Tales of Maj'Eyal

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Jonathan
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Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

http://te4.org/user/18572/characters

Time for a bullet list!
  • Perma-death, but a non-unitary number of lives!
  • Random levels, but once generated they are static (Castle of the Winds style) with no monster respawn
  • Different starting levels & skills for different races means different levels of difficulty for the same class
  • 6 or more abilities for a level 1 character going up ~1 every level or three
  • Tactical combat requires thinking, not farming
I am liking the Shalore Arcane Blade best so far, though Syed the Cornac Berserker was the first char I had to make it out of the starter dungeon. Shalore seems impossible if you don't play a class with a powerful ranged attack. Higher Human is probably the best race to go with initially. I can't make a Rogue class work.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Frank the Cornac Bulwark took Disengage as his class power, and just levels up like a madman. Bulwark actually has a number of nice talents to increase damage for one shot very high, so they can take a guy out much quicker than I anticipated.

Jonathan
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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Alright, finally after some dithering, I settled on Cornac (human) Arcane Blade as my race+class of choice. Elves are too fragile. Bulwarks take forever to kill something.

Last incarnation of Dwindlehop realized that dual-wielding daggers is for guys with talents that are dex-based. Instead, Dwindlehop is dual-wielding a waraxe and a mindstar, which key off Strength and Willpower which are stats I actually pump. I've been using the same mindstar that I first looted, because it's a slime mindstar (which slows) and slime weapons that aren't infused with arcane disrupting forces (which periodically nullify one of my nifty sustained spells) are incredibly fucking rare. Anyway, I do enough damage to take myself out in two hits, plus I am stacking up on saves so that I can resist the trash stun/confusion/cripple/etc effects. I would like to stack up on immunity, but I can't seem to get enough to rely on it. I still get hit sometimes by elite physical effects, but those I can nullify once every 14 rounds with my infusion which usually keeps me safe. Mostly what I do is stack up on heals: I have three heals plus an arcane damage shield and an arcane displacement shield and buffs to heals & damage shields so they absorb more HP. In a tricky fight I shield, get in a few hits, heal, hit a couple more times, and repeat until everyone is dead. The reason I wound up dual wielding is it gives me the chance to crit twice in one round which really pumps up the damage from Arcane Destruction to absurd levels. Arcane Destruction is basically my crowd control, as it bursts 2 on a melee crit for nice damage, and I crit about 1/3 per hand. Also, Arcane Destruction works around corners without line of sight, which is really handy for beating on elites without being exposed to them. I maxed Stone Skin as wearing massive armor eats too much mana, but I need armor somehow.

My two deaths with this guy to 20 were both just cases of tap-tap-tapping too quickly. I was killed by a sand landslide slamming into me down a hall, and an unnamed elite skeleton warrior who just whipped out a string of good hits while I sucked. I had my heals available and my teleports, so neither was really necessary. None of the bosses gave me any trouble: the slow plus the massive damage means they don't have enough time to really tear into me. The random named elites are trickier; plenty of early versions of Dwindlehop died gruesome deaths from random named elites. Usually I bump into a room full of guys with one named elite, and the elite brings the pain. This time around I'm practicing my separation better and haven't had a named elite take me out yet. Hopefully this char will be the first to kill the Master, and then I can cross the ocean and get busy with the orcish hordes.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I really like the concept of the Arcane Blade class, but it's not balanced correctly yet. Instead, I have been unlocking more classes.

Reaver - Combo melee/spellcaster. Dead at my second highest character ever, but got a bunch of unlocks/achievements I had never gotten before, so pretty tough. Reaver get a free melee attack with every spell, which means they do assloads of damage. They also have a instant DoT/debuff they can cast every 3 turns, which adds up to a huge amount of damage. They use Vim as their resource. It goes up with attacks but never regenerates. My build had issues with trash spellcasters. Probably needed to put more points into my Soul Rot.
Temporal Warden - I may not be smart enough to play this class. It doesn't get much in the way of damage talents. Instead, they get every utility and maneuver skill you can imagine, including an instant controlled-phase-door with a low cooldown. They use Paradox as their resource. It has no regen, but there's a instant sustain to give it a negative regen. Most talents increase Paradox, have a greater effect at higher Paradox, but also a higher chance of failing or backfiring. I really wanted to use all the sustains to power my saving throws off solely Willpower, but the high Paradox made my sustains fail randomly. Not sure how to build one of these yet.
Wyrmic - Can go either 2H or board-and-sword. Get a bunch of nifty powers involving AoE effects and resists, but by far the most interesting is their utility tree for extremely good regeneration.
Cursed - Probably my new favorite class. More berserk than a Berserker. Pure melee. Their resource is Hate, which naturally goes down over time and caps out at 100. Killing things makes it go up again. Resting and going back to town drain your Hate and make you less equipped. They have talents to provide confusion & stun immunity, which is a really convenient system. I really struggled to build a good Cursed and died quite a few times. Finally, I figured out a Cornac Cursed could unlock Rampage at level 1, which increases attack and movement speed. Rampage + Stalk is really what killed the tier 1 bosses for me, but I'm building up my Gloom in the anticipation of facing bosses who don't get swept away by that Rampage+Stalk tsunami of physical strikes.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I should note that my Arcane Blade did kill the Master, though he did not survive long after that nor did he make it to orc country. I got him killed trying to unlock Necromancers.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Whew. Cursed made it to 17 without dying, but usually hurting real bad after a boss fight. I then got wiped multiple times by a rare Reaver on Daikara. I let myself get surrounded, which was dumb. I also let him beat me up too much on the approach. When I see a dude with range I need to beckon, rampage, and finish him quickly.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Got another Cursed into Daikara without dying. He narrowly avoided being magically doomed to death, but then he got pinned by an elite archer and died a stupid death because I had tried to get rid of my physical infusion. He then died to Rantha. I don't think any of my characters in Daikara die to Rantha normally. I respawned and killed Rantha by the skin of my teeth. Now I just got shot for 250 hp from the elite archer and probably am going down again. I think I have Rampage on, so there is a small chance I am fast enough to duck behind a corner before he shoots again.

I think I will be able to get a Cursed to 20 with no deaths. I spent too many points on Cursed items with nothing to show for it. I also pumped the immunity talent and then got smeared by pins and blinds (and disease) which I did not have immunity against. I also pumped physical power. If I die again, it is ignore those talents in favor of more healing, more damage, more armor, and more saving throws. I also put a ton of points in Gloom and Rampage. I wind up with too much Hate and nothing to spend it on. I think I will unlock Fears and give those a go.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I got another Cursed to 17 before dying. I think part of my problem is my time with arcane blades. They are excellent at heals and shields. They go from in trouble to topped off pretty easily. A Cursed, on the other hand, prefers to regenerate. I need to identify bad trends early and stop them cold. Instead I keep bumping until one more hit will kill me, and then try like hell to escape.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Cursed update: level 24, one death (at 17). Defeated a way-out-of-depth wyrm in a vault by Urkis and the snow giant king without dying. I had to make some hard choices about class talents. I completely gave up on the stalk tree and instead put points into Slaughter. The Slaughter skills are really a lifesaver.

He's wielding a 2H artifact sword I have found before but never wielded which did 80% more damage than the weapon I replaced it with.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I'm going to pump Weapon Mastery for more damage and Fear for more control. I find Fear to be a very helpful talent tree for boss fights, or when I get surrounded. I have yet to try a Reckless Charge out of a surrounded situation, but I think it might work.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I beat the Master without dying and without pumping Weapon Mastery or inflicting any fears. I need to find a way to boost my mindpower so my fears land on bosses. It works pretty ok on named rares, but tends to falter on bosses. I would have been higher level, but I had to run away from the contents of a vault on level 8 with a level 49 unique. His saves were too high for my gloom or fear to affect him, and I had no other way to reduce the damage he was putting out.

The Master fucking phase doored away just before I killed him, which wasn't so bad because I had preternatural senses so I knew exactly where he went. The problem was he cast Create Minions just before we both were about to die. I finished him off and leveled to get 100% HP, which gave me more than enough buffer for the hits the ranged minions put on me. If I hadn't had that level I would have died killing him, most likely.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Cursed is now level 32 with no new deaths. I killed the level 49 unique (slowly, but I killed him). I obliterated three or four boss orcs and made it to the Far East. I maxed Weapon Mastery, put a lot of points in Rampage, and am now slowly working on my item curses. I got an achievement for doing 600+ damage with one hit using a nasty artifact longsword, Corpus. Corpus gets more and more powerful as it does critical hits and kills until it spawns a vile horror and resets. The vile horrors have no defenses to speak of but can put out a lot of damage if I ignore them. I alternate between dual-wielding that with a slowing/blinding weapon and wielding the 2H greatsword I mentioned earlier.

Orcs have a nasty habit of bringing pyromancers and cryomancers to a boss fight and putting it in a big open room. Here's where Rampage + Sanctuary really shine. First I pop my shielding rune. I lead with a Reckless Charge to get me within range and get three hits off on the boss. Then I use Frenzy to finish him and follow with Rampage. If Frenzy doesn't finish him, a couple rounds of Rampage totally will. While I'm Rampaging, I maneuver between blows to avoid incoming spells and projectiles. Then I dash off to one side and make short work of the mages there. They'll be phase dooring like mad to try to stay away from me, but I'm too fast for them to react. Last time I did this the battle lines got shuffled really bad and the orcs started blowing each other away with AoE effects trying to nail me. I am very appreciative of the ability to dodge projectiles and spells manually rather than have it be some stat. I put on a second +speed item so I could be certain of wiggling around them, but I should max out Rampage to be certain. I already maxed out Sanctuary as insurance against fucking up and getting hit.

I decided to put my last category point into Rampage rather than another infusion. My regeneration infusion is several sigma outside the mean. Really an outstanding job by the RNG. My shielding rune is pretty decent. I usually use Rampage or Reckless Charge to withdraw and give myself space for a regen. I usually do that when I'm down to around 500 HP. I don't think a good heal would help as much. Obviously, I don't need a movement infusion because of Rampage. I decided against teleport or phase door for the same reason.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Jonathan wrote:I have yet to try a Reckless Charge out of a surrounded situation, but I think it might work.
I have done this a couple times, once in a fight against a OoD demon and once in a fight against a wyrm (probably OoD? I forget). Both had quite the posse of hangers-on. The demon had a friend who exchange positions with me via teleport. The level design where I met the wyrm prevented me from bottlenecking the guys around me, and I couldn't kill them faster enough to keep from getting swarmed. Both times the Reckless Charge got me out, cleaned up a bit of the monsters' HP, and set me up to finish the job.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Died again. A pair of elite orc corruptors plus regular blood mages. I guess I need more blight resistance? No dodging possible here, unlike the flame and cold spells. :(

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Ugh, I died three more times in the same pride with corruptors, blood mages, and necromancers. The necromancers are just the worst. The summons start and they don't stop. Even summoners are not as bad, because they don't summon a bunch of skeleton mages and archers that fucking shoot me.

I did kill one orc pride, clear the armory, and destroy the orc mothers so they'll never breed again. So that's nice. I'm deep into the summoner's pride now, trying to take down all these damn dragons. Still nowhere near as dangerous as the blight pride. I really stacked up on blight resistance, but I guess that wasn't enough.

I wandered into a naga portal without the ability to breathe in water right now. There are some air pockets so it's not certain death but just hella annoying.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

I also earned the "Are you out of your mind?" achievement for opening the vault with a bunch of ancient multi-hued wyrms. Then I ran away. ;)

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Aaaand that Cursed is dead at 39. I never did penetrate much into the blight pride. I scooped up the stuff needed to get out of the Far East. I killed the summoner pride with one death due to a bug. I was making good progress on the warrior pride, actually. With some smarter play, my character probably could have cleared that place. I don't think my guy had much of a shot at the blight pride. I need to stockpile blight, darkness, and maybe arcane resistance from the beginning. That might be enough.

I got into some trouble not wearing my blindness immunity artifact amulet. After I put that on things went much more smoothly.

My next Cursed is going to unlock Predator instead of putting a category point in Rampage. Rampage is great and I will max out the three first talents again, but I think a couple points in Predator will produce more hate and damage. I think I will concentrate Fears on Terrified, as that rocks hard. Paranoid works, sometimes, but it doesn't clear rooms.

I am on the fence on Cursed items. I did get enough points in there to get Misfortune and Shrouds to level 4. Shrouds is a 15% resist all on move and another 15% for three turns on a kill. Misfortune is a 30% chance to get 40% more damage if it would result in a kill. The alternative is a constant damage bonus from Cursed Body and a constant resist all from Toughness (about half the cursed bonuses). I might wind up with too few generic talents, but oh well.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Hmm, turns out I didn't pump my Curses high enough. I assumed they maxed out at 4, but they can be buffed as high as you care to take them. I may need to rethink the plan on Cursed items.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Think I've about played out this beta release and will wait until b43 before trying to take another char east.

I dicked around with coding my own class, a bit. I wanted to make something Angbandy that had multiple "blows" per round, but make each one a separate bump with an effect so it doesn't have to be a solid brick to survive. Got as far as making a new class with a built-in speed buff. Might get the itch to flesh it out, might not.

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Re: Tales of Maj'Eyal

Post by Jonathan »

Alright, b43 came out and I am back in the east. My new Cursed is currently level 36 and in the east. She has died twice: once at 18 (underestimated the burst damage of a bloated horror in Sher'Tul ruins, which I normally skip) and once at 26 (while saving Melinda, which I had never done before). I intend to get the portal back west open before I attempt the prides this time, so I can go west and level up a little before taking out the prides. I've been stockpiling blight resistance the whole game, so hopefully I can do that stupid blight pride once I get some more HP.

This Cursed has both Predator and Fears, though I haven't used Fears yet. Predator's damage bonus is good, but the hate per kill bonus is crazy. It is a ridiculous amount of hate. It means I can afford to spend several talents on killing just one or two guys, which makes life so much less risky.

She has just the best greatmaul artifact, which has a 15% chance of Sunder Armor (which is itself a big hit) on hit, and a lot of damage all of which is physical (hence benefits from Rampage bonuses). When I crit and get a Sunder Armor while Rampaging, I get like 1300 damage from a single bump. Most of the rest of her loadout is pretty standard. I do have a nifty damage/movement bonus from a new class quest introduced in b43.

Her spell saves are low. She has decent resists, but nothing outstanding. At level 40, I will probably take the introduced-in-b43 prodigy talent which gives me immunity to all other physical effects for 5 turns after suffering from one effect. There's a similar prodigy talent for mental effects (though it is immunity to the first rather than immunity to subsequent) and maybe a nifty one for a damage bonus to humanoids (orcs, spellcasters). There's not a good one to deal with the fact that there's all these stupid blood mages trying to murder my ass.

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