double dip," so to speak, depending on the weapon you have equipped.

To illustrate my understanding of this (so that you can correct me if I am wrong), let us imagine a hypothetical situation wherein my character has equipped a white-rarity axe. This axe has no magical effects, and thus deals only physical damage derived from its base damage stat.

Now, let is imagine I have a skill, which deals 100% weapon DPS as physical damage to a target enemy. My weapon DPS is affected only by strength, resulting in a "final DPS." When I use the previously described skill, this "final DPS" will then be modified by Focus because it has become "magical" by merit of being skill damage. Thus, my damage output has been modified once by strength, and then once by focus. Is this correct? If not please let me know.

Moving on: let us say that I possess a "+50% physical damage dealt" passive effect. Undoubtedly, this will increase my "final DPS," as that damage is exclusively physical. However, the damage dealt by my skill is also physical in nature. Does this mean that the +50% physical damage bonus will be applied twice to the skill's damage (once to the weapon DPS, and once to the final skill damage, along with Focus)?

Originally posted by steffire3:

"Magical" is another type of damage that is "hidden" and not accessible to the vanilla classes however some modded classes can access it (I heard a claim from a modder that the final boss can deal Magic Damage). In this case only Focus would empower Magic Damage

So, assuming that the damage dealt by this skill is genuinely of the "magical" category (and not a case of being mislabeled by the mod author, when it is actually fire or ice or something), does this mean that it cannot be resisted by enemies? Since all armor and damage reduction except "-XX% all damage taken" is element-specific, would magical damage be unaffected by them?

Also, one question apropos of nothing: I really thought that one of the mods I downloaded mentioned allowing the transfer of gold between characters, but I cannot find this feature anywhere. Do I have to go to one of the alternate areas, like table mountain or something?

Thanks again, this is very much appreciated.