I read about it being nerfed from it's initial over powered rating. Oh well - I say it is still way overpowered.
After a couple of initial early deaths I got Ozzy (a popular name in the vault ...) to a flying start. No real difficulties anytime. Some stupid deaths as always - like when I tried the Vor armory at clvl 2? something... Or getting too cocky at a stair boss in peak.
I followed the excellent guide there, http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=37898 - thanks.
A thought: summoning, spawning etc. friendlies are more powerful than first expected. Even if your friends are "stupid" and don't do much damage they do attract attention. This is very helpful. Instead of all enemies focusing on you some will hit your friends first. They can also function as a physical barrier protecting from melee attacks. This makes the many Oozemancer summons super extra helpful. So easy to keep enemies at bay.
From start:
- Slime Spit on auto-when-visible. It is SICK that it bounces. Very high early damage.
Tactics from midgame;
- Slime Spit auto cast, 583 dmg, bouncing up to 7 times.
- Acidbeam to lower nature res, 400 dmg.
- Acid splash, 300 dmg radius 3, triggers buddies to spit too.
- Poisonous spores - 1600 dmg in radius 2 under 10 turns... a room cleaner.
- Oozebeam - 530 dmg.
Repeat. If needed back off and let buddies and area effect do the work.
Nice sustains going:
Mitosis - get a buddy when hit... which will take my damage... like a living shield. Sick...
Unstoppable nature - my buddies will spit-attack when I do...
Wild growth - at endgame +7 turns to regeneration = endless generation... Sick...
Done. No need to shield up. No need to watch out for anything special besides if health drops below 75% which was very rare.
I never had it so easy in the east. Easily taking down ambushes, orc pride entrance-rooms and bosses. Cleared the slime tunnel bosses with little effort. Decided to go to the peak before clvl 47. Peak lvl 9 had a big vault filled with lvl 80+ monsters. No sweat - spam attack spells, back off two or three times. Done.
Final fight was a laugh. Before long the first of the two wizards fell - inching me to clvl 50. Couple of turns later - winner. Portals never started to spawn monsters.
(I know East and endgame can be hard)
I even have 1 prodigy and several other points unspent. Willpower & Con maxed early. Seldom below 50% health, when needed regeneration & Movement was enough.
OK I got two excellent mindstars (saved in vault from previous runs
). 89 mindpower 57% crit. End game attacks at 1500-2000 all the time. 170% healing mod combined with Wild-gift / Fungus = unlimited health.(never found merchant, hence lots of gold)
Again, thanks for a super game, a good community. Damn though - keeps stealing hours from my life...
See what class I try next. Have some nice heavy gear in my vault.