[1.3.1] First Bikini win: Cornac Paradox Mage

[dukereg]

I just won normal difficulty for the third time with this character http://te4.org/characters/105200/tome/3 ... 747a3f730f, a Cornac Paradox Mage... in a bikini.

I can't imagine playing Paradox Mage as anything but Cornac or Ogre becase even with them you can't get 5 inscriptions and still unlock every cool category they have.

Paradox Mage itself almost seems designed to make the Bikini challenge easier, with Matter Weaving giving you heaps of armour even if you wore nothing else. Reality Smearing, Energy Decomposition, two Time Shields (activated and Contingency) and an early Rune of Reflection in Last Hope shop meant I was tankier than my first Bulwark winner. I came close to dying maybe one or two times before High Peak Sanctum, but nothing could kill me before I did it in. That is even though my build couldn't pump out a lot of damage and I wasn't running much at all, even from enemies I'd usually be cautious of like the Orc Pride bosses and pedestal guardians.

I had one death, though, in the last battle. This was because of the massive difficulty spike from the 1.3 Aeryn nerf which changed Aeryn from a useful and persistent distraction into a pinata that doesn't even take many hits before giving up the candy. I reasonably expected the final fight to be hard but in the same ballpark as the rest of the game, but it was nowhere near close with it effectively 2 on 1 before I could get Elandar to half health. I was all on cooldown and debuffed repeatedly by the sorcerer tag team and couldn't do anything to escape because of high Paradox causing failures and chaos. I ended up abusing bad AI in darkness from the portal demons to nuke them from behind an earthquake wall for half an hour, and then finished Argoniel properly so the win wouldn't feel like a cheat. I dread to think how long it would have taken to win (or lose all my lives) without that. It didn't help that they just completely ignore Attenuate damage for no obvious reason.

I like a lot of the tricks I had, especially the tanking abilities, Twist Fate, Induce Anomaly, Dust to Dust, Temporal Bolt, Attenuate, and Entropy. But if I had my time again I'd focus on doing more damage each turn and keeping paradox down so I could keep control of the situation. Still, I was mostly enjoying anomalies throughout the game (thanks to the super fun Twist Fate and Induce Anomaly) . I actually got to 100% failure chance briefly in the last battle, and ended up teleporting involuntarily around a darkened, earthquake-scarred sanctum full of portal summons, with my Temporal Clone and the sorcerers' Temporal Clones having at it as well, through summoned townsfolk with Time Shields running around like startled chickens, past statues made from the removed-from-time portal enemies who were in the wrong place at the wrong time... in a bikini.

[Effigy]

Congrats!

I can't believe you neglect the Speed Control tree though. It's probably the most OP tree the class has. You can easily double your damage per turn by investing in this tree.

[dukereg]

I can't believe you neglect the Speed Control tree though. It's probably the most OP tree the class has. You can easily double your damage per turn by investing in this tree.

I assume you mean by casting 2 spells a round? I don't understand from the descriptions how it would give that big a bonus. (Edit: just realised that Time Dilation stacks 3 times, so for my character with global speed 1.35 from Haste and spell speed 1.54 from stacked Time Dilation, I'd have had 1.35*1.54=2.079 spells per turn.)

You're right though, I could have scraped together the points if I hadn't wasted them on other things that I hardly got any value from.

[St_ranger_er]

they just completely ignore Attenuate damage for no obvious reason.

It seems, after some tests, that Attenuate DoT effect check spell save target to your spell power for decide apply it or not.

[Effigy]

You're right though, I could have scraped together the points if I hadn't wasted them on other things that I hardly got any value from.

Yeah, it can be hard to decide when there are so many good talents to choose from. I would definitely max Time Dilation and Haste though. Since the Paradox Mage spams spells a lot, you'll quickly max out the Time Dilation buff and keep it on indefinitely. Haste even stacks with other global speed buffs, like Shalore's racial or Eden's Guile activation buff.

I usually like to get 4/5 Celerity for extra duration and roughly 2/5 Time Stop for general utility. With 4/5 Celerity, you can easily outrun orc patrols in the East as well.

[Faeryan]

Grats! Bikini/Mankini is where it's at.

Now if you're still missing the Mankini achievement do it with a melee class, like Cursed, Brawler or Berserker.

This was because of the massive difficulty spike from the 1.3 Aeryn nerf which changed Aeryn from a useful and persistent distraction into a pinata that doesn't even take many hits before giving up the candy.

Huh?! I never knew it got changed. Haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary on her.

[dukereg]

Grats! Bikini/Mankini is where it's at.

Now if you're still missing the Mankini achievement do it with a melee class, like Cursed, Brawler or Berserker.

Haha not any time soon. It's no coincidence that I only ever tried it after unlocking Paradox Mage.

This was because of the massive difficulty spike from the 1.3 Aeryn nerf which changed Aeryn from a useful and persistent distraction into a pinata that doesn't even take many hits before giving up the candy.

Huh?! I never knew it got changed. Haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary on her.

Yeah, 1.3 release notes mentions it. The idea is that Argoniel vs Aeryn will eventually come out in Argoniel's favour. I had a different idea of what eventually meant. It's only the third time I've done the final boss fight so maybe I just have a warped idea of how it's meant to work.