Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Torchlight 2 Engineer Build – Emberquake & Flame Hammer
Which Torchlight 2 Engineer build will you use through the story and side quests of this action RPG adventure? As one of the most popular classes in Torchlight 2 the Engineer is often the first pick for many given they are a durable and flexible character that is fantastic in solo and group play. Ultimately the build path you take for the Engineer will depend on your own playstyle and how far you plan to push into the new game plus content that Torchlight 2 has to offer.
In this guide to the Engineer we cover the Emberquake and Flame Hammer build options that utilise skills across your applicable skill trees so you can select or even mix and match a playstyle that resonates with you. It includes skills and stat point allocations to ensure you have a rounded set of information to master the Engineer class in Torchlight 2.
Read our other Torchlight 2 guides for Embermage, Berserker and Outlander.
Engineer Overview
The Engineer fills the role of melee fighter archetype in Torchlight 2 and is presented as a durable fighter that is battle hardened. Coming from a guild of technology experts they are responsible for building much of the industrial areas in the wider Torchlight 2 Empire and are drawn to the adventure in Torchlight 2 for the mines and ruins that may be unlocked as a result.
Not afraid of getting into the fray with enemies the Engineer can be found wielding large melee weapons, cannons or a traditional shield and single handed weapon. Unique to the Engineer is their version of the charge mechanic where you can build charges with certain skills or passives and then consume those charges for additional effects of specific skills. They are a flexible Torchlight 2 hero with the best Engineer build heavily influenced by your party size. While a solo Engineer will want a build that focuses on the offensive or summon options of the class a party tank will likely want to invest in defensive options instead.
This is reflected through their 3 skill trees:
- Blitz: This tree is focused on your melee attacks with various skill attacks that have you slamming your weapon down with great force and elemental enhancement. Passively this tree can boost your effectiveness with large weapons through attack speed, charged attacks and electrical surges on stunned targets. Builds in this tree will generally focus on Flame Hammer, Seismic Slam and Emberquake with Onslaught and Storm Burst providing movement utility in this skill tree.
- Construction: The summoner focused tree of the Engineer which opens up some opportunities to utilise mechanical summons that provide tanking, healing and direct damage. Summons themselves are not an effective build unfortunately due to the limited time summons are active that is shorter than their cooldown. This tree also offers talents that requires a cannon weapon equipped and enhances your ability to deal damage with this weapon archetype. In terms of passives you’ll find added durability, elemental damage increases and improved charge generation. Healing Bot is a staple of all your Engineer builds in Torchlight 2 as it is a highly effective addition to you and your team while the Fire and Spark and Charge Dominations are another great passive additions to specific builds that utilise fire damage or charges. With this skill tree players can also create a cannon based Engineer build with Blast Cannon or create a summon build for fun that leverages Spider Mines and other summons.
- Aegis: The third Engineer skill tree is focused on the traditional tanking role in a party and provides you a range of abilities to protect allies and soak up damage for the team. This tree assumes you’ll be using a single handed weapon and shield with passive effects to turn your armour into damage, provide further damage mitigation and some potential to heal yourself. This tree offers plenty of utility for a number of builds with skills like Forcefield to absorb damage, Dynamo Field to generate charges easily and Immobilisation Copter to weaken enemies.
Engineer Flame Hammer / Emberquake Build
The blitz tree is the most popular Engineer build variant and generally involves players either making a Flame Hammer or Emberquake build depending on their goal. These builds have a number of similarities with the main difference being your choice of main attack skill.
- Flame Hammer: Available at level 1 players can utilise a Flame Hammer build throughout the game without issue although at the highest levels of end game progress Flame Hammer will be slightly outclassed by the more powerful Emberquake. Much of the damage from this ability comes from the splinters that are created which are boosted in number if charges are available that makes fire damage boosts and Focus an important factor.
- Emberquake: Available only at level 42 Emberquake is not ideal for those that don’t intend to tackle new game plus as you’ll likely only unlock Emberquake towards the end of normal playthrough. This means you’ll be without a main attacking skill for much of the game unless you use a respec through console commands or the available potion respec option. One potential option that many players following an Emberquake build utilise is to max Seismic Slam while levelling and as a backup at high levels for the crowd control stun it offers.
Engineer Flame Hammer / Emberquake Build Skills
Your choice of skills when playing this Engineer build should be as follows with your final build including:
- 15 Flame Hammer OR Emberquake
- 15 Seismic Slam (Emberquake builds only for levelling)
- 15 Force Field
- 15 Healing Bot
- 15 Dynamo Field
- 15 Fire and Spark
- 15 Immobilisation Copter
- 15 Fire Bash (if using a shield)
- 1+ Onslaught
- 1+ Charge Domination
Players should always focus on maximising their main attacking skill (Flame Hammer or Seismic Slam/Emberquake) then ensure they grab at least 1 point in the support skills and then focus as required based on what you feel your character is lacking. Maxing these attacks skills is always a priority as each level boosts your damage output and ensures you can handle the increasingly tougher enemies that you face in the Torchlight 2 universe.
Force Field is particularly powerful towards the mid to late stages of your progress as a damage mitigation tool. Prior to this you’ll generally only be using it for bosses and champions so don’t feel the need to overinvest in this early on. Instead during early stages of Torchlight 2 you’ll generally want to focus on other utility such as the healing provided by your Healing Bot, the charge generation of Dynamo Field and a single point in Onslaught for the movement it provides. When you reach level 42 Immobilisation Copter provides an all around solid debuff to enemies that can make hitting your skills easier while reducing enemy damage output. Further utility can be provided through Charge Domination with a single point a fantastic investment while additional points are only useful if you are finding your charge mechanic difficult to manage.
Fire and Spark and Fire Bash provide further damage support with their fire boosting components. Fire and Spark is a better priority though particularly if you don’t intend to reach max level as it applies a large passive boost unlike Fire Bash that relies on the final tier upgrade and active use of the skill to apply the fire damage benefit. If you are going to use a Torchlight 2 Engineer 2H build (two handed weapon) then don’t invest points into Fire Bash at all. Given the reliance on Forcefield in this build that is also a completely viable path to take as it will mitigate most of the damage for you.
Engineer Flame Hammer / Emberquake Build Stats
Like most Torchlight 2 builds your choice of stats will be somewhat gear influenced and also requires a balance of stat points to maximise your offence and defence.
- Strength: With the boost to critical damage and weapon damage that this offers you’ll want to look to get as much value as you can here for the serious damage boost. At the end game (level 100) this means approximately 1,000 strength total so while levelling you’ll want to be investing slightly more than half your points here (3 per level).
- Dexterity: To maximise your investment in strength and add some survivability you’ll need a reasonable dexterity investment. Around 250-300 at level 100 will be sufficient although I recommend front loading some of this investment given early game dexterity is a good damage booster (critical chance and fumble recovery) and an effective survivability source (dodge chance).
- Focus: Any points you have remaining can go into focus given it is a damage boost to our fire magic damage that is a large source of overall damage. The mana is also nice for some of our heavy mana draining abilities although Healing Bot provides good recovery that also helps.
- Vitality: If you’re using a shield you’ll want around 100 to 150 points here to reach the maximum block level possible (75%). This number isn’t too different for those using 2H weapons either as you’ll need enough health to survive going toe to toe with enemies. Like dexterity front loading some of this can be useful so don’t be afraid to investment 2 or 3 points from your first few levels here before reducing this to adding 1 per level.
