ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Alf the Dwarf Fighter began his adventure this morning with the new beta release 19. He went to Zigur for the antimagic quest but an Anorithil caused him to fail by using her hymn while being escorted. I come down on the "it's a bug not a feature" side on that one.

Alf found some pretty good gear in Trollmire, including the icy steel shield which he's still wearing. The new "frozen monster" tile is a nice bonus. Alf actually went toe-to-toe with Bill the Troll who was literally two steps from the entry to Trollmire(5). Shield Pummels kept Bill stunned while Alf whacked away with a steel waraxe.

The first real challenge came when Alf got to the Minotaur of the Maze, who had a regen infusion. After teleporting away, Alf decided to recall to the surface and go questing for better weapons and a couple more levels. The puzzle ruins yielded a stralite waraxe, and the new halfling ruins produced a couple of levels (and incidentally unlocked Yeeks). That enabled Alf to train up Assault to bring the pain to the Minotaur.

Next on the agenda was Urkis, who almost did Alf in along with a pack of P's but fell to a Rush after a judicious teleport and some healing. Fortunately Urkis wasn't equipped with any healing infusions. That unlocked Storm mages.

Sandhole tomorrow, and then we'll see. Alf's gear right now should be ideal for Daikara.

(update,1/26/2011)
Sandhole was pretty much routine. Alf found a voratun mace there, and some other goodies, plus of course the sandworm queen's heart.

Dai'kara, on the other hand, was quite...interesting. Alf found a Temporal Rift there, and went through. What he found on the other side cost him one life, but he fought his way through and unlocked Chronomancy. Assault has become Alf's go-to skill for fighting dangerous enemies. Lots of resting to restore stamina though. Time to invest some skill points in Quick Recovery.

Back in Dai'kara again, the fight with Rantha was prolonged due to the presence of a pack of miscellaneous P's and other critters. Rantha also had a regen infusion, but it did not avail against Assault and Shield Pummel. After Rantha fell, Harkor'Zun made an appearance and contributed some more goodies.

Alf attempted the Dark Crypt when it popped on the way to Dreadfell but decided to bail out without completing it. Combinations of Rush and Assault were mostly effective against the blood mages and corrupters but without the right sort of Wild infusion the diseases were making it very difficult to survive without long timeouts for healing.

And then Dreadfell was dreadful. Is it me or has the population of bad guys there increased since b18?

Alf was completely mobbed by wights and dreads and other meanies. Confused and hexed and not having much luck, only the two healing infusions kept him from losing all his lives, and he finally bailed out by going up the stairs to Dreadfell(8) and recalling from there.

For people that plyaed WoW: Onyxia deep breaths more!! :>

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[tome] joylove: You can't just release an expansion like one would release a Kraken XD
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[tome] phantomfrettchen: your ability not to tease anyone is simply stunning

So I looked at your skills, where do you see investing your points in the future?

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Regards

Jon.

More dots!! More dots!! You know she deep breaths less if she has more dots? (Or so they say).

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Jack's Cheese and Bread Snack

I don't have a real clear idea on that. From what I've read, Warcries might be the key to suppress some of the casters who are giving me all the grief, but I need a few more levels to open up that category, and I haven't played with them yet, so I don't know how they work, tactically. It seems like I'll at least have to farm the upper levels of Dreadfell or Dai'kara or maybe the Elven Ruins for some levels and a nice Wild infusion that cures disease, hex, magical etc.

Alf scoured the top two levels of the Elven Ruins, leveled up to L26, 3 stat pts to WIL and put a class point in Burrow to prepare for Sand Breath. Didn't go deeper.

Did go to Derth to sell off some artifacts and gems that I wouldn't likely be wanting to use. Got the "Hoarder" achievement for going over $1000. Left a bunch of other unsellable stuff on the floor.

Kept the stat gems and the emeralds future imbuing. I'll try another pass at the Elven Ruins later.

Alf made another trip to the Elven Ruins, and this time he went down to level 3. After much ginger exploration of the halls, Alf came face to face with the Ancient Mummy Lord, who had not yet activated his invisibility spell. When he did, it didn't help much at all, since Alf met him with Assaults and shield bashes with a few judicious activations of healing infusions. Before he died, the Ancient Mummy inflicted a nasty rotting disease on Alf, but Alf used the Healing infusions to ride it out.

L27, 3 stat points to WIL, saving the skill points to apply at L30.

Alf has ventured into the Dreadfell again, and this time he's scouring each of the levels on the way down. He opened a big vault on Dreadfell(5) which yielded up a whole horde of evil nasties but since the walls were unwalkable they had to come at Alf through the halls and it wasn't so bad.
He's up to level 28 now. I think I'll put a point into Sand Breath to see how it works in practice.

What a difference a couple of levels make and six points of WIL make. Alf completed his venture down through Dreadfell with great success. He found a very nice poisonous voratun mace on Dreadfell(8) and when he took the down stairs, there was The Master waiting in an open room. Alf opened with a Rush, the Master countered with a few summons. Confusion spells were much less troublesome this time, and Alf fought through them. At no time was Alf in serious danger. The 479 point "brawler's" healing infusion with the 7 turn cooldown contributed greatly to that.

Alf is now in possession of the Staff of Absorption (if only for a little while) and some other nice treasures, including the Titanic shield.

Alf lost the staff, of course, when he was ambushed coming out of Dreadfell. Is it even possible to beat the orcs in that encounter?

But anyway, Alf then whooshed through the Mines of Rek'nor like a force of nature, strewing death and destruction in his wake with hardly anything that could even threaten him until he got to Golbug in the tunnel to the Portal. That was a good fight, with a couple of Golbug's wyrmic followers doing Alf some hurt, but Golbug fell, giving Alf a boost to level 32. Alf opened up warcries and put his saved class talent points into Shattering Shout and Second Wind, plus another point in Sand Breath.

Alf activated the portal and then did in Krogar with a Rush and an Assault and saved the pretty lady, and then fought his way through the cave. A multi-hued drake gave Alf a considerable amount of trouble as it kept spawning hatchlings which were actually dangerous en masse. Alf retreated through the hallways until he found a spot where he could mow down multicolored hatchlings without the drake being in line of sight to summon more, and then the big multihued D fell to an Assault in its turn. Now that I think of it, Alf could probably have used his Burrow skill to make an anti-summoning corridor for himself.

It's that sort of tactical omission that does in my best characters. I must keep reminding myself to stop and examine all the available responses to tactical situations, preferably before I get in trouble.

Following that bit of business, Alf left the cave and is now in the Gates of Morning, hangin' with the Sun Paladins.

I can hardly wait to see how Alf does against orc ambushers...

It is possible to beat the orc ambush, but very difficult. I've managed it with a Cursed before, and people have reported success with other classes. I'm not sure how one would go about it with a Fighter. I'd probably not even bother to give it a serious try.

I managed it as a fighter back in the days of potions and scrolls. I killed everything using Shattering Shout, teleporting away when the boss got close. I had a high enough defense that the arrows almost never hit me. Probably with two or three controlled phase door runes, great equipment, and a clever build somebody could accomplish it now.

Alf lost another life to an orc ambush, but he learned some better tactics for fighting them with the tools that he has available. The first priority is to move into cover among the trees. Second is to isolate the casters and take them out quickly with Rush and Assault as long as he can do so without getting surrounded outside of his chosen cover location(s). Teleport is to be used *quickly* when a bad cover situation is developing, not to wait until Alf is low on hitpoints. The big healing infusions work great, but a 'zerker who is in position can do enough damage to overwhelm even their DPS absorption.

He's now moving gradually through the levels of the Grushnak pride den, gingerly picking his way through the colorful landscape and ignoring the massive vaults he's found on every level. Mages, corrupters and necromancers are high priority targets, while finding enough cover to keep from being surrounded by fighters and berzerkers. Sand Breath does a fine job of suppressing casters when they appear in range outside of Alf's position, and they quickly fall to Assault or Shield Pummel. Alf has even remembered to use Swallow when the opportunity presents in order to restore the equilibrium lost to Sand Breath and Burrow.

Alf made his way to the lowest level of Grushnak Pride and encountered the Big Orc himself. Alf, with his healing infusions working full time, could take everything Grushnak could hit him with, but unfortunately, the Big Orc could say the same with his own regen infusion. Alf banged away at the purple o for a while, but he mostly resisted Alf's warcries and Sand Breath, and even then Alf couldn't muster a big enough hit to put him down with his regeneration. Alf gave up in frustration and hiked back up through the levels to the surface where he took out his frustration on a couple of unlucky orc patrols.

More questing is in order to max out attack skills and seek a bigger whacker, though I don't know if there are any bigger one-handed whackers out there.