Karsikka the Whitehoof Sawbutcher
Normal Adventure. My 3 deaths were to overconfidence in opening the vaults in Eruan. The toughest part of the run to me was in the internment camp. Then again, I think I made it harder than it actually was - I don't know if there is an achievement for killing none of the Orcs, but I killed as few as possible, which meant I turned on Saw Wheels and kept moving until I reached the crystal instead of carefully fighting all the mages. all. the. mages. OH GAWDZ THE FYAR.
Notes regarding my build:
- Sawbutcher is relatively easy to build. You get enough class points to get most of the class talents.
- I rushed Steamsaw Mastery, which was made easy by the Whitehoof racials and Blacksmith, both of which I rushed.
- Tempest of Metal and Spinal Break were early priorities. Nasty rares and bosses were so much easier to deal with when moving at 50% speed, and crowds were no problem once I could sustain Tempest of Metal.
- I did not get Overcharge Saws until very late. It just didn't feel useful, even when I had it at 5/5.
- Furnace (the first talent) seems to be the most useful thing in that tree, but then again, I did not pick up Furnace until level 36.
- I think much the same of Automated Butchery. Continuous Butchery is excellent for single targets. I took Mow Down to 4 for the brainlock, not the steam - I was rolling in steam since I ran two steam generators. In the future, I'll stick with one and get an actual infusion / rune.
- I did not put any points into Battle Machinery. There aren't a lot of saws involved, so I skipped it.
- Other than Therapeutics, I did very little with tinkers. Brute force, backed by good salves, carried the day despite my Cunning secondary.
- Prodigies: Pain Enhancement System and You Shall Be My Weapon! - PES is actually quite interesting. If you wait for it to proc before leveling, you can use the enhanced stats to qualify for talents. I used this to my advantage to level Thick Skin without investing in early Con or saving items. YSBMW was a ton of fun. It was my final blow to the boss and it did ludicrous amounts of damage with the unique 2H steamsaw.
- Rotation: saw wheels -> bloodstream to most groups, overcharge saws -> saw wheels -> continuous butchery -> spinal break -> to the arms -> YSBMW cleared out single targets.
- Saw Wheels: Even nerfed, this talent is quite silly for mobility. Combined with the Whitehoof racial, I spent most of the game at anywhere between 220% and 450% movespeed, which was really nice for resetting some tough fights.
- Stats: STR -> CUN -> CON (but see note below)
- I don't think two generators are necessary after you find good T2-3 generators. I had a 12-steam surplus with everything running.
- I will either max Con earlier (dumping Cun) or do more tinkering earlier. Some of the tinkers are really, really nice but require investment.
- I got Armor Training 3 very late. I spent most of the game in mail. I will probably get it earlier and wear heavier armor.
- I only found 2 Yeti tissue. Their rewards (which appear to be all of the escort rewards, combined) didn't seem to fit cleanly. I got Conditioning and Piercing Sight (since I was stacking lots of Cun anyway for tinkers I never used)
- The farther along I got, the less I had to really think about attacks. I am not sure if it is the difficulty setting, the class, or the campaign, though.
- Sawbutcher appears to have one of the best bump-attacks in the business.