Torchlight Infinite Erika build - best skills, talents and gear

Torchlight Infinite Season 2 is upon us, and with it comes a brand new character, Cateye Erika. Erika is a unique character to the cast, as she doesn't get her damage from normal stats that you'd might expect. So if you're looking to play this new character then our Torchlight Infinite Erika build guide will help you get off on the right track.

Erika being the new hero of the season, it's only natural to want to try this character out. She's a bit tricky in terms of her mechanics, but with the right talents and gearing, Erika is a fantastic league starter and an incredibly strong character.

While you're here, definitely check out our guide to Torchlight Infinite Season 2: Blacksail, to get a full coverage of what's coming in this brand new season. Also check out our guide that answers the question is Torchlight Infinite is pay to win?

Torchlight Infinite Erika build - mechanics

To start off, let's talk about Erika's main mechanics. Her Hero Trait is called Wind Stalker. It grants you "Cat's Agility" for 10 seconds after moving six meters. While Cat's Agility is active, you gain 20% movement speed, and 200% of any increases or decreases to movement speed is also applied to your attack damage.

As a baseline, we're going to definitely want movement speed on gear and in our tree, as that's a direct increase to our damage, but it isn't the only way to scale it. Next let's look at her Hero Trait passives, which gives us more information about how else we're getting more damage.

Torchlight Infinite Erika build - best hero trait passives

Now we're going to look at the Hero Trait passive options and detail the best options to pick for Erika.

• Level 13: Hot Pursuit
  • +200% Multistrike Chance during Cat's Agility
  • Gain 1 Stack of Stalker every two meters of movement during Cat's Agility. Can have up to two stacks of Stalker
    • Stalker: Multistrikes deal 20% additional damage with each strike
  • When Multistrike ends or you lose Cat's Agility, you lose all Stalker stacks
• Level 32: Interest
  • Extends Cat's Agility duration by 1.5 seconds when Stalker is gained
  • 10% movement speed per each stack of Stalker
• Level 50: Cat's Punches
  • Max Stalker staks increased by one.
  • Each Multistrike deals 10% more damage for each stack of Stacker you have
• Level 62: Cat Walk
  • Your Multistrike count will not be interrupted during Cat's Agility
  • You no longer lose Stalker after Multistrike ends
  • Stalker lasts for three seconds
• Level 80: Cat's Vision
  • During Cat's Agility, max stalker stacks increases by one upon reaching the maximum Multistrike count up to +3 stacks, until Cat's Agility Ends

Cat's Agility is our base line passive, and with Hot Pursuit, we now gain a bunch of Multistrike chance. We also gain Stalker stacks, which gives our multistrikes more damage. Multistrikes are going to be the way that we deal our biggest damage.Interest lets us keep our Cats Agility and Stalker stacks up longer, while Cat's Punches gives us an additional Stalker stack.

Cat Walk is very important for our damage. When we hit with a Multistrike skill, after the additional hits are dealt or we have to move, normally the "multistrike count" would reset to zero. Cat's Walk allows us to be able to move around and keep our Multistrike hit count, which additionally scales our damage. It also plays well with Cat's Vision as this increases our Stalker stack count upon hitting the maximum Multistrike count.

One thing to note here, the other level 62 passive, Cat Dive, is also very good. We don't take it though during the leveling and gearing process as there's another way to get it in addition to Cat Walk, and we'll talk about that later.

Torchlight Infinite Erika build - best skills

The next thing that we're going to look at are the skills that you'll want to use with Erika. The interesting thing about Erika is that she's one of the only characters in the game that utilizes a skill swap. Here's what we're going to want for our main skill.

• Main Skill: Berserking Blade (swap with Thunder Slash for bossing)
  • Raging Slash
  • Multistrike
  • Electric Overload
  • Lightning Penetration
  • Added Lightning Damage

Our main skill for maps is going to be Berserking Blade. It has some incredible clear potential since it swings in a circle. Even on a three or four link, this skill can clear maps in the early game with ease. You definitely will want to prioritize getting all five supports on this skill first. When you're going up against a map boss or a Watcher, you'll want to switch to Thunder Slash.

Thunder Slash is a skill that was made for Erika and is the main skill that you'll start the game with. It's a Strike skill, but doesn't gain Steep Strikes, but rather it gains Multistrike chance instead, making it deal massive single target damage. Here is there rest of the skills you're going to want.

• Leap Slam (or any non-channeling movement skill)
  • Quick Mobility
  • Hardened
  • Periodic Burst
  • Mark
• Ressurection Warcry
  • Lion's Roar
  • Armor Infusion
  • Emergency Restoration
• Bull's Rage
  • Deathwill
  • Extended Duration
  • Pain Amplification
• Electrocute
  • Terrain of Malice
  • Extended Duration
  • Abysmal Hatred

OR

• Fearless Warcry
  • Extended Duration
  • Lion's Roar
  • Pain Amplification

Auras

• Death Pact
  • Bloodthirst
  • Fixate
  • Seal Conversion
• Thunder Imbue
  • Fearless
  • Swiftness (if you can fit it)
• Auto Defense
  • Stone Skin
  • Magical Source
  • Seal Conversion

With Berserking Blade and Thunder Slash being our two main damage skills, everything else serves to support that. Leap Slam is a great way to work in Harden and Mark. Ressurection Warcry is a solid healing option, and when combined with Armor Infusion and Bull's Rage, gives us a fair bit of physical damage mitigation. Bull's Rage is a damage boost that we're going to want to use on cooldown.

The last slot can be used for either Electrocute to dish out some increased lightning damage, or Fearless Warcry to gain additional Increased Steep Strike chance. Fearless Warcry will be better for bossing, while Electrocute is the play for general mapping.

For our Auras, we will want Bloodthirst linked to Deathpact for a consistent attack speed and movement speed increase. Then we'll want Fixate for double damage, and finally Seal Conversion to reserve our life for this slot. Our main offensive auras are going to be Thunder Imbue and Fearless, and if you can fit it in, Swiftness.

Lastly, we're going to throw Auto Defense linked to Stone Skin in the last spot to give us a reliable defensive layer. We're going to put Magical Source here to help sustain mana, and Seal Conversion once more to reserve our life in this slot.

Torchlight Infinite Erika build - best passives

For our passive skill tree, we're going to start out in Goddess of Hunting. Since we're a fast attacking, lightning based build, this makes a ton of sense. You're going to want to take nodes that give us damage, crit, attack speed, and dexterity to start. Eventually we'll come back to get Lightning Damage and movement speed later. The major talent nodes we want to take are Perception, since we're going to be stacking Dexterity, and Rushed for leveling. Impermanence is good for bossing though, so you may be interested in swapping this in on occasion.

The next tree is going to be Blade Runner. This is going to further our push towards Lightning damage, and attack speed. There's a few very important nodes to pick up here. There's a Dexterity node that goes leads into a Lightning Damage per Dexterity. You'll also want to grab the Multistrike nodes at the end of the tree. Otherwise, you'll want the same kinds of offensive nodes Our major nodes here are Static for more attack speed and life regain while we're attacking, and Quick Advancement for increased Multistrike damage. Conductive could also be good depending on your Life Regain and Attack Speed.

The final tree that we take is up for debate. The choices we have to pick from are Ronin or The Brave. Ronin gives us an insanely powerful major node and some Steep Strike chance, while The Brave gives us a bunch of Multistrike chance. Both gives a bunch of damage options and defenses. If we take Ronin, we want to take the Ferver on Crit nodes, the percent Dex and Strength nodes, and the Steep Strike nodes. For major nodes, you're taking Sprinkle and Falling Leaves.

If you want The Brave, then we want to take the Multistrike while dual wielding nodes, as well as Warcry Effect. Major nodes, you're going to take Joined Forces, and Well Matched. At the moment, the ideal situation is taking The Brave, while getting Falling Leaves on an Infinity belt.

Torchlight Infinite Erika build - best stats and gear

For our stats, we are a Dexterity stacker, so Dexterity anywhere we can get it is important. For our armor, life and resists are going to be some of our main defensive layers. If you can also find % stats and flat lightning damage, those are nice to have as well.

Our weapons are going to be what's important to craft. We're going to want a high attack speed one handed sword, such as the level 66 Hero's Longsword. For our prefixes, we want to have flat lightning damage, lightning damage per Dexterity and % Elemental damage. For our suffixes, we'll want flat Dexterity, Attack speed, and multistrike chance or hybrid multistrike chance. We want two of those for sure.

As for legendary gear, there's a few pieces that we'd definitely want to pick up. In our chest slot, a well rolled Everlasting Cloud will give us up to 60% Dexterity, which is a huge damage buff. That's the really only "mandatory" piece of gear. An Infinity belt with Falling Leaves on it and defensive perks is a great option as well. The Chain of Resistance amulet is a great budget option that will serve you well until you can craft a Destroyer's Amulet.

For our Hero Relic and Memories, the best in slot options are going to be the Cat's Vengeance Diary for our Relic, with as many Memory slots open as possible. A good rare one though with Multistrike chance, attack speed or movement speed are also great. For our Memories, best in slot is Butterfly Hunting, which grants us the Cat Dive Hero Trait perk. For any other open slots, one rare memory with Cat's Agility duration increase is great, and then fill out the rest with Thunder Punishment Prayer, which gives you additional lightning damage for each one that's socketed.

And that's all you need to know about Cateye Erika! She's a super fun hero to play, and you can get her from the battle pass at level one if you want to play her now. If you want to wait, then she'll be free for Hero Emblems next season.