1.5 Beginner's Wyrmic Guide

[Fighterman481]

Alright, first things first: Why make a guide when there's already one up?

Well, the short answer is that, in my opinion, that guide isn't very good. No, Wyrmics are not a mindstar class, and no, antimagic is not the way to go. Caveat: I do not currently have tinkers unlocked, so I can't weigh in on that, but I have heard tinkers is quite good. Anyway, as for why not antimagic, the real issue is that it doesn't let you equip arcane empowered items, and you can find some pretty decent ones. This is going to massively limit your equipment selection - it feels like a lot of orange rarity items (or randarts) are arcane empowered, and antimagic currently just isn't worth it. I haven't extensively played with antimagic, but I'll give it a go sometime soon to really weigh in on this. Wyrmic doesn't have any abilities that conflict with it (unless you're using Undead Drake, which you really shouldn't, or you get one from an escort), so in theory it could work, but it just seems like too big a limiting factor to not be able to use arcane equipment.

To prove I'm not just a noob, here's my insane win: https://te4.org/characters/230334/tome/ ... c39b834ccd

As for the build itself, here's a TL;DR for the important things (advice on what to pick as you're leveling, as well as luxuries, in the detailed breakdown):

Class Points:
Two-Handed Assault: 1/1/3/0
Sand Drake: 5/1/1/0
Fire Drake: 5/0/0/0
Cold Drake: 5/1/1/0
Storm Drake: 5/0/0/0
Venom Drake: 1/1/5/0
Higher Draconic: 5/1/5/5

General Points:
Combat Training if you're not going Naloren: 0/3/0/5/5/0
Combat Training if you're going Naloren: 0/3/0/5/1/0/10
Call of the Wild: 1/1/0/0
Harmony: 1/1/5/1
Fungus: 5/1/5/5
Survival: 1/5/0/0

Prodigies:
Level 30: I Can Carry The World
Level 42: Legacy of the Naloren (preferred, although I did my normal and nightmare runs with Flexible Combat and that was fun)

Stats:
Strength/Willpower/Constitution maxed (more on this in the detailed breakdown)

Detailed breakdown:

GENERAL:

You'll want to use two-handed weapons. The best abilities work off of weapon damage, and two-handed weapons have great weapon damage. You can get some really great results with them.
As for stats, at first you'll want enough strength to get Heavy Armour Training to 3/5, then get enough willpower to get unlock your talents. Your main priority should be strength - as long as you don't have any ability unlocks you need, shove as many points as you can into this. Soon you'll hit the cap (for your level anyway), and once you do put your extra points into willpower. Once both are maxed, pump constitution. It'll give you a bit more survivability, and healing mod is always nice.
Make sure you save an item that lets you breathe in water. You'll need one if you're going for Naloren.
Speaking of Naloren, you'll need up to 70 dex to max out Exotic Weapons training. Stock up on dex increasing items, and if you have a heroism infusion make sure you use that before opening the screen. If you get a decent one off of strength you can get like a +22, which should help getting to that 70 with minimal investment.
You'll note that I have no investment into breaths beyond what is necessary. I'll explain more on that in the Sand Drake breath, and the same logic basically applies for the rest of them. Breaths are nearly identical (main difference is the status they inflict), so don't expect a write-up beyond the one in Sand Drake.

GENERAL STRATEGY:

Alright, you've generated your character, and are ready to begin any hero's first task: shopping. Wait, were you expecting something else? Look at you! You're not even wearing pants (not that you'll be buying any right now but whatever)! If you're playing on normal, you can skip this, as you won't be starting with money, but otherwise, it's time to go on a little trip. You'll want to check Zigur and Last Hope - both of these can get you a tier 3 weapon. This will greatly increase your damage in the early game, so pick up whichever one is the best. If you're playing on Nightmare, you might not have enough gold to buy it. In that case, just go through Trollmire until you do.
After you've found your weapon, look for infusions. Keep an eye out for movement infusions, heroism infusions, and good regen/health infusions. Ideally, you'll get ones that scale with strength (this will be by far your highest stat), but ones that scale with willpower are decent too. Movement infusions are less important than on other classes, as Lightning Speed exists, but they're good to help with stun resistance.
Get used to how the Wing Buffet and Ice Claw area of effects work - you'll want to maximize the amount of enemies you hit with them, so knowing how you manipulate the area of effects for maximum damage is important.
For a general idea of how most fights will go, you'll want to open with your regeneration infusion, then use Wing Buffet and Ice Claw. That should take care of any weaker enemies. If you're fighting just normal enemies and some are still left, Prismatic Slash should take out another good chunk of them. Swallow any enemy that's giving you a hard time.
If you're fighting a rare or higher enemy, you'll likely want to open with Dissolve, and then depending on their HP use Ice Claw. You'll want to be saving Swallow until they're ~30% HP, so you can cut off the fight early. If the enemy you're fighting has ranged attacks, be careful with Wing Thrash - you don't want to knock them away and then have to approach again.
If you have both Lightning Speed and a movement infusion, your movement infusion can be used to approach any annoying archers or mages, granting you stun resistance and closing the gap.
If things get hairy, be prepared to Lightning Speed out of there. If you're surrounded or pinned, Quake can be used to get you a little breathing room. If you're really lucky it'll surround you completely by walls, allowing you to rest up to full hp (provided you're not fighting a Xorn or something).
Don't forget to pop Waters of Life and One With Nature as needed.

EQUIPMENT:
You'll be wanting to keep an eye out for good 2h weapons. Naloren is, of course, your weapon of choice if you pick the Naloren prod, but other good options include The Gaping Maw (Reduces Ice Claw and Swallow cooldowns, increases size category, good damage), the Murderblade (+25% defense against living? Yes please), and any good randart you get.
You will, of course, be using massive armor. You're a melee class, and you don't have any abilities that require you to not be wearing heavy armor, so this is the best choice.
Spellhunt Remnants are amazing. You'll for sure want to be keeping those around. Only real problem you might run into is if you get magic talents from an escort, but you should be betraying most of those anyway so it shouldn't be a big deal

CATEGORY POINTS:

If you're Cornac, Inscription -> Higher Draconic -> Inscription -> Survival -> Combat Techniques
Otherwise, Higher Draconic -> Inscription -> Inscription -> Survival (Or probably Inscription if you're playing Ogre).

INFUSIONS:

I personally prefer to go Physical Wild/Regeneration/Healing/Movement/Heroism myself, although there are other options.
If you feel like a Movement infusion is unnecessary because of Lightning Speed, You could try doing two physical wilds or two healing infusions instead. I personally would keep the movement infusion, but it's really up to you. If you do decide to get rid of it, I would lean towards another wild inscription - Wyrmic doesn't have status removal so you need all you can get.
If you're playing Ogre and choose to get the extra inscription slot, I would pick up another wild or healing, depending on what you need at the time. If you get a good one, a second heroism could work as well. Just pick what you need at the time.

PRODIGIES:

Level 30 is always going to be I Can Carry The World. That strength bonus is just too good to pass up (it'll raise your damage a ton), and the size category is actually somewhat useful for you with Swallow.
Level 42 should probably be Naloren, but I had a fun time with Flexible Combat on my Nightmare and Normal runs. If you get Sawrd or something, you won't be wanting Naloren anyway. The other option I've heard good things about is Windtouched Speed. I haven't used it myself but 20% global speed and 10% cooldown reduction looks great.

ESCORTS:

For the most part, you're going to betray your arcane escorts. The only situation I'd consider not betraying them is if you get a Sun Paladin towards the end of your escorts, as they have a couple of decent abilities.

Alchemist: No real good abilities, unfortunately. If you betray, grab the willpower, if you can't...stone touch, maybe?
Anorithil: Conversion if you betray, otherwise Bathe In Light is pretty good
Loremaster: Disarm
Seer: Nature's Touch. If you don't have it yet, consider it a generic saved. If you do, it's a slight buff. Otherwise, Premonition.
Sun Paladin: If you have to betray, Disengage. If not, Chant of Fortitude.
Temporal Explorer: Dreamwalk if you betray, if not...Foresight?
Thief: Device Mastery every time.
Tinker: Ask them where they learnt their craft. You want to unlock tinkers, right?
Warrior: A tough call. Vitality raises your healing from Sudden Growth (More on that later), but Unflinching Resolve is just so good. Personal preference.

TWO HANDED ASSAULT:

Stunning Blow:
It's a nice ability, and having an extra ability that scales with weapon damage is good for this build. Put a point in this later in the game, after you've 5/5'd other more important stuff, and feel like you can go straight to Death Dance with your next points.

Fearless Cleave:
You're not really gonna be using this for the attack. You have better area of effect options anyway. Its real use is that you can use it to move while pinned, or otherwise unable to move. You move one space, and it has a cooldown of 0. Put a point in this right after Stunning Blow.

Death Dance:
It hits all adjacent targets, which is great. Another weapon damage scaling talent is good, but not that important in the grand scheme of things. More here for when you're running out of good stuff to put points into. The bleed can be nice, so you might as well 3/5 if you don't have other things to do. 1/5 right after Fearless Cleave, 3/5 whenever you feel like it.

Execution:
Look, the auto-crit is nice, but crit chance isn't hard to get and the base damage on this is pretty bad. At 1/5 it'll never outdamage 5/5 Swallow, at 4/5 it's roughly even with Swallow at 30% life remaining, but at that point you might as well Swallow, and 5/5 barely is only like 17 or 18% more than Swallow at 30% life remaining. Just not a good return on investment.

SHIELD OFFENSE AND COMBAT VETERAN:

Just gonna lump these two together. Shield offense is just about useless because you're using 2h weapons, and the only talent you'd even consider from Combat Veteran is Quick Recovery, but you've got much better things to put points into. You can ignore these pretty safely.

SAND DRAKE ASPECT:

Points in this tree give you 0.5% physical resistance.

Swallow:
Well, the nice thing about Wyrmic is that you get most of your best talents really early. Swallow is...amazing. Decent single-target damage, but the effect is where it shines. If you bring your opponent down past a certain percentage of life (or kill it, hp threshold is 28% at 5/5), you have a chance to swallow it, instantly killing it and regaining some hp. Oh, and increases your physical and mental crit chance for every point you put in it (up to 12% at 5/5) It works on bosses, and the only caveat is that it's only a chance to do it (albeit a high one, although I swear the chance decreases or they can save or something later on in the game), and that the chance depends on your talent level and your relative size to the target. 1/5 instantly, 5/5 after 4/5 Wing Thrash and Ice Claw.

Quake:
An...interesting talent. Deals damage in a radius, and scrambles the terrain. This is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it can really save your bacon if you're in a tight spot - can isolate you from everything else by surrounding you with walls, create chokepoints, and move you if you're pinned or surrounded. On the other hand, the scrambling is random, doesn't work in some locations (notably the maze, vaults, and a couple of other places), it can hit allies (really only a big deal for escorts), and its behavior can be odd (if you move an escort portal with it, the escorts path to the old location, not the new one). Don't think it's always gonna save you, but if you're out of options it can be a lifesaver. 1/5 when you're getting Burrow, 5/5 luxury.

Burrow:
A pretty decent talent. Basically lets you dig most walls in one turn, and lets you pierce some armor. At 5/5 it becomes instant, which makes it useful to take down high armor targets or make new escape routes with Lightning Speed or a Movement Infusion (using it will cancel them, so be sure to use this first). 1/5 before Sandworm Lair (Can be really helpful if you get trapped in a collapsing tunnel), 5/5 luxury.

Sand Breath:
Look, breaths, I want to like you, really, I do. Unfortunately, you're just not that good. Now, it scales with strength, which is at least better than mindpower, but it's probably gonna do less damage than wing thrash or ice claw. The status effects might be nice, but you'd really only be interested in the blind from this breath, or maybe Venomous Breath, but it's still pretty meh.

FIRE DRAKE ASPECT:

Each point in this tree gives 1% fire resistance.

Wing Thrash:
Like Swallow, the best talent in this tree is first. Huge area of effect damage. This, along with Ice Claw, is gonna be your go-to for most situations. Points in this also increase your physical power and accuracy. Nice! 4/5 this or Ice Claw first, then 4/5 the other one. 5/5 after 5/5 Swallow and Dissolve.

Bellowing Roar:
Haven't used this much, but it has the potential to be good. Like Death Dance, it hits all targets around you, and confusion is nice. I didn't invest into it in my other runs, but I'll be giving it a go soon.

Devouring Flame:
Not good. Damage scales with mindpower (so, doesn't scale well at all), and the life drain is minimal. Don't bother.

COLD DRAKE ASPECT:

Points in this tree increase your cold resistance by 1%

Ice Claw:
Like Wing Thrash, a workhorse. Deals much more damage, and can freeze, but has a smaller range. Also increases your saves by 4 for each level. 4/5 this or Wing Thrash first, then 4/5 the other one. 5/5 after 5/5 Swallow and Dissolve.

Icy Skin:
Extra armor and HP is good. Retaliation damage is meh. 1/5 when you have a point to spare, 5/5 luxury.

Ice Wall:
It's good. Can be used to split enemy forces, give you some breathing room while you escape, etc. The damage and freeze chance is nice but not the main draw. 1/5 right after Icy Skin, 5/5 luxury (probably before other luxuries, though).

STORM DRAKE ASPECT:

Points in this tree increase your lightning resistance by 1%

Lightning Speed:
IMO the only good talent in this tree. Fortunately, it's also absolutely amazing. It's a movement infusion that doesn't grant stun resistance, but instead lasts multiple turns, and gives 30% physical resistance and 100% lightning resistance while it's active. Oh, and it also increases your movement speed passively (up to 50%). While 1/5 is good enough, by 5/5 this is just absurd. At that point it's not difficult to go from one end of the map to the other while this is active. Trivializes escaping patrols.

Static Field:
Another talent I want to like, but don't. Scales with mindpower, and the effect can be saved against. Your other talents will likely do far more damage. Pass.

Tornado:
Look, it has potential and stun is nice but damage scales with mindpower, and you'll probably have better things to do with your time. It's probably not worth the investment.

VENOM DRAKE ASPECT:

Points in this tree increase your acid resistance by 1%.

Acidic Spray:
Meh. A solid meh out of 10. Damage scales with mindpower, and the mindpower buff is...meh. Disarm could be nice. Could be used if you're having trouble with accuracy early. 1/5 with starting talent points, and leave it there.

Corrosive Mist:
Also meh. Guaranteed damage is nice, and corrosion could be helpful, but damage scales with mindpower so it's not that great later. 1/5 on the way to getting Dissolve.

Dissolve:
An excellent talent. It's your go-to single target damage dealer, but needs investing to be good. At 5/5 two of the strikes have a 25% chance to blind, and because it has four separate strikes, effects that apply on a melee hit apply every hit (like damage: melee, "effect on melee hit", etc). 1/5 early, 5/5 after you 5/5 Swallow.

UNDEAD DRAKE:

It's pretty bad. It's a spell category, and the only really decent talent is Vampiric Surge. Don't bother.

COMBAT TECHNIQUES:

Gonna be pretty short - TL;DR: Rush is nice, Perfect Strike is good if you're struggling against invisible enemies or with accuracy, and Blinding Speed is good. If you have an extra category point, put it into this, and get some of the abilities, but it's nothing too great.

HIGHER DRACONIC ABILITIES:

Prismatic Slash:
An excellent ability. Hits in one of a few damage types, and then has a burst of that damage in a radius. Most importantly, it increases your physical and mental attack speeds. 1/5 with category unlock, put extra points in this if you're not putting them in other things.

Wyrmic Guile:
Cunning and breath cooldown decrease is meh, but you're really here for the stun/blindness resistance. 1/5 once you get it, 5/5 after Chromatic Fury and Prismatic Slash.

Chromatic Fury:
It's great. Resistance is nice, but more importantly, you deal more damage with pretty much all your damage types, and penetrate resistances. Excellent ability, 5/5 asap.

COMBAT TRAINING:

Not gonna bother with a detailed write-up for these abilities, so here's the TL;DR for this category:
Thick Skin is nice, 5/5 if you can.
3/5 Heavy Armor training is your #1 priority early, so make sure to get that.
Light Armor Training is useless to you.
Combat Accuracy is good, put extra points in as needed.
Weapons mastery is good, 5/5 if you're not going Naloren.
Dagger mastery is useless to you.
If you go Naloren, make sure to 10/10 Exotic Weapons Mastery.

CALL OF THE WILD:

Another pretty simple tree, so I won't write-up. Keep Meditation 1/5, and 1/5 Nature's Touch when you can. Earth's Eyes is meh, as is Nature's Balance. I don't bother investing in either of them.

HARMONY:

Unlock it with the Sandworm Heart.

Waters of Life:
Makes poisons heal rather than hurt you, and gives a small amount of healing. It's instant, so not bad at all. 1/5 as soon as you unlock the category, 5/5 luxury.

Elemental Harmony:
It's a sustain. Nice! No reason not to keep it on, so 1/5 as soon as you get it, 5/5 luxury.

One With Nature:
Amazing. Reducing the cooldowns of your infusions is great. 5/5 as soon as you can (provided Wild Growth and Ancestral Life are 5/5 already). As a note, with your mastery 4/5 doesn't do anything for you, but it's worth getting 5/5 anyway.

Healing Nexus:
Honestly it's probably pretty good, but I don't use it. Would be far better if it worked on regens, but what are you gonna do? Might as well 1/5 it though.

FUNGUS:

Wild Growth:
Fantastic talent, you'll never want to turn this off. Makes regens last an extra turn. At 5/5 it makes your regen infusion basically heal twice as much. 1/5 with your first point, then work your way towards 5/5 if you're not unlocking other things (like 1/5 nature's touch, or 5/5 Ancestral Life).

Fungal Growth:
It's nice, but more annoying than anything. Since the regens it gives are small, you'll want to cancel them if your regen infusion isn't on cooldown. 1/5 at level 7, leave it there.

Ancestral Life:
Amazing. A lot of the time it means your regen infusion is instant, and it allows you to regen equilibrium during combat. Instant 5/5.

Sudden Growth:
Sneaky-good. Healing based on your life regen rate doesn't sound good until you realize that regen effects and vitality count towards this. If you have a good enough regen, this is basically a full-heal. For reference, in my insane run this healed somewhere in the ballpark of 3700 while I was on my regen infusion. Yeah. 1/5 when you get it, 5/5 when you don't have anything else to get.

SURVIVAL:

I'll make it short. You're here for Device Mastery. 5/5 that. The disarm is meh, but that cooldown reduction on useable items is amazing! Helps with just about everything.

[dadito]

As much as I enjoyed this guide it has not made me want to play wyrmic more.

[Fighterman481]

You would be correct in that >_>
The forum was acting slightly weird around this and cut off most of the guide. I'll be fixing that soon.
Edit: Unfortunately I didn't have a backup, so this may take an hour or two, sorry