ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2490585354

Probably a lot of bad advice, but it's for normal/adventure so there's some room for error. I mean, I'm not even saying to take Flexible Combat.

Thoughts and feedback welcome.

Not to stomp on your passion but..

I think people gonna die left and right^^

Still ToME, so it's not like that wasn't going to happen anyway.

Any specific thoughts on ways I can lead less to their doom?

Well it all comes down to personal experience mostly.
Also i didn't read the whole thing, just some parts.
Here are some nitpicks.

As a guide reader i can say that you are not explaining much.

Why you made these or those choices in gear or points distribution?
What was your strat on the most notable bosses? How this particular build helps? Sure you mentioned silence and manaclash but it's not much. And what to do if things go awry. You know they most definitely will.
Is Antimagic tree THAT good that you say to get the armor with a highest armor rating while no word about spell resistances?
What about res penetrations?
When a guide reader will die, how can he tell was it guide's fault or his own?

As a ToME player i can say there are some points that can easily lead to player's death.

Daikara. It's not enough to get around the corner to be saved from Boulder Throwers. AoE is 3x3 so you should move a little further. And they will keep chasing you. I would recommend a good Armor rating, some knockback immunity and movement infusion in general. This worked for me so far.

The fourth floor[Daikara] has the boss which is a fairly easy dragon

This is simly not true. And not the way to write a guide.
There are two completely different bosses any of which can be very dangerous.
Master. Master can easily trap you in a tight passage with his henchmen. And movement infusion won't help in these situations.
You explained how to cheese your way throu the guaranteed fight with your clone. But the thing is - inner demons/temporal clones happen more frequently. Berserker's clone may easily oneshot you. So it would be nice to know more places where it may happen. Last time i was killed by my clone while fighting Gorbat and couple of Wyrms. Not sure who actually summoned it.

Also you pushed Temporal Rift to postgame..Why?..

The guide is long enough that detailed tactics for individual bosses are going to make it impossibly long - a companion guide, maybe, but it's very hard to teach that stuff through text.

I could definitely talk more about various fights, but the reality is that detailed strategies are going to depend somewhat on what the player finds for gear, etc... and the possible complexities are huge. Celia I pushed to postgame because there's a lot to talk about with that fight and it's easier to just be in a position to steamroll it.

The Daikara bosses, done as the last T2 bosses, have never given me trouble. If you get swarmed, sure, but only if you get swarmed and the guide does account for that. This is on Normal, too, so the amount of shenanigans possible is limited. Because of the way level scaling works, you'll be going at level 20+ into a zone that caps, last I saw, at level 16, so you're overleveled. If you're used to playing on Nightmare/Insane then this is a bit different, but even on Nightmare it seems like that boss is cake.

Respen isn't particularly needed, Berserker gets some innately from Bloody Butcher. Physical respen is also a very rare item for gear, and players aren't likely to consistently even see it on Normal where you're fighting much more limited numbers of rare (+) enemies.

Temporal rift went to postgame because the first zone is absolute murder for a melee class with limited mobility options. There really isn't any reason to go to the zone except for an unlock. Good XP, I guess, but way too much of a risk for such limited rewards, and the purpose of the guide is a win, not the unlocks.

Hey, hi!

It's really nice to see people still writes guides today.

If you write anything and post it, you expose yourself to criticism, but do not let this negatively affect you.


I am not experienced with Berzerkers at all and I am also not experienced with Normal,
so I just like to add something to that is in the comments.

SDY wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 1:33 am The guide is long enough that detailed tactics for individual bosses are going to make it impossibly long

I totally agree with this, imho a better way is if you write about different enemy types/classes instead.

Every class/build have some enemies that are a nightmare to fight with (or in other words, can counter your strategy), so you can give
some tips against fighting with dangerous enemies (dangerous for this build).

E.g.: for lot of mage builds: Archmages, Corruptors and Cultists are the counters due to magical effect and/or sustain stripping.

So, what is dangerous for this build? (e.g. being disarmed? - idk, just wrote something)
How to prevent it? (How to prevent enemies to apply it on you?)
How to fight with these enemies to make it safer?
If it happens, what to do?

SDY wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 1:33 am Respen isn't particularly needed, Berserker gets some innately from Bloody Butcher.

As i wrote i am not experienced with normal, so just about the mechanic: Bloody Butcher is not a phys res pen, but a phys res reduction instead.

Res reduction is just subtracted from the dudes phys res directy, BUT it is applied BEFORE all resistance.

So this means, against enemies with high all resistance too, Bloody Butcher only may be not effective.


Nice job, keep up the good work!

detailed strategies are going to depend somewhat on what the player finds for gear, etc... and the possible complexities are huge

Especially because of this it would be a good idea to begin a guide with general strenths and weaknesses of the build. And general flow of battle.
Your build may be working but new players wouldn't know what to do with it.

It's like in Eve Online. Some players buy cool ships for a real money thinking that now they will reap everyone apart. In reality they are almost immediately killed by some puny ships just because they don't know how to use their cool ship.

Respen isn't particularly needed, Berserker gets some innately from Bloody Butcher. Physical respen is also a very rare item for gear

I dunno man..
East bosses has some good resistances
I had 322 damage
55% phys pen
15% all pen
Bloody Butcher 5/5 (like Tradewind_Rider said it's reduction and works only with bleed)
https://te4.org/characters/181584/tome/ ... 6c032288ba
And it still took some turns to kill both bosses.

Also you wrote

Usually you can defeat Elandar before the portals become a problem. Since this build isn't particularly mobile, getting to them is not easy and we will probably just endure the side enemies rather than try and deal with them.

I got to these two bosses several times. Many people say "just kill Elandar". The thing is damn Elandar teleports away to recover when he feels that the end is nigh. And if the portals are open, it can be very problematic to get to him.
Use of movement infusion could be a good advice here i think.
I also closed portals using it. But Aeryn died

I've added some sections on the "why" for the skill choices that talk about some basic tactics (e.g. attack rotation) and objectives.

Generally speaking this is a very defensive build that can tank its way through most of the content and mostly just hits stuff, which is why I picked it for the guide as there isn't a lot of subtlety to what's done. Berserker isn't a class with a lot of complex setup and payoff, tactics are mostly just don't rush in like an idiot, wake up half the level, and get swarmed.

I'll have to think on the "what to do if Elandar teleports" question, as that's something that's likely to happen and the build is not very mobile so it's a serious problem.