The game is broken down to 4 acts (5 with the Ragnarok DLC).

There are 3 difficulty levels: Normal, Epic and Legendary. When creating your first character you will be limited to Normal difficulty only. You will have to beat the game on Normal to unlock Epic and then beat it on Epic to unlock Legendary. The game can be considered truly finished when you beat it on Legendary.

When you first beat the game on Normal you might begin to wonder how much of a masochist one should be to do it all over again on harder difficulties and that's a logical thought process, but actually the real fun starts on Epic and let me tell you why:

• Equipment and items that you will find on Normal are exceptionally cringy. That's the main reason why people drop the game after beating it on Normal or even before that. Most of the gear drops you'll come across will be trash and it will look like trash, too. There's not much fun to have in running through the game looking like a hobo. The situation changes for the better on Epic and even more so on Legendary.
  
  
• Almost all of the Masteries start to shine on harder difficulties, so make an informed choice when it comes to picking a Mastery on Normal; that will define a considerable amount of fun you'll have when running through it.
  
  
• Harder difficulties are, indeed, harder, but your character becomes stronger way more significantly than the game becomes hard, at least when you pick a good Mastery (we'll cover that in the next section), so you may not even notice the difficulty spike.

The game is all about the loot you gather and the skills you pick for your character. For exemple, you have unlimited arrows to save you the time to refill, as the game is purely fight/loot focused.

The hoplite by Andrei Pervakhin

The game is pretty easy (at least on Normal) and the final boss (I won't spoil you anything) is a pushover; the biggest challenge will come from some optional bosses. All you have to do is make an informed decision about your class and your masteries.

Unlike most other games of the genre, you aren't forced to pick a class; you build one yourself by choosing your masteries. Upon reaching level 2 you'll have to pick 1 of the 9 (10 with the Ragnarok DLC) masteries. Reaching level 8 will allow you to pick a second one. The combination of both defines your class (for example Nature + Warfare makes you a Champion). You can also finish the game with only one mastery, which will net you an achievement for doing so.

So without further ado, the best masteries are as follows:

Dream
Pros:

• Totally OP
  
• Perfect for speedrunning through Normal
  
• Insane nuke damage on Normal
  
• Versatile (pet build, warrior build, mage build - although the latter is not the best choice)
  
• Can petrify enemies
  
• Strong evasion passive
  
• Not gear dependant at all

Cons:

• None

Hunting
Pros:

• Strongest mastery overall
  
• Top tier late game mastery
  
• Pierce damage focused mastery (a.k.a. the best kind of damage)
  
• Entrapment immunity, poison resistant
  
• High travel and attack speed, passive evasion skill
  
• Excellent DPS buffer

Cons:

• Must be played with a bow or a spear only (you can couple it with a shield, if you want), which is a con only if you dislike those particular weapons

Defence
Don't be fooled by the name; Defence is a very offensive mastery at a high level!

Pros:

• Most balanced mastery
  
• Can wear heavier stuff sooner, which is very helpful at all stages of the game
  
• Tanky AF
  
• Like really, really tanky
  
• Mastery focused on regen, shields and passive buffs, so you're free to use any weapon you like
  
• Stun, entrapment, sleep and disruption resistant

Cons:

• No consistent DPS increase

Now choose one or two of them, but consider this information: the spear is the best weapon in the game (because, as I stated earlier, the pierce damage is the best kind of damage).

So if we take the spear as our best weapon, then the best classes to start off with would be either Haruspex (Dream + Hunting) or Warden (Defence + Hunting).
Both are not the biggest damage dealers in the game, but are extremely balanced, providing benefits as follows:

• Effective at early game
  
• Significantly resilient
  
• Fun to play
  
• Very high damage in the late game

Some players prefer to have a high DPS count and would choose to play as a Brigand (Hunting + Rogue), which is a viable option, too. However, be aware that Brigands are glass cannons and you'll die a lot by picking this class. If you think about it, the only real challenge of the game is not to die. Aside from that, Brigands are the most gear dependant out of all classes.

I'm not saying that you'll be nigh unkillable as Haruspex or Warden, especially if it's your first character. But a hit that makes you say "time for a potion" would turn out to be fatal to other classes. You can easily finish Normal with 0 deaths (which will net you an achievement); worst case scenario: a couple of deaths. We'll take a closer look at both of these classes in a bit.

Each time you level up, that gives you 3 skill points to spend into masteries, and 2 stats points to spend on your character

Skill points can be spent on
- passive skills (round icon): permanent buff
- passive active skills (square icon, energy reserved mention):
You cast them once, and they work like a passive spell, reducing your maximum mana point of the amount told. They are given back when the spell is broken (spell brake). Those are always tremendous buff
- active skills (square icon) : cast everytime you want to use them

Stats points can be spent on:
HP 1pt = +40
Mana 1pt = +40
Strenght 1pt = +4
Intelligence 1pt = +4
Dexterity 1pt = +4

Now, read well that:

Points into STR will increase your physical damage. You want it if you play with an axe, a mass, a sword
Points into INT will increase your elemental damage, aswell as the mana regen. You want it if you play a mage with a stick. Actually, you don't want that, because mage are terrible in this game, except for pet builds
Points into DEX will increase your offensive cap, defensive cap, bleeding, poisoning, and pierce damages. You want it every time

Having a higher offensive cap than your opponent's def cap allow you to do critical hit aswell as actually hit him
Having a higher defensive cap than your opponent's off allow you to dodge attacks aswell as not getting critical hit
This stat is the most important one along the HP, even if you play mage (you hooligan), you'll often go to melee, and you'll need some DEX to simply not getting a fatal crit

So, if you plan to play with a sword, you want a 1:1 ratio STR:DEX
If you plan to play with a spear, arc, you want a 1:2 STR:DEX (will more likely look like 2:3)
If you plan to play mage, you want a 2:1 INT:DEX

As i suggeted to play Haruspex and Warden before, you would typically level up:
- + 40 HP, +4 DEX
- +4 STR, +4 DEX
Every two levels. That way you'll have 2000Hp by the end of the first act, and 5000HP by the end of Normal, which is the main reason, combined with your resistance, that will makes your character so resilient. You can pretty much face many bosses without taking any potion.
Some quest will give you extra skill and stat points. Put every extra stat point into health

Ignore masteries thumbnails that tend to make you think dream would be a mage, most of the classes end up looking like this

Great balanced class, the Haruspex can have up to 60% arrow avoidness, which is priceless in Legendary.
Some might say 40% only, but in Titan Quest, your skills can go upper than their max, to be exact, 4 points upper the max. The effect still increase lineary. Such bonus can be found on items (you will find items that give +1 to every skill in a mastery), or shrines along the field that give temporary buff. Mastery shrine typically increase your skills point into every bought skill.
The Haruspex simply is flawless, and that would make it the most noob friendly build of all.
You want it, you got it:

Level 2, chose Dream for the first mastery
Put all your points into leveling up the mastery. It gives you extra HP, STR and INT, that will allow you to put all your skill points into Dex dex, HP dex every 2 levels, because the mastery provides you enough STR.
Application: 2 lvl up:
+1 HP (+40), +1 DEX (+4) then + 2 DEX (+8)
2 x 3 = 6 skill points into mastery lvl up with +2 STR +1.75 INT +35 HP per lvl (game shows rounded numbers) makes a total of:
+12 STR +3 (or 4) INT +24 DEX +250HP every 2 lvls
This will make you extremly resistant very soon in the game.

Level up until you can put one point into Phantom strike
Right click on the skill bar, and make it your right click skill. You will love it so much, you'll use it everytime.

Level up until you put one point in the Phantom strike sync: Dream stealer
Phantom strike now allows you to refill your mana if you target ennemy that has a mana bar, aswell as dealing much more damage

Level up until you unlock Distord reality.
Enjoy one shoting every group of mob in one click
Then level up until lvl 32 mastery. Max out the Distrod sync skill: Temporal rift
And unlock the Trance of Wrath skill. You should be around lvl 8 when unlocking it, then max it out prior.

That's it, finish Normal like a troll ! You run around and kill everything without even fighting.

You can put all other skill points into whatever you like. That means a lot of skill points to your convenience.
Here you can still follow 2 strategies:
- Focus on dream until the end of Normal
- Start lvl up the Hunting mastery until lvl 24 (im speaking of the mastery lvl, not the character), to unlock Trail blazing, the entrapement immunity (80% [resistances are capped to 80%] resistance, 100% time reduction of effect). Because entrapement highly decreases your def cap, making you take a lot of crit while not being able to move at all. You want it for Act 3 where many mob throw nets. Lvl up Hunting will also give you a lot more HP and DEX ! Aswell as some more STR.
Also, quickly put some points into the first passive lvl 1 skill Woodlore: For 6 skill points it will give you considerable def cap bonus (+222) and attack speed with spears and bow (+24%).

At start, phantom strike look like a decent attack, but it will truely be godly into Epic and Legendary, the 200% damage strike on 7 target at once will always be awesome with your over increasing damages. You'll be one shoting mobs everytime.

When you'll reach Epic, Trance of wrath isn't a good choice any more, reassigned those skill points into trance of convalescence. The +12.0HP regen/s is what you want, but more importantly, the 15% damage reduce is c r a z y because it works for e v e r y damage. The total of damage you'll recieve will be cut by 15% before even the math of your shiled, armor, passive, resistance and so on.

Those are some guidance on how to lvl up, you won't ruin anything by not following it stricly. TQ is a game deeper that it looks, with various possibilities.

Once again, Warden is a perfect class on its own, perfectly balancing high DPS with incredibly strong durability. If you like to be a one man army unbreakable, you really want it.

Let me just explain briefly why the spear is the best weapon: we need to look at the damage type in the game:

- elemental damage: shot by mage staff, or random weapon bonus or skills

- bleeding damage: pathetic despite being buffed in most of the game versions, no effect on undead ! Most of major bosses have excellent resistance to it

- poison damage: good in normal, barely decent in Epic, ridiculous in Legendary. Those are a good sink of points if you go for a poison build with a bad return on investment. Slighly better than bleeding

- electrical burn damage: from Dream mastery, godly usefull

- pierce damage: those simply ignore the ennemy armor. Will make your ennemies babycry

In Normal,
Swords usually make 10% of pierce damage
Bows ~~~~~~ 25%
Spears ~~~~~25 to 30%

This is honnestly the best way to go to do a lot of damage. The spear fire rate is very slow, but soon enough in the game, hiting fast with a spear your ennemies will tear them apart so joyfully.

Build Order

Start with Defence

Put 1 point in the mastery, and 1 point on armor handling.
Early, the reduction of the STR needed to wear armors will feel great to any connaisseur of the genre, and the armor % bonus will still be usefull until the end of the game.

Put 1 point into battle awareness (and cast it)


Then put all your point into the mastery. Why lvling up the mastery only? Let's math a bit:
Exemple, every two level, you get 3 skill points, 2 stat points
1 skill point into Defence lvl gives you 1.5 STR (the game shows round number lowered), and 2 DEX with an additionnal 50 HP

With making stat points like: +1 (+40) into HP, +1 (+4) into STR
Then +2 (+8) into DEX every two lvl, while giving all 6 skill points into mastery lvl will give a total amount of:
13 STR, 20 DEX, +340 HP every 2 level up !
That will make you extremly resistant very early in the game !

Your goal is to reach lvl 24 mastery, to unlock Iron Will, a battle awereness sync, and you want to max out it! Resistant to stunt, trap, freeze, disruption. This is the must-have to go for the hardcore player achievement (finish Normal without dying).

Simultaneously, lvl 8 you chose Hunting. Put 1 point in it, and 6 points into Woodlore.

This will buff considerably your def cap and attack speed (with spear and bow only !). Then you want to reach lvl 32 Hunting asap, to unlock Volley
6 points into it will give you 16% chances to do 3 hits in the animation time of one ! If that doesn't perform that great in your opinion yet, just wait to see and realize why it is at the top of the skill tree. 16% is a high occurance when you hit fast as a hunter !

This guide will let you plenty of other skill points to spend on whatever you like or want into both masteries, enjoy !

Once again, this is a guidance, and not following it exactly won't ruin anything. Try out as you like, discover skills by yourself would be awesome for you.
Be aware that the passives skills for the shield, on the very right of the Defence's skill tree, are awesome

You got attracted to this game for a good amount of artsyle touch i guess, here is what it can look like


Early game look (often, those poor armors are the best through entire Normal run !)



Now here is an exemple of what you can look like at best in Normal



Early Epic


Late Epic/Legendary



Keep faith during your adventure, the best will always be to come !
(and chose well your class to make it easier ;)

Why am i telling you this? Because your shield provides actual second weapon bonuses (even attack with Defence mastery). A mage can't have a second item, the staff counts as two handed. I personnally think that a kind of orb in the second hand with bonuses would really help to make mage fashion again.

When you wear a shield in Normal, you actually won't feel like wearing one, but you can't know it yet. you will end up doing it for the bonuses it provides. Why so? Because the block chances are pitiful (9% moslty in Normal vs 50% in Legendary), and most importantly, when you block a hit, there is a recovery time (2.5 to 3s) before being able to block an other. You will often have killed ennemies before.
Meanwhile in Epic and Legendary, you will love the sound of the shield blocking hits, so often, you'll start to appreciate your shield way more there.

Sideway, being a warrior will allow you to make so much much more damage than mages in every aspect. The gap is so big, you really don't want to play mage.

The only exception to it are going for a pet build.
Pets in Normal are OK. But in Epic they get x4 HP, and x8 in Legendary. Truely beasts.
For exemple you can have totally OP build with 12 000 personal HP and with your pets eating everything around you as Nature + Spirit / Dream. You may want to look into other guides for this purpose.

At last, you can find some really powerfull mages, but they have a so slow start, and most character are really powerfull late game, that i didn't bother deal about flawed mages in this aimed-to-noob guide.

- Press SHIFT key to attack where you'll be pointing at with your mouse, without your character walking. Usefull with a bow, but also in melee ! You won't have to click the ennemy anymore

- TQ is a lot about reassigning skills points, if you're not happy with what you have, buy back and try out everything. Particulary if you are stuck onto a special boss

- There is a hotkey to filter white item (basic) permanently, don't even bother to pick them after lvl 3

- There is a hotkey to quickgrab gold/potions/relics. Reassign as you like it, it will be your most used one

- Don't waste time selling a lot to the blacksmith, even yellow item will look like trash for you sooner than you will think. You'll have enough gold everytime for what you want by only selling green items you don't use (1 sell in Act 4 = 10 sell in Act 1). This could sounds like a stupid tip but it really helps not getting bored of the game for a bad reason. I remember being such a useless marchand back in Diablo II

- Total speed bonus increase your running speed aswell as your attack speed and casting speed (animation)

- You'll see that death will occurs because of: stunt, entrapement, nuke. Otherwise it was because of a mistake or too much boredom.

- Relics can be put on White, yellow, green items. Not blue and purple.

- Go to the Video settings and set the HUD to TQ HUD. As you could be new, you'll have np to adapt quickly. This is meant to have your HP on the same lvl as the monster's HP bar. You'll see the usefullness

- Take a good look at the hotkeys. There aren't many, and most of them are really handy

- Do side quests, the rewards are worth it

- Be very careful with the optional boss Act 4 in the whispers cave. He will kill you for sure if you are not extremly cautious. In my opinion, the most dangerous one of the game.

- Get ready for your adventure, what are you waiting for ?!

To CrocMagnum, a Belgian guy who wrote smooth and usefull long posts on old forum online. That provided me a lot of knowledge about hidden math of the game, or biaised text (such as shield smash [Defense] skill, which shows 123 def reduction in the game, while it is actually 123% def reduction !)

To the Dev team for being reactive on the hub, it is really appreciated.

Anyone who would rate this guide and correct any of my eventual numerous mistakes as a non native.