Mindslayer Questions

[Nori]

So I recently unlocked Mindslayers (Yeek archmages are surprisingly good, even though they have no HP) and I have some questions about the mechanics and techniques as this class plays a lot differently than what I'm used to.

How do people normally use the shield sustains (for instance, you just sustain the kinetic until you come across someone dealing fire damage) and is it really worth putting more than one point into anyone of them other than the kinetic shield? Am I correct in assuming that the spiked version still only stop the same type of damage as the normal shield stops?

Are the Auras just a radius of one for damage? If you sustain conduit it deactivates your auras but how is it affecting damage? Does it just apply the damage the Aura would do to approaching enemies to the weapon you have? Or is it something different? If I had all three Auras going would it apply the damage from all of them? Is conduit the only reason to get more than just the first aura?

How important is accuracy and weapon mastery for a mindslayer? I plan on using mindstars, but if find a good weapon I may telekinetically wield a mindstar and regular wield the weapon.

Is reach worth taking? It seems like most of the abilities of a mindslayer are melee so it seems like a waste of points. I wish it detailed what was actually increased.

Sorry, this has gotten really long... So I'll just end with asking if anyone has suggestions for me. Here is my current mindslayer: http://te4.org/characters/5409/tome/995 ... e5c45aa236
I also have two category points left to use and am not sure what to use them on yet. I plan on unlocking grip at level 20, otherwise I don't think I'll unlock any of the other trees unless one of them is highly recommended.

[jilladilla]

you can have TWO auras AND shields sustained at once, although you won't have much psi
shields can be put up/spiked in no time, so adjust your shields to the situation

auras hit all adjacent enemies at the END of your turn, so it helps vs fleeing enemies, not when you're running away

conduit amplifies the effect of your aura and adds it to your telekinetic weapon, you trade splash dmg for single target dmg

you can conduit 2 auras and use the 3rd normally, conduited auras do NOT lower your max psi (they are technically on permanent cooldown until conduit gets turned off)

also remember that conduit is applied to telekinetic smash damage (i remember doing over 500 damage to the sandworm queen with it), and i think it goes to mindlash damage too

if you're a melee mindslayer: get the mobility tree, mindslayer doesn't have great mobility without it

just my 2 cents

[donkatsu]

Unless you unlock both Grip and Psi-Archery, you sort of run out of places where class points are absolutely required, so putting them into thermal and charged shields later on can be nice because of how linearly the spiked shields scale. They still only stop the same type of damage, but if you're familiar with the zone then you know what kind of damage is coming and you can plan accordingly: Thermal in Vor and Gorbat, Charged in Rak'Shor, etc.

All of your assumptions about auras are correct except for the last two. You can't have three auras going at the same time, so the most you can have through Conduit is two, and then your third one would have to be just the aura sustain. Conduit is not the only reason, you can also use auras for spike damage (although I don't know how useful that is after the change).

Accuracy and weapon mastery are important for mindslayers, unless you don't use weapons in which case weapon mastery is probably not worth it. In b41 you probably won't need accuracy either if you stick exclusively to mindstars.

The mobility tree is really good, I wouldn't pass that one up.

[Nori]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to take a closer look at the mobility tree. Wasn't sure how needed it was/is, but I suppose extra mobility is always needed. If you guys were to put a category point into one are to enhance it where would you put it?

[lukep]

I just built a winner mindslayer, concentrating mostly on the Focus tree. Mindlash can do amazing amounts of damage by the endgame (2500+ for me, on 80% crit, though that's about the max possible), and it can be used every turn when you have a grade 4 or higher gem/mindstar equipped.

I don't think that Psi archery can stand up to Focus in terms of ranged damage, but I haven't really tried it out.

Another good strategy for mindslayers is to focus on maximizing melee damage by wielding three weapons that all boost each other. I found Warbringer's weapons of Ruin to be the best, though anything that boosts stats, crit, accuracy, or physical power is good as well.

Reach boosts pretty much anything with a range, so it is quite valuable. Notably, Leeches get their range rounded up, instead of down, so a one point investment can be worthwhile.

Reshape Weapon can boost your damage with mindstars by about 40%, as their base power is so low that it is doubled by that skill. They still do less damage than other weapons though.