ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I am a noob, so my noob brain is of course very flawed and filled with stupid ideas. I also have a different perspective, so if someone who isn't a noob, but was one recently enough to translate, that would be ideal.

I can do all the starter zones (even yeek now) almost in my sleep, and all the level 7 and 10 zones, so starting out with a newly unlocked class is reasonably easy. Where I fall flat is in the higher tier areas since I've only managed 2 characters at level 30, and have no real idea what is coming, or how to deal with certain rares that I spend 40 turns fighting and not knowing what I did to finally break their defenses, or not knowing that they can crit for 700 damage (enough to one shot me with my shields/defenses up) if I don't dispatch them quickly or pay enough attention to poison counts on me when they activate some ability I don't know about. Eventually, I'll get to a point where I know what is coming, and will have a good chance of dealing with it. This is where the noob class for extended tutorials could come in handy.

For this, take the starter unlocked classes, and have the better players suggest a build order level by level for what skills and which stats to buy. Code this into the classes, just like level 1 skills are (where you can override them in town, but they are picked for you by default). When you level up, the skills and attributes are assigned. (for the noob class, do not let us change the allocated points). Have the noob classes only available on easy, and maybe even go as far as giving those classes adventure mode, and give 0 unlocks at all for playing them. Lore found on these characters should not be stored in the library either, and disable the vault for them. The whole point is to teach us how to use the skills to defend, break defenses, and to show us what we need to be preparing for in the future as far as threats go.

Generally its more an issue with play style than skill build and the like. As Shesh's (and I think postecay's) Antimagic Archmages prove, you don't really need to have a good skill build to actually win on normal/nightmare, just a good play style.

And while I do agree there needs to be an extended tutorial, I disagree that hand holding is the way to do it (especially considering that ToME's talent trees/builds are one of its more unique aspects when compared to other roguelikes). Since this is a small(er) community at the moment, I would suggest you post one of your most recent characters here and then one of your characters that made it far into the game. There are plenty of people here to answer any questions you have about the game/skills/strategy/not dying.

it may easily be an issue with your build and gearing; you don't have to do hardcore dig abuse like shesh did
emphasize defense over offense unless something gives you a huge jump in offense(more than rampage, actually), level up those stunning skills(even past 6 turns, really), and emphasize offense over defense with your gear, though if its a weapon or shield emphasize its base power over that, if significantly higher, if you use it
proc damage generally doesn't matter after t1 dungeons except to break bone shields unless its huge like 49 light AND darkness damage on hit, and even that barely matters by the time you get to level 40 or so and have a voratun weapon to pick from

you don't have to be really, really, really careful and use track all the time or even abuse dig to win, even on insane roguelike

also don't invest anything into combat veteran past the first skill, and note that armor is actually a useful stat