[b43] Luna the level 50 Thalore Marauder (Winner)

[alex404]

I finally did it!

http://te4.org/characters/6820/tome/49e ... 8c1e973c6a

This character has gone through a few iterations. The general idea has always been a combination high damage, momentum, blinding speed, and step up to bounce around the battlefield and wipe out enemies before they can organize.

My last one was a Shalore, which worked pretty well, but pretty much every death involved me being sniped by magic users, and I got wiped out at High Peak. I was struggling with how to make a more magic resistant marauder when I settled on the idea of anti magic, and switched to a Thalore instead.

Most of my deaths were in the early game. After I got antimagic, even with just a few talent points, magic users had a much harder time taking me down. However, now I was much more vulnerable to status effects, and even though I tried to maintain really high saves, I was walking around without wild infusions for a while which was pretty foolish - still, it's a really hard trade off because this character needs to unlock 3 skill trees asap: Battle Tactics, Combat Veteran, and Fungus. I didn't get my fourth infusion until coming back from the east.

Once I got to level 40, Luna really started coming together. I was having average luck with equipment until my run up to and through high peak where the game decided to just rain artifact after artifact. My final set of equipment is almost embarassing. High Peak was actually one of the easier zones. Anti magic and fungus are pretty incredible. I had effectively maxed resists and an anti magic shield of 60 points or so, which meant that even the strongest magic attacks couldn't do more then a couple hundred damage. Then with a defence of 93 enemy fighters had a hell of a time touching me. Then combined with the fact that if you have two regeneration infusions, fungus gives you almost instant cast regeneration which last so long that you can always be regeneration 100 HP every turn without fail.

Playing this character was a ton of fun. Once all the core skills were in place, there was rarely a need to try to funnel enemies through halls and around corners. I moved and killed so fast that I would just pinball around the room taking down magic users, and then pick off the fighters which couldn't really touch me. For the final fight I just went straight after the sorcerers, and managed to save the sun paladin. I killed them so fast that only a handful of monsters managed to come out of the spawning portals. With all of my buffs on, at one point I hit one of the sorcerers with a flurry for about 4300 damage, iirc. I cleared that dragon room in the Vor armory easily. Sadly, I accidentally sold the eye of the golem, which means I didn't get to test myself against it.

If I were to do it again roguelike styles I'd go cornac instead. That extra category point is huge in the beginning, generic points are really precious, and this character takes a long time to develop all the skills to cover all weaknesses. A cornac anti magic marauder in the style of this character could clear the game pretty easily without deaths, I reckon.

[alex404]

And, so unfortunately I noticed that I did still have the golem's eye on me!

And that guy certainly did my character in. I got pretty close, but holy shit. I... didn't realize my character could be one shotted so easily. I would have needed to have jacked my physical resist way up to survive... had I done that I would have been able to take him down.

[Fhtagn]

Like with other reports, I would be quite interested in your build order.

[alex404]

Okay, so here's a rough sketch. I'm going to assume a cornac, because that would generally be more effective.

Levels 1-9:
Category point: Infusions. Try to get: A movement infusion, a wild infusion which removes physical, a regeneration infusion, and a healing infusion.
Stats: 1 point into each of strength, con, and dex every level.
Talents: Maximize Rush, dual weapon defence, mobile defence, and dagger mastery.
Levels 10-19:
Category point: Combat veteran
Stats: As before
Talents: At some point you should unlock antimagic. As soon as you can, drop one point into each of the first three talents. One point in each should be enough for now but will make a big difference in surviving magic users. Spread your points around in general to gather your basic attacks, build up your accuracy, and building up some stamina regen. Maximize dual weapon training.
Levels 20-29:
Category point: Battle techniques
Stats: Only pump strength as necessary to unlock battle technique talents. Otherwise, 2 points dex, 1 point con.
Talents: Maximize Step Up ASAP. This will be essential for surviving the cult. After, maximize greater weapon focus. Spread your generics around in anti magic, and perhaps light of foot if your wrestling with stamina (it's a great skill when combined with step up).
Levels 30-39:
Category point: Fungus. Now we're in business. Switch the healing infusion out for another regeneration infusion.
Stats: Keeping pumping dex until its maximized. Once it is, start investing in willpower and cunning.
Talents: Build up fungus with your generics. You will probably notice your survivability go through the roof. Otherwise, maximize precise strikes and or blinding speed, and work on building up your stamina regen talents in preperation for momentum.
Levels 40-50:
Prodigy: First: Eye of the tiger. The second one is up to you.
Stats: As before
Talents: Crank up momentum ASAP. In combination step up and blinding speed you are now a super fast bouncing ball of death, and eye of the tiger means that your talents cool down crazy fast. And your regeneration 100 hp every turn without fail. And melee attacks can barely touch you with your stratospheric defence. And magic has a hell of a time breaking through your antimagic. You're generally lacking in any obvious weaknesses. Otherwise, just fill out your talents as you please.

[Fhtagn]

Thanks a lot!
That's roughly what I had in mind, though I had absolutely no idea when to start skilling antimagic/fungus, so this really helps a lot.