Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Torchlight 2 Embermage Build – Prismatic Bolt Build
The Prismatic Bolt Build is the best Embermage build option in TorchLight 2 and turns the player into a fast firing DPS glass cannon that draws on the power of all elements for damage. While the Prismatic Bolt will be the foundation of this build there are several powerful ice, fire and lightning elements that players can choose from to serve as their secondary attack and round out their mage build.
The Embermage is one of the most popular Torchlight 2 classes given their effectiveness in both solo and multiplayer games through the damage they bring to the team. Unlike the Engineer though the Embermage has a greater focus on damage and lacks durability so you’ll have to fight carefully across normal and new game plus modes. Those that position carefully in fights and spend the time to acquire the necessary levels will find themselves in control of a powerhouse Torchlight 2 character that few builds can match. In this Prismatic Bolt build guide we will detail the necessary skill and stat point allocations necessary to play the Embermage effectively.
Read our other Torchlight 2 guides for Engineer, Berserker and Outlander.
Embermage Overview
The Embermage fills the typical mage role in Torchlight 2 and has command of fire, ice and lightning talents that allow you to burn, freeze and zap your enemies. Despite this overwhelming power over the elements little is known about the history of these magic and mana wielding characters in game though.
Given the Embermage is a magic user their playstyle revolves around staying back from enemies while unleashing powerful damaging elements that can also provide important utility. Each element also comes with its own brand passive in the respective skill tree that buffs your fire, ice and lightning further. Utilising wands and staff weapons they use their mana rapidly to cast skills from their arsenal rather than attack with these weapons which is further encouraged through their charge mechanic variant. The Embermage charge bar fills up when you deal damage and when full activates total concentration that removes all mana cost on your skills while buffing them with 25% damage bonus.
While players can build their Embermage to utilise different elements as well as an Embermage melee build the Prismatic Bolt option is vastly superior for a normal playthrough or pushing your limits in new game plus so is recommended. That being said if you intend to only play through normal mode you’ll find most builds for the Embermage are suitable for the task given their powerful DPS focused skills.
The Embermage has 3 elemental focused skill trees:
- Inferno: Focused on burning your enemies to a slow death the inferno skill tree is all about the fire element which offers a number of long ranged and melee focused abilities to utilise. Passively this skill also offers the ability to buff your charge power, improve the length of elemental effects and offers the fire brand passive that boosts your fire damage when hitting an enemy that is already burning. In this skill tree players will find the offensive Blazing Pillar fantastic for building charge rate rapidly while Firestorm provides a large area of effect attack although outshined by its ice based cousin.
- Frost: The power of ice offers powerful damage and utility talents for the Embermage to call on for crowd control with a frost theme. Frost skills will be a healthy focus of any Embermage build given the ability to rain down frost on enemies to slow them which serves as your primary defence mechanic. Passively you will find the usual elemental themed brand and a freezing utility that further focuses this tree on survivability through crowd control. Notable frozen skills for Embermage include Frost Phase that gives you teleportation and several deadly damaging crowd control skills like Ice Prison, Hailstorm and Frost Wave that allow you to select your preferred (or multiple) icy attacks.
- Storm: The last tree is focused on the lightning elements and where Prismatic Bolt lives which actually deals damage in all elements (including poison) and part of what makes it so deadly when combined with the brand passives from each skill tree. Passively you’ll find the Lightning Brand variant with an enemy teleporting rift and a skill to buff wands by adding chance to cast bizarre effects on some skills and wand attacks. Beyond Prismatic Bolt you’ll find this tree assists your survival chances with Death’s Bounty and the powerful Thunder Locus that can be placed in groups of enemies or locations where enemies spawn for serious impact.
Embermage Prismatic Bolt Build
Despite being a Prismatic Bolt focused build you’ll still be utilising skills from across your three skill trees as the Embermage that makes it an enjoyable build with a mixture of elements. While you can experiment with other elements (and even a melee Embermage build for the truly brave) it is hard to compete with the damage and utility of the Prismatic Bolt build which is why it is often recommended for the Embermage.
Embermage Build Skills
Your choice of skills are relatively straightforward in terms of core skills when playing this Embermage build and should be as follows with your final build including:
- 15 Prismatic Bolt
- 15 Fire Brand
- 15 Ice Brand
- 15 Lightning Brand
- 1 Frost Phase
- 15 Hailstorm
- 15 Death’s Bounty
- 1+ Charge Mastery
With the core of your build being Prismatic Bolt you should look to max this first while picking up the elemental brand talents and some utility along the way. Notable utility includes a single point in Frost Phase to provide you a teleport ability when it becomes available along with investment in Death’s Bounty to keep you safe and lastly some points in charge mastery to help with managing your charge as you see necessary. While Frost Phase is effective as a single point only these other utility points can be focused based on how you are progressing and what you feel is needed considering the gear you find along the way.
When you don’t need this extra utility though players can look towards maximising a secondary combat ability which I recommend as Hailstorm given the powerful damage and crowd control it provides in a single spell. That being said the Embermage has an abundance of good options here so you can select anything that appeals to you especially for a normal focused playthrough where monsters are weaker. Notable alternatives here include Frost Wave, Ice Prison, Blazing Pillar and Thunder Locus.
Embermage Build Stats
Like your skill choices the Embermage build stat options are relatively straightforward with some minor tweaking of your options based on your playstyle and progression with acquiring gear.
- Strength: No investment in strength is necessary for the Prismatic Bolt Embermage build as you’ll be gaining all your critical damage from other sources and Focus is your main damage source instead.
- Dexterity: Some critical hit chance doesn’t hurt the Primastic Bolt focused Embermage although given the ranged based playstyle the dodge chance does little for us. A small investment of around 50-100 points at maximum level is generally the goal here or around 1 point per level up.
- Focus: Your primary focus as an Embermage for the large magic damage and elemental damage boost it provides. Every spare stat point that you have will go into this skill which means you’ll have around 2,000 at level 100 for your stat points spent. Aim for at least 3 points during each level up as you progress through Torchlight 2 content.
- Vitality: It is important to have a reasonable base of vitality given it provides health while boosting the effectiveness of armour and shields. While you won’t be looking to get close to enemies there are still a number of ranged attacks you’ll encounter as an Embermage and it can be an unfun experience to try dodge everything. Vitality should be set at a point you feel comfortable with and slightly higher if you intend to use a shield as you’ll have the benefit of the block chance boost. Look to have between 100 to 300 at max level and place at least 1 point while levelling. If you feel you are too squishy in combat then add more per level, particularly early on when you are still acquiring key pieces of gear and maxing out your crowd control focused skills.
