What’s Torchlight 3?
Torchlight 3 is a hack and slash game with extensive dungeon crawler mechanics and randomized loots. If you played or watched anything about Torchlight and felt the game is similar to Diablo, there’s a good reason. Mainly because the team is composed of former’s development members of Diablo 2. Although the plot is not Torchlight 3’s strongest suit and your character does not have a plausible motivation to risk their neck out there, you will be the protector Novastraia needs against the invasion of Netherim. To do this, you count on the help of allies at the frontier and with the functions of a fort you own, such as storing your pets or crafting new types of equipment.
The Bolt Launcher Build For Dusk Mage In Torchlight 3
There are four classes you can choose from when starting your selfless adventure: Forged, Railmaster, Sharpshooter, and our star of the moment, Dusk Mage. To play majestically as a Dusk Mage, you must master the balance between light and dark energy. When casting spells, a special bar fills up and if you use energy opposite the bar element, you get a buff. Dark spells gain increased damage and light spells get extra mana regeneration. As part of the character creation, you will need to choose a Relic. This is a permanent decision that is just as important as selecting your class. A Relic adds even more skills to your class and can dramatically alter your playing style. Although there are no wrong choices - and you can unlock others later in the game - you must choose Electrode Relic. Otherwise, this build won’t work as promised and will doom us. The Electrode is an electric totem specialized in zapping enemies with loads of bolts and it pairs well with most Dusk Mage spells. If you’ve played a hack and slash dungeon crawler before, you’ve probably seen some classes that pollute the screen with their spells that you can’t tell the difference between enemy and friend or whether the boss is moving around punching you or if it’s dead. If you are one of the maniacs who like builds like this, this one was made for you. The Bolt Launcher build demands the Electrode Relic because with it you will be able to unleash countless Shock Bolts alongside your Unholy Bolts. Paired with some Cast Speed modifier, some passives that can release extra bolts, and all-under-control mana regeneration, you will become an electrifying relentless bastard turned on at a high-voltage. With this build, you will deliver fast projectile attacks against hordes of enemies and keeps some cooldowns on reserve for the stronger bosses. For starters, you will need these core skills:
Core Skills
Unholy Bolt Dark Skill: unleashes 3 serpentine bolts toward your foes for 170% Weapon Damage each. This build focuses on Unholy Bolt as its primary core skill because the more bolts, the merrier. With proper mana management through Damnation, items, and Harmonic Form (filling both dark and light bars), you should be able to keep firing without losing pace since this skill will eventually take the place of your basic weapon attack Radiant Blast Light Skill: blast enemies at a target location with holy light, dealing 252% Weapon Damage. Using this skill with the Brilliant Herald Legendarium’s passive turns it into a powerful holy cannon blast. While Unholy Bolts will effectively clear out areas quickly, you will still need a skill that can eliminate bosses and strong creatures with high damage burst. This will be one skill. You have the option to substitute this for Holy Fury if you’d prefer to have the option to use Harmonic Form more frequently. Entropy Dark Skill: fire an unstable dark energy ball that hits for 144% Weapon Damage and fires off pieces of itself that hit for the same. It aims to function in the same way as Radiant Blast. Combining a high-level Entropy with Molten Reach Legendarium’s passive will turn this skill into an extremely powerful cooldown high damage burst spell. Although pairing with the Molten Reach will add a cooldown, the skill won’t refresh before the boss dies saying “who the hell drove a truck over me?” Conjure Electrode Surge power through Electrode itself, conjuring it to a targeted location for 8 sec. The Electrode will periodically fire Shock Bolts from itself, dealing 189% Weapon Damage as Electric. At the highest tier, Conjure Electrode grants + 25% Cast Speed over its duration, so you can eliminate enemies at shorter intervals, release Shock Bolts, and increase the effectiveness of Unholy Bolt a lot. These are the core skills of your build that will allow you to deliver countless bolts to eliminate minions and high burst damage to bosses. But why stop if we can improve even more, right? To ensure you have enough mana while casting spells incessantly and most importantly, that you are alive to be able to cast, we recommend the following support skills:
Support Skills
Lightning Barrier Channel a protective electric field around yourself, increasing block chance by 25% for 6 sec. While the field is active, periodically release Shock Bolts at nearby enemies, dealing 140% weapon damage as Electric. Lightning Barrier has a natural synergy with Shock Bolts and can protect you if things get dangerously close. A must-have utility skill for a deadly but frail class. Thousand-Volt Burst Blast electric shockwaves from your location, damaging enemies for 980% Weapon Damage as Electric. For 10 sec. after casting, increase your attack and cast speed by 50%. As a support skill, we are aiming for an increase in Cast Speed and why not blast lightning while at it. You need only to invest one point in this skill, but feel free to add further to your heart’s desire. Light Spear Light Skill: fire a spear made of light that deals 1,044% Weapon Damage and pierces targets. Besides helping to generate more Light to the bar, it is a powerful skill that can give the final punches to bosses who withstand Radiant Blast and Entropy. Damnation Dark Skill: enemies deal -50% less damage while standing in the Damnation area effect, lasting for 4 secs, thereafter. Imagine you are shooting sequentially with a Gatling gun. Eventually, your ammo will run out, right? What this skill does is give back some ammo after you hit an enemy. And you will be hitting a lot. At Tier 1, hitting enemies affected by Damnation returns 5% mana to your pool. Or ammunition, if we want to continue with the analogy. Shadow Step Teleport away from your foes. Although you will be hitting hard and fast, you will still not be invincible and when things get tight, it is important to have an eject button. Shadow Step can be this button, but if you prefer, you can switch to Luminous Run, trading mobility to further increase the light bar. Of all the support skills, Damnation is by far the most important skill because, without mana, you will be as useful as a microwave without electricity. Onto passives skills now. It’s the moment for the relic to shine bright as a light pole. We will pick up skills that increase the quantity and quality of the bolts.
Passive Skills
Tingling Sensation 2% chance to Shock enemies on hit for 3 sec, releasing 3 Shock Bolts that deal 50% Weapon Damage. Pair this passive with a Shocking weapon to conjure more bolts than Thor in Ragnarok while also dispatching enemies with your Unholy Bolts. Shocking Display Electrode delights in being used, granting a 2% chance to release Shock Bolts that deal 147% Weapon Damage when you slay a Shocked foe. To slay a shocked enemy, you must first shock them. So, to maximize this skill utility, you need all the aforementioned shock skills that apply the debuff, such as Lightning Barrier and Conjure Electrode. When you do that, there will be Shock Bolts coming from places you never thought existed. Lightning Strike 2% chance to call down a lightning strike when you hit a Shocked enemy, dealing 125% Weapon Damage. Following the same theory as the previous skill, we are going to shock enemies to power everything at once and transform our Dusk Mage into a machine of destruction fueled by light, darkness, and lightning. Torchlight III has a special in-game feature called the Legendarium. It’s a panel that you can access to grant you legendary skills or passives. There are generic Legendarium and class-specific and we are gonna use both in our build.
Legendarium
Soul Flask Increase the number of Unholy Bolt projectiles to 5. A must-have! I don’t know if we’ve been clear so far, but we want as many Bolts as possible and this one greatly increases the effectiveness of Unholy Bolt. With the increase in Cast Speed and max level Unholy Bolt, your enemies will sleep in a dark mantle… forever. Molten Reach Entropy gains twice as many projectiles and an 8 seconds cooldown. This is the skill that will further amplify Entropy’s burst damage, making bosses feel powerless in your presence. Brilliant Herald Radiant Blast gains 400% increased Weapon Damage, a 6 seconds cooldown and no longer infuses enemies. Like the Molten Reach, the Brilliant Herald will increase the damage of your light cannon spell to purge enemies that dared to survive your infinite bolts.
