I just came from completing nightmare a second time with my temporal warden which ended up making the game a breeze ( thanks to the excellent guide I followed).
Now i feel that I want to try out some insane even if I don't see myself completing it anytime soon.
However it seems that there is few guides/advices on how to play on insane. I mean nightmare was not that much rougher than normal except for a few unlucky rares and the lower parts of high peek yet insane seems to throw rares at you every third enemy.
So what I'm looking for is general advice on what to do different compared to nightmare and most importantly which classes are viable for insane.
Thanks in advance!
Advice on Insane?
Moderator: Moderator
Re: Advice on Insane?
I don't have time to make a big post right now, but I recommend checking out this guide. It's a strong build for attempting Insane and has some gameplay advice at the bottom of the guide.
Re: Advice on Insane?
Here are the general steps I follow when playing Insane to get you started. I'm sure others do things differently, but I've had a great deal of success going this route.
1. Leave your starting area. If you are yeek, dwarf, undead, demonologist or doombringer, you can't do this. I'd recommend leaving those races until you have a little more practice on insane.
2. Download the Drowning addon. This will give you a rod of asphyxiation to allow you to speedily drown all the NPC and gain 5-7 levels and some much needed loot.
3. Go to all the towns, drown all the peoples. This will provide you loot, and most importantly, levels.
4. You should be at a minimum level 5. If your drowning had few uniques/randbosses, drown yourself and restart. You really need a decent start.
5. Visit the shops. You will do a lot of shopping on insane in the early tiers. Your priority is as follows:
i) Zigur - torque of mindblast or Angolwen wand of blast-in-face. Don't forget that oranges can get you into Angolwen just as well as yellows.
ii) Physical/Mental wild. If you cannot find one, it is not the end of the world, but at the least a physical is needed. Once you have done all your drowning you should be able to afford both a torque and a physical mental wild.
iii) This is as much as we can afford now, so let's hit the real world and come back here.
6. Go to trollmire. There are few rares/uniques here, and whatever is here can be mindblasted/wanded and kited. If you are a castery type, things can be killed the conventional way. If you are melee, I would advise against going in melee against any unique/randboss at this stage. Kill all the way to Bill and kill bill. You should have the tools and build to do so, I've never failed to kill Bill at level 8-9 on insane, but I've had a lot of practice. If you are a particularly weak starting class, and Bill rolls a particularly strong starting class (Doomed or Oozemancer) then you may have to retreat. I would probably restart if you can't kill Bill.
7. Go to Derth and do the arena quest for 2 generics. This should get you to level 9-10 depending on race.
8. Go to the lumberjack village and kill the cursed. If there are boss/unique lumberjacks here they must die too, but be very careful. Only try it if you have a guaranteed one shot (mindblast/wand/etc) and can place yourself so as to not aggro other uniques at the same time. Many level 1 randbosses will one shot you.
9. By now we should have almost 100 gp, so return to the shops. We should, by now, have a phys/mental wild and a torque/wand. If you couldn't get a torque of mindblast, a totem of tentacle can work, as can a torque of armor hardiness, or a strong torque of kinetic shield. But a mindblast is so much better. Against a shieldwall snake unique, you really have almost no chance of killing them as melee without a torque/wand. Your priority is as follows:
i) + HP gear. Belts/cloaks/gloves can often be found with +30-40 HP gear even in the low level shops, so check them all.
ii) undeterred boots. As you have noticed, everything stuns/confuses you. You need undeterred, and this really low level ego can be found in any armor store.
iii) Belt of shielding.
iv) dispersion gauntlets. Even early on these can be the difference between life and death, and if you find them, use them. If nothing else they get rid of undead shields, so think of it as a 500HP bolt spell.
v) item of track/wand of clairvoyance. Important not just for tracking obviously, but also because you might have a radius 2 lightsource, and you want to illuminate a lot of the dungeon for easier fighting.
vi) you should have a pickaxe by now from Ben, but if you don't, go buy one from the new shop in Derth.
10. By now you should be level 10 (or close). Head to Korpul. Your level 10 cat point is up to you. I used to always get a movement infusion (which is still a solid choice) but I find now I often open a cat instead. You can't go wrong with a movement infusion for sure, and use it to
a) precast if melee to get stun immune
b) escape if ranged. Escapes on insane are mandatory. You will flee from many many things.
11. Korpul can have many rares. You really can't afford to face 2 or 3 at a time at this level so here comes the first combat advice.
a) Scout.
b) Dig.
c) Stairscum
You certainly can still "z" around on insane (I do it all the time), but not this early with so low HP. Scout and isolate the rares, dig *some* zigzag tunnels to funnel them in one at a time, and clear the level.
12. This should give you some more money, visit shops to buy more +HP if you can.
13. Scintillating caves
14. Rhaloran Camp
This place can generate insanely powerful mobs. Vaults in particular can have those elven corruptors/blood mages which can end you quickly. Scout through the doors, and if it *is* one of the OP elites, you might want to leave them alone. Nowadays I know my classes well enough on insane to know who can and who cannot tackle these morons, but better safe than sorry. Also, have a torque of psychoport or a rune of teleport with you if you intend to try them.
15. Shopping again. You should have a couple hundred gold now (depending on earlier purchases). Assuming you have gobbled all the +HP gear to be found, your next goal is a T3 weapon/staff. Zigur and last hope both sell T3 weapons, and Angolwen has T3 staffs. Buy a decent one. It will last you a loooong time. Particularly good ones for melee:
Massacre
On-hit gloom
On-hit blind
Particularly good ammo:
On hit slow
On hit daze
On hit gloom
Particularly good staffs:
+Mana
+Spellpower
+Illuminate
There are a million I've forgotten, but generally the harder it hits the better at this stage.
16. Norgos.
This is where the shit hits the fan. I dunno why, but this place is the one that hits the first plateau of *tonnes* of rares/uniques. Many of them are shieldwalls and snakes/bears. It is not uncommon to run into a bear randboss oozemancer here who is simply unkill-able at your level. If that happens you can do one of two things:
a. Psychoport/teleport and hope for a better enemy to face.
b. Flee.
I'll leave you to decide which you prefer, but as a hint, any time an option has "flee" on insane, it's the better option.
17. Heart of the gloom.
Poke your head in here, but for god's sake don't go down. It's horrible. We will clear a few T2s before returning here.
18. By now you are level 14-15 or so, so Derth lightning has popped up. If you can handle them (torque of lightning resist, ranged attacks, etc) then by all means. Once you have, head to Angolwen, get ported to Urkis, stick your head down the stairs to fix the level, and recall home again.
19. Old Forest
The first of the T2s. This is where many of my insane runs end. It's a big step up in difficulty from the T1s, and you can get swarmed at the entrance pretty easily. Recommendations:
a) Scout (track/clairvoyance/arcane eye/tentacle corner summon)
b) dig
c) stairscum
Once cleared, go to Nur and poke your head down to fix the level, but leave immediately. The eels and imps there will eat you unless you are particularly OP.
20. Maze.
If normal. If Alt maze, go to SWL instead.
21. SWL
Hope for normal. Good lord. If alt, take advantage of the fact that any area with mobs is a room, and it won't actually cave in. Clear them, then wait for all cooldowns to come off, and wait for the worms to come back. This area can be quite challenging because you can't retreat easily. There are 10 rooms on every level, and the chests here can give randart T5 gear, so you want to explore everything. I use a wand of clairvoyance in each room I find so I can count them easier. A good weapon/staff found here will make your life so much easier.
22. Lost Merchant.
By now you should be level 23-24 or so, and time for the lost merchant quest. Head up into the wilds and run around till it triggers. This place can drop nice hi level loots from chests, but the randbosses can be very very nasty depending on your class. Since you cannot flee or dig here, scouting is essential.
23. Daikara.
a) Scout,
b) Dig,
c) Flee.
Do not do the temporal rift unless you really need to. It's rough.
24. HoTG
I'm level 25 now....suck it withering thing.
25. Slavers compound
26. Rescue the Yeek from Halfling complex.
This is annoying on insane, and I fail as often as not. There are two main reasons to fail this.
a) While fighting all the rares/uniques in the area, one of them teleports/pd away and lands next to the yeek and ganks him
b) Subject Z gets another class combo that has a tonne of AoE and ganks the yeek no matter what you do.
What I've started doing is digging down to the yeek, ignoring the rares/uniques and killing off subject Z before the rest of the level.
27. Ruined Dungeon.
28. Golem Graveyard.
This place can cause huge issues, and I've started skipping it. I've never missed it.
29. Melinda
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah. I haven't been there in years.
30. Urkis.
You should be hi level 20s by now, so back to Urkis to kill him. Never mind that silly normal advice about lightning resist, I never bother. You need:
a) Torque of lightning resist or
b) magical wild/gauntlets of dispersion to get rid of hurricane or
c) Rush-Stun-Flurry RAWRWRRRRRRR with pre-cast movement infusion.
31. Dreadfell
You should have everything in the west cleared except the following:
i) your fortress (I go there after Dreadfell) and
ii) the Necro's Graveyard east of Lost Hope. (Also done just after dreadfell)
iii) Golem Graveyard (up to you)
iv) Elven ruins (when you return from the east)
v) Mark of the Spellblaze
vi) Melinda (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
vii) Optional event thhingys (Bearscape, Poosh, Caldera, etc are all to be skipped)
Dreadfell is not so bad really. If you have managed to get past the T2s with only 2 deaths you are on track.
This should get you to your first prodigy, and carry on from here. Not much is different in the east on insane, and if you can survive the west with only 1-2 deaths, and make level 35-36 in Reknor, you are on track for a potential winner.
Viable Classes on insane:
In theory, all classes *can* win on insane, but some are much easier than others, the following is simply my own experience with them, please save your "but I found cursed to be my easiest insane win" for your own post.
Most Viable based on *my personal experience*
(I've won with these quite handily on insane, some my first playthrough)
Archmage
Paradox Mage (may not be true post nerf, not sure they can survive the early game anymore)
Temporal Warden
Oozemancer
Summoner
Sun Paladin
Anorithil
Less Viable, but still viable:
(I've won or at least made it to the east with these, but it took a lot of tries)
Berzerker* (Pre-timeless nerf) (winner)
Marauder* (Pre-timeless nerf) (made it east, no win)
Skirmisher (made it east, no win)
Solipsist (winner)
Mindslayer (made it east, no win)
Wyrmic (underway, the new wyrmic is quite viable)
Brawler (There are winners, but I have a rough time with the start)
Doombringer *Stopped at level 42, pre nerf. Still viable methinks, but rough start.
Demonologist *Won handily on NM, rough start
Arcane Blade (Can't get a winner outta this, dunno why. Quite powerful in theory)
Necromancer (Made it to the final fight and ran into dual corruptor end bosses. Thanks RNG)
Reaver (made it east, no win)
Corruptor (made it east, no win)
Less viable:
(I can't even make a start with these assholes. I'm sure others have had success)
Archer
Bulwark
Rogue
Shadowblade
Doomed
Cursed (I know there are winners out there, but it's a tough class)
Alchemist
Hope this helps, feel free to post questions/errors, and I'll fix it!
Cheers.
1. Leave your starting area. If you are yeek, dwarf, undead, demonologist or doombringer, you can't do this. I'd recommend leaving those races until you have a little more practice on insane.
2. Download the Drowning addon. This will give you a rod of asphyxiation to allow you to speedily drown all the NPC and gain 5-7 levels and some much needed loot.
3. Go to all the towns, drown all the peoples. This will provide you loot, and most importantly, levels.
4. You should be at a minimum level 5. If your drowning had few uniques/randbosses, drown yourself and restart. You really need a decent start.
5. Visit the shops. You will do a lot of shopping on insane in the early tiers. Your priority is as follows:
i) Zigur - torque of mindblast or Angolwen wand of blast-in-face. Don't forget that oranges can get you into Angolwen just as well as yellows.
ii) Physical/Mental wild. If you cannot find one, it is not the end of the world, but at the least a physical is needed. Once you have done all your drowning you should be able to afford both a torque and a physical mental wild.
iii) This is as much as we can afford now, so let's hit the real world and come back here.
6. Go to trollmire. There are few rares/uniques here, and whatever is here can be mindblasted/wanded and kited. If you are a castery type, things can be killed the conventional way. If you are melee, I would advise against going in melee against any unique/randboss at this stage. Kill all the way to Bill and kill bill. You should have the tools and build to do so, I've never failed to kill Bill at level 8-9 on insane, but I've had a lot of practice. If you are a particularly weak starting class, and Bill rolls a particularly strong starting class (Doomed or Oozemancer) then you may have to retreat. I would probably restart if you can't kill Bill.
7. Go to Derth and do the arena quest for 2 generics. This should get you to level 9-10 depending on race.
8. Go to the lumberjack village and kill the cursed. If there are boss/unique lumberjacks here they must die too, but be very careful. Only try it if you have a guaranteed one shot (mindblast/wand/etc) and can place yourself so as to not aggro other uniques at the same time. Many level 1 randbosses will one shot you.
9. By now we should have almost 100 gp, so return to the shops. We should, by now, have a phys/mental wild and a torque/wand. If you couldn't get a torque of mindblast, a totem of tentacle can work, as can a torque of armor hardiness, or a strong torque of kinetic shield. But a mindblast is so much better. Against a shieldwall snake unique, you really have almost no chance of killing them as melee without a torque/wand. Your priority is as follows:
i) + HP gear. Belts/cloaks/gloves can often be found with +30-40 HP gear even in the low level shops, so check them all.
ii) undeterred boots. As you have noticed, everything stuns/confuses you. You need undeterred, and this really low level ego can be found in any armor store.
iii) Belt of shielding.
iv) dispersion gauntlets. Even early on these can be the difference between life and death, and if you find them, use them. If nothing else they get rid of undead shields, so think of it as a 500HP bolt spell.
v) item of track/wand of clairvoyance. Important not just for tracking obviously, but also because you might have a radius 2 lightsource, and you want to illuminate a lot of the dungeon for easier fighting.
vi) you should have a pickaxe by now from Ben, but if you don't, go buy one from the new shop in Derth.
10. By now you should be level 10 (or close). Head to Korpul. Your level 10 cat point is up to you. I used to always get a movement infusion (which is still a solid choice) but I find now I often open a cat instead. You can't go wrong with a movement infusion for sure, and use it to
a) precast if melee to get stun immune
b) escape if ranged. Escapes on insane are mandatory. You will flee from many many things.
11. Korpul can have many rares. You really can't afford to face 2 or 3 at a time at this level so here comes the first combat advice.
a) Scout.
b) Dig.
c) Stairscum
You certainly can still "z" around on insane (I do it all the time), but not this early with so low HP. Scout and isolate the rares, dig *some* zigzag tunnels to funnel them in one at a time, and clear the level.
12. This should give you some more money, visit shops to buy more +HP if you can.
13. Scintillating caves
14. Rhaloran Camp
This place can generate insanely powerful mobs. Vaults in particular can have those elven corruptors/blood mages which can end you quickly. Scout through the doors, and if it *is* one of the OP elites, you might want to leave them alone. Nowadays I know my classes well enough on insane to know who can and who cannot tackle these morons, but better safe than sorry. Also, have a torque of psychoport or a rune of teleport with you if you intend to try them.
15. Shopping again. You should have a couple hundred gold now (depending on earlier purchases). Assuming you have gobbled all the +HP gear to be found, your next goal is a T3 weapon/staff. Zigur and last hope both sell T3 weapons, and Angolwen has T3 staffs. Buy a decent one. It will last you a loooong time. Particularly good ones for melee:
Massacre
On-hit gloom
On-hit blind
Particularly good ammo:
On hit slow
On hit daze
On hit gloom
Particularly good staffs:
+Mana
+Spellpower
+Illuminate
There are a million I've forgotten, but generally the harder it hits the better at this stage.
16. Norgos.
This is where the shit hits the fan. I dunno why, but this place is the one that hits the first plateau of *tonnes* of rares/uniques. Many of them are shieldwalls and snakes/bears. It is not uncommon to run into a bear randboss oozemancer here who is simply unkill-able at your level. If that happens you can do one of two things:
a. Psychoport/teleport and hope for a better enemy to face.
b. Flee.
I'll leave you to decide which you prefer, but as a hint, any time an option has "flee" on insane, it's the better option.
17. Heart of the gloom.
Poke your head in here, but for god's sake don't go down. It's horrible. We will clear a few T2s before returning here.
18. By now you are level 14-15 or so, so Derth lightning has popped up. If you can handle them (torque of lightning resist, ranged attacks, etc) then by all means. Once you have, head to Angolwen, get ported to Urkis, stick your head down the stairs to fix the level, and recall home again.
19. Old Forest
The first of the T2s. This is where many of my insane runs end. It's a big step up in difficulty from the T1s, and you can get swarmed at the entrance pretty easily. Recommendations:
a) Scout (track/clairvoyance/arcane eye/tentacle corner summon)
b) dig
c) stairscum
Once cleared, go to Nur and poke your head down to fix the level, but leave immediately. The eels and imps there will eat you unless you are particularly OP.
20. Maze.
If normal. If Alt maze, go to SWL instead.
21. SWL
Hope for normal. Good lord. If alt, take advantage of the fact that any area with mobs is a room, and it won't actually cave in. Clear them, then wait for all cooldowns to come off, and wait for the worms to come back. This area can be quite challenging because you can't retreat easily. There are 10 rooms on every level, and the chests here can give randart T5 gear, so you want to explore everything. I use a wand of clairvoyance in each room I find so I can count them easier. A good weapon/staff found here will make your life so much easier.
22. Lost Merchant.
By now you should be level 23-24 or so, and time for the lost merchant quest. Head up into the wilds and run around till it triggers. This place can drop nice hi level loots from chests, but the randbosses can be very very nasty depending on your class. Since you cannot flee or dig here, scouting is essential.
23. Daikara.
a) Scout,
b) Dig,
c) Flee.
Do not do the temporal rift unless you really need to. It's rough.
24. HoTG
I'm level 25 now....suck it withering thing.
25. Slavers compound
26. Rescue the Yeek from Halfling complex.
This is annoying on insane, and I fail as often as not. There are two main reasons to fail this.
a) While fighting all the rares/uniques in the area, one of them teleports/pd away and lands next to the yeek and ganks him
b) Subject Z gets another class combo that has a tonne of AoE and ganks the yeek no matter what you do.
What I've started doing is digging down to the yeek, ignoring the rares/uniques and killing off subject Z before the rest of the level.
27. Ruined Dungeon.
28. Golem Graveyard.
This place can cause huge issues, and I've started skipping it. I've never missed it.
29. Melinda
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah. I haven't been there in years.
30. Urkis.
You should be hi level 20s by now, so back to Urkis to kill him. Never mind that silly normal advice about lightning resist, I never bother. You need:
a) Torque of lightning resist or
b) magical wild/gauntlets of dispersion to get rid of hurricane or
c) Rush-Stun-Flurry RAWRWRRRRRRR with pre-cast movement infusion.
31. Dreadfell
You should have everything in the west cleared except the following:
i) your fortress (I go there after Dreadfell) and
ii) the Necro's Graveyard east of Lost Hope. (Also done just after dreadfell)
iii) Golem Graveyard (up to you)
iv) Elven ruins (when you return from the east)
v) Mark of the Spellblaze
vi) Melinda (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
vii) Optional event thhingys (Bearscape, Poosh, Caldera, etc are all to be skipped)
Dreadfell is not so bad really. If you have managed to get past the T2s with only 2 deaths you are on track.
This should get you to your first prodigy, and carry on from here. Not much is different in the east on insane, and if you can survive the west with only 1-2 deaths, and make level 35-36 in Reknor, you are on track for a potential winner.
Viable Classes on insane:
In theory, all classes *can* win on insane, but some are much easier than others, the following is simply my own experience with them, please save your "but I found cursed to be my easiest insane win" for your own post.
Most Viable based on *my personal experience*
(I've won with these quite handily on insane, some my first playthrough)
Archmage
Paradox Mage (may not be true post nerf, not sure they can survive the early game anymore)
Temporal Warden
Oozemancer
Summoner
Sun Paladin
Anorithil
Less Viable, but still viable:
(I've won or at least made it to the east with these, but it took a lot of tries)
Berzerker* (Pre-timeless nerf) (winner)
Marauder* (Pre-timeless nerf) (made it east, no win)
Skirmisher (made it east, no win)
Solipsist (winner)
Mindslayer (made it east, no win)
Wyrmic (underway, the new wyrmic is quite viable)
Brawler (There are winners, but I have a rough time with the start)
Doombringer *Stopped at level 42, pre nerf. Still viable methinks, but rough start.
Demonologist *Won handily on NM, rough start
Arcane Blade (Can't get a winner outta this, dunno why. Quite powerful in theory)
Necromancer (Made it to the final fight and ran into dual corruptor end bosses. Thanks RNG)
Reaver (made it east, no win)
Corruptor (made it east, no win)
Less viable:
(I can't even make a start with these assholes. I'm sure others have had success)
Archer
Bulwark
Rogue
Shadowblade
Doomed
Cursed (I know there are winners out there, but it's a tough class)
Alchemist
Hope this helps, feel free to post questions/errors, and I'll fix it!
Cheers.
Re: Advice on Insane?
Just wanted to say thanks Furey. That's honestly one of the best guides to higher difficulties I've seen for this game, especially as just an overview.