If you're starting a new season in Torchlight: Infinite and looking for a smooth, effective build to level with, Gemma 3's “Flames of Pleasure” remains one of the strongest choices. This guide will walk you through a simple, practical approach to leveling Gemma using Hammer of Ash and then transitioning into an Ignite-based Groundshaker setup later in the game. It's a strong path that's beginner-friendly but also scales well into endgame with some upgrades.

Why Use Gemma 3?

Gemma 3, known for her fire-based playstyle, benefits greatly from stacking strength and fire damage. Her hero trait "Flames of Pleasure" allows fire hit damage to scale with damage-over-time modifiers, making her a powerhouse when built correctly. The leveling version of the build focuses on immediate strength, strong survivability, and clear potential with Hammer of Ash.

Early Game: Hammer of Ash Setup

In the early stages, your core leveling skill will be Hammer of Ash, a Demolisher Charge skill. It received a solid buff this season, making it hit even harder. The key to getting the most out of it early is to link it with Multiple Projectiles support. Thanks to its shotgun mechanic, Hammer of Ash benefits from overlapping hits, dramatically increasing damage output when enemies are close.

Recommended Support Gems Early On:

• Multiple Projectiles - for shotgun effect

• Quick Return - to reduce the travel time of the projectiles

• Area Damage - optional, helps with AoE during early clear

Survivability While Leveling

Gemma 3 is surprisingly tanky while leveling. This is largely thanks to the Hardened talent and other defensive nodes you can pick up from the talent trees. You'll be able to soak a lot of damage and keep moving without constantly worrying about your health pool.

Talent Trees Overview

1. God of Might Tree

This is your starting tree. You want to focus on increasing your damage and improving your skill uptime.

• Take Reduced Skill Cost early on.

• Move across the top to pick up Attack Damage and Movement Speed.

• Pick up Strength Nodes and the Fire Damage per 6 Strength node on the bottom.

• Optional: If you're unsure between two fire nodes, either one will help early, but the bottom one tends to be more useful.

2. Warlord Tree

This tree adds more to your damage potential and gives you flexibility for transitioning into Groundshaker later.

• Take Attack & Cast Speed, Area Damage, and Double Damage Chance.

• True Flame is important: it allows affliction damage scaling to apply to fire hits—key for later.

• Burnout was moved to this tree, so be sure to pick it up here.

• Also, grab Momentum and Great Strength for additional scaling.

You can also spec into Skill Area size early to help with Hammer of Ash's projectile overlap.

3. Warlock Tree

This tree is focused on Affliction Effects and Ailment Infliction.

• Take Indifference and Dirty Tricks.

• These help guarantee that your attacks inflict ailments like trauma, wilt, and frostbite, which adds damage through stacking debuffs.

• You can make use of Leap Attack for mobility and stack ailments using supports like Added Erosion, Added Cold, and Added Physical.

Continue grabbing affliction damage, ailment avoidance, cooldown recovery, and a +1 skill level node. This tree rounds out your damage and ensures ailment uptime, even while moving quickly.

When to Transition into Ignite + Groundshaker

Although Hammer of Ash gets the job done through the leveling process, the real damage spike comes when you switch into an Ignite-based Groundshaker build. However, you shouldn't transition until you have proper gear, particularly rings that support ignite and strength scaling.

Key Transition Gear:

• Rings with Tier 1 or Tier 0 Ignite Support Mods

These used to cost around 1 Flame Elementium (FE) in previous leagues, so they're relatively affordable unless the build becomes extremely popular.

• False God Skin (Armor)

Look for one with double or triple Strength mods.

• Magnus' Scar (Helmet)

Preferably with corruption that adds Total Strength. The helmet also grants Bonus Fire Damage per 10 Strength, which gives a massive damage multiplier.

Once you have these, you can start switching out talent points to move fully into Ignite scaling.

Changing Your Talents for Ignite

When you're ready to move away from Hammer of Ash and embrace Groundshaker and ignite mechanics, you'll need to respec a few things:

1. God of Might Tree:

  o Remove area damage and projectile support points that no longer help.

  o Replace them with nodes that boost Strength or direct Fire Damage.

2. Warlord Tree:

  o Drop True Flame in favor of Starfire, which increases your Ignite Stack Limit.

  o Shift from Area Damage to Ignite Chance and Ignite Damage nodes.

3. Warlock Tree:

  o No major changes unless you didn't already pick up Affliction Effect and Dirty Tricks.

Pet Setup

Pet mechanics haven't changed much, and for this build, you're ideally running triple Affliction Effect pets. They'll boost your ailment damage and consistency. Even the purple pets (epic tier) are effective if you don't have the perfect setup yet.

Late Game and Shackles Build

If your goal is to push into endgame (Tier 8 and beyond), the Shackles version of this build is what most top Gemma 3 players use. It takes the base ignite setup and amplifies it by:

• Stacking Curses

• Using Shackles Gear

• Maximizing Trauma and Affliction Effect

The scaling is immense, and it's considered one of the most powerful meta builds for Gemma. However, it's gear-dependent, so use the Groundshaker ignite version to farm Torchlight: Infinite currency before transitioning.

You'll often find nearly identical builds on the ladder once you search for high-ranking Gemma players. They typically run nearly the same layout with only minor gear or skill variations.

Summary of Build Progression

Here's a simplified breakdown of how to approach the build:

Levels 1-60:

• Use Hammer of Ash with Multiple Projectiles.

• Focus on stacking Strength, Fire Damage, and Area of Effect.

• Progress through God of Might, then Warlord, then Warlock trees.

Levels 60+ (Pre-Endgame):

• Prepare for your Ignite + Groundshaker transition.

• Get the proper Rings, Armor, and Helmet.

• Respec talents away from projectiles/area damage and toward Ignite, Strength, and Affliction scaling.

• Add ailment supports to leap or other trigger skills to maintain Dirty Tricks uptime.

Endgame:

• Grind out Flame Elementium.

• Transition to Shackles Build for massive damage output.

• Maximize curse effect and trauma stacking to hit peak performance.

Final Thoughts

The Gemma 3 Flames of Pleasure build is consistent, powerful, and beginner-friendly. With the recent buff to Hammer of Ash, it's smoother than ever to level and reach early endgame without much investment. The ability to transition into a top-tier ignite build—and eventually a Shackles setup—makes this one of the most rewarding build paths in Torchlight: Infinite.

If you're new to the build or just want something dependable to get through the early maps, this guide should give you everything you need to get started. Later on, you can push into the meta-defining versions with minimal rework, making this build one of the best bang-for-your-buck setups in the game.