ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Ok, so here i have this skelly archmage:
http://forum.te4.org/characters/1819/to ... 25900d6212
with some C points hoarded. The Mark did not load, so he's now standing against DFall, with 1st level cleared. 1 or 2 more C Points will probably enter the pool on the way through.

Any constructive advice on good ways to build him to conquer ambush? If its needed, he can undo some 3 points in the Shock tree.

Out of curiosity, why do you have 3 points in Probability Travel? That seems somewhat wasteful, since it scales with magic and you rarely need to move that far -- one point is usually enough. Those two extra generics would be much better spent in Shielding, say. Or resilient bones, to decrease your runic saturation.

While we're on the subject, you need a second Shield rune. Your own spells should already give you plenty of mobility, after all, and you want to be able to keep your shield up 24/7, optimally with the ability to replace it if it goes down as often as possible.

It won't help you with the ambush, so you'll want to wait on it, but it might be a good idea to put a point in Arcane Eye, too -- it can be very useful. Unless you want to rely on getting that artifact that casts it, I guess.

I would say max Flameshock and swap your phase door rune for an invis rune (preferably lowest cooldown one you have). At all times keep the crowd stunned, unable to see you, or have shields up. Keep phase dooring around to opposite ends of the map so they can never hit you. Take out the archers first and slowly whittle down the rest.

You don't have much in terms of outright damage though, which seems a shame. Personally I'd rather have Manathrust, Flame and Lightning all maxed for easy cycling than having Quicken Spells slightly reducing their cooldowns.

A few points in Thick Skin would be good for defence. Some physical resistance obviously would be a great help too.

Why are you so concerned about "beating" the scripted ambush? You don't have to. You're not even supposed to.

It's fun and there's an achievement ;)

I dont care much for achievement part, but definitely want to beat it due to the "fun" part.
Once almost beat it with dorf fighter (died to a stupidity and misclicking after already having archers and boss down - boss was down so it was a real death too).

re: beating it - i wonder if putting my class points into stone tree, to have stone walls ready when needed, would change much.

It's not just an achievement, there are actually loot benefits to beating the chief orc and beating the ambush....(ok, the second benefit won't last for much but still..)

Also, try bringing the staff with you through the farportal before turning it in to the guy at Last Hope.

Also, if you haven't yet unlocked Angolwyn, try giving the staff to the Apprentice mage.

Aquillion wrote:Also, if you haven't yet unlocked Angolwyn, try giving the staff to the Apprentice mage.

Or maybe not, as it might result in...not-so-nice things.

Whee, ambush went easier than expected. Bloodcaller helped in that a big time too.
Now, sadly i returned the staff before trying any of the two mentioned side-tracks. Care to spoil me, please, what would happen in either case?

marchewka wrote:Care to spoil me, please, what would happen in either case?

Every time you do a farportal, there's a VERY small chance you'll be teleported to a 'special' place where having the staff gets you some special text.

And as for giving the staff to the apprentice...it kills him, permanently(I think)failing the quest

Huh, I didn't know it failed the quest (and, I guess, locked you out of Angolwyn on that playthrough?)

Seems a bit harsh for what's basically an easter egg.

It's mostly a funny aside. You're unlikely not to have unlocked Angolwen by that stage. The only character you might possibly see this on is an archmage that ignores the apprentice till late in the game.

There should really be an achievement for getting the apprentice to blow himself up. (Suggested names: "Careful, it's loaded." or "Must be this tall to ride.")

Also, what is the special text you getting to the shertul with the staff? (I assume thats what youre referring to.)