I am surprised that there isn't one. Well anyway-- I played through with my first character (a Berserker) and I had a lot of fun. It's definitely better than the first game and at least on par with Diablo 3 in terms of fun. I really enjoy the atmosphere, and I'd even say that they did a better job on some parts than Blizzard did, like the creepy cultists who are actually creepy and not just throwaway one-shot monsters. Or giving the player tiers for abilities, with unlockable bonuses. It's nice. My biggest issue is the hit box/monster select detection, which is finicky. A lot of other people have complained about that though, so I expect it to be improved eventually.
I also played through on a berserker, now trying an engineer (on veteran). I also thought it's better than the first game (which I honestly never could bring myself to complete). I'm already getting a little tired of it, though, but that's usual for me with action games -- not a comment on the quality of the game, and more about the genre. Some of the things that I like about it are the secret rooms, and the special dungeons/levels and so on. It does have one or two minor annoyances, though -- I briefly tried an embermage, and I found a special level where you were swarmed with ants, and you had to click on a poison vial to pick it up and then on an ant hill to poison it, and then repeat it for each ant hill. The problem was that once the swarm had started, I found it impossible to click on the poison -- whenever I tried, I would instead click on the ants to attack them. At that point I got so frustrated that I actually deleted the character (I was only like level 10 or so anyway). I don't know if that's the same issue that you were mentioning. I could have simply skipped that dungeon but I was just so frustrated and I assumed it was because I was using a ranged character (though it may not have been the case, based on what you posted).
Great game, loving it. Still on (late) Act 2 though on my Berserker because I keep rolling alts. Playing on veteran also. What I'm most excited about is the mods, so I'm hoping they release the SDK soon.
Yeah that's the issue. A lot of people have difficulty clicking on their target-- instead it picks up something that's a few spaces away. Or it defaults to whatever is closest to you, etc. How did you build your Berserker? I did mostly passive abilities and tried to boost up my rage and crit healing, then did the skill that gives you chain lightning on attack. Works alright except for the selection issue occasionally in bigger mobs. I saw someone who did a wolf focused build-- the skill that gives you armor on attack also works for wolves, strangely enough. So some people can get upwards of 2000 armor in just seconds and run around invincible.
I've been having a lot of fun with it, rolled an embermage but am only up to the 2nd act as I'm playing with a friend who doesn't seem to have much time. Really, the only negative thing I can say is that health potions make it a liiiitle bit too easy. It takes away from some of the resource management I enjoy in RPGs. You can almost always afford a stack of potions, and pressing the corresponding hotkey before you die will bring you right back up to full HP. No need to focus on saving spells, either. But otherwise, it improves on T1 in every way. Along with FTL, it's one of the best steam games I've played in a long, long time.
I had to look it up (bad memory and al) Major Active skills: Eviscerate (default attack skill -- cone-shaped AE), STormclaw (chain lightning proc), and shadow burst (charge attack with electric damage and self-heal) I did try out glacial shatter (top-tier tundra skill) and hated it, but was too broke to actually remove it, so I have two points in that that I wish I could have removed but can't now. I don't like it because it doesn't target the creature, but an area on the screen, and creatures tend to not be standing where you target it by the time the spell goes off. Rest of my points (the majority as well) were divided into passives (all of the hunter passives, Rage Retalliation, and all of the Shadow skills)
I got it three days ago, blasting stuff to chunky salsa with an embermage - just about to start Act 2. I mostly use Prismatic Bolts, Thunder Locus and dual-wielded wands for weapons (wand chaos ftw)
Act 2 was not my favourite act, the start of 3 if not the whole of 3 is very good but if you neglected resists in previous act's you'll regret it in 3 played a zerk here too, dual wielding, not very well optimised in terms of my build so next char will be well planned out http://torchlight2armory.com/
Started it this morning, ended up playing for an hour or two, already up to level 9 or so on casual. Enjoying it more than I thought, and on the whole the art direction seems better. Except the UI, oddly, which seems blurred - especially the text, even at 100%.
I don't think Torchlight 2 lends itself to a "flow" as much as TL1 did. The overworld really disrupts that, whereas in the first you'd just go through levels mindlessly. Bit of a shame, really.
Yeah I get what you mean somewhat, I have trouble in isometric open world games where I have to explore the borders of the map before I move on. That said, it's way less repetitive this way than TL1 was.
I don't think repetition is a bad thing, it can let you get into a groove. TL2 doesn't let you get into a groove because the dungeons are shorter yet each floor seems longer and more branching. It's good and bad, but for me it's a little bit more towards "bad" as with TL1 I could just shut the music off, turn the sound effects down and put a radio show on.
Tried an Embermage this morning before work. Um... Yeah. I'm really not sure about TL2. Looks like I might have to roll a few characters to find my 'sweet spot'. Might have to go for a... um... Outlander tonight?