Cornac Adventurer. Magic build.
since 2013 I asked for an fun/easy build to win Nightmare.
Here I am: 700+ hours of plays later.
Why so long? Because I never retreat in a fight, and rarely let mobs coming to me in a corridor. Yeah I'm that dumb, and careless.
And I just use Cornac, cause I want to level fast. I first tried with Yeek, but after X death I was fed up with the Yeek starting zone.
Ogre may be a good alternative.. But I don't use infusion/rune that much.
Any other race might make a better build. I Just don't have the patience to run all dungeon to level up. I went to High-peak at level 45. Was 48 when I killed one of the sorcerer.
I choose Veil as the core of the build because it allow a simple, straightforward game with the less micromanagement possible.
- Veil and a movement infusion on auto-cast on sight. Go toward the foes, let Veil kill anyone. End of the encounter. Resume auto-explore.
- don't check item with effect resistance, or saves ever again
- you don't have to care about having your damage output reduced: Nobody can flee, nobody can stun you.
- against multiple strong foes, you're dead. Even mediocre foes. So you have to find a way to stay alive when you don't have any control.
- try to escort a Thief and pick Piercing Sight. Else invisible foes will be hard to kill. Or find some item with detect invisible.
The only effect that can affect you under Veil are some disperse magic that may deactivate some sustain. I suspect it come from some weapon on rare. Very unlikely. It happened 2 or 3 times in my run.
Yesterday was the closest I came to winning with a Veil based, cursed aura (for Shroud) adventurer. I lost my last life against a stair guardian on my way to high peak.
The Shroud build was based on the hope that the +X resistAll on move will occur when the character move while under Veil. It does not.
But the +X ResistAll on kill occur, and it allow a veilled character to be at 70 resist all at an early level.
In the shroud build I used the Temporal Guardian tree. I was hoping the Guardian unity would protect the character under Veil. It does not. No damage will trigger Guardian unity while you're veiled.
The strengh of purpose is still a great skill.
But I tested against the dummy in the citadel, and Stave did almost as much damage as weapon under Strength of Purpose. That damage bonus on proc from staff is really something.
What I learned from the Veiled Shrouded character, was that not amount of resist all will save my character under Veil.
After dome death, I used an infusion of Heroism on auto cast before Veil, and unlocked the Vile Life tree to get some kind of healing with my crits and kills.
Still wasn't enough.
The blood-caller ring was a better heal source.
And then I build my winner.
The Veiled staffer.
usually recommended trees I rejected:
- Bloodthirst.
- Temporal
The speed sustain is nice.
Except you only get a very small pool of mana after paying the sustain, and that mana burning adventurer is not your only concern: You will running out of mana all by yourself in hard fight.
If the tree need a manasurge rune to stay useful, it's not that great.
- Celestial/Combat.
The offense:
- Temporal Combat
Then with 1/1/1 (and never ever use invigorate) , you will do a lot of damage.
It also count as a defense. The debuff slow/stun/-30 resist are great.
The 1000 paradox is here to assure you land your effect with success thanks to your Paradox-enhanced spellpower.
- Psionic / Augmented mobility
It give the movement increase in early level so you can retreat without being hit by rare snake while waiting for the cool-down on your spell.
The Instant +45 global speed +accuracy + critical hit from Quick as Thought, is to put on auto-cast on sight and forget.
IMHO the best tree to get the TK slot on an adventurer.
- Lightning and Magical Combat
The better reason is probably that you can use it since lvl1. It make the first 4 level very easy.
Raising Arcane combat to 5 as soon you get a decent accuracy is more important than having lightning at 5. Around level 8 I get the combat training tree in Hope. Raise the accuracy with the generic point given in the arena. And decrease Lightning to 1 and raise Arcane Combat to 5. I used 1 in lightning even to defeat the Master .. because
- Reaving combat
The defense
- Flux.
(Just make sure it is not deactivated, I lost a second life in Vor armory after dying a first time and forgeting to activate it again)
- Chronomancy / Energy
- Bone Shield
I suspect the build was offensive enouth that after the 5 bone shield were down, the character had killed anyone.
That's all. No shield, no heal, no shielding rune.
The bloodcaller was probably usefull. And I get it early on, after my experience with the previous Shrouded/Veil build.
I considered unlocking Temporal, or Vile Life, but I had spent my point in the staff tree (raised it to 1.4 to see the raised damage and forget to unraise it.. Dumb! I know. )
What I learned during those 700 hours:
You have 3 way you'll be killed in order of frequency:
- Bad Effect. Stun, or even some strong DoT..
- room full of lame mobs
I raised Weapon Manifold to 4 early on, to get the 2 radius damage. Lightning helped. Elemental Discord from Vile Life might still be a solution to kill them faster.
Flux and Energy were probably a good way to mitigate the death by thousand cut that occur in that case. Having some leech life available migh be a solution.
I suspect the Pugilism tree is so good because of the flat armor it give allowing to stay in a room full without taking too much damage. Dismissal from Solipsism might be also helpful.
- Something really strong.
On to INSANE!
.. see you in 1400 hours