Finally got my first win, Skeleton Archmage focusing mainly on Fire/Wildfire trees for damage. Not particularly notable I guess since its a pretty well-known powerful race/class but whatever! Did really well early-game, midgame though I died a lot to various things, probably mostly due to sloppy play or me not being used to the race (this was my 1st serious attempt at a Skeleton character). I actually ran out of lives and wound up using my one-time skeleton resurrection ability in the middle of the 2nd pride, at which point I thought I was doomed because I still had the berserker pride to do, which is the one that scares me most because of Battle Call. But I managed to pull it together, played ultra-conservative from then on (actually I just started rushing for the end of the game because I wanted to A) get as far as I could and B) be done with the character). Not sure if there's anything in particular I changed that helped me stop dying, by that point most of my talents spent were just adding damage to abilities, but I did pick up the Aegis spell which I never have before because the mana cost seems prohibitive mid-game, when I often am trying to balance my mana pool with all the sustains I run as an archmage. I had less than 200 available mana for most of the game, so 80 is quite a bit.
This was my first time clearing all the prides and making it to High Peak, so I really didn't know what to expect. I headed in at about 43 and basically just hoped that level scaling would protect me - which maybe it did, because I never really ran into any insane burst damage enemies that some people report having trouble with. Very few of the randomly generated bosses even touched me though so who knows what would have happened if they did
For some reason this character felt VERY tanky for a mage though, even though my resists were rather low since most of my gear was focused on either damage or stun resist. Even with only 9% resist all, 15% physical resist I could survive repeated hits from champions of urtagh or whatever they're called. I went into the final boss fight at level 47, shut down the portals, and won pretty handily, levelling up to 50 during the fight. I failed the event at charred scar though, since I didn't really know any way to speed up my movement without teleporting (probably could have used ring of speeds ability for a small boost, but then I would have had even less fire penetration for all the fire resistant enemies). So I got the worst ending I guess, oh well. I was a bit irritated that the 'Winner' screen at the end was covered by the 'Death' / start over screen meaning I couldn't actually see the ending text in-game or read the lore that it unlocked.As far as build/abilities go, I started out generic archmage getting 3 beams going, got meta tree at 10 and got the cooldown reduction sustain ASAP, picked up 1 point freeze at some point but I wound up rarely using it and it always broke instantly so maybe I could have done without. With generics I focused on Shielding first (after 5/5 phase door obviously), then the skeleton debuff reduction, then spread out more among the defensive talents. At 20 I got another rune slot which went to a backup teleport for emergencies until I found a controlled phase door rune mid-Dreadfell, First 3 slots were 2 shields and manasurge the entire game (Rune selection is pretty lacking so it wasn't a hard choice
) I gradually increased Flameshock interspersed with improving the Meta tree, then finally started working on Inferno mid-Dreadfell (so late 20's). At 30 got the Wildfire tree and rushed Cleansing Flames because I heard it ~owns~ and it did seem like it would own, but honestly it's hard to tell when it's working. I'm sure it removed many a buff and debuff while I wasn't looking though. Not much to it after that, after maxing cleansing flames I got wildfire, by this point 90% of enemies were being carpet bombed by Inferno/Flameshock. I actually improved Fireflash last which I sort of regret, on the other hand no I don't because it is EXPENSIVE, especially since as I said I spend most of the game with less than 200 available mana as I kept piling on sustains.Had worse than usual luck with escorts, didn't get Heightened Senses
(((( but I did get Providence and Chant of Fortitude and Premonition at least, Providence obviously being very good for skeleton, I didn't have to use it often but when I did it was probably a lifesaver. Gear was pretty mediocre overall, got archmages staff and robes but it feels like I *always* find those. It was very rare for me to upgrade my gear though, since everything I wore needed to have stun resist, and I only found 1 staff of warding which I used for quite a while. I found the Fiery Choker which I didn't get to use as much as I wanted but when I did it was AMAZING. Best find was probably the random belt I got in one of the prides, which had stun resist and +life and amazing defensive stuff all-around. Also the random boots I bought from the lost merchant were fantastic at 40% stun resist, letting me swap out my staff of warding for the Archmages staff. The random gloves i got as 2nd purchase were much more underwhelming, only getting used because I'd still been wearing the Flamewrought gloves which was just sad at that point. I also found both pieces of Telos' staff as well as Telos' staff crystal, and was disappointed that I couldn't reassemble it into something amazing.I also never once used my Mummified Egg and I don't care who knows it!