Finally I got the profile to work, and recorded a winner (I've won a few times prior to this). My first Cursed winner:
http://te4.org/characters/2460/tome/6b3 ... 7357677d53
I'll post more later about how I did it.
The final battle was a pushover. With Rampage, I turned off all four portals before a single critter had appeared
[b38] First (recorded) winner) - Dwarf Cursed
Moderator: Moderator
[b38] First (recorded) winner) - Dwarf Cursed
MADNESS rocks
Re: [b38] First (recorded) winner) - Dwarf Cursed
Ok, time to spell out how I did this.
1.Extra Talent Points
Rampage
Wild Gift Harmony
Rune
Rune
Rampage is vital to survive, and I thought Harmony would be good too. I'm not convinced it is necessary.
2. Inscriptions/Runes
Usual arrangement, 2 shields, healing, regen, teleportation.
The most critical thing to do in my view, is to swap out teleportation for controlled phase door prior to ambush (which I won fairly easily at about lvl 30), and again, prior to final battle this time I chose heroism, which was giving me a +21 stat boost for 10 turns! I swapped it again after to do ID, but died on first level to insanely powerful boss, which is why it appears in the vault as such).
3. Gear
In my view, everything depends on gear. I find getting to lvl 15-16 or so with any character pretty easy, and from 35-50 as well. The big challenge is 15-35 when you can't get the right gear to get big resists, big defence, and big damage.
But at the end, my resists were massive:
All 45%
Physical 59%
Arcane 70% !!!!!
Blight 59%
Light 53%
Darkness 62%
(I had temporal for Grushnak Pride only, it is crucial there to avoid being zapped around the barracks)
I also used a lot of swaps for weapons, armour, rings, and amulets etc. This is very important but often neglected by players. I carried specific items to assist with temporal dmg, arcane damage, manaburning weapons, stat boosting, etc.
AS you read below, you'll see that getting on hit melee bonuses is critical to cursed, with their multi-hit talents.Yet at then end, I abandonded these mostly to max out crit damage (I had this at about 40% crit chance, and 225% crit bonus, at times.) So there are various options here. Vile daggers are great in offhand.
To improve gear, I tend to do everything prior to going East. Particularly Ancient elven ruins, as this has often great stuff. And far portal too, but the bosses can be NASTY.
4. Hit points and healing
Cursed in particular need lots of hit points and improved healing. Next time I might pump Repression for this reason. I had the following helps:
2 rings of life
vitalising amulet
leafwalker's voratun helm
randart gear that boosted life, regen, and healing %
I think 1800 HP or so is a good target. Critters can hit you for 1000 in a turn towards the end, so the more hp the better.
It is also quite significant the difference 5 hp/turn healing makes, as opposed to 0.5. It doesn't sound like much, but if you teleport away and a boss finds you 30 turns later, you've got 150 HP rather than 15, plus inscriptions.
5. Talents - the heart of the matter
Cursed are quite different in b38, so this is just my way of doing it in the new trees.
a) I never take cursed gifts. 10 generic points in my view are better spent in combat techniques. But this is just my preference
b) Race /Dwarf - 1/1/5/0 (or 1/1/5/1) - Power is Money is a no brainer
c) Technique/Combat Training - 5/6/10/5/0 - accuracy is very important. Even though Dominate reduces defence of critters, it only works on one at a time, has cooldwon of 8. I don't want to be missing everything the other times. And I want all four hits of Frenzy and both hits of Harass Prey to hit. So I pump Dex and accuracy.
I think people sometimes underestimate Armour too. But just search the log file to see the difference armour makes. It reduces damage for a lot more than just simple melee attacks. So I pump Armour and look for high armour gear.
d) Cursed Slaughter - 3/5/0/0 - Slash needs 3 to affect healing, and Frenzy is insane, with 4 hits. I played dual-wield, with mostly weapons with melee hit bonuses. I also used these bonuses from gloves, helmets, amulets etc regularly. So I could land 1500 from Frenzy no problems, and 2000+ on stalked critters.
e) Cursed Endless Hunt - 5/1/5/5 - Stalk is great, but can be left at 1-2 till late in the game. Harass Prey is BRILLIANT. It gives two hits, with two weapons that's four, and each can turn off an enemy's talent or rune lor inscription, at lvl 5 for 7 turns, and it has a cooldown of 6 - so basically, keep doing it and powerful bosses lose their abilities. It is like Corrupted Negation, but even better in my view. Also, once Willpower hits about 100, it reduces the damage of enemies by 100% for two turns, yes 100% !!!! Surge is also amazing. I had permanently close to 100% movement speed (i.e. doble normal). Say no more. Again, dual wielding also gave me abuot 30 extra defence at end.
f) Cursed /Strife - 5/5/4/0 - Dominate is BRILLIANT too. Get it straight to 5. The critical factor here is number of turns at lvl 5 and resistance penetration. Most importantly, to hit with Domination they must save against mindpower, not accuracy, and because it reduces defence, you can dominate eternal runed bone giants with massive defence, and then hit them thereafter. So this overcomes a critical problem for warrior types. Preternatural Sense I didnt'pump to after lvl 40, when going through the Prides. It is jumping orcs that require it the most. Others love this talent and use it early on, but I don't. Blindside is BRILLIANT too. Again, get it up high asap. The key thing is that the cooldown goes down, making it like Rush. There is so little mobility options, it is a must.
g) Cursed Gloom - 5/5/1/5 - Sanctuary is BRILLIANT and essential. Pump asap to survive. I had massive wyrms spraying me from 10 tiles away and only doing 50 dmg towards end, when this combines with resists! But when they get close, wathc out of course! Gloom is important in first 40 lvls or so. The problem is that after that it affects less and less creatures, and few if any bosses. So don't rely on it.
h) Cursed Form 5/1/5/0 (or, 5/1/5/5) - No brainers. in b38 it still affects resists, so you MUST pump Unnatural body to 5 asap, otherwise you are cactus, sitting on -5% resist all and being spit-roasted by all and sundry.
6. Battle tactics
a) This is the simple recipe for all tough critters (Bosses particularly, and elite orc berserkers and bone giants):
Dominate and hit, and keep hitting a few times, each time watching the stalking icon in your talent list (not the key ones but the ones that are affecting you. It is a number that counts down from 40. But when you hover over it, you will see if you are at level 1, 2 or 3. The key is to get to 3, and then hit Frenzy, giving you the max +% dmg (37% at its peak for me). to get to this, you can use harras preay or slash as well, or after this.
b) As you just cruise around, if you encounter a lone orc pyromancer for instance, just hit frenzy straight off and most things are insta-killed.
c) Rampage - ah, this is lots of fun. To be honest, I used it less than I thought, as the 15 Hate cost is pretty high. One big tip: it is an incredible DEFENSIVE measure, if Tenacity is maxxed and surge is on. In tight situations, I would not use it until I was in trouble, then I'd use it to reduce damage (from tenacity), and hit my way out and then use the hughe speed bonus to walk away (or just walk away in the first place sometimes). IT can be used in other ways too, but I found this very helpful to survival.
Some tips on Rampage:
i) ANY talent other than simple attack reduces its time, includnig shields, healing, and class talents. So use your class talents first, then hit shield, then healing/regen, then Rampage last.
ii) If you want INSANE speed boost, hit Rampage THEN Movement infusion - you can get to 3000% movement (the other way round, the rampage of course cancels the movement infusion). This is fantastic for escorts (I saved 7 of 9). You ask them to wait a few turns, then hit rampage, then movement infusion. PRovided you don't attack anything and just walk, I could cover half the map and return and still have several turns left. You just monitor the Rampage number in the icon as it tells you how many "turns" you have used. you can take dozens of steps per turn if set up properly. For the race in the East, with Surge and Rampage I just walked striaght through, dodgin critters. I didn't fight a single creature.
7. Respeccing
This is a huge tactical advantage when used properly. Save up points for a few rounds and then every round when you allocate 8 or so points, you can reallocate them for different situations. Need detection? Just take Preternatural Senses to 5, and then undo. Need Healing, pump Represssion, need Blindside, pump up and then undo. I used this all the time and it greatly improves your options.
8. Stats
In order of priority, in my view: STR > WIL > CON/DEX > CUN. MAG is irrelevant. STR and WIL are both important initially, but due to gloom resistance at high levels, I find STR becomes more important. DEX is great for defence and accuracy. CUN helps mindpower and crits obviously.
I do everything I can to increase stats. I finished with:
STR 113
DEX 106
MAG 37
WIL 96
CUN 42
CON 64
But remember, I also had a +21 heroism infusion, which gave me for 10 turns in a row:
STR 134
DEX 127
MAG 37
WIL 117
CUN 42
CON 64
And with +hp items, I still had 1800 HPs with CON only 64.
Now, those stats REALLY make a difference. (Mind you, first level in ID I was smashed by first boss. It was overclocked!!!)
---------------------
Anyway, these are my thoughts. It is a fascinating class to play and I find less boring than say archers alchemists, or corruptors.
Enjoy!
1.Extra Talent Points
Rampage
Wild Gift Harmony
Rune
Rune
Rampage is vital to survive, and I thought Harmony would be good too. I'm not convinced it is necessary.
2. Inscriptions/Runes
Usual arrangement, 2 shields, healing, regen, teleportation.
The most critical thing to do in my view, is to swap out teleportation for controlled phase door prior to ambush (which I won fairly easily at about lvl 30), and again, prior to final battle this time I chose heroism, which was giving me a +21 stat boost for 10 turns! I swapped it again after to do ID, but died on first level to insanely powerful boss, which is why it appears in the vault as such).
3. Gear
In my view, everything depends on gear. I find getting to lvl 15-16 or so with any character pretty easy, and from 35-50 as well. The big challenge is 15-35 when you can't get the right gear to get big resists, big defence, and big damage.
But at the end, my resists were massive:
All 45%
Physical 59%
Arcane 70% !!!!!
Blight 59%
Light 53%
Darkness 62%
(I had temporal for Grushnak Pride only, it is crucial there to avoid being zapped around the barracks)
I also used a lot of swaps for weapons, armour, rings, and amulets etc. This is very important but often neglected by players. I carried specific items to assist with temporal dmg, arcane damage, manaburning weapons, stat boosting, etc.
AS you read below, you'll see that getting on hit melee bonuses is critical to cursed, with their multi-hit talents.Yet at then end, I abandonded these mostly to max out crit damage (I had this at about 40% crit chance, and 225% crit bonus, at times.) So there are various options here. Vile daggers are great in offhand.
To improve gear, I tend to do everything prior to going East. Particularly Ancient elven ruins, as this has often great stuff. And far portal too, but the bosses can be NASTY.
4. Hit points and healing
Cursed in particular need lots of hit points and improved healing. Next time I might pump Repression for this reason. I had the following helps:
2 rings of life
vitalising amulet
leafwalker's voratun helm
randart gear that boosted life, regen, and healing %
I think 1800 HP or so is a good target. Critters can hit you for 1000 in a turn towards the end, so the more hp the better.
It is also quite significant the difference 5 hp/turn healing makes, as opposed to 0.5. It doesn't sound like much, but if you teleport away and a boss finds you 30 turns later, you've got 150 HP rather than 15, plus inscriptions.
5. Talents - the heart of the matter
Cursed are quite different in b38, so this is just my way of doing it in the new trees.
a) I never take cursed gifts. 10 generic points in my view are better spent in combat techniques. But this is just my preference
b) Race /Dwarf - 1/1/5/0 (or 1/1/5/1) - Power is Money is a no brainer
c) Technique/Combat Training - 5/6/10/5/0 - accuracy is very important. Even though Dominate reduces defence of critters, it only works on one at a time, has cooldwon of 8. I don't want to be missing everything the other times. And I want all four hits of Frenzy and both hits of Harass Prey to hit. So I pump Dex and accuracy.
I think people sometimes underestimate Armour too. But just search the log file to see the difference armour makes. It reduces damage for a lot more than just simple melee attacks. So I pump Armour and look for high armour gear.
d) Cursed Slaughter - 3/5/0/0 - Slash needs 3 to affect healing, and Frenzy is insane, with 4 hits. I played dual-wield, with mostly weapons with melee hit bonuses. I also used these bonuses from gloves, helmets, amulets etc regularly. So I could land 1500 from Frenzy no problems, and 2000+ on stalked critters.
e) Cursed Endless Hunt - 5/1/5/5 - Stalk is great, but can be left at 1-2 till late in the game. Harass Prey is BRILLIANT. It gives two hits, with two weapons that's four, and each can turn off an enemy's talent or rune lor inscription, at lvl 5 for 7 turns, and it has a cooldown of 6 - so basically, keep doing it and powerful bosses lose their abilities. It is like Corrupted Negation, but even better in my view. Also, once Willpower hits about 100, it reduces the damage of enemies by 100% for two turns, yes 100% !!!! Surge is also amazing. I had permanently close to 100% movement speed (i.e. doble normal). Say no more. Again, dual wielding also gave me abuot 30 extra defence at end.
f) Cursed /Strife - 5/5/4/0 - Dominate is BRILLIANT too. Get it straight to 5. The critical factor here is number of turns at lvl 5 and resistance penetration. Most importantly, to hit with Domination they must save against mindpower, not accuracy, and because it reduces defence, you can dominate eternal runed bone giants with massive defence, and then hit them thereafter. So this overcomes a critical problem for warrior types. Preternatural Sense I didnt'pump to after lvl 40, when going through the Prides. It is jumping orcs that require it the most. Others love this talent and use it early on, but I don't. Blindside is BRILLIANT too. Again, get it up high asap. The key thing is that the cooldown goes down, making it like Rush. There is so little mobility options, it is a must.
g) Cursed Gloom - 5/5/1/5 - Sanctuary is BRILLIANT and essential. Pump asap to survive. I had massive wyrms spraying me from 10 tiles away and only doing 50 dmg towards end, when this combines with resists! But when they get close, wathc out of course! Gloom is important in first 40 lvls or so. The problem is that after that it affects less and less creatures, and few if any bosses. So don't rely on it.
h) Cursed Form 5/1/5/0 (or, 5/1/5/5) - No brainers. in b38 it still affects resists, so you MUST pump Unnatural body to 5 asap, otherwise you are cactus, sitting on -5% resist all and being spit-roasted by all and sundry.
6. Battle tactics
a) This is the simple recipe for all tough critters (Bosses particularly, and elite orc berserkers and bone giants):
Dominate and hit, and keep hitting a few times, each time watching the stalking icon in your talent list (not the key ones but the ones that are affecting you. It is a number that counts down from 40. But when you hover over it, you will see if you are at level 1, 2 or 3. The key is to get to 3, and then hit Frenzy, giving you the max +% dmg (37% at its peak for me). to get to this, you can use harras preay or slash as well, or after this.
b) As you just cruise around, if you encounter a lone orc pyromancer for instance, just hit frenzy straight off and most things are insta-killed.
c) Rampage - ah, this is lots of fun. To be honest, I used it less than I thought, as the 15 Hate cost is pretty high. One big tip: it is an incredible DEFENSIVE measure, if Tenacity is maxxed and surge is on. In tight situations, I would not use it until I was in trouble, then I'd use it to reduce damage (from tenacity), and hit my way out and then use the hughe speed bonus to walk away (or just walk away in the first place sometimes). IT can be used in other ways too, but I found this very helpful to survival.
Some tips on Rampage:
i) ANY talent other than simple attack reduces its time, includnig shields, healing, and class talents. So use your class talents first, then hit shield, then healing/regen, then Rampage last.
ii) If you want INSANE speed boost, hit Rampage THEN Movement infusion - you can get to 3000% movement (the other way round, the rampage of course cancels the movement infusion). This is fantastic for escorts (I saved 7 of 9). You ask them to wait a few turns, then hit rampage, then movement infusion. PRovided you don't attack anything and just walk, I could cover half the map and return and still have several turns left. You just monitor the Rampage number in the icon as it tells you how many "turns" you have used. you can take dozens of steps per turn if set up properly. For the race in the East, with Surge and Rampage I just walked striaght through, dodgin critters. I didn't fight a single creature.
7. Respeccing
This is a huge tactical advantage when used properly. Save up points for a few rounds and then every round when you allocate 8 or so points, you can reallocate them for different situations. Need detection? Just take Preternatural Senses to 5, and then undo. Need Healing, pump Represssion, need Blindside, pump up and then undo. I used this all the time and it greatly improves your options.
8. Stats
In order of priority, in my view: STR > WIL > CON/DEX > CUN. MAG is irrelevant. STR and WIL are both important initially, but due to gloom resistance at high levels, I find STR becomes more important. DEX is great for defence and accuracy. CUN helps mindpower and crits obviously.
I do everything I can to increase stats. I finished with:
STR 113
DEX 106
MAG 37
WIL 96
CUN 42
CON 64
But remember, I also had a +21 heroism infusion, which gave me for 10 turns in a row:
STR 134
DEX 127
MAG 37
WIL 117
CUN 42
CON 64
And with +hp items, I still had 1800 HPs with CON only 64.
Now, those stats REALLY make a difference. (Mind you, first level in ID I was smashed by first boss. It was overclocked!!!)
---------------------
Anyway, these are my thoughts. It is a fascinating class to play and I find less boring than say archers alchemists, or corruptors.
Enjoy!
MADNESS rocks
Re: [b38] First (recorded) winner) - Dwarf Cursed
I too really enjoy the class, thanks for the write-up. I remember it being awkward the 1st few times i tried it but once you understand the mechanics more it was fun.