Mindslayer Guide - The Other Psionic Class

[RetZ]

Table of Contents

Introduction
Races
Stats
Escorts
Skills
-Class Skills
-Generic Skills
Prodigies
Infusions and Runes
Equipment
Other Stuff


Introduction
A short disclaimer: The majority of my Mindslayer experience is from playing on Nightmare difficulty. This has probably biased my choices towards being much more defensively orientated than may be necessary, particularly for Normal difficulty play. I'd also very much appreciate any advice on the aspects of the class with which I haven't had much experience, especially melee type Mindslayers (which don't really seem that viable to me).

Mindslayers are a very underestimated class, they completely walk over difficult areas and fights like Urkris, Grand Corruptor and the Dark Crypt with their huge defensive utility. They also pack Mindlash, a spammable (eventually) ranged nuke with very respectable damage. The end result is a very overall balanced class with a focus on defence and initial damage, which is exactly what you want to have in a character. Sustained damage is nice, but the scariest part of most fights is in the first few rounds before you can knock a few of the enemies out, Mindslayers excel at this with Mindlash nuking and spiked shields to mitigate damage.


Race

Higher
Average pick, no real synergy but no big downsides either.

Cornac
An extra category point is a big deal, but the lack of any exp penalty should not be overlooked, this can give a big advantage in getting to max level and on normal mode playthroughs will let you hit 50 before the final fight without using farportals at all. That said, the lack of exp penalty will do nothing for you at level 50, which leaves you with one extra category point. You need to have a very good plan for what you will do with your extra category point if you do decide to pick Cornac because it needs to make up for the base stats the other races get, their extra hp/lvl and their racial ability tree. This said, you don't need to spend generic points into racial skill trees which might help to give a bit more versatility.

Shalore
Only possible synergy would be extending spiked shields with Timeless.

Thalore
Wrath of the Forest is a strong Wil scaling damage/defense steroid and Nature's Pride gives some very strong instant cast summon fodder. The real reason to be Thalore though is Guardian of the Wood: 10% all resist, disease immunity and 20% blight resist. This talent alone makes corruptors much less threatening, even if it was only 10% all resist it would still be very worth maxing. You also get some synergistic starting stats and a solid hp/lvl. Thalore is very likely the best race in the game.

Halfling
Not sure about this option but at a glance the synergy seems low, Mindslayers don't care about crit and don't need short term defences – you want to stack on survivability for the long haul.

Dwarf
Very strong save bonuses and a good racial escape which is particularly nice for Anti-Magic builds which often lack teleportation/blink escapes. Also gets strong starting stats and the best non-ghoul HP per level along with halflings and skeletons. Does require you to hold onto 2275 gold for the maximum save bonus at 5/5 Power is Money which may cost you a created randart. The problem in higher difficulties is that saves become far too outpaced by the scaling of mobs powers, particularly in the endgame.

Yeek
The massive HP loss is very bad given how much benefit Mindslayers get from HP but on the other hand their base stats and racial skills are strong and their xp bonus is good for the same reason Cornacs lack of penalty is good.


Skeleton
Both of the undead races share the same problem – Mindslayers must have healing infusions and undead can't use them.

Ghoul
See above

Stats

Strength
You cast spells and use mindstars. Other classes might want to put points here to wear better armor but Mindslayers get enough for free from Augmentation to supplement gear. Out of the three skills that you don't max out this is the best to throw your spare points into.

Dexterity
Again, you use mindstars and Augmentation gives you enough to wear your dex gear, out of the three stats you don't care about though, this gives you the worst side benefit - defense. 0 points always.

Constitution
Very important stat for survivability for all classes. Mindslayers absorbtion shields greatly increase the value of each point of hp making this even more valuable than it usually is. Max first or second.

Magic
You can put spare points in here for spell save over Strength if you feel like it, but Physical Save is stronger and you get extra encumbrance as a fringe benefit.

Willpower
Your primary damage and defensive stat, most of your abilities scale off of this. Should be maxed second or first.

Cunning
Secondary damage stat which also controls unlocks for some of your trees, should be maxed third.


Escorts

Mindslayers don't get much choice with escorts, since we're probably going Anti-Magic and we don't have spare category points laying around you're pretty much stuck taking stat bonuses most of the time. Those who don't go Anti-Magic can diversify a bit more, if you get lucky you could probably end up with better abilities than Anti-Magic. Make sure if you are going Anti-Magic that you betray all escorts to Zigur.

Loremaster
I prefer points in Con but you could also throw them into Wil. The three skills are not worth it.

Anorthil
Bonus Wil is the standard option, take Track if you'd like some scouting utility. If you can't betray then just take the two Cun.

Seer
I would usually take the Wil bonus but although Nature's Touch doesn't scale very well it can be useful for healing future escorts and should still give between 200 and 300hp lategame. If you aren't going Anti-Magic then you should always take Premonition with possibly one rank in Arcane Eye.

Warrior
Vitality is decent at one point, late game you can be knocked below 50%hp and the healmod is very nice to help top your health off before the next round. After that your choice is between more Vitality and Con, Vitality ranks help to reduce the duration of poisions which can be irritating - particularly Insidious Poison - while Con is even more HP. Indominable Will is a poor choice because it takes three escorts to skill it past removing stuns (which you should be immune to), its probable that you'll end up stuck with 1-2 ranks of a useless skill if you try to take it.

Thief
All three of the skills are nice, but Heightened Senses and Piercing Sight are a bit stronger. I put one rank in Piercing Sight then the rest into Heightened Senses but dumping everything into Piercing Sight or one Heightened Senses with the rest into Piercing Sight should both also be viable.

Sun Paladin
Wil is the only thing worth looking at. If you're not Anti-Magic then Chant of Fortress is nice, as is Fortitude, I prefer Fortress personally.

Alchemist
Psiblades is pretty good even with only one rank, but you can consider taking the tree itself if you're willing to give up Grip or Mobility. For non Anti-Magic Stone Alchemy is a really solid choice, letting you add in gems to your gear and increasing your wealth. It will however require you to hoard Magic gear to meet requirements. If you don't want Stone Alchemy then take Dex or you could betray them for Psiblades if you aren't using any runes yet. Anti-Magic characters should probably just keep putting ranks in Psiblades, or otherwise into Wil. Consider buying Mindstar Mastery from Zigur early so that any Psiblade points you get from escorts will be at 1.0 and not 0.8.

Temporal Explorer
Dream Walk is really nifty as an escape, I don't feel like it needs more than one rank though. Sleep might be viable, but I haven't had a chance to experiment with it as of yet so my suggestion is to take the Cun bonus after a rank in Dream Walk. Non Anti-Magic charcaters can make use of Precognition to check sealed doors and other dangerous situations or Spin Fate for easy save bonuses. Personally I'd do one rank of Spin Fate then Cun bonuses, if you want Precognition then one rank of that is enough.


Skills

Generic

Absorbtion

All four skills in this tree are fairly essential and should be maxed either immediately or after Mindlash. I don't feel like any of the skills are worth less than 5/5 but some may want to 1/5 either Thermal or Charged Shield to save points since only two shields can be active at a time. The shields and the mastery are all instant, so swapping is very easy but your mileage may vary.

Projection

The auras in this tree will act as sustains that damage enemies when you are hit in melee or can be turned off to cast a spell. These auras can also be used to fuel your Conduit ability. Sadly for a build wanting to use auras as a damage source, Mindlash hits far harder while costing less. They also don't really work very well as support for Mindlash because Mindslayers are pretty energy tight to begin with and keeping them up without Conduit adds even more strain on your pool. That said, they do deal AoE damage, which Mindlash lacks.

Kinetic Aura
The damage is nice, but physical is not as useful type for Conduit as fire or lightning. If you plan on going Mental Tyranny however you could save one class point by not skilling Charged Aura and maxing this instead since the actual damage numbers are the same so both will be converted into an equal amount of mind damage given equal skill ranks. That said, one point in this to use as a knockback and low/average damage AoE nuke can work well. Suggested 1/5 points, 5/5 points is viable if going for Mental Tyranny.

Thermal Aura
Outclassed as a damage spell by Pyrokinesis but still useful for Conduit. Suggested 5/5 points.

Charged Aura
The strongest of the auras as a damage spell and equal with Thermal Aura for Conduit purposes. Suggested 5/5 points, 0/5 if you want to Conduit Kinetic with Thermal.

Projection Mastery
Might have some use for some type of aura focused build but auras are pretty weak in comparison to Mindlash. Even in an aura build however, 5 points only lowers the cooldown unlike with Absorbtion mastery and it does not lower the cooldown enough to be worth more than one point since you'll probably only get to use it once per fight anyway.

Psi-fighting

Telekinetic Smash
This skill scales pretty poorly, in addition Mindlash will probably always outdamage this anyway. Don't take this until you need to unlock the rest of the tree.

Augmentation
Increases your Str by a percentage of your Wil and Dex by a percentage of your Cun. Very useful for meeting armor requirements and for adding some defense and physical save. That said, this talent is not really that useful early, and in situations where it would be you can usually use the trick of putting 3 points into this and one into Telekinetic Smash then taking them out after skilling up or putting on armour.

Conduit
Conduit feels like the sole reason the Projection tree isn't useless. While Conduit is very strong, it obviously needs points in your auras to actually work, it also doesn't add as much damage as mindlash alone does, so put points in here after you have at least 1 point in at least two auras. Keep in mind that Conduit will increase your overall damage more than skilling individual auras as long as you have two auras at at least 1/5.

Frenzied Psifighting
Adds negligible damage.

Focus

Mindlash
This is your bread and butter damage skill, with a tier 4 or higher mindstar held telekenetically this has no cooldown. It also gets your Conduit damage added. I would usually max this skill first before working on my Absorption auras.

Pyrokinesis
If looking for an AoE damage over time spell, this beats out Thermal Aura. Even though it beats out Thermal Aura, it only gets about +30 damage per level. Suggested 1/5 points.

Reach
Useful once you have a higher quality mindstar to support it but still not as useful as your other skills. Max this out but do it later, skilling up to 2 points when you get a t4 mindstar then 4 points once you pick up t5 with the last point when Greater Telekinetic Grasp hits an effective level of 5.

Focused Channeling
Seems like a strong boost to both your defences and, through Conduit, your offence. The catch is that it only increases the base values of the shields and auras, unlike Conduit. The first point is nice as soon as you can but even though it only effects base values, its worth the points to eventually max this when nothing else is left. Suggested 5/5 points.

Augmented Mobility (Locked)
Haven't used this tree, looks underwhelming except for Telekinetic Leap. With 2 cat points going to runes and one to fungus the choice is between this and Grip or possibly an Infusion. I don't think Mindslayers need more mobility than a movement infusion by the end game when you pick this up.

Mindhook
May as well spend psi on Mindlash instead.

Quick as Thought
A gimped Movement Infusion.

Telekinetic Leap
Very nice escape option, especially for Antimagic characters, worth the point investment to skill it up.

Shattering Charge
Can be used to break a hole in the wall to fight enemies one at a time, worth a one point investment if you're taking the tree or possibly 4 to get the ability to break through walls.

Grip (Locked)
Deflect Projectiles
Moderately high sustain cost which adds a lot of stress to a small psi pool but can mitigate about half the damage of archers which can be a threat when summoned on Nightmare.

Bind
The one rank needed to get further into the tree is enough, you don't need to kite with this as a Mindslayer by the time you get it.

Implode
Slow is a very powerful debuff and the DoT can actually out damage mindlash over its duration. High psi cost is a bit unfortunate though.

Greater Telekinetic Grasp
At max level you get an effectively tier 6 mindstar which is most useful for getting range 9 with Reach. The damage bonuses and extra immunity don't hurt the skill either.

Class

Thalore

Wrath of the Woods
Very good one point skill that scales with Wil. Since extra points only lower the cooldown I don't find more than one a good use of points.

Unshackled
Not only are saves weak overall, but the fact that you get a +30 bonus to mental saves by maxing Iron Will further diminishes the value of this talent. One Point is fine to move on in the tree.

Guardian of the Wood
This is the reason you should be Thalore: 10% all resist would be strong alone but it comes with 20% Blight resist and 100% Disease immunity. Corruptors are probably the most threatening enemies throughout the game and this skill makes them non-threats while giving you defence against everything else at the same time. 5/5 always.

Nature's Pride
Very good one point skill, instant cast and fodder is very nice for every class. Also scales on Wil. Extra points lower the cooldown and increase the trees skill level, which I don't find a good use of more than one point.

Dwarf

Strength of the Ancestors
Saves aren't good, one point so you can move on.

Stoneskin
Armour is a bit better than saves but still not very strong, one point so you can move on.

Power is Money
This is why you are dwarf. Max is as soon as you have the gold to support it.

Stonewalking
One point is nice for the escape.

Combat Training

Thick Skin
All resist is probably the strongest single stat in the game, every character should max this talent.

Armour Training
Good at 1, 3 or 5 points. You shouldn't die to regular damage, status effects and criticals will be what kill you, 5 points in this can help to mitigate that. If you only want to give yourself more armour options then 1 or 3 points are both fine.

Combat Accuracy
Mindstars get accuracy from Wil so I wouldn't worry too much about not hitting. Generics are too tight to spend here.

Weapons Mastery
Does nothing for mindstars, 0 points always.

Dagger Mastery
Does nothing for mindstars, 0 points always.

Survival
This tree suffers badly from the generic point crunch Mindslayers have. Most of the skills would be nice if you could afford to skill them up. In general count on thief escorts for this tree.

Heightened Senses
Both one and three ranks are very nice breakpoints for the talent.

Charm Mastery
Solid talent if you use the items that it affects, but generic points are very tight and it is pretty underwhelming.

Piercing Sight
Assassins and invisible mages are the highest threat mobs you'll encounter late game, this counters them.

Evasion
It could be ok, but the point investment is huge and it will kill your psi gain from shield absorption.

Voracity
Not worth the points, take Shield Discipline if you need more psi.

Mental Discipline
Very important skill tree due mainly to the 50% stun resist of Iron Will, stuns are one of, if not the scariest status effect in the game.

Aura Discipline
For builds using Conduit, one point since this talent does nothing at all for you. It seems unlikely that the energy drain will drop your energy before a fight is actually over, therefore I would only consider this talent for a build that intends to use the auras as damage spells and wants to lower their cooldowns. If you do want to use your auras as damage spells, then you should probably max this.

Shield Discipline
The psi regen is very nice mid and occasionally late game. Only reason not to take this is because you can manage without it and generics are very tight.

Iron Will
You're basically in this tree entirely for this talent. Stuns are probably the most dangerous status effect in the game, Iron Will lets you get rid of them with half the stun resist from gear which ends up at two slots usually. Very, very strong and should be maxed ASAP.

Highly Trained Mind
Nice talent but you have better places to spend your generics.

Finer Energy Manipulations (Locked)
Melee builds will make great use of this tree, Mindlash builds on the other hand get infinite psi here but at that cost of a category point. Voracity or Shield Discipline might be enough extra psi for you, but if they aren't consider this.

Perfect Control
I’m unsure on how this scales with levels, but in any case its no good for Mindlash but great for melee.

Reshape Weapon
Very strong talent for melee builds. Not a very strong talent for Mindlash builds.

Reshape Armor
Applies to every piece of armor, adding up to a large fatigue decrease, worth one point.


Matter is Energy
Infinite psi at one rank at the cost of a turn to cast.

Antimagic

Resolve
Very nice at one point but doesn't scale very well. I would only use two points at most.

Aura of Silence
Can be difficult to apply to the targets you really want it on, that said its great for shutting down rooms of casters like in the Dark Crypt and Vor Pride entrances and could be worth some points beyond one for that.

Antimagic Shield
Decent level scaling with solid base/Wil scaling. 1, 3 or 5 points are all good here.

Mana Clash
It won't do as much damage as Mindlash, but when you need it you'll be very glad to have it. Use this on long fights against caster bosses, especially those with healing. Again: 1, 3 or 5 points.

Fungus

Wild Growth
Lets you endlessly chain regeneration infusions, this is one of the main reasons to go Antimagic.

Fungal Growth
This is almost always bad for you since the regeneration it procs doesn't stack with Regeneration Infusions and almost always will heal for less than them. Right click and remove this buff if it procs so you can use a real Regeneration.

Ancestral Life
And this is the other big reason to be Antimagic: you don't waste turns on Regeneration Infusions anymore. As a nice side effect it lets you actually use Antimagic Shield by reducing your equilibrium.

Sudden Growth
One point is all you need for an immense heal.

Mindstar Mastery
Post 1.0.1 Mindstar Mastery is trainable in Zigur at the gem shop, Antimagic characters are obviously starved for generic points but this could be an option for a melee focused Mindslayer. It could be a good idea to unlock this anyway to get any Psiblades from escorts at 1.0. Greater Telekinetic Grip will also improve this tree.


Psiblades
You don't do much melee personally but sometimes you do need to swing and if nothing else then this will benefit your telekinetic weapon. Strongest thing in the tree for you.

Thorn Grab
You'd rather be casting Mindlash, but since this costs no psi you might get a chance to use it at some point.

Leaves Tide
Evasion is ok, but your points are too tight.

Nature's Equilibrium
An extra heal is nice, but this requires point investment to be good.

Prodigies

Mindslayers have a lot of versatility when it comes to Prodigies, Augmentation opens up access to Str and Dex Prodigies while Con, Wil and Cun will be open due to your core stats. It can be a bit painful to try to take Cun or Dex based prodigies at level 30 but fortunately those trees have fairly weak options with a couple exceptions.

Irresistible Sun
Gets the casters where you can hit them coupled with strong damage, solid choice.

Crafty Hands
If you didn't go Anti-Magic and picked up Stone Alchemy, this is an excellent prodigy. Huge defensive or offensive bonus.

Bloodspring
I need to actually test this one out, but it seems like it can do a reasonable amount of damage and healing at the same time. That said, if you get hit for more than 20% of your life you're probably in a bit of trouble.

Draconic Body
Would be amazing if it worked on one shots like Cauterize, as is its strong but probably never going to actually be a life saver.

Cauterize
Yes, it requires a lot of magic gear. Yes, it requires casting a rune 1000 times. Yes, it requires running around on lava. If you are willing to go through with all of the hassle that’s needed to take this it is probably the best single skill in the game. Anything that can save you from death when you walk around a corner into something that hits for your entire health bar is amazing.

Draconic Will
Between insanely high mental saves and immunity to the worst condition Physical can throw at you, it doesn't feel like a strong option for Mindslayers.

Mental Tyranny
Amazing damage increase, not just because of its bonus 10% but because it consolidates everything into one type, letting you stack Mind damage and penetration. Also helps Mindlash by getting it off of the weak Physical typing. If you plan on taking this, make sure to use a mind damage mindstar early on to work on the damage requirement.

Spell Feedback
Very good in sustained fights against spellcasters, which are the most difficult fights in the game.

Tricky Defenses
This is probably only adding 6-8 absorption per hit late game. Way too lacklustre for a prodigy.

Infusions and Runes

Regeneration
Combined with Fungus Regeneration runes become incredibly powerful, a single one is almost enough alone to keep constant uptime and two together ensures it. Still has some advantages over Healing without Fungus though: you don't need to be around half hp in the danger zone to get full benefit from Regeneration. Its much safer to stay topped up than to rely on burst healing.

Healing
Lots of on demand healing but as mentioned under Regeneration, requires your health to be low to make these worth it over regeneration.

Wild
Very useful early on as a status cleanse and even later on useful to remove effects that you haven't gotten immunity to. Ideally you would want a Physical+Mental Wild but if that isn't possible then Physical only until you pick up 100% stun resist and then Mental after would also work.

Movement
Versatile defensive and offensive infusion, particularly for short ranged classes like Mindslayers.

Heroism
Powerful stat boost along with bonus effective health, can definitely save you from high burst situations against casters which tend to me the most dangerous near the end of the game. Some synergy with Absorbtion shields on the bonus health but unlike shielding you don't want to be sitting on that bonus health so its less powerful.

Insidious Poison
They don't do enough to compensate for the utility you give up.

Shielding
Very strong defensive option, excellent synergy with Absorbtion shields which will increase the effective health of the shields bonus health.

Phase Door
Both the controlled and regular variants are outclassed by teleport.

Teleport
Competitor to Movement for best escape infusion/rune, comes with the chance for teleporting you in a worse situation in exchange for getting you much more distance from whatever you were running from. Also trades off the offensive power of movement.

Damaging Runes
Viable option if you decide to go arcane, but a double Wild, especially Phys/Mental is stronger.


Here are a couple of example sets:

For Anti-Magic:
Set One:
Regeneration
Regeneration
Wild (Phys+Mental)
Movement
(Wild/Heroism/Heal)
This is the standard set with a balanced defensive loadout.

Set Two:
Regeneration
Heroism
Heroism
Movement
(Wild/Heal/Regeneration)
This set is much more aggressive, but at the same time the extra effective health and stats from heroism can keep you alive in situations where just extra regeneration would not.


Equipment
Most important stat to pick up is the 50% stun immunity to bring you to 100%. You should be looking for high quality mindstars to wield psionically as soon as possible, zigur often sells t3 mindstars at the gem shop. The reason you're looking for a high quality mindstar is to reduce the cooldown of your Mindlash, t4 mindstars will reduce it to 0 cooldown. Both Confusion and Blind immunities are very strong, if you can manage to cap those out I would highly recommend it. As for equipment to avoid – save bonuses are generally pretty weak, try to pick up immunities instead. Hitpoints are very important to pick up for any class, but Mindslayers get extra utility since your shields will increase the effective health of every point of HP. Resistances will further exaggerate this effect but typically its only worth wearing resists if you are preparing for a particular zone (Prides, especially Vor and Dark Crypt for examples) other than All Resist which is incredibly strong in all situations.

Other stuff

Category Points
Your options are Augmented Mobility, Grip, Finer Energy Manipulations, Fungus, Focus, 4th Infusion slot and 5th Infusion slot.

My suggestion would be 4th slot, then Fungus, then 5th slot, then Grip or Augmented Mobility. You have more than enough places to spend class skills on early, but near the end of the game when you get the 4th cat point you'll have run out, so picking up an extra class tree then is good. Fungus is amazing, but you won't finish Urkris till around lvl20, so don't worry about holding on to the lvl10 cat point. Extra Infusion slots are just awesome, but there is a case to be made for going only 4 Infusion slots, so you might consider putting that into one of the other trees.

[stinkstink]

If you want to be very cheesy though you could wait to get the Pearl of Life and Death and skip this entire tree. I don't feel making your early-mid and most of late game so much harder is worth it.

You mean the item that only drops after the final fight?

[RetZ]

If you want to be very cheesy though you could wait to get the Pearl of Life and Death and skip this entire tree. I don't feel making your early-mid and most of late game so much harder is worth it.

You mean the item that only drops after the final fight?

Huh, wasn't aware you couldn't get it before then. Removed!

[lukep]

Very good guide. I haven't played a Mindslayer in a while (last one), so I may be outdated, but here's what I did/would do differently (note: slightly different build, and coming from b40):

- I had a dual focus, one weapon set was three weapons (for crit effects), the other was for Mindlash.
- I also did not go antimagic.
- Absorption: 5/5/1/5, you can only have two shields sustained at once, and I didn't miss the extra strength on Charged shield when I used it.
- Voracity: 1/1/1/0 gives you some good ranged debuffs and psi recovery, (note: their range rounds UP with Reach, unlike all of the other talents, which round down)
- Focus damage scales (roughly) linearly with talent level, while normal ones scale (roughly) with the square root of the talent level. That makes investing a category point in Focus very attractive.
- Charged Aura's spike is amazing, it deals about the same damage as Mindlash, but can BEAM between many enemies, possibly hitting some multiple times. (may have changed though)
- Deflect Projectiles is very handy, as it gives you -45% damage against archers, and a similar damage reduction against corruptors (my worst enemy).
- Shattering Charge (augmented mobility t4 talent) can be very powerful with the new LoS. If you go diagonally into a wall a few steps, you can fight 1v1 against any amount of enemies, as they cannot see past two corners.

[Nivrax]

I have 0 knowledge of the class so can't comment on beyond being amazed by length and detail of it. I do would like to point on the escort one, that Anorithil gives you Track, which seems terribly underestimated skill, it is absolutely amazing for scouting, especially getting location of stair bosses and rares in High Peak before walking into their possible one-shot skill.

[RetZ]

Very good guide. I haven't played a Mindslayer in a while (last one), so I may be outdated, but here's what I did/would do differently (note: slightly different build, and coming from b40):

- I had a dual focus, one weapon set was three weapons (for crit effects), the other was for Mindlash.
- I also did not go antimagic.
- Absorption: 5/5/1/5, you can only have two shields sustained at once, and I didn't miss the extra strength on Charged shield when I used it.
- Voracity: 1/1/1/0 gives you some good ranged debuffs and psi recovery, (note: their range rounds UP with Reach, unlike all of the other talents, which round down)
- Focus damage scales (roughly) linearly with talent level, while normal ones scale (roughly) with the square root of the talent level. That makes investing a category point in Focus very attractive.
- Charged Aura's spike is amazing, it deals about the same damage as Mindlash, but can BEAM between many enemies, possibly hitting some multiple times. (may have changed though)
- Deflect Projectiles is very handy, as it gives you -45% damage against archers, and a similar damage reduction against corruptors (my worst enemy).
- Shattering Charge (augmented mobility t4 talent) can be very powerful with the new LoS. If you go diagonally into a wall a few steps, you can fight 1v1 against any amount of enemies, as they cannot see past two corners.

Charged Aura spike looks interesting, I'll try it out over Implode on my current playthrough. As for Charged Shield, it handles Blight, Darkness and Mind damage which can all be pretty scary depending on the mob you get (Dreaming/Nightmare Horrors, Blood Mages, Corrupters), I feel like its optimal to be able to switch it in when you need it (As I said in my disclaimer, I'm not sure if that really applies to normal mode). I really want to like/try Voracity but generics are extremely tight given Antimagic. Same problem with Augmented Mobility and Cat points, two go to Infusions, one to Grip and the last to Fungus. Maybe 4 Infusions could work? Deflect Projectiles seems pretty average - Archers are lucky to deal any damage and Corruptors deal roughly 0 (Thalore with Charged Shield helps with this a lot, not to mention Antimagic Shield to cover any damage left over). Shattering Charge would probably be a solid 1 point if you took the tree.

I have 0 knowledge of the class so can't comment on beyond being amazed by length and detail of it. I do would like to point on the escort one, that Anorithil gives you Track, which seems terribly underestimated skill, it is absolutely amazing for scouting, especially getting location of stair bosses and rares in High Peak before walking into their possible one-shot skill.

I will add that in.

[Aerach]

TY for the insight on caster-types. To back up your assessment of undead i'd say i got a (melee) normal winner ghoul by focusing very hard on the shields and always reserving some mobility for retching up out of sight. It felt sub par and risky the whole way through and was hanging on by a thread for the whole final fight praying for no badly timed double-fails. You undermine the spike durability that makes mindslayers strong far too much to be sensible, having true heals to put up under cover of spiked shields would have cured this completely.

(satisfying in an 'i handicapped myself this way but the class is so darn strong' way for normal.~)

I honestly don't remember a lot of how my melee guy played other than being frustrated by how many clicks i needed with the constant spiking, but shattering charge was a remarkable thing that one shotted the toughest enemies despite having a tooltip that made it look underwhelming (and i never understood why i twas doing three times as much as advertised, but wow)

[skein]

Several strong disagreements here. Finer energy manipulation is one of the strongest talent trees in the game.So strong in fact that many adventurers choose it.

Let me try and explain why. Even with only one point in weapons and armor at end game (and mindstar mastery maxed for the extra willpower and mindpower) You will be seeing an increase of 12-15 accuracy and BASE WEAPON DAMMAGE for all weapons. Tier 5 mindstars are only 20-30 base weapon damage to begin with. So that one point in weapons represents a 50% dps increase in hand to hand damage, and that is ignoring the accuracy. I understand you do not consider hand to hand viable but it is against many opponents.

About that accuracy problem, hitting is nice, hitting all the time is nicer. I usually do max that skill in the combat tree by end game and certainly do after you go infinite.

The armor bonus is not nearly as nice, but still represents from a single point, usually 3-4 extra points of armor from every armor slot AND it negates the fatigue penalty.

The summon skill you say does nothing after point 1 actually does something. Each skill level above one increases the base skill level of the summons skills themselves. Now for the thalore tree summon taunt 5 might not be particularly important, but bash 5 is cute.

Oh and finer energy manipulations last skill, is an infinite psi source, if you depend on mindlash you really really want it. Oh the first skill is not bad either,did I mention that? Extra crit chance and accuracy on demand gives your alpha strike some extra oomph.

Stun resist is very important, you need 100%, oddly enough you can get this from one mindstar set. One of the set bonuses is 50% stun resist on each mindstar. Then of course you get the pearl before the infinite dungeon and never need it again.

You can also easily get it from one of several artifact armors plus 60% from a bloodstone imbue if you do not go antimagic.

[Mewtarthio]

Stun resist is very important, you need 100%, oddly enough you can get this from one mindstar set.

That'd be harmonious + wyrm's, right?

[RetZ]

Several strong disagreements here. Finer energy manipulation is one of the strongest talent trees in the game.So strong in fact that many adventurers choose it.

Let me try and explain why. Even with only one point in weapons and armor at end game (and mindstar mastery maxed for the extra willpower and mindpower) You will be seeing an increase of 12-15 accuracy and BASE WEAPON DAMMAGE for all weapons. Tier 5 mindstars are only 20-30 base weapon damage to begin with. So that one point in weapons represents a 50% dps increase in hand to hand damage, and that is ignoring the accuracy. I understand you do not consider hand to hand viable but it is against many opponents.

About that accuracy problem, hitting is nice, hitting all the time is nicer. I usually do max that skill in the combat tree by end game and certainly do after you go infinite.

The armor bonus is not nearly as nice, but still represents from a single point, usually 3-4 extra points of armor from every armor slot AND it negates the fatigue penalty.

The summon skill you say does nothing after point 1 actually does something. Each skill level above one increases the base skill level of the summons skills themselves. Now for the thalore tree summon taunt 5 might not be particularly important, but bash 5 is cute.

Oh and finer energy manipulations last skill, is an infinite psi source, if you depend on mindlash you really really want it. Oh the first skill is not bad either,did I mention that? Extra crit chance and accuracy on demand gives your alpha strike some extra oomph.

Stun resist is very important, you need 100%, oddly enough you can get this from one mindstar set. One of the set bonuses is 50% stun resist on each mindstar. Then of course you get the pearl before the infinite dungeon and never need it again.

You can also easily get it from one of several artifact armors plus 60% from a bloodstone imbue if you do not go antimagic.

On accuracy: at the times I have needed to melee, I never found any issue with actually hitting things, even on farportals and high peak on Nightmare. You may well be right that I have underrated the Reshape Armor and Matter is Energy talents, there are few situations where I did run out of psi during a fight (notably sanctum), but at the same time I feel like Shield Discipline could have filled the same purpose while not using an extra turn.

Even if you can get 100% stun resist from one item set, you will probably die in Dreadfell if you don't have it by then on Nightmare, as much as it would be nice to save those generic points it is making your mid game much harder which may or may not be worth it.

[Coolthulhu]

Telekinetic leap is not a teleport. This is quite important in vaults, because "cannot teleport to this place" doesn't stop it. This gives an unfair advantage to mindslayers against all the pesky blindsiding shadows and worms that walk.

Thorn grab is instant cast, so you don't need to stop lashing to do it. The damage on it is low, but the effect is a single slow + damage effect, not a custom bleed-like effect and a regular slow. It means it can be stacked with regular slow. I recall stacking slows on Athamathon this way, leaving him with 40% global speed.

Shields maxed + eye of the tiger + antimagic or high mental crit can make a mindslayer incredibly resistant. Resolve will mindcrit all the time in late game, which will let the eye of the tiger recharge shields after spiking. Since mindslayers have an attack routine about as diverse as a beam archmage with 34% cooldown reduction, it will be likely to recharge the shields we want. Shortening the downtime from 5 turns to 2-3 can save lives in difficult situations.

Shattering charge 5 is an amazing escape ability. By charging at angle that isn't a multiple of 45 degrees, you can dig tunnels that break LoS. You heavily damage enemies, create a safe spot free from distractions (for 2 turns or so) and create a funnel that (if properly placed) forces them to come to you 1 by 1, no casters slinging spells from behind their friends.
It also has a tiny cooldown, that lets you charge pretty much every time you spike your kinetic shield.

[Sirrocco]

I think you underestimate Voracity. The Voracity skills do two completely different things for you.
- They hand you psi (in a way that's a lot more controllable than just more shield mastery)
- They give you useful crowd control, based on mindpower, that doesn't depend on psi at all.

If it was just the psi, I'd be looking for other answers, but as crowd control, they're excellent (especially given that you'll have at least one point in the extended range power.

Also, I'm perplexed about your take on the Cornac. You start with the idea that an extra cat point is a big deal (enough to make them blue, even), and then you suggest that we burn one to get Mobility strictly for TK jump. You note that halfling and higher have basically no synergy, and then you put them the same color as dwarf. Dwarf is at least a dark blue. Not only is there the saves thing, but the extra HP makes the mindslayer really quite a lot more survivable, especially in the early game (and the extra starter dungeons give you a head start on your artifact collection, give you two more low-level artifact rolls to maybe luck into spellhunt remnants with, and mean that your level is that much higher when it's time to start keeping escorts alive).

Other note: If you're antimagic, and pinched for generics, then just 1/1/1 in Fungus produces big wins for *heal* infusions. You use it as a panic button (like you didn't have enough of those already). You get back most of the turn you used and have a bit of a trailing regen to help you out for a few turns. It's not anything like as potent as what you can pull with 5/1/4, a healthy +heal% and a regen infusion, but it's noticeably cheaper, and still quite handy.

[RetZ]

Hey, just stopping by since I don't play the game anymore, if anyone would like to update/edit or otherwise use this guide, please feel free. Below is the text of the guide with formatting for easy copy/paste:

Code: Select all

[size=200]Table of Contents[/size]

Introduction
Races
Stats
Escorts
Skills
-Class Skills
-Generic Skills
Prodigies
Infusions and Runes
Equipment
Other Stuff


[size=200]Introduction[/size]
A short disclaimer: The majority of my Mindslayer experience is from playing on Nightmare difficulty. This has probably biased my choices towards being much more defensively orientated than may be necessary, particularly for Normal difficulty play. I'd also very much appreciate any advice on the aspects of the class with which I haven't had much experience, especially melee type Mindslayers (which don't really seem that viable to me).

Mindslayers are a very underestimated class, they completely walk over difficult areas and fights like Urkris, Grand Corruptor and the Dark Crypt with their huge defensive utility. They also pack Mindlash, a spammable (eventually) ranged nuke with very respectable damage. The end result is a very overall balanced class with a focus on defence and initial damage, which is exactly what you want to have in a character. Sustained damage is nice, but the scariest part of most fights is in the first few rounds before you can knock a few of the enemies out, Mindslayers excel at this with Mindlash nuking and spiked shields to mitigate damage.


[size=200]Race[/size]

Higher
Average pick, no real synergy but no big downsides either.

[color=#0000FF]Cornac[/color]
An extra category point is a big deal, but the lack of any exp penalty should not be overlooked, this can give a big advantage in getting to max level and on normal mode playthroughs will let you hit 50 before the final fight without using farportals at all. That said, the lack of exp penalty will do nothing for you at level 50, which leaves you with one extra category point. You need to have a very good plan for what you will do with your extra category point if you do decide to pick Cornac because it needs to make up for the base stats the other races get, their extra hp/lvl and their racial ability tree. This said, you don't need to spend generic points into racial skill trees which might help to give a bit more versatility.

[color=#FF0000]Shalore[/color]
Only possible synergy would be extending spiked shields with Timeless.

[color=#4000BF]Thalore[/color]
Wrath of the Forest is a strong Wil scaling damage/defense steroid and Nature's Pride gives some very strong instant cast summon fodder. The real reason to be Thalore though is Guardian of the Wood: 10% all resist, disease immunity and 20% blight resist. This talent alone makes corruptors much less threatening, even if it was only 10% all resist it would still be very worth maxing. You also get some synergistic starting stats and a solid hp/lvl. Thalore is very likely the best race in the game.

Halfling
Not sure about this option but at a glance the synergy seems low, Mindslayers don't care about crit and don't need short term defences – you want to stack on survivability for the long haul.

Dwarf
Very strong save bonuses and a good racial escape which is particularly nice for Anti-Magic builds which often lack teleportation/blink escapes. Also gets strong starting stats and the best non-ghoul HP per level along with halflings and skeletons. Does require you to hold onto 2275 gold for the maximum save bonus at 5/5 Power is Money which may cost you a created randart. The problem in higher difficulties is that saves become far too outpaced by the scaling of mobs powers, particularly in the endgame.

[color=#0000FF]Yeek[/color]
The massive HP loss is very bad given how much benefit Mindslayers get from HP but on the other hand their base stats and racial skills are strong and their xp bonus is good for the same reason Cornacs lack of penalty is good.


[color=#FF0000]Skeleton[/color]
Both of the undead races share the same problem – Mindslayers must have healing infusions and undead can't use them.

[color=#FF0000]Ghoul[/color]
See above

[size=200]Stats[/size]

[color=#FF4000]Strength[/color]
You cast spells and use mindstars. Other classes might want to put points here to wear better armor but Mindslayers get enough for free from Augmentation to supplement gear.  Out of the three skills that you don't max out this is the best to throw your spare points into.

[color=#FF0000]Dexterity[/color]
Again, you use mindstars and Augmentation gives you enough to wear your dex gear, out of the three stats you don't care about though, this gives you the worst side benefit - defense. 0 points always.

[color=#4000BF]Constitution[/color]
Very important stat for survivability for all classes. Mindslayers absorbtion shields greatly increase the value of each point of hp making this even more valuable than it usually is. Max first or second.

[color=#FF0000]Magic[/color]
You can put spare points in here for spell save over Strength if you feel like it, but Physical Save is stronger and you get extra encumbrance as a fringe benefit.

[color=#4000BF]Willpower[/color]
Your primary damage and defensive stat, most of your abilities scale off of this. Should be maxed second or first.

[color=#0000FF]Cunning[/color]
Secondary damage stat which also controls unlocks for some of your trees, should be maxed third.


[size=200]Escorts[/size]

Mindslayers don't get much choice with escorts, since we're probably going Anti-Magic and we don't have spare category points laying around you're pretty much stuck taking stat bonuses most of the time. Those who don't go Anti-Magic can diversify a bit more, if you get lucky you could probably end up with better abilities than Anti-Magic. Make sure if you are going Anti-Magic that you betray all escorts to Zigur.

Loremaster
I prefer points in Con but you could also throw them into Wil. The three skills are not worth it.

Anorthil
Bonus Wil is the standard option, take Track if you'd like some scouting utility. If you can't betray then just take the two Cun.

Seer
I would usually take the Wil bonus but although Nature's Touch doesn't scale very well it can be useful for healing future escorts and should still give between 200 and 300hp lategame. If you aren't going Anti-Magic then you should always take Premonition with possibly one rank in Arcane Eye.

Warrior
Vitality is decent at one point, late game you can be knocked below 50%hp and the healmod is very nice to help top your health off before the next round. After that your choice is between more Vitality and Con, Vitality ranks help to reduce the duration of poisions which can be irritating - particularly Insidious Poison - while Con is even more HP. Indominable Will is a poor choice because it takes three escorts to skill it past removing stuns (which you should be immune to), its probable that you'll end up stuck with 1-2 ranks of a useless skill if you try to take it.

Thief
All three of the skills are nice, but Heightened Senses and Piercing Sight are a bit stronger. I put one rank in Piercing Sight then the rest into Heightened Senses but dumping everything into Piercing Sight or one Heightened Senses with the rest into Piercing Sight should both also be viable.

Sun Paladin
Wil is the only thing worth looking at. If you're not Anti-Magic then Chant of Fortress is nice, as is Fortitude, I prefer Fortress personally.

Alchemist
Psiblades is pretty good even with only one rank, but you can consider taking the tree itself if you're willing to give up Grip or Mobility. For non Anti-Magic Stone Alchemy is a really solid choice, letting you add in gems to your gear and increasing your wealth. It will however require you to hoard Magic gear to meet requirements. If you don't want Stone Alchemy then take Dex or you could betray them for Psiblades if you aren't using any runes yet. Anti-Magic characters should probably just keep putting ranks in Psiblades, or otherwise into Wil. Consider buying Mindstar Mastery from Zigur early so that any Psiblade points you get from escorts will be at 1.0 and not 0.8.

Temporal Explorer
Dream Walk is really nifty as an escape, I don't feel like it needs more than one rank though. Sleep might be viable, but I haven't had a chance to experiment with it as of yet so my suggestion is to take the Cun bonus after a rank in Dream Walk. Non Anti-Magic charcaters can make use of Precognition to check sealed doors and other dangerous situations or Spin Fate for easy save bonuses. Personally I'd do one rank of Spin Fate then Cun bonuses, if you want Precognition then one rank of that is enough.


[size=200]Skills[/size]

[size=175]Generic[/size]

[size=150][color=#8000FF]Absorbtion[/color][/size]

All four skills in this tree are fairly essential and should be maxed either immediately or after Mindlash. I don't feel like any of the skills are worth less than 5/5 but some may want to 1/5 either Thermal or Charged Shield to save points since only two shields can be active at a time. The shields and the mastery are all instant, so swapping is very easy but your mileage may vary.

[size=150]Projection[/size]

The auras in this tree will act as sustains that damage enemies when you are hit in melee or can be turned off to cast a spell. These auras can also be used to fuel your Conduit ability. Sadly for a build wanting to use auras as a damage source, Mindlash hits far harder while costing less. They also don't really work very well as support for Mindlash because Mindslayers are pretty energy tight to begin with and keeping them up without Conduit adds even more strain on your pool. That said, they do deal AoE damage, which Mindlash lacks.

Kinetic Aura
The damage is nice, but physical is not as useful type for Conduit as fire or lightning. If you plan on going Mental Tyranny however you could save one class point by not skilling Charged Aura and maxing this instead since the actual damage numbers are the same so both will be converted into an equal amount of mind damage given equal skill ranks. That said, one point in this to use as a knockback and low/average damage AoE nuke can work well. Suggested 1/5 points, 5/5 points is viable if going for Mental Tyranny.

Thermal Aura
Outclassed as a damage spell by Pyrokinesis but still useful for Conduit. Suggested 5/5 points.

Charged Aura
The strongest of the auras as a damage spell and equal with Thermal Aura for Conduit purposes. Suggested 5/5 points, 0/5 if you want to Conduit Kinetic with Thermal.

[color=#FF0000]Projection Mastery [/color]
Might have some use for some type of aura focused build but auras are pretty weak in comparison to Mindlash. Even in an aura build however, 5 points only lowers the cooldown unlike with Absorbtion mastery and it does not lower the cooldown enough to be worth more than one point since you'll probably only get to use it once per fight anyway.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Psi-fighting[/color][/size]

[color=#FF0000]Telekinetic Smash[/color]
This skill scales pretty poorly, in addition Mindlash will probably always outdamage this anyway. Don't take this until you need to unlock the rest of the tree.

[color=#0000FF]Augmentation[/color]
Increases your Str by a percentage of your Wil and Dex by a percentage of your Cun. Very useful for meeting armor requirements and for adding some defense and physical save. That said, this talent is not really that useful early, and in situations where it would be you can usually use the trick of putting 3 points into this and one into Telekinetic Smash then taking them out after skilling up or putting on armour.

[color=#0000FF]Conduit[/color]
Conduit feels like the sole reason the Projection tree isn't useless. While Conduit is very strong, it obviously needs points in your auras to actually work, it also doesn't add as much damage as mindlash alone does, so put points in here after you have at least 1 point in at least two auras. Keep in mind that Conduit will increase your overall damage more than skilling individual auras as long as you have two auras at at least 1/5.

[color=#FF0000]Frenzied Psifighting[/color]
Adds negligible damage.

[size=150][color=#8000FF]Focus[/color][/size]

[color=#8000BF]Mindlash[/color]
This is your bread and butter damage skill, with a tier 4 or higher mindstar held telekenetically this has no cooldown. It also gets your Conduit damage added. I would usually max this skill first before working on my Absorption auras.

Pyrokinesis
If looking for an AoE damage over time spell, this beats out Thermal Aura. Even though it beats out Thermal Aura, it only gets about +30 damage per level. Suggested 1/5 points.

[color=#0000FF]Reach[/color]
Useful once you have a higher quality mindstar to support it but still not as useful as your other skills. Max this out but do it later, skilling up to 2 points when you get a t4 mindstar then 4 points once you pick up t5 with the last point when Greater Telekinetic Grasp hits an effective level of 5.

[color=#FF4000]Focused Channeling[/color]
Seems like a strong boost to both your defences and, through Conduit, your offence. The catch is that it only increases the base values of the shields and auras, unlike Conduit. The first point is nice as soon as you can but even though it only effects base values, its worth the points to eventually max this when nothing else is left. Suggested 5/5 points.

[size=150]Augmented Mobility (Locked)[/size]
Haven't used this tree, looks underwhelming except for Telekinetic Leap. With 2 cat points going to runes and one to fungus the choice is between this and Grip or possibly an Infusion. I don't think Mindslayers need more mobility than a movement infusion by the end game when you pick this up.

[color=#FF0000]Mindhook[/color]
May as well spend psi on Mindlash instead.

[color=#FF0000]Quick as Thought[/color]
A gimped Movement Infusion.

[color=#0000FF]Telekinetic Leap[/color]
Very nice escape option, especially for Antimagic characters, worth the point investment to skill it up.

Shattering Charge
Can be used to break a hole in the wall to fight enemies one at a time, worth a one point investment if you're taking the tree or possibly 4 to get the ability to break through walls.

[size=150]Grip (Locked)[/size]
[color=#FF0000]Deflect Projectiles[/color]
Moderately high sustain cost which adds a lot of stress to a small psi pool but can mitigate about half the damage of archers which can be a threat when summoned on Nightmare.

[color=#FF0000]Bind[/color]
The one rank needed to get further into the tree is enough, you don't need to kite with this as a Mindslayer by the time you get it.

[color=#0000FF]Implode[/color]
Slow is a very powerful debuff and the DoT can actually out damage mindlash over its duration. High psi cost is a bit unfortunate though.

[color=#0000FF]Greater Telekinetic Grasp[/color]
At max level you get an effectively tier 6 mindstar which is most useful for getting range 9 with Reach. The damage bonuses and extra immunity don't hurt the skill either.

[size=175]Class[/size]

[size=150]Thalore[/size]

[color=#0000FF]Wrath of the Woods[/color]
Very good one point skill that scales with Wil. Since extra points only lower the cooldown I don't find more than one a good use of points.

Unshackled
Not only are saves weak overall, but the fact that you get a +30 bonus to mental saves by maxing Iron Will further diminishes the value of this talent. One Point is fine to move on in the tree.

[color=#8000BF]Guardian of the Wood[/color]
This is the reason you should be Thalore: 10% all resist would be strong alone but it comes with 20% Blight resist and 100% Disease immunity. Corruptors are probably the most threatening enemies throughout the game and this skill makes them non-threats while giving you defence against everything else at the same time. 5/5 always.

[color=#0000FF]Nature's Pride[/color]
Very good one point skill, instant cast and fodder is very nice for every class. Also scales on Wil. Extra points lower the cooldown and increase the trees skill level, which I don't find a good use of more than one point.

[size=150]Dwarf[/size]

[color=#FF0000]Strength of the Ancestors[/color]
Saves aren't good, one point so you can move on.

[color=#FF4000]Stoneskin[/color]
Armour is a bit better than saves but still not very strong, one point so you can move on.

[color=#0000FF]Power is Money[/color]
This is why you are dwarf. Max is as soon as you have the gold to support it.

[color=#0000FF]Stonewalking[/color]
One point is nice for the escape.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Combat Training[/color][/size]

[color=#8000BF]Thick Skin[/color]
All resist is probably the strongest single stat in the game, every character should max this talent.

[color=#0000FF]Armour Training[/color]
Good at 1, 3 or 5 points. You shouldn't die to regular damage, status effects and criticals will be what kill you, 5 points in this can help to mitigate that. If you only want to give yourself more armour options then 1 or 3 points are both fine.

[color=#FF4000]Combat Accuracy[/color]
Mindstars get accuracy from Wil so I wouldn't worry too much about not hitting. Generics are too tight to spend here.

[color=#FF0000]Weapons Mastery[/color]
Does nothing for mindstars, 0 points always.

[color=#FF0000]Dagger Mastery[/color]
Does nothing for mindstars, 0 points always.

[size=150]Survival[/size]
This tree suffers badly from the generic point crunch Mindslayers have. Most of the skills would be nice if you could afford to skill them up. In general count on thief escorts for this tree.

[color=#0000FF]Heightened Senses[/color]
Both one and three ranks are very nice breakpoints for the talent.

Charm Mastery
Solid talent if you use the items that it affects, but generic points are very tight and it is pretty underwhelming.

[color=#0000FF]Piercing Sight[/color]
Assassins and invisible mages are the highest threat mobs you'll encounter late game, this counters them.

[color=#FF0000]Evasion[/color]
It could be ok, but the point investment is huge and it will kill your psi gain from shield absorption.

[size=150][color=#FF0000]Voracity[/color][/size]
Not worth the points, take Shield Discipline if you need more psi.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Mental Discipline[/color][/size]
Very important skill tree due mainly to the 50% stun resist of Iron Will, stuns are one of, if not the scariest status effect in the game.

[color=#FF0000]Aura Discipline[/color]
For builds using Conduit, one point since this talent does nothing at all for you. It seems unlikely that the energy drain will drop your energy before a fight is actually over, therefore I would only consider this talent for a build that intends to use the auras as damage spells and wants to lower their cooldowns. If you do want to use your auras as damage spells, then you should probably max this.

Shield Discipline
The psi regen is very nice mid and occasionally late game. Only reason not to take this is because you can manage without it and generics are very tight.

[color=#0000FF]Iron Will[/color]
You're basically in this tree entirely for this talent. Stuns are probably the most dangerous status effect in the game, Iron Will lets you get rid of them with half the stun resist from gear which ends up at two slots usually. Very, very strong and should be maxed ASAP.

Highly Trained Mind
Nice talent but you have better places to spend your generics.

[size=150]Finer Energy Manipulations (Locked)[/size]
Melee builds will make great use of this tree, Mindlash builds on the other hand get infinite psi here but at that cost of a category point. Voracity or Shield Discipline might be enough extra psi for you, but if they aren't consider this.

[color=#FF0000]Perfect Control[/color]
I’m unsure on how this scales with levels, but in any case its no good for Mindlash but great for melee.

Reshape Weapon
Very strong talent for melee builds. Not a very strong talent for Mindlash builds.

[color=#0000FF]Reshape Armor[/color]
Applies to every piece of armor, adding up to a large fatigue decrease, worth one point.


[color=#0000FF]Matter is Energy[/color]
Infinite psi at one rank at the cost of a turn to cast.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Antimagic[/color][/size]

[color=#0000FF]Resolve[/color]
Very nice at one point but doesn't scale very well. I would only use two points at most.

Aura of Silence
Can be difficult to apply to the targets you really want it on, that said its great for shutting down rooms of casters like in the Dark Crypt and Vor Pride entrances and could be worth some points beyond one for that.

[color=#0000FF]Antimagic Shield[/color]
Decent level scaling with solid base/Wil scaling. 1, 3 or 5 points are all good here.

[color=#0000FF]Mana Clash[/color]
It won't do as much damage as Mindlash, but when you need it you'll be very glad to have it. Use this on long fights against caster bosses, especially those with healing. Again: 1, 3 or 5 points.

[size=150][color=#8000FF]Fungus[/color][/size]

[color=#8000FF]Wild Growth[/color]
Lets you endlessly chain regeneration infusions, this is one of the main reasons to go Antimagic.

[color=#FF0000]Fungal Growth[/color]
This is almost always bad for you since the regeneration it procs doesn't stack with Regeneration Infusions and almost always will heal for less than them. Right click and remove this buff if it procs so you can use a real Regeneration.

[color=#8000FF]Ancestral Life[/color]
And this is the other big reason to be Antimagic: you don't waste turns on Regeneration Infusions anymore. As a nice side effect it lets you actually use Antimagic Shield by reducing your equilibrium.

[color=#0000FF]Sudden Growth[/color]
One point is all you need for an immense heal.

[size=150][color=#0000FF]Mindstar Mastery[/color][/size]
Post 1.0.1 Mindstar Mastery is trainable in Zigur at the gem shop, Antimagic characters are obviously starved for generic points but this could be an option for a melee focused Mindslayer. It could be a good idea to unlock this anyway to get any Psiblades from escorts at 1.0. Greater Telekinetic Grip will also improve this tree.


[color=#0000FF]Psiblades[/color]
You don't do much melee personally but sometimes you do need to swing and if nothing else then this will benefit your telekinetic weapon. Strongest thing in the tree for you.

[color=#FF0000]Thorn Grab[/color]
You'd rather be casting Mindlash, but since this costs no psi you might get a chance to use it at some point.

Leaves Tide
Evasion is ok, but your points are too tight.

Nature's Equilibrium
An extra heal is nice, but this requires point investment to be good.

[size=200]Prodigies[/size]

Mindslayers have a lot of versatility when it comes to Prodigies, Augmentation opens up access to Str and Dex Prodigies while Con, Wil and Cun will be open due to your core stats. It can be a bit painful to try to take Cun or Dex based prodigies at level 30 but fortunately those trees have fairly weak options with a couple exceptions.

Irresistible Sun
Gets the casters where you can hit them coupled with strong damage, solid choice.

[color=#8000BF]Crafty Hands[/color]
If you didn't go Anti-Magic and picked up Stone Alchemy, this is an excellent prodigy. Huge defensive or offensive bonus.

Bloodspring
I need to actually test this one out, but it seems like it can do a reasonable amount of damage and healing at the same time. That said, if you get hit for more than 20% of your life you're probably in a bit of trouble.

[color=#0000FF]Draconic Body[/color]
Would be amazing if it worked on one shots like Cauterize, as is its strong but probably never going to actually be a life saver.

[color=#8000FF]Cauterize[/color]
Yes, it requires a lot of magic gear. Yes, it requires casting a rune 1000 times. Yes, it requires running around on lava. If you are willing to go through with all of the hassle that’s needed to take this it is probably the best single skill in the game. Anything that can save you from death when you walk around a corner into something that hits for your entire health bar is amazing.

Draconic Will
Between insanely high mental saves and immunity to the worst condition Physical can throw at you, it doesn't feel like a strong option for Mindslayers.

[color=#0000FF]Mental Tyranny[/color]
Amazing damage increase, not just because of its bonus 10% but because it consolidates everything into one type, letting you stack Mind damage and penetration. Also helps Mindlash by getting it off of the weak Physical typing. If you plan on taking this, make sure to use a mind damage mindstar early on to work on the damage requirement.

Spell Feedback
Very good in sustained fights against spellcasters, which are the most difficult fights in the game.

Tricky Defenses
This is probably only adding 6-8 absorption per hit late game. Way too lacklustre for a prodigy.

[size=200]Infusions and Runes[/size]

[color=#8000FF]Regeneration[/color]
Combined with Fungus Regeneration runes become incredibly powerful, a single one is almost enough alone to keep constant uptime and two together ensures it. Still has some advantages over Healing without Fungus though: you don't need to be around half hp in the danger zone to get full benefit from Regeneration. Its much safer to stay topped up than to rely on burst healing.

Healing
Lots of on demand healing but as mentioned under Regeneration, requires your health to be low to make these worth it over regeneration.

[color=#0000FF]Wild[/color]
Very useful early on as a status cleanse and even later on useful to remove effects that you haven't gotten immunity to. Ideally you would want a Physical+Mental Wild but if that isn't possible then Physical only until you pick up 100% stun resist and then Mental after would also work.

[color=#0000FF]Movement[/color]
Versatile defensive and offensive infusion, particularly for short ranged classes like Mindslayers.

[color=#0000FF]Heroism[/color]
Powerful stat boost along with bonus effective health, can definitely save you from high burst situations against casters which tend to me the most dangerous near the end of the game. Some synergy with Absorbtion shields on the bonus health but unlike shielding you don't want to be sitting on that bonus health so its less powerful.

[color=#FF0000]Insidious Poison[/color]
They don't do enough to compensate for the utility you give up.

[color=#0000FF]Shielding[/color]
Very strong defensive option, excellent synergy with Absorbtion shields which will increase the effective health of the shields bonus health.

[color=#FF0000]Phase Door[/color]
Both the controlled and regular variants are outclassed by teleport.

Teleport
Competitor to Movement for best escape infusion/rune, comes with the chance for teleporting you in a worse situation in exchange for getting you much more distance from whatever you were running from. Also trades off the offensive power of movement.

Damaging Runes
Viable option if you decide to go arcane, but a double Wild, especially Phys/Mental is stronger.


Here are a couple of example sets:

For Anti-Magic:
Set One:
Regeneration
Regeneration
Wild (Phys+Mental)
Movement
(Wild/Heroism/Heal)
This is the standard set with a balanced defensive loadout.

Set Two:
Regeneration
Heroism
Heroism
Movement
(Wild/Heal/Regeneration)
This set is much more aggressive, but at the same time the extra effective health and stats from heroism can keep you alive in situations where just extra regeneration would not.


[size=200]Equipment[/size]
Most important stat to pick up is the 50% stun immunity to bring you to 100%. You should be looking for high quality mindstars to wield psionically as soon as possible, zigur often sells t3 mindstars at the gem shop. The reason you're looking for a high quality mindstar is to reduce the cooldown of your Mindlash, t4 mindstars will reduce it to 0 cooldown. Both Confusion and Blind immunities are very strong, if you can manage to cap those out I would highly recommend it. As for equipment to avoid – save bonuses are generally pretty weak, try to pick up immunities instead. Hitpoints are very important to pick up for any class, but Mindslayers get extra utility since your shields will increase the effective health of every point of HP. Resistances will further exaggerate this effect but typically its only worth wearing resists if you are preparing for a particular zone (Prides, especially Vor and Dark Crypt for examples) other than All Resist which is incredibly strong in all situations.

[size=200]Other stuff[/size]

[size=150]Category Points[/size]
Your options are Augmented Mobility, Grip, Finer Energy Manipulations, Fungus, Focus, 4th Infusion slot and 5th Infusion slot.

My suggestion would be 4th slot, then Fungus, then 5th slot, then Grip or Augmented Mobility. You have more than enough places to spend class skills on early, but near the end of the game when you get the 4th cat point you'll have run out, so picking up an extra class tree then is good. Fungus is amazing, but you won't finish Urkris till around lvl20, so don't worry about holding on to the lvl10 cat point. Extra Infusion slots are just awesome, but there is a case to be made for going only 4 Infusion slots, so you might consider putting that into one of the other trees.