First Time East, First Time Defeating The Prides, 5 Classes

[Fortescue]

http://te4.org/characters/106563/tome/3 ... 6d719060a3

Also unlocked red head characters and Skeletons this trip! Now I just need Yeek, Solopsist, and the Psi classes I think. Well also the 1 million cold and fire damage unlocks, but those are pretty annoying. Oh and I never ran into the advanced Earth unlock encounter or Oozemancer zone (I looked for it).

Good run for unlocks, for learning the late game, but I have to admit almost everything after getting East felt like a real slog. There are a few reasons for this.

1) I stopped caring what I put things in on my character. New Berserker is a lot more fun early game than late game, you have all these competing options to get 1 point in, and a few things worth getting 3 or more in. By the time you get to level 30 though you have enough points in all the important things to be completely functional.

2) The copy pasted nature of the Pride zones was a real let down. It was like doing the same zone 9 times with slightly different enemies.

3) DISARM. Relentless Pursuit saw a lot of use since everyone and their mom was capable of ripping my weapon out of my hands and leaving me unable to fight properly. This was by far the most annoying status effect I encountered, probably because nothing in my Class or Generics could deal with it. I would have loved to have had an option there somewhere for dealing with this since I ran out of meaningful things to put points in anyway.

4) AMBUSHES. They need to be localized to the Prides that are still alive and not mix the various Orc classes since the Prides all hate each other anyway. They don't make sense having the mixes they do, and it is silly having to use Steamroller and Deathdance to kill what have become weakling patrols long after I crushed their homes. I don't mind Ambushes in general, they just don't feel tied to the rest of what is going on especially well.

After I had Steamroller things sped up a tiny bit, and it highlighted why I really need to cut Death Dance damage and give Execute a cooldown reset on successful killing blow. Stamina in general stopped being a concern entirely, to the point where even after using Unstoppable I could not get below 30% Stamina, and I did not gear for this on purpose.

Anti-Magic seemed very unappealing, though that might just be my inexperience. I heard 2 things in it got nerfed before my play through.

Fungus was good to put 1/1/1/1 in but also felt largely unnecessary since I didn't even need Unstoppable for most of the Prides. I understand this is Normal mode, but I do want to point out how chaotic things felt. Sometimes I was a super tank who did not have any problems tanking whole rooms, and sometimes a few enemies could drop me 50% hp in one turn. It was very inconsistent, and probably has to do with how ineffective Armor is vs. big attacks and magic.

I would like it after completing There and Back Again the Fortress let you pick your return destination of Far East or West, and for that matter it would be very easy to use it as a hub for future expanded content. I don't feel the Fortress lives up to its full potential as a player hub currently and could be made even more interesting. I did not try the Farportal generator though, because I was told not to in chat until I was level 50, even though it scales with your current level. Considering I was only 42 by the time I ran out of standard content (did not do Backup Guards for the most part) I think I probably should have used Farportals to continue leveling.

I'm not dead yet, but I'm down to my last life after getting destroyed by some asshole boss just before High Peak twice now. It keeps teleporting while summoning infinite Shadows which have no problem dominating and Pinning me despite some focus on getting Saves (58, 50, 48 respectively). It is amazing how fast they obliterate my life bar once I'm Pinned, even with 60 base Constitution and 5/5 Thick Skin. They get massive piercing once I'm Dominated though so I guess that defeats Thick Skin and my gear. This is an orb boss, and I can't beat it without grinding more levels. I might go do some Farportals to facilitate that, but I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on the late game as this point, and I might die in the Farportals anyway according to the chat players.

Overall, I am just really tired of this character. The late game was a slog through those Prides, and combined with not having interesting character development choices even leveling up stopped being an exciting thing to look forward to. The good news? I have a lot of data to act on for future Berserker changes. I am going to do another full play through after implementing the next round on my own PC before letting anyone else test them to see if I can at least solve the boring late game non-decisions aspect. Bet your ass there will be a Class or Generic talent for dealing with Disarm.

[edge2054]

Talent name suggestion for anti-disarm talent... Death Grip. Maybe it could be more powerful the more life you lose and have some other bonus side from disarm immunity.

[Fortescue]

Talent name suggestion for anti-disarm talent... Death Grip. Maybe it could be more powerful the more life you lose and have some other bonus side from disarm immunity.

I was actually inspired by Garkul's lore I am making a new category called Garkul's Legacy and the result of being Disarmed is that you start headbutting and biting people ^_^ You lose access to your weapon skills of course, but your unarmed attacks are BERSERK and powered up. I'm thinking about a % chance to bite instead of headbutt, but just for flavor text so you don't spend 8 turns in a row headbutting things.

[Davion Fuxa]

1) This is sadly an issue with pretty well all character classes. I assume on your Berserker you acquired Bloodthirst, maxed out Unstoppable - and then were at a loss as to what to really do outside of just top off some of the key talents you were using to get MOAR damage. Partly this is why Superiority and Warcries could use some improvement.

2) I think I mentioned somewhere that the Orc Prides should continue to have their size cut down to be like a 1 or 2 level instance per. However, the remainder of obtaining experience here needs to be made up with some optional dungeons - which of course the Far East lacks. If you have some instance ideas, maybe look into sprucing up that other continent a bit.

3)Disarm became more of a nuisance with the update due to Acid Wave Runes gaining the ability. Acid Wave Runes are noticeably useful now as a result of it - you can make great use of them too for disarming enemies and it has the aftereffect of also removing a detrimental magical effect. I'm not necessarily against Berserkers (and perhaps Bulwarks) getting a little bit of resistance to Disarm, but I would like to see Acid Wave Runes retain as much weight as possible since this is probably the first time we are seeing Offensive styled runes actually being noticeable useful. A Category centered around attacking while unarmed seems like a good idea to achieve this.

4)Orcs swarm all over the continent - they are only really kept at bay by patrols of Sun Paladins and Anorithils that wander around outside of the Gates of Morning. The Prides may somewhat compete with each other as well, but they hate all the other races much more - they aren't idiots, they do understand the tactical importance of mixing up different types of Orcs from the once great leader Garkul.

As a side note to the Orc Patrols, if you find them to be a bother you might look into Crim, The Red Thunder's addon which includes the Orc Breeding Pits. I'm not sure if it will still do it, but the Orc Breeding Pits use to reduce the number of Orc Patrols you would face so they would be less annoying.

Anti-Magic is a bit of a mixed bag in its use. Some players like it, others prefer ignoring it and keeping their Arcane options open. Fungus is a great tree though, Ancestral Life is top notch - it can make your Regeneration Infusions pretty well instant use instead of taking a turn. Sudden Growth is a nice emergency heal if your Regeneration Infusion is failing to keep pace with damage, and Wild Growth allows you to extend the amount of turns your Regeneration Infusions last (to the point that some players have been known to equip two Regeneration Infusions and just leave them on auto-cast whenever they come off cooldown. Fungal Growth noticeable got a boost due to Healing Infusions getting improved, though personally you shouldn't have to worry too much about Healing Infusions on an Unstoppable Berserker.

Farportals can be a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes you'll get an easy instance with a laughable Unique boss to defeat. Other times you could get enemies that are just sheer hell to defeat and an unstoppable Unique that forces you to have to use Rod of Recall to end your Farportal adventures early - or kills you without a thought. Even you haven't done them then I suggest you should jump into the Exploratory Farportal a few times to learn about them.

My last playthrough with a Skeleton Sun Paladin did a lot of running through the Exploratory Farportal. Maybe look him up here in the Let's Play ToME Steam Edition - Skeleton Sun Paladin - Episode 29 - Early Exploratory Farportal Runs