Torchlight Infinite Currency

The nerf to Judgment alters the damage potential of the summoner class in Torchlight: Infinite SS14 Tartarus, but Commander Moto 2 hasn't lost its value.

By switching to dual-wielding hammers, allowing players to actively apply Frostbite, and optimizing Slate bonuses, this build offers an alternative approach that balances damage output, gear cost, and map clearing efficiency.

How should the minion build be adjusted after Judgment nerf?

In SS13, Judgment provided nearly double the buff to minions, and combined with Command-related attack speed and cast speed stats, it significantly extended the minion's burst damage window.

However, upon entering SS14, Judgment's buff was reduced to approximately 40%, and its own brand debuff was also adjusted, further narrowing its actual effectiveness. For older builds that relied on Judgment to amplify damage, this meant that the original output ceiling was difficult to maintain.

But the nerf to Judgment doesn't mean that the minion build in Torchlight Infinite has lost its competitiveness. This Commander Moto 2 build shifts its damage focus to the dual-wielding hammer's affix duplication mechanism and the status ailment synergy provided by Frostbite, thus compensating for the loss caused by the reduced Judgment buff.

According to test data, the current configuration deals approximately 5 trillion to 6 trillion damage, with actual performance depending on the triggering of double damage. Nevertheless, as a relatively inexpensive transitional build, this damage performance is still sufficient for most map clearing scenarios.

Damage Base: Frostbite must be applied by the player

The core status ailment of this build is Frostbite. According to the mechanics, Frostbite has a chance to be applied when hit by cold damage. Each point of Frostbite rating increases the cold damage received by the target, triggering Freeze when it accumulates to 100 points.

However, a key limitation is that Frostbite applied by Minion itself has a rating cap, preventing it from stacking Frostbite to a sufficiently high value to cause a significant impact, unlike a player character. Therefore, triggering Frostbite must be done by the player character.

Currently, there are two methods available:

• Frost Terra allows Frostbite to be applied from a distance, suitable for output environments requiring maintaining distance.
• Ring of Blades is a channeling skill; the player simply holds down a key and moves the cursor to continuously trigger Frostbite, offering lower operational burden at the cost of sacrificing a skill slot.

It's important to note that neither of these methods itself is responsible for output; their sole function is to reliably apply Frostbite to enemies, with the subsequent damage dealt by the minions.

The Advantages of Dual-Handed Hammers

This build uses dual-wielded hammers primarily because hammers can simultaneously gain both extra melee damage and additional damage to life affixes. Bows cannot have both simultaneously; while not unusable, they lose some of the stacking damage.

What truly makes dual-wielding hammers viable is the copying mechanism within Forge system: the large slab can copy the +1 minion affix from the small slab, further amplifying the benefit of the extra minions gained while dual-wielding.

Furthermore, the attack speed/cast speed affixes on the hammers affect both Minions and the player. A 67% attack speed/cast speed affix, combined with dual-wielding and minions inheritance, nearly doubles the actual benefit, significantly increasing the Minion's attack frequency.

It's important to note that the crucial fist affix on weapons is difficult to obtain, with an appearance rate of approximately 5%; the crafting cost of the two-handed ultimate mod is also quite high.

If your in-game currency reserves are insufficient, you can choose to buy Torchlight Infinite FE to accelerate the acquisition of ideal affixes, increase the damage ceiling of your build, and avoid affecting your ability to handle high-difficulty battles due to a lack of key high-priced affixes.

Auras, Slate, and Followers

This build uses a four-aura, Glass Cannon configuration: Radical Order, Fearless, Weapon Amp, and Frigid Domain. The focus is on increasing damage and map clearing efficiency, sacrificing some defensive capabilities for faster map clearing speed.

The core of Slate configuration is to utilize the duplication mechanism to obtain an additional +1 minion affix. When configuring, carefully check the duplication target of the large slab to ensure it correctly corresponds to the affix on the smaller slab; otherwise, even if the configuration seems complete, you may not obtain the expected bonus.

In addition, it is recommended to retain at least one source of +1 Focus Blessing to synergize with the double damage trigger condition of Wind of Origin.

Regarding the new Followers added in TLI SS14, this build is currently not recommended as its buffs offer limited improvement to the Minion system.

Key Practical Points: Compensating for Survivability Weaknesses with High Burst Damage

The advantage of this Commander Moto 2 Minion build lies in its concentrated damage and high map clearing efficiency. Even with Judgment nerf, it can still maintain considerable output thanks to weapon affixes, Frostbite synergy, and Focus Blessing.

However, the four-aura configuration also means the character's survivability is relatively weak. When facing high-damage enemies or difficult mechanics in Torchlight Infinite, more attention needs to be paid to positioning and skill timing.

In actual map clearing, priority should be given to ensuring the minions can quickly eliminate enemies, and double damage probability, critical hit rate, and key high-tier affixes should be gradually added as gear is completed.

As gear continues to upgrade, this build still has room for further damage increases; if a life leech approach is adopted later, survivability can also be improved to make map clearing more stable.

Torchlight: Infinite SS14 Tartarus introduces Follower system, which shares some similarities with Mercenary system in Path of Exile 1 but is much less complicated. You can equip your followers with skills that complement your build.

Followers have different rarity tiers, but they cannot be traded directly, although related items can be traded. The system is exclusive to the current League. Here's how to obtain followers and choose the best Mercenaries for your build.

How to Obtain Followers?

Followers are exclusive drops from SS14 mechanics. Once you enter the relevant Tartarus content, you can obtain Recommendation Letters through its dedicated drop system rather than relying solely on farming regular maps.

You need to capture prisoners and use an auto-battler-style devouring mechanic to increase their rarity. Once a prisoner evolves to the highest quality, you have a chance to obtain the corresponding Recommendation Letter during the final suppression settlement, allowing you to recruit that prisoner as a follower.

You can inspect a follower's details through its Recommendation Letter, including its type, rarity, and starting skill. Every follower can have up to three skills. One starting skill is fixed and cannot be replaced, while the other two skill slots can accommodate additional skills.

Follower Skills

Follower skills are obtained through a similar drop system and can have up to three Supports. For example, Level 3 Frigid Transmission comes with three Supports, while Level 2 versions may have two and Level 1 versions may have one.

Some Supports are unavailable to players themselves, and certain skills can only be used by specific followers. There are currently four basic follower species: Lion Queen, Lone Wolf, Mammoth, and Witch Rat. Each species has its own skill pool, although some skills overlap between different species.

Tartarus Skills are special skills that can only be equipped by followers. They can deal damage directly, grant buffs to players and allies, or inflict debuffs on enemies. They are generally variations of existing player skills with modified effects.

Origin Tartarus Skills are rarer variants of Tartarus Skills. They often feature more distinctive and exclusive effects, giving them the potential to define an entire build. Followers with Origin Tartarus Skills are therefore more valuable.

Follower Categories

Followers fall into four main categories, each representing a different playstyle:

• Lion Queen: Elemental spells and area damage
• Lone Wolf: War Cries, mobility, and defensive support
• Mammoth: Melee combat, War Cries, and recovery
• Witch Rat: Spells, area attacks, and debuffs

Lion Queen and Witch Rat primarily use spell-based skills, including Black Hole, Blazing Meteor, Blink, Swift Shadow Raid, and Tide Well.

Swift Shadow Raid, in particular, is exclusive to Witch Rat and focuses on projectiles. After casting it, the follower and player gain Projectile Speed for four seconds, and the skill has no cooldown. As a result, Witch Rats starting with this skill worth more Torchlight Infinite FE.

Lone Wolf and Mammoth focus more on melee combat and War Cries, while Blink is available to all follower types. Mammoth-exclusive Origin skills include Berserking Blade, Focused Slash, Raging War Cry, and Thunder Slash. Lone Wolf, meanwhile, has Fearless War Cry, Frost Spike, Shadow Dash, and Spiral Strike.

Powerful Origin Skills

Frost Shield has a 100% chance, when taking damage, to treat your maximum Elemental and Erosion Resistances as your effective resistances. Even if your resistance is at -1,000, it is treated as capped, although your maximum resistance is reduced by 10%.

Its Ultimate Mod allows other follower skills to grant the corresponding maximum resistance and damage reduction. For example, it can provide up to approximately 70% Fire Resistance alongside an additional 10% reduction in Fire Damage taken, eliminating the need to stack resistances through gear. The effect lasts four seconds and has a six-second cooldown, but certain Supports can double its duration, bringing it close to permanent uptime.

Ice Shot is well suited to projectile builds. The more projectiles Witch Rat fires, the higher its projectile damage becomes. Its Ultimate Mod grants additional Cold Damage based on buff stacks, up to 40 stacks, with the bonuses multiplying with each other to provide substantial damage gains.

Shadow Dash causes enemies at the starting point, along the path, and at the destination to take 6% additional damage. Stacking this effect five times provides approximately a 30% damage multiplier. Each other Movement Skill used recently also grants Cooldown Recovery Speed for the skill. Its Ultimate Mod can additionally inflict Frail.

Focus Slash grants Fortify stacks, Physique, and Maximum Elemental Resistances. At 10 stacks, it provides 10% Maximum Resistance and 50% Physique. Its Ultimate Mod prevents Fortify stacks from being lost and grants 1% Skill Area for every 1% Physique, up to 100%.

Deep Space Followers

Deep Space can drop top-tier followers with Level 95 Ultimate Skills and their own unique Implicit modifiers.

For example, Lone Wolf ULT Follower Blade of the Silver Moon teleports to enemies when using Attack Skills and executes enemies with less than 12% Life when they are hit by Melee Skills.

Among Implicit modifiers, Rampaging Rat provides additional projectiles and Projectile Speed, while causing enemies to take additional damage after being critically hit by projectile skills. This makes it a strong fit for Ice Shot builds.

Scion of Light, a top-tier Lion Queen, grants the player an Elemental Shield that absorbs up to 2,500 points of Elemental Damage. Once the shield is broken, it recharges after eight seconds. Chant of Conquest can also guarantee Spell Aggression for both the player and the follower.

Iron Curtain, a Mammoth follower, has Cheat Death. When you would otherwise die, it restores 100% of your Maximum Life and causes you to take only half damage for five seconds. With a 60scooldown, this effect could be worth tens of thousands of Torchlight: Infinite Flame Elementium in Hardcore mode.

You should prioritize finding the best Origin Skill, then choose a follower capable of using it, select the most suitable Implicit modifier, and finally fill the remaining skill slots to strengthen your build. Unlike Torchlight: Infinite SS13, where you could simply stack attributes and skill levels, this system requires more trading and careful skill combinations.