Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
What is the Torchlight 2 best class for your playthrough? This page details the strengths and weaknesses of all four available classes to help players decide on the perfect character. While all classes can defeat normal and higher difficulty with an optimised build they each have a different playstyle to consider to find your personal favourite gameplay balance.
From worst to best Torchlight 2 class for ease of gameplay and flexibility I would rate them Berserker > Outlander > Embermage > Engineer with summary and detailed information on each class below.
Table of Contents:
– Best Class Summary (Strengths & Weaknesses)
– 4 – Berserker
– 3 – Outlander
– 2 – Embermage
– 1 – Engineer
– Best Class Factors
Best Class Summary (Strengths & Weaknesses)
| Class Summary | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
 Berserker: Melee fighter based on claw weapons and quick strikes |
-Single target damage and bosses -High damage potential without equipment |
-Lacks area of effect -Low utility -Durability relies on quick kills rather than raw survivability |
 Outlander: Rogue type character that focuses on ranged weapons or glaives while dodging attacks |
-Immobilising enemies -Quick movement |
-Lacks durability -Micromanagement of movement to be effective |
 Embermage: Magical user with fire, ice and lightning elements for damage and utility |
-Area of effect damage -High range and utility skills |
-Reliant on gear to balance mana usage -Basic playstyle with builds using only a small number of active skills |
 Engineer: A durable heavy weapon user that can also summon allies |
-High damage -Great durability and mitigation skills |
-Slow to move around the map and cast skills |
4 – Berserker
The Berserker is a melee focused character that uses the claw weapon type to rapidly attack enemies. These fist weapons are extremely fast and also ignore half of the enemy armour on attacks that make them a focus of your Berserker builds with players using their skill tree to buff your rapid attacks in various ways. Portrayed as powerful warrior characters in the game lore Berserkers belong to a tribe from the northern areas of the world where they gain command over their own animal fury.
heir three skill tress are the Hunter tree focused on melee skills, Tundra that offers frost and lightning and Shadow that allows you to call on wolf summons or attacks. The Berserker’s main builds revolve around auto-attacks and a small handful of their abilities that combine with their passive options for a deadly combination. This means players will be rapidly moving between enemies to attack them directly that is a simple playstyle compared to other characters in Torchlight 2.
The Berserker is strong at dealing with single target enemies including bosses and champions with the ability to quickly defeat them in single handed combat. They are capable of dealing high damage and not particularly gear dependent to reach this point given the focus on passives from skills.
The Berserker is weak at area of effect damage and also lacks the durability or utility to survive in the front lines for an extended period of time. This can quickly impact players if they aren’t able to build up sufficient damage as you can quickly be overwhelmed.
3 – Outlander
The Outlander has similarities to rogue archetypes with a focus on agility as a nomadic race of explorers with each having their own story as an outlaw and pirating for treasure. Outlanders use ranged weapons with skills specific to bows, crossbows, shotgunne and pistol weapons and accordingly attack from beyond other allies if available. Outlander builds will generally either focus on pistols or utilise the glaive skills with both dealing serious damage to opponents.
In terms of skill trees the Outlander offers Warfare that is focused on weapons and leaping around the battlefield, Lore for glaive abilities and Sigil that has magical debuffs to keep your distance from enemies. The playstyle of either build has players dodging attacks while unleashing either weapon specific or glaive skills with varying effects. The Outlander has a clear intended playstyle with key utility to stay out of danger but still requires careful planning and character control given the glass cannon nature of this class.
The Outlander is strong at immobilising enemies that come close to them and moving quickly across the battlefield while dishing out large damage.
The Outlander is weak at taking damage and requires careful micromanagement alongside an understanding of your surroundings as even your utility cannot undo poor positioning.
2 – Embermage
The Embermage fills a typical magical role to command the powers of fire, ice and lightning that not only devastate enemies directly but also provide invaluable utility. Accordingly your Embermage builds generally don’t limit themselves to a single element to maximise your damage, utility and associated elemental effects.
These skill trees are appropriately named after their element. Inferno offers a range of burning based skills that give you far reaching flame attacks, the ability to rein down fire and even offer you some melee empowered abilities. Frost on the other hand is focused on crowd control effects with the slowing power of ice allowing you trap enemies and grant the important power of phase based teleportation. Lastly, is Storm that allows you to unleash Prismatic Bolts from your fingertips and call down lightning empowered storms, bolts, beams and orbs on enemies. In addition each of these skill trees offers a passive brand that boosts your power with that specific element. With the Embermage offering both high damage (single target and area of effect) and appropriate utility they are a deadly Torchlight 2 character although does lack survivability if your utility skills aren’t appropriately used.
The Embermage is strong at dispatching enemies with area of effect attacks while remaining safe by using their attack range and utility focused skills to their advantage.
The Embermage is weak without sufficient gear or balancing of mana spend which can quickly leave them exposed. Some players may also find the playstyle basic given the best builds revolve around repeating a small number of skills.
1 – Engineer
The Engineer has a number of design elements with paladin like abilities, dwarven heavy weapon designs and steampunk summoning as their core themes. This provides a blend of offensive and defensive capabilities that result in the Engineer often being considered the Torchlight 2 best class for solo players given the flexibility and survivability this theme offers. For lore they are portrayed as pivotal to the technology upkeep within the Torchlight 2 world while also exploring ruins and adventuring into mines to claim the ember mineral. Engineer builds usually lean heavily into the traditional weapon and defensive options that are empowered by many of your skills given summons in general have a low up time in Torchlight 2 relative to their cooldown.
The three skill trees of the Engineer are Blitz, Construction and Aegis. Blitz is your main offensive tree and offers earth shattering abilities that utilise your heavy weapons, Construction is focused on summoning an array of bots to do your bidding and Aegis is defensively focused providing shield based skills and methods to mitigate damage. Overall the flexibility to handle anything as the Engineer is invaluable and allows them to fulfil more than just a typical tank role as either a solo or multiplayer class.
The Engineer is strong at just about everything in Torchlight 2, they are capable of dealing damage when necessarily and equally have the tools to absorb or mitigate damage. You’ll have no trouble defeating enemies you encounter and generally be able to shrug off most of the damage they dish out in return.
The Engineer is weak at speed as the slowest class available that can make them a dull experience to play as you slowly shuffle your way between maps and cast slower skills than your counterparts.
Torchlight 2 Best Class Factors
In determining the ranks of the Torchlight 2 best class above the following factors have been considered:
- Ease of Play: How easy a class is to play is a big factor although still needs to retain some complexity in order to not be boring to play. At the other end of the spectrum though a class that requires immense complexity to reach their potential is also unlikely to be fun for most people. The best class in Torchlight 2 has a perfect balance of usability and difficulty to reach their peak power and maintain an enjoyable experience.
- Flexibility: Torchlight 2 has diverse enemies from bosses to champions and large groups of enemies with their own AI. A class that has the flexibility to successfully fight all of these encounters is going to be a far better class overall. This may also influence a heroes power in solo and multiplayer gameplay with some players wanting an effective character for both of these game modes.
- Item Reliance: A class that can rely on their own power and does not need powerful gear or specific item pieces is a better choice. While you can grind for gear if your entire character is based on needing specific items to be effective you are unlikely to have a fun time ahead in Torchlight 2.
- Damage and Utility: The Torchlight 2 strongest class will need a mixture of damage and the utility to deal damage while surviving enemy attacks. A class that lacks utility or damage will quickly find themselves struggling to progress and not useful to allies in multiplayer.
- Fun: Fun is by far the most subjective element when determining a best Torchlight 2 class and will often come down to your own preferences. The playstyle of each class is discussed above to help you decide if the way each of these Torchlight 2 classes feel in combat is right for you.
