Tales of Maj'Eyal

[Mewtarthio]

Anyone else familiar with this gem of a roguelike? Its setting is designed like ADOM's, with an overworld map that contains multiple procedurally-generated dungeons and sidequests, and the gameplay is well-polished. The skill system is along the lines of Dragon Age Origins or Dungeons of Dredmor, with various talent trees that you can invest points in to unlock or improve their respective talents.

Interestingly enough, there are no traditional consumables in the game: That means no food clock, and no potions (except as rare artifacts that permanently change your character on use) or scrolls. The closest equivalent are inscriptions, which give your characters reusable abilities, making the game more about cooldown management than resource management.

The game also has unlockable races, classes, and game modes. I was a bit on the fence about that concept at first, but it's grown on me. In a genre defined by permadeath, it's nice to have some tangible rewards for your progress.

Downloadable from its website (http://te4.org/). The game's officially in beta right now, but it's completely playable. There are still a few glitches and balance issues, but the dev team is actively working on the game (the last release was just last month, in fact).

[factotum]

Interesting. Given the two things I dislike most about Roguelikes are the constantly having to find food or else starve to death, and the ASCII graphics, looks like this is well worth a look...I'll need to finish Fallout: New Vegas first, though!

[Cogwheel]

Needs more blind ADOM suffering.

I'll definitely give it a go later, though. Thanks!

[NeonBlack]

Oooh, so this is what became of ToME after it stopped being a mere (though very heavily modified) Angband variant and became its own thing... I had lost track of it during the ToME 3 days, but I loved v2 to bits. Heck, my only legitimate winner (http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=4529) in any *band ever was a High Elf Assassin in v2.3.2... and damn, it's been seven years since then already? :smalleek:

Looks like a perfect excuse to get back into roguelikes this summer. Yeah, Nuzlocking Touhoumon hacks isn't enough gaming masochism for me, why do you ask?

[The Succubus]

Oooo.

I like roguelikes and still play Spelunky most evenings. Will be nice to see one with a good UI (Dungeons of Dredmor didn't really tickle my gaming maschoism centres).

[nooblade]

I wasn't really into it until unlocking the Archmage. WOW, the starting area for that class is really fun. But I don't like the way talents are structured; everyone has class-based weapon restrictions except the Archmage. The generic talents are frustrating because I want them most sometimes.

I've encountered personal fails like these so far are: quivers and pouches get "reload" (so archers are actually quite self-sufficient), escort quests are much easier in the elf forest or the start ruins because you can stand between the homicidal people and the suicidal one (I've come to expect escorts to fail), be ready for anything when a purple monster pops up due to class levels (biggest source of seemingly unfair death so far), most melee power appears to come from weapon mastery, and starting towns have useful stuff including free experience from the arena quest.

Any character starting strategies to share? I think my most successful so far has been thalore archer with maximum dex and every point possible in bow mastery. It's great to be able to use class talents in the main damage increasing skill.

[Mewtarthio]

I've never had much luck with archers myself. So far, I've done best with either pure casters or pure melee (eg bulwark). I'm pretty lousy with the hybrids (arcane blade and especially a couple of the unlockables).

Protip: You can see a rare monster's powers by right clicking and choosing "Inspect Creature." It won't necessarily show the powers that come from the base creature, but it will show all the class talents. That being said, they can be pretty unfair in the first couple of dungeons (once had one of those purple elementals banish my archmage to Hell on level 1!). I hear the next release tones them down in the early game, though.

[factotum]

I gave it a try yesterday, but think I'll be leaving it until it's a bit further out of alpha...at least on my system none of the keyboard shortcuts would work, which was a little annoying!

[Cogwheel]

Alchemist is pretty fantastic, as is the Heat spell. Unlocked Summoner and Archmage. Cruising along fairly nicely, until I just died to some random enemies (curse you, last-minute pre-escape confusion) after I already killed the boss on the fourth floor of Daikara.

Daikara is, as I realized while attempting it, basically the worst. Archmage now.

[Reynard]

Daikara is death incarnate, and really should be ignored until you have done literally everything else you can do on the continent.

A good idea is to run through all the starting areas (Trollmire (but not Bill's clearing), Norgos's Lair, etc) you can, then the next tier ones (Kor'Pul, the Gloom, etc), and then onto the harder areas (Maze, Sand Worm Tunnels, Old Forest.)


Also, Bulwarks are one of the strongest classes in the game, simply because they do not die easily. Put most of your points into Dex, max Shield Wall then Riposte, then go for a point in Rush, and add the Shield Bashing offensive skills to taste.

If you manage to get to the point where you get access to the Warcries talent tree, your only really threat is sudden massive elemental damage, usually Lightning, and being stunned and unable to use your Infusions. Related, Daikara is a Place of Death.

[Cogwheel]

Daikara is death incarnate, and really should be ignored until you have done literally everything else you can do on the continent.

A good idea is to run through all the starting areas (Trollmire (but not Bill's clearing), Norgos's Lair, etc) you can, then the next tier ones (Kor'Pul, the Gloom, etc), and then onto the harder areas (Maze, Sand Worm Tunnels, Old Forest.)

Norgos's Lair/Heart of Gloom sounded like places I should really avoid. Then again I briefly wandered into Lake of Nur (oh god why), so whatever. My usual process is Trollmire->Bill's Clearing->Kor'Pul->Old Forest->Maze->Sand Worm Tunnels.

Tunnels aren't too dangerous enemy-wise, just so annoying.



Also, Bulwarks are one of the strongest classes in the game, simply because they do not die easily. Put most of your points into Dex, max Shield Wall then Riposte, then go for a point in Rush, and add the Shield Bashing offensive skills to taste.

I ought to give them a try. Only played one, so far. Dwarf. Seems their starting dungeon (like the Archmage one, which I now avoid) has the difficulty set to maximum double superdeath deluxe, which is less than ideal.


If you manage to get to the point where you get access to the Warcries talent tree, your only really threat is sudden massive elemental damage, usually Lightning, and being stunned and unable to use your Infusions. Related, Daikara is a Place of Death.

Also related: Air elementals in Derth whyyyyy.

Funny thing is, I cleared Daikara (I keep forgetting the name and remembering it as Daikatana Mountains), but then died to a bunch of giants and drakes. A shame. At any rate, I've got an archmage with Old Forest cleared at present. Onward to the maze!



Is playing on Roguelike advisable? It's what I do, but sometimes it feels like the game was designed with Adventure in mind. Oh well.


Edit: Rolf and Weisman letters are the best thing. Almost as goofy as an elite Grey Mold or having your Archmage in perpetual disco sparkle mode.

[nooblade]

A good idea is to run through all the starting areas (Trollmire (but not Bill's clearing), Norgos's Lair, etc) you can, then the next tier ones (Kor'Pul, the Gloom, etc), and then onto the harder areas (Maze, Sand Worm Tunnels, Old Forest.)But do you get artifact rewards from killing Norgos if it's not a quest for you?

Also, Bulwarks are one of the strongest classes in the game, simply because they do not die easily. Put most of your points into Dex, max Shield Wall then Riposte, then go for a point in Rush, and add the Shield Bashing offensive skills to taste.I'm not sure I like this advice because I like having weapon mastery and being able to kill things at any pace, especially on escort quests. So far I've only succeeded about half of those, fails are usually in Trollmire where the suicidal one can run around me into enemies.

Norgos's Lair/Heart of Gloom sounded like places I should really avoid. Then again I briefly wandered into Lake of Nur (oh god why), so whatever. My usual process is Trollmire->Bill's Clearing->Kor'Pul->Old Forest->Maze->Sand Worm Tunnels.I like going right at Bill too, except after the first Trollmire level I head back to Derth for the arena generic skills reward, which usually go into weaponmastery for warrior types. This is especially effective with a Cornac if I put a talent category point in there, but perhaps this is unnecessary. Then finish Trollmire and Bill quite easily. I think even as an elf I'd want to go to the arena. Just about any class can do it.

Anyway, the elf starting places are easy enough. I'd do it if I can get the artifacts. I seem to have not the greatest luck with getting relevant ones so far.

I ought to give them a try. Only played one, so far. Dwarf. Seems their starting dungeon (like the Archmage one, which I now avoid) has the difficulty set to maximum double superdeath deluxe, which is less than ideal.I learned so many awesome things about projectiles on the archmage level, it was great. Lightning can hit multiple targets too. But yeah, I still can't crack the Dwarf start.

Edit: Rolf and Weisman letters are the best thing. Almost as goofy as an elite Grey Mold or having your Archmage in perpetual disco sparkle mode.
I hope all the silly books and scrolls from old Tales of Middle Earth made it.

[Mewtarthio]

I ought to give them a try. Only played one, so far. Dwarf. Seems their starting dungeon (like the Archmage one, which I now avoid) has the difficulty set to maximum double superdeath deluxe, which is less than ideal.

Dwarf bulwarks are pretty much invincible if you manage to get out of Reknor. That's a big "if," of course. I find that the safest way to deal with that dungeon is to sic your squadmate on Brotoq and run for the exit, then pick a different starting dungeon to build up your levels. Or just play a thaloren bulwark instead.

As bad as they get it, though, there's an unlockable race that has it even worse:
The yeeks. One of their starting dungeons is entirely underwater, like Lake Nur but for three full levels. The other is completely dark has had huge numbers of enemies, including some with ranged attacks and others with a pinning version of Rush. They can all see in the dark perfectly well, naturally, so unless you're an archmage with Illuminate and Arcane Eye, you will be hurting. And yeeks have -5 Con, so they can't take much hurting.

And, no, you can't just pick a different set of racial dungeons. You see, yeeks start on an island. The route to the mainland leads them to the bottom of the halfling ruins. Right next to Subject Z.

Speaking of starting dungeons, I realize on an intellectual level that I should do them all, but I just find that a little tedious. Right now, I mostly pick two and move on. I've got the plan to go back after I finish Lake Nur (that way I'll be tough enough to grab the artifacts without much hassle), but I've only beaten Lake Nur once so far.

[Cogwheel]

Dwarf bulwarks are pretty much invincible if you manage to get out of Reknor. That's a big "if," of course. I find that the safest way to deal with that dungeon is to sic your squadmate on Brotoq and run for the exit, then pick a different starting dungeon to build up your levels. Or just play a thaloren bulwark instead.

As bad as they get it, though, there's an unlockable race that has it even worse:
The yeeks. One of their starting dungeons is entirely underwater, like Lake Nur but for three full levels. The other is completely dark has had huge numbers of enemies, including some with ranged attacks and others with a pinning version of Rush. They can all see in the dark perfectly well, naturally, so unless you're an archmage with Illuminate and Arcane Eye, you will be hurting. And yeeks have -5 Con, so they can't take much hurting.

And, no, you can't just pick a different set of racial dungeons. You see, yeeks start on an island. The route to the mainland leads them to the bottom of the halfling ruins. Right next to Subject Z.

Speaking of starting dungeons, I realize on an intellectual level that I should do them all, but I just find that a little tedious. Right now, I mostly pick two and move on. I've got the plan to go back after I finish Lake Nur (that way I'll be tough enough to grab the artifacts without much hassle), but I've only beaten Lake Nur once so far.

Okay, that sounds horrific.

That said I'm cruising by nicely enough as an archmage so far. I'm surprised by how good this game became while I wasn't looking, all told. Tried it over a year ago when it was Tales of Middle Earth (I think, anyway) and, incidentally, garbage. This is quite nice, though.

So on a scale of one to ten kilodeaths, how suicidal is it to face Urkis at L15? And if that's a bad idea, when should I fight him?

[Reynard]

So on a scale of one to ten kilodeaths, how suicidal is it to face Urkis at L15? And if that's a bad idea, when should I fight him?

11.5killodeaths.

And yes, you do get artifact rewards for Norgos and the Gloombeast (duno that bosses real name). Every purple boss monster will drop one of those artifacts, from what appears to be a decent, but still limited list. Eventually you'll see everything that can drop, and they'll start dropping Orange items instead.

Really, once you've got to level 14 or so, you can just power through the starting areas to the Bosses, kill them instantly, take the loot and Recall out.

[Cogwheel]

11.5killodeaths.

And yes, you do get artifact rewards for Norgos and the Gloombeast (duno that bosses real name). Every purple boss monster will drop one of those artifacts, from what appears to be a decent, but still limited list. Eventually you'll see everything that can drop, and they'll start dropping Orange items instead.

Really, once you've got to level 14 or so, you can just power through the starting areas to the Bosses, kill them instantly, take the loot and Recall out.

'Sokay, I had a better idea. I went to the mausoleum east of Last Hope. Seemed like an easy quest. I even got the Firewalker robe!

Then there was the bone giant. Killed. Then a curse. Then the ghoul, named, level 28. Had to flee, but phase door didn't cut it. Teleported randomly. That put me in the boss room.


Yeah, I have no idea how I managed to get away.




Edit: Daikara conquered with ease. Went into Dreadfell at level 19. Tricky but doable. Opened a sealed door.

Twelve or so skeleton archers, some of them master skeleton archers, appear out of thin air. They fire at me on the very same turn, before I can react, dealing about 540 damage to my 310ish health.

All my why.

[nooblade]

Neat to know I could grind for cheap artifacts if I feel more attached to some character. :smallcool:

Another list of personal fails:


Dropped items disappear when you recall out and come back. Do all items on the ground poof if you leave an area?
Archmages don't have much use for staves EXCEPT they can be commanded to give a small bonus to a different element. So command staff ability is actually useful to Archmagi.
Alchemist Golems can wear armor and use weapons. And learn some skills. And increase attributes. But constructed again if it dies?

[Cogwheel]

Neat to know I could grind for cheap artifacts if I feel more attached to some character. :smallcool:

Another list of personal fails:


Dropped items disappear when you recall out and come back. Do all items on the ground poof if you leave an area?
Archmages don't have much use for staves EXCEPT they can be commanded to give a small bonus to a different element. So command staff ability is actually useful to Archmagi.
Alchemist Golems can wear armor and use weapons. And learn some skills. And increase attributes. But constructed again if it dies?


I can confirm that the last one is true.

Meanwhile I went to Old Forest with a level 11 archmage. Ran into one Uruivellas, a level 35 demon lord. "This demon would look like a minotaur, if a minotaur had a fiery aura surrounding it and horns all over its body. Oh, and it's twice as big, too."


Didn't even level from killing the stupid thing.

[Mewtarthio]

New version is out! Nerfs to low-level rares, buffs to Highers, Halflings, and Arcane Blades, and, most significantly:


•Escorts will flee foes instead of attacking them

:biggrin:

[Cogwheel]

buffs to Halflings.


Yaaaaay.

Is it wrong, though, that I was most excited about bugfixes? This thing is crazy unstable.


Still sticking with b40. I have a run to finish. Halfling archmage, did everything but Lost Hope graveyard so far (unspoiled), about to head to the Far East. Dreadfell might have a brutal boss fight, but the lore in it is the best thing.

[nooblade]

This change list looks very good! I especially like the generic weapon talent and the escort changes. Is someone here connected to development? I wouldn't be too surprised.

"RIP -- my social life" indeed, I'll get it.

[Mewtarthio]

The drops from rares can get kind of ridiculous. For instance, my latest bulwark found an artifact belt that did 20 mind damage "when wielder is hit." And then a helmet that did 20 nature damage in the same circumstance. This in addition to spiked armor and the Tooth of the Mouth, for a class that's designed to take a lot of hits... before level 10.

(In case you're wondering, I found a new area called the "Intimidating Cave," foolishly tried to explore it, and got torn to shreds by fire drakes. Fun while it lasted, though).

[Todasmile]

I've tried a few classes, and my most successful have been a Bulwark and an Archer.

Bulwarks are just cool, they have lots of HP and don't die easy. Regeneration infusions make them pretty much invincible - to anything but magic, which kills them instantly, in my experience >.>

And yet I still got that one through the anti-magic gauntlet. Freaking amazing. Its killer was a rare snake which spammed spells faster than I could run away.

The archer was fun too, very fun. At higher levels all the different shots you get make for a very pleasing experience, and they can do a lot of damage in the time it takes for an enemy to get to you. THAT one died because I Disengaged away from the Assassin Lord... straight into a trap of four bandits which came out of nowhere. I tried to run, but I probably should have stayed and fought it out, since they could hit me twice in the time it took me to move once.

I didn't even need to disengage, I could have just pinned him and filled him with arrows. Or barring that just entered into close-range combat and won anyways because Regeneration and massive Dexterity are awesome.

[Cogwheel]

Lake of Nur had unexpected and intriguing plot twists/setting revelations.

In a roguelike.

This game really is one of a kind in some ways.


In other news, ooooooooooooooorcs.

Also, orcs. And a bunch of things unlocked.


Edit:


archer



At higher levels


Whaaaaat. There must be some mistake, non-mages don't survive the first dungeon.

[Todasmile]

Whaaaaat. There must be some mistake, non-mages don't survive the first dungeon.

You appear to be confused, as your post implies that mages DO survive the first dungeon O_o

[Cogwheel]

You appear to be confused, as your post implies that mages DO survive the first dungeon O_o

As I told Mewt earlier, Alchemists and Archmages prove that either all other classes are inadequate, or those two are what's commonly known as totes borked.


Also, I decided to start my Far East adventures, after that one city, with Grushank Pride Bastion. Ahahahaha oh god get me out of here.

Vor armoury back door now. This seems far more reasonable. And avoid those orc patrols. Avooooooid. Far East has some brutal damage output.


Also this.

http://oi47.tinypic.com/n2lwnm.jpg What is this.

[Todasmile]

Just downloaded the latest version, and I have to say I'm not digging the new talent menu. Maybe it'll grow on me, but I much preferred the old layout, and the icons just sort of confuse me.

[Cogwheel]

Just downloaded the latest version, and I have to say I'm not digging the new talent menu. Maybe it'll grow on me, but I much preferred the old layout, and the icons just sort of confuse me.

I can't hear you from all the way in buglaaaaand.


So you know how I said the Vor Armoury is safer? Well, it had a vault!

http://oi45.tinypic.com/2rxem3l.jpg

WHY

[Todasmile]

did you win

come on we all want to know

come on man

didya

didya win

[Cogwheel]

did you win

come on we all want to know

come on man

didya

didya win

Nnnnnope. Fled.

I could take that if it lacked the wyrms, though! Even more easily than before, now. In fact, I could take on one or two regular (as opposed to absurdly powered up) wyrms now without too much difficulty. Meanwhile, I found a ring with these stats.

+15 physical power, +10 str/+2 wil/+10 con, 19% blight resist, 6% fire resist. Damage changes: 38% arcane, 4% acid, 30% blight, 2% mind. +4.00% crit multiplier. +20% stun/freeze immunity. 5 spellpower, 6% spell crit.

Pretty nice.

[Cogwheel]

You know what's fun?

Losing to the final boss (or rather, the two of them) because your game lags out and interprets inputs as "I want to move in a straight line for a couple turns". This after I killed one boss before and got the other down to 27% health (at this point, the game crashed and I had to start over).

Hopefully b41 won't be quite this buggy. I'm counting this as a win in my mind, sort of, even if it clearly doesn't qualify. Here's the chardump from the retry where I got killed.


[ToME4 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex : Male STR: 48
Race : Halfling DEX: 51
Class : Archmage MAG: 100
Level : 50 WIL: 79
Exp : 26% CUN: 60
Gold : 3758.35 CON: 83

Accuracy(Main Hand): 36 Life : -58/1098 Encumbrance : 59/126
Damage (Main Hand): 60 Difficulty : Normal
Permadeath : Roguelike
APR (Main Hand): 11 Mana : 771/788
Crit (Main Hand): 34%
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00




Fatigue : 12% Spellpower : 72
Armor : 22.000000000002 Spell Crit : 50.5%
Armor Hardiness : 30% Spell Speed : 1
Defense : 0
Ranged Defense : 0
All damage : 12%
Physical damage : 14%
Arcane damage : 71%
Fire damage : 22%
Cold damage : 22%
Lightning damage : 22%
Acid damage : 31%
Blight damage : 57%
Darkness damage : 27%
Mind damage : 14%

Physical Save : 46.908333333333
Spell Save : 61.38125
Mental Save : 55.175

All Resists: 30%
Physical Resist(cap): 37%( 70%)
Arcane Resist(cap): 37%( 70%)
Fire Resist(cap): 66%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap): 47%( 70%)
Lightning Resist(cap): 51%( 75%)
Acid Resist(cap): 40%( 70%)
Nature Resist(cap): 47%( 70%)
Blight Resist(cap): 54%( 70%)
Light Resist(cap): 40%( 70%)
Darkness Resist(cap): 59%( 70%)
Poison Resistance: 14%
Disease Resistance: 14%
Confusion Resistance: 60%
Blind Resistance: 80%
Silence Resistance: 40%
Pinning Resistance: 40%
Stun Resistance: 20%
Knockback Resistance: 40%

Number of NPC killed: 4877
Most killed NPC: fire drake hatchling (157)

[Talents Chart]

- Race / Halfling (mastery 1.00)
Luck of the Little Folk (generic) 4/5
Duck and Dodge (generic) 0/5
Militant Mind (generic) 0/5
Indomitable (generic) 0/5
- Technique / Combat training (mastery 1.00)
Thick Skin (generic) 5/5
Armour Training (generic) 3/10
Combat Accuracy (generic) 0/10
Weapons Mastery (generic) 0/10
Knife Mastery (generic) 0/10
- Spell / Arcane (mastery 1.50)
Arcane Power (class) 5/5
Manathrust (class) 5/5
Arcane Vortex (class) 2/5
Disruption Shield (class) 5/5
- Spell / Fire (mastery 1.50)
Flame (class) 5/5
Flameshock (class) 5/5
Fireflash (class) 5/5
Inferno (class) 5/5
- Spell / Earth (mastery 1.30)
Stone Skin (class) 5/5
Mudslide (class) 0/5
Dig (class) 0/5
Stone Wall (class) 0/5
- Spell / Water (mastery 1.30)
Glacial Vapour (class) 1/5
Freeze (class) 5/5
Tidal Wave (class) 5/5
Ice Storm (class) 0/5
- Spell / Air (mastery 1.50)
Lightning (class) 5/5
Chain Lightning (class) 5/5
Feather Wind (class) 1/5
Thunderstorm (class) 3/5
- Spell / Phantasm (mastery 1.30)
Illuminate (class) 0/5
Blur Sight (class) 0/5
Phantasmal Shield (class) 0/5
Invisibility (class) 0/5
- Spell / Conveyance (mastery 1.30)
Phase Door (generic) 5/5
Teleport (generic) 5/5
Displacement Shield (generic) 5/5
Probability Travel (generic) 0/5
- Spell / Divination (mastery 1.30)
Arcane Eye (generic) 1/5
Keen Senses (generic) 0/5
Vision (generic) 0/5
Premonition (generic) 0/5
- Spell / Aegis (mastery 1.30)
Arcane Reconstruction (generic) 5/5
Shielding (generic) 5/5
Arcane Shield (generic) 5/5
Aegis (generic) 0/5

[Inscriptions (4/4)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Healing
Rune: Manasurge
Rune of the Rift

[Current Effects]

- Pain Suppression
+ Burning Shock
+ Off-balance
+ Infusion Saturation
+ Frozen

[Character Equipment]

In main hand
a) Life Drinker (42-54.6 power, 11 apr)
Type: weapon / dagger

Base power: 42.0 - 54.6
Uses stats: 55% Mag, 35% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armour Penetration: +11
Physical crit. chance: +18.0%
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Cun / +6 Mag
Changes damage: +15% blight / +15% darkness / +15% acid
Spellpower: +25
Spell crit. chance: +10%
Infravision radius: +2
Talent on hit(spell): Blood Grasp (15% chance level 2).
It can be used to activate talent Worm Rot (costing 40 power out of 50/50) :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 40 out of 50/50.
Range: 6.00
Travel Speed: 600% of base
Is Spell: true
Description: Infects the target with parasitic carrion worm larvae for 6 turns. Each turn the disease will remove a beneficial physical effect and deal 18.27 acid and 21.90 blight damage.
If not cleared after five turns it will inflict 252.72 acid damage as the larvae hatch, removing the effect but spawning a full grown carrion worm mass near the target's location.

Dropped by Rak'Shor Cultist
In off hand
On fingers
b) Portable Gandalf
Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Physical power: +15
Changes stats: +10 Str / +2 Wil / +10 Con
Changes resistances: +19% blight / +6% fire
Changes damage: +38% arcane / +4% acid / +30% blight / +2% mind
Critical mult.: +4.00%
Stun/Freeze immunity: +20%
Spellpower: +5
Spell crit. chance: +6%

c) Aereldara
Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy: +4
Changes stats: +10 Mag
Changes damage: +21% arcane
Physical save: +8
Spell save: +25
Mental save: +12
Maximum life: +30.00
Spellpower: +5

Dropped by orc soldier
Around neck
d) Fiery Choker
Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Mag / +4 Wil / +3 Cun
Changes resistances: -20% cold / +20% fire
Changes damage: -5% cold / +10% fire
Damage affinity(heal): +30% fire
Blindness immunity: +40%
Spellpower: +7
Spell crit. chance: +8%
Talent on hit(spell): Volcano (10% chance level 3).

Light source
e) preserving dwarven lantern of corpselight
Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Con
Poison immunity: +14%
Disease immunity: +14%
Life regen: +1.20
Spellpower: +4
Spell crit. chance: +4%
Light radius: +4
See invisible: +10

Dropped by Warmaster Gnarg
Main armor
f) Robe of the Archmage (10 def, 10 armour)
Type: armor / cloth

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +10
Defense: +10
Changes stats: +4 Mag / +4 Wil / +4 Cun
Damage when the wearer is hit: 15 arcane
Changes resistances: +10% cold / +10% fire
Changes damage: +12% all
Spell save: +18
Mental save: +15
Blindness immunity: +40%
Mana each turn: +1.00
Spellpower: +15
Light radius: +1

Dropped by orc pyromancer
Cloak
g) regal elven-silk cloak of implacability (3 def, 0 armour)
Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +3
Changes stats: +4 Cun / +4 Wil
Silence immunity: +40%
Confusion immunity: +40%
Pinning immunity: +40%
Knockback immunity: +40%

On head
h) drakeskin leather cap 'Neridawe' (0 def, 5 armour)
Type: armor / head

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +5
Fatigue: +5%
Changes stats: +4 Str / +17 Dex / +6 Cun
Damage when the wearer hits(melee): 1 acid
Changes resistances: +27% darkness
Changes damage: +2% physical
Physical save: +7
Mental save: +10
Infravision radius: +6
It can be used to activate talent Battle Cry, placing all other charms into a 28 cooldown :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 28 out of 28/28.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Your battle cry shatters the will of your foes within a radius of 5, lowering their defense by 14 for 7 turns, making them easier to hit.
Lowering defense chance increase with your Strength stat.

Dropped by Ce'Nelle the orc elite fighter
Around waist
i) Girdle of Preservation
Type: armor / belt

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Wil / +5 Con
Changes resistances: +10% physical / +10% arcane / +15% fire / +15% cold / +15% lightning / +15% acid / +15% nature / +15% blight / +15% light / +15% darkness
Physical save: +15
Spell save: +15
Mental save: +15
Confusion immunity: +20%

Dropped by orc master wyrmic
On hands
j) Storm Bringer's Gauntlets (0 def, 3 armour)
Type: armor / hands

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +3
Changes stats: +4 Mag
Changes resistances: +15% lightning
Changes resistances cap: +5% lightning
Changes damage: +10% lightning
Critical mult.: +20.00%
Spell crit. chance: +5%
It can be used to activate talent Chain Lightning (costing 16 power out of 16/16) :
Effective talent level: 4.5
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 16 out of 16/16.
Range: 10.00
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: Invokes a forking beam of lightning doing 88.93 to 266.80 damage and forking to another target.
It can hit up to 6 targets up to 10 grids apart and will never hit the same one twice; nor will it hit the caster.
The damage will increase with your Spellpower.

Dropped by orc soldier
On feet
k) Frost Treads (1 def, 4 armour)
Type: armor / feet

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +4
Defense: +1
Fatigue: +7%
Changes stats: +4 Str / +4 Dex / +4 Cun
Changes resistances: +10% nature / +20% cold
Changes damage: +15% cold
Light radius: +1

Dropped by Protector Myssil
Tool
l) Zubywen the elven-wood totem of cure poisons [power 4] (20 cooldown)
Type: charm / totem

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +3 Dex / +1 Con
It can be used to removes up to 4 poisons from the target, placing all other charms into a 20 cooldown.
Dropped by Snaproot
Quiver

[Player Achievements]

'A dangerous secret' was achieved for Found the mysterious staff and told Last Hope about it. At 2012-06-27 13:35:25
'Anti-Antimagic!' was achieved for Destroyed the Ziguranth camp with your Rhaloren allies. At 2012-06-28 00:54:20
'Arachnophobia' was achieved for Destroyed the spydric menace. At 2012-06-28 21:45:29
'Back and there again' was achieved for Opened a portal to the Far East from Maj'Eyal. At 2012-06-29 04:08:19
'Brave new world' was achieved for Went to the Far East and took part in the war. At 2012-06-28 11:45:18
'Clone War' was achieved for Destroyed your own Shade. At 2012-06-28 22:13:40
'Curse Lifter' was achieved for Killed Ben Cruthdar the Cursed. At 2012-06-26 11:50:00
'Destroyer's bane' was achieved for Killed Golbug the Destroyer. At 2012-06-27 21:27:55
'Earth Master' was achieved for Killed Harkor'Zun and unlocked Stone magic At 2012-06-26 15:28:50
'Exterminator' was achieved for Killed 1000 creatures At 2012-06-26 15:35:58
'Eye of the storm' was achieved for Freed Derth from the onslaught of the mad Tempest, Urkis. At 2012-06-27 19:01:41
'Gem of the Moon' was achieved for Completed the Master Jeweler quest with Limmir. At 2012-06-29 01:43:01
'Home sweet home' was achieved for Dispatched the Weirdling Beast and taken possession of Yiilkgur, the Sher'Tul Fortress for your own usage. At 2012-06-28 10:58:27
'Level 10' was achieved for Got a character to level 10. At 2012-06-26 10:12:05
'Level 20' was achieved for Got a character to level 20. At 2012-06-26 16:23:26
'Level 30' was achieved for Got a character to level 30. At 2012-06-28 03:23:09
'Level 40' was achieved for Got a character to level 40. At 2012-06-29 04:49:31
'Level 50' was achieved for Got a character to level 50. At 2012-06-30 00:06:25
'Orcrist' was achieved for Killed the leaders of the Orc Pride. At 2012-06-29 18:24:06
'Rescuer of the lost' was achieved for Rescued the merchant from the assassin lord. At 2012-06-26 13:03:19
'Size matters' was achieved for Do over 600 damage in one attack At 2012-06-27 19:33:12
'Sliders' was achieved for Activated a portal using the Orb of Many Ways. At 2012-06-28 11:12:54
'The Right thing to do' was achieved for You did the righteous thing in the ring of blood and disposed of the Blood Master. At 2012-06-26 12:50:31
'There and back again' was achieved for Opened a portal to Maj'Eyal from the Far East. At 2012-06-29 02:47:49
'Treasure Hoarder' was achieved for Amass 3000 gold pieces. At 2012-06-29 01:30:35
'Treasure Hunter' was achieved for Amass 1000 gold pieces. At 2012-06-27 17:13:03
'Unstoppable' was achieved for Has returned from the dead. At 2012-06-30 01:56:53
'Vampire crusher' was achieved for Destroyed the Master in its lair of the Dreadfell. At 2012-06-27 12:24:21

[Character Inventory]

a) Garkul's Teeth
Type: jewelry / amulet

It is part of a set of items.
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +10 Str / +6 Con
Talent masteries: +0.10 Technique / Two-handed maiming +0.10 Technique / Bloodthirst +0.10 Technique / Warcries +0.10 Technique / Two-handed weapons
Physical save: +18
Mental save: +18
Pinning immunity: +100%
It can be used to activate talent Shattering Shout (costing 10 power out of 48/48) :
Effective talent level: 4.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 10 out of 48/48.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: A powerful shout, doing 119.95 physical damage in a radius 7 cone in front of you.
The damage increases with Strength.

b) Unflinching Eye
Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: -25% light
Changes resistances cap: -25% light
Change telepathy range by : +10
Grants telepathy: Horror
Blindness immunity: +100%
Confusion immunity: +50%
Infravision radius: +3
It can be used to activate talent Arcane Eye (costing 60 power out of 60/60) :
Effective talent level: 2.6
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 60 out of 60/60.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: Summons an ethereal magical eye at the designated location that lasts for 17 turns.
The eye can not be seen or attacked by other creatures and possesses magical vision that allows it to see any creature in a 6 range around it.
It does not require light to do so but it can not see through walls.
Casting the eye does not take a turn.
Only one arcane eye can exist at any given time.
At level 4 if cast on a creature it will follow it until it expires or until the creature dies.
At level 5 its vision can see through invisibility, stealth and all other sight affecting effects.

c) Vox
Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Silence immunity: +80%
Maximum mana: +50.00
Maximum vim: +50.00
Spellpower: +9
Spell crit. chance: +4%
See invisible: +20

Dropped by Kor's Fury
d) Orb of Many Ways
[Plot Item]
Type: jewelry / orb

It can be used to activate a portal, costing 10 power out of 30/30.
Dropped by Tannen
e) Vargh Redemption
Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Con / +4 Wil
Changes resistances: +10% nature / +25% cold
Maximum mana: +20.00
Maximum stamina: +20.00
Maximum psi: +20.00
Maximum air capacity: +50.00
It can be used to summon a tidal wave, costing 60 power out of 60/60.
f) Telos's Staff (Bottom Half)
Type: weapon / staff

Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +4 Mag
Changes damage: +20% acid / +20% cold
Mental save: +8
Maximum mana: +50.00

Dropped by The Shade of Telos
g) Telos's Staff (Top Half) (35-42 power, 0 apr, arcane damage)
Type: weapon / staff

Base power: 35.0 - 42.0
Uses stat: 100% Mag
Damage type: Arcane
Armour Penetration: +0
Physical crit. chance: +1.5%
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Wil
Changes damage: +35% arcane
Talent granted: +1 Command Staff
Mental save: +8
Spellpower: +30
Spell crit. chance: +15%

h) voratun waraxe (42-58.8 power, 6 apr)
Type: weapon / waraxe

Base power: 42.0 - 58.8
Uses stat: 100% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armour Penetration: +6
Physical crit. chance: +7.0%
Attack speed: 100%

i) Wind's Whisper (4 def, 0 armour)
Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +4
Changes stats: +3 Dex
Silence immunity: +30%
It can be used to activate talent Evasion (costing 50 power out of 50/50) :
Effective talent level: 1.8
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 50 out of 50/50.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Description: Your quick wit allows you to see attacks before they come, granting you a 37% chance to completely evade them for 12 turns.
Duration increases with Willpower, and chance to evade with Cunning and Dexterity.

j) spellcowled cashmere cloak of stability (2 def, 0 armour)
Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +2
Physical save: +3
Spell save: +3
Mental save: +2
Blindness immunity: +6%
Confusion immunity: +10%
Stun/Freeze immunity: +20%
Knockback immunity: +18%

k) Firewalker (8 def, 2 armour)
Type: armor / cloth

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +2
Defense: +8
Changes stats: +6 Cun / +6 Mag
Damage when the wearer is hit: 18 fire
Changes resistances: -10% cold / +20% fire
Changes resistances penetration: +20% fire
Changes damage: +20% fire

l) Crown of Eternal Night (0 def, 3 armour)
Type: armor / head

It is part of a set of items.
When wielded/worn:
Armour: +3
Fatigue: +3%

Dropped by Greater Mummy Lord
m) Harehell the elven-silk wizard hat (3 def, 0 armour)
Type: armor / head

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +3
Changes stats: +5 Wil / +5 Mag
Changes resistances: +5% arcane
Changes damage: +10% arcane / +10% fire / +10% cold / +9% lightning / +9% acid
Spellpower: +9
Spell crit. chance: +8%
It can be used to activate talent Manaflow, placing all other charms into a 40 cooldown :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 40 out of 40/40.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: Engulf yourself in a surge of mana, quickly restoring 16 mana every turn for 10 turns.
The mana restored will increase with your Spellpower.

Dropped by Saleralranne the fiery orc wyrmic
n) 131 alchemist agate
Type: alchemist-gem / black

When used as an alchemist bomb:
Bomb damage +5%

Dropped by Emilaith the orc pyromancer
o) sapphire
Type: gem / blue

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +8
When used to imbue an object:
Defense: +8

Dropped by Fyrk, Faeros High Guard
p) Tooth of the Mouth (dig speed 12 turns)
Type: tool / digger

When wielded/worn:
Armour penetration: +5
Damage when the wearer is hit: 15 blight
Changes damage: +4% blight
It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1.
q) Mummified Egg-sac of Ungolﾃｫ
Type: misc / egg

When carried:
Light radius: -2
It can be used to summon spiders, costing 80 power out of 100/100.
Dropped by Urkis, the High Tempest
r) turquoise
Type: gem / green

When wielded/worn:
See invisible: +10
When used to imbue an object:
See invisible: +10

Dropped by orc summoner
s) Summertide Phial
Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Talents cooldown: Healing Light (-1 turn) Barrier (-2 turns) Providence (-5 turns) Bathe in Light (-1 turn)
Light radius: +4
Healing mod.: +10%
It can be used to call light, costing 10 power out of 15/15.
Dropped by Prox the Mighty
t) Crystal Focus
Type: gem / multi-hued

It can be used to combine with a weapon, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Norgos, the Guardian
u) Crystal Heart
Type: gem / multi-hued

It can be used to combine with a suit of body armor, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Grushnak, Battlemaster of the Pride
v) Dragon Orb (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Cun
It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Gorbat, Supreme Wyrmic of the Pride
w) Elemental Orb (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Mag
It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Vor, Grand Geomancer of the Pride
x) Orb of Destruction (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Str
It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Grushnak, Battlemaster of the Pride
y) Orb of Scrying
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
z) Orb of Undeath (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Dex
It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Dropped by Rak'shor, Grand Necromancer of the Pride
{) Atamathon's Lost Ruby Eye
[Plot Item]
Type: gem / red

When wielded/worn:
Changes damage: +12% fire
When used to imbue an object:
Changes damage: +12% fire

Dropped by Corrupted Sand Wyrm
|) Runed Skull
Type: gem / red

When carried:
Damage when the wearer is hit: 25 fire
Spellpower: +7

Dropped by Pale Drake
}) 5 bloodstone
Type: gem / red

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +60%
When used to imbue an object:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +60%

Dropped by spire dragon
~) 5 fire opal
Type: gem / red

When wielded/worn:
Changes damage: +10% all
When used to imbue an object:
Changes damage: +10% all

) 5 ruby
Type: gem / red

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +4 Str / +4 Dex / +4 Mag / +4 Wil / +4 Cun / +4 Con
When used to imbue an object:
Changes stats: +4 Str / +4 Dex / +4 Mag / +4 Wil / +4 Cun / +4 Con

Dropped by Corrupted Sand Wyrm
€) Rod of Recall (1/1)
[Plot Item]
Type: charm / rod

It can be used to recall the user to the worldmap, costing 202 power out of 400/400.
・ Transmogrification Chest
[Plot Item]
Type: chest / sher'tul

When carried:
It can be used to transmogrify all the items in your chest at once(also done automatically when you change level), costing 0 power out of 1000/1000.
・ 7 diamond
Type: gem / white

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con
When used to imbue an object:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con

・ moonstone
Type: gem / white

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +10
When used to imbue an object:
Defense: +10

・ 5 pearl
Type: gem / white

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +10% all
When used to imbue an object:
Changes resistances: +10% all

Dropped by orc pyromancer
・ quartz
Type: gem / white

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%
When used to imbue an object:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%

Dropped by ancient elven mummy
・ 2 amber
Type: gem / yellow

When wielded/worn:
Changes damage: +8% all
When used to imbue an object:
Changes damage: +8% all

Dropped by crimson ooze

[Last Messages]

Elandar casts Illuminate.
Cogwheel loses sight!
Dﾃｺathedlen loses sight!
Thaurhereg resists the blinding light!
High Sun Paladin Aeryn loses sight!
Fire drake hatchling loses sight!
Fire drake hatchling resists the blinding light!
Argoniel resists the blinding light!
Dﾃｺathedlen misses High Sun Paladin Aeryn.
Elandar hits fire drake hatchling for 202 light damage.
Elandar hits dﾃｺathedlen for 202 light damage.
Elandar hits Cogwheel for 146 light damage.
Elandar hits thaurhereg for 0 light damage.
Elandar hits High Sun Paladin Aeryn for 149 light damage.
Elandar hits Argoniel for 97 light damage.
Elandar hits fire drake hatchling for 202 light damage.
Cogwheel casts Freeze.
Cogwheel casts Blood Grasp.
Cogwheel's spell attains critical power!
Argoniel resists!
Elandar casts Freeze.
Elandar's spell attains critical power!
Cogwheel is encased in ice!
Elandar hits Cogwheel for 746 cold damage.
Cogwheel hits Argoniel for 66 cold damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 483 blight damage.
Fire blast trap hits fire drake hatchling for 0 fire damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 107 fire damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 107 fire damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 107 fire damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 107 fire damage.
Argoniel rushes out!
Argoniel killed Cogwheel!
Saving done.
Saving done.
Saving game...
Cogwheel the level 50 halfling archmage was eviscerated to death by a Argoniel on level 11 of High Peak.
Argoniel hits Cogwheel for 69 physical damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 31 fire damage.
Cogwheel hits Iceblock for 26 arcane damage.

[Todasmile]

Out of curiosity, which method did you use to get Unstoppable? (The reviving achievement)

EDIT: Oh, wonderful! Just got a berserker to level 10, was dealing upwards of 100 damage per normal attack, things were looking good.

And then all of a sudden out of freaking nowhere comes this level 38 Patchwork Troll on the last level of the Trollmire.

Just

Why?

Yeah I died in three hits. Maybe I should have stunned it or something. I have no clue.

[Cogwheel]

Out of curiosity, which method did you use to get Unstoppable? (The reviving achievement)

EDIT: Oh, wonderful! Just got a berserker to level 10, was dealing upwards of 100 damage per normal attack, things were looking good.

And then all of a sudden out of freaking nowhere comes this level 38 Patchwork Troll on the last level of the Trollmire.

Just

Why?

Yeah I died in three hits. Maybe I should have stunned it or something. I have no clue.

Not actually sure what a Patchwork Troll is.

Also, chugging the Blood of Life artifact, and later wearing a Ring of the Dead. I actually revived twice.

[Todasmile]

A patchwork troll is just another troll I guess. It looks menacing, like the second Trollmire boss. Maybe it was even put exclusively in Trollmire or something so people visiting it at way higher levels would be punished. I dunno, it's a roguelike, it's possible.

I even survived the dwarf starting dungeon T_T

Cool. I got the potion once. It was hilarious because I used it when I died from a skeleton warrior.

And then about five minutes later died to a totally unrelated skeleton warrior.

[Cogwheel]

So as it turns out, either sun paladins as a whole are amazing or a ghoul sun paladin works better than it has any right to.


Off to the Daikatana mountains now.


Edit: Dammit Daikara.

[Todasmile]

My latest Bulwark actually beat the Old Forest, which is definitely a first for me. The little note just before the Lake of Nur absolutely terrified me...

He looked on his way to steamrolling for quite a while, since pretty much nothing could touch him.

And then I decided to fight a wandering adventurer group, despite knowing the dangers.

Yeah one of the combatants was a necromancer. I was softened by an arcane attack of some kind from afar to signal their presence, and then when I engaged they promptly summoned two skeleton mages and blasted me into oblivion before I could act. This is actually quite the forgiving roguelike, really, with all the skills and stuff - just when it decides to be unfair, it is REALLY unfair. Kind of reminds me of ADOM, but it's far easier to get to a low-middle level.

I take it Daikara is terrible?


Also my latest project is a sneak attack rogue. That sneak talent tree is just droolworthy in some of its potentials. What appears to be at higher levels a chance to attack from stealth with 100% probability to crit for tons of extra damage on top of bonuses from assassination and whatever attack skill you happen to use?

And you have like a 80% chance to not break stealth? And even if you do you can just Hide In Plain Sight?

Yes PLEASE.

[Cogwheel]

My latest Bulwark actually beat the Old Forest, which is definitely a first for me. The little note just before the Lake of Nur absolutely terrified me...

He looked on his way to steamrolling for quite a while, since pretty much nothing could touch him.

And then I decided to fight a wandering adventurer group, despite knowing the dangers.

Yeah one of the combatants was a necromancer. I was softened by an arcane attack of some kind from afar to signal their presence, and then when I engaged they promptly summoned two skeleton mages and blasted me into oblivion before I could act. This is actually quite the forgiving roguelike, really, with all the skills and stuff - just when it decides to be unfair, it is REALLY unfair. Kind of reminds me of ADOM, but it's far easier to get to a low-middle level.

Yeah, casters are the least fair part of the game. Well, elemental damage as a whole. It's way too easy for the game to go "boom, 700 damage, you're dead" than it should be. Partly why I suggest playing on Easy to a lot of people.

I didn't realize the Old Forest was that difficult, by the way. It's pretty doable for me (okay, the one time the game threw an Uruivellas at me was a bit startling), and even Wrathroot isn't that bad at all, whether you have fire damage or not. I don't think I've ever died there.

Also, Lake of Nur. Give that a try when you're, say, level 25 or so? 30 if you want to be extra careful/typically rely on fire or light damage, because of a certain enemy there. Water breathing is actually far from mandatory. If the note scared you, then... yeah. Things get interesting there.

Also, playing my first Corruptor so far, a Cornac. Up to the Old Forest. Pretty fun so far, and the absurd grimdarkery of their talents amuses me. As well as my ability to drain blood from an air elemental.


Edit: I never got that far as a rogue because my second fight killed me and I wrote the class off as useless. Similar to what happened with archers and shadowblades. At any rate, yes, Daikara is all kinds of awful. Sandworm lair too, but for different reasons.

[nooblade]

Hmm. I don't want to spoil much, but I have to say that something was unlocked after Lake of Nur that made the game easier to play for all of my characters. And I think maybe that is too much to say already, but I'll add "maybe you should play an easy character just to get it" and "I'm glad I did it saves on clicking/typing and grief". But I don't see why you shouldn't always start with it along with the orb of scrying unless in some future version of the game you won't be able to identify automatically.

Anyway, I'll confuse the bulwark vs archmage debate with this news: I've been having surprising success with a shaloren arcane blade recently. I don't remember how much was changed with the versions, but the main thing that enabled me was the arcane shielding talents. It's not enough to stop 700 damage, and indeed I am avoiding the Derthstorm for some time as expected, but I feel pretty cozy at level 12. I miss the wild infusion though, the saving throw effects have been trouble so far. I like the Shaloren runes and also those two quests are the most flavorful IMHO, but I think it would be similar to start with a stronger race. Maybe even Halflings would work but maybe not.

I did have some success as a rogue by starting with traps and then going into stealth. There's a very nice synergy there for the early levels where everything is based on cunning. Also traps work out pretty well if you have a movement infusion and/or some roomy area.

[Cogwheel]

Hmm. I don't want to spoil much, but I have to say that something was unlocked after Lake of Nur that made the game easier to play for all of my characters. And I think maybe that is too much to say already, but I'll add "maybe you should play an easy character just to get it" and "I'm glad I did it saves on clicking/typing and grief". But I don't see why you shouldn't always start with it along with the orb of scrying unless in some future version of the game you won't be able to identify automatically.

Anyway, I'll confuse the bulwark vs archmage debate with this news: I've been having surprising success with a shaloren arcane blade recently. I don't remember how much was changed with the versions, but the main thing that enabled me was the arcane shielding talents. It's not enough to stop 700 damage, and indeed I am avoiding the Derthstorm for some time as expected, but I feel pretty cozy at level 12. I miss the wild infusion though, the saving throw effects have been trouble so far. I like the Shaloren runes and also those two quests are the most flavorful IMHO, but I think it would be similar to start with a stronger race. Maybe even Halflings would work but maybe not.

I did have some success as a rogue by starting with traps and then going into stealth. There's a very nice synergy there for the early levels where everything is based on cunning. Also traps work out pretty well if you have a movement infusion and/or some roomy area.

Agreed on the Nur comments. It's really quite nice. Also, bits and pieces of neat lore if you like that.

Will try rogues and arcane blades at some point. Probably in a while. Would advise against halflings for 'blades, though. Low strength.

Also, corruptor is pretty neat so far. Just cleared the Sandworm Lair, which leaves...

Daikara. Dammit.

[nooblade]

Agreed on the Nur comments. It's really quite nice. Also, bits and pieces of neat lore if you like that.

Will try rogues and arcane blades at some point. Probably in a while. Would advise against halflings for 'blades, though. Low strength.

Also, corruptor is pretty neat so far. Just cleared the Sandworm Lair, which leaves...

Daikara. Dammit.

I'm a little frustrated at the moment because the game crashed at the top of Dreadfell but meh.

Shall I relate to you the epic of the arcane blades? I don't think it's too spoily, more about the basics for the game (attack and creature types) that I'm beginning to understand. I really think the game should start with some kind of mental-using class so I have an idea what the mental save does.

The shaloren died poorly to cursed-unlock quest before going to daikara (and some others, I forget, I don't play on roguelike anymore). That is when I realized that saves are going to be a problem, the thing filled up my bar with negative statuses too quickly. I had encountered mind-saves before but didn't really recognize the extent of trouble I was in. But little did I know there were many more problems to come!

I thought I would be set with a dwarf, because it's easy to accumulate gold and dwarves can get like +35 to saves with about 2k gold hanging around. Sounded like a sweet deal (and it was, I suppose); I've done the dwarf start before and I know arcane blades do very well with five points into flame and some other combat skills. The only important class skills at the start were flame and the chance to cast it on melee. Flame goes a long way, was quite helpful everywhere up to Dreadfell, sometimes in melee, sometimes cast manually.

So, to minimize spoilers on the various bosses, the five more common monsters to terrify me were: curses, psion, archers, slimy oozes, and ghosts. The save bonuses help against the first three and I think a cure mental item is essential for fighting anything cursed, but anything antimagical or invisible still really hurts. Not sure how to best handle it except play something else, I'm getting a little sick of exploiting stairs to progress.

Also, I've reached 1,000 kills and 1,000 gold. Hehe.

[Todasmile]

Arcana Blades are cool, mine died to the Assassin Lord at a relatively high level - he actually beat the Old Forest too, I believe - because I was chain blinded and the Lord's little "GET OVER HERE" thing is so overpowered.

Speaking of the Assassin Lord, there's some very nifty interactions between him and Rogues. They really help your damage output.

My rogue has beaten both the Maze and the Old Forest, making him the best character I have ever made. The boss of the maze spawned right next to the stairs, behind a minotaur, so I had to unstealth and kill the other enemy and that meant I couldn't be stealthed fighting the boss (Hide In Plain Sight was on cooldown. I also found a nifty trap recipe near the stairs. It seems like Rogues get a lot of cool unlockable stuff.)

Either way, I was worried until he hit me only about three times while we sat there trading blows, each doing less than ten damage, and I was dealing over 100 per attack and over 200 if I used a skill.

Yeah, rogues are insane. They suck at early levels, but once you get them up there that stealth stuff and Two Weapon Defense make you an untouchable machine of death. To give you an idea: I've taken less damage lately on this Rogue than on my best Bulwarks. I'm currently deciding what to do next - I'd guess the Sandworm Lair if Daikara's that bad, but what you said about the Lair worries me.

Also I found a rare dagger and I sold it because it was worse than my other daggers anyways. Rares have never been good for me.

[Cogwheel]

Things!

It helps if you assume the Dreadfell boss would've killed you anyway. This is almost always true.

Arcane Blades sound neat, anyway. I suggest packing a Wild infusion for mental effects. Most mental effects are not that bad, or rare enough that you shouldn't care much, but confusion is really, really nasty.

But yes. Saves. Saves are nice.


More things!

I'll have to look into rogues after this giant class backlog. Sandworm lair, though, isn't as dangerous as Daikara. It just... has a rather annoying gimmick. You should be fine.

On the subject of Assassin Lord, for me, it's typically phase dooring, or "get over here!" "okay!" And then I stab his face off. Not a big deal.

[Mewtarthio]

I'll have to look into rogues after this giant class backlog. Sandworm lair, though, isn't as dangerous as Daikara. It just... has a rather annoying gimmick. You should be fine.

I'd actually rank the Sandworm Lair as worse, in my mind. Daikara is more deadly in general, but if you run into trouble in the Lair (say, through bad luck with rare monsters), it's tough to run away.

[Cogwheel]

I'd actually rank the Sandworm Lair as worse, in my mind. Daikara is more deadly in general, but if you run into trouble in the Lair (say, through bad luck with rare monsters), it's tough to run away.

A fair point, though nothing in the Sandworm Lair's ever being too deadly for me. I just find it really annoying, aside from a bit of trouble with the queen. Daikara is...

Yeah, it's Daikara.


P.S. To Steam with ye.

[Cogwheel]

Not to double post, but on the subject of the Sandworm Lair, the best thing just happened.

Sandworm Queen. Found her on floor 4.


Trapped in the sand.

On 55% health.

[Mewtarthio]

Not to double post, but on the subject of the Sandworm Lair, the best thing just happened.

Sandworm Queen. Found her on floor 4.


Trapped in the sand.

On 55% health.

There are times when that annoying gimmick works out in your favor.

Although... what would have happened if she'd actually died from that? And all her drops and the Heart got stuck in a random patch of sand? :smalleek:


P.S. To Steam with ye.

It'll still be a few more hours before I can get on Steam, unfortunately.

[Cogwheel]

There are times when that annoying gimmick works out in your favor.

Although... what would have happened if she'd actually died from that? And all her drops and the Heart got stuck in a random patch of sand? :smalleek:



It'll still be a few more hours before I can get on Steam, unfortunately.

Alrighty, see you then.

As for your question, tooth of the moooouth. Either way, sandworm queen is terrible at being a sandworm.

So anyway I'm taking my reaver to Daikara now. He will be missed.

[Todasmile]

I did end up dying to the Sandworm Queen, though like you for me she got trapped in the sand once and was down to really low health. She did her sand breath thing and I panicked and teleported away.

Apparently right next to a Sand Drake, which instantly killed me with a basic attack. Of all the possible squares, and what are the chances that I'd actually be HIT by a normal attack?

Another Rogue made it to the Old Forest and was again looking to facestomp, but some rare bear which spam summoned shadows - which could actually hit and damage me for quite a bit - and mindraped a lot managed to kill me. My Phase Door dropped me in a safe spot, so I probably should have ran away and regened, but I decided to run straight back at it >.>

[Mewtarthio]

I hate the rares that summon shadows. I ran into one once whose shadows could shoot Lightning. At my Brawler. Needless to say, I died in short order. I think the class is some sort of Afflicted, since those rares have a Hate score.

Speaking of Afflicted, has anyone had any success with the Cursed? I'm no good with them at all.

[nooblade]

I've tried two of the cursed so far. The first was a higher who died to Bill, the second, a cornac, died to a vault of bears on Tromire 1. Meh. I like the theory of the class but I don't feel like delving into something quite so new yet.

Moments ago, I started Brewserker! Guess what it is. I'm sure it will take the things I've learnt from being an arcane blade far, because honestly who needs magic when you've got a big weapon and the gut to wield it?


One more thing: I discovered the love of my life last night. The auto-explore key is mapped by default to "z". No more insane clicking or keying! This game keeps getting easier to play.

I just cleared the first two dwarven quests in like 20 minutes. And stopping to write this post. Whee!

Also, I don't care what anyone else says: rush is an awesome skill and should get the 5 points. If only it could be used just to move around.

[Reynard]

Cursed are really late-game, from what I've played of them. Sadly they really struggle to get there. They need so many class talents at a decent level just to survive, but it seems like you get enough of them, they won't die easily. Especially with one of those amours that give you an ass-load increased healing effects.

[Cogwheel]

Cursed are really late-game, from what I've played of them. Sadly they really struggle to get there. They need so many class talents at a decent level just to survive, but it seems like you get enough of them, they won't die easily. Especially with one of those amours that give you an ass-load increased healing effects.

Pretty much this. No luck with Cursed.


I hate the rares that summon shadows. I ran into one once whose shadows could shoot Lightning. At my Brawler. Needless to say, I died in short order. I think the class is some sort of Afflicted, since those rares have a Hate score.

Speaking of Afflicted, has anyone had any success with the Cursed? I'm no good with them at all.

I never had trouble with shadows, but then, that never happened to me. For me, most shadows are just kind of there, and irritating but largely harmless. And that seems caster-y, so I suspect it's Doomed, though I've never played one.

At least since the patch, the trollmire bears aren't summoning drakes at me. Or outright fearscaping me.

[nooblade]

Dreadfell take two didn't go well, but I like the Berserker. Investing in constitution and thick skin was very worthwhile for more than 1000 hps and 15% damage reduction, I think I will consider it more often in the future. Raw hitpoints are possibly more useful than defense or armor against spellcasters. I think Zigur antimagic talents didn't do as much for me as I was hoping; they most likely need some more attention. Or just willpower and actual leftover generic talents to spend. Some of the runes I was obliged to pass would've been nice, Dreadfell was stocked full of them.

Another problem is that I think level 27 is too low to be up there, or at least I got the caution warning. I developed a tactic that I call "berserk deathblow and back". It's as simple as wasting all stamina into condensed attack and use movement infusion to run away. If you're lucky at all, you heal faster than they do.

More Spoilery detail:
So the main thing I discovered is the farportal, and I'm guessing it's purpose is leveling up. It would've been wise to use it more before fighting the Master, but I was in a zone. I wonder also if I could level up in the elven ruins.

I found Drake's Bane right around Daikara and kept using it, what joy. As well as archmagi robes and a staff of arcane mastery, what a joke.

The Master... Why am I the only one who doesn't get to really enjoy summoning hordes of undead? I don't think necromancers or summoners are that much fun in this game to be honest, it's too much typing/clicking compared to the others. But I digress.

I was very surprised to see that I had been fighting the big boss on level 9 of this tower. I was expecting level 10. In the previous game, when I had thought I'd reached the top, that was only level 5 with a bone golem I had figured was the boss pet.

The problem I had with this boss man was that he had a second life, and I had wasted my extra lives on a failed cultist crypt quest and various ninnery. I was expecting a levelup heal too much, but I suppose that won't happen at this point anymore. But I should've expected this much from a necromancer. Celia is also a quest I've kill/failed on twice now, I'm beginning to think she should be avoided, but maybe there's a reward that would help against the bigger necromancer with her.

Haven't been unlocking anything lately, that makes me a little sad. Well, that's not entirely true, Brewserker did unlock the stone talents for archmagi and arcane blades, maybe it's worth something.

[Cogwheel]

Meanwhile, I've unlocked skeleton, mindslayer, necromancer and paradox mage. Paradox mages confuse me terribly and I'm loving every second of it.

I also gave Doomed my first and second try with the newly unlocked Gratuitous Suffering Mode. I think they're technically called Yeeks?

I hate playing Yeeks. So much pain.

[nooblade]

Very mild spoilers. For unlocks and archmage strategy.

I didn't even see the ruined halfling compound until exploring every corner of the map with autoexplore but yes I can see why one would complain about the yeek.

Oh, and I unlocked corruptor too, although it cost three lives due to an AoE mistake on some allies... But I'm not entirely sure that it wasn't intended by them, corruptors aren't the nicest friends to have, yeah? That was nasty. They had something very much like invulnerability for 15 turns so yes, I think it was due to friendly fire. And I didn't find out if there were a better quest reward, sort of like the first failure with the yeek unlock and also my situation with Celia (she kills me. Every. Time. Her or a vampire minion). But it's good to see what the corruptor can do, and when cure disease is important.


This progress is caused by playing another archmage, except doing it the right way this time! I think anyone can look at this link to see (and tell me if I failed badly):

http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/6eaa2429-b72b-4623-9840-459c2db135ae

I had been going for the shiny high damage spells before now, but the real strength of the archmage is with two shield spells: probability and disruption, along with the entire aegis tree. Especially disruption shield. For some reason I didn't think so at first, probably because it's so different from what I expect mana shield to be like from previous game, but disruption shield will stop all damage (except possibly crits again) from striking until your mana is full again. Quite nifty! It saves me from the slimy antimagic oozes too.

For doing damage, I leaned toward the ice spells with this one. Surprisingly few problems were to be had in Daikara, probably due to the shields and also to being more close to adequately prepared. It takes some time to go to other starter dungeons but the bosses usually give a levelup each and an artifact. I had a good time with lightning and storm in the arena, maybe I'll put another one of those into a game someday.

But also I had two deaths to measly skeletal warriors who had shield-ignoring critical hits. I'm surprised I'd never noticed that before, it appears to be frequent, probably the arcane blades had heavy armor just enough to ignore enemy critical. Can't remember what the other deaths were now, I don't think they were bosses but maybe.

[Reynard]

I still hate adventuring parties. I swear, they seem like the source of 85% of my Bulwark deaths (trying to get a win with the class). Or rather, the ones with mages are. The ones that try and use weapons either fail to hit me or do little-to-no damage. I really am debating with myself whether the awesome-looking rewards from the various alchemists are worth the trouble that having to deal with the Parties are.

[nooblade]

Yes. But I find that I had enough for one potion before going to Dreadfall for the last two games without bothering with them so I usually get the spellblazes away. Potions are worth more early on but so are lives.

Also, tell me how you unlocked mindslayer because I can't do it.

[Mewtarthio]

Also, tell me how you unlocked mindslayer because I can't do it.

Here's what I did:
Play a Yeek Archmage. Try to get at least to level 10 before you enter the tunnels, and make sure you have at least four points invested in Phase Door. Use a targeted Phase Door on the Wayist and send him to the other side of the room if he's in trouble. I also recommend getting Freeze, a high-damage spell that has a good chance of freezing Z and earning the Wayist some respite.

That being said, it's not guaranteed by any means. Subject Z can really dish it out, and there's no way you're as strong as any other adventurer would be, even with the Yeek experience bonus. Keep a close eye on Z so you can see who he's going after, and always make sure your defenses are up when he goes for you. I've had him one-shot me with a single Shadowstep before. If you're lucky, maybe one of the rares in the Ritch Tunnels dropped something with darkness resistance, but you can't count on that.

A few other, less savory tricks that I didn't use myself, but which might help if you're desperate:
> You can slaughter all the Yeeks in your starting village, if you like. The Way doesn't seem to mind. Thanks to the Yeek experience bonus, that should get you most of the way to level 2. The Isle of Rel levels up with you, but the Halfling Ruins have a minimum level, so it could help you reach that minimum level. You obviously won't be able to buy anything from the massacred shopkeepers, so maybe browse a bit first.
> Once you've entered the Halfling Ruins, the game considers you to be in Maj'Eyal proper. Thus, the Rod of Recall will now take you to the main wilderness area, just outside of Zigur. The Wayist and Subject Z don't start their fight until you can see them. I haven't tested it myself, but you might be able to bypass the ruins altogether, then come back when you're strong enough to reliably splatter Subject Z before he can react.

[Cogwheel]

What Mewt said. I suppose necro would work too, as they also get rank 4 phase door, but it might be harder to pull off?

Currently doing fairly well with a Paradox Mage, on another note. Though there have been some complications when going down new stairs.

http://oi45.tinypic.com/b9c1gz.jpg

Oh Dreadfell.

EDIT:

http://oi49.tinypic.com/amuvfa.jpg

The turn it came out of a Time Skip rift. Suddenly, full health to 0.


HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

[Todasmile]

Just died as a Summoner, got to level 14.

The Sandworm Queen did her stupid breath attack on me and that lead to death because I had no means of healing or shielding left. I probably should have used Phase Door, but I decided to summon the turtle like a moron instead >.>

The worst part?

She had 40 HP left.

40. Freaking. HP.

[Mewtarthio]

Phase door wouldn't have done you any good. Thanks to the layout of that area, you'd have probably just hopped a few squares away in the same room. Even if you did end up in one of the unstable tunnels, you'd only have a few turns to catch your breath before the Queen knocked down the wall. Teleport might have changed things, if the cooldown on your healing wasn't that long and you'd managed to clear most of the rest of the level. Like I said earlier, it's not easy to run away in the sandworm lair.

In the future, I'd suggest skipping the phase door rune. Use the slot for a teleport rune or a movement infusion.

[nooblade]

Teleport is my favorite. I'm sure there is a situation where I'd need a phase door rune instead but I haven't found it yet. Unless it's the controlled, selected cast version as described above.

I had been thinking necromancer as well with the minions, extra "life" skill, and the death curse would stop healing. I think he has more defense available, but I would miss the freeze spell and maybe flameshock would save the day. My attempt with a summoner was going all right even though an acid trap interrupted it, but still not enough minion to save the wayist. The time before that, a corruptor's debuffs didn't have enough to stop it although it did enough damage to live.

Also I find it very hard to believe that the recall would take you into Eyal, but I'll try for sure. I guess another option is to use a pickaxe to tunnel around the event.

Also, I've been enjoying the arena very much lately. It doesn't have any loading or saving times, which sometimes take almost a minute on this slow machine. I got one storm mage to a higher character level than even the ones who go as far along as I've been in plot-mode. But I wonder if damage or kills in it contribute to unlocks?

[MonarchAnarch]

Apparently I am horrible at this game cause I have NO idea what you guys are talking about. lol. The boss at lvl 3 kills all my elves. I can get into the world going SW from town on my dwarves...but I now realized I should be going SE down those stairs from town to complete the secondary quest.

Found a cool crypt type area on my dwarf bulwark that could pillage coffins and what not..until a lvl 30 mob popped out.

[Mewtarthio]

Also I find it very hard to believe that the recall would take you into Eyal, but I'll try for sure. I guess another option is to use a pickaxe to tunnel around the event.

I was a little suprised, too, when I used a recall to escape a rather nasty group of skeletons and wound up skipping the entire dungeon. Bear in mind, though, that the staircase in Z's room is labeled "stairs to the Isle of Rel." By the time you get to the Halfling Ruins, you've already gone through the tunnel system and are now below Maj'Eyal. Of course, I can't guarantee that the Wayist will still be alive when you return, but you can at least bypass the boss fight and maybe even get into the arena before Shady vanishes.


Also, I've been enjoying the arena very much lately. It doesn't have any loading or saving times, which sometimes take almost a minute on this slow machine. I got one storm mage to a higher character level than even the ones who go as far along as I've been in plot-mode. But I wonder if damage or kills in it contribute to unlocks?

Arena's a bit broken in b41, sadly. It appears the poison gas traps don't go away between rounds. Yet another reason to deplore those horrible things. :smallfrown:


Apparently I am horrible at this game cause I have NO idea what you guys are talking about. lol. The boss at lvl 3 kills all my elves. I can get into the world going SW from town on my dwarves...but I now realized I should be going SE down those stairs from town to complete the secondary quest.

Found a cool crypt type area on my dwarf bulwark that could pillage coffins and what not..until a lvl 30 mob popped out.

My advice is to pay attention to the feelings you get when you go into a level. If your character is "mildly anxious," you may want to go somewhere else (unless you're only getting that message on the last level of a dungeon that hasn't triggered any anxiety before; in that case, it'll only be slightly more challenging than usual). If your character feels "terribly threatened," you should definitely go somewhere else. Towns are the exception: There's generally not anything more threatening than exorbitant prices in them.

[Cogwheel]

Towns are the exception: There's generally not anything more threatening than exorbitant prices in them.

WELCOME TO LIGHTNING TOWN.

We have many lightnings.

[Mewtarthio]

WELCOME TO LIGHTNING TOWN.

We have many lightnings.

Ssh! You'll scare him off!

Also, I did say "generally." :smallwink:

[Theoboldi]

I hate the twin guys at the end of the temporal rift. HATE. I managed to bring my bulwark all the way through that thing, never once having problems except for the beginning, and then those things rip through all my lives like through tissue paper.

I probably should have tried to lure them into the small entrance to the lake instead of fighting them in the open, in hindsight, but after the easy rest of the level I didn't expect such a difficult encounter. Not to mention them suddenly teleporting me into the middle of the lake.

Now I have to start all over again to unlock the temporal warden. Any tips on what I should do differently this time?

Edit: I managed to defeat them this time. Time for some time-space shenanigans!

[nooblade]

So I've found one fairly effective race/class combination: Higher Wyrmic.

See a dead chardump: http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/36d75b17-45e6-47da-b4bc-55f40c779a64

That's the highest level I've been to yet (31), and also I haven't played in normal for a while. Still no dead Master. I left when I was surrounded by dreads on the top level and the feeling had been "anxious", so I wonder how high I should have been, and if I'm missing out on quests.

After a couple failed attempts with dwarves, I noticed that low dexterity makes the first dungeon difficult to complete and it ends up short on generic skills anyway. The nice part of the higher build is that you get a regeneration effect that can be used instantly while stunned, so that will synergize with the various fungi skills. And I'm theorizing that the highborn's bloom would be moderately useful for a couple dragonpuffs without the equilibrium cost.

Combine that with an amazing amount of armor from icy skin, plus damage on hit, and it's a cakewalk early on. Trolls and bears are a pain because they attack slowly but the real difficulty lies in transitioning into something that can do reasonable damage later on. I was finding that breath attacks weren't cutting it even though it was nice and shiny. Like a bulwark with a wand of conjuration. Even ordinary creatures became tedious to kill by waiting for breaths. I wonder if in the future I should try with more berserker or bulwark-like skills and maybe only one dragon aspect.

More spoilery details on death and such:

This character in particular had as much as 200% healing modifier at some point in the game, a nifty pair of boots with +50% on them were great.

I had one death to Bill the stone troll before things were set up perfectly, another to a rare doomed in the sandworm lair, and a couple more due to the cultist sacrifice stoppage quest. Naturally I failed the cultist one again, and found out that the timer for the sacrificee's death is only like 30 rounds. I wonder if maybe you could talk to her instead of killing all the cultists? But then she'd be in a bad way with their high damage spells. Only good news is I managed to figure out what Celia had going for her and stop it, and the rewards really weren't worth another death there. I keep thinking I'll let her be in the future but there's this morbid curiosity about it...

Luminous horrors were kinda bad, but the useful thing is that I regenerated about as much as they healed, so it's a silly stalemate unless something with stunning gets in my business. I couldn't really kill those types until I had a decent weapon and attack rate or it would barely work with an insidious poison infusion. Add a skeleton warrior or anything and suddenly the 100 hp/turn heal isn't so dependable even if it only does about 20-30 damage a turn (some more added due to armor break). I had a Titanic shield and a weak one-hander on a switch but that got boring even if armor hardiness is 100% all the time.

Had a couple quick incursions in Dreadfell and in ancient elven ruins, but nothing interesting to report there--no bosses and no deaths. I didn't have the heart to try another necromancer while still struggling with two others and an ineffective character. Oh, and I shouldn't have gone into the temporal rift either, the reward was a rune I couldn't use and I nearly died. But the breath attacks are maybe good for something. Lightning speed saved my hide against Urkis the Tempest--it's not complete immunity but close enough. I wonder if the dreads and the banshee and etc. weren't right there if I could've had a Master kill. But eh, probably would've died anyway, made too many stupid mistakes early on.

Also the inability to kill reasonably fast really cramped my escort quests.

The final death occurred to a farportal orc master assassin corruptor in his own little hellish demesnes. I think he had the demon skill on that healed him very quickly because stuff I had wasn't doing anything.

Oh, one more thing. Steel helm of Garkul was on sale in Zigur. How much? 33 gold. 33! I hope they stock more artifacts!

Overall, I had been hoping the breaths would be sufficient for a primary attack. Playing like that isn't much fun though.

Edit: Oh, and thank you both for mindslayer unlock tips, those worked out well enough. Now there's a whole new class to contemplate.

Phase door was the perfect skill for the job and the minions the best defense. But I peeked around Maj'Eyal first and yeah, you can recall out or use a pickaxe.

I think I will put off mindslaying--it looks deep and I play too much already.

Now I have a yeek necromancer with minion specialties. It works surprisingly well with the minions being nearly disposable (I tend to lose them all in auto-explore) as long as corpses are regained some battle. I can see bad things happening in Dreadfell with running out of summoning and invisible, spectral enemies immune to everything. But we've had a few of the easiest boss kills yet just because summoning a whole platoon of guys on top of them is devastating.

However, I don't think the Yeek part does much for necromancer; probably the yeek archmage was a better choice for continuing after the unlock.

[Aldgar]

This is a very interesting game. After dying a few times, I now have a level 10 cornac barbarian(pump str, kill everything very fast in melee, hope you can survive long enough -> he lost a few lives against various bosses) and a level 10 dwarven bulwark(I figured out how to escape with my dwarven ally, then gradually visited weak places to gain power...)


I haven't even touched the mage classes yet, and died quite often as rogue, so put that off as well. Ranged combat and such tricks are to be tested later, once the melee brutes fail.

[Cogwheel]

This is a very interesting game. After dying a few times, I now have a level 10 cornac barbarian(pump str, kill everything very fast in melee, hope you can survive long enough -> he lost a few lives against various bosses) and a level 10 dwarven bulwark(I figured out how to escape with my dwarven ally, then gradually visited weak places to gain power...)


I haven't even touched the mage classes yet, and died quite often as rogue, so put that off as well. Ranged combat and such tricks are to be tested later, once the melee brutes fail.

Do bear in mind that this is one game where melee is Hard Mode. Alchemist will probably make things easier for you.

[Aldgar]

Whoa wait Alchemist is so overpowered.

A cornac Alchemist can start with heat and omg just kill everything.

At least, that is my impression after playing berserkers/bulwarks only.

[Cogwheel]

Whoa wait Alchemist is so overpowered.

A cornac Alchemist can start with heat and omg just kill everything.

At least, that is my impression after playing berserkers/bulwarks only.

Yes. Exactly.

Beautiful, isn't it?

[Aldgar]

Is there anyway to switch to control your golem, if you want to equip him or level him up?

Other than dying as alchemist, that is.

Oh, and if you died as alchemist, is there any way for the golem to revive his master?

[Cogwheel]

Is there anyway to switch to control your golem, if you want to equip him or level him up?

Other than dying as alchemist, that is.

Oh, and if you died as alchemist, is there any way for the golem to revive his master?

1: See the two boxes right from your main portrait? Click on one to switch over. Be sure to teach it eye beams, by the way.

2: No. It's mostly to finish stuff off before you revive, in adventure mode.

[Mewtarthio]

You can also hit F2. As far as I can tell, the only way to give your golem items is to drop them as the alchemist, then control the golem and pick them up directly. Or you can use "Refit Golem," but that's horribly inefficient for a number of reasons.

Oh, and don't forget that the golem can use runes.

[Theoboldi]

You can also hit F2. As far as I can tell, the only way to give your golem items is to drop them as the alchemist, then control the golem and pick them up directly. Or you can use "Refit Golem," but that's horribly inefficient for a number of reasons.

Oh, and don't forget that the golem can use runes.

Huh. So that's what those slots in it's inventory are for. I was actually wondering about that.

[nooblade]

Well I lost another archmage. Some spoily details.

I had gone for the temporal talent group and spent the other on an infusion slot because status effects are nasty and I can't get saves quite high enough. But temporal is good; speed is the best statistic, AFAIK. Also skipped willpower for constitution and if I should regret it, I haven't noticed yet. I like what arcane shield can do with a big mana pool but I don't think it's reliable enough for just that.

I had thought the quest with Melinda was going well (I didn't notice the 20 timer before, and it turns out you get extra time when killing cultists). Even though I had lost a life to the cultists in a rush to get to here, thinking that with only 20 turns you had to interact through speech. Nope! You get maybe 32 turns if they die steadily. And then I go up the stairs just like in the merchant quest, right? I dunno, maybe you have to let her go first? Ladies first? Chivalry? In a fantasy-medieval period??? Or maybe it was just a game bug, but in the future I'm going to be more careful if she can be saved.

Another fail for me was with the Yeek wayist. First I died to the boss, then arcane shield activated on the wayist to prevent him from talking to me. Turned on shield, popped in one hit, so he does even more damage than I had thought even at such great character speed. Oh well, Ragfast was doomed anyway.

Surprisingly, Urkis the Tempest died without much incident and I don't remember what skills I used much. I guess if you practice hard enough the things get better? Through reflexes, even.

Damage and kills are rising slowly, but it looks like it's going to take forever to unlock wildfire or ice or reaver. Meh.

I think if I make another archmage, not likely soon, but I would try to set up for more lightning skills since it looks like the things in that tower wouldn't like it much. But I think the biggest problem with that fight is finding a nice little corridor to sit in for a tactical advantage. Using phase door or teleport were really helpful, and on cooldown when I died, probably probability travel would've been even better. And instead of starting to fight the Master directly, I think it would be wiser leave an arcane eye on him while clearing out the level for some safe retreats.

Figures I should've had some actual tactics planned. Ah well, until next time.

Edit: Yannow, ToME does a very good job with setting up for the Master fight. I think if you read "The Pale King" book-blurbs you'll see some background for 'im. And all the minibosses in the tower are sort of like past characters, or something close at least.

By comparison, in games like ADoM or Incursion: HotGK, you hate the game because it kills you because you made some mistake. But now there's the lore in addition to that. What I'm saying is that I want to kill this imaginary guy in a game-world for multiple reasons. So this is what berserker maniac screaming blood curdling frothy mouth hatred vengeance is like. Neat!

[Aldgar]

My highscore is still-oddly- held by my cornac barbarian who had over 400 hp.

He reached level 16.

My alchemists only reached 15 so far...

Oh, and Wilder Summoners are fun, but I question the usefulness of the mindblade business. I much prefer to keep meditating and spamming summons while being extremely cautious about staying alive.

[Mewtarthio]

That's a valid strategy until you get to opponents that can heal, like afflicted rares and vampires. Meditation cuts your summons' damage, too, so you'll just be giving those enemies free health.

As for Mindstar Mastery, that's a very optional tree. There might be some obscure build out there based on popping psiblades and wading into melee, but in my experience, your summons always have a higher damage output than you. I'd recommend viewing it more as a utility tree: Thorn Grab (instant cast, by the way) to debuff enemies that get in melee range so you can fall back, Leaves Tide to provide a form of evasion to you and your summons, Nature's Equilibrium for equilibrium maintenence...

[Cogwheel]

That's a valid strategy until you get to opponents that can heal, like afflicted rares and vampires. Meditation cuts your summons' damage, too, so you'll just be giving those enemies free health.

As for Mindstar Mastery, that's a very optional tree. There might be some obscure build out there based on popping psiblades and wading into melee, but in my experience, your summons always have a higher damage output than you. I'd recommend viewing it more as a utility tree: Thorn Grab (instant cast, by the way) to debuff enemies that get in melee range so you can fall back, Leaves Tide to provide a form of evasion to you and your summons, Nature's Equilibrium for equilibrium maintenence...

Mindstar melee is best left to Yeek summoners, really.


Also, I just had my second most successful character die. Herobright Ultrajustice, skeleton sun paladin. Died to the Master, sort of. On Dreadfell 9, I got killed once by the Master (I think?) while confused by a banshee. Twice from a combination of confusion and a named lesser vampire Fearscaping me. One on one (even with added ghouls and skeletons), yeah, I could easily take the Master on. But there's something about him showing up just as you come up the stairs...

Oh well. Can't be helped. Onward to a new character and all that. Maybe I'll finally try a rogue, or break out another corruptor.

[nooblade]

Well I still haven't conquered Dreadfell at all.

Earlier today I tried playing a rogue for the marauder unlock but it turns out that six attacks with flurry totaling over 600 physical damage won't cut it. Some forum resource recommended using the poison talent tree--one skill applies all that damage at once, sort of like a flurry except it would count. Got tired of those characters a little quick and let it die; I haven't figured out a rogue build I like yet because I want to have the light source to make autoexplore faster and be in stealth at the same time. But I do very much like being able to disarm traps.

I have a level 29 shaloren alchemist with ancient elven ruins, Celia, and as much farportaling as I'd like before Dreadfell. I want to get to level 30 first for another cat. point which will line up with heal, shield, cure physical, cure mental, and teleport. Alchemists get to do all the farportaling I'm guessing because alchemist gems are worth a bit more than the weapons they're in. Surprisingly, the last two farportals haven't given a level even though the creatures were one level higher. Oh, and two lives left, alchemy done through to infinite shield potion, and potion consumed in a battle with a bunch of fire drake/wyrm/hatchlings. Although I wonder if the potion would've been more useful against the Master than another life, I'm satisfied especially because at least I didn't do something stupid like accidentally drink it in town... But also lives were lost in places like collapsing sand walls.

The Melinda quest went without any problem this time around and I think previously I didn't know which house was the next part of it. I wonder if the reward is random or if it's always those gauntlets. Also, fire damage is really piling up for this character, more so than with my archmagi so far. Part of this is of course due to Gwai's burninator, my favorite artifact, but also the fire robes and a nifty staff. I've done maybe 50,000 fire damage with this character and I've probably another similar amount up to this point in playing, so maybe a tenth of the way to wildfire?

Oh, and the game gave me the arcane set. Wish I were an archmage now.

[Cogwheel]

Well I still haven't conquered Dreadfell at all.

Earlier today I tried playing a rogue for the marauder unlock but it turns out that six attacks with flurry totaling over 600 physical damage won't cut it. Some forum resource recommended using the poison talent tree--one skill applies all that damage at once, sort of like a flurry except it would count. Got tired of those characters a little quick and let it die; I haven't figured out a rogue build I like yet because I want to have the light source to make autoexplore faster and be in stealth at the same time. But I do very much like being able to disarm traps.

I have a level 29 shaloren alchemist with ancient elven ruins, Celia, and as much farportaling as I'd like before Dreadfell. I want to get to level 30 first for another cat. point which will line up with heal, shield, cure physical, cure mental, and teleport. Alchemists get to do all the farportaling I'm guessing because alchemist gems are worth a bit more than the weapons they're in. Surprisingly, the last two farportals haven't given a level even though the creatures were one level higher. Oh, and two lives left, alchemy done through to infinite shield potion, and potion consumed in a battle with a bunch of fire drake/wyrm/hatchlings. Although I wonder if the potion would've been more useful against the Master than another life, I'm satisfied especially because at least I didn't do something stupid like accidentally drink it in town... But also lives were lost in places like collapsing sand walls.

The Melinda quest went without any problem this time around and I think previously I didn't know which house was the next part of it. I wonder if the reward is random or if it's always those gauntlets. Also, fire damage is really piling up for this character, more so than with my archmagi so far. Part of this is of course due to Gwai's burninator, my favorite artifact, but also the fire robes and a nifty staff. I've done maybe 50,000 fire damage with this character and I've probably another similar amount up to this point in playing, so maybe a tenth of the way to wildfire?

Oh, and the game gave me the arcane set. Wish I were an archmage now.

...Wait, wait. Melinda quest?

Do tell. Never heard of that one.

Edit: Agrimley the hermit. Still the best character.

[Aldgar]

Unlocked Temporal Warden. Fun class, very ranger-esque, but quite squishy for someone who melees...


I never knew Meditation reduced the damage of my summons...

[Cogwheel]

Unlocked Temporal Warden. Fun class, very ranger-esque, but quite squishy for someone who melees...


I never knew Meditation reduced the damage of my summons...

Give it a go with archery, I hear that works better.

Also, corruptors sometimes leave me speechless.

http://oi45.tinypic.com/30063kl.jpg

[nooblade]

...Wait, wait. Melinda quest?

Do tell. Never heard of that one.

It's a random worldmap encountered dungeon sort of like the assassin lord and merchant, except longer and starting at I think level 24. This character did well due to entering at level 27, not sure if it goes higher than that. The Melinda quest is that elven cultists had kidnapped her and are about to sacrifice her to bring their head demon into the world. There's a time limit only at the bottom floor and also those cultists are the most difficult; they suddenly have AI to run away from melee characters (I barely made it with the wyrmic due to breaths) and out of range of other attacks. The other three dudes will hit with all they've got while you attack one. I think 5 points into rush and a swiftness infusion is mandatory for them. And then after that you've got to escort Melinda out of a medium-size floor with more elves who can teleport or switch places. Then find a rich merchant's house in Last Hope. And, uh, I guess there's romance? Or that option. But more importantly, an artifact.

[Cogwheel]

It's a random worldmap encountered dungeon sort of like the assassin lord and merchant, except longer and starting at I think level 24. This character did well due to entering at level 27, not sure if it goes higher than that. The Melinda quest is that elven cultists had kidnapped her and are about to sacrifice her to bring their head demon into the world. There's a time limit only at the bottom floor and also those cultists are the most difficult; they suddenly have AI to run away from melee characters (I barely made it with the wyrmic due to breaths) and out of range of other attacks. The other three dudes will hit with all they've got while you attack one. I think 5 points into rush and a swiftness infusion is mandatory for them. And then after that you've got to escort Melinda out of a medium-size floor with more elves who can teleport or switch places. Then find a rich merchant's house in Last Hope. And, uh, I guess there's romance? Or that option. But more importantly, an artifact.

So I saw, about half an hour ago. That's where the massive blight damage screenshot came from, actually. Thanks, though. It wasn't too bad as a corruptor aside from their sheer damage output and being entirely the wrong sort of person to save her. "I am no demon worshiper" indeed.

Also, you know, the artifact was a greatmaul. I wonder if I can take her back to the crypt.

[nooblade]

So I saw, about half an hour ago. That's where the massive blight damage screenshot came from, actually. Thanks, though. It wasn't too bad as a corruptor aside from their sheer damage output and being entirely the wrong sort of person to save her. "I am no demon worshiper" indeed.

Also, you know, the artifact was a greatmaul. I wonder if I can take her back to the crypt.

I'm not into Temporal Warden just yet. Paradox scares me.

I was ninja'd. And it looks like the artifact reward is random. Just like with any other boss except you get especially dangerous cultists.

Gwai's burninator does about that much fire damage to trolls. In a cone. It's amazing. It helps to be set up for fire damage.

Also, what's with corpsebow? Would a corruptor or reaver ever use it?

[Cogwheel]

I'm not into Temporal Warden just yet. Paradox scares me.

I was ninja'd. And it looks like the artifact reward is random. Just like with any other boss except you get especially dangerous cultists.

Gwai's burninator does about that much fire damage to trolls. In a cone. It's amazing. It helps to be set up for fire damage.

Also, what's with corpsebow? Would a corruptor or reaver ever use it?

I was wondering about the bow myself. Maybe a reaver would go into archery because it's so great but probably not.

Unimplemented class or just silly.

[nooblade]

That alchemist who did crazy amounts of fire damage? Beat the Master easily at character level 33. Dreadfell had a couple of really nice vaults and maybe ten artifacts, place is very much worthwhile for exploring. I should've made an alchemist first, what a nice amount of damage, over a huge area, once per three turns plus staff attacks, and flexibility too with all the damage capable of changing types.

I didn't take the fire alchemy talent tree and now I'm glad for it because I can't imagine anything melting through random orcs better than the current setup. Or maybe depending on race one could not fight with the staves at all, but then setting up the golem must be more difficult.

[Cogwheel]

That alchemist who did crazy amounts of fire damage? Beat the Master easily at character level 33. Dreadfell had a couple of really nice vaults and maybe ten artifacts, place is very much worthwhile for exploring. I should've made an alchemist first, what a nice amount of damage, over a huge area, once per three turns plus staff attacks, and flexibility too with all the damage capable of changing types.

I didn't take the fire alchemy talent tree and now I'm glad for it because I can't imagine anything melting through random orcs better than the current setup. Or maybe depending on race one could not fight with the staves at all, but then setting up the golem must be more difficult.

Mind sharing the build? Fire alchemy has served me very well, so I'm curious to see what this amazing setup of yours is. And I take it you broke out Acid Infusion or something to deal with the fireproof stuff?

[Aldgar]

I just discovered the very spoily wiki (http://te4.org/wiki/wiki) for ToME.

In it, it says the following regarding alchemists:

The alchemist is a mage that manipulates gems and has a golem for a companion.

Two general game-play strategies both involve maxing the first 4 bomb skills, making for a super bomb. Then eschewing the infusion skills (except to put 1 point in acid to unlock a non-fire damage bomb), you can either work to buff your golem to the max with your abilities, or you can buff yourself with fire alchemy skills. If you plan on buffing your golem after maxing out your bomb skills, you may find it helpful to pour your class points into Supercharge Golem, Golem Portal and Runic Golem.



tl;dr: Apparently, the wiki doesn't consider sneaky cornac alchemists who burn stuff to death via spamming of Heat and Firestorm.

[MonarchAnarch]

So my lvl 11 dwarf summoner found the wilder town. Figured I'd try the test, hopefully unlock something nice. Found the lvl 27 orc corruptor...didn't fair to well against it. :( That escalated quickly...

[nooblade]

Yeah, orc corruptors are tough and you're guaranteed to fight one there for antimagic. Good luck in the future.

Sure, I'll share this character:

http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/70c433ed-7081-4d91-b5c9-b584855398aa

Yes this is on easy, maybe I should be on normal. 1 point in acid infusion was enough for the fire wyrms, I'm getting frost infusion to contribute to ice unlock.

I took golem power and resilience before going into any bombs, then alchemist protection increased the golem's resist all nicely, and then the bombs weren't very good until 10 points or so were invested in the other skills. Somewhere around there I bought advanced golemancy (supercharge golem for a free ressurect of it) and took runic golem as I found nice runes. For generics, I wanted the two staff skills up as quickly as possible because it's lovely to use it every turn and the damage is the most flexible in the game. Fire staff does about two thirds of what a bomb does so the advantage of the latter is just area effect. Golem skills are a mess but I took eye beams, reflect, and one of the physicals.

Bombs only became very good when I got equipment that increased fire damage by two thirds. They're better than gwai's burninator now for damage but the main advantage is that everything I can see and some things I can't die. Things that summon other things haven't been much trouble so far. Oh, and dexterity is unnecessary (especially with a large explosion radius) so I took constitution after magic and now I'll go for cunning for more crits I suppose. I wonder if explosion expert allows for more damage if you cut out some of the bomb area though.

I think part of the reason why the Master fight went easily was that I encountered him in a corridor, with the golem in front with two shield runes. But it is rather nice to have all the skeletons killed in the turn they're summoned. I'm not sure yet what I'd change to make it better or if fire alchemy can be fit in. My meagre experience with that tree weren't impressive to me, I liked relying on the staff better. Staff and golem skills go well together early on IMHO.

[Cogwheel]

Yeah, orc corruptors are tough and you're guaranteed to fight one there for antimagic. Good luck in the future.

Sure, I'll share this character:

http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/70c433ed-7081-4d91-b5c9-b584855398aa

Yes this is on easy, maybe I should be on normal. 1 point in acid infusion was enough for the fire wyrms, I'm getting frost infusion to contribute to ice unlock.

I took golem power and resilience before going into any bombs, then alchemist protection increased the golem's resist all nicely, and then the bombs weren't very good until 10 points or so were invested in the other skills. Somewhere around there I bought advanced golemancy (supercharge golem for a free ressurect of it) and took runic golem as I found nice runes. For generics, I wanted the two staff skills up as quickly as possible because it's lovely to use it every turn and the damage is the most flexible in the game. Fire staff does about two thirds of what a bomb does so the advantage of the latter is just area effect. Golem skills are a mess but I took eye beams, reflect, and one of the physicals.

Bombs only became very good when I got equipment that increased fire damage by two thirds. They're better than gwai's burninator now for damage but the main advantage is that everything I can see and some things I can't die. Things that summon other things haven't been much trouble so far. Oh, and dexterity is unnecessary (especially with a large explosion radius) so I took constitution after magic and now I'll go for cunning for more crits I suppose. I wonder if explosion expert allows for more damage if you cut out some of the bomb area though.

I think part of the reason why the Master fight went easily was that I encountered him in a corridor, with the golem in front with two shield runes. But it is rather nice to have all the skeletons killed in the turn they're summoned. I'm not sure yet what I'd change to make it better or if fire alchemy can be fit in. My meagre experience with that tree weren't impressive to me, I liked relying on the staff better. Staff and golem skills go well together early on IMHO.

Oh, I see. That sounds a lot like what I did, actually. Well, if you shuffle some of the fire alchemy points back into bombs. That said, it explains a lot - mostly the gigantic fire damage boosts, as well as the situation for that fight, and the difficulty setting. Thanks, though!

[nooblade]

Yeah. Anime is level 40 now and I'm expecting to fall into RNG disfavor soon.

Also the East. It's starting to feel like this: I. KILL. AN. ORC. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1098)

So many orcs... And what happened to when I was having fun?

Edit: So Anime's adventure concludes. Summary: he didn't win.

Another link to character http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/70c433ed-7081-4d91-b5c9-b584855398aa

It's the same one as above I think.

So, I died to the sorceror pair atop the peak. Fun! But it's good to know something about what to expect there.

I wanted to see if something plotwise happened when you turned off the summoning in the room with the two sorcerors with all your orbs of command. They were talking about summoning a god and the world ending so I assume it was the end fight, although the overpowered multi-hued dragons in Vor armory were higher level. They were fun. Dragons without class abilities are OK to take out with acid bombs.

Reflecting back on this, I think it would've been for the best to ignore monsters streaming in the room of five deaths due to the wide area damage the alchemist bombs can deal. Maybe if I had a controlled phase door rune then it would've been different, but it takes like 10 turns to walk onto one. Damage was going on slowly so it was frustrating. The two "adventure" deaths I had reset everyone's health, but I think if I had used my blood of life and ring of death more tactically, it could've pulled through for a win. Meh.

Also, was going back to Maj'Eyal in any way necessary or useful? Bleagh, what a waste of time. I was almost at level 50 after getting all the orbs.

Oh, and I'd found tomes of wildfire and the ice one too, and it looks like they did not unlock anything. What I gained were archmage skills, specifically flame and ice storm. Wish they were for unlocking instead now.

Oh, and my spell criticals were at 100% chance and 200% damage for a while. A million damage is a lot of points, but it feels like I killed close to a thousand orcs with the large crits. It's probably more like the neighborhood of a hundred. Five more characters like this and then wildfire. How tedious.

Also, after level 30 you don't get any more category points. So there are 3 for non-cornacians, 4 for a cornac. Right?

[Cogwheel]

Yeah. Anime is level 40 now and I'm expecting to fall into RNG disfavor soon.

Also the East. It's starting to feel like this: I. KILL. AN. ORC. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1098)

So many orcs... And what happened to when I was having fun?

Edit: So Anime's adventure concludes. Summary: he didn't win.

Another link to character http://te4.org/characters/19068/tome/70c433ed-7081-4d91-b5c9-b584855398aa

It's the same one as above I think.

So, I died to the sorceror pair atop the peak. Fun! But it's good to know something about what to expect there.

I wanted to see if something plotwise happened when you turned off the summoning in the room with the two sorcerors with all your orbs of command. They were talking about summoning a god and the world ending so I assume it was the end fight, although the overpowered multi-hued dragons in Vor armory were higher level. They were fun. Dragons without class abilities are OK to take out with acid bombs.

Reflecting back on this, I think it would've been for the best to ignore monsters streaming in the room of five deaths due to the wide area damage the alchemist bombs can deal. Maybe if I had a controlled phase door rune then it would've been different, but it takes like 10 turns to walk onto one. Damage was going on slowly so it was frustrating. The two "adventure" deaths I had reset everyone's health, but I think if I had used my blood of life and ring of death more tactically, it could've pulled through for a win. Meh.

Also, was going back to Maj'Eyal in any way necessary or useful? Bleagh, what a waste of time. I was almost at level 50 after getting all the orbs.

Oh, and I'd found tomes of wildfire and the ice one too, and it looks like they did not unlock anything. What I gained were archmage skills, specifically flame and ice storm. Wish they were for unlocking instead now.

Oh, and my spell criticals were at 100% chance and 200% damage for a while. A million damage is a lot of points, but it feels like I killed close to a thousand orcs with the large crits. It's probably more like the neighborhood of a hundred. Five more characters like this and then wildfire. How tedious.

Also, after level 30 you don't get any more category points. So there are 3 for non-cornacians, 4 for a cornac. Right?


First off, it's more "I kill an adventurer" on normal. Brutal place, the east.

Second, nicely done! I don't know how you can possibly get crit chance to that level, though.

Third, you get one more at level... 41, I think it was. I know because I just spent it on a +17 heroism infusion.

As for spoilery stuff...


I got one million in a single archmage run after two alchemists (short-lived) and two very short-lived archmages. You're probably preeeetty close.

And yes, it's useful. Aside from the extra quest for the dungeon back, a bunch of dungeons get new bosses with fairly fancy drops, one of which can activate a bonus boss, and some other stuff comes up, like shops restocking with better items, and that one guy you save from the assassin lord now being capable of making orange artifacts for you (excellent but random, though you choose the type) for 4k gold a pop.


Moderate late game spoilers and a silly screenshot:


Once you reach the Far East, there's an orc anorithil fighting an elf anorithil (Fillarel). You're supposed to kill the orc and talk to Fillarel so you can get into the Gates of Morning. I saw that the orc also had a dialogue bubble, so I figured I can side with him.

So I Fearscape Fillarel this time around and kill her.

Orc's still hostile. Killed him too. What can I say, it's the corruptor way.

Quest log changes: "You decided to side with the elven lady. Fillarel told you to go to the south east and meet with High Sun Paladin Aeryn". Went to the Gates of Morning to talk to Aeryn all the same. She lets me in on the basis that "you have saved one of our own". Yes that is totally what I did.

This game's sheer denial is hilarious. Similar to how it mostly ignores my killing of Ukruk and co. in the post-Dreadfell ambush.


Oh, and I got the Lost Ruby Eye of Atamathon from one of the backup guardians, took it to the golem graveyard and put it in Atamathon's remains.

http://oi46.tinypic.com/907pkn.jpg

Whoopsie.


Also I did a neat thing with blight I guess.

http://oi47.tinypic.com/21l26vl.jpg

RIP game balance.

[Aldgar]

After testing a bomb-focused alchemist, I have to say they are amazing.

In order to actually be bomberman and not fire-alchemy man, I chose Shalore as race(gaining the very useful shielding/phase door runes).

However, the starting dungeons of shalorens are a bitch, and difficult to clear when you're not playing an archmage/anyone else capable of ridiculous burst damage(luminous horrors and level 26 corruptors in the rhaloren camp when I'm level 10??? No thanks).

As such, I cleared the scintillating caves, escorted a lost anorthil and taught my golem healing light(this time, I chose to try a magic-focused golem instead of strength-focused like all the other times).


A few levels later, once I had maxed the 2nd Bomb skill(=>You and your golem are immune to damage/effects from your own bombs, +15% resistance to elements), I very slightly increased the third bomb skill.


OMG.

At level 13, I am throwing AoE Bombs with huge radius that deal over 100 damage(+burn) every three turns, and channel staff(maxed channel staff and staff mastery skills) deals 50-70 damage per shot.


I still get slaughtered by luminous horrors who somehow shield themselves, and once the shield is finally down, they re-shield themselves 1-2 turns later.

And they have powerful magical nukes.

I have no clue how to actually kill them...

[Cogwheel]

Snip


On starting dungeons: Do others first. They're there, you know. Or consider it your punishment for playing an elf, because ew, elves.

On damage: That's fairly decent.

On luminous horrors: The solution is more "dear god luminous horrors at level 13 what are you thinking". Come back LATER. With something that isn't fire/light damage.

[nooblade]

Mmm. I don't think it's "OMG"-worthy yet but it's the best damage build I've had yet. The corruptor 3k business might be better, by the way, what skill was that using?

I'm finding it difficult to get back into a new character. There are a whole slew of things I've forgotten about after being able to wipe out a screen's worth of enemies with those attacks. And I don't feel quite up to doing it again.

I think I should try a cornac corruptor who would escort one of the easterners for the light/healing talent tree. Then magic would do all of healing, damage, shielding, and providence would handle condition removal. I think corruptors aren't in a desperate need for generic points, right?

Edit: Yes, and of course the game won't give it to me until Dreadfell.

[Aldgar]

Well, the alchemist is at level 22 now, with a supercharge golem taken(which is awesome, by the way).

Even though I have an open category point from level 20, I haven't yet felt the desire to unlock Fire alchemy, because I need all my class points for golem/bomb boosts.


My acid infusion bombs now deal around 400 damage per shot now(If I leave them on fire damage, they deal less damage for some reason, even against enemies with 0 acid and fire resist; I have 5 points in the "fire infusion" and 1 point in the "acid infusion" skills...


Oh, and I definitely don't regret focusing on magic first for my golem. After taking 1 level of all magic skills, I continued to increase strength instead to qualify for better armor, and now my golem typically fights with a weapon/shield combo, using mostly skills to contribute to the short fights(shield rune+lazer, taunt dangerous opponents, molten skin if you're facing bosses or crowds, lazer, re-shield, healing light, block to stay alive and continue roasting enemies with molten skin...eventually chase with knockback).

[Theoboldi]

I'm having some fun with pardox mages right now, mostly because of the paradox system. I really like this idea of dangerous, unpredictable magic that you can't use too much before bad things happen. I haven't seen anything like it in any other game so far, and am really enjoying it.

Does anyone put points into the general chronomancy tree though? I guess it would useful for scouting, but the teleporting abilities and shields seem more useful to me.

[Mewtarthio]

Does anyone put points into the general chronomancy tree though? I guess it would useful for scouting, but the teleporting abilities and shields seem more useful to me.

Paradox mages eventually get See Threads anyway, which is like Precognition except better in every possible way. I drop one point in Precog and that second skill with the Track and Vision effects. I invest a bit more in that tree for Wardens; it seems to be more geared to them, to be honest.

And, yes, the paradox system is awesome. My favorite part is how your spells get more powerful as your paradox increases. It really gives you the temptation to bite off more than you can chew as you try to stand right on the edge of that death spiral.

[nooblade]

Well I still haven't figured out where to go with the Temporal Warden after level 10 or so when Paradox skills begin to kick in. But other progress is nice.

Edit: Also, same deal for the paradox mage except starting at level 1. And the rest of the classes for that matter, but this is interesting, please continue with the reports.

[Aldgar]

My Shalore Alchemist Alchimedes died at level 26 to a bunch of corruptors.

The standard 100pt-shielding rune wasn't enough against focused nuking.


But hey, I got a new highscore(and unlocked corruptors and reavers and brawlers with this character).


Corruptors are fun to play. They nuke single-targets quite well, have some odd AoE tricks(I mostly use overkill), some debuffs(which I hardly ever use, except for the domination hex: That one is fun!) and do the whole evil powerful mage shtick quite well.

[Mewtarthio]

My Shalore Alchemist Alchimedes died at level 26 to a bunch of corruptors.

The standard 100pt-shielding rune wasn't enough against focused nuking.

You still had the 100-point shielding rune at level 26? I generally replace those starting inscriptions as soon as possible. Er, not that a "bunch" of corruptors would have cared about a slightly better shielding rune, of course. That's really panic button time, I'd say.

In other news, Wildfire is awesome. I'm not sure how mechanically optimal it is, though. It's a little hard to think clearly over all the BURNING!

I'm so screwed when I run into Luminous Horrors.

[Cogwheel]

I'm so screwed when I run into Luminous Horrors.

1: Wildfire lets you eventually circumvent some resistance.

2: You want some other trees anyway just so you're never waiting on cooldowns, in my experience.

3: How is this any different from the usual?

Anyway I did some things. Such as winning. Spoilers (mostly fairly mild, especially if you've been past Dreadfell at all) and screenshots in the first spoiler block. Chardump in the second.

High Peak was kind of nasty. Forge-Giants and this one named Temporal Stalker, mostly. Also, Rak'Shor pride bastion because ow rigor mortis. The rest wasn't that bad at all. Never did get the amulet quest, which was a pain. Fearscaped the first of the two bosses at the end instead of fighting them simultaneously with backup, like I'm supposed to. Took a while, but he went down without too much difficulty.

http://oi46.tinypic.com/ojkw05.jpg

You could say the drop was fairly good.

Between this, the other boss not being too bad anyway and help from a certain NPC, I completely wiped the floor with the second boss. No challenge was involved. I don't think I even bothered throwing on much in the way of diseases and curses.

Later, I decided to face the charging-from-out-of-view-for-700~900 Ninja Atamathon in its natural environment, after beating the game.

http://oi48.tinypic.com/2rr9w7l.jpg

This is usually how I was alerted to its presence.

http://oi46.tinypic.com/2h2njo7.jpg

Bonus boss defeated! No, I don't know what I was trying to prove.

To anyone inquiring about the massive damage, the secret for a while is +blight damage, Overkill (Cornac to grab that tree, max everything but Blood Lock), and most of all, just tossing a bunch of diseases on, spread with Cyst Burst, Catalepsy to wipe a room. All screenshots I've posted of enormous damage were Catalepsy, though 1000+ Soul Rot/Drain/Blood Grasp/Blood Spray hits were the norm by the late game. Speaking of which, max all those too.

Eventually, things will try to pretend they're "immune". It's at this point that you break out rank 5 Curse of Vulnerability and Vimsense. Or if you just think you're not killing something hard enough. Oh, and I didn't bother with the Bone tree (though Bone Shield looks nice), or Hexes beyond two or three ranks in Pacification Hex, which is wonderful. Epidemic is another of those immunity-clearers.

Do grab Shadowflame. I didn't use Darkfire ever at all, despite my expectations, but it can be nice. More to the point, Flames of Urh'Rok is a lovely buff, and Fearscape is basically the best thing on so many levels.


Chardump below. This is just as I finished the game so it won't show a certain achievement screenshotted above.

Sex : Male STR: 29
Race : Cornac DEX: 31
Class : Corruptor MAG: 106
Level : 50 WIL: 71
Exp : 1845% CUN: 88
Gold : 1251.45 CON: 90

Accuracy(Main Hand): 40 Life : 1298/1298Encumbrance : 54/112
Damage (Main Hand): 106 Difficulty : Normal
Permadeath : Adventure
APR (Main Hand): 60
Crit (Main Hand): 27%
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00
Vim : 207/244



Fatigue : 0% Spellpower : 82.2
Armor : 44 Spell Crit : 46.4%
Armor Hardiness : 30% Spell Speed : 1
Defense : 39.675
Ranged Defense : 41.783333333333
All damage : 7%
Arcane damage : 10%
Fire damage : 82%
Acid damage : 73%
Blight damage : 136%
Light damage : 16%
Darkness damage : 67%

Physical Save : 66.554396954895
Spell Save : 63.879396954895
Mental Save : 48.466666666667

All Resists: 16%
Fire Resist(cap): 43%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap): 29%( 70%)
Lightning Resist(cap): 26%( 70%)
Acid Resist(cap): 26%( 70%)
Blight Resist(cap): 6%( 70%)
Light Resist(cap): 21%( 70%)
Darkness Resist(cap): 55%( 70%)
Mind Resist(cap): 51%( 70%)
Disease Resistance: 12%
Confusion Resistance: 100%
Blind Resistance: 70%
Stun Resistance: 100%
Fear Resistance: 30%

Number of NPC killed: 5177
Most killed NPC: multi-hued drake hatchling (204)

[Winner!]

Well done! You have won the Tales of Maj'Eyal: The Age of Ascendancy

"The Sorcerers are dead, and the Orc Pride lies in ruins, thanks to your efforts."

You have prevented the portal to the Void from opening and thus stopped the Creator from bringing about the end of the world.

The orc presence in the Far East has greatly been diminished by the loss of their leaders and the destruction of the Sorcerers. The free people of the Sunwall will be able to prosper and thrive on this land.

"Maj'Eyal will once more know peace. Most of its inhabitants will never know they even were on the verge of destruction, but then this is what being a true hero means: to do the right thing even though nobody will know about it."

You may continue playing and enjoy the rest of the world.

"After your victory you came back to Last Hope and reunited with Melinda, who after many years remains free of demonic corruption."
"You lived together and led a happy life. Melinda even learned a few adventurer's tricks and you both traveled Eyal, making new legends."


[Talents Chart]

- Technique / Combat training (mastery 1.00)
Thick Skin (generic) 3/5
Armour Training (generic) 0/10
Combat Accuracy (generic) 0/5
Weapons Mastery (generic) 0/5
Dagger Mastery (generic) 0/5
- Corruption / Sanguisuge (mastery 1.30)
Drain (class) 5/5
Bloodcasting (class) 2/5
Absorb Life (class) 0/5
Life Tap (class) 0/5
- Corruption / Torment (mastery 1.30)
Willful Tormenter (generic) 5/5
Blood Lock (generic) 1/5
Overkill (generic) 5/5
Blood Vengeance (generic) 5/5
- Corruption / Vim (mastery 1.30)
Soul Rot (class) 5/5
Vimsense (class) 5/5
Leech (class) 2/5
Dark Portal (class) 5/5
- Corruption / Hexes (mastery 1.30)
Pacification Hex (generic) 2/5
Burning Hex (generic) 0/5
Empathic Hex (generic) 0/5
Domination Hex (generic) 0/5
- Corruption / Curses (mastery 1.30)
Curse of Defenselessness (generic) 5/5
Curse of Impotence (generic) 5/5
Curse of Death (generic) 4/5
Curse of Vulnerability (generic) 5/5
- Corruption / Plague (mastery 1.50)
Virulent Disease (class) 5/5
Cyst Burst (class) 5/5
Catalepsy (class) 5/5
Epidemic (class) 5/5
- Corruption / Blood (mastery 1.30)
Blood Spray (class) 5/5
Blood Grasp (class) 5/5
Blood Boil (class) 0/5
Blood Fury (class) 0/5
- Corruption / Blight (mastery 1.30)
Dark Ritual (class) 5/5
Corrupted Negation (class) 0/5
Corrosive Worm (class) 0/5
Poison Storm (class) 0/5
- Corruption / Shadowflame (mastery 1.30)
Wraithform (class) 1/5
Darkfire (class) 1/5
Flame of Urh'Rok (class) 5/5
Fearscape (class) 1/5
- Cursed / Cursed aura (mastery 1.00)
Defiling Touch (generic) 1/5
Dark Gifts (generic) 1/5
Ruined Earth (generic) 5/5
Cursed Sentry (generic) 0/5

[Inscriptions (5/5)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Healing
Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Regeneration
Infusion: Movement

[Current Effects]

- Flame of Urh'Rok
#NAME?
#NAME?
#NAME?
#NAME?
#NAME?
#NAME?

[Character Equipment]

In main hand
"a) Awakened Staff of Absorption (60-72 power, 60 apr, blight damage) (Misfortune)"
Type: weapon / staff
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 60.0 - 72.0
Uses stat: 130% Mag
Damage type: Blight
Accuracy: +30
Armour Penetration: +60
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +10 Wil / +10 Mag
Changes resistances penetration: +30% acid / +30% blight / +30% darkness / +30% fire
Changes damage: +60% acid / +60% blight / +60% darkness / +60% fire
Talent granted: +1 Command Staff
Maximum mana: +100.00
Spellpower: +48
Spell crit. chance: +15%
Allows you to speak and read the old Sher'Tul language.
Curse of Misfortune
"It can be used to absorb energies, costing 200 power out of 200/200."
Dropped by Elandar
In off hand
On fingers
b) Bloodcaller
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Fatigue: -5%
Mental save: -7
Life leech chance: +15%
Life leech: +30%

c) Telos's Staff Crystal ring
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con
Changes resistances: +30% mind
Confusion immunity: +30%
Fear immunity: +30%
Light radius: +2

Around neck
d) Dawnwither
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +10
Defense: +14
Fatigue: -10%
Changes stats: +7 Cun / +10 Con
Damage when the wearer hits(melee): 2 acid
Damage when the wearer is hit: 20 light
Changes resistances: -15% fire / -12% blight / +6% light / +6% acid
Changes resistances penetration: +10% acid
Changes damage: +15% fire / +6% acid / +15% blight / +9% light
Critical mult.: +22.00%
Physical save: +15
Spell save: +15
Mental save: +13
Spellpower: +12

Light source
e) Darkblight the Bloodstar
Type: lite / lite ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Mag
Damage when the wearer hits(melee): 2 arcane / 4 lightning
Changes resistances: +9% lightning
Changes resistances penetration: +20% arcane / +5% lightning
Changes damage: +3% arcane
Confusion immunity: +50%
Spellpower: +2
Light radius: +6
See invisible: +42
"It can be used to activate talent Glyph of Repulsion, placing all other charms into a 40 cooldown :"
Effective talent level: 3.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 40 out of 40/40.
Range: 3.00
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: You bind light in a glyph on the floor. All targets passing by will be hit by a blast of light doing 44.59 damage and knocked back.
The glyph lasts for 8 turns.
The damage will increase with the Magic stat

Main armor
"f) Black Robe (6 def, 0 armour)"
Type: armor / cloth ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Physical power: +10
Defense: +6
Changes stats: +5 Mag / +4 Wil / +3 Cun
Spell save: +25
Blindness immunity: +50%
Spellpower: +30
See invisible: +10
Talent on hit(spell): Blood Grasp (5% chance level 3).
Talent on hit(spell): Soul Rot (5% chance level 3).
Talent on hit(spell): Bone Spear (5% chance level 3).

" Dropped by Rak'shor, Grand Necromancer of the Pride"
Cloak
"g) Serpentine Cloak (10 def, 0 armour)"
Type: armor / cloak ; tier 3

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +10
Changes stats: +6 Cun / +5 Con
Changes resistances penetration: +15% nature
Talent mastery: +0.10 Cunning / Stealth
It can be used to activate talent Phase Door (costing 30 power out of 60/60) :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 30 out of 60/60.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: Teleports you randomly with a small range of up to 13 grids.
At level 4 it allows you to specify which creature to teleport.
At level 5 it allows you to choose the target area (radius 5). If the target area is not in line of sight there is a chance the spell will fizzle.
The range will increase with your Spellpower.

Dropped by skeleton warrior
On head
"h) Toldir (1 def, 0 armour)"
Type: armor / head ; tier 1

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +1
Changes damage: +24% blight
Maximum mana: +80.00
Spellpower: +6

Dropped by Aerowyn the sick giant brown mouse
Around waist
i) Bregohad
Type: armor / belt ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Physical power: +9
Armour: +19
Defense: +15
Changes resistances: +15% fire / +15% cold / +3% lightning / +6% acid / +9% darkness
Changes resistances penetration: +20% blight
Critical mult.: +20.00%
Physical save: +54
Disease immunity: +5%
Defense after a teleport: +15
Size category: +1

On hands
"j) alchemist's hardened leather gloves of the juggernaut (0 def, 2 armour)"
Type: armor / hands ; tier 3

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +2
Changes stats: +3 Mag / +3 Wil / +3 Con
Physical save: +6
Spell save: +4
Mental save: +7
Blindness immunity: +15%
Confusion immunity: +12%
"It can be used to activate talent Juggernaut, placing all other charms into a 80 cooldown :"
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 80 out of 80/80.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
"Description: Concentrate on the battle, ignoring some of the damage you take."
Improves physical damage reduction by 20% for 20 turns.

Dropped by Ukruk the Fierce
On feet
"k) Arasus (0 def, 3 armour)"
Type: armor / feet ; tier 3

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +3
Ranged Defense: +5
Fatigue: +3%
Changes stats: +2 Con
Damage when the wearer is hit: 16 blight
Changes damage: +30% blight
Maximum encumberance: +20
Blindness immunity: +5%
Disease immunity: +7%
Confusion immunity: +7%

Tool
l) Torakor of thorny skin [power 30] (20 cooldown)
Type: charm / totem ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +10
Changes stats: +10 Wil
Changes resistances: +12% mind
"It can be used to hardens the skin for 6 turns increasing armour by 30 and armour hardiness by 60%, placing all other charms into a 20 cooldown."
Dropped by Emutha the faerlhing
Quiver

[Player Achievements]

'A dangerous secret' was achieved for Found the mysterious staff and told Last Hope about it. At 2012-07-12 17:51:32
'Against all odds' was achieved for Killed Ukruk in the ambush. At 2012-07-12 17:46:43
'Arachnophobia' was achieved for Destroyed the spydric menace. At 2012-07-13 01:50:34
'Back and there again' was achieved for Opened a portal to the Far East from Maj'Eyal. At 2012-07-13 14:18:50
'Brave new world' was achieved for Went to the Far East and took part in the war. At 2012-07-13 01:06:18
'Clone War' was achieved for Destroyed your own Shade. At 2012-07-14 18:53:16
'Curse Lifter' was achieved for Killed Ben Cruthdar the Cursed. At 2012-07-11 10:39:25
'Destroyer's bane' was achieved for Killed Golbug the Destroyer. At 2012-07-12 19:55:06
'Earth Master' was achieved for Killed Harkor'Zun and unlocked Stone magic At 2012-07-11 15:38:49
'Evil denied' was achieved for Won ToME by preventing the Void portal to open. At 2012-07-15 01:22:08
'Exterminator' was achieved for Killed 1000 creatures At 2012-07-11 15:39:45
"'Eye of the storm' was achieved for Freed Derth from the onslaught of the mad Tempest, Urkis. At 2012-07-12 00:19:13"
'Fear me not!' was achieved for Survive the Fearscape! At 2012-07-12 18:59:43
"'Home sweet home' was achieved for Dispatched the Weirdling Beast and taken possession of Yiilkgur, the Sher'Tul Fortress for your own usage. At 2012-07-11 19:08:33"
'Level 10' was achieved for Got a character to level 10. At 2012-07-11 10:52:30
'Level 20' was achieved for Got a character to level 20. At 2012-07-11 15:29:17
'Level 30' was achieved for Got a character to level 30. At 2012-07-12 02:20:42
'Level 40' was achieved for Got a character to level 40. At 2012-07-13 03:56:32
'Level 50' was achieved for Got a character to level 50. At 2012-07-14 05:49:23
'Orcrist' was achieved for Killed the leaders of the Orc Pride. At 2012-07-14 18:19:04
'Overpowered!' was achieved for Do over 6000 damage in one attack At 2012-07-15 00:10:40
'Race through fire' was achieved for Raced through the fires of the Charred Scar to stop the Sorcerers. At 2012-07-14 05:53:24
'Rescuer of the lost' was achieved for Rescued the merchant from the assassin lord. At 2012-07-11 14:57:45
'Savior of the damsels in distress' was achieved for Saved Melinda from her terrible fate in the Crypt of Kryl-Feijan. At 2012-07-11 21:28:50
'Size is everything' was achieved for Do over 1500 damage in one attack At 2012-07-13 03:15:32
'Size matters' was achieved for Do over 600 damage in one attack At 2012-07-11 14:09:19
'Sliders' was achieved for Activated a portal using the Orb of Many Ways. At 2012-07-12 22:10:13
'Tactical master' was achieved for Fought the two Sorcerers without closing any invocation portals. At 2012-07-15 01:21:57
'The Arena' was achieved for Unlocked Arena mode. At 2012-07-11 10:35:11
'The bigger the better!' was achieved for Do over 3000 damage in one attack At 2012-07-13 13:26:13
'The secret city' was achieved for Discovered the truth about mages. At 2012-07-11 11:11:18
'There and back again' was achieved for Opened a portal to Maj'Eyal from the Far East. At 2012-07-13 04:50:24
'Thralless' was achieved for Free at least 30 enthralled slaves in the slavers compound. At 2012-07-11 14:34:38
'Treasure Hoarder' was achieved for Amass 3000 gold pieces. At 2012-07-12 00:54:51
'Treasure Hunter' was achieved for Amass 1000 gold pieces. At 2012-07-11 14:41:21
'Unstoppable' was achieved for Has returned from the dead. At 2012-07-11 23:32:20
'Vampire crusher' was achieved for Destroyed the Master in its lair of the Dreadfell. At 2012-07-12 02:20:43

[Character Inventory]

a) Infusion of Wild Growth (Rad 5 for 5 turns)
Type: scroll / infusion ; tier 3

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 30
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
"Description: Causes thick vines to spring from the ground and entangle all targets within 5 squares for 5 turns, pinning them in place and dealing 10.46 physical damage and 20.91 nature damage each turn."

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the infusion..
b) wizard's teleportation rune (range 186)
Type: scroll / rune ; tier 2

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 17
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Is Spell: true
Description: Activate the rune to teleport randomly in a range of 186 with a minimum range of 15.
Its effects scale with your Magic stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..
c) Bregolar
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +3 Cun / +2 Wil
Changes damage: +30% temporal
Allows you to breathe in: water
Light radius: +2

Dropped by Cyruriba the cold drake
d) Feathersteel Amulet
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 2

When wielded/worn:
Fatigue: -20%
Maximum encumberance: +20
Avoid Pressure Traps: The wearer never triggers traps that require pressure.

e) Vox
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Silence immunity: +80%
Maximum mana: +50.00
Maximum vim: +50.00
Spellpower: +9
Spell crit. chance: +4%
See invisible: +20

Dropped by Kor's Fury
f) copper amulet
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 1


g) protective gold amulet of willpower (+4)
Type: jewelry / amulet ; tier 3

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +3
Defense: +5
Changes stats: +4 Wil
Physical save: +9

Dropped by Assassin Lord
h) Orb of Many Ways
[Plot Item]
Type: jewelry / orb

"It can be used to activate a portal, costing 10 power out of 30/30."
Dropped by Tannen
i) Blackweeper
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Damage when the wearer hits(melee): 10 mind
Changes resistances: +20% darkness
Mental save: +18
Mindpower: +16

Dropped by Yvusewen the orc cryomancer
j) Ring of the Dead
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +10 Lck

k) Vargh Redemption
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 2

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Con / +4 Wil
Changes resistances: +10% nature / +25% cold
Maximum mana: +20.00
Maximum stamina: +20.00
Maximum psi: +20.00
Maximum air capacity: +50.00
"It can be used to summon a tidal wave, costing 60 power out of 60/60."
l) stralite ring
Type: jewelry / ring ; tier 4


"m) Life Drinker (42-54.6 power, 11 apr) (Corpses)"
Type: weapon / dagger ; tier 5

Base power: 42.0 - 54.6
"Uses stats: 55% Mag, 35% Str"
Damage type: Physical
Armour Penetration: +11
Physical crit. chance: +18.0%
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Cun / +6 Mag
Changes damage: +15% blight / +15% darkness / +15% acid
Spellpower: +25
Spell crit. chance: +10%
Infravision radius: +2
Talent on hit(spell): Blood Grasp (15% chance level 2).
Curse of Corpses
It can be used to activate talent Worm Rot (costing 40 power out of 50/50) :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 40 out of 50/50.
Range: 6.00
Travel Speed: 600% of base
Is Spell: true
Description: Infects the target with parasitic carrion worm larvae for 6 turns. Each turn the disease will remove a beneficial physical effect and deal 27.46 acid and 37.47 blight damage.
"If not cleared after five turns it will inflict 368.53 acid damage as the larvae hatch, removing the effect but spawning a full grown carrion worm mass near the target's location."

Dropped by orc master assassin
"n) Lost Staff of Archmage Tarelion (30-36 power, 4 apr, blight damage) (Shrouds)"
Type: weapon / staff ; tier 5
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 30.0 - 36.0
Uses stat: 150% Mag
Damage type: Blight
Armour Penetration: +4
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +8 Mag / +7 Wil
Changes damage: +30% acid / +30% blight / +30% darkness / +30% fire
Talents cooldown: Arcane Vortex (-2 turns) Ice Storm (-2 turns) Chain Lightning (-2 turns) Fireflash (-2 turns)
Talent granted: +1 Command Staff
Silence immunity: +40%
Mana when firing critical spell: +12.00
Maximum mana: +40.00
Spellpower: +40
Spell crit. chance: +25%
Curse of Shrouds

Dropped by orc pyromancer
o) Girdle of the Calm Waters
Type: armor / belt ; tier 1

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +3 Wil
Changes resistances: +20% cold / +20% nature / +20% blight
Healing mod.: +30%

"p) Temporal Augmentation Robe - Designed In-Style (9 def, 3 armour)"
Type: armor / cloth ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Armour: +3
Defense: +9
Changes stats: +3 Wil / +5 Mag
Damage when the wearer is hit: 10 temporal
Changes resistances: +20% temporal
Changes resistances penetration: +20% temporal
Changes damage: +20% temporal
It can be used to activate talent Damage Smearing (costing 100 power out of 100/100) :
Effective talent level: 3.0
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 100 out of 100/100.
Range: melee/personal
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Is Spell: true
Description: For the next 5 turns you convert all non-temporal damage you receive into temporal damage spread out over six turns.
This spell takes no time to cast and the duration will scale with your Paradox.

"q) elven-silk robe (5 def, 0 armour)"
Type: armor / cloth ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +5

r) 78 alchemist agate
Type: alchemist-gem / black ; tier 1

When used as an alchemist bomb:
Bomb damage +5%

Dropped by Emewen the orc pyromancer
s) sapphire
Type: gem / blue ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +8
Physical save: +8
Spell save: +8
Mental save: +8
When used to imbue an object:
Defense: +8
Physical save: +8
Spell save: +8
Mental save: +8

Dropped by crimson ooze
t) Pick of Dwarven Emperors (dig speed 12 turns)
Type: tool / digger ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +3 Str / +3 Con
Changes resistances penetration: +10% physical
Physical save: +7
Spell save: +7
Mental save: +7
Maximum life: +50.00
"It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1."
Dropped by Poressra the devourer
u) Tooth of the Mouth (dig speed 12 turns)
Type: tool / digger ; tier 1

When wielded/worn:
Armour penetration: +5
Damage when the wearer is hit: 15 blight
Changes damage: +4% blight
"It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1."
v) Duathedlen Heart
Type: lite / lite ; tier 4

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +30% light
Changes resistances cap: +10% light
Light radius: -1000
Infravision radius: +6
It can be used to activate talent Blood Grasp (costing 10 power out of 15/15) :
Effective talent level: 3.9
Use mode: Activated
Power cost: 10 out of 15/15.
Range: 10.00
Travel Speed: 2000% of base
Is Spell: true
Description: Project a bolt of corrupted blood doing 636.70 blight damage and healing you for half the damage done.
The damage will increase with Magic stat.

w) Dragon Orb (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Cun
"It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1."
" Dropped by Gorbat, Supreme Wyrmic of the Pride"
x) Elemental Orb (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Mag
"It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1."
" Dropped by Vor, Grand Geomancer of the Pride"
y) Orb of Destruction (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Str
"It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1."
" Dropped by Grushnak, Battlemaster of the Pride"
z) Orb of Scrying
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
"It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1."
{) Orb of Undeath (Orb of Command)
[Plot Item]
Type: orb / orb

When carried:
Changes stats: +6 Dex
"It can be used to use the orb, costing 1 power out of 1/1."
" Dropped by Rak'shor, Grand Necromancer of the Pride"
|) Atamathon's Lost Ruby Eye
[Plot Item]
Type: gem / red ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes damage: +12% fire
When used to imbue an object:
Changes damage: +12% fire

Dropped by Corrupted Sand Wyrm
}) Runed Skull
Type: gem / red ; tier 5

When carried:
Damage when the wearer is hit: 25 fire
Spellpower: +7

Dropped by Pale Drake
~) 8 bloodstone
Type: gem / red ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +60%
When used to imbue an object:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +60%

) 7 fire opal
Type: gem / red ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Physical crit. chance: +5.0%
Changes damage: +10% all
Spell crit. chance: +5%
Mental crit. chance: +5%
When used to imbue an object:
Physical crit. chance: +5.0%
Changes damage: +10% all
Spell crit. chance: +5%
Mental crit. chance: +5%

Dropped by orc soldier
€) Rod of Recall (1/1)
[Plot Item]
Type: charm / rod

"It can be used to recall the user to the worldmap, costing 202 power out of 400/400."
・ Transmogrification Chest
[Plot Item]
Type: chest / sher'tul

When carried:
"It can be used to transmogrify all the items in your chest at once(also done automatically when you change level), costing 0 power out of 1000/1000."
・ Pearl of Life and Death
Type: gem / white

When carried:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con / +10 Lck
Changes resistances: +7% all
Changes damage: +7% all
Stun/Freeze immunity: +100%
Light radius: +1

Dropped by Argoniel
・ 4 diamond
Type: gem / white ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con
When used to imbue an object:
Changes stats: +5 Str / +5 Dex / +5 Mag / +5 Wil / +5 Cun / +5 Con

Dropped by Ukllmswwik the Wise
・ 2 moonstone
Type: gem / white ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +10
Physical save: +10
Spell save: +10
Mental save: +10
When used to imbue an object:
Defense: +10
Physical save: +10
Spell save: +10
Mental save: +10

Dropped by Ukllmswwik the Wise
・ 2 pearl
Type: gem / white ; tier 5

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +10% all
When used to imbue an object:
Changes resistances: +10% all

Dropped by Argoniel
・ quartz
Type: gem / white ; tier 3

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%
When used to imbue an object:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%

Dropped by Ukllmswwik the Wise

[Last Messages]

Online profile disabled(switching to offline profile) due to no online profile active.

[nooblade]

Congrats!

I have a question about fearscape in particular: when an enemy uses fearscape on you, I heard you're supposed to be able to stun him to end it. Has that ever happened in your time as a corruptor?

Also, that Garkul guy, eh? He must have been something if he beat Atamathon with his forehead and then went on to almost wipe out an army of 10,000.

Also, last night I failed to unlock marauder. Again! A worm that walks intercepted me in the old forest And also I'll say that I really don't recommend that rogues go for Antimagic.

Edit: Another failed unlocking attempt... This time died to a storm drake in the ruined dungeon trying to get the damage on lots of monsters. I had thought I'd get it due to 300 poison damage on a non-crit from earlier but bleagh. Well, I've had enough of the poison talents and I think I'll just play a normal, more survivable rogue next time. In a few weeks maybe.

To relieve stress, I made a yeek anorithil named "streaking", because I can't take sun and moon magic seriously. I think it has two lives left at level 11 after killing the famous guy.

[Theoboldi]

Note to self: When your main way of dealing with enemies is becoming magical supernova that is out of mana after 3 turns, you will not have enough resources to survive being dropped into a pit after trying to dig up a grave.

Seriously, I was expecting a miniboss after getting a warning about the treasures being protected, not an endless gauntlet against millions of ghouls and skeletal mages. Next time this happens I'll just use the rod of recall and pray that I survive for 40 turns.

[Mewtarthio]

Note to self: When your main way of dealing with enemies is becoming magical supernova that is out of mana after 3 turns, you will not have enough resources to survive being dropped into a pit after trying to dig up a grave.

Disruption Shield. Get it. Use it. Laugh at the bygone days when you thought manasurge runes were important.

Just watch out for the Taint of the Devourer and similar effects.

[Theoboldi]

Disruption Shield. Get it. Use it. Laugh at the bygone days when you thought manasurge runes were important.

Just watch out for the Taint of the Devourer and similar effects.

Too bad I only put points into the first talent of the arcane tree. This will take me two levels of skills that I probably will never use. :smallannoyed:

Oh well, I have to admit that it does look rather useful. Especially considering how cheap it is. Though I'm not sure how I feel about having to get hit.

Edit: Thank you, Agrimley the hermit. Thank you and your elixir of focus. Now unlimited arcane POWAH is in my hands.

[nooblade]

Sometimes I even think about making an archmage that takes willpower before constitution for a primary defense through disruption shield. Then I remember how terrible the oozing horrors are. Also, I'm not really into arcane blades anymore due to them not having disruption shield.

Edit: Also, I've discovered something useful: You can check how much fire/ice damage you've done overall by going into achievements and looking at ones you haven't yet unlocked. Some of them don't have details given but it does keep track of the amount of the two related to unlocks in "pyromancer" and "cryomancer". So I'm actually 2/3rds the way there for fire and 1/3rd for ice. Nifty!

Oh, and the fight with Celia is much easier if you open all the various dead receptacles. But then there's a minor downside.

Edit: Drat! The higher archmage Zazzles died in Dreadfell on level 7 after unlocking wildfire. He had taken Celestial light and even had 5 talent points in Providence, but, when surrounded by banshees and dreads, he was too confused to cure the confusion by anything short of a mental restoring infusion, which was on cooldown from earlier confusion. I was hoping to unlock ghouls.

Higher archmages are really neat because the higher brings three things: improved arcane damage, sight range, and very powerful healing for willpower characters. And I didn't really regret spending a category point on Celestial Light either after the anorithil escort--barrier plus shielding plus summertide makes an extremely long lasting shield. However it still must be supplemented by other shields because the barrier less than 500 points before aegis.

My conclusion is that providence didn't save my rear as much as I had hoped for at first. Perhaps something like a talent in conditioning would've suited my playing style better. Not so sure anymore that the whole tree is good for archmages but also I should have known to use providence before disaster begins, like the turn on using a wild infusion.

[TaRix]

Right, looking for a bit of post-quest help here, spoilered for slight spoilers:
How am I supposed to get off this mountain? Sure, helping those poor, conductive saps in Derth seems pretty nice and all, but how do I get back, short of suicide? I have cleared the mountain level of enemies and loot, and there's only the staircase I came in.
Yeah, that jerk Storm mage took some killin' with my little sniping alchemist... kept having to phase through a mountain wall while the guy steamrolled my golem and me having to rebuild the thing. If he only opened that door four tiles away instead of taking 35+ turns walking around.

[Cogwheel]

Right, looking for a bit of post-quest help here, spoilered for slight spoilers:
How am I supposed to get off this mountain? Sure, helping those poor, conductive saps in Derth seems pretty nice and all, but how do I get back, short of suicide? I have cleared the mountain level of enemies and loot, and there's only the staircase I came in.
Yeah, that jerk Storm mage took some killin' with my little sniping alchemist... kept having to phase through a mountain wall while the guy steamrolled my golem and me having to rebuild the thing. If he only opened that door four tiles away instead of taking 35+ turns walking around.

You can actually leave with the Rod of Recall at any point. Surprise!

Also Urkis is horrible.

[Mewtarthio]

I have a question about fearscape in particular: when an enemy uses fearscape on you, I heard you're supposed to be able to stun him to end it. Has that ever happened in your time as a corruptor?

I've only just unlocked corruptors, but fearscape is just a vim-based sustain. Anything that can shut those down (disperse magic, manaburn, crippling poison, etc) should be able to get you out of the fearscape early.

[Cogwheel]

I've only just unlocked corruptors, but fearscape is just a vim-based sustain. Anything that can shut those down (disperse magic, manaburn, crippling poison, etc) should be able to get you out of the fearscape early.

My favourite is Flames of Urh'Rok. Elites with Fearscape generally don't have it, you see, so I just run away and enjoy the free heal while they burn to death.

[TaRix]

You can actually leave with the Rod of Recall at any point. Surprise!

Also Urkis is horrible.

-Stupid TaRix is stupid.-

[Theoboldi]

I'm trying to unlock corrupters right now. I know that both mana and paradox meters work to do this. However, does equilibrium or PSI also work? I don't want to work my way to that quest with a summoner, only to find out I can't unlock corruptors with him.

[Cogwheel]

I'm trying to unlock corrupters right now. I know that both mana and paradox meters work to do this. However, does equilibrium or PSI also work? I don't want to work my way to that quest with a summoner, only to find out I can't unlock corruptors with him.

No to both. Too natural. You need certified dodgy magic. Likewise for hate - too kosher, somehow.


Positive energy will work because logic.


(In a pinch, grab a talent from an escort to give you the relevant meter.)

[Mewtarthio]

I'm trying to unlock corrupters right now. I know that both mana and paradox meters work to do this. However, does equilibrium or PSI also work? I don't want to work my way to that quest with a summoner, only to find out I can't unlock corruptors with him.

The Grand Corruptor will offer an alliance with anyone that Zigur would like to burn at the stake. If starting with the resource doesn't remove Zigur from the world map, then it won't let you join the Grand Corruptor.

Also, it's not enough to simply have the resource. You need ten points in the associated talents, as well. Passives and zero-cost abilities count to the total. I think the shaloren racials count as well (at least, you lose them if you go antimagic). So, a bulwark rescuing one anorithil and getting Healing Light won't be able to unlock corruptors, even though Positive Energy counts as "arcane." A bulwark rescuing a sun paladin, unlocking Chants, and maxing out the first two chants should be able to sack Zigur, even though he'd lack a Positive Energy meter.

[Cogwheel]

The Grand Corruptor will offer an alliance with anyone that Zigur would like to burn at the stake. If starting with the resource doesn't remove Zigur from the world map, then it won't let you join the Grand Corruptor.

Also, it's not enough to simply have the resource. You need ten points in the associated talents, as well. Passives and zero-cost abilities count to the total. I think the shaloren racials count as well (at least, you lose them if you go antimagic). So, a bulwark rescuing one anorithil and getting Healing Light won't be able to unlock corruptors, even though Positive Energy counts as "arcane." A bulwark rescuing a sun paladin, unlocking Chants, and maxing out the first two chants should be able to sack Zigur, even though he'd lack a Positive Energy meter.

Oh, I see. Sorry, got the details mixed up.

For the record, while Mark of the Spellblaze is dangerous, and some enemies in Zigur hit really hard, you can hide for the most part. Helping the Grand Corruptor is a similar experience to "escorting" Liberty Prime.

[Theoboldi]

Oh, I see. Sorry, got the details mixed up.

For the record, while Mark of the Spellblaze is dangerous, and some enemies in Zigur hit really hard, you can hide for the most part. Helping the Grand Corruptor is a similar experience to "escorting" Liberty Prime.

I'll be looking forward to that then. What level would you suggest for doing it? I'm playing an alchemist, and have already fully filled the bomb tree and am right now focusing on getting some point into golemancy, if that makes a difference.

[Mewtarthio]

I'll be looking forward to that then. What level would you suggest for doing it? I'm playing an alchemist, and have already fully filled the bomb tree

Bomb alchemists are pretty simple to play. There's nothing all that threatening in the quest. The corruptors can be nasty, but the enemies are spread out enough in the Mark of the Spellblaze that you shouldn't have any problems. The defenders of Zigur are even easier, so long as you don't stray too far from your allies. If Myssil doesn't engage your team on her own initiative, send your golem over to her house, then Invoke it to lure her down. You're perfectly safe unless you charge ahead of the group and attack Myssil on your own.

[Cogwheel]

Bomb alchemists are pretty simple to play. There's nothing all that threatening in the quest. The corruptors can be nasty, but the enemies are spread out enough in the Mark of the Spellblaze that you shouldn't have any problems. The defenders of Zigur are even easier, so long as you don't stray too far from your allies. If Myssil doesn't engage your team on her own initiative, send your golem over to her house, then Invoke it to lure her down. You're perfectly safe unless you charge ahead of the group and attack Myssil on your own.

Basically this. Leave it for after Dreadfell if you're paranoid, though. Corruptors can hit hard when they want to.

[Aldgar]

Whee. My shalore Alchemist has found an helmet with +30% lightning damage, a robe with +30% lightning damage(both red items from monsters with class levels), a staff with +30% damage(cruel dragonbone staff) and a wizard's ring of lightning(+14% lightning damage).


At level 22, he deals 700+ damage with a normal lightning infusion bomb that can daze...(1000+ with a crit)

Hunting adventuring parties was never so much fun!

(Also provides tons of gear to extract gems from)

[nooblade]

Yeah, I'm playing a cornac berserker and beginning to realize the potential of daze there except I'm limited to rush. Yeah, I didn't notice what daze did before because I always attacked again. Yay tooltips! Berserkers have so many things going for them against one enemy but so far I've died three times to being surrounded by normal mooks. I suppose that's where death dance is supposed to come into play. Also, antimagic has so far done very little for me. Again. I think I should stop taking it.

[Theoboldi]

I remember taking anti-magic with my first bulwark. Since all of my see invisible equipment was arcane, he went on to be completly helpless against the necromancer that you fight in the crypt next to last hope, causing him to die horribly. I'm still kinda bitter about it. :smallannoyed:

In other news, yay for unlocking corrupters. Destroying Ziguranth is a nice chance for revenge after seeing anti-magic suck so badly.

[Mewtarthio]

I avoid antimagic for warrior/rogue types. Wilders, afflicted, and mindslayers are a better fit: They need high Willpower anyway, plus their class abilities do better at making up for the loss of runes. Of course, it's always a risk, since arcane items and runes provide all the best panic buttons...

Also, Last Hope mausoleum is brutal. Consider that dungeon very, very optional.

[nooblade]

Also, Last Hope mausoleum is brutal. Consider that dungeon very, very optional.

I find it easy these days as long as I'm willing to take Cursed Aura (like cursed and doomed, except not optional) and open each of the caskets before fighting Celia. The things are high level, but they're all undead of some kind. I don't think cursed aura is so bad even without putting any generic points into it.

But for necromancers, isn't Celia's heart an essential step toward lichdom?

But otherwise, yeah, I'd rather go on a farportal for some characters.

Also, with regards to marauder:

I've still failed to get it. Bah. Someone in game chat (one of the usuals) suggested using rune of the rift out of a shadowstrike. I managed to get 700+ damage doing so (it's easy because RotR is ~200, shadowstrike can give x2.5, and the last 51 can be pulled from more critical multiplier or willpower or something). Also the unlock overall should be easier due to random items with damage boosts. However, marauder still did not unlock! Why? I suppose it's because it was on easy--you can't get Size Matters on easy. And it's not just about dealing more than 600 damage, it's getting that achievement.

What a stupid unlock. I'd rather avoid the RotR quest in the future.

[Mewtarthio]

Dark God insists that the Marauder unlock is trivial for a late-game rogue. I can't verify, because rogues are melee glass cannons; getting a late-game rogue in the first place is hardly trivial. Perhaps you could try Exploration Mode? You can still earn achievements there.

[Todasmile]

Dark God insists that the Marauder unlock is trivial for a late-game rogue. I can't verify, because rogues are melee glass cannons; getting a late-game rogue in the first place is hardly trivial. Perhaps you could try Exploration Mode? You can still earn achievements there.

As someone who has played a Rogue quite a bit, I've learned that while it's sometimes tough for a Rogue to not die, it gets much easier nearing midgame, around the Old Forest. They get such massive defense bonuses that it's less about how much damage you take and more about how often you take it that matters.

Also, on my latest Brawler I actually managed to beat the Sandworm Lair and Daikara. I had to die once to do it, but Daikara was actually pretty easy up until the boss - even then, if I had had more Freeze resistance it would have been a cakewalk.

Then, since I had no clue what to do, I just decided to walk into an Adventurer Party for kicks and got grandfathered to death by a mage of some kind who killed me in two turns.

Mages really do need rebalancing, but given their very nature that might be difficult. The only way to adequately beat a mage as a physical character is either get in close and burst them down before they can do anything harmful - which doesn't help against groups- or to stack massive amounts of resistances, something near impossible before the point where you would have died already. Heck, just looking at the wiki quickly, the highest rank of resistance gem only gives you +10% resistances - even with two of them you're only taking 1/5 less damage, not nearly enough to mitigate the damage you'll be taking. And that's ENDGAME gems.

The only large resistance-granting item in the early game is the Girdle of Clear Waters, and that only grants 30% to three resistances - while the cold resistance is nice for some early dungeons, chances are the other two won't help you too much.

[Mewtarthio]

It's all about mobility. Just about every melee class has some way to get close to an enemy mage, such as the Rush talent. Inscriptions help a lot: Shielding runes are good for soaking up that dangerous initial salvo, and movement infusions can generally carry you to safety when things go wrong.

Also, I wouldn't be too upset about not getting resist all. Resist all is very valuable. If you have 20% resist all, you take 20% less damage from all attacks, regardless of source. In fact, 10% resist all from a high-end gem sounds a little extreme. I think the wiki may be out-of-date there; I'll have to double check, but I think the current resist all values are about half of what it lists. Anyway, you'll have better luck focusing resistance on a limited number of elements that you know will give you trouble (eg cold before going into Daikara, cold/darkness before confronting Celia, blight when you start the Melinda quest...). I personally prefer saves and debuff resistance (like stun/freeze and confusion immunity).

EDIT: If you got "grandfathered to death," that means you were killed by temporal damage. Temporal resistance is one of the rarer types of resistance out there. Still, the classes that feature temporal damage have a lot of debuffs; those NPCs will usually soften you up with Turn Back the Clock or something. How did that fight go, exactly?

[nooblade]

Hmm, the exploration unlock was really illegitimate. Maybe I made it that way due to laziness and 34 (!!!) deaths (they just pile on when you're not paying attention). Not that I regret giving money to the game; it's just I might as well have gotten a cheating addon.

I think if rogues had the track and disengage talent tree by default that would really help with mobility and then stealthy attacks (I think cornac can take it--something to try). One big problem is in places like Daikara where your ranged attackers and spellcasters are in a big blob of nasty melee. I guess the only thing I could do there was stand around a corner and try to pick off melee one by one, hoping not to run out of space to work in.

Also, marauder has a lot going on. I'm impressed.

Edit: One more thing: mana clash does arcane damage surprisingly. So an antimagic higher might be especially good with it?

[Todasmile]

I'm curious - does All resistance stack with other resistances, or is the higher value taken?

With 50% all and 50% cold, do I take 75% less cold damage, for example, or just 50%?

The fight was basically "Take a lot of damage one turn then die the next"

I think the mage got a bunch of buffs in there somehow though - a bunch of messages popped up in chat. Maybe some kind of global speed buff?

[nooblade]

I had thought that specific resistances and "all" stacked linearly -- if your resist cap were high enough then it would reach 100% from 50% plus 50%. But I haven't seen much in the game to increase that cap (IIRC you get resist caps from necromancer lich). That would be the case where resist all were most powerful anyway. But also lots of enemies have the spell talents that lower resistances (I don't think Rantha did though).

[Mewtarthio]

I'm curious - does All resistance stack with other resistances, or is the higher value taken?

With 50% all and 50% cold, do I take 75% less cold damage, for example, or just 50%?

I'm pretty sure they stack multiplicatively. Multiple resistances against a single damage type are additive (so that a 50% resist fire spell and a 50% resist fire ring would give you 100% resist fire--or whatever your cap is), but having 50% resist all is basically like having twice as much HP.


Edit: One more thing: mana clash does arcane damage surprisingly. So an antimagic higher might be especially good with it?

I'm not sure if it would boost the mana-draining effect, but it would definitely boost the final damage.

[Cogwheel]

I'm pretty sure they stack multiplicatively. Multiple resistances against a single damage type are additive (so that a 50% resist fire spell and a 50% resist fire ring would give you 100% resist fire--or whatever your cap is), but having 50% resist all is basically like having twice as much HP.

Tragically, no, it does not stack. Tested on myself, and also on NPCs.

Say you have 4% fire, 8% all, 20% cold and 40% blight. If you take fire, it's checked against "all" resist. Cold against cold, blight against blight. Take the highest one applicable, no stacking. Electric, for instance, would also go against All resist here. Thick Skin is less amazing than you might initially think.

[Mewtarthio]

Tragically, no, it does not stack. Tested on myself, and also on NPCs.

Say you have 4% fire, 8% all, 20% cold and 40% blight. If you take fire, it's checked against "all" resist. Cold against cold, blight against blight. Take the highest one applicable, no stacking. Electric, for instance, would also go against All resist here. Thick Skin is less amazing than you might initially think.

That would make a whole lot of things pretty much useless. Plus, just about everything has at least resist all 0%, so that would mean negative resistances have no effect whatsoever. It could just be that the large resists make the small ones seem irrelevant. For instance, if you're taking fire damage, the resist all gets you down to 92% damage, so you might not notice that you're really taking 88.3% damage. Likewise, when you're taking 60% damage from blight attacks, you might not notice that resist all shaves that down to 55.2% damage.

Would you think me horribly obsessive and insane if I peeked at the source code to figure out the truth?

[Cogwheel]

That would make a whole lot of things pretty much useless. Plus, just about everything has at least resist all 0%, so that would mean negative resistances have no effect whatsoever. It could just be that the large resists make the small ones seem irrelevant. For instance, if you're taking fire damage, the resist all gets you down to 92% damage, so you might not notice that you're really taking 88.3% damage. Likewise, when you're taking 60% damage from blight attacks, you might not notice that resist all shaves that down to 55.2% damage.

Would you think me horribly obsessive and insane if I peeked at the source code to figure out the truth?

I forgot to mention that the negative resistances are the exceptions. 0% all is entirely meaningless.

And yes. But go ahead anyway.

[Mewtarthio]

And yes. But go ahead anyway.

Perfect! I love it when people think me horribly obsessive and insane!

I've got this out of combat.lua:


--- Returns the resistance
function _M:combatGetResist(type)
local a = (self.resists.all or 0) / 100
local b = (self.resists[type] or 0) / 100
local r = math.min(100 * (1 - (1 - a) * (1 - b)), (self.resists_cap.all or 0) + (self.resists_cap[type] or 0))
return r
end

It's called here in damage_types.lua:


-- Reduce damage with resistance
if target.resists then
local pen = 0
if src.resists_pen then pen = (src.resists_pen.all or 0) + (src.resists_pen[type] or 0) end
local dominated = target:hasEffect(target.EFF_DOMINATED)
if dominated and dominated.source == src then pen = pen + (dominated.resistPenetration or 0) end
if target:attr("sleep") and src.attr and src:attr("night_terror") then pen = pen + src:attr("night_terror") end
local res = target:combatGetResist(type)
pen = util.bound(pen, 0, 100)
if res > 0 then res = res * (100 - pen) / 100 end
print("[PROJECTOR] res", res, (100 - res) / 100, " on dam", dam)
if res >= 100 then dam = 0
elseif res <= -100 then dam = dam * 2
else dam = dam * ((100 - res) / 100)
end
end
print("[PROJECTOR] after resists dam", dam)

Looks multiplicative to me.

[Cogwheel]

Perfect! I love it when people think me horribly obsessive and insane!

I've got this out of combat.lua:


--- Returns the resistance
function _M:combatGetResist(type)
local a = (self.resists.all or 0) / 100
local b = (self.resists[type] or 0) / 100
local r = math.min(100 * (1 - (1 - a) * (1 - b)), (self.resists_cap.all or 0) + (self.resists_cap[type] or 0))
return r
end

It's called here in damage_types.lua:


-- Reduce damage with resistance
if target.resists then
local pen = 0
if src.resists_pen then pen = (src.resists_pen.all or 0) + (src.resists_pen[type] or 0) end
local dominated = target:hasEffect(target.EFF_DOMINATED)
if dominated and dominated.source == src then pen = pen + (dominated.resistPenetration or 0) end
if target:attr("sleep") and src.attr and src:attr("night_terror") then pen = pen + src:attr("night_terror") end
local res = target:combatGetResist(type)
pen = util.bound(pen, 0, 100)
if res > 0 then res = res * (100 - pen) / 100 end
print("[PROJECTOR] res", res, (100 - res) / 100, " on dam", dam)
if res >= 100 then dam = 0
elseif res <= -100 then dam = dam * 2
else dam = dam * ((100 - res) / 100)
end
end
print("[PROJECTOR] after resists dam", dam)

Looks multiplicative to me.

Well done, you win this round.

PS what is wrong with you.

PPS no seriously.

[nooblade]

[snip]Looks multiplicative to me.

So if you have 15% resist all and 50% resist fire I'm guessing (but will verify) that you don't get 35% of the damage. The "or"s must be some interesting part of lua so that the default is 0, yeah?


local r = math.min(100 * (1 - (1 - a) * (1 - b)), (self.resists_cap.all or 0) + (self.resists_cap[type] or 0))

The calculation is 1 - (0.85 * 0.50) - 0.575 or now 57.5% resistance. So you would take 42.5% of the damage. I am disappoint. But also this means that having type resist and resist all about the same is for stacking, IIRC. Or it would be if both sources had the same cost... Resist all has an upper limit of 35% for most PCs from what I've seen.

Another thing is that the precognitive divination skill can be very rewarding but not so much when relying on resist all. So the bottom line is that the game rewards you a bit when you get specific resistances higher than some pitiful amount.

Another thing I notice:


if res > 0 then res = res * (100 - pen) / 100 end

Resist penetration only kicks in if resistances are positive. But I can see that this "if" is separate from the one below it so it does take into account when something has -50% resist naturally. It's just that you can't cause a little extra damage with that resist penetration. So the take-home is to have resist penetration matching enemy resists when possible. Oh, that and more than 100% penetration is useless.


if res >= 100 then dam = 0

This uses the adjusted resistance after penetration. So you can damage things with more than 100% resistance with that penetration.


if src.resists_pen then pen = (src.resists_pen.all or 0) + (src.resists_pen[type] or 0) end

Also I see that resist all stacks linearly with type resist penetration (and linearly with dominate). Bleaugh, non-convention is unconventional.

Overall, I'm sad about it.

Edit: Another sad thing: I have a halfling alchemist who unlocked cryomancer and ghouls on normal with plenty of lives left at like level 25. Never bothered to go in a farportal. However, interest in playing the rest of the game with him is negative. I really think that class is OP and also pretty boring.

[Todasmile]

It also seems like there's a difference between resistance penetration and resistance reduction?

But I've never actually seen an instance of resistance penetration that I can think of. IS it just resistance reduction?

Also Wyrmics are fun. It's just too bad that in the earlygame they are HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WEAK and NEVER REALLY GET BETTER.

I suspect that once one obtains Antimagic you are suddenly pretty good against mages, what with the resistances and stuff? That's when I'd expect them to shine - when finally your hard work pays off and you slaughter a group of spellcasters who would have nuked anything to death.

Also does obtaining Antimagic lock you out from, for example, Precognition? Because that resistance-granting spell could be very useful.

[Todasmile]

It also seems like there's a difference between resistance penetration and resistance reduction?

But I've never actually seen an instance of resistance penetration that I can think of. IS it just resistance reduction?

Also Wyrmics are fun. It's just too bad that in the earlygame they are HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WEAK and NEVER REALLY GET BETTER.

I suspect that once one obtains Antimagic you are suddenly pretty good against mages, what with the resistances and stuff? That's when I'd expect them to shine - when finally your hard work pays off and you slaughter a group of spellcasters who would have nuked anything to death.

Also does obtaining Antimagic lock you out from, for example, Precognition? Because that resistance-granting spell could be very useful.

[Todasmile]

It also seems like there's a difference between resistance penetration and resistance reduction?

But I've never actually seen an instance of resistance penetration that I can think of. IS it just resistance reduction?

Also Wyrmics are fun. It's just too bad that in the earlygame they are HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WEAK and NEVER REALLY GET BETTER.

I suspect that once one obtains Antimagic you are suddenly pretty good against mages, what with the resistances and stuff? That's when I'd expect them to shine - when finally your hard work pays off and you slaughter a group of spellcasters who would have nuked anything to death.

Also does obtaining Antimagic lock you out from, for example, Precognition? Because that resistance-granting spell could be very useful.

[Mewtarthio]

Well done, you win this round.

PS what is wrong with you.

PPS no seriously.

The only thing wrong with me is an excessive amount of winning!

By the way, on further investigation, it appears that the resistances in the tooltips take resist all into account. So, if your tooltip lists 37% resist fire and 10% resist all, you really have 30% resist fire with an extra 7% from resist all. If you found an item that granted you 10% resist fire, it would boost you to 46% resist fire. So, I guess you were sort of right, in that the listed resistance takes priority over resist all (since it already factors it in).

This game could really use a manual...


It also seems like there's a difference between resistance penetration and resistance reduction?

But I've never actually seen an instance of resistance penetration that I can think of. IS it just resistance reduction?

Resist penetration comes from stuff like Wildfire and Crystalline Focus (which, by the way, has nothing to do with the Crystal Focus and its associated Crystalline Weapons).


Also Wyrmics are fun. It's just too bad that in the earlygame they are HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY WEAK and NEVER REALLY GET BETTER.

I advise starting out by getting Armor Training 3, ditching your two-hander, and grabbing a shield ASAP. For class skills, don't try to become every dragon at once; instead, focus on one or two aspects. I'm fond of Cold myself, with Sand as a secondary, though I tend to prioritize defense.

But, yeah, Wyrmics are a tough class. They get a bit easier once you have breath weapons, but they're still trickier than pure casters or warriors.


I suspect that once one obtains Antimagic you are suddenly pretty good against mages, what with the resistances and stuff? That's when I'd expect them to shine - when finally your hard work pays off and you slaughter a group of spellcasters who would have nuked anything to death.

Ha. Aha. Ahahahahaha.

Sorry to disappoint, but the only way to slaughter spellcasters with ease is to be an alchemist, and even then spellcasters are only easy on an absolute scale (relatively speaking, they're quite dangerous, but alchemists can basically sleepwalk through anything).

This isn't to say that antimagic is useless. Resolve is basically "resist all except physical and mind" (except it's additive with your elemental resists). Mana Clash packs a punch as well. Aura of Silence only lasts a few turns--enough for you to run away or close in, but you probably have better things to do than spend a turn on something that can be shrugged off. Antimagic shield doesn't do much against the nukes (the average corruptor isn't as optimized as Cogwheel, but they'll still hit you for enough that like 40-50 points off doesn't seem so significant); it seems to be mostly for DOT.

Antimagic requires a lot of strategy to pull off. You don't have runes, so you need to work out a separate panic button. Movement infusions are nice, but you have to know what you're going to do if you get cornered or surrounded. For wyrmics, you can use Earthquake and/or Burrow to make an escape route, for example. Get your escape strategy worked out ahead of time.

It's your choice, really; just don't expect smooth sailing. I usually do go antimagic with summoners, launching Mana Clashes over my summon's heads while they take the brunt of the burst damage. For wyrmics (and other classes), you might want to consider simply acquiring some antimagic weapons (Zigur probably has a few for sale) and keeping them in your off set for use against spellcasters.


Also does obtaining Antimagic lock you out from, for example, Precognition? Because that resistance-granting spell could be very useful.

Yep. It's antimagic. That means no arcane magic whatsoever. If you happen to know any spells, those spells are rendered forever unusable. Also, those escorts that teach you spells? Your character will automatically sabotage the portal when you "rescue" them, giving you access to an entirely different set of rewards.

[nooblade]

I haven't tried much with earthquake and burrow but it sounds like an awesome combo and makes me interested in trying Wyrmics again. Swallow is also high utility and adds an extra damage type to your set of tools.

From what I hear people chatting about, AM is mainly good if you have willpower (mindslayer, cursed, doomed, wyrmic, summoner, more?) and are willing to use mindstars as your weapons. But then you have to get a tidbit lucky with your escort to get access to the much-desired mindstar mastery tree. I haven't tried it myself. Mana clash took a ton of willpower to be able to OHKO mage-types too, and that was using it with shadowstrike's ridiculous 3x damage and almost no CON. So Wyrmics take STR for some dragon breath power I guess? I dunno.

Also, I don't think much of the mindpower stuff with those things is much fun; IMHO it's a weird artifact of 80's sci-fi about mystical powers of crystals. Just because we have crystal oscillators...

[Mewtarthio]

One of the mindslayer talents says something about the rigid, organized structure of crystals making it easier to extract energy from them. Mostly they exist to have a psi/nature counterpart to staves.

Anyways, you have to be really lucky with escorts to get mindstar mastery. Not only do you need the right escort type (alchemists, I think), you also need them to show up after Zigur. You can try to avoid zones with escorts in the early game, but it's not trivial. Still, mindstars are really only useful for the mindpower boost they provide; you don't need to use them any more than an arcane blade needs to use a staff. You could always compromise, too: Put a weapon in one hand and a mindstar in the off-hand, trading the defensive boost of a shield for the mindpower boost of the mindstar (mindstars ignore the off-hand weapon penalty).

[elizasteave]

I don't have this one as of now, but as per the description it seems interesting and some of the reviews are also good from here. So I think to give it a try.

[Aldgar]

Just unlocked necromancers.


I'm not far(lvl 13 right now with a higher necromancer), but the minions/necrotic aura trick is FUN.

When a necromancer is sufficiently prepared, he can slaughter adventuring parties....(that is, he can let his minions slaughter the adventurers, while occasionally shooting a invoke darkness beam through them and/or creating more minions)

[Cogwheel]

Just unlocked necromancers.


I'm not far(lvl 13 right now with a higher necromancer), but the minions/necrotic aura trick is FUN.

When a necromancer is sufficiently prepared, he can slaughter adventuring parties....(that is, he can let his minions slaughter the adventurers, while occasionally shooting a invoke darkness beam through them and/or creating more minions)

Then you find things that are near-immune or immune to physical, darkness and cold damage. Such as Dreads. For Necromancers, these are unique opponents, in that they are dumb, yet also stupid.

[Mewtarthio]

Chill of the Tomb is a bit of an odd spell. It quite reliably wipes out your own minions, and, when you level it up all the way, its explosion radius is just barely shorter than its range. I've killed myself with that spell an embarrassing number of times.

Still, I can't help but love how ridiculously over-the-top evil the class is. Like how necromancers and summoners both get a spell to self-destruct their minions, but the summoner's just reads "Makes your summon explode for X damage," while the necromancer's reads "The undead are mere tools to be disposed of... violently!" Or how one necromantic spell summons a bunch of adorable harmless bunnies so you can sacrifice them and use their souls to make more undead.

Man, I'd like to be good at that class...

[Cogwheel]

Or how one necromantic spell summons a bunch of adorable harmless bunnies so you can sacrifice them and use their souls to make more undead.

That really is the best spell. Though I still think corruptors handle ludicrous grimdark/evil quite well too.


Oh, and Chill of the Tomb is just liquid nitrogen fireball. Which is why I can't believe you get it so early.

[Mewtarthio]

Though I still think corruptors handle ludicrous grimdark/evil quite well too.

Corruptors lose evil points because the corruptor unlock is helping them destroy Zigur, which is probably the single most heroic thing you can do pre-Reknor.

Speaking of evil, I've just unlocked the Doomed! All that's left is the [scrubbed] Marauder unlock...

[Cogwheel]

Corruptors lose evil points because the corruptor unlock is helping them destroy Zigur, which is probably the single most heroic thing you can do pre-Reknor.

Speaking of evil, I've just unlocked the Doomed! All that's left is the [scrubbed] Marauder unlock...

But but but what about all those saintly Zigur-aligned Doomed fighting the arcane paladin menace.

[Aldgar]

I really like Dwarf Summoners now.

I managed to complete the Zigur trial for Antimagic with a level 10 summoner...

(Apparently 3 disposable meatshields between my precious hitpoints and a level 27 orc corruptor "are" sufficient).


Also, Master Summoner and the Wild Effect is really awesome - turns summons into AoE spells that are still summons.

[Mewtarthio]

I think the Doomed might be my new favorite class. They start out pretty slow, but things get kind of crazy if you heavily invest in a tree. Maxed-out shadows will pretty much slaughter anything weaker than a rare without you lifting a finger. In the process, they'll phase door all over the place and wake up every enemy within fifty tiles of you. The end result is pure chaos. Then you can drop a level 5 hateful whisper into the resulting mob...

(PROTIP: If you invest 5 class points into Call Shadows, you can put a category point into the Shadows tree and get a fourth shadow.)