Insomniac "realist" solipsist partial guide

[Coolthulhu]

I've recently (15 minutes ago) completed the game for the first time. Here's the dude: http://te4.org/characters/26704/tome/fd ... e788be7ac5
While I'm by no means an expert, we seem to have a shortage of guides for psionics, at least in the spoilers section. An experienced player might not learn much from this guide, but it should be good for anyone who has just unlocked the last unlockable class (that doesn't require winning the game).

This guide is going to describe the damage dealing and tanking part of solipsist. Not much about sleep (hence insomniac), a fair bit about antimagic (the realist part).

Race:
Yeek 5/5 - +15% global speed for 5 generics, great stats, you won't lag with levels, saves
Thalore 4/5 - resistances, saves, instant damage and resistance boost scales with willpower
Dwarf 4/5 - lots of saves, escape ability (short ranged due to low con, though)
Shalore 3.5/5 - +10% mind crit chance could actually mean more damage in long term than +15% speed (if you're using Eye of the Tiger prodigy). If you aren't, it's not a good choice, as you can't use their racials with antimagic.

Halfling 3/5 - guaranteed crits for 5 rounds is really nice, but you'll be getting enough of them without this
Cornac 1.5/5 - that category point isn't worth not having +15% speed, +10% crits or +35 to mental saves
Higher 1/5 - if you want to see things before they see you, get track from an escort, if you want more resources, get better infusions

Core talents:

Disruption
The tree works as a whole. Alone, the talents just deal sub-par damage and move stuff around. Don't put points into it until you have at least 6 spare ones (5 for bolt and friendly AoE, 1 for wave to distort).

Distortion Bolt
*****
Though sometimes problematic to use (needs an accessible distorted enemy at the center of AoE), a good critical bolt can clear entire rooms or take half hp of a gang of rares. When no distorted enemies are around, it can be used to cherry tap almost-dead stuff at range. Note that it doesn't actually ignore allies on talent level 5, just doesn't damage them, so move that thought-form out of the way.

Distortion Wave
***
Great range, acceptable damage, AoE stun if used with maelstrom. Useful for bunching weaklings in a corner and preparing them for a distortion bolt simultaneously.

Ravage
**
Waste of turn most of the time, but as utility it works almost just as well at level 1 as it does at level 5. There aren't that many physical effects you'd want to disrupt.

Maelstrom
****
Keeps a bunch of enemies close to its center while keeping them distorted. If maxed out, the area and the time will both be respectable, even if the damage per turn will not.

Psychic Assault

Mind Sear
*****
Amazing damage on anyone who doesn't manage the mental save. This will clear entire (short) corridors in up to 2 castings till late midgame. Max it out as soon as you can.

Psychic Lobotomy
***
OK damage, but secondary effects won't be noticeable until you get lots of mindpower and level it up. Keep it at 1 till later.

Synaptic Static
****
Starts out as a waste of turn, leveled it clears rooms of weaklings and prepares stronger stuff for sundering. At 5, it has radius 6, so just 1 less than other assault abilities.

Sunder Mind
****
Weaker than mind sear, unless you use it on brainlocked stuff. Then it can crit for thousands. Mental save lowering is a cherry on top. Low cooldown means it'll be one of the most used powers in your arsenal.

Solipsism

Solipsism
***
At too low levels, you can die with lots of psi to spare and won't utilize healing to the fullest. At too high talent levels, you'll lose psi (and thus speed) while keeping full health, which doesn't matter as long as it's above 0. Don't level it up to 5 if you aren't planning on getting good regeneration.

Balance
*****
Dwarf-like saves for everyone. Everyone who happens to have it maxed out and get +mental save gear. Makes all abilities and items that give spell or physical saves useless.

Clarity
****
Awesome speed bonus for as long as you don't get hit hard or cast costly stuff in heavy armor. If you are a yeek, you'll have a hard time utilizing all those extra rounds for useful stuff.

Dismissal
*****
Almost like 50% resist all. Lets you tank 2 hits from overpowered wyrms and still live. It can crit too, though only if you make the save in the first place.

Thought Forms

Thought-Forms
***
Those guys tank for you, a bit like golem would. The problem is that they are dumb, weak, can't go far from you and have no abilities to make up for that. Needed for early game, tanks and distractions for later. Put it on sustain.
Bowman - an useless coward. He will flee as soon as anything gets within 3 squares of him, but will still try to approach stuff 4 squares from him.
Warrior - has rush, will actually deal damage (not much, but still). In early game, can be even better than defender.
Defender - will not die immediately, so both over mind and unity will work for a while.

Transcendent Thought-Forms
*
Lucid dreamer lets you dream walk to your minion accurately, feedback will supplement their meager regeneration. There's no reason to level it up.

Over Mind
*****
Just 1 point will allow your minions to charge your feedback for you, lure wyrms out of their room, open vaults and check what's inside them. No need to level it up above that, as thought forms need neither saves (their actions are worthless, failed saves tend to prevent actions) nor percentage damage bonus.

Thought-Form Unity
****
Some extra resist all % for as long as you keep your defender dude up. No need to level it up a lot, 1 point will get most of the benefits.

Mentalism

Psychometry
*
In theory, up to +7 mindpower per level. In practice, after rescaling you won't get more than 10 when maxed out and you won't have items to power it up early on when it would be useful.

Mental Shielding
*****
Instant cast, amazing for confusion removal. 1 point is enough.

Projection
**
Duration too short to scout well, damage restriction means it is not useful for anything else, can still get your real form killed. Get track from an escort instead.

Mind Link
***
All your damage in late game will be mind damage, so it's a nice bonus. Telepathy prevents orcs from being annoying with their sun infusions. Don't get it till late game. Scales badly, you might want to skip it altogether if you don't have spare rounds in combat.

Feedback

Biofeedback
**
In early game, you can't use it to heal yourself by getting your thought-form hit. In midgame, the healing is too low to be anything but useless.

Resonance Field
*****
Your only shield. It lets 50% damage through, so it lasts longer than a regular damage shield. On normal, this is enough, as you can easily heal what gets past the shield.

Amplification
*
You have 2 good abilities that use feedback. Their cost is too low to warrant putting any points in sub-mediocre skill such as this one.

Conversion
*****
Nice heal that also helps with equilibrium, so that your antimagic shield doesn't break.


More category descriptions might be coming later, when I experiment a bit more with them. I'll give short summaries now instead:

Discharge - if it didn't require a category point, it might be worth the talent points. The damage is low, the feedback gain is enough for healing and shielding without it.
Dream Smith - you need to invest a number of points and be in melee range with your targets for this tree to work well. One thing that you don't resist well is physical damage.
Dream Forge - has one of the few things that can break line of effect and also a sustain that debuffs stuff if you stay still for a longer while
Nightmare - nerfed a lot, still considered really good due to inner demons power, which pretty much makes bosses kill themselves
Slumber - dreamscape allows you to enter a dream of some weak creature to heal up and recharge cooldowns
Dreaming - AoE sleep, sleep immunity (but constant sleep status) sustain + bonus damage on insomniacs, teleport that's accurate when porting to sleeping creatures (such as your lucid thoughtform) - all useful to have at level 1

Now, antimagic is not a part of the solipsist themselves, but work incredibly well with them:

Antimagic

Resolve
***
Scales nicely with mindpower. It only affects one element at a time and only after you get hit, though. It can crit, which multiplies the resulting resistance by crit multiplier, letting you reach the resistance cap without much investment into the skill itself.

Aura of Silence
****
Nice radius, pity about the short duration. Can brainlock, so prepare that mind sunder.

Antimagic Shield
*****
Amazing skill. I'm pretty sure it triggers after dismissal, so most of the time it only needs to protect against 50% of the damage. Scales well with mindpower. Lets you wade through orc mage armies to AoE blast them more effectively. If you don't have a good equilibrium source, it will eat it up quickly, though.

Mana Clash
*****
It's fun watching a Grand Corruptor flail helplessly against a thought-form, unable to do anything that isn't either drain, rune or a standard melee attack. Great range, can't be blocked by creatures along the way, deals good damage, has acceptable cooldown. While it doesn't work as well against mana users (will damage them, but won't disable for long), it is devastating against those dependent on vim. Note that resource damage doesn't depend on hp damage - bone shield will block the latter, but not the former, +% damage will increase only the hp damage. It can crit and it definitely increases hp damage (even above resource damage), but I don't think it increases resource damage.

Harmony

Waters of Life
**
Prevents poisons from stopping autotravel. If you somehow get a stack of powerful poisons on yourself AND your antimagic shield down, it will actually help you survive, but it's a very rare occurence.

Elemental Harmony
***
Why only 3 for such a legendary talent? It's hard to cheese fire damage on yourself with mental tyranny on, so you'll need to use fiery enemies. Most of the time you'll get some useless effect as wretchling pours acid on you instead.

One with Nature
*****
Lets you spam infusions. You can put it on repeat with 2 regeneration infusions if you have ancestral life.

Healing Nexus
**
Just how often do you fight enemies that heal themselves through all your stuff?

Fungus

Wild Growth
****
Get it high enough and you won't need 2 regeneration infusions to have near-100% hp and psi all the time.

Fungal Growth
**
Not sure if it triggers ancestral life (worth 3/5 or 4/5 if so). It lets you use ancestral life to gain equilibrium when your regular regen is on cooldown. Healing it gives is quite worthless, though. You can remove the weak regen by right-clicking on it (doesn't work in some UIs).

Ancestral Life
*****
Makes regen nearly instant, can be abused to gain turns. Lets you heal equilibrium, so that your antimagic shield stays up.

Sudden Growth
**
You have conversion already. Unlike conversion, this one won't work if your regeneration is currently on cooldown.


Prodigies

Mental Tyranny
The default choice. Lets you optimize that single damage type, penetrate all resistances. It's not uncommon for endgame solipsists to have +100% mind damage and 50% mind penetration.

Eye of the Tiger
With 50% crit chance (not hard to get), you'll be using mind sear not just to deal lots of damage, but to help other damage powers, shield, conversion and mana clash recharge. As the highest damage powers all have short cooldowns, this lets you burst down even huge stuff quickly.

Tricky Defenses
This will result in 50% increase in effectiveness of your antimagic shield by endgame. This will mean that pretty much all non-physical, non-mind damage will get either halved or negated (if dismissed first). Watch out for multicolored wyrms going sanddrake on your face.

Superpower
It will result in at most 25 mind power (before rescaling, something like 8 after it). Don't.

Endless Woes
You have a dedicated confuse power. It's not often that you need to confuse a huge group of enemies with just 20% power.

Meteoric Crash
Deals huge damage, is AoE and stuns for a while. If I had 3 prodigies, this would be the third. Damage can get around 1000 per target per cast, before +% adjustment. The stun has its power off spellpower, so don't count on it too much.

Spell Feedback
Scales with mindpower, but it does not synergy well with mana clash or silence.

Enemies worth noting

Summoners
For some reason, ritch flamespitters tend to get incredible mind saves when summoned. This can make them more dangerous than nearby multicolored wyrms if you don't pay attention.

Corruptors
The bone shields can be removed by letting them cook for a while in maelstrom. Mana clash will stop them from doing anything significant. They won't deal much damage through your shields, but the burning hex will stop your mental rampage with horrid cooldowns.

Wyrms
They have range greater than your sight range. Just because you can't see one and it doesn't see you, it doesn't mean it won't blindly breathe and deal huge damage. Sand breaths are particularly dangerous, as they ignore antimagic shield and blind for LONG time (overpowered wyrms blind for 25 turns).

Elite fighters
Battle call will often put you in a dangerous position. Orcs in Prides love to use it and you often can't hide to prevent them from doing so. It's even worse if they blind you first, so that you can't see that you just got called. Make sure your movement infusion can get you away after you get pulled in. If waiting for blindness to wear off, check where you are by picking any of the beam abilities to show the tracer - it always reliably shows where you are currently.

Ruin banshees
Corrupted negation can turn off your thought form, mental tyranny, resonance shield, antimagic shield and regeneration.

Corruptor rares
They make perfect mana clash targets, but can often use dangerous stuff, like corrupted negation, fearscape, hexes and curses.

Alchemist rares
Stone touch can be an instakill if you're unlucky enough.

Archer rares
One of the few things that can punch through your shields. They will often stay at range, being both annoying (untargettable by damaging powers) and dangerous.

Jumping stuff (ghouls, devourers)
Jumpers themselves won't probably be very dangerous, but you won't have reliable means of escaping a crowded corridor. If you have dream walk, you can jump to your thought-form, teleportation torque also works nicely (but takes a useful slot).

EDIT: Changed n/5 ratings to stars, so it's clearer. Updated races (shalore down, thalore and dwarf up). Dream walk description cleared a tiny bit. Mind link downgraded.
EDIT 2: Spell feedback.

[supermini]

Dwarves and Thalore make good solipsists due to save bonuses (since you use mental save for everything). Shalore give you...what exactly? 10% crit is about 5% more damage if you don't have crit damage bonuses. It also means you can't go antimagic and use shalore abilities (because they are spells).

I can't figure out if you are suggesting levels for talents or grading them somehow? If it's the latter then it's damn confusing.

[sofocles]

good guide!

First mind sear: too good, chances are its going to be nerfed next update.

nightmare: inner demons, yes, but also: lvl 4 gives you a big dmg bonus on sleeping enemies... i ended up getting all 3 sleeps (at lvl1) just to mind sear them inmediatly after slept: awakened sleep also 5/5 u get bonus to dmg on insomnia targets...

yeek is imho better than shalore because he gets bonus saves to mind which combined with balance 5/5 means huge bonus to all saves.

thought forms, disruption and psychic assault.... one of the 3 should be enough. (mind sear 5/5 in anycase)
In fact, and until mind sear nerf one line for dmg is enough:

mind link... not sure it deserves a high score: even at 5/5 it gives you a bonus of around 20% to dmg ? ... projection SUCKS

Dreamforge: AWESOME LINE all of it, a much better investment than most dmg lines.
dreamscape: im hoping somebody can tell me its good, to be honest, i think it sucks.

i beat the game without antimagic or fungus but i heard the combination is allmighty

[Kaja Rainbow]

Though it isn't the focus of the guide, sleep is a very useful condition--it'll negate a lot of those threats you mentioned, though I think one fully invested AoE sleep (preferably Nightmare because of its damage) is all that is needed. Also, it looks like you aren't aware that Dream Walk doesn't need to take a living target? You can Dream Walk to an empty space, though it'll be inaccurate unless you pump the talent's level. Spell Feedback is a good prodigy but not too compatible with Silence and Manaburn because they prevent it triggering--you'll want either the prodigy or those talents but not necessarily both.

[Coolthulhu]

Dwarves and Thalore make good solipsists due to save bonuses (since you use mental save for everything). Shalore give you...what exactly? 10% crit is about 5% more damage if you don't have crit damage bonuses. It also means you can't go antimagic and use shalore abilities (because they are spells).

With Eye of the Tiger, it makes powers recharge a fair bit faster. I graded dwarves and thalores lower than I should, because I recall having huge saves with no investment by just getting +mental save gear. Updated now.

I can't figure out if you are suggesting levels for talents or grading them somehow? If it's the latter then it's damn confusing.

Changed to stars.

good guide!
thought forms, disruption and psychic assault.... one of the 3 should be enough. (mind sear 5/5 in anycase)
In fact, and until mind sear nerf one line for dmg is enough:

mind link... not sure it deserves a high score: even at 5/5 it gives you a bonus of around 20% to dmg ? ... projection SUCKS

Dreamforge: AWESOME LINE all of it, a much better investment than most dmg lines.
dreamscape: im hoping somebody can tell me its good, to be honest, i think it sucks.

i beat the game without antimagic or fungus but i heard the combination is allmighty

Thought forms doesn't deal a lot of damage, so it's just disruption and assault for damage. I picked up disruption, because I had lots of excess turns during combat (as a yeek). It might not be worth much for slower races, but when running with clarity around 40% and racial +15%, even Eye of the Tiger won't clear the cooldowns quick enough, not even if I make sure to enter the battle fully recharged.

I updated mind link about the scaling. Once again, it looked quite good for 1 point when you have lots of time to kill between mind sears.

Dreamscape isn't a good offensive power, but it can be used to fully heal and cut 7 rounds (at level 1) off your cooldowns by scaping some random orc soldier, who can't harm you in his sleep.

Though it isn't the focus of the guide, sleep is a very useful condition--it'll negate a lot of those threats you mentioned, though I think one fully invested AoE sleep (preferably Nightmare because of its damage) is all that is needed. Also, it looks like you aren't aware that Dream Walk doesn't need to take a living target? You can Dream Walk to an empty space, though it'll be inaccurate unless you pump the talent's level. Spell Feedback is a good prodigy but not too compatible with Silence and Manaburn because they prevent it triggering--you'll want either the prodigy or those talents but not necessarily both.

I was aware that it works without a sleeping target, I just overestimated how inaccurate is it. I didn't test it much, as on normal, a yeek solipsist doesn't need to escape a lot. Added Spell Feedback to guide.