ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Ah my poor little dwarf. Can anyone point out any flaws in the build or is it just down to negligence / incompetence / unfounded belief of immortality / etc on my part?

http://te4.org/characters/7460/tome/5c3 ... ba123353c0

1. Damage is too low - offence is often the best defence, so I would take weapons to 5/5 before armour.
2. Defence is much more important than armour, so you should pump dex more
3. movement is crucial, so rush to 5/5 brings the cooldown right down
4. yuor fatigue is very high, making using your talents expensive
5. unflinching resolve at 5/5 is very good
6. you have two rings of arcane power, but you don't do arcane damge, you do physical, which is at -10% because of shield talent. so rings of massacre will help. the savior's rings make less difference once the saves are high
7. resists are too low - get better gear with blight, light, dark, temporal, acid, nature resist for a start. blight in particular, as corruptors dish out large amounts in one go. you died to one
8. even better than resists in most cases are +hp items, and then +%healing. so I'de equip Snow Giant Wraps. Think about +50 HP. If you had %10 mind resist (hard to get), an npc would have to do > 500 HP damage in total to make that worth it. if you increase your damage, as I suggested, as a bulwark, things should be dead before they do that much to you. Which is why rush at 5/5 would be better. and dragon mail. so put them on and vitalising amulet, and look for a clock of resilience/the hunt/marshall's cloak, to get extra hp that way as well. add 250 HP to your build and it makes a big difference.
9. and use the juggernaut gloves and its talent for big fights.

You'll get some disagreement about defense, heh. Personally don't prioritize it very often; it's entirely too likely to end up completely useless when you actually need it due to enemies with ridiculously high accuracy whereas critters with ridiculously high APR are considerably more rare. Regardless, a bulwark doesn't really have to choose, since they'll be wanting dexterity after strength is maxed anyway, possibly sooner.

Damage was alright, though it could be better. @Jenx, you have to remember a good chunk of bulwark damage comes from the shield attacks, and that one had 5/5 expertise and a fifth tier shield. Bloodletter's kinda' sub-par (compared to other late-ish game one-handers, anyway) and more weapon mastery would have been nice, but th'critters damage should have been alright.

I wouldn't recommend 5/5ing rush on a bulwark any time soon; get step-up maxed instead, and if you really need rush more than once in a fight, hunt down some rush boots so you can double-rush. The bigger benefit to point investment is the range increase, which is mostly useless in most of the crypt (alright for the melinda fight, but the rest of the place is just cramped.). Talent's bloody expensive anyway, so using the cost-free version would be preferable. I would have recommended picking up the tree with step-up instead of warshouts for your first unlocked tree, though. Step-up is genuinely incredible maxed out and all but the fourth tier talent is pretty decent.

The rings are pretty iffy, yeah. Power is Money is probably sufficient without the extra boost and savior rings are otherwise kinda' anemic. Definitely should have been wearing those speed boots instead of the wanderer's pair.

Echoing unflinching resolve's usefulness. That should definitely be brought to full functionality before much goes into vitality.

Frumple wrote:Damage was alright, though it could be better. @Jenx, you have to remember a good chunk of bulwark damage comes from the shield attacks, and that one had 5/5 expertise and a fifth tier shield. Bloodletter's kinda' sub-par (compared to other late-ish game one-handers, anyway) and more weapon mastery would have been nice, but th'critters damage should have been alright.

What I forgot to add re weapon mastery is that the increase in physical power is crucial for increasing your chance to stun, daze, cross-tier etc. So it does more than just increase damage. Frumple is right though, and I'd suggest increasing assault after rush.

Ta muchly for the feedback, I shall see if I can get further with the next one

Well, not really further, but came out a lot better I think?

http://te4.org/characters/7460/tome/70e ... 9be15c29b7

Death by overconfidence (again)

My recommendation would be to put a little less focus in shield pummel and battle tactics at first. Don't underestimate a maxed out Fast Metabolism - you can view it like a 5 point damage reduction per turn against all types of damage, and that can help a lot, at last up through Dreadfell. I've played a lot of bulwarks, and my most successful one was the one I posted a few days ago ( http://te4.org/characters/21953/tome/26 ... f729ac2673 ). After a whole lot of trial and error with builds, I realized with this one that a balanced approach worked really well for the early game. Every level I allocated stats a 1/1/1 to str/dex/con, until I got to 50 str with gear; at that point, I started putting points in str every other level and using the freed up points for extra constitution.

Also, don't be afraid to put 1-2 points into Last Stand. That skill is amazing for boss/rare fights, as it gives you a ton of extra health that combines well with the Vitality skill. The stats I looked for the most on gear were +str/dex/con (obviously), +max life, +life regen, and +physical damage. Once I got the sanguine skill, my normal regen was about 12 HP per turn, and when Vitality proc'd, it just went to absurd levels; plus, with last stand active, I was getting over 400 extra health (which also meant that I was proc'ing Vitality 200 HP sooner).


As far as strategy goes, a really good way to beef up your offensive power is to use your counterstrikes from blocking to set up your assault. This gives you a HUGE boost to damage. Additionally, since assault makes it very easy to do critical hits, look for weapons with useful on-crit effects (crippling and wounding are both exceptional in this regard). Using a disable-on-crit weapon with your block/assault combo will really put a damper on whatever you're fighting.


As others have said, another thing you need to do is max rush. The biggest weakness for bulwarks is ranged casters; being able to close the gap on them immediately is pretty much essential. It took me many failed builds to figure this out; previously, I'd try tactics like blinding them with sun infusions or luring them around corners, but eventually those tactics just aren't effective.

A last note, don't rush Power is Money so fast. It's an amazing skill and should be maxed over time, but in all likeliness, you weren't getting the benefits of the last few levels of it that early on due to how much gold is required to see the extra boosts from leveling it up. I would put only 2 points in that until after Dreadfell, and use the other points on stuff like Vitality and Weapons Mastery.

Hope some of those tips are useful for you. The only other piece of advice I can offer: Pray that the RNG gifts you with the Spider-Silk Robe of Spydre. That robe makes bulwarks pretty much unstoppable early on; +15 armor, +40% armor hardiness, +10 defense, +5 con, +10 to all saves, and +30% nature resist. Absolutely amazing, and I got mine early into Tier 2's and wore it all the way to my demise in an orc pride.

Caveat on the spydre robes: Armor training doesn't benefit armor lighter than heavy. At all. Well... I still haven't doublechecked leather. But robes, which the spider-silk robes are, definitely not. It's pretty easy to check when you've got a free generic, yeah. So if you're considering the robes for the armor boost and the hardiness, note that you're giving up whatever armor and hardiness, as well as any crit chance reduction, you're (probably) getting from armor training. It may still be worth it, as the spydre robes are pretty incredible, but it's not exactly optimal on a bulwark who's more than likely already invested into armor training.

I've largely not benefited much from maxing rush. A point, definitely, and likely rush boots on top of that, but for bulwarks I tend to lean on a movement infusion (get one, if you're not undead. Each and every melee character that can use one wants a movement infusion, period.) and step up. Due to rush's cost, it's very, very rare I actually want to be spamming it around. Between the infusion and step, bulwark mobility already tends to be among the best in the game without needing to spam rush around. It's good for insta-splatting (rush into assault or overpower then assault) particularly dangerous critters, but for general mobility not so much. Rush is a panic gap-closer or strong initiator more than a general use mobility talent.

Frumple wrote:Caveat on the spydre robes: Armor training doesn't benefit armor lighter than heavy. At all. Well... I still haven't doublechecked leather. But robes, which the spider-silk robes are, definitely not. It's pretty easy to check when you've got a free generic, yeah. So if you're considering the robes for the armor boost and the hardiness, note that you're giving up whatever armor and hardiness, as well as any crit chance reduction, you're (probably) getting from armor training. It may still be worth it, as the spydre robes are pretty incredible, but it's not exactly optimal on a bulwark who's more than likely already invested into armor training.

I've largely not benefited much from maxing rush. A point, definitely, and likely rush boots on top of that, but for bulwarks I tend to lean on a movement infusion (get one, if you're not undead. Each and every melee character that can use one wants a movement infusion, period.) and step up. Due to rush's cost, it's very, very rare I actually want to be spamming it around. Between the infusion and step, bulwark mobility already tends to be among the best in the game without needing to spam rush around. It's good for insta-splatting (rush into assault or overpower then assault) particularly dangerous critters, but for general mobility not so much. Rush is a panic gap-closer or strong initiator more than a general use mobility talent.

Good points. I should've mentioned that point on the robes; if you're already heavily invested in armor training, you'll probably get more bank for your buck otherwise. But with only 4 ranks into heavy armor training, it's hardly noticeable. With my robes, I had 70 armor with 70% hardiness, which isn't bad at all and it freed up as many as 6 generic talent points (quite handy indeed!).

I'm going to have to try give Step Up some more hands-on time, as the consensus seems to be that it is superior to rush. The hardest part about Step Up/Movement Infusion strategy that I can think of is juggling the category point costs and which infusions/runes to keep on hand. I tend to use the level 10 point for an additional rune slot so that I can have regen/shield/teleport/wild and then unlock a tree at level 20. Going with Step Up/Movement, I'd have to rethink that.

Credinus wrote:I'm going to have to try give Step Up some more hands-on time, as the consensus seems to be that it is superior to rush. The hardest part about Step Up/Movement Infusion strategy that I can think of is juggling the category point costs and which infusions/runes to keep on hand. I tend to use the level 10 point for an additional rune slot so that I can have regen/shield/teleport/wild and then unlock a tree at level 20. Going with Step Up/Movement, I'd have to rethink that.

This is why cornac is a very good race for bulwarks - they really benefit from the extra category point.