ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Having recently decided to just have fun with whips, I acquired a certain skeletal one whose activation is Bone Grab, from a Corruption Tree I rarely use. After using it for a while, I've started actually eschewing obvious upgrades in favor of keeping it for one simple reason...one of Maj'Eyal's little pleasures for me has been encountering ranged attackers using bolt-style missile attacks. Wearing plus speed items, I wait for them to cast/fire, then Grab them and put them in the path of their own missile. I derive enormous satisfaction from this technique even when it's not necessarily the most efficient way to beat them. I take special pleasure in doing it with white crystals and watching them turn themselves into ice blocks. I've done similar things with place-swapping before, but somehow this one just feels more satisfying to me.

Another tiny pleasure is the judicious use of teleport and dithering around to lure difficult-for-mid-level-melee-characters-to-beat patchwork trolls from the enormous Old Forest vaults (y'all know the ones I'm talking about) and drowning them in the water. I wish I could hear their screams as they suddenly realize that they may be tough, but they're dumb as rocks.

So...what are your small pleasures of life in Maj'Eyal?

Being blinded with the googly eye necklace and just fighting on as usual, only to have the effect lifted and discover the room clear.

I liked to do the same thing with a Paradox Mage when something dodged one of my missiles. I'd gravity spike 'em back into position.

With brawlers it's fun to just step aside and continue administering a beating.

As cursed I like seeing something ranged behind a corner and beckoning it. And splattering through crowds with reckless charge. And blindsiding stuff.

Chaining DoTs and then wandering off smugly is a top favorite of mine. Gravity Well->Slow started it and I got hooked, use DoTs like that whenever it's reasonably feasible. (I later translated this to letting ships slowly burn/asphyxiate in FTL.)

Killing enemies on my on_hits alone(or through Defense based counters like Counter Attack) is fun, too, though usually only reserved for lategame and relatively weaker enemies.

Hunter wrote:Having recently decided to just have fun with whips, I acquired a certain skeletal one whose activation is Bone Grab, from a Corruption Tree I rarely use. After using it for a while, I've started actually eschewing obvious upgrades in favor of keeping it for one simple reason...one of Maj'Eyal's little pleasures for me has been encountering ranged attackers using bolt-style missile attacks. Wearing plus speed items, I wait for them to cast/fire, then Grab them and put them in the path of their own missile. I derive enormous satisfaction from this technique even when it's not necessarily the most efficient way to beat them. I take special pleasure in doing it with white crystals and watching them turn themselves into ice blocks. I've done similar things with place-swapping before, but somehow this one just feels more satisfying to me.

Another tiny pleasure is the judicious use of teleport and dithering around to lure difficult-for-mid-level-melee-characters-to-beat patchwork trolls from the enormous Old Forest vaults (y'all know the ones I'm talking about) and drowning them in the water. I wish I could hear their screams as they suddenly realize that they may be tough, but they're dumb as rocks.

So...what are your small pleasures of life in Maj'Eyal?

I love doing that. But you left out the best targets to use it on. Skeleton Master Archers. Bone grab them, and all there own shots just slam into there back. This is a gib when a reaver does it. Not sure if the blight damage is changing that from normal, given how horrible the damage is on skelly master archers, they may well be gibbing themselves. Just... priceless. Downright cathartic to watch them screw themselves over like that. Especially after all the characters that've been screwed by them.

I suggested an achievement for this once."Yoink!" for pulling enemies into there own shots. (Bone grab isn't the only one, Phase door can do it too, So can mindhook. Beckon MIGHT work. Distortion's suction ability (vortex?) can work. Plenty of methods.) Hasn't happened yet. ("Stop Hitting Yourself" was another suggested title for the achievement, might work better since some of the methods aren't 'pulls'.)

I'd love doing an ach for that but it's very hard to correctly detect :/

Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:I suggested an achievement for this once."Yoink!" for pulling enemies into there own shots. (Bone grab isn't the only one, Phase door can do it too, So can mindhook. Beckon MIGHT work. Distortion's suction ability (vortex?) can work. Plenty of methods.)

Wormhole, too. You can do a lot of funny things with Wormhole. TP fleeing skelly archers onto their own shots. TP approaching mobs further/into lava, water, a gravity well - or even better, their own DoTs (how satisfying when this works!) TP mobs of enemy factions close to each other (ditto.) Keep an escort who won't stay still in a safe corridor for a while. Safe 'remote' chest opening (cast Wormhole onto the chest before opening it.) Play ping pong with a tough boss you keep moving between both ends of a wormhole. And more. I really looove that spell.

Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:

Hunter wrote:Having recently decided to just have fun with whips, I acquired a certain skeletal one whose activation is Bone Grab, from a Corruption Tree I rarely use. After using it for a while, I've started actually eschewing obvious upgrades in favor of keeping it for one simple reason...one of Maj'Eyal's little pleasures for me has been encountering ranged attackers using bolt-style missile attacks. Wearing plus speed items, I wait for them to cast/fire, then Grab them and put them in the path of their own missile. I derive enormous satisfaction from this technique even when it's not necessarily the most efficient way to beat them. I take special pleasure in doing it with white crystals and watching them turn themselves into ice blocks. I've done similar things with place-swapping before, but somehow this one just feels more satisfying to me.

Another tiny pleasure is the judicious use of teleport and dithering around to lure difficult-for-mid-level-melee-characters-to-beat patchwork trolls from the enormous Old Forest vaults (y'all know the ones I'm talking about) and drowning them in the water. I wish I could hear their screams as they suddenly realize that they may be tough, but they're dumb as rocks.

So...what are your small pleasures of life in Maj'Eyal?

I love doing that. But you left out the best targets to use it on. Skeleton Master Archers. Bone grab them, and all there own shots just slam into there back. This is a gib when a reaver does it. Not sure if the blight damage is changing that from normal, given how horrible the damage is on skelly master archers, they may well be gibbing themselves. Just... priceless. Downright cathartic to watch them screw themselves over like that. Especially after all the characters that've been screwed by them.

I suggested an achievement for this once."Yoink!" for pulling enemies into there own shots. (Bone grab isn't the only one, Phase door can do it too, So can mindhook. Beckon MIGHT work. Distortion's suction ability (vortex?) can work. Plenty of methods.) Hasn't happened yet. ("Stop Hitting Yourself" was another suggested title for the achievement, might work better since some of the methods aren't 'pulls'.)

I haven't yet encountered skelly master archers with this character (just finished unlocking the fortress.) I'm sure I'll take just as much pleasure as you do in hoisting them by their own petard. I just like the visual aspect of seeing an ice attack take down its own caster. As I said, I've never been much for bone grab before...I've encountered this phenomenon with a couple other techniques, but this one just feels better, somehow.

@sageacrin: I know the feeling. I always want to defend DoT against the naysayers because there's just something fun about how it works, but can never quite figure out how to express it. Sure it's better to kill a creature outright in one blow, but the pleasure of watching one falter and die as it's chasing you, or using one as a slowly dying shield to block you from others is special.

darkgod wrote:I'd love doing an ach for that but it's very hard to correctly detect :/

Is there a way to narrow down the attack type (say "bolt") and, instead of checking the character's power usage, just check whether Monster X causes damage to Monster X while using that power? Or would that be too easily confused by reflection runes and the like? I suppose you could specifically exclude any instances where reflection is active.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I recall seeing a monster move into the path of its own bolt without help from me. Phasing into the region of their own AoE spells, certainly, but I'm not sure about bolts.

Earwicker wrote:Wormhole, too.

Damn, I've been criminally negligent in not using it much.

I love seeing a missile flying my way when I'm fighting an enemy in melee. I perform Switch Position and smile.

I like leaving nearly dead but poisoned or burning enemies alone, and watch them burn.

I like finishing enemies with a kick in the balls (Dirty Fighting) or headbutt (Skullcracker). And various weak, humiliating attacks.

When i have been running some Wyrmics i must say that i have always found Swallow extremely satisfying when it works on a difficult opponent.
And even more satisfying to the point of giving me a big smile on my face when you're using it on a gigantic enemy while being a Yeek, imagining the little guy devouring a huge great wyrm in 1 bite is something rather hilarious.

Robsoie wrote:When i have been running some Wyrmics i must say that i have always found Swallow extremely satisfying when it works on a difficult opponent.
And even more satisfying to the point of giving me a big smile on my face when you're using it on a gigantic enemy while being a Yeek, imagining the little guy devouring a huge great wyrm in 1 bite is something rather hilarious.

Agreed. This can be very satisfying.

IMHO the best is using it on some jerk who refuses to die at zero life.

"Ha ha, I have Blurred Mortality!"
"Joke's on you, I have steak sauce."

Doctornull wrote:

Robsoie wrote:When i have been running some Wyrmics i must say that i have always found Swallow extremely satisfying when it works on a difficult opponent.
And even more satisfying to the point of giving me a big smile on my face when you're using it on a gigantic enemy while being a Yeek, imagining the little guy devouring a huge great wyrm in 1 bite is something rather hilarious.

Agreed. This can be very satisfying.

IMHO the best is using it on some jerk who refuses to die at zero life.

"Ha ha, I have Blurred Mortality!"
"Joke's on you, I have steak sauce."

Corrupted Negation for Heroism users and Disperse Magic for Blurred Mortality users is good, too.

Casually yanking out the rug from under them is fun.

As an Archmage (or PMage or really any mage), I have an insane amount of fun playing Meteormancer. Crown of Burning Pain for meteor activation and Meteoric Crash prodigy for automated meteors.

I just drop rocks on folks.


My bow TW recently got really fun late in the game when I had lots of teleports -- and Vital Shot. Melee range Vital Shot GO! <splat> (I could crit with that for around 6k damage) Aside from that, with the same TW, I could peak at 280% global speed for 10 turns, with a 70% attack speed -- and a 33 shot quiver. DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA.