Impaler Guide

This section recommends which skills to prioritize. 

Talismans can be farmed at exile mountains. If your character is already geared in a 105 set, soloing exile mountains should prove to be pretty easy. Talismans and runes can be bought and rerolled with Dark Night's Scar.

There aren't too many flexible Talisman options for Impaler. He pretty much only has 3 viable options 'cause they're just that good. However, I will still give an explanation on the talisman effects.

Rune colors should be Purple, Blue, Red (PBR) for the highest damage increase towards Falling Death.

Enchants are basically adding extra stats onto your gear. Although they are considered add-ons, they are not optional. They are relatively easy to obtain in this patch with many competitive options to farm and choose from.

Enchants can come in the form of Beads or Cards. They have essentially the same function, but beads do not require upgrading, whereas cards will often have to be upgraded to acquire the highest stat values.

Use this as a guideline if you have no idea what types of enchants to get. Impaler has Shadow Inflict on almost all his skills, so it's highly recommended to run Shadow Element, but its technically not required anymore. Since he is a Magical Percent class, you want to look for enchants with Magical Atk and/or Intelligence.

An important note is to ensure you have at least 100% critical chance. Make use of the DFOpedia in-game to find what enchants you're missing and where you can obtain them.

 Avatars extra equipment that are usually associated with cosmetics. For this section, I am mainly referring to Clone Avatars. These equipment pieces come with colored emblem sockets that can be equipped with emblems of the respective color that increase your stats. 
Rare avatars are upgrades to clone avatars that also include having platinum emblem sockets on the top and bottom pieces.

Note: If you are still short of 100% Critical Chance, you should slot in Crit Rate emblems until you are able to cap the stat.

Darkness' level can be increased past 10, up to 20, with the use of Fragmented Abyss: Darkness Gear. This gear increases the strength of your buff skill and can be farmed and bought in Operation: Hope or from Shireen in Elvenguard. You should at least have a full set of Fragmented Abyss Gear to power up your buff skill. 

Creatures and titles are further ways to min-max your damage. You should at least consider having on budget options so that you are straight up not missing damage due to missing equipment.

Titles and creatures can be differentiated into two types. Damage type and Buff type.  Having both is not a heavy requirement but allows you to further min-max your character and increase your damage.

Damage Titles increase your character's damage by a substantial amount. Any title with a damage modifier will suffice, but you should eventually look into grabbing yourself a decent title as you progress your character (+10-15% Damage Modifier). Some Titles (Platinum) additionally increase the damage of skills in a certain level range (Falling Death is Lv. 75).

Buff Titles increase the level of Darkness by up to 3 levels. This is naturally a raw damage increase, although not as much as the damage title. 

Damage Creatures are another form of damage increase, providing extra stats and an extra level one of your passive skills. Most creatures come with an ability that can be used. Any creature with a damage modifier will suffice, but you should eventually look into grabbing yourself a decent creature as you progress your character (+15-18% Damage Modifier / Darkness over the Abyss +1).

Buff Creatures increase the level of Darkness by 1. This is naturally a raw damage increase, although not as much as the damage creature.

Some creatures double up as both Damage and buff (provides +Damage Modifier and +1 Darkness.

Auras are another form of damage increase, providing extra stats and an extra level one of your passive skills. Most creatures come with an ability that can be used. Any creature with a damage modifier will suffice, but you should eventually look into grabbing yourself a decent aura as you progress your character (+5% Damage Modifier or more).

Motion Auras act similarly to Rare Avatar Top & Bottoms, they contain a Platinum Emblem Socket that can increase the level of Darkness by 1.  

Important Note: This section details on some beginner-friendly item builds that can be accessed early on in the 110 cap. Unless the epic item is absolutely essential for a certain build, I will avoid recommending epics that require more end-game farming (Ispins, Warpath, etc). Subsequently, I will not be recommending any custom pieces, but if you want to have an idea of what kind of customs to keep, take a look at this chart.

110 Cap Epics can be bought from Meryl Pioner's Equipment Selection Boxes using Ominous Crystals. Make use of the in-game Equipment Navigator to find where to farm 105 epics.

While not necessary, it is recommended you redeem these boxes during a 'Soup Day.' Meaning redeeming these boxes when the quality (Inferior->Superior) rotation falls during a day when the quality is Superior. Superior quality items provide a small increase in stats over Inferior quality, but more importantly, allow you access to a future epic sub-equipment Optical Combat Glasses which rely on having a full set of Superior Quality epics.

Basically the recommended 'default' nowadays. Offers a lot of versatility in stats ranging from cooldown reduction, speed, defense, and power.  This build for the most part gets rid of your HP bar (Setting it to 1% permanently). Instead, your Mana becomes as if it were your HP, gaining a much higher mana pool as a result. This build actually makes you decently beefy as you can tank through some gimmicks that would otherwise one-shot you. 

Note: Saders (Except Male Saders) become unable to heal you since they cannot restore your mana. 

This set requires the pieces below to be farmed at Destroyed Castle of the Dead and/or bought with Shattered Dusk Crystals. Promised Time for Victory may not be available immediately as it is an Ispins exclusive epic, so use a placeholder epic until then.

One of the best starter builds. Can be used in conjunction with a bleed bracelet, and easily replaceable with better epics in the same slot when it is time to upgrade your build. This build revolves around using at least the 3 core pieces below. In exchange for a higher mana cost, your skills gain more damage. You may apply a standard skill build. 

Impaler's skills have pretty high cooldowns, and this build provides a ton of cooldown to your skills (~50% cdr). The set essentially requires the bracelet to function and some consumable to activate all of its equipment effects (Warlord's Cry / random throwable items). You can buy cheap rocks to throw from Siusha in the Moonlight Tavern.

This build may not be accessible immediately since you need an Ispins-Exclusive epic Long-Cherished Wish.

Another build that offers lots of cdr for Impaler.  This is a lot more flexible than sleep since it only uses a couple of slots. I recommend this to players because Impaler is forgiving and easy to play. Thus, having the added difficulty of manually casting your skills is less of a burden.

Essentially, High-tech Mobility Enhancing Boots provide 8% Skill Attack for skills cast via command inputs and 400% increase to Command Perks for cube-consuming skills.
This means that:
- Falling Death, Dark Impulse, and Abyssal Invader will get -25% MP Cost & -25% Cooldown

Customs may be necessary to make it viable further into the endgame (Ent-Spirit Shoulders).