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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.