[b23] Thalore Archer getting ready for high peak, 1st time!

[Nemesis1]

I just won for the 1st time a few days ago (berserker on roguelike). I died twice before in the final fight.

Tips:

* All undead seem able to resurrect in High Peak. Focus on heading to the next floor.
* Staircases are usually guarded by a unique.
* If you're immune to confusion, blindness, pinning, and stun, then you don't really need a wild infusion. Then again, berserkers have massive regen.
* Close the portals, since the final battle will take awhile to finish.
* Your ally isn't very useful, except as a target.
* Positioning is important. I took a lot less damage by moving into the right spot.

My inscriptions were: regen, regen, movement, and speed.

Good luck!

Great hints! I'll have to do better than you, though, as the stuff I've found in my game only allows me to die once. But at least I'll have an extra ring slot after dying.

I'm immune to confusion, blindness and stun, and knockback too, but not disarm (30%) or pinning (50%). But I do have 5 inscription slots. How about this:

1. Shield 484, duration 6 turns, cooldown 14
2. Shield 543, duration 7 turns, cooldown: 20
3. Regeneration 485, duration 5 turns, cooldown 16
4. Wild, cure poison, magical, curse, physical, poison, disease (not hex though!), res 17%, cooldown 16
5. Movement 1077+% increase, immune to daze and pinning for 7 turns, cooldown: 14

...and to save me from tight spots:
Wand: Heal 362 - 5 charges
Wand: Teleport - 9 charges

With almost 1500 hitpoints, I suppose I could take quite a beating with those two shield runes, and one of them also has a rather tolerable cooldown. As I've said earlier, I only have around 25% resistance to the common elementals that dragons breathe, though. And 19% res when it comes to physical and arcane. 11 armour, 35 defence and 35 ranged defence.

[Dwarf_Hammer]

I meant I lost two other berserkers who reached the final battle. 1st zerker got blasted to death while blinded and my 2nd zerker got overwhelmed by spawning monsters. It's my fault for not asking for help. I think blood of life is the only extra life you can get in roguelike, unless you're playing a skeleton. Luckily, I managed to win with no deaths.

Your inscription set looks good.

[Nemesis1]

I meant I lost two other berserkers who reached the final battle. 1st zerker got blasted to death while blinded and my 2nd zerker got overwhelmed by spawning monsters. It's my fault for not asking for help. I think blood of life is the only extra life you can get in roguelike, unless you're playing a skeleton. Luckily, I managed to win with no deaths.

Your inscription set looks good.

How am I to deal with the spawning monsters? You said something about closing gates (and lore already told me those sorcerers were dealing with demons), so I guess I'll encounter dimensional hellgates of some sort in the final fight. Then the question is: Do I close the gates by shooting at them or by walking up to them? Depending on which, different preparations would be optional (if you close them by just reaching them, another movement infusion would help, for example, unless there are already monsters there in the way).

Anyway: What I have to do is:
-Open the shield wall in the slime tunnels
-Survive a guantlet of high level monsters for some levels
-Close the gates
-Kill the big bad
-Rejoice!

[darkgod]

* All undead seem able to resurrect in High Peak. Focus on heading to the next floor.

???

[Nemesis1]

* All undead seem able to resurrect in High Peak. Focus on heading to the next floor.

???

As high-level skeletons are the undead ones you worry about, all undead worth mentioning probably do ressurect there.

[Dwarf_Hammer]

Anyway: What I have to do is:
-Open the shield wall in the slime tunnels
-Survive a guantlet of high level monsters for some levels
-Close the gates
-Kill the big bad
-Rejoice!

That's the gist of it.

* All undead seem able to resurrect in High Peak. Focus on heading to the next floor.

???

Sorry, I only meant skeletons.

[Tom]

I almost managed to beat the ambush, but not quite.

Im about to be there soon with my archer.
Pls enlight us your strategy and tactics.

Tom

[Nemesis1]

I almost managed to beat the ambush, but not quite.

Im about to be there soon with my archer.
Pls enlight us your strategy and tactics.

Tom

I used Aim (in b23 Aim actually makes you shoot faster and not slower, it's a bit broken but then again there are other things that aren't broken to your favour, like the alchemy ingrendients not appearing) and a speed rune/Eden's Guile. Unfortunatly, I my speed rune deactivated and replaced the speed bonus (with a lesser speed bonus) from the boots instead of adding up. That wasn't fun. Either way, I could shoot many arrows for each move the orcs got.

Then I used a teleport wand and phase runes a bit, and I started out by using Flare to blind as many archers as possible. I killed most archers rather quickly, actually. When I died, I there were only one or two archers left and the boss was down to 50% hp or so. As this is my first character (except for a Dwarf Fighter who died at lvl 2 or 3), I wasn't very experienced when I did the ambush. If I would have known the things I know now (that I can't use a speed rune and Eden's Guile at the same time and more effective use of my talents), I think I could have defeated the ambush.

But next time I'll play the ambush, I won't have the fast-shooting-Aim advantage. But I'll probably play something other than Archer anyway. My hints to you are these:

-Have Scatter Shot maxed! That will allow you to stun and damage almost the whole bunch of them in one shot!
-I think you get the max area effect of Flare's blinding bonus at lvl 4, use it against the archers!
-Prepere with inscriptions that have low cooldowns, it'll take time to win this battle so you'll be using your inscriptions more than once
-Don't forget Nature's Pride! Putting more points than one in it might not be neccesarry as it only affects the cooldown and it'll be rather long anyway - instead, use the talent wisely. Use them both as living sheilds against the archers and to stun them.
-As you probably won't be using Aim, phase/teleport runes aren't the best way of moving around. Instead, use movement infusions to take cover. Sure, a teleport rune will help you get to the other side of the battlefield, but a teleport wand is better as it doesn't use an inscription slot and has no cooldown.
-At least when I did the Ambush, I wasn't attacked by any elemental attacks or so. That means that you can focus on armour/defence/physical res/damage/speed when chosing equpiment. But I've only done the Ambush once and in a much older version, so I might be wrong. Ask someone else so that you won't get a cold, freezing suprise or something.

Speaking of the Aim trick, how common is that monster spell/attack/talent that puts your sustains on cooldown? Even though it's a bit cheesy, I wouldn't mind using Aim at high peak if I was to fear for my life. Why? Well, first of all there are other bugs that work against me (like the alchemists), and if I'm going to suffer from them I think it's fair enough to exploit a bug that I can gain from. Also, not using Aim at all because of the bug would result in an unfair disadvantage (and I can't use Fast Shot either, as that sustain makes you fire slower in my version!). Finally, it was an exploit that I discovered myself when playing, I would feel much less worthy of using it if somebody else taught me to.

Anyway, how likely am I to be attacked by the sustain-deactivating monster talent at high peak? It would be rather nice to know, as it seems to remove the speed bonus from Eden's Guile too, as well as Tracking, Shield, Wild Infusions, everything! I've only encountered one monster who had the skill this far, and that was Vor. But the Vor fight was really, really evil. He had a couple of dragons, including at least one GMHW, with him too, and aside from forcing me to fight without neither timed nor sustained buffs, he and his dragons did crazy damage to me as soon as I entered the level. The only was I could beat him was to escape upstairs, heal/rest, make just one or two attacks before I was close to death and repeat! It would be really great to know which monsters in the game that can remove buffs, because it is so dangerous that it's not even funny!

A couple of more related questions: If I do run into another buff-deactivating monster, can I just use some useless buff to get him or her to use up his buff remover (or at least put it on cooldown)? Or are they smart enough to only use it to remove many/important buffs?

And one final question about cooldowns: I remember someone telling me that dragons have cooldowns on their breath attacks, but when I've been fighting dragons, they've been breathing every turn! Is this some kind of bug in b23, or is it that they have many different breath attacks and each of them have their own cooldown? So that a GMHW have to breath both sand, fire, cold and whatnot before they're out of attacks (unless their first breath is ready again by that time)?

Sorry for not proof reading my post for bad English, I'm in a bit of a hurry.

[Nemesis1]

So, I've finally reached lvl 10 of High Peak and getting ready for the final fight. I also got the character dump feature to work (I still get LUA errors but the files are still generated), is my character looking like a winner?

Code: Select all

  [Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex              : Male         STR:  65
Race             : Thalore      DEX:  84
Class            : Archer       MAG:  20
Level            : 50           WIL:  19
Exp              : 445%         CUN:  67
Gold             : 8807.85      CON:  55

Accuracy(Main Hand): 143        Life             :     1433/1433Encumbrance      : 157/157
Damage  (Main Hand): 187        Stamina          :     253/305  Difficulty       : Roguelike
APR     (Main Hand):  25        Mana             :     399/399
Crit    (Main Hand):  33%       
Speed   (Main Hand): 0.60       
Range (Main Hand):  10          
                                Equilibrium      :     0

Fatigue          : 8%           Spellpower       : 32
Armor            : 36.82        Spell Crit       : 31.1%
Defense          : 42.9         Spell Speed      : 1
Ranged Defense   : 42.9         

All damage       : 0%
Physical damage  : 39%

Physical Save    : 63.75
Spell Save       : 60.4
Mental Save      : 51.85

All Resists:   7%
Physical Resist(cap):  26%( 70%)
Arcane Resist(cap):  17%( 70%)
Fire Resist(cap):  63%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap):  57%( 70%)
Lightning Resist(cap):  59%( 70%)
Acid Resist(cap):  60%( 70%)
Nature Resist(cap):  22%( 70%)
Blight Resist(cap):  42%( 70%)
Light Resist(cap):  22%( 70%)
Darkness Resist(cap):  22%( 70%)
Mind Resist(cap):  42%( 70%)
Disease Resistance:  60%
Confusion Resistance: 100%
Blind Resistance: 100%
Pinning Resistance:  19%
Stun Resistance: 100%
Fear Resistance:  70%
Knockback Resistance:  30%

Number of NPC killed: 9912
Most killed NPC: cold drake hatchling (376)

  [Talents Chart]

 - Race / Thalore                     (mastery 1.00)
    Wrath of the Woods (generic)      5/5
    Unshackled (generic)              1/5
    Guardian of the Wood (generic)    5/5
    Nature's Pride (generic)          1/5
 - Technique / Archery - bows         (mastery 1.50)
    Bow Mastery (class)               10/10
    Piercing Arrow (class)            5/5
    Dual Arrows (class)               5/5
    Volley of Arrows (class)          5/5
 - Technique / Archery training       (mastery 1.30)
    Steady Shot (class)               5/5
    Aim (class)                       1/5
    Rapid Shot (class)                1/5
    Relaxed Shot (class)              5/5
 - Technique / Archery prowess        (mastery 1.30)
    Flare (class)                     5/5
    Crippling Shot (class)            5/5
    Pinning Shot (class)              5/5
    Scatter Shot (class)              5/5
 - Technique / Field control          (mastery 1.00)
    Disengage (generic)               1/5
    Track (generic)                   5/5
    Heave (generic)                   0/5
    Slow Motion (generic)             0/5
 - Technique / Combat veteran         (mastery 0.90)
    Quick Recovery (class)            1/5
    Fast Metabolism (class)           2/5
    Spell Shield (class)              5/5
    Unending Frenzy (class)           0/5
 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.30)
    Heavy Armour Training (generic)   1/5
    Massive Armour Training (generic) 1/5
    Health (generic)                  5/5
    Weapon Combat (generic)           10/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         0/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10
 - Cunning / Survival                 (mastery 1.20)
    Trap Detection (generic)          1/5
    Heightened Senses (generic)       5/5
    Trap Disarm (generic)             1/5
    Evasion (generic)                 1/5

  [Inscriptions (5/5)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Movement
Infusion: Regeneration
Rune: Shielding
Rune: Shielding

  [Current Effects]


  [Character Equipment]

 In main hand
a) thaloren dragonbone longbow of great speed
   Type: weapon / longbow
It must be held with both hands.

Firing range: 10
Default ammo(infinite):
54 Power [Range 1.40] (+70% Dexterity,+50% Strength), 0 Accuracy, 18 Armor Penetration, Crit 3%
Damage type: physical
When wielded/worn:
Increases damage type: 21% physical.
Reduces talent cooldowns: Steady Shot (1),Pinning Shot (1),Volley of Arrows (2).

   Dropped by slimy ooze
 In off hand
 On fingers
b) Glory of the Pride
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy 10, Armor Penetration 0, Physical Crit 0%, Physical power 10
Armor 10, Defense 5, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue -15%
Increases damage type: 8% physical.
Reduces talent cooldowns: Rush (6).
Increases confusion immunity: 100%.
Increases stun immunity: 100%.
Maximum mana -40
Maximum stamina 40

c) Ring of the Dead
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 10 Luck.

   Dropped by orc soldier
 Around neck
d) Choker of Dread
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy 0, Armor Penetration 0, Physical Crit 0%, Physical power 5
Increases blindness immunity: 100%.
Spellpower 5, Spell Crit 0%
See invisible: 10
It can be used to summon an elder vampire to your side, costing 60 power out of 60/60.
 Light source
e) Summertide Phial
   Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Light radius 4
It can be used to call light, costing 10 power out of 6/15.
 Main armor
f) hardened voratun mail armour of the sky (5 def, 19 armor)
   Type: armor / heavy

When wielded/worn:
Armor 19, Defense 5, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 16%
Increases stats: 6 Dexterity.
Increases resistances: 21% acid,20% fire,9% physical,17% cold,19% lightning.

   Dropped by orc baby
 Cloak
g) wyrmwaxed linen cloak of implacability (1 def, 0 armor)
   Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Armor 0, Defense 1, Ranged Defense 0
Increases resistances: 6% lightning,5% acid,6% cold,6% fire.
Increases confusion immunity: 20%.
Increases pinning immunity: 20%.
Increases knockback immunity: 30%.

 On head
h) dragonslayer's drakeskin leather cap of trickery (0 def, 5 armor)
   Type: armor / head

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy 0, Armor Penetration 7, Physical Crit 0%, Physical power 0
Armor 5, Defense 0, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 5%
Increases stats: 4 Dexterity,5 Cunning.
Increases resistances: 12% lightning,12% acid,12% cold,15% fire.

 Around waist
i) Girdle of Preservation
   Type: armor / belt

When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 5 Constitution,5 Willpower.
Increases resistances: 15% nature,10% physical,10% arcane,15% cold,15% blight,15% light,15% lightning,15% darkness,15% fire,15% acid.
Increases physical save: 15.
Increases spell save: 15.
Increases mental save: 15.

 On hands
j) Dakhtun's Gauntlets (0 def, 0 armor)
   Type: armor / hands

When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 6 Strength,6 Magic.
Increases damage type: 10% physical.
Increases critical damage modifier: +50.00%.
Spellpower 0, Spell Crit 10%
Physical Crit 10%

   Dropped by Tannen
 On feet
k) Eden's Guile (2 def, 1 armor)
   Type: armor / feet

When wielded/worn:
Armor 1, Defense 2, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 2%
Increases stats: 3 Cunning.
Increases talent masteries: 0.20 Cunning / Survival.
It can be used to boost speed, costing 50 power out of 50/50.
 Tool
l) builder's voratun pickaxe (dig speed 8 turns)
   Type: tool / digger

When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 4 Cunning.
Increases confusion immunity: 40%.
It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1.
 Quiver

  [Player Achievements]

'A dangerous secret' was achieved for Found the mysterious staff and told Last Hope about it. At 2011-05-21 10:03:54
'Arachnophobia' was achieved for Destroyed the spydric menace. At 2011-05-28 00:31:43
'Back and there again' was achieved for Opened a portal to the Far East from Maj'Eyal. At 2011-05-29 18:56:16
'Brave new world' was achieved for Went to the Far East and took part in the war. At 2011-05-22 17:28:51
'Clone War' was achieved for Destroyed your own Shade. At 2011-06-15 11:53:02
'Curse Lifter' was achieved for Killed Ben Cruthdar the Cursed. At 2011-04-07 23:20:24
'Destroyer's bane' was achieved for Killed Golbug the Destroyer. At 2011-05-22 01:19:49
'Dragon's Greed' was achieved for Amass 8000 gold pieces. At 2011-10-09 13:24:33
'Earth Master' was achieved for Killed Harkor'Zun and unlocked Stone magic At 2011-04-11 13:49:54
'Exterminator' was achieved for Killed 1000 creatures At 2011-04-07 17:37:06
'Eye of the storm' was achieved for Freed Derth from the onslaught of the mad Tempest, Urkis. At 2011-04-10 12:24:42
'Genocide' was achieved for Killed the Orc Greatmother in the breeding pits, thus dealing a terrible blow to the orc race. At 2011-06-03 14:05:09
'Home sweet home' was achieved for Dispatched the Weirdling Beast and taken possession of Yiilkgur, the Sher'Tul Fortress for your own usage. At 2011-04-09 15:35:05
'Level 10' was achieved for Got a character to level 10. At 2011-04-07 01:12:45
'Level 20' was achieved for Got a character to level 20. At 2011-04-09 15:30:41
'Level 30' was achieved for Got a character to level 30. At 2011-05-21 10:27:25
'Level 40' was achieved for Got a character to level 40. At 2011-05-29 14:09:17
'Level 50' was achieved for Got a character to level 50. At 2011-06-14 23:57:00
'Orcrist' was achieved for Killed the leaders of the Orc Pride. At 2011-06-14 23:57:00
'Race through fire' was achieved for Raced through the fires of the Charred Scar to stop the Sorcerers. At 2011-05-29 14:02:13
'Size matters' was achieved for Do over 600 damage in one attack At 2011-04-12 21:18:09
'Sliders' was achieved for Activated a portal using the Orb of Many Ways. At 2011-05-22 15:31:11
'The secret city' was achieved for Discovered the truth about mages. At 2011-04-07 00:32:30
'There and back again' was achieved for Opened a portal to Maj'Eyal from the Far East. At 2011-05-29 15:00:51
'Treasure Hoarder' was achieved for Amass 3000 gold pieces. At 2011-05-29 12:49:55
'Treasure Hunter' was achieved for Amass 1000 gold pieces. At 2011-04-15 13:31:04
'Vampire crusher' was achieved for Destroyed the Master in its lair of the Dreadfell. At 2011-05-21 07:57:28

[Nemesis1]

The battle was even and challenging, at one point I thought I wasn't going to make it but in the end I won!

[Rectifier]

Hah good for you, now do it on a newer release.