Battlemage Build Guide - Titan Quest

Skill Trees: Earth Mastery and Warfare Mastery
Primary Skills: Onslaught, Volcanic Orb, War Horn, Meteor Rain, Fire Nova, Battle Standard, Summon Core Dweller, Heat Shield, Ring of Flame
Important Stats: +Skills, % Physical Damage increase and -Energy Cost along with %Energy Regeneration
Attributes: Enough Dexterity to use gear and the rest goes into Strength for boosting damage. Maybe a tad bit of Health if you feel you need

Battlemage is the combination of Warfare and Earth masteries and is typically played as a melee dual wield character who uses Earth Mastery to supplement our damage and increase our survivability. There are a couple of skills in Earth Mastery which deal both Fire and Physical Damage which we'll be taking advantage of with this build.

My personal opinion of this mastery combination is that it comes in at slightly below average in terms of how powerful it is when compaired against other mastery combos. The survivability of this combo is lacking even with good gear and I was never able to stop feeling "squishy" with this build. Keep this in mind if you plan on playing a Battlemage yourself.

As for your gear you'll be using Strength based gear for the most part and you'll want to look for items with high resistances, % Physical Damage and +Skills. Gear with +% Energy Regeneration as well as -% Energy Cost are important for this build too since we'll be using some spells in Earth Mastery that cost a lot of Energy. If you don't want to spend tons of gold on Energy Potions then I recommend you get an item like Iris (weapon), Huo Qubing's Helm or use a Relic like Incarnation of the Golden Fleece on a chest piece.

When it comes to your weapons I'd recommend you get something like Lævateinn or Iris. Until you can get your hands on either of these items you can always farm up a Sabertooth or Einherjar's Fate as well. Both of these items are Monster Infrequents that are easy to farm on each difficulty while leveling up. They're also some of the best weapons you can get in the game for melee fighters. Check out my Titan Quest Farming Guides for more information about where to farm both of these.

Other items I recommend for this build are Stonebinder's Cuffs (+3 to Skills), Helm of the Conqueror (+2 to Skills in Warfare), Huo Qubing's Helm (Energy Cost reduction) and Legguards of the Flameborn (% increase for Fire Damage and +1 Skills). For boosting your damage I recommend you get items like Odysseus' Armor, Myrmidon's Pendant, Star of Elysium, Pendant of Immortal Rage, Mark of Ares or Adroit Loop; all of these items give a % increase for physical damage.

Playing a Battlemage is pretty straight forward. Earth Enchantment, Ring of Flame and Heat Shield are the buffs you'll want to keep active on yourself at all times and you'll want to use the Summon Core Dweller pet too. Usually I bind Onslaught to left click and Volcanic Orb to right click as these are going to be your 2 main attacks. Aside from these 2 skills you'll also be using War Horn and Fire Nova practically every fight; both are on 10 second cooldowns.

The only other 2 abilities that are required for this build are Battle Standard and Meteor Rain. Battle Standard's cooldown is almost a minute long and I usually save it for fights I know are going to be tough like big packs of enemies or boss fights. Meteor Rain is a very powerful spell which I typically use every other pack of enemies to eliminate them with a single button press. Toss a Volcanic Orb into a group of enemies then Meteor Rain them and they'll almost always be wiped out without you needing to do anything else.

My normal rotation when playing a Battlemage is to lob a Volcanic Orb into a group of enemies then run in and spam Onslaught on all of them. If I am fighting Archers as well as melee enemies I will use Fire Nova since it inflicts Impaired Aim on ranged targets. War Horn is a skill you'll want to get into the habit of using even if you don't need to stun the enemies you're fighting since with passives War Horn will both stun and debuff enemies you're fighting.

Battle Standard is a skill that will give you many benefits when you stand in the aura that it provides but is typically not a skill you'll be using every fight.

 

 

(Warfare) Onslaught: My left click ability. Onslaught is one of the bread and butter abilities in the Warfare tree and is used by pretty much every build that goes into the Warfare tree and plans to deal melee damage. Essentially how this skill works is each time you attack it builds up a charge and the charges grant you additional bonuses depending on how many passives you have and how many points into those passives. All passives in the Onslaught tree are worth getting.

(Warfare) War Horn: This ability is a bit deceiving with how great it can be. If you invest points into both War Horn and the passive that comes with it you will not only stun enemies you'll also reduce their health and armor which will make them significantly easier to kill. War Horn also has a pretty short cooldown allowing you to pop this ability every fight or every other fight.

(Warfare) Battle Standard: One of the best abilities in the Warfare tree. Battle Standard will increase your damage done, Offensive Ability, Damage Absorption and reduce Energy Cost of all skills while in the Aura. If you invest into the passives for this skill you'll also reduce all damage done to you while standing in the aura.

(Warfare) Dual Wield + Passives: If you want to use 2 weapons on this build then you'll need to invest points into the Dual Wield skill and the passives that come with it. I strongly recommend you go this route as this build is kind of made for dual wielders.

 

(Earth - Passive) Volativity: One of the most important passives you can get, it'll boost both your physical and fire damage by flat %s.

(Earth) Volcanic Orb: Another bread and butter ability for this build. Volcanic Orb deals half fire and half Physical Damage -- which makes it an ideal spell to use for builds like this one that deal both Fire and Physical damage. Additionally enemies hit by Volcanic Orb end up stunned which is an added benefit providing us some extra survivability. To save some Skill Points only put a single point into the Conflagration passive.

(Earth) Earth Enchantment: I'd recommend maxing out this whole tree, the passives are arguably more important than the Earth Enchantment ability itself. Note: The Stone Skin applies the flat armor buff to each piece of armor you have that has an armor stat (Helm, Chest, Bracers, Legs). Also, maxing out Stone Skin will allow you to get less overall Fire Resistance on your gear.

(Earth) Heat Shield: One point wonder ability. More or less the only reason you're putting a point into this at all is the 15% Physical Resistance you get while Heat Shield is on you.

(Earth) Summon Core Dweller: Earth Mastery's only pet is the Core Dweller and it's a heavy skill point investment for a subpar pet. Despite this I still recommend you invest points into it along with every passive except Wildfire; Wildfire is a one point wonder skill. This pet will provide you with some extra DPS along with some extra survivability since he'll eat some attacks for you.

(Earth) Fire Nova: This skill has a rather short cooldown which means you can activate it every fight. It deals moderate damage and has a massive range -- typically hitting all targets currently on the screen. One of the best added benefits of using this skill is the Impaired Aim debuff that it puts onto enemies. This will decrease the damage Archers deal to you which helps a ton since Archers are definitely the most annoying enemies in the game.

(Earth) Meteor Rain: Deals heavy damage to all targets in an area of your choosing. This ability deals pretty heavy damage and typically one shots any group of enemies that you use it on. More often than not I use this ability in combination with Volcanic Orb. I'll toss Volcanic Orb into a pack which will damage + stun them then I use Meteor Rain to finish them off.

 

Other Tips:

- If you're struggling in Titan Quest and need some help check out my Best Leveling Abilities Guide, my Titan Quest F.A.Q or my Titan Quest Tips & Tricks pages for a lot of helpful info about this game. Additionally if you're curious what I think the Best Builds Are in Titan Quest check out that guide too. Last but not least you should consider getting TQVaultAE which is a third party program that nearly everyone who plays TQ uses.

- Curious what other sorts of gear you should get for this build? I have put together a long list of Overpowered Gear Combos in Titan Quest that you may find useful. The guide contains information for all sorts of build combinations and specializations; both offensive and defensive gear choices are included as well as Monster Infrequents you can farm for Best In Slot items for your characters.