Just won and killed Athamathon on Insane, thought I would throw down a few more thoughts until someone comes up with a real guide.
https://te4.org/characters/4806/tome/8c ... 9ff8f052501. Race choice: Cornac, Ogre, or Shalore
- Cornac has the smoothest early game, able to get Possession Mastery sooner than other races (in time for going east, as opposed to after Sand Wyrm), which is important on Insane due to the high number of boss monsters. Probably the best choice for any RL run. I played this on my Nightmare run.
- Ogre has the widest possible combination of weapon selections possible, and therefore can make the best use of the widest variety of bodies. There is some value in combining two-handed weapon + mindstar to combine your Battle Psionics and Psychic Blows trees, but equally or more valuable is the ability to go two-handed weapon and shield. I played this on my Insanity run.
- Shalore is good for all the reasons they're usually good, and a couple extra ones - as a Possessor you rely on PES to make sure you have the stats to back up whatever your body wants to do. Timeless can make your first two PES activations of a battle have 17/18 round uptime, which is beastly. You can also snag Prodigies from some bosses later in the game, and getting to activate these more often or have them last longer is very powerful. I did not play as a Shalore, but I played a large portion of the game in the bodies of the Shalore Corruptors.
- Yeek and Higher probably deserve some kind of honorable mention - Yeek has a nice speed boost and a couple instant combat abilities, while Higher lets you use Steam without slotting for it and gives you a instant heal that helps with PES's inherent conflict with Solipsism. Unlikely to compete well with the above, though.
2. Order of talent unlocks - As an Ogre I did Inscription, Body Snatcher, Steamtech, and Possession Mastery. Make sure you kill the Corrupted Wyrm first of all backup guardians in order to be able to take over the rest.
3. Inscriptions - Early game I went x2 Shield and Movement, and didn't regret it. Once I started using Psychic Blows and needed more Psi Regen I went Regeneration, Shield, Injector, and Movement until I got Rocket boots, at which point I went double injector. Shield could arguably be replaced with another Regeneration, but I particularly like the Aluin body and Weapon of Light synergizes best with a Shield inscription.
4. Prodigies. PES and I Can Carry the World were my choices.
5. Starting out, Psionic Disruption is your main damage source. Later Psychic Blows will be much more important. Get 1/1/1/1 Psychic Blows by 20 or so in order to have much needed AoE damage.
6. Skills on bodies to look for:
- Anything Mindslayer, in order to use the third weapon slot and Beyond the Flesh. (You do have to reattach these to the skill bar each time you switch into a body).
- Bone Shield. Essentially does away with the death of a thousand cuts problem of being hit by opponents while coming round corners.
- Summoners. Later on a fairly bad choice, but the early game can be much easier if you throw a Flamespitter around every blind corner. Also makes having your escorts survive much, much easier if you block their forward progress with your body and let your summons take the hits. I strongly recommend combining summons with a sling or bow and trying to stay out of melee.
- Throwing Knives. Surprisingly good in the early game, as they count as melee attacks and can carry your Psionic Disruption debuff, as well as Incinerating Blows or other melee procs you might pick up from bodies.
- Temporal Warden bodies with high mobility and ranged skills. Being able to 0 action switch between bow and your melee skills is very helpful, and playing keepaway and plinking with arrows is perfectly valid starting out.
7. The Dark Side of PES.
Worth noting that when PES procs, it increases your Psi max value but not your current value, meaning that it slows you down from your Solipsism-enhanced usual speed. Nothing that can't be built around, but something you need to know about.