YASD: Shalore Sun Paladin - Insane/RL

[Effigy]

Character Summary

Most of the run went really smoothly, including the start of T2 which is usually really rough on Insane. Path of the Sun is an incredible talent. I died once in Daikara to a really nasty necromancer boss, but that was pure foolishness on my part as I could easily survived if I had the good sense to run away; I used Blood of Life there. The "stupid death" was when I used psychoportation torque to try to escape from a group of mobs on Dreadfell level ~5, and it teleported me about 5 tiles into the middle of the group. Most of my skills were on cooldown, my sustains got stripped, and I was completely surrounded. I could have probably survived if I played a bit better prior to using the torque though.

Moral of the story: use a Teleport rune instead of psychoportation torque if at all possible.

[Mankeli]

I feel for your loss, I'm currently playing a shalore sun pally on insane myself.

I rarely find myself using psychoport past t-1 dungeons anymore. I guess a case can be made for antimagic characters to continue using it but outside of oozemancer I don't really play antimagic characters.

Psychoport is basically part of the "you had one job" meme series: it has one job, which is to get away from the monsters you are currently engaging but it often times fails even in that. A cruel device all around.

[donkatsu]

One day though, you'll use a teleport rune and then instantly die the next turn because it teleported you into the boss and two skirmisher uniques. You'll go through several clears before it happens, but when it does, it'll be at High Peak and you'll wish you had used a movement infusion instead.

I lump teleport, psychoport, and phase door all in the same category of last ditch escape tools that always have a chance to get you killed, just with varying degrees.

[Effigy]

That's true, but with Teleport rune you can at least guarantee you'll get out of the immediate area. Psychoportation has its uses, but it's supremely unreliable. I normally avoid it on principle. This run I tried to rely on it and paid the price.

[Mankeli]

Well, sure, teleporting on an uncleared zone is always a huge risk and should be avoided if possible always. So from that perspective I agree that it belongs into the same category as psychoport and phase door. But IMO it's much better if the level is already mostly cleared. I don't like uncontrolled teleport that much either but as a Sun Pally, you can't get out of all situations via movement infusion alone -you can't go through monsters if you land in a corner/hallway where monsters gang up on you. And the monsters blocking your way can happen even if you scout ahead constantly because phase dooring/blindsiding/whatevering monsters. Controlled phase door rune is an option but they are rare and found later. Some artifacts too.

Due to how monster healing works (in that monsters that don't have specific healing talents don't really heal much), teleport runes can be used to kite as well. Clear the rest of the level first, then start killing the last dangerous boss/unique left. Often times the uniques/bosses I couldn't kill the first time lump up together so in the end there is like 1-3 rarebosses in a group that can be escaped reliably by using teleport. This has worked very well on my current insane run as it did on my previous insane run too. I guess this could be classified as an offensive use of the rune because using the rune is the part of the strategy to attack the group.

So eventhough uncontrolled teleport too is still a pretty poor emergency escape, I find it much better than psychoport/phase door as an non-emergency escape method. If I have to use teleport as an escape method, I try to use while stile having at least some of my critical skills off-cooldown too.

[St_ranger_er]

Sadly Even controlled phase door can "fizzle" and works randomly. That's may happen when you teleport in place beyond LOS (not for range but for direct see) or tile which game choose to tele is wall (don't sure about burrow with tele).