Juggernaut Build Guide - Titan Quest

Skill Trees: Earth and Defense
Primary Skills: Volativity (Passive), Eruption, Volcanic Orb, Rally, Fire Nova, Colossus Form, Earth Enchantment (Buff), Heat Shield (Buff), Battle Awareness (Buff), Batter (Melee), Shield Charge (Melee)
Important Stats: Resistances, -Recharge Gear, +% Fire Damage, +% Physical Damage (if going physical damage route), +Energy Regeneration, -Energy Cost and Energy
Attributes: Strength and Dexterity to wear gear. I'd recommend enough Dexterity for Stonebinder's Cuffs and enough Strength for a Shield. The rest of your points go into Intelligence to increase your damage with a small amount into Health or Energy if desired

Juggernaut is a powerful build with great survivability and moderate to high damage, depending on how your build your character. You can use a 1h melee weapon or 1h Throwing Weapon depending on your preference, the abilities you choose will be slightly different depending on your choice. This build also works as a caster where your weapon is nothing more than a stat stick if you'd like to play it that way.

For this build you'll want to dump a lot of Attribute Points into Strength and Dexterity until you can wear a good shield and some tanky gear. The rest of your points you'll want to put into either Intelligence or Strength depending on what type of damage you plan to deal on this build. If you're going to focus on boosting your Fire Damage then dump your points into Intelligence - if you're going to focus on Physical Damage then dump them into Strength.

You'll want to increase your Pierce, Poison and Vitality Resistances the mostwith this build because we have Rally which will boost our Elemental Resistances after we use it as well as Heat Shield/Stone Skin which will increase our Fire Resistance.

If you can keep Heat Shield up all the time then you can leave your Fire Resist around 30 - 50%. Stone Skin (Earth Enchantment Passive) will give you some Fire Resist and Heat Shield will protect you from the fire damage you do take. If you can get some gear with Physical Resist on it as well it'll help out a ton.

As far as gear goes the most important stat(s) you're looking for is -Recharge. -Recharge, also known as Cooldown Reduction Gear is very important for this build because you will want to keep both Rally and Quick Recovery up as much as possible. You only need a little bit of -Recharge to do this and many of the items that give +Physical Damage or +Fire Damage come with -Recharge on it already. If you'd like to see a complete list of all the -Recharge Gear I am familiar with follow the link provided.

For increasing the damage you deal, it all comes down to what type of Juggernaut you'd like to be. If you want to deal primarily Physical Damage then you'll obviously want gear with +% Physical Damage like Deimos, Odysseus' Armor, Myrmidon's Pendant and Adroit Loop. However if you're playing a Juggernaut who will be mostly a super tanky spell caster then you'll want gear that has +% Fire Damage on it such as Legguards of the Flameborn, Seal of Hephaestus, Sun Disc, Chakram of the Sun.

Some items are useful for both Physical Damage & Fire Damage like Lævateinn which is a sword made specifically for the Juggernaut build. If this is your first time playing a Juggernaut I strongly recommend you go the tanky spell caster route since we deal more Fire Damage than Physical Damage. What I mean by tanky spell caster is you'll be wearing Strength based gear for tanks but you'll mostly be dealing all of your damage through spells. Our weapon will essentially just be a stat stick since we won't be using it in combat.

How a Juggernaut is played stays the same regardless of whether or not you focus primarily on physical or fire damage. This build has 3 short duration abilities that you will need to keep on yourself as much as possible, Rally, Quick Recovery & Heat Shield. Ring of Flame, Earth Enchantment and Battle Awareness are 3 long duration buffs that you'll want to keep active at all times too along with your Summon Core Dweller pet.

When it comes to combat the 2 main skills I use most often are Volcanic Orb and Eruption; these are my left click & right click attacks. Volcanic Orb is our main attack and you'll be throwing them at every enemy constantly. Usually I drop Eruption ontop of myself when fighting melee enemies and ontop of archers when fighting ranged enemies. There are 3 more abilities I use on this build which include Unyielding Phalanx, Fire Nova & Meteor Rain.

All 3 of these abilities have a 10second or longer cooldown but that isn't too big of a deal since you will still be able to use most of them every fight or every other fight. Unyielding Phalanx is a very powerful Defense Mastery skill that deals a ton of damage and creates a wall of ghosts that enemies can't pass through. Fire Nova is a low damage attack but it has a chance of inflicting Impaired Aim on anything it hits which is helpful against archer enemies since it'll reduce their damage.

Last but not least the Meteor Rain ability is another skill with a long cooldown but deals a ton of damage to almost every enemy on your screen. In addition to damage this ability will also have a chance to stun every enemy it hits which makes it extremely effective for use against archers.

Now let's take a look at each of the skills that you'll be using on your Juggernaut as well as some optional skills that you can use with this build if you choose to.

(Earth) Eruption: Each fight I typically open up with an Eruption where I am standing. The enemies will group up around me to beat on me and ontop of my Eruption.

(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.

(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 allegedly 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) Fire Nova: I would highly recommend this ability if you're a melee Juggernaut as it'll both deal good damage and decrease the incoming damage you take from Archers/Ranged opponents.

(Earth - Optional) Stone Form: One point wonder ability if you decide to get it. I've seen many Juggernaut builds that put a point into this but I didn't find a use for it myself. Too many buttons to hit and I found almost no situations where I wanted to/need to go into Stone Form.

(Earth - Optional) Summon Core Dweller: I'd actually recommend this for Normal and Epic difficulties if you don't mind the massive Skill Point investment. IMHO the Core Dweller is the worst pet in the game and he's good in Acts 1 - 3 but in Acts 4 and 5 he totally sucks. Throughout almost all of Legendary difficulty this pet will die constantly and that's typically when I unspec this skill.

(Earth) Meteor Rain: Deals heavy damage to almost all enemies on your screen and has a chance to stun them. I find this skill works best when fighting ranged enemies since you can hit them all at a distance and stun them then take them out with a follow up Volcanic Orb or something similar.

 

(Defense) Rally: For almost every build that goes into Defense Mastery you'll want to get Rally. It's essentially like having another Potion on a separate cooldown that also buffs you. Rally also will allow you to keep your Elemental Resistances at 40 - 50% instead of being forced to max them. Since when you use Rally you get a 50% (or more) buff to your Elemental Resists there's no reason to max out your resists. I highly recommend getting the 2nd passive, Inspiration, as it'll extend the duration of this buff.

(Defense) Colossus Form: You become huge and run insanely fast and destroy everything. This is arguably the best boss killing ability in the game, it'll allow you to stand toe to toe with almost any boss and eat all their incoming damage. It has a very long cooldown but is definitely worth spending a few points into.

(Defense) Battle Awareness: Much like Earth Enchantment, you'll want to keep this buff up the entire time you're playing. Iron Will (the final passive) will grant you max secondary resistances for almost every resist in the game.

(Defense) Adrenaline: I see many builds skip this ability but I really like it. Occasionally during battle you'll receive an Adrenaline Rush proc that'll boost your damage, speed and health regen.

(Defense - Melee Only) Batter: Your left mouse ability if you're playing a melee Juggernaut. If you're using Throwing Weapons you skip this ability entirely.

(Defense - Melee Only) Shield Charge: Your right mouse ability if you're playing a melee Juggernaut. It allows you to charge into a pack of enemies and deal damage + stun them. Good opener for all battles. Technically it can still be useful for Ranged but significantly less so imo.

(Defense - Optional) Quick Recovery: Allows you to block more attacks and absorb more damage. Good ability to use when you have a lot of enemies on you. While this ability won't save your life it's extremely good in preventing overwhelming damage.

(Defense - Optional) Unyielding Phalanx: I love to drop this ability onto bosses or into large packs of melee enemies. The Phalanx does a ton of damage and it has a relatively short cooldown. Only downside for this ability is it only lasts a couple of seconds, dump more points into it to make it last longer.

 

 

 

Throwing Weapon Playstyle Difference: Volcanic Orb will replace Batter and you'll be dealing most of your damage with Eruption and Volcanic Orb while using auto attack with Throwing Weapons. Aside from this minor difference the playstyle is relatively the same. Shield Charge may be a skill you want to leave out too as a ranged attacker.

Boss Strategy: Colossus Form. When Colossus Form is down, if you can't stand toe to toe with a boss I recommend running around the room and constantly dropping Eruptions ontop of the boss and chucking Volcanic Orbs at him if you have that ability. It'll be slow going but you'll win the fight and not die.

 

Other Tips:

Juggernaut (Fire Damage/Spellcaster) Build Guide

Juggernaut (Physical Damage/Melee) Build Guide

- 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.