The Reaver is the marriage of the Rogue’s focused attacks and Warfare’s brutish ferocity. The end product is an extremely aggressive, range-centric class that can crowd control and boss damage with the best of them. The best part of this build, Trick Shot, is high-damage linear attacks which slice through several targets with ease. Added with Warfare’s attack speed increase, physical rewards, and Rage mechanics, it becomes a pain to be encountered in any combat.
This build is so appealing because of how easily it can be executed. While it does require good positioning and awareness of situations, it does not require complex skill rotations so it is simple enough for beginners to learn but still fulfilling for pros.
Core Build: Piercing Trick Shot
Rogue Mastery is taken early in the build to gain access to Trick Shot and its variants. Warfare is taken later for additional damage and energy regen. Most of the energy is reserved for core skills, so the player must budget their resource pool very carefully. This tradeoff between core and expendable attacks adds depth without losing effectiveness in the leveling process.
Stat Allocation Strategy
During leveling, attribute points need to prioritize Agility first in order to increase ranged weapon proficiency and likelihood of Glancing Hit. Your second point of priority is Might, which increases melee damage and armor requirements. In case further survivability is necessary, the remaining points can be invested in Vigor. This setup gives the highest synergy with your two main sources of damage—Strike and especially Pierce.
Gear and Weapon Choice
Any weapon can be used initially, as Trick Shot is still effective. But the longer you progress, a bow is unavoidable. Bows allow you to get the most out of your ranged set, with optimal linear piercing damage and critical potential. Spears are an off-case alternative, particularly with a shield for defense skill on more difficult fights.
For gearing, prioritize flat Pierce damage, critical chance, and attack speed. Do not equip ailment-specific items because this build is not ailment-based. Energy regen or decreasing Energy cost items will also sustain your offense for quite a long time.
Defense and Survivability
This construction isn’t designed to withstand prolonged melee damage. Survivability is achieved in the guise of savvy positioning, mobility speed, and Glancing Hit chance stacking. Heavy gear, facilitated by the accomplishment of reaching Might requirements, offers desirable armor ratings without slowing movement. As passive dodging is no longer a part of Titan Quest 2, players have to make do with Armor (for Strike and Pierce), Resistences, and manual dodging to mitigate damage.
Glancing Hits are applied prior to Resistances in damage calculation, so successful glancing has a very high effectiveness in decreasing incoming damage. Barriers are also effective but not something to be depended on for high scaling; it’s best used as an enemy encounter buffer.
Divinity Progression
To reach higher levels of proficiency, Divinity Points must be invested in Masteries. Begin by investing at least 18 points in Rogue to unlock and stack Trick Shot. Along the progression, begin investing in Warfare with the eventual goal of reaching Battle Rage, which raises Rage creation and overall combat effectiveness.
Divinity can be respecced whenever, so go for it and re-allocate for change in circumstances or new gear.
Key Passives and Skills
The spec is built around using the following active and passive skills for damage and control:
- Trick Shot, your primary ranged skill, needs to be maxed soon. Modifiers are extra damage and critical hit opportunity.
- Preparation is your main aura, making all of your weapon damage Piercing and permitting better criticals (or “super crits”) that can deal up to 300% damage.
- Primary Attack (Core) is an energy-sapping reserve, boosted by nodes like Onslaught and Fragmentation.
- Deft Hands and Accuracy continue to boost attack speed and critical potential.
- Vanish picks up mobility and critical bonuses, enabling repositioning and moving out of harm’s way.
- Battle Rage, once unlocked, facilitates burst damage by creating Rage.
- Dodge (Core) enhances evasion and cooldown reduction, and adding Nimble Defense provides additional protection layers via Glancing Hits.
- By level 26, you should have most of this build complete. From there, fine-tune further depending on gear, available Divinity, and campaign difficulty.
Combat Strategy and Skill Use
The Reaver is mobility and timing. Begin in combat by opening up from distance with Trick Shot. When your energy is low, fallback to your Core Skill until the regeneration occurs. Use Vanish to move into and out of combat or reposition to achieve best attack angles.
Keep it constantly up for its damage conversion and critical bonus. On harder battles, use your Barrier when you’re luring mobs in to absorb initial hits off your shield while positioning yourself.
If energy sustain is an issue, consider unlocking Battlefield Awareness, a Warfare aura that provides Energy regeneration and caps your Glancing Hit opportunity. Be cautious only of its Energy Reservation cost.
Defensive Mechanics and Playstyle
Survival is based on four things:
- Manual movement to prevent direct damage.
- Glancing Hits to cut incoming damage in half.
- Armor, particularly Pierce and Strike types.
- Resistances, which top out at 60%.
Because barriers do not scale well, your best defense is minimizing damage using savvy movement and strategic enemy placement. Always attack from range first, and use the level environment to aid you, particularly for elevation or line-of-sight breaks.
