Magician Build Guide - Titan Quest
Skill Trees: Earth and Rogue
Primary Skills: Calculated Strike, Throwing Knife, Eruption, Volcanic Orb, Summon Core Dweller
Important Stats: Resistances, +% Energy Regeneration, +Energy, -% Energy Cost, -Recharge, +Skills
Attributes: Intelligence, Dexterity, Strength (raise them to use gear) & extra Stat Points into Energy
The Magician class in Titan Quest is one of those hybrid builds that really struggles at times during the game unless you can feed your character extremely good gear. During the early levels of the game you'll have a bit of an issue until you unlock some of your important skills and then things go pretty steady until Legendary. Some parts of Legendary will be very difficult even if you manage to get yourself some really good gear. With that said, I was able to beat the game as a Magician -- it's just important for you to know this build is not as powerful as some of the other builds in this game.
Energy is the resource that is going to be most in demand for this build at all times. Your Energy costs become more manageable once you start getting gear that gives you +% Energy Regeneration, +Energy or even -% Energy Cost. Anything that increases your Energy, your Energy Regeneration or reduces the amount of Energy you use is going to be extremely important for this build so that's what you will want to focus on as far as gear goes.
As far as stat distribution goes for this build you're going to want to focus on Dexterity, Intelligence and Strength in almost an even amount. You'll need high Strength to use a good shield and to use a throwing weapon; it'll also increase your physical damage some but that's less important. I typically only raise Strength on a Magician when I need to use a new weapon or shield.
Dexterity and Intelligence both go hand in hand since these two stats are required to wear a lot of the best caster gear in the game. Items like Stonebinder's Cuffs require a high Dexterity stat along with a decently high Intelligence stat. Aside from gear with Energy related bonuses on it you're also going to want to get all of your Resistances very high (duh) and get some gear with +Skills on it. This build is a Skill Point heavy one so as much +Skills as you can possibly get will help out a lot.
Now for playing a Magician, for the most part playing this class is pretty straight forward as well. Calculated Strike will be your Left Click attack and Throwing Knife will be your Right Click. Despite these 2 attacks being your main attacks I would actually recommend you go into Earth Mastery first when it comes to leveling up since that will be the better leveling spec. Aside from these 2 skills you'll also be using Eruption and Volcanic Orb to deal damage to enemies that have high physical resistance or physical immunity.
Calculated Strike is your single target damage ability and for groups of enemies you'll be using Throwing Knife along with Eruption. Typically what I do is drop an Eruption right in front of my character and then start spamming Throwing Knife; enemies that run up to melee me will stand in Eruption and eat my Throwing Knives. Volcanic Orb I typically only use when facing enemies with high physical resistances or when I am kiting an enemy around that's hitting too hard.
Below you'll find each of the abilities that I use on my Magician build with a little bit more information provided to you about each one. Keep in mind that I typically do not list passive abilities below -- only the abilities that go on your hot bars/you need to activate are talked about.
(Earth) Earth Enchantment: Keep this buff active on your character at all times for the increase in damage that it provides. In my opinion both of the passives that come with it are worth maxing out as well, although Stone Skin is a lot less important than Brimstone.
(Earth) Heat Shield: A short duration buff that you will want to keep active at all times for the 15% Physical Resistance that it offers. Usually I only put 2 - 3 points into Heat Shield until much later in the game when I have extra Skill Points to spend.
(Earth) Volativity: This is a passive ability and it's the one exception to my rule of never talking about passives. Volativity is an insanely powerful skill which you will want to get on pretty much any character you specialize into Earth Mastery.
(Earth) Summon Core Dweller: Many people will consider this skill optional for this build but I tend to disagree. Yes it is the Skill Point dump and yes the Core Dweller is not that powerful... however this ability helps out a ton for parts of the game where our build struggles. Core Dweller makes an excellent tank and will help deal damage to enemies while you're kiting making it a worth while Skill Point dump imo. Keep in mind the Wildfire Passive for this skill is lackluster in comparison to the other passives.
(Earth) Ring of Flame: Another somewhat optional skill choice. This skill shines the most during Normal difficulty when you're at a low level, the further you advance in the game the worse this skill becomes overall. On Epic and Legendary difficulties what I recommend is dump 1 - 3 Skill Points into Ring of Flame and then max the passive that comes with it, Soften Metal. Soften Metal makes Ring of Flame reduce Offensive Ability and Armor of enemies around the player causing them to deal less damage and take more damage.
(Earth) Volcanic Orb: As previously stated you'll be using Volcanic Orb on enemies with high Physical Resistance. Instead of spamming Throwing Knife on an enemy that has high Physical Resist you'll be spamming Volcanic Orb! Other than this niche scenario I typically do not use this ability very often.
(Earth) Eruption: This is one of the bread and butter abilities of this build. Every fight I drop an Eruption ontop of myself and then start spamming Throwing Knives. Enemies will run over to me to attack and stand in my Eruption while also being torn to shreds by my Throwing Knives.
(Earth - Optional) Fire Nova: If you'd like another ability that deals fire damage this is a good choice. Fire Nova doesn't do a ton of damage but it has a relatively short cooldown and also puts a debuff on enemies called Impaired Aim. This debuff helps to reduce the damage dealt by Archers which are some of the most annoying enemies in the game.
(Rogue) Calculated Strike: This is your left click attack. You'll be using this ability whenever you're fighting a single target. If you want to make this attack more powerful purchase the passives in the Rogue tree that increase bleeding damage and chance to cause bleeding.
(Rogue) Throwing Knife: This is your right click attack. Use this ability whenever you're fighting a group of enemies. Flurry of Knives passive is required for this ability to be useful. Much like with Calculated Strike, if you'd like to make this attack more powerful be sure to purchase the passive abilities in the Rogue Mastery.
(Rogue) Envenom Weapon: One of the 2 buffs that you will be using in the Rogue Mastery. Envenom Weapon adds Poison Damage to your attacks and if you get the passives will also debuff the enemies it hits. I strongly recommend you get the Mandrake passive and max it out early on since the Confusion debuff helps reduce the amount of damage you take quite a bit.
(Rogue - Optional) Blade Barrier: An optional ability in the Rogue Mastery. Much like Fire Nova this ability is something you can hit every so often when it's off cooldown. It does decent damage and has a debuff on par with Fire Nova.
(Rogue - Optional) Blade Honing: This passive adds a small amount of flat piercing damage and increases "piercing ratio". I'm not sure what piercing ratio is and I can't find anything online. My guess is that it increases the piercing ratio of your weapon which would actually be quite good since you'd do more Piercing damage overall.
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.
- Earth is probably the better choice between the 2 Masteries when it comes to leveling up your character
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