Torchlight 2 is a fantastic Diablo-style clone that shoots for simplicity and straightforward brawling while not being afraid to get a bit light-hearted at times. In this fantasy world, the player is charged with hunting down a former hero, the Alchemist, who has developed an unhealthy obsession with a mysterious substance called Ember.

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There are four classes to be found in Torchlight 2, Outlander, Embermage, Berserker, and Engineer. Each has its own unique playstyle and key advantages to dominate in combat. While there are pros and cons to be considered for each class, there is one considered to be the most powerful and one that players will largely struggle with.

Updated October 28, 2023 by Erik Petrovich: Of all four Torchlight 2 classes, it's difficult to choose a best class, and that's in part thanks to the build diversity of each option. Though the Engineer is considered by many to be the best class in Torchlight 2, the best Berserker build is still more effective than the worst Engineer build. This Torchlight 2 tier list has been updated to provide two powerful build options for each class, to set players new to Torchlight 2 on the right path. Ultimately, most builds are viable, and it's up to players to figure out what works for them and remains fun to play. But by following these new tips for Torchlight 2 class builds, players can be confident that their build will remain good throughout the whole game.

4 The Berserker Class

  • Playstyle: Melee bruiser that likes to get into no-holds-barred brawls
  • Group Role: Damage
  • Difficulty: Difficult, thanks to low health pool

The Berserker class in Torchlight 2 is comparable to barbarians, fighters, and other melee classes in the classic RPG archetypes. They have little lore surrounding them, compared to other classes, and are described simply as wandering warriors who seek treasure, combat, and glory across the world.

They aren't just limited to melee attacks, though, and have the ability to summon animal spirits alongside them to help mitigate the weaknesses of the class – mainly, their ability to take on very few enemies at one time.

Strengths of the Berserker Class

Arguably the Berseker is the weakest class in the game, which is unfortunate considering how fun it is to be a Berserker. These mad barbarians dish out a ton of damage and thrive on crazy acrobatic strikes meant to pummel their enemies into submission. It’s not an uncommon sight to see Barbarians diving into the fray with wild attacks.

They also possess a number of helpful skills and passives to siphon health from opponents, twirl into a group of enemies, and tap into their inner beast to wreak havoc on their opponents.

Downsides of the Berserker Class

The downside to the Berserker is that they’re one-track-minded fighters. They have very few skills to deal area of attack damage and rely on single target attacks. This means that while your Berserker packs a punch, they’ll largely only deal it to one opponent at a time. The downside to this method of fighting is that they lack the Vitality to take the punches.

Their health siphoning can help, but largely their strategy in battle is to out damage their opponent. This can get complicated in large groups or against bosses, which is pretty much what you’ll be doing almost all of the time. It’s a fun class, but you’ll find yourself dying a lot if you get too distracted by cutting through your foes and not paying attention to your rapidly dropping health bar.

Best Torchlight 2 Berserker Builds & Skills

  • Dual Wield Berserker Build
    • Build Playstyle: Rapid melee fighter that takes advantage of critical hits to increase otherwise relatively low damage output
    • Important Skills: Howl, Blood Hunger, Executioner, Shred Armor, Cold Steel Mastery
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Focus on Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Attack Speed, and Life Steal to make the most out of fast-paced melee attacks
  • Frost Damage Berserker Build
    • Build Playstyle: Uses a combination of Permafrost and other abilities to turn the Berserker into a mid-range caster
    • Important Skills: Permafrost, Glacial Shatter, Shatter Storm, Wolf Shade, Rage Retaliation
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Focus on bonuses to damage, Critical Hit chance, and casting speed to maximize Frost damage windows

3 The Embermage Class

  • Playstyle: Stay at a range to deal massive damage with a reliance on mana
  • Group Role: DPS and Crowd Control
  • Difficulty: Beginner-Friendly

The Embermage class in Torchlight 2 is the game's version of a classic sorcerer with a bit of that Torchlight 2 flair that makes the game so unique. With access to fire, frost, and lightning abilities, they command the battlefield with their spells in both an AoE and single-target capacity.

In-game, Embermages are a rare breed, as it were, with few people able to utilize the wrath of such a deadly skillset effectively. They start with relatively low health (and don't do much melee damage) and rely on mana, but they make up for it by being one of the hardest-hitting classes in the game.

Strengths of the Embermage Class

Embermages are heavy hitters from afar, casting large elemental attacks to incinerate, freeze, and shock their enemies. They have good DPS and, unlike the Berserker, don’t have to be in the thick of things to get their attacks out. Embermages have a few powerful spells that do incredible damage to groups, bosses or even both.

They’re considered the easiest class to play as the player needs to focus solely on damage output and avoiding the enemy. Their weapon is largely irrelevant and only serves to augment their spells even further by having a high attack. One of the best guilty pleasures in this game is to wade into battle with Shocking Burst maxed out and watch opponents literally fly apart as the electrical bolts strike their bodies.

Downsides of the Embermage Class

The reason the Embermage is easy to play is because it’s simple. Learn a powerful spell and spam it until your mana pool runs out, there’s not much to it and as a result, this style of play can get fairly boring very quickly. Sure, Shocking Burst is fun on the first level of enemies or so, but a couple of layers in and it’ll lose its charm.

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The reason the Embermage doesn’t rank higher is because the magic-user is a beast so long as they have mana; once the blue orb is drained they’re little more than a well-trained peasant. After your mana runs out you’ll be dodging attacks and doing the best you can with whatever useless weapon you’re wielding until the mana regenerates and you’re back to spamming spells.

Best Torchlight 2 Embermage Builds & Skills

  • Fire-Focused Embermage Build
    • Build Playstyle: Uses damage over time caused by Burn damage to wear down targets, while hurling other Fire-type spells at engulfed enemies
    • Important Skills: Blazing Pillar, Firestorm, Elemental Boon, Magma Spear, Charge Mastery
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Focus on bonuses to elemental damage (in this case, Fire) as well as faster casting speed and bonuses to All Damage
  • Electricity-Focused Embermage Build
    • Build Playstyle: While the Fire build focuses on burning small groups down, the Electricity Embermage is better at AoE thanks to its Shock damage
    • Important Skills: Thunder Locus, Shocking Orb, Lightning Brand, Elemental Boon, Charge Mastery
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Like the Fire build, focus on gaining bonuses to Electricity Damage, All Damage, and casting speed

2 The Outlander Class

  • Playstyle: Ranged and Melee prowess with a little magic thrown in there too
  • Group Role: Damage and Crowd Control
  • Difficulty: Intermediate

The Outlander class in Torchlight 2 is comparable to the rogue or thief archetype of most RPGs, though it goes a lot deeper than simple stealth and hidden blades. Outlanders have the unique Glaive weapon tied into many of their abilities in the Warfare, Lore, and Sigil trees, and are described as outlaws in search of ancient lore and forgotten artifacts.

If they are to be compared to anything accurately, Outlanders could be compared to Corvo, the assassin from the Dishonored series who uses dark magic alongside martial weaponry to take down opponents through both subterfuge and in-your-face combat. The major downside of this class is that it has the lowest health of any class in Torchlight 2.

Strengths of the Outlander Class

The Outlander is the gun/bow wielder of the group. Unlike the Embermage, they remain dangerous at all times whether they have mana or not. Outlanders are skilled manipulators possessing numerous crowd control abilities to keep enemies locked down, slowed, or outright stunned.

The name of the game is status effects and Outlanders are masters at it. Your opponents will have a hard time chasing you down to get a hit when you can slow their movement speed, freeze them in place, and drop spells that effectively act as traps if they follow in your footsteps. Just be glad you never go up against an Outlander in this game and enjoy dishing out the pain.

Downsides Of the Outlander Class

Unfortunately, the reason Outlanders are master manipulators is that they have to be. They’re glass cannons in every sense of the phrase, and their health pool and defenses are worse than Berserkers. Their survival requires being constantly on the move, controlling the movements of the enemy, and skirting boss attacks.

As a result, they’re one of the hardest classes to play because they require almost constant micromanagement. Lose attention for a few seconds and your Outlander is dead, no question. If you enjoy the kind of gameplay that would be appealing to a Starcraft world champion then go for it, but if you don’t enjoy the constant attention and potion guzzling that these characters require, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Best Torchlight 2 Outlander Builds & Skills

  • Dual Wield Pistols Outlander Build
    • Build Playstyle: Great single-target damage using two pistols at midrange, but relatively lacking in AoE output
    • Important Skills: Venomous Hail, Long Range Mastery, Akimbo, Master of the Elements
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Focus on Critical Hit Chance & Damage, as well as Life Steal. Gear that grants Poison damage can also be useful for this build.
  • Ranged Bow or Crossbow Outlander Build
    • Build Playstyle: Very long range damage dealer that sacrifices attack speed for raw damage output. Works equally well with both bows and crossbows.
    • Important Skills: Rapid Fire, Long Range Mastery, Shadowling Brute, Venomous Hail
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Just like the Dual Wield pistols build, pick up gear that grants Crit Chance and Damage, Life Steal, and Poison-type damage.

1 The Engineer Class

  • Playstyle: Varies - can be Ranged, Melee, or Summon-oriented
  • Group Role: Tank and Damage
  • Difficulty: Intermediate

The Engineer class is widely considered to be the best Torchlight 2 class, though they aren't without their downsides. Engineers have the most developed and concrete lore surrounding them, being described as technological masters serving the Empire, sent to the world of Torchlight 2 to open up the new frontier.

They play as a combination of an artificer and a templar, with many tech-oriented skills in the Blitz and Construction skill trees as well as shields and defensive skills in the Aegis tree. Because of its survivability, it's not only considered the best class, but also the best solo class Torchlight 2 beginners can try out.

Strengths of the Engineer Class

The Engineers are considered the most powerful class in the game by far and for good reason. These brutes are heavy hitters who can take a beating. They represent the tank class in every sense of the word with thick armor, a deep health pool, and a large weapon they can bludgeon their enemies with.

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They also provide a lot of versatility in terms of how to fight and deploy spells. You can play a more melee role with the magic augmenting attacks, ranged with more AOE skills, or the necromancer type with robotic minions and exploding spiders to become a one-person army. This is an easy and adaptable class to pick up.

Downsides of the Engineer Class

The major downside to the Engineer is it's a sluggish class. That armor weighs them down so their movement speed is slow, their attacks are slow, pretty much everything they do is done slowly. If you’ve been playing a class like Outlander before switching to these behemoths you’re going to rage for a while before you get used to how slow they are.

It’s a good thing they’re so tanky because they’ll take quite a beating before they leisurely lift their wrench up to deliver a solid whomp on their enemies. They’re great for bosses, but groups will be really annoying if you don’t have a good AOE maxed out.

Best Torchlight 2 Engineer Builds & Skills

  • Summon-Focused Engineer Build
    • Build Playstyle: Relies on the Construction tree to have three summoned bots available at all times, while lightly empowering the player
    • Important Skills: Healing Bot, Gun Bot, Sledge Bot, Spider Mine, Fire and Spark
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Look for gear that increases the damage and armor of pets and minions, as well as Mana Recovery improvements
  • Defensive-Focused Engineer Build
    • Build Playstyle: Plays like a tank, taking little damage, but dealing less damage than many DPS-oriented builds out there – survivability over offensive potential
    • Important Skills: Supercharge, Seismic Slam, Onslaught, Sword and Board, Aegis of Fate
    • Gear Stat Priorities: Focus on acquiring gear that grants chance to reflect Missiles, improves resistances, or otherwise increases the Engineer's Health and defensives
TorchlightIITagPage
Torchlight 2

Platform(s)
PC , PS4 , Switch , Xbox One
Released
September 20, 2012
Developer(s)
Runic Games
Genre(s)
Action RPG
ESRB
T For Teen due to Blood and Gore, Violence