Titan Quest Anniversary Edition: Elemental Archer Stonespeaker (Earth + Rune) Build

For its 10 year anniversary, Titan Quest will shine in new splendour. This Anniversary Edition combines both Titan Quest and Titan Quest Immortal Throne in one game, and has been given a massive overhaul for the ultimate ARPG experience.

Elemental Archer Stonespeaker (Earth + Rune) Build

Stonespeaker (Earth + Rune) build for Titan Quest AE: Ragnarok (Atlantis), using bow only, dealing fire/elemental damage.

Introduction

This is a guide on the Stonespeaker (Earth + Rune) build for Titan Quest AE: Ragnarok (Atlantis) that uses bow only, dealing fire/elemental damage.

Why Earth + Rune for an elemental archer build:

• Rune has Rune Weapon tree and Rune Word: Explode tree that boost Fire/Elemental damage
• Rune has Thunder Strike tree that boosts damage and provides CC
• Earth has Earth Enchantment and Volatility that boost fire damage
• Earth and Rune has good defensive skills that allows the toon to minimize kiting. This would also help boosting damage thanks to Rune Weapon.

Pros:

• Good survivability compared to other caster/archer builds
• Good CC
• Decent at both single target and AoE

Cons:

• Short buffs that require frequent refresh
• The best weapon (Bramblewood bow) is in Act 4, no better weapon in Act 5
• Not the fastest boss killer

Attribute Distribution

• Around half of points into Dexterity to get 500+ Dex by Legendary Act 4 so you can equip up to the Bramblewood bow and have around 900 Defensive Ability
• Some points (around 30) into Health to get around 5k health by Legendary Act 3 – 5
• The rest into Intelligence

Skill Distribution

Earth:

• Earth Enchantment tree: full. Good offense and defense buffs. The basic skill is high priority.
• Volatility: full. Good offense buff. High priority.
• Heat Shield: full. Good defense buff.
• Stone Form: 1 point (basic skill only). Very good defense cooldown.
• Ring of Flame: 1 point. Soften Metal: as many as your energy regeneration allows. Good debuff.

Rune:

• Rune Weapon tree: full. High priority.
• Thunder Strike tree: full. Good damage and CC. High priority.
• Rune of Life: full. Good defense buff.
• Runeword: Explode tree: full.
• Energy Armor: as many as your energy allows. Aim for level 9 which gives 2k damage absorption vs physical/pierce/bleeding and 50% stun resistance.
• Sacred Rage: 1 point for the damage absorption effect. Frightening Power: full. Good defense skill.
• Runeword: Feather: 1 point for the -Strength requirement for bows.
• Runeword: Absorb: 1 point.

Late Game/End-Game Set-Up

For late game (Act 3 – 5 Legendary), this is what you should aim for (and you can achieve) in terms of set-up:

All skills: +4

Defense:

• Health: 5k with 2k Energy Armor
• Defensive Ability: around 900
• Elemental Resistance: around 50%+, Fire/Cold resistance should ideally be 60%+.
• Pierce Resistance: 50%+
• Vitality Resistance: close to 80%
• Poison Resistance: 50 – 60%+
• Stun Resistance: 50%+, ideally 80%
• Bleeding Resistance: 40%+
• Some Physical Resistance would be nice
• Attack damage converted to Health: around 14%. This considerably increases the survivability of your character. While Rune skill gives you 4%, it’s not enough by itself.

Offense:

• DPS: 3k+. It means 7k+ DPS with max Rune Weapon buff.
• Have a reduced resistance debuff (e.g. from a Bramblewood bow)

Late Game Gears

Get a mix of legendaries and green gears (with relics/charms) to achieve the above offense/defense target (defense target is more important). The exact gears depend on what you can get, but some tips are:

• Arms slot: a green gear with Resistant/Impenetrable prefix and Gryphon suffix
• Head slot: a good one is a green one with e.g. Resistant/Impenetrable prefix and Augury/Divination/Foresight/Magus suffix
• Weapon slot: Bramblewood Bow is still the best. Artemis for the enchant. Any Bramblewood would do but if you have options, get the one that has +Attack Speed (e.g. Alacrity suffix)
• Ring: a good one is Socrates green ring. I don’t recommend Fire-specific rings such as Seal of Hephaestus because it would put even more focus on Fire damage which would not be a good idea in e.g. Fireland
• Artifact: Elemental Rage, with ideally +Attack Speed completion bonus.
• Scroll: Probably the best scroll in general is the Scroll of the Primal Chaos.

For reference, the legendary gears I used in late Legendary were:

• Vestment of the Overlord
• Boots of the Allfather
• Torc of the Ancestors
• Persephone’s Ring

For the rest I used green gears (except the Bramblewood bow).

Farming Spots

Best farming spots are:

• Hydra (Act 1): for Legendary items and relics
• Rhodes (Act 4): for the Bramblewood bow
• Fafnir (Act 5): for Legendary items and relics

Tactics

• It’s usually a good idea to open with Thunder Strike for the CC then just use Rune Weapon and Thunder Strike. Note that I assign Rune Weapon to the right mouse (instead of left) to avoid having to click Shift (or risk moving instead of attacking).
• Use Scroll of the Primal Chaos as an offense/defense cooldown.