Titan Quest 2's new class is a dream for lovers of the Diablo Necromancer

A new Titan Quest 2 update has just arrived, introducing the game's sixth Mastery, Spirit. If you're a fan of the Necromancer in games like Diablo, then this is going to be the one for you. Much like in its predecessor, your character's class in Titan Quest 2 is actually a combination of two 'Masteries,' so each new addition that comes along dramatically increases the number of potential combinations the Greek mythology ARPG puts at your fingertips. Starting with some minion mayhem, the newcomer also offers options to manipulate shades, harvest souls, and sacrifice your own life force for extra energy and power.

The Titan Quest 2 Spirit Mastery builds on the introduction of basic summons earlier this year with something much more fundamentally wound around them. The newcomer boasts a total of ten active skills and 26 passives - notably more than seen in the previous Masteries so far. Developer Grimlore Games says that this is the "first step towards a larger change when it comes to our passives," and as such you can expect the approach here to be gradually rolled out to the game's other existing Masteries.

To start with, having a wider base selection of passives across each Mastery creates "more choices between slightly different effects." On top of that, the three-feat restriction on each passive has been lifted. "This should create fewer situations where your feats were almost 'pre-determined' by your specific build direction," the team explains. "We hope that this will allow for more interesting and nuanced build crafting."

Kicking off your minion army are the Eidolon Guards, "powerful spirits of fallen heroes." They're strong, but offer just a fleeting presence on the battlefield by default. You can play into this by enhancing them with specific triggers that apply when they are summoned or upon their death, or you could sacrifice your own Life total to keep them around for longer. Alternatively, specialize the Mastery's damaging Deathward Beam skill into a healing and buffing tool to sustain them - you can even use this on other allies in co-op.

For a bit more of a powerhouse option, try the greater summon Athanekros, a spellcaster that comes with its own set of unique abilities. You can specialize it into being a backline damage dealer or a buffer, keeping it protected by the Eidolon Guards. Want it to hit even harder? Trade out its health for more power, and then make use of that healing Deathward Beam to keep both it and your Guards alive.

Every good Necromancer needs some ways to support their summons, and the Spirit Mastery is no slouch here. Soul Vortex creates a large area of effect that drags any nearby enemies towards its center. You can enhance it with modifiers that weaken enemy resistances while inside, or buff your own allies that are standing in its radius.

All of these pieces come together to create a devastating squad that puts you in an active supporting role while your minions dish out the heavy damage - but that's just one of many possible Spirit playstyles, especially as you factor in the possible combinations with the other five Masteries.

Titan Quest 2 update 0.7.0 makes some other big changes beyond the new Mastery. To start with, base movement speed has been increased. "We have heard the complaints about the game feeling slower, especially early on," Grimlore remarks. "This change will hopefully improve this. We tried to make sure to strike a balance here, as we still want players to have a good feeling of progression when investing into movement speed via gear and builds."

The new patch also introduces basic crafting. With the current system there are four possible actions you can take. You're able to replace an affix with a random alternative from the item's eligible pool, reroll the values on an affix, or add more affixes to an item with fewer than its allowed maximum. Finally, if you've got an epic piece of gear you really don't want to stop using, you can give it a one-time level boost to keep up with your character's progression.

Grimlore says it's being cautious to strike a careful balance with crafting in Titan Quest 2. "If it becomes too easy to control, the chase for items itself moves into the background, which hurts the core gameplay of hunting for exciting loot. If it is too hard to control outcomes, it becomes a very unsatisfying and grindy experience." The goal is to create a "straightforward system" that's easy to understand, but not too powerful.

The more times you craft an item, the more expensive it will get to continue doing so. In the early game and midgame, you should "be able to cheaply get some initial improvements instantly," but will soon reach a point where you're better off waiting for the next good drop for an upgrade. In the late game, you'll have more opportunities to focus on farming for resources, and thus will be able to try and hit those perfect rolls, "but might still want to look for a new base if you don't get the desired results after a while."

The rest of the 0.7.0 patch notes include even more changes, with additional balancing across the other five Masteries. Cooldown reduction affixes have been made more common on gear, drop rates from non-boss elites have been improved, and the base multiplier on critical and super-critical hits has been nerfed slightly. There's also balancing for the Doom and Lifesteal mechanics, along with the option to reserve Life instead of Spirit "for many abilities" if you want to spread out your resources, or perhaps toy around with a low-life build.

Titan Quest 2 build 0.7.0 is live now, introducing the Spirit Mastery and crafting system. If you're an ARPG enthusiast who struggles to keep up with the constant seasonal cycles of modern live-service games such as Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2, TQ2 is filling in that gap very nicely, and its early access continues to progress at an impressive pace.