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A Woman of Many Talents
Skills and Skill Trees To attack from afar, up close, or not at all? These questions plague the mind of a skilled Vanquisher in Torchlight. Attack from afar, because no other class is more skilled a marksman than the Vanquisher, and no enemy will withstand her Explosive Shot. Attack your enemies in close quarter combat, because this vixen is unrivaled in her knowledge of the blade and of your vital organs. Don’t attack at all, because why do the work when your mechanical gadgets can do better? Let your explosive toys deal with the pests, while you deal with the loot. These are the questions that plague a skilled Vanquisher, but they won’t plague players that read this guide. Skill Trees Marksman The Marksman tree is all about attacking your enemies from a distance. Players that seek this tree can expect to kill many of their enemies far away, and run after the loot. In later levels, the Marksman tree becomes more difficult, and relies on some fancy foot work, or fancy summons to stay advantageous. Casting Abilities of Marksman | Ability | Ability Name | Ability Description | | 
| Ricochet | This is the starting ability of all Vanquishers, and you’ll quickly discover why. The Ricochet is quite powerful starting out, and becomes detrimental to enemies at later levels. I had some trouble using this ability at first, but anyone that becomes a Marksman will be sure to love the Ricochet. | | 
| Frost Pilum | The Frost Pilum does a low amount of damage, and has a chance to freeze targets in their tracks. At higher levels, this shot does become powerful, but you’ll your other shots will always be stronger. This ability was useful in the mid-level dungeons, but become quite useless near the end of the game. I recommend passing on this ability altogether. | | 
| Seeking Shot | This ability shoots out three shots that track down targets, and deals a minimal amount of damage. Because of the multiple shots, this ability is good for groups, but it doesn’t pack that big of a punch. I found myself using Ricochet a lot more than Seeking Shot, but it still is a useful ability in some situations. | | 
| Explosive Shot | Here’s the group killer of the Vanquisher’s shots. Explosive Shot deals a great amount of damage to a single target, and all targets 6.75 meters or fewer away from the center of the explosion. This ability destroys the monsters that rush you, and is a lot less mana intensive than Seeking Shot. This ability is a must have for any Vanquisher Marksman. | | 
| Arrow Hail | Arrow Hail rains down on your enemies and deals a large amount of damage. This ability is even more powerful than Explosive Shot, and is the go-to ability for AoE damage. It does require a lot of mana to use, so I’d use it more sparingly than Explosive Shot, but it’s still a great ability. | My Tips for Marksman · Get strong summons early and often. As a Marksman, you’ll need something to stop enemies from reaching you and summons are your best bet. Use as many summons as you can, and use them often. I highly recommend skeletal warriors. · Skip Frost Pilum. I didn’t use it much while playing the Vanquisher, and I didn’t see a lot of people going crazy over it on their games either. I’d spend my points elsewhere, if I were you. · Invest into some good Armor. I don’t mean gear for this tip, I mean the Armor attribute. The Vanquisher is somewhat squishy, and the Marksman is even weaker to enemy attacks. Having a good amount of Armor will ensure your safety in the unlikely chance an enemy reaches you. Rogue Rogues can’t take much of a beating, but they can sure dish it out. The Rogue tree focuses on dealing a large amount of damage, hindering your enemy’s capabilities, and moving out of harm’s way. Players that venture down the Rogue tree will be dual wielding weapons, enhancing their elemental poison, and running all of the dungeons with amazing speed. Casting Abilities of Rogue | Ability | Ability Name | Ability Description | | 
| Needle Arc | The Vanquisher flings five darts that deal damage, slow the enemy’s movement, and increase your damage. The last item, increasing your damage, is the key ingredient. Rogues will generally use Needle Arc to make their attacks stronger, not because Needle Arc is a strong attack. I found myself using Needle Arc before attacking an enemy, only to buff the real ability I wanted to use on the target. This is a must have ability for any Rogue build. | | 
| Stab | Stab does a massive amount of damage, can stun the enemy, and can knock ‘em down. There simply isn’t any reason not to get this ability. It’s that good. | | 
| Wind of Justice | Wind of Justice is the incapacitating ability for Rogues. It does a minimal amount of damage, but has a high chance of knocking down enemies, and stunning them. This ability isn’t very useful in the earlier levels of the game, but really shines in the later levels – especially in the endless dungeon. | | 
| Venomous Dirks | This ability summons two Dirks that fly around and hit your enemies for you. They deal a minimal amount of damage, but if coupled with a high amount of +poison elemental gear, these little daggers can really start to hurt enemies. If you plan on getting this ability, do some careful planning with your talent tree, and pick your gear wisely. | | 
| Hamstring | Hamstring is the ability for the Rogue tree. When you use Hamstring, your character runs really fast through the crowd of enemies, slowing them and applying a DoT to them. I really love this ability, because it allowed me to get out of bad situations, and disable stronger enemies for me to deliver devastating blows. | My Tips for Rogue · Again, get some good Armor. Not only are you still squishy, but you’re now a melee fighter, so your enemies will have much easier access to you. The Rogue does have abilities to combat your vulnerability, but having a good amount of Armor helps. I highly recommend the Armor Expertise ability. · If you’re going to get Venomous Dirks, do some planning. You’ll need to have really powerful weapons to make Venomous Dirks hit hard, and having a large amount of +poison gear makes this ability worthwhile. I don’t recommend this ability for new Rogues, but it’s fun to play with if you’re an experienced Rogue. · Don’t be afraid to run away. This spec requires you to pick your battles. If there is a large amount of mobs that do a lot of damage, look for a good way to attack them without it being head on. You’re not a Destroyer, you’re a Vanquisher Rogue. Arbiter As an Arbiter you’ll have a strong throwing arm, because you’ll constantly be hurling some bomb or some device at your enemies. The Arbiter tree is a mix of both Marksman and Rogue, in that you’ll be hitting your enemies from far away, but you can also go in for the kill. It does feel more like a caster tree than any other Vanquisher tree, but it’s quite unique in its arrangement Casting Abilities of Arbiter | Ability | Ability Name | Ability Description | | 
| Lightening Bomb | This ability allows you to hurl a bomb that deals a fair amount of electrical damage to your enemies, and a slight chance on knock ‘em down. While the ability doesn’t do much damage by itself, it can be used quite frequently, which becomes devastating later on. I really love this ability, mainly because I like electrical attacks in games, but it also works really well with the Arbiter’s last ability in the tree: Shock Trap. | | 
| Flame Trap | Flame Trap blasts nearby enemies with little explosions of fire. Putting more than one point into this ability will increase your Physical and Elemental damage by a percentage. This trap isn’t powerful by itself, but it becomes powerful when used with other traps. | | 
| Flechette Trap | Another AoE trap, but this time the damage is with little darts rather than fire. Again, putting more than one point into this ability grants greater damage for all attacks. And again, it’s best used with other traps. | | 
| Devouring Trap | This trap doesn’t damage enemies directly, but rather incapacitates them: it drains their armor, and stuns them for three seconds. I didn’t love this trap, mainly because of its lack of stun; however, I did see quite an increase in damage from my other traps while I used it. I would recommend using this trap with other skill trees, rather than with the Arbiter tree. | | 
| Shock Trap | If you maxed out Lightening Bomb and a good amount of +electrical damage, than you’ll defiantly want Shock Trap. This trap isn’t terribly stronger than the others, but just adds some more AoE damage to the Arbiter’s arsenal. Again, more than one point into this talent increases all your damage by a percentage. | My Tips for Arbiter · Focus on maxing out two traps at first, and then getting the other traps. I tried playing Arbiter with all the traps at once, and then I tried maxing out two traps and using those two instead. I found that two traps maxed was better than all traps at level five. · Lightening Bomb and Shock Trap work wonders. These two abilities go hand-in-hand, and both benefit from +electrical damage. If you want to play as an arbiter, but find talents in other trees more appealing, than at least go for these two abilities. · You’ll need more mana. Because Arbiter’s throw down a lot of traps, their mana pools have to be big enough to use all their abilities. I recommend getting the passive ability Advanced Spellcasting if you choose to get all the traps in the Arbiter tree. · Leave Devouring Trap for another tree. If you plan on using a lot of the traps, I suggest skipping Devouring Trap for most of the game. Only in the later levels of the endless dungeon does Devouring Trap really start to benefit the damage of the other traps. Final Tips for Vanquishers More so than any other class in Torchlight, Vanquishers will want to use abilities found in different trees. The Marksman tree benefits greatly from the Arbiter traps and vice-versa; additionally, the Rogue greatly benefits from the Devouring Trap and the passive ability Block and Parry. The Vanquisher is the most versatile class in Torchlight, and requires key planning and precision to excel at; because of this, I don’t recommend the Vanquisher class to players who are new to dungeon crawlers like Torchlight. If you choose Vanquisher, but find it difficult, I suggest going Arbiter, or Marksman with powerful summons, to get through difficult areas. The Rogue tree was by far the most difficult to play, but also a lot of fun. If you want to switch trees, but not gear, then I feel that it’s easier to switch between being a Marksman and a Rogue, than an Arbiter and any other tree. Arbiters require a lot more mana than Rogues and Marksmen, and they benefit the most from +elemental damage. Resources! Talent Calculator http://calc.torchlightinsider.com/index.php?c=2 It’s always good to have a plan of action, and it’s nice to see how your character will progress; thus, a good talent calculator is a must have for anyone planning their Torchlight character. Respec Mod http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5554 The game doesn’t have any way for you to respec your character, so a lot of people have made mods that allow vendors to sell respect potions. This mod allows the General Goods vendor to sell these respect potions. Part 2 is on the way Similar to other Torchlight class guides, the second installment of the Vanquisher guide will be made available at a later date on MMOFury. Be sure to check it out.
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