So I've cleared legendary difficulty with multiple characters and written guides about them. I figured it would make sense to make a single appendix listing the build and a general synopsis and linking to the individual steam guide to make it easier for people to find a style they prefer. All listed builds have completed legendary Ragnarok. The older builds were completed before I got Atlantis and are built with pre-Atlantis mastery levels and skills. Newer builds have Atlantis mastery levels and skills but can be modified to run without Atlantis. Pure melee:
Hybrid melee:
Ranged:
Pure Caster:
Summoner:
Mastery Synopsis Quick synopsis of masteries and general builds. Masteries tend to be slanted towards melee or caster in general, pairing both types can create a 'hybrid' character that can do a little of both. Hybrids are not recommended for new players through as they are trickier to setup and gear properly. Pure casters and hybrids aren't friendly for new players. Summoners, Throwers, Bows and melee in general are easier / less gear dependent from my experience. Warfare: Oriented around offensive melee builds. A very strong overall mastery with few dud trees, excellent stats and good mix of skills (CC, pet, damage, avoidance, etc.) One of only two trees which allow for dual wielding. A good mastery for new players. General Builds: Dual Wielding Melee (Swords preferred), One hand + Shield Standout skills:
Defence: Oriented around defensive melee builds. Has multiple abilities related to the shield (both for offence and defence purposes), heals and defensive buffs. Strong but can be slow in the early going. General Builds: One hand + shield (club / axe) Standout skills:
Hunting: Oriented around bow and throwing weapon (Ragnarok) ranged, spear melee, throwing weapon ranged. Excellent passives, best debuff in game and by far the best mastery for bow users. Good mastery for new players. General Builds: Bow, Spear and Shield, throwing weapon Standout skills:
Nature: Oriented around Support / Summon builds. Can be comboed with pretty much every other mastery. Group buffs, heals, debuff, CC, multiple pets, etc. General Builds: Summons, Support for other mastery trees Standout skills:
Rogue Mastery: The most complex mastery in the game. Specialises in Pierce, Poison and Bleeding damage. Depending on the second mastery and build, rogues can potentially be ANYTHING. Dual Wield Melee, Tank and Spank, Bow, Throwing, Summoner, Pure Caster, etc. General Builds: Basically anything Standout skills:
Earth Mastery: Caster oriented around Fire damage, physical hybrid and tank summon. To be honest, I personally think it's the weakest mastery. More gear dependent than melee characters imo. General Builds: Pure Caster, Hybrid Melee/Ranged, Summoner (mixed with other pet oriented mastery) Standout skills:
Storm Mastery: Caster oriented around Lightning and Cold damage. Has a nice pet with god mode damage avoidance with provides a great buff. Good spammable spell with decent range and a longer range spell on short cooldown and a way to strip resistances and avoid projectiles via Squall. More gear dependent than melee characters imo. General Builds: Pure Caster, Hybrid Melee/Ranged Standout skills:
Spirit Mastery: Caster oriented around life drain, vitality damage, staff attacks and summons. Has one of the best auras in Deathchill, one of the best pets in Liche King, one of the best staff attacks in Ternion, etc. Pretty good overall. General Builds: Staff Caster, Summoners, Pure Caster, Hybrid Standout skills:
Dream Mastery: Excellent all-around mastery that is slightly oriented to melee but can be played as caster as well. Good for new players. General Builds: Melee/Ranged, Summoner, Pure Caster, Staff Caster, Hybrid Standout skills:
Runes Mastery: Ragnarok only mastery that is uniquely oriented around 'mage knights' type builds. Specialises in elemental damage, walls and basic dual wielding. Rune Weapon LMB scales your Int and changes your damage to elemental damage (with synergy) but it can't be used by staffs so it's intended for hybrids. Also the only other mastery other than Warfare to allow for dual wielding but it's more basic. It's the best mastery for dual wielding throwing by far through. Menhir Wall is an amazing CC. General Builds: Dual Wield Throwing, Dual Wield Melee, Hybrid Standout skills:
Conqueror (Warfare / Defence) Beowulf, Bane of Grendel Build: The stereotypical one hander and shield warrior Synopsis: The Conqueror combines the Defence and Warfare masteries. Defence provide shield buffs, defensive abilities and shield attacks while Warfare provides your primary offensive abilities and some additional damage avoidance. Pros:
Cons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1741575491 Champion (Warfare / Nature) Remus, Sire of the Capitoline Wolf Build: One hander + shield offensive melee / pet hybrid Synopsis: Skills in both of these masteries synergize together excellently. Battle Standard will buff pet and your own damage and while it's synergy skill Triumph and Plague will apply nasty debuffs. Your wolves will also buff you and your other pets with Strength of the Pack. Ancestral Horn will give you a massive army for boss fights. Excellent damage output and survivability in one package. Dual wield is skipped for a shield to get extra resists from the shield as you'll likely be using accessories to boost pet damage instead. Plus skill items are great in this build because there are a lot of skills taken. Wolves, Onslaught, Battle Standard, Heart of the Oak, Plague, Refresh are all core to the build. If you're interested in getting dual wield or leveling up Atlantis masteries you'll need to free up points somewhere else, maybe war horn or nymph.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864557644 Berserker (Warfare / Rune) - Ragnarok Required Minsc (and Boo) Build: Physical damage dual wielding maniac (Ragnarok required) Synopsis: The Berserker combines the melee speciality Warfare mastery with the more caster oriented Rune Mastery. The caster oriented skills in the Rune Mastery are ignored in favour of damage buffs for melee attacks. Now a berserker wouldn't be attacking with a bow or using a shield. A true berserker needs to be swinging two weapons in a blood frenzy! Weapons have life leech / attack damage converted to health for sustain. The build is also inspired by Minsc, one of my favourite companions from the Baldur's Gate series. Good through not the best available companion but damn is he fun to have in the party. He was always the dual wielding warrior in my neutral / good parties. I did my 'Greece Lightning' achievement with this character and I listed some comments and suggestions for the achievement in it. Pros:
Cons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1751825501 Warrior (Warfare) - Atlantis Recommended Kirito, the dark spectre of death itself Build: Dual Wield Sword Melee Synopsis: Dual wield build using swords and pure melee skills. Inspired by Kirito (the sociopathic Abridged version, not the Mary Sue OG) Single mastery build is a handicap due to loss of stats from loss of mastery levels and less build variety. Only recommended for experienced players. Atlantis is recommended for the 8 extra mastery points for more stats and the two extra 40 skills. At level 32 mastery you'll get +64 str / dex and +1280 health, at level 40 you'll get +80 str / dex and +1600 health for a total difference of 16 str / dex and 320 health. It's not a huge difference honestly through if you don't have Atlantis, however, you can expect to have a lot of unused skill points at the end. Pros:
Cons: \
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003772581 Guardian (Defence / Nature) Ajax, the Iron Wall Build: One hander + shield defensive melee / pet hybrid Synopsis: Tanky type melee warrior with pets acting more as support than a focal point. Hit things with his shield a lot, uses wolves as support and uses Rally to keep him and his pack alive. This build is pretty niche honestly compared to other listed builds. Heart of Oak, all Shield procs, Plague, Rally, Batter and Shield Charge are all pretty much mandatory for the build. Otherwise you can tweak the build quite liberally if you want.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1740086748 Paladin (Defence / Storm) Arthas, Frostmourne Hungers Build: Armoured Ice Shard caster Synopsis: This a build for a playing an armoured Ice Shard caster. Ice Shards in the Storm mastery is a pretty powerful option for a pure caster type character, however, it does have the drawback of requiring you to stand still and spam the skill and does its best DPS when enemies are closer to you. Paladin tackles the issue by making the caster a walking tank who can take a hit while spamming spells. Defence's Armor Handling talent helps you get around some of the Strength requirement on armour and shields and with some more from your gear you can get a caster clad in heavy armour. My Paladin was built with Atlantis masteries and skills but the expansion should not be required.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2308956152 Templar (Defence / Dream) - Ragnarok Required Zeal, Full of Righteous Fury Build: High survivability, 0 death, reflection build using Icescale monster infrequents from Ragnarok (Ragnarok required) Synopsis: Templars get excellent damage mitigation and reflection abilities from each of their respective masteries. My Templar is built around using the Icescale monster infrequents from the Ragnarok expansion for the chance to reflect massive amounts of damage back while also being nearly unkillable. Reflection is vastly superior to the retaliation mechanic. Retaliation only works against melee attackers while reflection works against any source of damage. Melee, ranged, spell; it all gets applied. Also, it's important to note that the damage reflected is NOT the damage that you actually took. The full damage before any mitigation is applied. So dodged damage will be reflected. Enemies that resist the damage that inflict themselves will be more time consuming unless you have a way to reduce their resistances. The Icescale monster infrequents grants projectile avoidance and gives a 15% chance to reflect a huge amount of damage (500% in legendary). Projectile avoidance seems to also affect enemy staff attacks. You'll want to have these pre-farmed, preferably with resists and / or health buffs. My Templar was built with Atlantis masteries and skills but this expansion should not be required.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2033382350 Avenger (Hunting / Earth) Build: Physical / Pierce / Fire spear hybrid Synopsis: Stab things with a cool, fiery spear while you drop an eruption at your feet. Hybrid build concentrating mostly on Str / Dex with some Int thrown in. Pros:
Cons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1892964902 Haruspex (Hunting / Dream) Helen Build: Physical / Pierce Archer (easily swapped to Throwing Weapon + Shield) Synopsis: Haruspex provides a good mix of passives, debuffs, DPS and can be built in different ways. Ranged / Spear are popular options and you probably make a good caster out of it too if you know what you're doing. This is one of my earlier characters, got into mid-Legendary and I used her for farming relics, infrequents and the like and never got around to actually finishing Legendary. Finally decided to finish clearing and swapped out her current set of gear as my resistances were pretty bad overall. I went with a bow to play a ranged option as I already was playing other characters for other playstyles and wanted to try out a ranged build. Throwing weapon can be used instead of bow and has certain advantages and disadvantages (shorter range but faster attack and you can use shield for blocking and stats). My character was made pre-Ragnarok so throwing weapons did not exist at the time and I decided to finish the run with my existing bow. Atlantis is not required for this build. None of the level 40 skills have any real impact and is only really useful if you want the extra stats from the additional mastery levels. If you want to go throwing weapon over bow you'll need Ragnarok through. If you want to go spear, you'll need to dump all points in Markmanship and swap into Phantom Strike and Psionic Touch.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2340985692 Sage (Hunting / Storm) - Ragnarok Required Jupiter, Best and Greatest Build: Lightning themed elemental archer Synopsis: This a build for a lightning themed elemental archer. Throw down bolts of deadly lightning and convert your bow's damage to elemental. Basically a caster that uses bow to deal its elemental damage while Lightning Bolt is on cooldown. I suppose a throwing weapon could be used instead of a bow but you'll have minimal Strength so will have limited options with shield. Ragnarok is required for this build; items with the 'Weapon Base Damage becomes Elemental' stat introduced in the expansion are used to convert your base weapon damage to elemental damage instead. Atlantis should not be required for this build. I used the extra mastery levels for extra stats but none of the additional skills are required for the build.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2364451731 Brigand (Hunting / Rogue) Vlad, The Impaler Build: Single target spear piercing build Synopsis: This is a build for a spear melee build that specializes in single target DPS. The general idea is to stack CDR to get Lethal Strike's cooldown considerably down and use it to mercilessly massacre bosses and clear single target enemies with extreme piercing damage. Spears are the clear weapon of choice for the Brigand. They work with Hunting skills, have excellent pierce ratio and, as they have the highest possible hit damage, synergize best with Lethal Strike. While Atlantis is not required it does offer extra AOE options which is something the Brigand lacks otherwise.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2481541290 Soothsayer (Nature / Spirit) Luna, the natural necromancer Build: Pure pet / support caster build for the 'I have minions for that' achievement Synopsis: Basically summon lots of pets for you and have them kill everything. End game you'll have 5 permanent pets (3 wolves, nymph and liche king) and one pet for boss (outlander). Sit far back and provide support with heals, circle of power, etc. Heart of oak gives you a big boost to health along with your pets. After normal is completed you can switch over to more of an active role if you wish. Plague to debuff enemies to boost pet damage or ternion if you want to go pew pew with your staff.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1724382801 Druid (Nature / Storm) Elsa, the Ice Queen Cometh Build: Ice Shard pure caster, optionally with pets Synopsis: Summon Briar Ward and stand in the middle of it spamming Ice Shard. Buff health with Heart of Oak. Debuff enemies with Squall and / or Plague. Wolves can be optionally used a distraction / support and you can optionally diversify your damage using Lightning Bolt or use Spell Breaker for disruption. Pros:
Cons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1898745823 Illusionist (Rogue / Nature) Circe, Enchantress of Aeaea Build: Trapper / Summoner / Poison Caster (can be tweaked to be more melee, archer, etc. based instead of poison caster) Synopsis: Summoner with 4 permanent pets (3 wolves + nymph) and lays down up to 3 traps while moving. Stay in back and uses CC (Flash Powder, Earthbind, Briar Ward) to avoid damage while attacking with Poison Gas Bomb or bow / throwing. Alternatively can be more built around melee or ranged instead of Poison Gas Bomb using Envenom Weapon or Throwing Knife. Pros:
Cons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2330387237 Magician (Rogue / Earth) Emiya, Steel Body and Glass Heart Build: 'Unlimited Knife Works' Knifethrower caster --- xMax (x3) Synopsis: General gist of this build is to spam Rogue's throwing knife ability. Earth enchantment and Envenom Weapon used to boost damage and CC. Very effective at dealing with crowds. The build is extremely energy intensive through. Without energy reduction you will find yourself chugging potions like crazy and having to go on farming runs to raise funds to afford your energy addiction. As well, +4 skill to rogue is mandatory for the build and the build doesn't really come into its own until level 25 when equip gear with the +4 skill you need and max both the base Throwing Knife and Flurry of Knives synergy skill. Before that the skill shoots a single dagger with long cooldown. I am expecting you to have pre-farmed epic Stonebinder's Cuffs and a +2 rogue skill amulet before attempting this build. If you have Ragnarok then I'd suggest starting an Accomplish character so you can skip the tedious part and jump straight to the knife throwing.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2021630781 Dreamkiller (Rogue / Dream) Shinobi, Believe It! Build: Melee / Trapper Ninja Synopsis: Unleash your inner ninja! The Dreamkiller has all the ninja tools; throwing knives, traps, poison, smoke screens, critical strikes, shadow movements, clone, an eldritch abomination from your nightmares, etc For my Dreamkiller I went with a melee / trapper build. Melee because I love Phantom Strike, trapper to combo with Nightmare's Master Mind buff. As such I went with a strong Str / Dex focus. With tweaks it's also possible to go with a ranged / caster approach. Master Mind combos well with traps but I'd say Dreamkiller is not quite as good of a trapper for damage as Assassin (Battle Standard + traps is great) while being less of a glass cannon and having better CC.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2196625047 Stonepeaker (Earth / Rune) - Ragnarok required Sol Invictus, The Unconquered Sun Build: Elemental / Fire dual wield throwing weapon Synopsis: This build is primarily designed around using Rune to dual wield throwing weapons and convert the damage to elemental via Rune Weapon and shotgunning packs with Thunderstrike. Earth acts as a secondary mastery, providing fire / physical damage buffs, tank pet, utility spells, etc. There's a perfect throwing weapon for the build as well. Chakram of the Sun is a terrific throwing weapons, tons of great stats on it (https://tq-db.net/en/equipment/chakram-of-the-sun). Dual wielding with net you +4 Earth, +20% Str, -30% CDR, +60% recharge, 10% ADCtH, +30% fire / burn, +600 health, +40% attack speed and some other bonuses (stats will vary depending on rolls of course). As a further bonus, you also get the set bonus of +40% total damage! There's other good throwing weapons available of course. Drop rate of throwing weapons is pretty high through so it shouldn't be too difficult to get your two Chakrams. Outside of Chakram, maybe Winds of Asphodel can be useful for it's resistance reduction to combo with your elemental damage. You can try keeping Asphodel as swap weapon when needed if you want some RR.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2599772053 Shaman (Rune / Spirit) - Ragnarok Required Rampage, the axepocalypse begins! Build: Int / Dex Elemental damage dual wield throwing (Ragnarok required) Synopsis: Runeword: Feather is used to equip throwing weapons without investing points into strength. Rune Weapon boosts your intellect to huge numbers to buff your elemental damage and Thunderstrike provides conal AOE with CC. Menhir Wall distracts enemies while you go pew-pew behind it. Energy Shield provides you some extra padding. Spirit provides aura and pets. This build is extremely 'primary' focused. That is, the 'core' gameplay of the build is in the Rune tree and should be able to use any other mastery you want within reason instead of Spirit if you so desire. Please note that this build is reliant on higher difficulties on you wearing +4 rune skill to push Transmutation to the maximum ultimate level to convert 99% of all your damage to elemental. |
