Torchlight Infinite SS12 brings a host of thrilling updates, including a brand-new hero and Lunaria Mechanic. Yet the changes to the summoning playstyle may have slipped under the radar for many players.

Whether in Path of Exile, Diablo, or any other ARPG of the same stripe, summoner builds are consistently among the most beloved archetypes. Torchlight Infinite's SS12 overhauls summoning - or more precisely, strengthens it. Let's take a closer look at what's new.

Modularization

The most significant mechanical shift this update is the introduction of a system called Modularization. It allows players to acquire and equip specialized skill modules that summon boss-tier units from the game, which can serve either as supplemental allies or as primary damage dealers.

These boss-summoning skill modules are obtained as drops. The units summoned by them are classified as Synthetic Troops and therefore adhere to the baseline rules governing synthetic forces. For instance, they share a uniform base attack interval (observed to be roughly 0.6 to 0.8 seconds), and the growth curves of their life and base damage plateau after reaching level 20, with subsequent levels granting fixed percentage increases.

Each modular summon skill possesses its own unique mechanics and can be linked with Magnificent Supports and Noble Supports. More importantly, the skill modules themselves can randomly roll with various Affixes, such as "Summoned creatures from this skill gain additional physical damage."

Aura Affixes

One of the standout features of these modular summons is their potential to carry aura-type affixes - granting effects such as increased attack speed, movement speed, or even Corruption Resistance. When paired with the revamped Commander Moto trait that provides "Each aura grants allies 3% additional damage," modular summons can function not only as a primary damage core but also as a powerful support attachment for non-summoner builds, delivering valuable global benefits.

After progressing through Nether Realm stages, players must unlock specific Talent Constellations. Defeating native bosses in Deep Space maps carries a 1.6% chance to yield an additional modular skill. This means players can actively farm boss modules.

Modularization Support Skills

Exclusive support skills have been introduced to complement modular summons. Below are several of the most impactful ones.

Modularization: Resonance (Magnificent)

This support skill grants enormous additional damage to the summoned creature based on the current Command Value held. Virtually every summoner build that relies on Modularization skills for damage output depends on it.

Modularization: Calibrate (Noble)

Every two hits the summoner lands on an enemy increases the summoned creature's damage, stacking up to 15 times - which translates to roughly 105% additional damage at full stacks. This synergizes well with Tangles mechanics, enabling automated high-frequency casting to maintain peak damage amplification.

Modularization: Sever (Noble)

Renders the summoned creature immune to damage but reduces its damage output by 99%. This support is specifically designed to safeguard functional modular summons that exist solely to provide buffs.

Legendary Item Reworks

Iron Nest

Following its rework, Iron Nest now grants Deep Space Trauma immunity, substantially improving survivability. It also provides a Command Value generation rate of 8–12 per second while reducing Command Value decay rate by 60%.

This shift fundamentally resolves the previous difficulty of sustaining Command Value. With this amulet equipped, players can effortlessly approach the cap of 80 Command Value, consistently unlocking the subsequent 35% additional damage bonus for summoned creatures. This item is poised to become a cornerstone piece for summoners during the mid-game progression phase.

Horn Ring

Horn Ring has received primarily numerical adjustments. Its base damage contribution has been increased while its critical strike component has been lowered, yet its overall value proposition remains exceptionally strong.

Hero Trait Reworks

The trait trees for both summoner heroes have undergone extensive restructuring, resulting in notably different gameplay dynamics in SS12.

Commander Moto | Order Calling

Self-Reconstruct

Moto's "Fortified Armor and Sharp Weapons" trait has been reworked. The new effect causes summoned creatures with Overload to regenerate a percentage of maximum life per second based on Command Value and gain 25% additional damage when not on low life. This dramatically enhances the sustain of Moto's summons.

Overload Program

Last Stand trait has been reworked. Its new effect grants Synthetic Troop summons Overload for 6 seconds upon appearing, after which they automatically perish. This node means players no longer need to rely on cooldown reduction to maintain near-permanent Overload uptime on their summons - equivalent to roughly 114% additional damage.

Radiation Field

The level 75 trait "Go for Broke" has been reworked, and the new node introduces a potent bonus: "Each aura grants summoned creatures 3% additional damage." When combined with Lone Walker's Boots and aura-equipped modular summons, players can stack six or more auras, resulting in a massive damage surge.

The Forsaken Iris | Growing Breeze

World Within

The level 60 trait node "Many Friends" has been reworked. The new effect grants increased damage - up to a maximum of 60% - based on the character's bolstered resistances or armor value. This represents a direct damage upgrade compared to its previous iteration.

Amazing Friends

Amazing Friends has been entirely overhauled. The trade-off is that Spirit Mages lose the ability to empower ordinary skills. In exchange, Nourishment stacks required to trigger "Full Bloom" have been slashed from 30–40 to a mere 10 stacks. This reduces the ramp-up time for the burst ability from around 50 seconds down to 15 seconds, greatly improving mapping fluidity and burst frequency.

Iris's Nourishment effect now fully benefits all elemental and physical Synthetic Troops. When paired with Memory Reminiscence affixes, this opens up the possibility of an armor-stacking playstyle for Iris utilizing Rosh Magus.

Newly added Memory affixes allow Synthetic Troops to benefit from Nourishment. With sufficient stacking of empowered skill use chance, it becomes possible to sustain 10 Nourishment stacks on modular summons indefinitely without consuming them - hinting that an Iris Modularization build will emerge as a highly competitive endgame option.

In summary, these changes provide both primary summoning heroes with a wider array of tools and a tangible boost in power. Summoner players now have more summoned creatures to choose from, and that is unequivocally welcome news.

Diablo 4 will introduce a Talisman system with the release of Lord of Hatred on April 28. These talismans function similarly to set items, but they do not occupy your equipment slots, nor do they directly grant large amounts of raw stats.

It is almost certain that Talisman system will enable a further surge in character output, yet the specifics revealed by the team so far have remained sparse. However, a recent endgame preview contained a few intriguing details. Let's use that information to take an early look at the system.

How to Unlock Talisman System?

Talisman system is a new feature arriving with the expansion, meaning players will need to own Lord of Hatred to access it. It is expected to unlock at a certain point during the campaign, much like how Runes system becomes available in Vessel of Hatred. In other words, you will need to complete the new storyline at least once and finish the associated quests; after that, any new characters you create should inherit the feature automatically. This is my personal expectation.

Talisman System

Unlike the charm system in Diablo 2, these talismans do not consume inventory space. They provide additional attributes and effects while residing in a clean, self-contained interface.

The layout consists of two main components: a central core and an outer ring. At the very center sits a Seal, which acts as the hub of the entire system. Surrounding Seal are 6 Charm sockets. The Seal determines how many Charms you can slot and comes with its own set of bonus effects.

The preview shown by the developers featured a Horadric Seal of Honor. Its description states that it unlocks 5 Charm sockets, caps the total number of sockets at five, but allows you to equip two Unique Charms.

The effects of Unique Charms were not disclosed, but they will likely carry unique-item-style powers rather than raw stat bonuses. Even with just that potential, they could double your character's damage output.

The numerical tuning of these effects remains to be seen. This is expected to be a relatively endgame feature, so the bonuses could be quite potent. On the other hand, because Charms do not directly compete with existing gear slots, their values could also be designed more conservatively. They will primarily compete with Unique Charms - and potentially Legendary Charms in the future. Even with more modest base stats, Charms will still provide meaningful contributions.

How Many Sets Will There Be?

Another consideration: in Diablo 3, each class had several predefined sets, and each one essentially locked you into a specific playstyle and build. That “one set, one build" approach may not translate smoothly into D4 unless the team releases a massive number of sets.

D4 offers far greater build diversity than D3, and with the new skill trees coming in the expansion, each class gains roughly 20 additional viable skill choices, resulting in an enormous number of possible combinations. For that reason, set designs cannot be tailored to only a single archetype.

There may be some versatile sets that work across multiple builds, and perhaps one or two highly specific sets that enable entirely new playstyles. At a minimum, Diablo 4 will require enough broadly applicable sets to cover a wide range of builds; otherwise, the value of this new content would be greatly diminished.

Seal Stats

Seal shown in the preview is clearly not the only type. Future Seals might offer six Charm sockets but disallow Unique Charms, or provide fewer sockets while permitting more Unique Charms to be equipped.

Seals also carry specific stat bonuses. Taking Horadric Seal of Honor as an example once more, it grants 45% increased Armor. In the current game environment, 45% extra Armor translates to roughly 10% to 15% damage reduction - a substantial impact.

Seals also feature bonuses tailored to specific set bonuses, such as “Increased damage dealt while moving" and “Reduced damage taken while moving." This suggests that Seal affixes may be randomly generated, including random stat enhancements and random bonuses that complement specific set configurations. You could hunt for the ideal Seal to match your chosen set, or even a combination of two three-piece sets worn together.

Charm Stats

Charms also carry attributes, and these appear to be randomly generated as well. In all Charms shown by the developers, you can see affixes that directly raise skill ranks. These may boost a specific skill or enhance an entire skill category - for instance, granting +1 to all Agility skills.

Even more noteworthy are the secondary attributes. In the preview, secondary stats included resistances, bonuses to drop rates of Diablo 4 items, and XP bonuses. A single Charm could provide around 47% increased experience, and stacking that across six Charms would yield nearly 300% bonus XP - pushing leveling speed to unprecedented levels.

Perhaps this is intentional: a way for players in the late game to assemble perfectly rolled Charms that dramatically improve farming efficiency while crafting ideal gear in Horadric Cube.

More likely, however, these drop rate and experience bonuses are additive with the multipliers already granted by your current difficulty tier. If Torment XII carries a native 1,400% XP bonus, an extra 50% from a Charm would represent only about a little relative increase. Still meaningful, but far from doubling - and far more reasonable.

That said, it introduces competition between combat power and farming efficiency. Players often struggle when forced to choose between gearing for raw strength and gearing for improved drops or experience.

If powerful combat stats like cooldown reduction or critical strike chance appear on Charms in the future, players will face a difficult dilemma: wear the strongest combat setup to tackle the toughest bosses, or swap to an experience-farming loadout to clear lower difficulties efficiently? This kind of trade-off is generally viewed as an unhealthy gameplay dynamic.

Therefore, the magnitude of these reward-oriented bonuses should remain relatively modest. If they truly are additive with difficulty multipliers, the concern is minor. But another awkward scenario arises: you rapidly climb to Paragon 300 using XP-stacked Charms, and the moment you hit the level cap, those experience bonuses become completely obsolete. Charms you worked hard to obtain would instantly cease to be optimal.

In summary, the final form of this system is still taking shape. Nevertheless, the details surrounding Seals and Charms are undeniably intriguing, and they will profoundly influence how players approach character building in the expansion.