*** I recommend you don't read this if you want to keep your fun in finding your own tactics and experiencing the surprises this fight offers! ***
Really... don't!
After finally giving up upon finding the *mancer unlocks or an amulet of the fish, I decided to go towards High Peak. About the first thing I found in the high peak was... guess what... an amulet of the fish. *bangs his head against the wall*
I could've ported back to Angolwen (at least I suppose so), but I didn't care anymore. Another remarkable drop in the very nice high peak was a new "Magma Dragonbone Staff of Wizardy" which outclasses my old one (similar type, but worse). Working my way through the high peak wasn't really difficult but lots of fun. The monster are leveled to a point that they proved some resistance and that kept me concentrated. Grinding myself through the pretty deep (high?) peak dungeon I only once encountered a near death situation. I got a bit sloppy at some point an suddenly found me surrounded by a pack of poison jelly (800hp each - omfg! ), me hp were down below 100 and the poison ticked for 280 per turn. Luckily a greater healing pot + active regeneration got me ~300hp at my next turn, thus giving me 11hp after PD in safety. A cure poison pot saved the day (and probably my keyboard which likely would've been smashed otherwise).
Finally down at the final lvl, everything actived that could prove helpful and entering the sanctuary. Event started and whoops, I even get some help. Nice, but kinda messed up my initial tactic because suddenly I coudn't use me AoE to their fulles anymore...
Nevertheless, I trapped the left guy (which turned out to be the mage) in a stonewall, the right was happily punching Aeryn and thus giving me the opprtunity to nuke to the full extend. Careful repositioning enabled me to activate Ice Storm without hurting Aeryn and it turned out that this guy is immune to stuns. Lucky me, that I decided to do him first (my original decision was based on the resists), because that might have proved to be some trouble taking him on with his high resists and the spawning critters without Aeryn.
Finally, the only dmg I took during this first part of the fight was from Aeryn lightblast-thingy. Soon after evil blue #1 died the first summons started to appear (coincidence or scripted?) and Aeryn died while I took care of the mobs from the southern 2 portals. Unfortunately the stonewall started to crumble on "his side", therefore he took some big hits before I realised what was going on. Quick PD to the southern LoS-breaker and the dance with blue mage #2 began. I was quite surprised that he not only takes full dmg from my casts (in opposition to the other one who had massive resists), but could be stunned to. At some point I managed to fully prison him in a stonwall while Inferno+Vapor active. With a 13 turn, 210.8 dmg Inferno that fried him down to 400hp (I brought him to ~50% beforehand), leaving me enough time to kill relaxed some of the spawns and waiting for the SW to crumble. 1 punch later he went down.
I was kind of surprised when I got an extra achievement (Master Tactician) for not disabling the summon portals. Hell, I didn't even know you *could* disable them.
Conclusion & Feedback:
Slime tunnels:
Lots and lots of jelly. Since my AoEs seem to do more dmg than their reproduction threshold, I literally grinded my way through hundereds of them. I guess at some point I did hit some sort of cap where they stopped to split further... Well, I cleared the whole thing.
High Peak:
Nice monster density and well leveld mobs. That was a lot of fun and had an appropriate roguelike difficulty though I still miss the "oh shit"-monster like Black Reavers, Sky Drakes or GWoPs from Tome 2.x. I can't wait for the vaults.
The Sanctuary:
The final fight is really well done. I enjoyed it a lot! Stonewall reduced the difficulty hugely but I think it would've been possible without it too - especially since other classes deal much more single-target dmg than my mage. If Aeryn takes the tough melee guy on, it should be easily doable to kill the caster before Aeryn goes down - especially since the caster is stunable. The summons might impose some trouble at some point (especially if major demons show up) but it should be possible.
General ToME feedback (now that I'm done):
- Caverns of Osse:
Didn't do them since I didn't find a fishy amulet... I dumped my beta9 mage down there and he died pretty much instantly after entery cause of 2 myrmidons at the starting point.
They looked like fun and I will do them with my winner later, since I finally found an amulet in High Peak. - Dragons:
Their stun immunity made them uncomfortable opponents till the end though not exactly dangerous. The loot is very disappointing, since money is absolutely useless.
My proposal: Give each of them a decent loottable (probably equal dropchance for every itemcategory) and as compensation give every dragon the ability to summon dragons of a lower category (e.g. Drakes can summon wyrmlings, Wyrms can summon both Drakes and Wyrmlings). But that might be just another reason to add diggers (keyword: anti-summon tunnel). - The Orc Prides:
I like them the way they are, though I cursed the Vor Pride a lot - but that is only due to the *mancer-unlocks.
- Mt. Doom:
I gave you some time ago already feedback on MtD. I still like it a lot. Just one comment/question: I though TP/PD "forward" isn't supposed to work anymore. Actually I didn't try it outside of the boss arena (there forward PD worked, but that might be intended). However, it was still possible to probability travel forward in the main passage. That extremely sped things up... Bug or Feature? - Sidenote: High Peak gives alot of XP. I entered the Slime tunnels with lvl 40, and ended up at lvl47 when I reached the sanctuary... Wow, thats powerleveling.
- Unremarkable Caves:
I know that the Anorithil are unlocked when you help the nice lil' elven lady. However, siding with the orc doesn't grant anything. Is there something planned? Orcrace unlock? One of the "evil" classes? - Staff of Absorption:
It sucks. I didn't try the activation yet, but my ego staff (39SP, 5crit, 5mag, 6wil, 33% firedmg, 110 mana) is superior in every other sense. Kinda disapointing for an endboss uberitem. The pearl is great on the other hand! - Assassin Quest:
I could actually choose to help the Assasin King and he told me that he will call for me. But he didn't.
Not yet implemented? - Ringcraft:
The unmagic rings are raaaaaare. Didn't ever see a better one than "gold ring"... *sigh* - Monster AI:
They behave strange sometimes. It appears to me that it has something to do with the new mapping-method. Especially when shooting AoE around a corner they sometimes refuse to move at all, making things cheesy. Sometimes they just clutter somewhere together. e.g. in the town-type prides I usually had a neat line of orcs at the western border...
A huge problem occurs when a darkness spell was cast. Then they usually completely stop moving since they cant see anything. Just trowing AoEs in the dark area will fry them - and they just sit there and wait to die... - Chardump:
When doing a chardump of a living char, it doesn't contain the equipment...
Therefore, finally the chardump of my winner.
Nocturne, Nandor Archmage
Code: Select all
[Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]
Sex : Female STR: 33
Race : Nandor DEX: 30
Class : Archmage MAG: 91
Level : 47 WIL: 85
Exp : 71% CUN: 36
Gold : 2473.81 CON: 69
Attack(Main Hand): 35 Life : 1172/1172Encumbrance : 91.68/99
Damage(Main Hand): 124 Difficulty : Normal
APR (Main Hand): 6 Mana : 587/587
Crit (Main Hand): 15% Positive : 0/168
Crit (Main Hand): 15% Negative : 0/168
Crit (Main Hand): 15%
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00
Fatigue : 4% Spellpower : 164
Armor : 51.601346615733Spell Crit : 24.8%
Defense : 33 Spell Speed : 1
Ranged Defense : 33
All damage : 13%
Physical damage : 8%
Fire damage : 43%
Physical Save : 26.75
Spell Save : 45.25
Mental Save : 31.5
All Resists: 7%
Physical Resist: 36%
Fire Resist: 35%
Cold Resist: 15%
Lightning Resist: 15%
Acid Resist: 15%
Nature Resist: 10%
Confusion Resistance: 100%
Blind Resistance: 100%
Stun Resistance: 100%
Number of NPC killed: 6027
Most killed NPC: brittle clear ooze (2306)
[Winner!]
Well done! You have won the Tales of Middle-earth: the Fourth Age
The Istari are dead, the Orc Prides lie in ruins, thanks to your efforts.
You have prevented the portal to the Void from opening and thus stopped Morgoth from bringing about the end of the world.
The orc presence in the Far East has greatly been disminished by the loss of their leaders and the destruction of the Istari. The free people of the Sunwall will be able to prosper and thrive on this land.
The West will once more know peace, most of its inhabitant will never know they even were on the verge of destruction, but then this is what being a true hero means, to do the right thing even though nobody will know about it.
You may continue playing and enjoy the rest of the world.
[Talents Chart]
- Spell / Arcane (mastery 1.30)
Arcane Power (class) 5/5
Manathrust (class) 5/5
Manaflow (class) 0/5
Disruption Shield (class) 0/5
- Spell / Fire (mastery 1.40)
Flame (class) 5/5
Flameshock (class) 5/5
Fireflash (class) 1/5
Inferno (class) 5/5
- Spell / Earth (mastery 1.30)
Stone Skin (class) 5/5
Dig (class) 1/5
Strike (class) 1/5
Stone Wall (class) 4/5
- Spell / Water (mastery 1.40)
Corrosive Vapour (class) 5/5
Freeze (class) 1/5
Tidal Wave (class) 1/5
Ice Storm (class) 5/5
- Spell / Air (mastery 1.30)
Lightning (class) 5/5
Chain Lightning (class) 0/5
Feather Wind (class) 0/5
Thunderstorm (class) 0/5
- Spell / Conveyance (mastery 1.30)
Phase Door (generic) 5/5
Teleport (generic) 4/5
Displacement Shield (generic) 5/5
Probability Travel (generic) 4/5
- Spell / Nature (mastery 1.30)
Regeneration (generic) 5/5
Heal (generic) 2/5
Restoration (generic) 2/5
Nature's Call (generic) 1/5
- Spell / Meta (mastery 1.30)
Disperse Magic (class) 1/5
Spell Shaping (class) 5/5
Quicken Spells (class) 1/5
Metaflow (class) 0/5
- Spell / Divination (mastery 1.30)
Sense (generic) 4/5
Identify (generic) 3/5
Vision (generic) 4/5
Telepathy (generic) 1/5
- Spell / Phantasm (mastery 1.30)
Illuminate (class) 0/5
Blur Sight (class) 0/5
Phantasmal Shield (class) 0/5
Invisibility (class) 0/5
[Current Effects]
- Arcane Power
- Hymn of Detection
- Probability Travel
- Stone Skin
- Chant of Fortress
[Completed Quests]
-- An apprentice task
You met a novice mage who was tasked to collect many staves or jewelry.
He asked for your help should you collect some that you do not use.
* 15/15
-- Escort: lost sun paladin (level 5 of Trollshaws)
Escort the lost sun paladin to the recall portal on level 5 of Trollshaws.
-- A mysterious staff
Deep in the tower of Tol Falas you fought and destroyed the Master, a powerful vampire.
On your way out of Tol Falas you were ambushed by a band of orcs.
They asked about the staff.
-- Trapped!
You heard a plea for help and decided to investigate...
Only to find yourself trapped inside an unknown tunnel complex.
-- Let's hunt some Orc
The elder in Minas Tirith sent you to the mines of Moria, deep under the misty mountains, to investigate the orc presence.
Find out if they are in any way linked to the lost staff.
But be careful, even the dwarves did not venture in the old halls for many years.
-- The Island of Dread
You have heard that in the bay of Belfalas, far to the south of Bree, lies the ruined tower of Tol Falas.
There are disturbing rumors of greater undeads and nobody who reached it ever returned.
Perhaps you should explore it and find the truth, and the treasures, for yourself!
-- Important news
Orcs were spotted with the staff you seek in an arid waste in the southern desert.
You should go investigate what is happenning there.
-- Escort: lost sun paladin (level 1 of Mines of Moria)
Escort the lost sun paladin to the recall portal on level 1 of Mines of Moria.
-- The wild wild east
There must be a way to go into the far east from the lair of Golbug, find it and explore the unknown far east, looking for clues.
-- Falling Toward Apotheosis
You have vanquished the masters of the Orc Pride, now you must venture inside the most dangerous place of this world, the High Peak.
Seek the Blue Wizards and stop them before they bend the world to their will.
To enter you will need the four orbs of command to remove the shield over the peak.
The entrance to the peak passes through a place called 'the slime tunnels', probably located inside or near Grushnak Pride.
-- Escort: repented thief (level 4 of Tol Falas)
Escort the repented thief to the recall portal on level 4 of Tol Falas.
-- Escort: injured seer (level 1 of Er??an)
Escort the injured seer to the recall portal on level 1 of Er??an.
-- The Doom of the World!
You were sent to Mount Doom, in the ancient land of Mordor, where the One Ring was once forged by Sauron and destroyed by Frodo Baggins.
This place is still full of the power of the ring and the orcs intend to absorb this power using the Staff of Absorption!
Whatever their plan may be, they must be stopped at all cost.
The volcano is attacked by orcs, a few Sun Paladins made it there with you, they will hold the line at the cost of their lives to buy you some time.
Honor their sacrifice, do not let the orcs finish their work!
You arrived in time and interrupted the ritual, the blue wizards have departed.
Use the portal to go back to the Far East, you *MUST* stop them, no matter the cost.
-- Lost Knowledge
You found an ancient tome about gems.
You should bring it to the jeweler in the Gates of Morning.
Limmir told you to look for the Valley of the Moon in the southern mountains.
-- Escort: injured seer (level 7 of Old Forest)
Escort the injured seer to the recall portal on level 7 of Old Forest.
-- Escort: lost sun paladin (level 4 of Tower of Amon S?»l)
Escort the lost sun paladin to the recall portal on level 4 of Tower of Amon S?»l.
-- Escort: lost anorithil (level 2 of Er??an)
Escort the lost anorithil to the recall portal on level 2 of Er??an.
-- The Orbs of Command
You have found an orb of command that seems to be used to open the shield protecting the High Peak.
There seems to be a total of four of them, the more you have the weaker the shield will be.
-- Escort: lone alchemist (level 1 of Carn D?»m)
Escort the lone alchemist to the recall portal on level 1 of Carn D?»m.
[Active Quests]
-- The many Prides of the Orcs
Investigate the bastions of the Pride.
* You have destroyed Rak'shor.
* You have destroyed Vor.
* You have destroyed Grushnak.
* You have destroyed Gorbat.
* All prides lie in ruins, their masters destroyed. High Sun Paladin Aeryn would surely be glad of the news!
-- Into the darkness
It is time to explore some new places dark, forgotten and dangerous ones.
The Old Forest is just south-west of the town of Bree.
The Maze is west of Bree.
The Sandworm Lair is to the far west of Bree, near the sea.
Carn D?»m is to the north of Amon S?»l.
* You have explored the Old Forest and vanquished the Old Man Willow.
* You must explore the Maze and find out what lurks there and what treasures are to be gained!
* You have explored the Sandworm Lair and vanquished their Queen.
* You have explored Carn D?»m and vanquished the Dragon.
--
As for oh-shit monsters, I dunno, some people would tell you they have their own oh-shit monsters alreayd (myrmidons, corrupters, ..)