Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
Torchlight 2 Outlander Build Guide – Glaive Build
Our Torchlight 2 Outlander build guide provides all the information you need to optimise your glaive build. Known as a glaivelander these characters focus heavily on Glaive Throw for their damage and is the easiest skill build available for this Torchlight 2 class. While there are other ways to build the Outlander which focus on their other DPS and crowd control abilities the Glaive Throw build has been a staple of this class across the lifecycle of Torchlight 2.
With Warfare, Lore and Sigil skill trees the Outlander has a wide range of agile tactics, unique attacking abilities and buffs within their toolkit. While the Outlander is not as popular as some of the other Torchlight 2 classes across the community they are still capable of beating the Torchlight 2 campaign across difficulties and new game plus for the dedicated player. In this guide to the Outlander we’ll focus on the reliable glaive build detailing the necessary skill and stat decisions you’ll need to make to ensure you are equipped for the fast paced gameplay of the Outlander class. Other build paths for the Outlander are also mentioned briefly for those players that want to experiment with other skill tree options for this class.
Read our other Torchlight 2 guides for Embermage, Engineer and Berserker.
Outlander Overview
Like other classes in Torchlight 2 the Outlander offers a mixture of your traditional archetypes found in action role playing games. Most notably is their similarity to a rogue class with their use of ranged weapons and agile movement abilities that allow them to move quickly across a battlefield while dealing incredibly high damage. The Outlander in Torchlight 2 also has magical and martial arts elements which ties into their lore of nomadic explorers that seek out hidden treasure and magical sources. They are often portrayed in game as former thieves or outlaws akin to pirates although are utilising their skills to obtain knowledge and hidden relics from the world lore.
For the Outlander players will find the Warfare skill tree focuses on quick movement and flashy attacks with their ranged weapon options like pistols and bows with the passives further supporting this playstyle. Builds focused on these weapons are definitely a viable path for players that want to build a gunlander and you’ll be investing heavily in this skill tree if that is the case. On the other hand your Lore skill tree offers a range of abilities that aren’t based on weapons and provide players with both utility and damage depending on your choices. Lastly, is your magical focused Sigil build where you call on magical power to buff and debuff those around you with a shadow focus.
With all of these trees in mind the Outlander is a character that specialises in keeping foes at a distance with rapid attacks, movement and disables. Provided they can quickly defeat enemies they will find little opposition although if they aren’t able to build sufficient damage in their kit may be quickly overwhelmed. This can make them a difficult single player character if your gear is lacking although less of a concern in a multiplayer environment where you have others (like an Engineer) to hold the front line for you.
For the Outlander charge variant you’ll find a slow to build charge bar but when maxed provides a boost to important statistics like critical hit, dodge, attack speed and casting speed that scales based on how far the charge bar is filled. When empty players also are provided a guaranteed stun and damage boost that while useful is unlikely to be a significant part of gameplay.
The Outlanders 3 skill trees are as follows:
- Warfare: For the Outlander this tree is focused on players that want to use pistols, shotgonnes, bows and crossbows with a number of powerful attacks for that weapon archetype. This skill tree also provides a blend of utility and talents that don’t rely on these weapons so regardless of build you will likely be making some investment here. Passively you’ll find mastery focused skills that boost your effectiveness based on your choice of weapon. Notable choices include Rapid Fire that is a staple attack if building a gunlander, Rune Vault that serves as your quick to cast primary escape skill with fantastic mana efficiency and Shattering Glaive that is a great later game choice for the glaive focused Outlander.
- Lore: Lore is another mixed bag of skills and offers the Outlander a range of throwing and glaive attacks that either offer damage or utility to your battle. Passively you’ll find methods to increase your dodge chance, add poison to your weapons and a buff to your charge ability that boosts the overall raw stat that it provides. Within this tree you’ll find one of your main attacks from the beginning of your adventure when playing a glaive build as the Outlander with Glaive Throw. It’s a fantastically reliable skill with solid damage, potential for interrupt, chains across enemies and lowers their movement speed while generating charge. With additional tiers you’ll also gain additional rebounds although the mana cost quickly increases so be careful about levelling it up too quickly. Outside of this skill in the Lore tree you will find Bramble Wall that provides some protection and three other powerful passives that are worthwhile for most builds. Dodge Mastery for example should be balanced against your other equipment and stat points to ensure you don’t waste points once at the 75% dodge cap, Poison Burst is a fantastic DPS boost to Rapid Fire focused builds and Share the Wealth is maxed regardless of your build choice.
- Sigil: The last skill tree of the Outlander that has a flair for magical powers to give the Outlander utility and some summons. Primarily focused on defences this skill tree is an important addition to most builds and ensures you’ll be equipped for the monsters you face across Torchlight 2. Passively it provides enhanced elemental damage for the glaivelander builds, turns slain enemies into shadow bats and boosts your shadow allies. In practice you’ll want to focus on Blade Pact and Stone Pact to create safe zones for your character when needed while obtaining Master of the Elements in a glaive build and ignoring the other skills unless you want to create a niche shadow summon build for fun.
Outlander Glaive Build
The two distinct pathways of the Outlander are a gun build that focused on the likes of Rapid Fire and Chaos Burst and the glaive focused build that uses Glaive Throw and Shattering Glaive. Between these builds is some overlap in utility talents in addition to some specifics throughout the trees to enhance your weapon of choice. The glaive build is detailed below which provides a foundation of Outlander play and is generally easier to use for newcomers in comparison to a gun based build.
Note that when playing as a Glaive based Outlander you’ll generally be equipped with a shield for the added survivability while using a single pistol or even a wand for the elemental damage potential that provides you a high number of stats for the equipment slot.
Outlander Build Skills
Building your Outlander is not as straight forward as simply maxing every useful skill as you have to consider mana costs, scaling and your gear through progression. You also need to consider various one point wonders along the way that provide much needed utility and should be obtained early on. Your final build for the Outlander will look like the following:
- 5+ Glaive Throw
- 15 Shattering Glaive
- 1 Rune Vault
- 1+ Dodge Mastery
- 15 Master of the Elements
- 15 Share the Wealth
- 15 Blade Pact
- 1 Bramble Wall
- 1 Stone Pact
- 5+ Repulsion Hex
Focusing on your main attacks of Glaive Throw and Shattering Glaive is your primary objective in a glaive based build although players need to be careful going beyond level 5 on Glaive Throw. This is because of the massive leaps in mana beyond this level so should only be obtained once you feel comfortable with this increased cost. Further damage is gained through maxing Master of the Elements and Share the Wealth which should be obtained in this priority order as Share the Wealth is a factor later on when you have sufficient base stats and the ability to keep your charge high. Blade Pact and Repulsion Hex support this further with damage and utility that is part of your core rotation of skills.
Along the way players should ensure they place at least a single point in their other talents particularly the strong utility skills like Rune Vault, Stone Pact and Bramble Wall that serve as your escape from danger buttons and don’t need investment beyond one skill point. Skills such as Dodge Mastery can also be in this category and is listed as 1+ as you don’t want to spend more points than necessary to reach the maximum of 75% between this skill, dexterity and your equipment.
Outlander Build Stats
For the Outlander your goals with stats is relatively straight forward in that you’ll need to acquire some to wear specific items that suit your build. In addition you’ll need some dexterity to gain some dodge, vitality to give you a base level of survivability and finish with Focus for maximising your damage.
- Strength: Simply not a focus of this build and generally will be avoided outside of any equipment needs you may have.
- Dexterity: Investment in dexterity is a balancing act and like strength you might need to obtain some for equipment. Beyond that though you’ll want to invest in some dexterity which alongside equipment and Dodge Mastery will allow you to reach the 75% cap. For most players expect to have around 100 dexterity at maximum level.
- Focus: Your primary stat as a Glaive build relies on attacks that benefit from focus for damage. This also has the side benefit of giving you a larger mana pool which is a necessity for your main attack of Glaive Throw. A late game character will likely have over 2,000 stat points invested here for a glaive based build.
- Vitality: With the glaivelander using a shield you’ll want a healthy vitality investment for the health and block chance this statistic provides. While you do have plenty of defensive focused utility in your skill tree it is not practical to expect that you never get hit in Torchlight 2 so aim for between 150 to 300 points at maximum character level.
