I’m going to explain a bit about a build that I like to call, the Engineer Mechanist. This is probably the easiest way to beat Torchlight 2 on Hardcore Elite, but I don’t mean to discredit this build by any means. You’ll still feel that nervous feeling you get when you are in tight corridors with twenty mobs chasing after you. But taking them on is definitely easier with this build.
Oct 27, 2009 Engineer is first and foremost a tank. A shield wielding tank. Engineer is also proficient in 2H heavy weapons, even a cannon. Engineer is also a robot summoner. Those are basically your options. Depending on your style, you need to pick which route you're going with. You can mix and match the three if you so choose. A place holder for gathering thoughs on a summon focused, canon wielding Engineer build. Needed skills (max to 15): Heavy lifting, Blast Cannon, Gun Bot, Fusillade, Immobilization Copter.
So to start off I will say, the main skill for this build, are the Spider Mines. These tiny effective little babies are like a heat seeking missiles with an exploding punch. That mean’s this build is slow getting started because you can’t get Spider Mines until level fourteen. This is where skill respec’s comes in handy from my tip video. Until you get to level fourteen you’re going to want to use cannons, and investing a skill point into Blast Cannon at level seven will really help. Once you get spider mines, just take off blast cannon, and you’re good to go.
Before I go any further into other skills, I want to mention the stat distribution for this build. It varies on what gear you find in your play-through, but for the most part. You should just go ALL into vitality. The damage output for spider mines are minion based. A hidden damage modifier in this game that can only be tracked by adding the percentage’s up yourself, and just realizing that if you equip some gear that brings you up to plus eighty percent minion damage, then you’re doing an ass load of damage. That’s why you don’t need to put any points in strength.
Now the reason I say it’s dependent on the gear you find. You might also want to put a few points in dexterity every once in a while with a goal in mind of gaining a plus one percent to dodge every few levels. But for me personally, dodging didn’t really play a factor when you’re plowing so many points into vitality that your high block chance becomes the more beneficial investment.
Though I’m sure at level sixty plus when you’ve long past beaten the game, and simply working on leveling for the sake of end-game grinding. Then dodge probably plays a more important role. Especially since your block chance is capped at fifty percent. Eventually you’ll be spending points for dexterity I assume, but even after beating the game on hardcore elite. My character’s block was still not at fifty percent.
Back to talking about skills, as I mentioned earlier, at the start you’ll want to go to the skill respec guy in town to take off your beginning skill, add Heal Bot, Bulwark, and find a cannon at the blacksmith, hopefully he has one. Heal Bot isn’t very useful in my opinion at the start of the game, but once he gets his tier one bonus, heal bot is your best friend. He’s like a George Foreman grill, “just set ‘em and forget ‘em”. Also, speaking of tier two bonuses, when you do get level fourteen, I would only put one point in spider mines, and don’t worry about it until level twenty. That’s when you’ll want to invest four skill points into it. If you noticed the tier bonus for Spider Mines is a mana reduction for the skill, and adding skill points into spider mines without bringing it up to its tier bonus, will just result in you spending more mana than you need to.
As for Bulwark, that’s pretty self-explanatory, you’ll need all the defense you can get for the times you actually do take damage. Even though that won’t be very many times once you pick up Forcefield at level seven, which is probably why engineer is so amazing. As it sounds, this skill creates a Forcefield around your character that can consume up to a certain amount of damage. It last for thirty seconds, and best of all after you use it, it only has an eight second cooldown. I mean, it literally absorbs pretty much anything from what I noticed. I found myself absorbing traps in dungeons even. Though don’t try it yourself, I don’t think it’s worth risking. I will talk more about Forcefield in a moment.
Once you’ve hit level fourteen unless you’ve picked up some nice gear, you’ll probably notice your mana isn’t really in shape for all that spider mine spamming. This is why I recommend saving as many socket able gems as possible for act two. Where you can transmute in an attempt to acquire mana regeneration gems, and other gems you need. For me personally I struggled a bit at the end of act one, and the beginning of act two because I couldn’t sustain mana. I will add that heal bot for the most part does take care of mana regeneration due to its tier one bonus, but I found myself still needing some more mana regeneration.
Your build picks up a little bit by act two when you get Gunbot and Dynamo Field. Gunbot is just a bit of extra damage in tough fights, but Dynamo Field is the skill for building charge for the mechanist. Building charge isn’t super essential for this build, but take note that for every charge you have, Forcefield will be able to take lots more damage. So it’s really good when you’re at full charge and you hit that Forcefield skill. Really you’ll want to keep Forcefield on at all times, even without charges. I usually just use force field without a charge and go into a pack spamming Dynamo Field to build charge for using Forcefield yet again. That way you don’t take damage when building charge for what I like to call your, “mega shield”.
At level twenty-one you can also pick up onslaught for a movement skill. That’s what I did, but I did NOT keep it. Movement skills are important in my opinion. So I used Onslaught until level thirty-five when I could pick up Storm Burst. It’s all on preference, but I like Storm Burst better, even if it has a two second cooldown. Then, when level twenty-eight comes around, you get Tremor. I personally felt this skill must play a bigger factor after beating the game. Because up until the moment I beat the game, I really only had to rely on this skill when there was tons of mobs crowding me, and even though I have Storm Burst. This skill would cause the mobs to flee from me sometimes. But I would imagine this skill is most useful when its tier three bonus is added. The interrupt chance is great too, but I never found myself needing to interrupt anything casting due to keeping a distance from everything the entire game.
At this point your build really doesn’t change much until level forty-two when you pick up Sledgebot, and Immobilization Copter. In fact, at level forty-two you’ll start to realize how overpowered you really are when it comes to dishing out damage. Especially if you’ve been lucky enough to get some set gear that compliments your build. Hopefully some nice set pieces with minion damage, though I feel like this build could slip by without it.
Now I would like to mention some areas to be cautious about in your play-through, and this really applies to any build for hardcore elite. Towards the end of act one, the area’s leading into act two. There are some nasty shaman’s with ice based damage, so keep your distance, your force field up, and let your spider mines do their work. Kiting is your best friend in this build when you can. Sometimes kiting is a hard task in tight corridors though. You just have to find those openings and stick to using that walk only key I mentioned in my previous video to get around mobs and avoid damage.
Another mob to be wary of is in act two, the lizard creatures you’ll see. They have a spell or ability that stuns you. During my play-through I was stunned a few times, and each time it was a very clutching moment. My mechanist almost met her end each time.
The next area is the luminous arena near the end of act two. For the most part relying on your movement skill can get you through this area with ease. I wouldn’t worry about collecting everything here, just make it out alive. Luminous arena wasn’t too bad on my run, but the arena of slaughter in act three however, was pretty tough. The area is pretty tight-knit and it has some pretty tricky fire traps. Do your best to keep spamming spider mines, keep your force field up, and you should be fine.
Another place to be careful is your fight with the alchemist. Although for me I found this fight to be pretty easy. As long as you circle him at a nice distance, your spider mines along with the Gunbot and Sledgebot, will just tear him up. The tedious part of the fight was really just dodging all the fire floor traps in each phase of the fight. But I figured it’s still worth mentioning even if I found this fight easy.
Lastly, the final boss, he’s fairly easy as well, but once he gets to his last form, he has an attack that summons giant rocks to fall on top of you, and they follow where you go of course. But the game made it very obvious when he’s doing this attack. You will see him point his sword, and you’ll hear a particular sound that always happens when he’s going to summon the rocks.
So that’s pretty much all I have for this build, just take your time, don’t rush, and you should pull off a fairly easy hardcore elite win. I’ll be posting step by step links to the build.
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Welcome to part 4 of my build diversity builds! This time around we're covering the Engineer! The Engineer is a very strong class, especially given the new skills added at PAX. There is a build on every page for you to enjoy. I've been considering doing a part 5 where I discuss each of the mechanics in Torchlight 2 and what I think about them/advise about them. If you think that's a good idea or have feedback on my builds, pleas do comment. Enjoy!
*Edit 1*
Clarification on 'stat ratio.' It's not complicated. A 2:1 strength to dexterity ratio means for every 2 points you put in strength, put 1 point in dexterity. So at 100 points into strength you'll have put 50 in dexterity. A 3:1 ratio means 3 points in one stat, 1 point in the other.
The Tankgineer
The Engineer has more tankiness than I can handle. I really like how clear cut the tank skills, so for this one build I am going to show you precisely how I'm building my tank engineer with exactly 150 skill points. I will also highlight other skills that I think could be alternatives. This build is scary, as the Engineer can have both survivability and damage without much effort.
Skills
Passive Skills
Supercharge: I'm going to put 15/15 points into this ASAP. It's a rather brilliant skill. It gives you a chance on hit to gain a 10 second buff to your damage and while it's active you gain more charge. The damage is great to contribute to DPS and the charge will let you use your tanky-charge-consuming skills.
Sword and Board: 15/15 this skill. At rank 1 it adds 20% of your shield's armor to your melee damage. At rank 15 it'll add 90% of your shield's armor. That's nothing to scoff at, as one handed weapons hit for less than 2 handed weapons, but faster, so any damage bonus they receive greatly helps their DPS. This also will benefit from Supercharge.
Fire and Spark: 15/15 this even though it's not a tank skill. You have plenty of tank skills and this will give you 90% more fire and lightning damage when maxxed. This is rather significant and is a good way to make sure you can kill even as a tank since most of your skills are fire and lightning based. Remember a good offense is part of having a good defense. It'll give your Seismic Slams more 'Oomph.' Replace this with Charge Reconstitution if you want to be completely tanky.
Bulwark: I may 15/15 this as I feel the need. Every rank gives you 2% more physical armor and ALSO reduces physical damage taken by 2%. Tying a % damage reduction to your flat reduction is unbelievable, but note that this only works on physical damage, which is why I may keep it at 10.
Aegis of Fate: 15/15 this skill as it will turn mobs into your friends. It gives you a chance on being hit to gain a bubble of defense that is basically your armor value multiplied + a flat amount. It also gives knockback resistance which could be helpful against enemies that push you around. At 15/15 you have a 16% chance on being hit to cast it. that doesn't sound like much but think about this: While it's active you still take hits which count towards activating it. What I mean is that it can recast itself while it's active, so it really has good mitigation. This also benefits from the Bulwark ability.
Active Skills
Heal Bot: I'm going to put 15/15 into this little guy as soon as I can. Every rank improves the amount of healing and the rate at which it casts it's healing wave, at 5/15 it also restores mana to you and your allies, and at 10/15 and 15/15 it gives a physical armor boost. Plus he's just adorable. I'll name him Sam.
Forcefield: 15/15 this is how you will spend your charge and keep you and all your allies alive. This skill is just amazing. It spends all of your charges (up to 5) to give you a bubble that absorbs a flat amount of damage. Not only that but each charge also reduces the damage the bubble takes by 5%, so if you use all 5 charges it gives you 150% of the absorption amount, and all damage it takes is reduced by 25%. It also gives all your allies, you, your pet, your friends, your friends pets, as well as your and your friends summons 1/2 of the shield. It gets better: at 5/15 it cost 20% less mana and it's cast animation is 20% faster. At 10/15 your allies get the FULL shield instead of 1/2. At 15/15 it costs 50% less mana and you cast is 50% faster. Why do you care about your cast animation speed? Well it means you don't need as good reflexes to cast it right before a boss' strongest attack.
Shield Bash: 15/15 this skill. At 15/15 it has a 90% chance to stun for 3.8 seconds and will deal 12.5x your shield's armor in damage. It also lowers enemy attack speed and deals an additional 10% damage for every charge you have, WHILE generating charge per hit. That means the more you use it the harder it hits.
Spider Mines: 15/15 this. At tier 3 (15/15) it has a 60% reduced mana cost, and the cool part about this skill is that each spider mine has a chance to upgrade into causing a bigger explosion that stuns enemies for 2 seconds. The stun is tanky, but also think of this: if you know a harder battle is coming up, or if there was some elite monsters that were too hard for you to jump in and handle, summon up 10 of these guys and then try again. It's great for initiating.
Seismic Slam: I'm going to put 10/15 into this skill. The chance to stun is pretty good, and the best part is it's in an AOE. Reaching tier 2 (10/15) makes the radius 8 meters which is rather large. Basically you can Onslaught in for a huge speed debuff then start slamming and you will completely demolish any swarm of foes.
Onslaught: I'm going to put 5/15 into this skill. Not for the dps but it gives you a leap attack that slows enemy movement/cast/attack speed by a crazy 50%. At tier 5 this will last 6 seconds and cost 20% less mana. This will make this a good long lasting debuff. You could put more points into it, but if so I recommend picking 5,10, or 15 for the mana cost reductions per tier.
Charge Reconstitution: It heals you whenever you use a skill that uses charge. This is pretty cool as it turns your forcefield into not just a defensive skill but a recovery skill as well. The reason why I did not get this skill is because I felt that I already had enough defensiveness already and more healing might as well be overkill. I see two options here: Reduce Seismic Slam to 5/15 and put 5 in this, or remove some or all of Fire and Spark and put those points into this. This MAY be better than Aegis of Fate, but the thing is this build only really expends charge on Forcefield, and I'd try to only use Forcefield when I'm at max charge which means I wouldn't be using this heal that often.
Fire Bash: Decent skill. Deals fire damage based on your shield's armor as well as some physical damage. This benefits from Fire and Spark, as it'd receive 90% more damage, and I think it's fire damage over time might stack which is dangerously good. It also can spend one charge to triple it's physical damage and make it's blast range larger. Not only that but it's tier bonuses are amazing: 5/15 it's fire damage over time goes from over 3 seconds to 5, scaling over the 5 seconds. That is to say that if it did 300 damage over 3 seconds, it'd become 500 damage over 5 seconds. This makes stacking easier and just deals more damage period. At 10/15 it's damage arc (range) is increased, and at 15/15 targets take 50% more fire damage during the 5 second burning!! This is a great alternative to shield bash but DOES NOT generate charge, which is why I didn't get it.
Dynamo Field: This skill is a electric AOE centered around your character that interrupts and generates charge per enemy hit. As it goes through it's 3 tiers it's range increases, from 5 meters at tier 0 to a crazy 11 meters at tier 3. It also receives an increased interrupt chance per tier, reaching a crazy 110% (that is not a typo) at tier 3, meaning you will ruin casters in a huge AOE. This is a cool alternative to shield bash. It benefits from Fire and Spark and will probably generate a lot more charge. I didn't get it because has a crazy good stun and deals more damage per charge without spending charge. This is for AOE and shield bash is for single target.
Immobilization Copter: I like this skill more for fun than tanking. It slows enemies but 1. you can't control it, and 2. it can only slow 3 at a time, or 6 at tier 1. It looks nice but if you are playing with people they should have plenty of slows at their disposal, I prefer my stuns and defense. I don't think this skill is reliable enough during big fights.
Coup De Grace: I know you're thinking, 'Doom with all that stun, Coup De Grace's bonus damage to stunned enemies would be terrific and it benefits from Fire and Spark.' Well first of all this skill is based on your strength, and you'll be focusing on Vitality and Dexterity. Second of all this is a tank build not an offensive build but if you want to be a more dpsy tank go for it. It also requires that you use a melee weapon so your AOE stuns won't proc it.
Alternative Skill Build
Remove Sword and Board, Shield Bash, and Supercharge and replace them with Dynamo Field, Charge Reconstitution and Fire Bash. Your new way to attack is to Onslaught into a crowd, use a couple Seismic Slams to stun them, then use Dynamo Field to get max charge for Forcefield. Use more Dynamo Fields to get charge so you can start decimating enemies with Fire Bash, which will heal you as you cast it because of Charge Reconstitution. This build is a more offensive tank and might actually be better than my other tank build. It'll take a little more thought though. Also, this build removed the benefits to your basic attack so you will basically be dependant on fire bash for damage output, and I don't know if your mana can hold up. An alternative to this alternative is to remove Spider Mines instead of Supercharge. This will lower your stun and preparation before a battle, but means you can fall back on your basic attack to do damage and gain charge if your mana cops out. This may actually be the greatest build for partying in TL2, but it will take some thought on how you approach enemies in order to maximize it's effectiveness.
Stat Core
For the first version of the tank build it's a pretty straight forward Vitality/Dexterity build, for block and dodge. I'd do a 2:1 ratio Vitality to Dexterity. Once you start getting heavy diminishing returns turn to Strength. For the alternative version of the build, which I also really like, You'd want to do a 2:1 Vitality and Focus distribution, for block and elemental damage. As soon as you start getting heavy diminishing returns on them, distribute into dexterity, then strength.
Melee Weapon and Shield are a given. I believe all maces have a chance to interrupt, if you care, but just use whatever weapon gives you the most defense. That means life/mana steal on hit, chance to stun etc.
Affix wise you want to stack armor and try to be particularly hungry for elemental resistances. Your Engineer gets soooo much armor from his skills but 0 (none, nada, zilch) bonuses to elemental resistances, so use items to plug up this hole in your defense. Health is always good to stack as well. Cast Speed can't hurt so you can Shield Bash faster. +% damage is always good if it isn't to the detriment of your survival.
I think if you find a socketable with + a flat armor amount, not % armor, and put it on your shield it will benefit the sword and board skill. Test it out, and if it does than this is great.
For the Alternative build you still want armor, resistances, and health but also try to find +fire and +lightning % damage affixes. +% cast speed is also useful since it's a dps tank build based on skills.
Spell Scrolls
For the main build you want to find Armor Expertise, Block, Heal Self, and Adventurer. Why not use Draining Touch instead of Adventurer? Well as a tank you won't be hitting that fast and you'll be focusing on casting spells for defense, Adventurer gives you increased potion effectiveness which will allow you to make the most of both your mana and health potions. If elemental enemies are really messing you up consider swapping out Heal Self for Elemental Protection. I really think you should keep Adventurer as it will keep you leveled above the zone your in and potions offer you consistent restoration while Heal Self has a hefty cool down. Place Armor Expertise and Block on your pet if they stack with yours, and a Heal All. If they don't stack, then just put Heal All and 3 summons. Summons are very good on Engineers as they benefit from your Heal Bot and Forcefield. They are like mini-tanks and your allies will be grateful. You can't control when your pet summons them, so every time you see them pop up try to cast Forcefield even if you aren't at full charge.
The Hammerneer
This build is centered around using a 2 handed hammer to deliver the punishment. I will also do a 150-skill-point build here, and mention alternatives and how they’d fit in.
Skills
Passive Skills
(yes, 6 passives, they really bring the pain)
Heavy Lifting: 15/15 Gives +2% attack speed and +2% chance to stun for 3 seconds with basic attacks per skill rank. That’s +30% attack speed and 30% chance to stun, which is rather amazing. If you can find a 2 handed weapon with +% chance to stun it should stack nicely.
Coup De Grace: 15/15 This makes you deal electric damage when you hit stunned targets = to your strength multiplied by an increasing number per rank. Considering that Strength and electric damage are a big aspect of 2 handed Engineers, this is no brainer. This works great with Heavy Lifting.
Fire and Spark: 15/15 As discussed in previous builds this will give you +90% fire and lightning damage, which is basically all your 2 handed skills and it affects Coup De Grace.
Super Charge: 15/15 Chance to get bonus damage and charge for your charge bar every time you smack an enemy. This is self explanatory.
Charge Domination: 15/15 Every time you kill an enemy you have a chance to fill your charge bar, which will allow you to utilize your main attack spell to its full potential more often.
Charge Reconstitution: 15/15 Every time you spend charge you get healed, it scales to your level and the amount of skill points you invest in this. It will work great with all the charge you accumulate from Super Charge and Charge Domination.
Active Skills
Flame Hammer: 15/15 This is your charge spender. It consumes 1 charge whenever you have it available to create 2 additional blasts forward, increasing this skill’s range and AOE. It deals a significant portion of your weapon dps as fire damage and has an increasing chance per point to burn enemies. As it tiers up it releases more flames per blast that travel farther and farther per tier. You this will also keep you healed because of Charge Reconstitution. This skill benefits from Fire and Spark. Use this against non-fire enemies.
Heal Bot: 15/15 No melee class can survive well on elite without some support. Not only will this little guy heal you and your allies periodically, but at 5/15 it also restores mana, and at 10 and 15/15 it boosts your armor. The best part is that he never seems to expire.
Ember Hammer: 10/15 You swing your hammer in a 270 degree arc dealing a significant portion of your weapon dps as electric damage. Not only does this skill benefit from Fire and Spark, but it has a 100% chance to break shields! At tier 2 (10/15) it deal 10% more damage per charge you have, so a maximum of 50%. This skill does not spend nor gain charge so it’s a great alternative to Flame hammer. Use this against non-lightning enemies. I keep this at 10 so it’s mana cost isn’t too high and so I have 5 points to put into other skills.
Seismic Slam: 10/15 This attack deals fire damage based partially on your dps, and partially just on innate damage scaled to your level and points invested. It also has a 100% interrupt chance and deals additional fire damage over time. I mainly want this skill because it has a greater chance of stunning than Heavy Lifting grants, and it does so in a large AOE. At 10/15 it’s range has increased from 4 meters to 8. The stun is important so you can follow up with attacks proccing your Coup De Grace. I leave it at 10 to keep the mana cost reasonable, as it’s not my main attack, and so I have 5 points to spend in Onslaught.
Onslaught: 5/15 This skill is great for leaping into a Mob, debuffing them, and then following up with Seismic Slam for AOE stuns. I don’t use this for the damage, but for the fact that at 5/15 it’s 50% attack/cast/movement speed debuff will last 6 seconds. Also at 5/15 it’s mana cost is reduced 20% making this a cheap escape skill with no cooldown.
Storm Burst: 5/15 This skill launches you forward, knocking back enemies and discharges 3 electrical bolts. The beauty here is that each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 5, regenerates 5% of your mana. I keep it at 5 to keep it’s mana cost low, and to get the tier 1 bonus which causes 6 bolts to discharge instead of 3.
Alternatives: I really don’t see the other skills as worth mentioning for this specialized build. So simply consider removing some points from the passives to buff up certain skills. Charge Reconstitution is the best place to take from if you’re looking to just focus on DPS.
I’m probably going to use Strength and Dexterity at a 3:1 ratio. So every four levels I get I’ll spend 3 on strength and 1 on dexterity. As I get higher leveled and I start getting diminishing returns on strength I’ll switch to a 2:1 and eventually 1:1 ratio. I will also dabble in focus to get more mana, mana regen, and elemental damage as both Strength and Dexterity start returning less and less.
Torchlight 2 Engineer Guide
You can dabble in vitality to equip armor earlier, as it’ll make your life a lot easier, but hardcore dps’ers will just grind for the level requirement. It’s a question of do you want to be more powerful immediately or in the long run.
Item Core
Well 2 handed hammers, greatswords, or polearms are clearly the way to go.
Affixes you want are increased attack speed, +% damage, +% fire and lightning damage, and the rare +% charge. Obviously if you’re too squishy stack hp and resistances. If life on hit procs for every target hit by your swing it could also be very valuable. This build is pretty straightforward item wise. Don’t be afraid of items that grant strength, focus, and dexterity either.
What you REALLY want is items that significantly increase your crit chance and crit damage. At lower levels forget about crit damage as you won’t even be critically striking frequently enough, focus on critical strike chance. At higher levels though when your dexterity is up and you find critical strike chance on gear, critical damage will make you insane.
You want Martial Weapons Expertise, Elemental Overload, Dervish, and Elemental Protection (the last is really necessary on elite). Also consider Draining touch instead of Martial Weapons Expertise if it procs for every target hit by your basic attack. On your pet put a heal all, zombies, and whatever else floats your boat. I’d actually suggest icebolt if it’s in TL2 to help you slow enemies down. Anything that keeps you alive really.
The Cannoneer
Cannoneer
Passive Skills
Heavy Lifting: 15/15 This is particularly amazing on Cannons because it will give you a cone of stunning, your allies will love you. Gives +2% attack speed and +2% chance to stun for 3 seconds with basic attacks per skill rank. That’s +30% attack speed and 30% chance to stun, which is rather amazing. If you can find a 2 handed cannon with +% chance to stun it should stack nicely.
Fire and Spark: 15/15 IF Fusillade and/or Blast Cannon deal fire damage for the +90% fire and lightning damage. Otherwise you can leave this at 0.
Bulwark and Aegis of Fate: These two tanky skills might as well be 15/15 for survivability, though it’s not necessary. You don’t have many cannon skills so you have options.
Active Skills
Blast Cannon: 15/15 Cannon skill number 1. This launches a long range projectile, which is a useful alternative to your short range basic attack. It deals much more damage than your weapon dps and at 15/15 it gains a 75% chance to blind for 4 seconds, causing enemies to miss you and your other summons.
Fusillade: 15/15 I have a feeling this skill has a faster cast animation than Blast Cannon, if not you might want to skip it completely. At 5/15 it releases 3 rockets instead of 2, at 10/15 the rockets detonate granting them AOE, and at 15/15 it releases 4 rockets instead of 2. I say put 1 point into this, and if it doesn’t compete with Blast Cannon respec it back to 0.
Healing Bot: 15/15 for the same reasons as the previous builds. This is just a fantastic skill. Heals, restores mana, increases armor.
Spider Mines: 15/15 These little guys have a chance to stun your enemies, get their mana cost reduced every 5 levels, and have a chance to stun. Summoning 10 of these before entering any serious fight will just help you stay alive.
Gun Bot: 15/15 This little guy kicked some serious butt in the beta. Every rank after 1 gives him (I named him Bob) 5% more damage for 70% at 15/15. He has amazing tier bonuses, each tier decreases his cooldown and at 5/15 his firing range is doubled, at 10/15 his shots pierce enemies and hit the ones behind them, and at 15/15 he shoots in 3 directions potentially tripling his dps. At 15/15 he can be summoned every 1.5 minutes, meaning you will only ever have to wait 30 seconds before summoning him again.
Sledgebot: 15/15 because this guy will distract enemies and it’ll just be cool to have your full arsenal of bots out. At 5/15 he gets a sweep attack, at 10/15 he gains a smash attack, and at 15/15 he gets to shoot rockets.
If Fire and Spark doesn’t affect your cannon skills, and/or you decide not to get one or both of the tanky passives 15/15 Charge Domination and Forcefield to keep you and your minions alive.
Torchlight 2 Engineer Cannon Build
Stat Core
Strength and Dexterity. I don’t even want to hear about focus or vitality. Yes focus increases your mana and mana regen but your basic attack is just so useful with Heavy Lifting that if you run out of mana just start left clicking while heal bot and a mana potion refill you.
A cannon, then attack speed, cast speed, critical strike chance and critical strike damage. +% damage / physical damage is always good. That’s it. You are a ranged dps machine, just focus on killing.
Spell Scrolls