Let me share with you the story of Ulran the Cornac Adventurer who was too lazy to learn any new skill trees. He grew up in a rich and successful family, lots of his ancestors became
saviours of the world, some of them went Insane after the horrors they had seen and many of them died painful deaths. One of his great-grandfathers won 666000 gold from the darkgod
lottery and invested that money into specially designed artifacts.
Ulran's father was a harsh and miser man, he didn't give too much pocket money to his kids, he wanted his children to learn new skills and not just rely on money. But Ulran knew that a
wealthy and easy life is waiting for him once he reaches adulthood and proves his worth by accessing the heavily guarded hidden family treasury full of those ancient artifacts. As a
young adventurer he never paid attention to his teachers (except his Combat trainer, because Ulran knew that many hard battles are coming for him), although he could have learned many of
the available skill trees in school, he just day-dreamed about claiming his rightful heritage.
After leaving the school he realized soon that life was harder than expected, but he was too proud to admit his mistakes and never learned (opened) any new skill trees. So with his few
coins he bought a nice mindblast torque from Zigur and went on to slay his enemies with his iron greatsword. He became more skilled with his Combat training talents and put on some
inscriptions. After clearing some of the easy (T1) dungeons, learning some new tricks from lost escorts (even though he failed to save 4 of them during his career, he first learned
Track and Spit poison, later Mind sear and Device mastery) he stood at the entrance of the Old forest.
As he scouted around he saw many strong and fast monsters, but dug his way around them and reached the shores of Lake Nur (he wasn't even level 12 yet). By looking for water bubbles he
managed to find the downstairs but then fled in terror after seeing the horrors lurking down there. So close to the riches and yet so far, he went back to carefully hunt down more bosses
in the forest, in a strange (alternative) maze and in some sand tunnels. He ate the heart of the Sandworm Queen but he never accepted the Wild-gift of Harmony.
At level 16, after finding a magical swim cap and buying a stronger weapon (with elemental explosions) from a Zigur shop, he felt himself strong enough to go back to Lake Nur, and
fight his way to the stairs of the hidden castle. Ulran faced there the Weirdling Beast, but his only attacking talents were Spit poison, Mind sear, a mindblast torque and the sheer
damage from his weapon (he found a nice heroism and movement infusion next to his phys wild, regen and shielding rune, though). Running up and down the stairs many many times, he knew he
just needed one lucky run and thus he never gave up. After 25-30 tries his dreams came true, the Beast was slain, the treasure room opened for him.
He wanted to get all the artifacts from his ancestors, but the magical vault held back some of the best items because Ulran was too young. Yet he could lay his hands on the best weapon
his family has ever seen, a nice armor, a helmet, shoes and gloves and the gem Burning star (tier 3!) for easy planning in dungeons.
[In case the items will be later transfered to another char, here are the most important details]
- Greatmaul: 192% power, projects up to 5 attacks with 30% dmg in range 7, +41 APR, +40% phys crit chance, +56% crit mult
Armor: 20 armour, 9 def, +13 STR, +12 CON, +191 hp, +20% healmod, +4.00 hp regen, 40-50% disarm, stun, knockback immunity, some elemental resists
Helmet: 13 armour, +17 STR, +6 DEX, +20 hp and Skullcracker talent
Shoes: 5 armour, 10 def, +10 STR, +10 CON, +60 hp, +10% phys dmg
Gloves: Will of Ul'Gruth with the wall-crushing Obliterating smash
combat prodigy to make the most out of his nice gloves (at unarmed hits: 20% chance for lvl 3 Obliterating smash).
At level 35 he got his missing artifacts from the family treasury:
- Belt: 7 armour, 6 def, +50% phys dmg, +30% phys penetration
Lantern: +30% all penetration, +5% phys pen, 6.50 hp regen, 13 light radius
Cloak: +16 STR, +15 CON, +216 hp
Ring1: +199 hp, +56% healmod, 3.90 hp regen
Ring2: +184 hp, only die at -40 hp, +50% healmod, 3.60 hp regen
Pickaxe: +19 STR, +6 DEX, 15 APR, +14% phys crit chance, +15% crit mult
Amulet: +20 acc, +19 def, +9 STR, +9 DEX, +18 luck, +37% blind res, +50% conf res
At level 42 he learned Windblade and the orc pride leaders fell in 2-3 hits: heroism, headbang, windblade, obliterating smash. With his 3 attacking talents he went up to High Peak
and killed Elandar in 4 hits, Argoniel in 9-10 hits (didn't want to kill Aeryn with another Windblade).
Life lesson learned: doesn't matter what you learn in school if you have a rich family background.
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I know very well how crazy randarts can be generated at the merchant or higher difficulty. After recently getting some Insane wins I just tried this challenge to prove for myself how
easy the Normal mode is (especially after playing in Insane mode) and how OP the Items vault can be.
Praise be to profit!