Creating a great Task Bar Hero build using the best heroes and their top-tier Skills is essential for making good progress. If you keep hitting roadblocks it might be that you need to just let your heroes level up a bit more and unlock better Skills or need to completely respec and try a different approach. If you've read my tier list already, you'll know that the Priest is the best character in the game, so she should always appear in your formation. Obviously, you need to fill out your other two hero slots as well and there are several combinations. With that, here are three Task Bar Hero builds that got me through Normal difficulty and into Nightmare.
Best Task Bar Hero build (Level 1-19)
- Slot 1: Priest
- Skills: Wrath of Heaven or Heal; and Blessing of Might
- Gear and stats: A good Scepter and Tome, anything that boosts or provides Max HP, Armor, and HP Regen. Damage Absorption. If you're using Wrath of Heaven, boosts to Lightning Damage and HP Regen are also useful.
- Slot 2: Ranger OR Hunter
- Ranger Skills: Arrow Rain and Rapid Fire
- Ranger gear and stats: A good Bow and Arrows, anything that improves Attack Speed, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage
- Hunter Skills: Explosive Bolt and Frost Bolt
- Hunter gear and stats: A good Crossbow and Bolts, anything that improves Attack Speed, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Fire Damage Enhancement, and Cold Damage Enhancement.
- Slot 3: Sorcerer
- Skills: Fireball and Ice Orb
- Gear and stats: A good Staff and Orb, anything that increases Cooldown Reduction, Area of Effect, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage. Any boosts to Fire and Ice Damage Enhancement are also very useful.
I've found this to be a very successful Task Bar Hero build for Act 1 and most of Act 2, with the Priest acting as a frontline fighter and essential support character – because she tops the Task Bar Hero tier list, there's no reason not to include her. If you choose to go down the Wrath of Heaven route, she can deal massive melee damage, but if you opt for Heal, she ends up being extremely durable thanks to the amount of self-healing she does.
With your enemies distracted by the Priest, the Ranger and Sorcerer can use their respective rapid-fire, single-target-focused ranged damage and elemental area-of-effect spells to great effect, thinning hordes from afar to help the Priest – it helps that they're made even more powerful by the Priest's Blessing of Might too. And if you have the Hunter, she can be a good substitute for the Ranger, bringing ranged and spell attacks to bear attacks for a good mix of ranged damage and crowd control, particularly thanks to her Frost Bolt.
Remember that while your formation and skills and gear for each character are important for your build, you also need to make sure you're spending your Gold wisely on the best Task Bar Hero Runes early on. With the right ones, you should be able to get more Task Bar Hero chests to help you get more gear and even Task Bar Hero Soulstones for battling Act Bosses.
Best Task Bar Hero build (Level 20-39)
- Slot 1: Priest
- Skills: Sanctuary and Blessing of Might
- Gear and stats: A good Scepter and Tome, anything that bolsters Max HP, Armor, Damage Absorption, Skill Heal Enhancement, HP Regen, and Cooldown Reduction.
- Slot 2: Ranger OR Hunter
- Skills: Rapid Fire and Swift Surge
- Gear and stats: A good Bow and Arrows, anything that improves Attack Speed, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Physical Damage, and Cooldown Reduction
- Hunter Skills: Explosive Bolt and Frost Bolt
- Hunter gear and stats: A good Crossbow and Bolts, anything that improves Attack Speed, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Fire Damage Enhancement, and Cold Damage Enhancement.
- Slot 3: Sorcerer
- Skills: Flame Hydra and Ice Orb
- Gear and stats: A good Staff and Orb, anything that increases Cooldown Reduction, Area of Effect, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage. Any boosts to Fire and Ice Damage Enhancement are also very useful.
Getting your characters up to Level 20 takes a while but it's also the point at which some new skills can massively enhance your party – hopefully you've also got a Task Bar Hero pet or two by this point as well. The composition is the same as in the early levels because it's just too good to change, but the increased difficulty of late Act 2 and Act 3 means healing from the Priest is essential, and the Sanctuary Skill is a massive improvement over Heal.
Similarly, this is a good point to respec the Ranger to focus purely on single-target damage by swapping Arrow Rain for Swift Surge. As for the Sorcerer, swap Fireball out for Flame Hydra, which is effectively a rapid-fire fireball turret and substantially increases the spellcaster's DPS. If you’re using the Hunter, I recommend keeping her Skills the same as before, ensuring you max them out along with her Critical Chance and Critical Damage.
Best Task Bar Hero build (Level 40+)
- Slot 1: Priest
- Skills: Heal and Blessing of Might
- Gear and stats: A good Scepter and Tome, anything that boosts Max HP, Armor, Damage Absorption, Skill Heal, HP Regen, Cooldown Reduction, and Cast Speed.
- Slot 2: Ranger
- Skills: Rapid Fire and Piercing Arrow
- Gear and stats: A good Bow and Arrows, anything that improves Attack Speed, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Physical Damage, Projectile Damage, and Cooldown Reduction
- Slot 3: Sorcerer
- Skills: Flame Hydra and Meteor Strike
- Gear and stats: A good Staff and Orb, anything that increases Cooldown Reduction, Area of Effect, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Cast Speed, and Fire Damage.
Level 40 represents quite a crucial point for your Task Bar Heroes as it's when they unlock their final Skill and you'll likely be facing a tougher challenge in Nightmare difficulty, so this is when you can start perfecting your builds for the ordeals ahead.
For the Priest, I found that Sanctuary's usefulness declined as overall Movement Speed increased because it meant that all the heroes were moving out of the healing zone far too quickly. With that it's back to the basic Heal Skill, which allows the Priest to basically be a nigh-immortal meat shield for the Ranger and Sorcerer.
Speaking of which, the Sorcerer can equip the Meteor Strike Skill from level 40, which can obliterate practically every enemy on your screen the moment it impacts. It's got a long cooldown but is well worth swapping out with Ice Orb. As for the Ranger, her Skills are all pretty solid but swapping Swift Surge to Piercing Arrow is a good choice, letting her soften up multiple enemies at once while the Sorcerer's Skills are on cooldown.
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