ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hi everyone,

I've started playing a lot of Tome recently. I am playing only Nightmare difficulty, Roguelike mode. (Hardest possible from the start. I haven't managed to make it to the East yet).


Currently I am playing lots of Archmages. I started out playing Dwarf archmages for the HP bonus, but after going online and reading Mex's guide, I've been trying the Shalore Archmage. (It seems way squishier than my Dwarf archmage/vulnerable to 1 shotting before I can put shields up! But the crit damage is a lot higher/bigger shields, which I guess is essential later and on even higher difficulties).


Anyways, my last three good runs (into the ~20s in level) have ended when I had the bright idea "Hey, those Ziguranth patrols that are running around have good loot. Lets try fighting some". Usually I beat several of them fairly easily and think everything is great, but then in the next one I'll walk around a corner and get 1 shot by some halfling slinger hero or something.


So what do you do? Do you try to fight the adventuring patrols as some point(s) in the game, and if so when? Do you avoid them due to risk? Should I just be more careful about casting Arcane Eye and shielding before I encounter them, or should I try to avoid them completely?

Thanks!

Tome, like many roguelikes, is a game about collecting random experience and items, while minimizing risk. Adventurer parties, while always leveled in relation to your character, are considered a high risk because they are more random than other settings--in Daikara, for instance, you know to prepare for lighting damage and big ranged hits, but adventuring parties can be any player class (some of which have extremely strong simple synergies), and have random layouts which can make it hard to control or run from multiple enemies. Essentially, yes it is a good idea because you want experience and loot, but usually there are better ideas! Notably, most characters finish the game at level 50, so going out of your way for experience is often irrelevant.

However: classes have power spikes at certain levels, and if you are at a level where the dungeon up ahead is particularly dangerous, but you also just got a good synergy online, looking for a fight might be smart!

If your character is highly overpowered for its level, then it may be worth farming ambush parties. In most cases, though, it's one of those things that seems great 9/10 times and then gets you killed 1/10 times.

Its ok on lower difficulties, sometimes even a good way to farm items. Its pretty dangerous on higher diffs, especially Madness but also Insane.

No matter how strong you are, there's pretty much always a risk you'll zone in to 3 Skirmishers staring at you and die instantly. Despite this, playing on NM I do like to farm them as by level 15-20 they're dropping T4+ gear. Getting a purple voratun weapon is a pretty insane power boost. If you have a way to survive long enough to get to the exit you're generally ok, but it's still risky.

Do not recommend zigur patrol since they have mana clash, which can be quite dangerous for archmagi