Overview
For those looking for hybrid Forged build.
Intro
After playing my Sharp ”Ninja” Shooter, I wanted to mix melee and ranged options for Forged aswell to counter any possible weakness. This build has lots of end game potential, especially with proper items. Using screenshots from my HC Ridiculous Forged gameplay.
Let’s begin…
Heat Skills
These are our only skills for Heat. Both of these have high 14 heat per use making them effective for the job.
Slugshot: This is our main spammable DPS skill. It can be used from range or melee if AoE is needed. I recommend to max this as soon as possible.
Servo-Driven Uppercut: Very underrated skill in my opinion. Perhaps because it’s single target close range DPS skill. However, this hits harder and faster than Basic Attack, has some good combo options and naturally high Stun chance. As stun chance is so high with just 3 points invested, we can strike our opponents continuously to death unlike other characters who needs to watch foes attack animations and dodge their strikes. We can make best damage trades with this. Melee skills Heat up faster than ranged ones so this is our best Heat skill. Recommend to take 1-3 points early.
Vent Skills
These are only Vent skills we are about to use.
Coal Launch: Our highest DPS skill that hits AoE. Can be used nearly anywhere in screen. Gets even better with Mr.Toasty Cannon Legendarium.
Fracking Strike: Another underrated skill. This powerful screen wide skill covers all our offensive, defensive, crowd control and venting needs. Skill’s damage may seem low in description, but it strikes several times + 2 times in melee around us with 1st tier bonus. Cast animation is only downside.
Core Skills
Choose whatever you like in here. Here’s my recommendation that I also used:
Ramming Robot: Our only movement skill. We only use this for movement so 3 points here. Extra points only increase damage.
Sonic Pulse: Increase our DPS a lot. Recommend to take 3 points early for Stun and max this later for cooldown reduction.
Example skill build
Here’s example of fresh 60 build. You may extend this further with Set items.
Relic
I used Flaming Destroyer. Electrode is also very powerful option.
Pet skills
These are pretty standard for Ridiculous Hardcore.
Legendarium
The Wanderer’s Hood is mandatory as that can save your life. Mr. Toasty Cannon is very powerful and highly recommended.
Gameplay
Forged is the least mobile character in the game. With this build we can start the fights safely from range and finish the remaining foes in melee. We are very comfortable for both styles and we can mix these however we like from full range to full melee. These skills have great synergy together making us Terminators of the battlefields.
Melee Gameplay
We are combining our skills to benefit from 2-handed weapon and chest gun. This is very useful against big single targets like Unique or Elite monsters.
Servo-Driven Uppercut: Heats up very fast. With 3 skill points we can perma stun anything. Fast animation also means lots of on-hit procs we prefer.
Fracking Strike: Natural 50% Slow is keeping us safe, as it decreases monsters movement and attack speed by 50%. If we fail to Uppercut Stun, we can have multiple chances to trigger it again. Slow chances stacks if we have weapon or chest gun with same stat. This strikes enemies several times in melee range, so we are likely getting lots of on-hit triggers for Chill, Burn, Blind etc. Each use triggers our Power Projection’s 2nd tier passive once up to 2-3 times for extra Block chance.
Coal Launch: Skill’s damage is dependent on opponents movement. As we are hard crowd controlling our foes movements, they are always taking full damages from this skill. Mr.Toasty Cannon Legendarium not just boost this damage to heavens, but each Coal Fragment also triggers our on-hit effects from chest gun.
Sonic Pulse: Opponents take 40% more damage from all of our skills with this. Instant wide AoE stun is perfect and can even be used to stun opponents mid air.
Slug Shot: We can shoot these for higher DPS when opponents are stunned by Servo-Driven Uppercut. Kinda situational and mostly used if there are some ranged foes behind some big target.
Ranged Gameplay
Just like in melee, we are combining our skills to benefit from both weapons.
Slug Shot: Literally use this all the time to heat up.
Fracking Strike: Wide AoE skill with Slug Shot’s range? Yes please. This slows and triggers on-hit effects just like in Melee Gameplay giving opponents hard time getting nearby. As this is considered as melee skill like Railmaster’s Spike Drive, it triggers Fighter’s Spirit passive that is 50% damage absorb. Here we also need to know that Vortex Bomb’s 2nd tier passive ”+20% damage reduction in melee combat” is misleading, just like Railmaster’s Blasting Charge’s 2nd tier passive. It actually increases Fighter’s Spirit from 50% damage absorb to 70% damage absorb from any damage from anywhere. We can shoot from range with full melee benefits. I would not consider playing Ranged Forged without Fracking Strike.
Coal Launch: Same as in Melee Gameplay, but as this can be shot behind obstacles if we plan to use them for our protection.
Sonic Pulse: Same as in Melee Gameplay, but also handy to keep opponents away from us with instant stun.
Questions
If you have any questions, you may contact me at Torchlight 3 Discord channel. I will read and probably update this build guide time to time.
~GuiltyMuscles
