Mod of the Week: The Destroyer Class, for Torchlight II

Torchlight II was a worthy successor to Torchlight, featuring more of everything that made the original such a gas. More classes, more pets, more monsters, more environments, and more loot. One thing was missing, though: a giant hulking brute smashing his way through the game with dual-wielded swords the size of airplane wings. Sure, Torchlight II has the Berserker class, but I found myself missing the original big brawler, the tank who loomed a foot taller and a football field wider than everyone else. The Destroyer Class mod , created by Steam Community member Anoka, sends our favorite juggernaut, along with all of his original skills, stampeding into the sequel.

I have some fond memories of the Destroyer. The original Torchlight came along at a period in my life when I was working ridiculous hours at a stressful, soul-sucking job that left me a withered, mindless husk at the end of every day. All I wanted to was come home, turn on my computer, turn off my brain, and click on monsters until they exploded into glorious globs of guts, gold, goodies, and something else that starts with G. The other two classes were plenty of fun, but at the time I just needed the simplicity of walking straight up to a crowd of monsters and violently pummeling them into expensive muck.

So, for me, it's especially great to see the Destroyer in Torchlight II, once more standing head and shoulders above the rest of the playable classes. And, with this mod, you don't just get a nice new character model: it cleanly delivers all of the Destroyer's skills, both active and passive, from the original game.

Starting with the Destroyer's Berserker skill tree, you can upgrade your Slash Attack, letting you swing at multiple enemies in front of you, then unlock the glorious Stampede, which lets you ping-pong around the battlefield with a shoulder-first bash, and maybe move onto Chain Vortex, a phantasmal attack with a high chance of leaving enemies stunned. And don't forget Devastate, which is basically the equivalent of stuffing all your favorite weapons in a sack, spinning it over your head, and smacking someone with it as you repeatedly leap at them.

Over in the Titan tree, we see the return of Soul Rend (a mighty overhand swing), the shockwave-producing Titan Stomp, and Doomquake, which shatters the ground in all directions. If you're feeling a bit more mystical, you can climb the Spectral tree, inviting the Spectral Bowman and the Shadow Armor phantasm to pitch in and help. All of the skills have appropriate animations and visual effects, and the trees themselves contain the Torchlight icons and descriptions. I've tried out many of them, and they work just as I remember from the original.

All of the Destroyer's passive skills are back as well, from Adventurer (more XP and fame gain) to Treasure Hunter (better chances at quality loot and more gold) to Pet Mastery (shop FASTER, damn you). I checked the entire list of skills from the original game against the mod's contents, and I don't see anything that was overlooked.

Before you get too excited to welcome back your favorite man-mountain, there is a drawback to this mod. Since the Destroyer is a bigger model than the rest of the other classes in Torchlight II, he can't wear any of the armor, shoulders, gloves, boots, or helms you spend all your time cutting out of monsterbowels. Cosmetically , I mean. You can equip anything that is level, skill and class appropriate, and enjoy their benefits, but apart for the weapons he's holding, the Destroyer always looks the same. On the plus side, he looks pretty cool as is-- you can't go far wrong with spikes, chains, and an eyepatch-- but the joy of murdering General Grell is lessened a tad when you can't strut around wearing his helmet back in town.

While I do miss outfitting my Destroyer with ridiculously huge shoulder pads and great clunky helmets, I've found it's really not too hard to live without the bling. Playing the Destroyer in Torchlight always helped me decompress during difficult, stressful times, and getting to steer, stampede, and smash him through Torchlight II is pretty darn satisfying.

Installation: It's as easy as sending your badger to the pawn shop. Subscribe to the mod here on Steam Workshop , then fire up Torchlight II. Under the play button, click the Manage Mods button. Make sure "The_Destroyer" mod is checked, and Launch Torchlight with Mods. There will be an arrow in the character selection box when you start a new game, and from there just name your Destroyer, pick a pet, and get to smashin'.