ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I started 2-3 melee chars and this is my first non-meele run on adventure. Just killed the master and have 1 life and and 1 drinkable life left.
Would appreciate any general as well as character specific tips! (before it is too late )
I'm mostly not sure what im looking for in defenses? Shields for sure, but what else?
Also im not sure in what direction I should be going for stats (except dumping all into magic...)

http://te4.org/characters/160921/tome/cdf242e2-2bff-40c4-94d7-0f53e9229831

Thx!

too late, i'm dead :'( all I had to do was not overlooking that my shield was down... but yeah, i was way too fragile i think, only a matter of time.

4/5 in either phase door or teleport would've been a nice escape option to have. With the 1.30 category multiplier, that's enough for you to be able to choose your destination.

First of all, the Blood of Life does not work when you have an item equipped that makes you undead. If you had not been wearing that girdle, the blood of life would have brought you back.

Secondly, I notice you had a healing mod of only 80%. Healing mod is another important defensive stat. You must have had some penalty, and no bonus. Having a higher healing mod will (among other things) improve the strength of the shield you get from Arcane Reconstruction. As well as improving any healing skill. One easy improvement would have been to replace the Elemental Fury ring with a Ring of Growth.

Your skill investment could be improved as well. As noted above, having 4 points in phase door greatly improves that skill, allowing you to target it. Indomitable, on the other hand, is not worth 5 points. Just one point is fine, additional points are not so hot because of diminishing returns.

Always buy the generic combat tree in Last Hope. Without it, you can't get Thick Skin and Thick Skin is great, since it simply reduces all damage ever.

Regarding stats, investing in Magic and Willpower is of course good, but it does not hurt to put some into Constitution as well. It will increase your hitpoints, making you more rubust. Items with big HP modifiers help too.

I notice you are above level 30 and did not yet buy a prodigy. Prodigies are awesome. Always buy them as soon as you can. For archmages, especially on this difficulty setting, I highly recommend to help the Grand Corruptor to destroy Zigur and get rewarded with Corrupted Shell at level 30. It increases your HP by a huge amound and gives you a much better armor hardiness too.

As for not noticing your shield is down.. when you have 2 shield runes and time shield, you might consider to put them on auto-activate.

I would forgo investing in both Con and Corrupted Shell, for the record. It is not uncommon to find egos for +80-150 health on t2 green items, which is equivalent to ~20-40 points worth of Con. Get a good +life leather armor, a +life ring, and a +life belt, walk around with double your base HP.
As for the prodigies, I'd really like to be original but there's nothing like Cauterize for Alchemists: protects your frailty, and super easy to qualify for.

On normal difficulty? Because that's what he was playing (normal/adventure), and I rarely find anything better than +60 health on an item on normal.

Of course Cauterize is great too, the point is mainly to get prodigies as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for your response guys! It was really helpful!
Figured some things out myself (e.g. prodigies), but had no idea about others (especially blood of life and healing mod)!
Doing Cornac Cursed for now, less to think about