ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hello,

First off I just wanted to say I think this game is incredible, and I have enjoyed pretty much all of it. I am generally a "completionist" when it comes to games I play. However... I have recently had to change that, as I am now a parent. I have found that gaming time has become a lot more of a rare commodity, and getting those perfect / platinum badges mean a lot less when you have to juggle so many other things. This is actually something I struggle with in my gaming, allowing myself to walk away from semi or half completed games after beating them for the initial story or medium difficulties.

Anyhow... I started playing ToME on nightmare roguelike. Because... You know. Challenge is good. It took me 4 or 5 characters dying in the starting zones, but then after that I was able to break through and make some great progress. ALL the way to the final fight. This is where my poor dwarf bulwark made his final stand. I got absolutely wrecked, after minimally struggling with the majority of the game. I always seemed to be ahead. Maybe I lucked into some combo with my melee weapon and necklace that helped me AoE... But NOTHING could have prepared me for that final fight. It was a disaster and an absolute disappointment. For me AND my poor dwarf bulwark. He stood up to so many baddies and then I feel like I let him down. Anyhow here he is... RIP.

https://te4.org/characters/280389/tome/ ... 772b7e39a8

I went through a bit of a meltdown at this point. I was like.... I cant handle another loss like this. My limited gaming time just does not allow it. So I started on nightmare exploration mode. After a few hours, I noticed that the achievements were not for nightmare specifically but for exploration mode itself. This... made me change my mind on exploration.

So I figured what the heck, lets just go for Normal Adventure. Made a Halfling Archer and started shredding enemies no problem.

Well... I just returned from the east. And now all of a sudden I can't beat any of the guardians, and got slammed by one of them. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

Here is this character.
https://te4.org/characters/280389/tome/ ... 675db387f5



Is there a way to save them? I don't really know what gear I should be aiming for, or even where to find it aside from random drops. Towns never have anything as far as I can see. I feel like I must be playing this game wrong somehow. Unless it really just does have some awful RNG that gives you some super OP monsters that will eat your face. Just wanted to see what the community thinks.

The good thing about Adventure mode is that you get a few tries to learn from your mistakes, or learn new battles.

For the end boss fight, did you close the portals? Or was it just the Sorcerers that were the issue?
Equipment: Either the vault page is wrong, or you only have a T2 ring equipped and the other slot was empty. Seems sub-optimal. You were carrying some decent rings and the Eldritch Pearl might have been better in the Lite slot. You also have not used the Wyrm Bile.
Inscriptions: They seem good, except that you have the Rune of Dissipation in your inventory. Why would you not use that?
Talents: Combat Veteran can be a bit dubious.

Backup Guardians can be quite hard, but you can do them later if you need to.
Not really sure about Archer talents.

_________________
My feedback meter decays into coding. Give me feedback and I make mods.

Generally, you are probably undervaluing mobility. Most characters want at least one movement infusion or phase door rune. For the Archer, you want Trained Reactions. It's your defense against getting nuked by spellcasters. The Reflexes tree is worth more investment, in particular Sentinel is very good, and Sniper is a powerful category, though it's very possible to win without it. For the final fight, completing the Eye of the Storm quest and using either the Rune of Dissipation or becoming antimagic adept gives you a way to strip some of the sustains from the sorcerers, which is a very powerful tool against them.

There are a number of builds/guides on the forums, and you might find checking some of them out useful. Some are outdated, not everyone agrees, and you don't need to follow them, but most of them discuss the reasoning behind their choices, and it's a useful way to see how people think about things, what they have been able to make work, and how. You can also go on the discord channel if you want to chat about it. People are always discussing strategy and builds there.

Hmm.

Thank you both for the advice.

For my poor dwarf... I didn't realize I had such bad rings on him. The second ring WAS a ring of the dead... and he died. Honestly... I don't think that would help in that fight, since when he died I had absolutely no way to recover on respawn.

I will try some of the archer talents. I think the big thing though is the dissipation. I noticed that if I couldn't kill a monster, it was generally because it had some kind of buff I couldn't break through. I assume why this rune exists.

I'll also try the reflexes and see how it goes.

So...

I think I identified part of my problem. I had no idea how "Sustains" worked and I had been avoiding them pretty actively. I thought they used their energy costs EACH TURN... I didn't realize they just took it off the top.

I wish I knew that way back when for my poor bulwark...

And my Archer, I think that he's doomed due to putting his skills in wrong.

However...

I started an archmage, and I am having WAY more fun with him! He's died once, to a one shot from a meteor from the cultists demon. I also understand how the sustains work so he's just a walking killing machine, and his shields go up to almost 3k when I pop them all.
https://te4.org/characters/280389/tome/ ... 23c0723307

I also see how the charms work, and I can use them from my inventory in order to get some extra abilities. The one that adds heal block helps quite a bit on monsters that have strong sustain, and once I get my next category I am going to add the rune of dissipation.

Thanks guys for the help! I will try a nightmare roguelike run again eventually to redeem my bulwark later. Maybe even go insane once I beat nightmare, as I heard it is almost easier because of all the access to gear.

That was a good read as the real life issues described above ft me very well. Years went past and I'm now past that rut myself and can return to the game again. I was away for quite a long time.

There's LOADS of stuff and game intricacies you will have to learn through trial and error. Don't even remember how long it took for me to get my first win. Be patient, test out stuff, learn new things and eventually the game's teaching will start to stick.

As for the backup guardians they are very tough. Usually by that point you will have a solid view of what your character's strengths are and if you know the backup guardians you should have some indication on the order of completion for them. Some are weak against certain class and so on so you can take them on in different order depending on your character at the time.

Just like in many things in life, practice, practice and more practice.

_________________
Stronk is a potent combatant with a terrifying appearance.