ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Greets.

Unrelated to post's topic, have to say recently I have been trying for first time melee based characters and the only ones I found entertaining were the Time Warden(hybrid but mostly focused in melee without neglecting ranged) and Shadowblade.

Anyway, the Ambuscade skill tree two last skills catched my attention: the ambuscade skill seems very powerful to weaken enemies and the shadow veil skill very neat to finish the job. But the last one if not properly used and built for it will end up being a mere talent point sink or even worse a suicide button.

How would you spread talent points so the gameplay will revolves mainly in using effectively shadow veil and ambuscade? Stealth or non-Stealth? Essence of speed? Which race would you choose?

regards;

I really like to hear an answer.

IMHO The tree is underestimated.
The Shadow Ambush skill alone is great:
first it didn't check for a save, it's a guaranteed Silence.
Second, a frequent scenario is when you rush toward a simple innocent foe and end up pinned, stun in the middle of 5 heavy shooter. So switching Rush/Shadowstep for "Shadow Ambush" as your first skill is a life saver: You get the puny foe next to you, and you'll come to the 5 heavy shooter more carefully later.

Then we come to Shadow Veil. It's a wonder to behold. You clean room in a blink, until, for some unknown reason you die. Even with a preemptive Reflection Rune, or a nice Heroism.

I don't know why, on paper your very resilient with no status effect (no disease, no stun, no nothing) and a good bonus to resist all.

So far I've tried
to gear with bonus after teleport (didnt work cause it's a blink not a teleport )
to gear with item with status effect on_hit (gloom, confusion, turn bonus etc)
to gear with some heal on_hit (that Slaver ring, or the Scourge tree on an adventurer)

There is always a room to get you.

Not fan of Ambuscade : Your shadow seems to have a fixed speed (1 action per turn). that's a shame on a class with easy access to +50 Global speed bonus.

Good question. My own experiments and guides I've read say Shadow Veil is too dangerous to invest points in, even on normal difficulty. I'd also like someone who "gets it" to explain it to the rest of us.