Normal/Adventurer mode.
A couple of deaths early on, mostly due to being trapped in hallways with casters while Rush is down. One pointless death which could have been prevented had I remembered I just unlocked Unstoppable. Stupid mistakes, for the most part.
The Good Stuff:
- Steamroller:
I can't even emphasize how much I love the Steamroller prodigy. My earlier characters always ate deaths from pressure from casters he simply ran out of answers to. Once Steamroller was unlocked, I was rarely in real danger for the rest of the game, and never by caster swarms, all of whom died in one or two attacks. Patrol ambushes became a game of "Use Track, then find out which order to instakill everything via Rush in". The Charred Scar was done almost without trying, as were any wide open areas like the Flooded Cave. It was beautiful. - Bloodthirst:
This category is God Tier. Accessing Bloodbath early meant that stamina was never an issue for the remainder of the game, even considering Unstoppable's hefty cost. In fact, during late game with high crit rates, it was impossible to deplete enough stamina to activate Relentless Fury! My plans of using Unstoppable while under the effects of both Blinding Speed + Relentless Fury for a dozen actions while unstoppable went to naught. Bloodbath's health regen was capable of outhealing some weaker enemies by itself; paired with regen, I became mostly undamagable. - Antimagic:
The antimagic category ended up far more potent than I expected. Maxing out antimagic shield was an uncertain choice for me, but it ended up proving its value repeatedly over the run. However, without a way to reduce equilibrium it probably wouldn't have been nearly so useful. Mana clash was less relevant; scrub mages died instantly to Rushes and bosses had far too much in the way of resource pools and regen to be hurt much. Silence was similarly handy but was surprisingly less useful than expected. Everything you want it to work on is probably resistant. - Fungus:
Can barely believe how useful Fungus ended up being. A 12CD Regen Infusion that lasts 10 turns, reduces equilibriium every turn, open access to a complete full heal, and doesn't even cost a turn? I'll take it, even if it does end up eating a dozen generic points. By endgame, regening 250HP/turn was normal, and I didn't even get a chance to stack Heal Mod too hard. - Movement Infusion:
I originally had a bad impression of these. Didn't see how a couple squares of near instant movement could really benefit me, especially since I was toting around Stonewalking, a psychoportation torque, and a ring that happened to grant Disengage. It turns out it's really good. The ability to reset a losing battle with nearly no cost is very powerful.
The Meh Stuff:
- Dorf:
I was less than impressed by Power is Money. My final saves got pretty high, but I don't know if they were really all that effective. On the other hand, Stone Walking saved my buns a couple of times. Perhaps Power is Money would have synergized powerfully with Daunting Presence, but I didn't have generics to spare. - Superpower:
As a sort of passive 'behind the scenes' numbers prodigy, it was hard to discern just how useful this ended up being. I noted that most of my antimagic/fungus talents improved by 5% or less. As far as 30% WIL added to weapons...well, Carry the World grants +40 Strength, which is +48 from 2H STR mod. 80~ WIL only adds +24. Who knows how much more powerful Flexible Combat is?
Aspects of Build I'd Do Differently:
- Superpower ? Change to either Flexible Combat or, more likely, Spell Feedback. The biggest threats were super durable or elusive casters.
- Relentless Fury ? Don't even acquire. Take those points, some points superfluously spent in attack talents and a category point out of infusions (I didn't really need Heroism, alternatively, I could have lived without Healing) and look into some other category lines. Dirty Fighting could have provided welcome tools for blunting late game boss damage. I never was incapable of using Unstoppable when I needed it; stamina was overall never a big issue. I had even skipped Adrenaline Rush as well as Quick Recovery.
- Offhand Weapon ? I opted to use a projection weapon in the offhand for hitting distant enemies. Turned out to be unnecessary since I could Steamroll them. The nifty Dream Smith hammer I obtained never found any use. I'd instead opt to use something more defensive; dual shields, perhaps. Swapping to high-resistances + heal mod bonuses just to buy time for healing to kick in would have been a useful trick, even if it does disable zerker rage and weapon talents.
Remarks on various skills, and the run in general:
- Fearless Cleave is more useful than people say. A talent that allows a square of movement as well as a full-damage attack in one action is economical, and Stamina is near infinite once Bloodbath is in play. I should have raised this further than I did. Raised high enough, it does damage comparable to Executions, and can even hit three targets! I don't know whether multicrits can generate multiple Bloodbath stacks, though.
- Sunder Armor seems without much use. Armor reduction is weak late game, and shield shattering seems awesome, but it appears you strike the shield for damage which was probably going to break it anyway. Better on higher difficulties, perhaps?
- Post Steamroller, I rarely used any talents at all on regular enemies, bar Rush. Bumping was sufficient to lay waste to gigantic crowds, provided they weren't all mages. Mortal Terror and Bloodbath were entirely capable of diminishing the threat any non-rare enemy posed. Anything tough enough to require further effort was probably immune to both Stun and Confuse...
- Bloody Butcher sounds like a great backup to deal with physical-resistant enemies. Chances are, they're immune to Bleed.
- A pair of boots with activatible Rush can be used in conjunction with Steamroller to recharge your normal Rush talent. Neat!
- Enemies with Lightning Runes suck. Rushing a caster who pops one means you're not going to get Rush recharged, and you might even be out of range again. The above trick with a backup rush helps, though.
- Bone giants and Dreadmasters suck. For the latter, at least we have Perfect Strikes.
- Stun and Confuse immune bosses are everywhere. They suck.
- The single most dangerous enemy I faced in the whole of the run was the Lich-type boss spawned from the Orb of Undeath, in the Slime Tunnels. I was forced to retreat at least four times, despite being loaded with antimagic, fully powered Spellhunt Remnants, maxed Unstoppable, and crazy damage besides. Just a reminder that filthy mages are the source of all suffering.