E2 SS8 Guide by Miakitten
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Skill Link Setup
- Auras & Mobility
- Treasure Troves & XP Strategy
- Gearing, Uniques & Crafting
- Slates & Candles
- Pact Spirits & Kismets
- Endgame Transition & Archetypes
- Split Shot Transition
- FAQs & Common Issues
- Final Setup & Visuals
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Overview
Our priority for the campaign is to skip all monsters along the way and just travel from objective to objective. The only time I would stop to kill a pack of monsters is if its a pack with 4+ magic monsters (the monsters covered in blue). Outside of magic monsters the most effecient way to gain exp in TLI is to overlevel in the treasure troves which I'll go over more in this section.
I am an erika one trick and in SS6 as a completely new free to play player I cleared SS20 3 star on Erika 1, and in SS7 I cleared SS21 3 star on Erika 2. Discord
Post Campaign B4X90BwLEfCLTAAAAAAAMw== TBO Swap
Start of T7-0 Rgc86RwiEfCLTQAAAAAAMw== 4045 Dragon pA4Wkjj0EfCi0QAAAAAAHw== T7 Trav kill 40m DuahPRw1EfCLTgAAAAAAMw==
350m/T8 DzUUGBxaEfCX9AAAAAAAIA== (Check FAQ for 140% sealed mana support tech)
1B/End of day1 wkjg+ByaEfCX9gAAAAAAIA==
2B MUlxlB2JEfCi4gAAAAAAPQ==
11B zWs5Px3CEfCv1wAAAAAADA== (Don't copy kismet setup, just prepping for future pact spirits post swap)
18B/End of day2 mHzO9x36EfCv1wAAAAAADA== (Running profound canvas on this setup - its still a struggle with a lot of dying) Ring of Ice (current)
33B/ES Swap F302fR64EfCplwAAAAAAFg== https://www.twitch.tv/miakitten_/clip/UnusualGrossKiwiNerfBlueBlaster-3-c2wCDd-AHJLAQ7
73B mzo1ph93EfCRiwAAAAAAKg== (Use Cruelty instead of Thunder Imbue when you've level'd your seal conversion and restrain and it fits in) 41v15Ts7EfCMCQAAAAAAFQ==
363B rjT08x/oEfCRiwAAAAAAKg== (Deep space canvas) Final version (600%+ MS, candles not optimised otherwise amazing gear) CL SWAP I'll be doing CL for the rest of the league, this build is expensive and worse than E1 Tspike, but it feels amazing to play for me, save up a lot of FE if you want to swap to it too t9/QRj14EfCGegAAAAAADA==
285B +hsARSFMEfC52wAAAAAAPg== (Check FAQ about spell burst) https://www.twitch.tv/miakitten_/clip/VibrantArbitraryLouseBloodTrail-T-siD1SyOxHgOb8k
650B tNBsByF/EfC52wAAAAAAPg==
1.1T BkA9gyKkEfCohgAAAAAAKQ== Rain of Arrows WIP T6hxDT8XEfCjLQAAAAAAFg== MAGUS SWAP
750B NlfBaSLLEfCohgAAAAAAKQ==
2.6T ESNocyOkEfCmBgAAAAAAPQ==
5T+ qR5dgCVoEfC6/wAAAAAANA== (still wip on slate swap ill calc DPS properly after i finish slates, but its well over 5T)
10T xDnC5iX9EfCKHQAAAAAAKg== slates donege feelsstrongman
15T SS20/21 3* gbnPRSbdEfCkAQAAAAAAIA== SS21 3 star first attempt + City defence 7-15 cleared on this setup
Immunities
3715 on Dragon fxGILCqZEfCuVQAAAAAAFg== Currently working on my immunities its not complete yet but farming deep space on this to get level 8 workers and thought I'd just give an update since post-21 clear. I intend to continue upgrading my character a bit longer but its nearly maxed out. Full Immune tSgNlSuGEfCkCgAAAAAAFQ== Swapped to quad magus for even more tankiness and fit in all the immunities.
BUDGET VARIANT https://youtu.be/F85zV9hmlLI FAQ VIDEO
70-80B jshB9yxzEfCVlgAAAAAADA== Spent around 4k FE making had 7 talents unallocated to immitate level 93. Video linked going over build and every purchase made. PLEASE DON'T SPEND 3K FE ON A DEX + 1 SPELL BURST CORNER JUST GET THE SPELL BURST SOMEWHERE ELSE
(You can get spell burst from belt bleding in the Medium Talents category for like 10 FE)
FINAL ENDGAME SETUP
infinite DPS fWIvvTKLEfCxxwAAAAAAFg==
Our priority for the campaign is to skip all monsters along the way and just travel from objective to objective. The only time I would stop to kill a pack of monsters is if its a pack with 4+ magic monsters (the monsters covered in blue) Outside of magic monsters the most effecient way to gain exp in TLI is to overlevel in the treasure troves which I'll go over more in this section.
Skill Link Setup
Main skill setup Thunder Spike
- Level 3 Haunt
- Level 7 Hardened (Use High Voltage until you can equip hardened) After Thunder Spike - Haunt - Hardened, as we get more energy and unlock more support skills we'll add supports in the following order in the last 3 slots Electric Punishment - Added Lightning Damage - High Voltage
For healing we can just use Compound source until we have -12 skill cost on talent tree, then we can replace it with life source. Link it with Residues once you can.
For mobility you can choose between spiral strike and leap slam (I prefer spiral strike) Once you unlock your 4th skill slot use blink and combine both spiral strike/leap slam and blink for extra mobility Once you reach level 27 swap your skill gems around so you can equip a support to blink, and equip Magic Dash to blink and quick mobility to spiral strike.
For our last skill slot we can just use Burst of Anger or any other empower skill/warcry you prefer.
Once we unloack our aura slots we'll run thunder imbue until we can run a 50% aura instead. We'll try to fit in Thunder Imbue, Summon Thunder Magus, Electric Conversion and Swiftness
All treasure troves are amazing for exp, you want to run directly to the boss but kill all enemies along the way and overlevel in these troves to make you strong enough to reach the next treasure trove. For gearing we will use two one handed weapons during the campaign for maximum damage (Claws/Swords/Daggers) and we want to prioritize dexterity on gear but just equip items if the tooltip shows an increase in survival or damage
For all treasure troves you can go a few extra levels higher than I suggest until your exp penalty goes into the 50-65%
First trove: Level 7
We can use the Lizard Rock Helm that drops from this first trove.
If you happen to drop a pentagram astrolobe with 3+ flat attack rolls or a lonesome these are extremely powerful uniques that will carry your damage throughout the early game but its not worth staying to try and farm them out. We will stay in this treasure trove until we reach level 12.
Both Born in Fire and Desire of Survival are very nice early game survival uniques that you can use, the ring especially gives a lot of life regen when your life pool is still very small. We will stay in this treasure trove until we reach level 22
Starting from this trove we're becoming powerful enough where we don't have to majorly overlevel in them anymore. That being said you can still do this until you reach exp penalty or just stop somewhere between 30-32. The Feline gloves will be very good for our build and its our source of agility blessing generation.
We don't want any uniques here so just do the treasure trove to level up to 38-40
If the eternal moon is an upgrade over your current weapons you can use it.
Scarlet degree is a really strong upgrade for us. Steel lament is a good defensive belt and you can consider swapping one of your supports out for a warcry. We can level here until we reach exp penalty or stop at around level 47-50/when you get your scarlet degree.
Once you reach Lion's Heart (level 47) the final boss King Lionheart will drop you a hero memory. You need to equip this to unlock your first hero trait. Both options are good, I would recommend Electroplated Motif
We don't need any items from this treasure trove.
Just run this treasure trove once for the skill point then go finish the campaign.
For our talent tree we want to put in 24 points in goddess of hunting to unlock both main talents, then 32 points in bladerunner to unlock both main talents and lastly 32 points in ranger to unlock both main talents.
If you're struggling with damage early on, you can instead use the DMG goddess of hunting setup, this might be helpful for newer players. Goddess of Hunting Speed setup (recommended) DMG Setup
Bladerunner
Ranger
Final skill setup:
Early on you want to try and get your energy up to get more links in your seutp. You want to put hardened on your spiral strike and then running flat lightning flat phys on your thunder spike is very strong early on. Eventually with more gear you'll replace those links with additional damage links once you get a lot of flat from other places.
The first major upgrade we want to work towards is incorporating a 2nd thunder spike setup into your build using either track or rhythm as this will allow us to much more consistently get 10 numb stacks as well as gain increased numb effect.
Auras
You can either play Rejuvenation or Swiftness.
For mapping we want to use these options, you can choose either or between 45.1 and 45.2 but generally you'll be spiral striking around and the movement speed is not that important vs. more damage.
For bossing we want want to swap to 75.2 to allow us to reapply our feline figure on bosses to let us reach 10 numb stacks more consistently.
For stat priority we want to get the following sub stats on our hero memories Trait level, Crit rating, Crit damage, Block (spell or attack), movement speed. If you're playing a life setup %life is really good too, similarly %ES is really good for ES setups. You can also use flat damage% if its cheaper until you can replace it. TLI has a very cool feature where when you scrap a hero memory you get ALL of the crafting materials used back, which means you can level up "bad" hero memories without losing any materials.
Level 45/Origin - Dex > Damage%
Level 60/Discipline - All except mana are great, Armour especially gives a lot of flat DR%
Level 75/Progress - Attack speed or Movement speed.
Slates are very important to gain us the damage to push into timemark 8 and I'd highly recommend using a bunch of 4-slates with at least 1 good mod on them. Pedigrees are quite finnicky and often not very good unless you have a very good one, I'll be focusing on 4-slates exclusively but there are many pedigree mods that give additional damage I'd only use that over x2 4-slates if it has at least 2 good mods.
We can use +1 attack skills on god of might, but the tree overall is not very good and doesn't have many other good 2nd options.
With goddess of hunting we generally want to use 15% dexterity and it has multiple good max divinity 1's that we can take with it.
We definitely want to get Numb Effect and +1 additional stack of numb in our build to assist in getting 10 numbs consistently.
Goddess of Knowledge is very bad for our build except for +1 lightning skills
God of war has some good fervor options such as crit damage per fervor and 25% fervor effect for once we have fervor in our build. This is an overall quite strong divinity slate after we have fervor.
Goddess of deception/machines do not have anything for our build. Other than the mods I've mentioned there are also plenty of "additional damage" mods that you can use and see if they are any cheap with a 2nd good mod on the slate.
Candles
Eventually we want to solve our blessing generation through candles. But just equipping candles with even 1 mod on them can make a massive difference for the strength of the build early on. Some good candle mods to start off with are Shadow strike damage, addtional shadow strike damage, shadow damage Numb effect, additional lightning damage Additional damage made for every 8m of movement Later on we'll want to run +1 curse and blessing generation through candles combined with other strong modifiers.
The game allows free respecs up until level 90 (including 90) once you reach level 91+ you need to spend oblivion points to change your talents. I would suggest swapping to whatever your ideal end game build is by level 90 or earlier if possible. As such the tree below will be for level 90. This build can clear end game content however I will not be sticking to this setup and will not make a guide for that.
Goddess of Hunting
Bladerunner
Ronin (Fervor, dawn break belt or ghost slaughters)
We can choose between sprinkle or defensiveness depending on our block chance, if you have a lot of block defensiveness will feel extremely strong.
Ranger (no fervor setup yet)
For gear we want to prioritize a high dex roll and try to cap our resistances with life/energy shield on the remaining points (This guide is for a life setup) Once you reach timemark 7 you want to farm up bases with high energy and craft them until they're fully t2, its extremely important to get every mod to t2 and will help immensely in reaching timemark 8. Here are some amazing uniques to consider within the build but its hard to predict what might happen as changes can cause certain uniques to be very expensive or very cheap. Crafting section at the bottom with what stats to prioritize on each gear slot to try and push into timemark 8.
Depending on how common this unique is, you absolutely want to get it and swap to a fervor setup (ronin tree asap)
Early game uniques: A lot of the uniques from the campaign will continue to perform very well but these are some important "chase" uniques for a big early damage spike.
(once we have the belt we can drop opening heart)
(This NEEDS the numb effect corrode to be good) (Life based build only, especially good with ghost slaughters to fix regen early on)
Late game/chase uniques
Want at least 3+ dex rolls
Much cheaper than ghost slaughters and still very strong
(Can use eternal sun to counteract the degen)
If you're not using dawn break you do need fervor either on a pedigree, neck ultimate mod or through opening heart (budget early game option) Crafted rares in this game is extremely powerful and you will often end up replacing uniques with full t1 items and especially once you get ultimate mods you want to try and have as many rares equipped as possible only using build enabling uniques These would be things such as ghost slaughter and the ralph combo for dex stacking. Rares/Crafting
Rares are extremely important and pwoerful in TLI the different between a T2 and T1 mod is as big as 50%, you want to farm bases in Timemark 7 with high energy and craft them until they're full T2 it will make reaching T8 a lot easier. Flame Sand drops like candy if you keep mapping in T7
If you stay with a life setup you will want to get armour/STR based rares early on to help get you into timemark 8, the flat armour is extremely valuable and we similarly can go for an armour based hero memory in our 2nd slot.
I will most likely being swapping to ES at around this time as I prefer playing ES setups and will be prepping to swap to a different late game build. If you want to do that as well, you can instead use INT bases.
Belt We ideally want to use Dawn Break Ring We prefer rare rings Necklace We prefer a unique necklace until ultimate mods.
Block for defence, crit damage for offence.
For Life: For ES: Dex Dex Dex Dex Life/ES Life/ES
Life ES Damage%/Block Damage%
Damage Damage/Defenses Crit rating Crit damage Res Res Res Res Crit damage/More Res
Helm Use opening heart if you don't have Dawn Break Chest Unique chest options are also quite strong
Gloves Thunder manips are a strong \"earlier\" option if ghost slaughters are too expensive.
Life based: ES Based: Life based: ES Based: Dex Dex Dex Life ES
Life/ES Life ES Damage% Damage%
Damage%/Gear ES% %Life/block %Gear ES/Block Gear Armour %Gear ES Crit damage Crit dmg/res Crit dmg/res Crit dmg Crit dmg Crit rating/res Crit rating/res Crit rating/res Attack speed Attack speed Res res res Crit rating/Res Crit rating/Res Crit rating/res
Boots Ralph's journey is our first major upgrade to aim for. Shield We always use Electrivity Amplifier in early game Claw A full t2 claw should perform slightly worse than a Frantic Shadow but full T1 is better.
Block Dex
If you take block on rings instead of crit dmg, I'd suggest crit damage. Dex %Gear Phys Damage
Life Based: ES Based: Life/ES Flat Lightning or Phys (I think lightning is slightly better) Block Block Attack speed/crit dmg %Phys dmg Damage%/Gear Armour Gear ES% Res %Ele dmg
Life ES %Gear Attack Speed Crit dmg/Attack speed Crit dmg/Attack speed Crit rating Crit rating Res Res
For pact spirits you want to prioritize Attack speed, attack crit rating and flat damage
However, often if you have access to legendaries you'll pick legendaries based off of their big nodes.
If you don't have access to any pact spirits you'll slowly unlock them overtime and can just use whatever looks good.
We can also use movement speed, lightning damage and attack speed.
Erika 2 has a lot of synergy with back-up power battery and if you are able to choose a legendary that is a very strong contender. Otherwise just prioritize things that fix your build.
If you need ele res, use one that gives ele res, if you're trying to go fast use movement speed. If you're trying to level use XP balance/boost.
Kismets
Kismets is a new system added in the Arcana season which allows you to replace pact spirit points with a kismet/destiny instead.
Micro destinies can go on the small nodes on your pact spirits
Medium/Kismet/Dual Kismet go on the bigger nodes (not the final node)
For dual kismets to take affect you need 2 of them equipped
Early on you want to run Dex Micro/Medium destinies
Later on we'll optimize our pact spirits by running Undetermined fates (in the last slot of the pact spirit) as well as replacing our medium destinies with Kismets and Dual Kismets.
Kismets in the arcana season were quite expensive and mostly a late game thing, as such I won't go over them here unless they are cheap after SS8 launches.
As questions get asked that I feel are important I will add them to this section. I will also be posting my build codes here from day 1.
Endgame & Transition Notes
How are we transitioning this into an endgame/deep space build? Erika2 has a lot of generic damage scaling in her toolkit and as long as you're able to maintain 10 stacks of numb, she can play every single skill in this game.
I do intend on making a late game guide for the build I end up playing, but I'll do that once I reach the late game especially since a lot of the new skills seem interesting to try out. Some strong suggestions that are known to be viable would be:
- A 0.2s rhythm setup with Rain of Arrows (There are multiple other good rhythm 0.2s setups)
- A channeling skill setup with Split Shot (There are other good channeling options too)
- A spellburst setup with Thunderbolt Overload (Spellburst was nerfed this league but it should still be viable and able to reach damage cap, I would warn playing this setup though it is quite expensive for the payoff)
- Sticking to Thunder Spike and pushing it to end-game. (I personally don't like using Thunder Spike and I want to swap off of it, I also generally believe that if you want to play a thunder spike setup or any melee skill Erika 1 will simply perform better)
How strong is Erika? Erika 2 is pretty decent, she did receive a slight nerf this patch but it's not a huge deal. Erika 1 seems to have been buffed this patch.
If you want to play the strongest hero, Thea3 seems like she will be absurdly strong. Carino 2 is always known as a very easy SS21 clear and wasn't touched, otherwise just play what looks fun to you find gameplay videos to see the builds in action.
What makes a strong end-game build? Generally in Torchlight there are a few archetypes that are always the go-to endgame strongest builds and every character is built around abusing those archetypes. The way TLI works is you get multiple multiplicative buckets of damage. You want to scale your damage by getting as many buckets as possible and then just scaling each bucket until they have quite a lot of damage in them. So every build for example is a stat stacker and wants a lot of main stat even if they don't go the stat stacking uniques Some common end-game archetypes would be as follows: Wilt builds (I unfortunately don't know enough about wilt/reap) Aura stacking with aura effect and Lone Walkers Strength stacking with Magus Uniques Blessing stacking (Especially focus blessings with israfels but Str stackers generally also do tenacity stacking, and agility stacking paired with other buckets can be quite strong) Dex stacking with Ralph's items (Especially strong on E2 because we need to scale movement speed) Magus stacking (It was slightly nerfed this league at the giga top end) Skill specific scalings such as Max Channel stacks on a channeling skill, Multistrike on erika 1, Numb effect on Erika 2, steep strike chance on a steep strike skill etc. A good build will have a lot of these buckets combined with a lot of investment into various damage types to be able to reach 15T dps. Reaching 15T these days isn't that bad anymore, but you also want to build yourself a tanky character.
I'm a new player whats the most effecient way to spend my money to start off with if I wanted to swipe?
The season pass gives a LOT of quality of life that I highly recommend going for, and new players have access to the Legendary Hunters Fund that gives you a guarenteed legendary within 30 pulls, I would pull on that pact first with your free pulls.
What end-game setup are you going for?
I want to play split shot and I'll be publishing a guide for split shot as I transition to it and give constant updates about what I'm doing, Here is a very rough overview that I talked about more on stream. https://torchlightbuilder.com/build?buildcode=026b41334e3a5d39a457f39fd763b9bb8e8cc03011a31313ef3fd2eb110b0baf (Hardened doesn't work on a TSpike 2nd link anymore replace with something else)
Split shot transition Requirements
- Split shot supports (Rapid Advance and Diversion)
- Solve numb in build (Have at least decent numb on dummy so you're at 10 constantly while mapping)
- Craft 2h weapon
https://torchlightbuilder.com/build?buildcode=a581c84ecc84630bdd21b3a7d769daf07bb00c2a0b28db8ca6c9f2fa03ffad7c
Why can't I activate all 140% sealed mana support skills with Warlock? You need to have high level restrains and each aura needs to have 3 supports linked to them to give us enough sealed compensation to equip all of them. (level 19 restraints work for me, They're 19 +6 and I have 2.28% unreserved mana) Also double check you don't have imbue buff in on your imbue as well as try restarting your game if auras still won't turn on
Why can't I use my bull's rage with an activation medium?
The lucky crit gloves disable activating them with an activation medium you need to get them with the corrode that makes it so you can't use (you can still trigger it)
Is corrupted surging inspiration required? No it isn't, but if you don't have the corrupt you need to have only 1 max spell burst instead of beacon. If you have the corrupt you want beacon. If you don't have max spell bursts or beacon in the build you cannot spellburst.
How do I get immunities for Deep Space using your 15T setup? You will need to get immunities on ring + belt, and for ailment immunity we can either drop the 6 link TSpike down to a 4 link and drop fixate for a 6 link restoration skill, or you can use the dual kismet setup instead of pendulum. (I will do the latter)
Its also not required to get ALL immunities, for example only ailment is good enough if you roll over wilt/trauma.
Treasure Troves, XP & Leveling Strategy
All treasure troves are amazing for exp, you want to run directly to the boss but kill all enemies along the way and overlevel in these troves to make you strong enough to reach the next treasure trove. For gearing we will use two one handed weapons during the campaign for maximum damage and we want to prioritize dexterity on gear but just equip items if the tooltip shows an increase in survival or damage.
First trove: Level 7 – We can use the Lizard Rock Helm that drops from this first trove. If you happen to drop a pentagram astrolobe with 3+ flat attack rolls or a lonesome these are extremely powerful uniques that will carry your damage throughout the early game but its not worth staying to try and farm them out. We will stay in this treasure trove until we reach level 12. Both Born in Fire and Desire of Survival are very nice early game survival uniques that you can use, the ring especially gives a lot of life regen when your life pool is still very small. We will stay in this treasure trove until we reach level 22.
Starting from this trove we're becoming powerful enough where we don't have to majorly overlevel in them anymore. That being said you can still do this until you reach exp penalty or just stop somewhere between 30-32. The Feline gloves will be very good for our build and its our source of agility blessing generation.
We don't want any uniques here so just do the treasure trove to level up to 38-40. If the eternal moon is an upgrade over your current weapons you can use it.
Scarlet degree is a really strong upgrade for us. Steel lament is a good defensive belt and you can consider swapping one of your supports out for a warcry. We can level here until we reach exp penalty or stop at around level 47-50/when you get your scarlet degree. Once you reach Lion's Heart (level 47) the final boss King Lionheart will drop you a hero memory. You need to equip this to unlock your first hero trait. Both options are good, I would recommend Electroplated Motif. We don't need any items from this treasure trove. Just run this treasure trove once for the skill point then go finish the campaign.
For our talent tree we want to put in 24 points in goddess of hunting to unlock both main talents, then 32 points in bladerunner to unlock both main talents and lastly 32 points in ranger to unlock both main talents. If you're struggling with damage early on, you can instead use the DMG goddess of hunting setup, this might be helpful for newer players. Goddess of Hunting Speed setup (recommended) DMG Setup.
Glances of the game continue with builds and maps, but the core remains: push into timemark 8 with overleveling in treasure troves. Slates and pedrigrees come into play as you escalate from level 7 to level 8, with 4-slates preferred for higher DPS.
Gearing, Uniques & Crafting
Rares are extremely important and powerful in TLI the difference between a T2 and T1 mod is huge. Farm bases in Timemark 7 with high energy and craft them until they're full T2. It will make reaching T8 much easier. Flame Sand drops like candy if you keep mapping in T7. If you stay with a life setup you will want to obtain armour/STR based rares early on to help reach timemark 8. The flat armour is extremely valuable and we similarly can go for an armour based hero memory in the 2nd slot.
Belt and neck choices: Dawn Break Ring and a rare ring, plus a necklace until you hit ultimate mods. We can use belt alternatives if Dawn Break is expensive. For life-based builds, the armour and resist stacking matter more than raw damage early on. The following lines summarize stat priorities for various slots, though the exact values depend on your gear and divinities.
Helm: opening heart if you don't have Dawn Break; Chest: unique chest options are strong; Gloves: thunder manipulations early if ghost slaughters expensive.
Rares are used to fill slots with high energy and high res. For pact spirits, you want attack speed, attack crit rating and flat damage. If you have access to legendaries you can prioritize those big nodes. If you don't, you can use a mix of rares and kismet Options later. The crafting section below details what to target on each gear slot to push into timemark 8.
Kismets are a late game tool to optimize pact spirits; early on you want to use micro/medium destinies on pact spirits. Later you replace with Kismets and Dual Kismets. They were expensive in arcana season and are optional if cheap after SS8 launches.
Crafting section at the bottom outlines stat priorities for each gear slot to push into timemark 8, including list of recommended uniques and craft materials. The bottom sections include detailed examples of rares, crafting options and stat targets.
Slates, Candles & Blessings
Slates are crucial to gain the largest DPS boost; focus on 4-slates with at least one strong mod per item. Pedigrees can be finnicky; keep to 4-slates when possible as you escalate to timemark 8. Some recommended slate themes include max divinity, numb stacks, dex stacking, and critical strike enhancements. Candles help generate blessing generation and can drastically improve early game performance. Start with shadows strike buffs and later transition to curse blessing combos with candles and other strong modifiers.
Candles offer blessing generation through shadow-related mods and completion bonuses. The long-term strategy includes +1 curse and blessing generation combined with other strong mods.
Pact Spirits & Kismets
Pact spirits core stats: attack speed, attack crit rating, and flat damage. Erika 2 benefits from back-up power battery synergy and the choice of a legendary can be very strong. If you lack legendaries, focus on fixes to your build with movement speed or XP balance.
Kismets introduced in the Arcana season replace pact spirit points with kismet destiny. Dex micro destinies are early on, later replace with Undetermined fates and dual kismets. Kismets were expensive in arcana season; if they are cheap after SS8, they can be included in the build.
Early on you want to use together with pact spirits to reach 10 numb stacks consistently and later optimize pact spirits with kismets and dual kismets.
Endgame Transition & Archetypes
Our endgame strategy relies on multiple damage buckets and stacking as many main stats as possible while staying tanky. Common endgame archetypes include Wilt builds and aura stacking with aura effects, strength stacking with magus uniques, blessing stacking with israfels focus blessings, dex stacking with Ralph items, and magus stacking. Channel stacking with a high channel count on a channeling skill, max numb stacks on Erika 2, and similar multipliers.
The aim is to reach 15T DPS while staying survivable. Erika 2 has strong synergy with numb stacking on 10 stacks and can support many endgame styles. The guide notes that endgame builds should blend offense with defense and maintain flexibility to switch between builds as resources and achievements evolve.
Split Shot Transition
We plan to transition toward split shot as a core build. Requirements include split shot supports (Rapid Advance and Diversion), solve numb in the build (have at least decent numb on dummy so you maintain 10 constantly while mapping), and craft a 2h weapon. The builder links provide additional build codes for reference:
- https://torchlightbuilder.com/build?buildcode=026b41334e3a5d39a457f39fd763b9bb8e8cc03011a31313ef3fd2eb110b0baf
- https://torchlightbuilder.com/build?buildcode=a581c84ecc84630bdd21b3a7d769daf07bb00c2a0b28db8ca6c9f2fa03ffad7c
FAQs & Common Issues
- Why cant I activate all 140 sealed mana support skills with Warlock? You need high level restrains and 3 supports linked per aura; ensure imbue buff is not active and restart to fix aura activation.
- Why cant I use my bull's rage with an activation medium? The lucky crit gloves disable activation with an activation medium; you need to obtain corrode to allow it.
- Is corrupted surging inspiration required? No, but if you lack corrupt you need only 1 max spell burst instead of beacon. If you have corrupt you want beacon. Without max spell bursts or beacon you cannot spellburst.
- How do I get immunities for Deep Space using a 15T setup? You need to get immunities on ring + belt; you can drop a 6 link TSpike to a 4 link and replace fixate with 6 link restoration, or use the dual kismet setup. You do not need all immunities; ailment immunity is sufficient in wilt/trauma scenarios.
Final Setup & Visuals
Final endgame setup aims for infinite DPS. The last sections include screenshots and build visuals showing the final skill configurations and stat distributions. The content includes multiple build diagrams and an overview of the final stat priorities, as well as sample gear layouts and the proposed progression path into Timemark 8.
Note: This guide is a live work in progress. It includes links to builds on Torchlight Builder, references to live stream discussions, and ongoing adjustments as new patches release. The exact numbers and items may shift with future patches, so use this as a strategic framework rather than a fixed recipe.
Additional Notes
- The campaign prioritizes skipping monsters, leveling through treasure troves, and avoiding unnecessary fights to maximize XP efficiency.
- Imminent changes in patches may affect the viability of certain builds or slates; stay updated with streams and the linked build codes.
- The guide emphasizes flexibility and experimentation, with multiple paths to reach Timemark 8 and beyond.
References and Tools
- Build references: 026b41334e3a5d39a457f39fd763b9bb8e8cc03011a31313ef3fd2eb110b0baf
- Build references: a581c84ecc84630bdd21b3a7d769daf07bb00c2a0b28db8ca6c9f2fa03ffad7c
- Clips and streams: twitch.tv/miakitten_
- Build guidance: torchlightbuilder.com/build?buildcode=026b41334e3a5d39a457f39fd763b9bb8e8cc03011a31313ef3fd2eb110b0baf
Closing Thoughts
This E2 SS8 Erika 2 guide aims to empower players to reach midgame and transition into a flexible endgame build with strong numb stacking, efficient treasure trove farming, and robust endgame archetypes. Use the table of contents to navigate the sections and adapt the framework to your playstyle and available gear. If you want more frequent updates, follow the author on their streams and social channels and watch the embedded build references for up-to-date playstyles and gear configurations.