[b40] Smelly the Dwarven Corruptor (5 deaths)
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:51 pm
Well, this is my second winner, of sorts. It's not roguelike and there's 5 deaths so it probably doesn't count as a proper win. The first one was archmage (with deaths too), so I'm still not close to a roguelike win, but I had fun and it's all that matters in the end. The character was super powerful and in the hands of a better player deaths could have been avoided. It was also done with "rarer rares" addon, but I'd say that it would have made a difference in the first half of the game only.
It's a fairly typical corruptor build, with maxed blood tree boosted by a cat point, maxed soul rot, vimsense, and corrupted negation. The rest of the points went into maxing all of the sustains (crit, crit%, cooldowns when hit, fearscape, demon form, etc.) I was starved for cat points - one went into unlocking torment, one into boosting blood tree, one into unlocking shadowflame and one for a teleport rune. That means I was going without utility trees. It didn't really matter in the end, as it turns out I didn't need them.
The interesting thing about the build is that I put 8 points into armor training and was running with a full plate for most of the game. Even mail armor helped in the early game against melee enemies but sadly, it couldn't prevent some nasty rare deaths. First there was a snake wyrmic in the old forest that 2-shotted me with blinding speed, icy claw and (I think) devour. Second was a multi-hued drake hatchling archer in Daikara that took out 300hp in one blow (on plate armor too), and then I psychoported 2 squares away right into its line of fire. That was the point where I decided to get a proper teleport rune and forget about utility trees- minimum distance makes a lot of difference.
By the time I got to Dreadfell I already was one shotting everything, and it kinda set the tone for the rest of the game. I cleared the first 8 floors without blinking and was feeling quite cocky. Fighting the Master, I allowed myself to be surrounded, and...that was death number 3. I've forgotten about will'o'wisps and didn't wear any cold res gear. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was pretty angry at myself at this point and considered starting over but decided against it. I'm already bored of the early game and that was really the reason I started on adventure mode again. I went in and finished the job easily (paying attention and a bit of planning makes all the difference).
It all went uphill from there.
By a stroke of luck I got a suit of unenchanted voratun plate and the crystal heart in the vor armory. Getting to 60 str to wear the thing was a challenge but with a few farportals, it was doable with gear switching to equip it.
It turned out to be amazingly effective, as elite orc berserkers were hitting me for about 120 damage in the end game. I never worried about melee again. The downside is that I didn't wear the black robe (and yes, I found it). I already put in the points and didn't want to waste them, and I was killing everything on the screen in a few spells anyway.
After the vor armory luck I came back west and my luck continued, finding Vox (I love the vim boost on that item), Warped boots and some other good pieces of gear.
I was now running with all the sustains on, with around 100 vim when I fearscape a mob.
Needless to say, the rest of the game was easy. I broke my personal record, doing 8500 damage in one attack by using vimsense and curse of vulnerability. I was clearing every room in a few spells. Every rare apart from demon ones could be killed by blasting them with spells while fearscape heals me. Every boss too.
I really didn't need willpower past the initial 25 base I boosted. It was all mag, con, cun.
So, how did I manage to die two more times with a char that later walked through High Peak like it was a stroll in the park?
Well, I never had any blight resistance and that's bound to be your undoing if you play a corruptor. When you cast a spell and get pulled in the next turn (by bone grab most likely), you'll end up hitting yourself since your spells aren't instant. So, that's what happened to me while fighting an easy boss in a farportal. I hit myself for 1550 damage while having 1450 hp. That was death number 4.
The fifth death is taking on Athamaton. My misunderstanding of how his abilities worked and lack of blight resistance meant that I took huge amounts of damage from his damage reflection. Thankfully I managed to escape (using teleport and dark portal), and finish the game.
Conclusion:
If you want to blast away, corruptor is for you. I've killed each of the optional bosses in High Peak in less than 7 turns (except the bone giant ressurecting borefest one). My spells were all 1.5-2k crits by the end and I was near 100% crit. Just be careful not to shoot yourself in the back.
Also: I take back everything bad I ever said about +saves on a dwarf. They rule.
The profile, if anyone is interested, is at:
http://te4.org/characters/13640/tome/35 ... e69f85425a
It's a fairly typical corruptor build, with maxed blood tree boosted by a cat point, maxed soul rot, vimsense, and corrupted negation. The rest of the points went into maxing all of the sustains (crit, crit%, cooldowns when hit, fearscape, demon form, etc.) I was starved for cat points - one went into unlocking torment, one into boosting blood tree, one into unlocking shadowflame and one for a teleport rune. That means I was going without utility trees. It didn't really matter in the end, as it turns out I didn't need them.
The interesting thing about the build is that I put 8 points into armor training and was running with a full plate for most of the game. Even mail armor helped in the early game against melee enemies but sadly, it couldn't prevent some nasty rare deaths. First there was a snake wyrmic in the old forest that 2-shotted me with blinding speed, icy claw and (I think) devour. Second was a multi-hued drake hatchling archer in Daikara that took out 300hp in one blow (on plate armor too), and then I psychoported 2 squares away right into its line of fire. That was the point where I decided to get a proper teleport rune and forget about utility trees- minimum distance makes a lot of difference.
By the time I got to Dreadfell I already was one shotting everything, and it kinda set the tone for the rest of the game. I cleared the first 8 floors without blinking and was feeling quite cocky. Fighting the Master, I allowed myself to be surrounded, and...that was death number 3. I've forgotten about will'o'wisps and didn't wear any cold res gear. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was pretty angry at myself at this point and considered starting over but decided against it. I'm already bored of the early game and that was really the reason I started on adventure mode again. I went in and finished the job easily (paying attention and a bit of planning makes all the difference).
It all went uphill from there.
By a stroke of luck I got a suit of unenchanted voratun plate and the crystal heart in the vor armory. Getting to 60 str to wear the thing was a challenge but with a few farportals, it was doable with gear switching to equip it.
It turned out to be amazingly effective, as elite orc berserkers were hitting me for about 120 damage in the end game. I never worried about melee again. The downside is that I didn't wear the black robe (and yes, I found it). I already put in the points and didn't want to waste them, and I was killing everything on the screen in a few spells anyway.
After the vor armory luck I came back west and my luck continued, finding Vox (I love the vim boost on that item), Warped boots and some other good pieces of gear.
I was now running with all the sustains on, with around 100 vim when I fearscape a mob.
Needless to say, the rest of the game was easy. I broke my personal record, doing 8500 damage in one attack by using vimsense and curse of vulnerability. I was clearing every room in a few spells. Every rare apart from demon ones could be killed by blasting them with spells while fearscape heals me. Every boss too.
I really didn't need willpower past the initial 25 base I boosted. It was all mag, con, cun.
So, how did I manage to die two more times with a char that later walked through High Peak like it was a stroll in the park?
Well, I never had any blight resistance and that's bound to be your undoing if you play a corruptor. When you cast a spell and get pulled in the next turn (by bone grab most likely), you'll end up hitting yourself since your spells aren't instant. So, that's what happened to me while fighting an easy boss in a farportal. I hit myself for 1550 damage while having 1450 hp. That was death number 4.
The fifth death is taking on Athamaton. My misunderstanding of how his abilities worked and lack of blight resistance meant that I took huge amounts of damage from his damage reflection. Thankfully I managed to escape (using teleport and dark portal), and finish the game.
Conclusion:
If you want to blast away, corruptor is for you. I've killed each of the optional bosses in High Peak in less than 7 turns (except the bone giant ressurecting borefest one). My spells were all 1.5-2k crits by the end and I was near 100% crit. Just be careful not to shoot yourself in the back.
Also: I take back everything bad I ever said about +saves on a dwarf. They rule.
The profile, if anyone is interested, is at:
http://te4.org/characters/13640/tome/35 ... e69f85425a
.