[b43] Leda Loveless the L50 Cornac Cursed (winner)

[Dwindlehop]

Adventure mode. First b43 Cursed to make it out of Trollmire (I had a bunch of b42 Curseds).
Edit: now a winner
http://te4.org/characters/18572/tome/69 ... d2567228fc

Currently in High Peak. I am torn between trying to find a source of spell save other than my shield and trying to charge straight up to the final fight with minimum entanglement. Level 5 Curse of Misfortune with a good 2H artifact does an amazing job (probably takes an average of two bumps per kill), but I can't risk the low spell saves. If I did switch back to 2H, I would probably put a point in Cleave and use it. Repel has been great for me this run, though.

She died twice before going east: once at 18 (underestimated the burst damage of a bloated horror in Sher'Tul ruins, which I normally skip) and once at 26 (while saving Melinda, which I had never successfully done before). Once east, I very nearly died running into the room adjacent to the main vault in Vor Armory which was simply poor play. I died in Telos's Tower to just a bad Blindside which exposed me to too many ranged enemies. I then died to the berserker who lived in Rantha's lair. I had to go clear the rest of the west before coming back to him, as he really overpowered me the first time.

I also died once in Rak'Shor pride in one of the entrance rooms. I let too many minions get summoned; Rampage before exposing myself to the doorway rooms fixed that particular problem in the subsequent rooms.

Since that death in Rak'Shor pride, it has been pretty smooth sailing. I forgot to fight my shade when I first got east so the level 50 shade presented the most difficulty of the post-pride bosses. At the moment (Dec 2 2012) I am running from a trio of forge-giants to which autoexplore opened up the door.

I can't say enough good things about Spine of the World. Draconic Body is good but not outstanding; I think what has happened is that every time it kicks in I have eaten some significant burst damage which put me <<30% hp, so when I get the +40% HP I am still under 50% total and need to retreat anyway.

Fears are situational but when they work they work great. Unlocking Fear was my last natural cat point. My build has been:
Cornac cat point into Rampage and a point into Rampage
1 point in Stalk for the hate (if there were other early hate-on-hit talents or items I would not use Stalk at all)
Frenzy ASAP
Rampage to 5/5/1/1
Get Reckless Charge and Blindside
1 point in each Gloom talent
Second cat point into Predator for the hate (damage is also nice, but the hate is key)
Basically alternate between Gloom and Rampage to get them to 1/1/4/5 and 5/5/5/1.
Only then did I put anything into Fear.

For generics, I got Tough Skin first, always, and went surprisingly early for Weapon Mastery (I think I was at 4 or 5 when I defeated the Master). I got Cursed Form to 5/5/1/1 before putting anything into Cursed aura. Once I started Cursed Aura I immediately took it to 5/4/0/0. Once Cursed Aura was at that level, I put points back into Cursed Form. Last couple generics were probably in Combat Accuracy and Ruined Earth.

My general goal is to get enough hate so that I can Rampage early and often.

I am wearing the Fists of the Desert Scorpion and Steel Helm of Garkul primarily for the curses. My off set weapon is the artifact when Sunder Armors 15% on hit. I have done over 2200 on a single bump with that weapon. Gaping Maw does more damage per round but does not burst as high. With my emphasis on curses I need the Sunder Armor to compensate for my lack of armor penetration.

Cloth of Dreams is merely ok, but I know of no other way to defend against Sleep so it stays on.

The shop in Last Hope sold me a randart with +58 mental save (called Golem Body). If this had been on spell save, I would be one insanely happy player right now.
Edit: now a winner

[Dwindlehop]

My first winner!

I had no deaths at High Peak or at the final fight. I did lose the sun paladin just a few rounds before I killed the reaver.

In High Peak, I did no vaults except at the highest floor. I encountered nothing particularly nasty. I generally used Track to determine if I needed to Rampage before turning a corner/opening a door.

At the final fight, I held the Unstoppable Mauler when entering. I killed the archmage with just straight up Rampage, Frenzy, Dominate, Slash. Nothing much to it but hitting hard and not stopping. While that was happening the paladin went through the bone shield of the reaver. After that, I tickled the reaver a bit with my greatmaul but had to teleport out and switch to Anmalice + Blightstopper for the resists and spell save. I did close the portals after letting a large wing of dragons through (and a pair of xorns, one skeleton mage, and a dread). Their crossfire helped with damage on the reaver immensely.

Acid Blood was a problem. My spell save with Blightstopper was enough to keep the Curses mostly off, but I got hit with Acid Blood so much. I couldn't keep focus fire on the reaver. I had to keep retreating to regen and pick off a dragon or elemental or something for the Cursed Body HP. I was never really able to get my HP up high again until the very end, but kept on skirmishing. Movement is key for keeping my resists up, anyway. The paladin really absorbed a lot of hits. I got down to 18 HP at one point, though the worst point was with a couple xorns between me and the reaver, with me only about ~120 HP. Fortunately both had already used their Rushes so I was able to pick them off one by one, then flee.

Better regens would have been better. In fact, I think I probably should have used a decent heal, but I really never found any decent inscriptions. The shield rune in my inventory was not bad, but I have found I do not like shield runes on Cursed.

I used Predator (had Humanoid/Human at 100% effectiveness). It helped, but I think I would have preferred Humanoid/Shaloren. I decided against using Fears in the final fight, but it was crucial in making some of the High Peak uniques tractable. Obviously Sanctuary is tremendous because there's no way around it except closing the distance. I wound up using Rampage, Reckless Charge, Blindside, Teleport, and Mindhook for positioning in the final fight and could not have done it without carefully keeping tabs on the angles of attack.

I didn't put 3 points in Frenzy or Slash because I find Cursed kill things so rapidly I am not concerned about enemy attack or healing.

Anmalice's penalty meant I got hit with a lot of hexes, but the repeat rate on those is about the same as my wild infusion mental, so it was never an issue. No regrets switching to Anmalice with 0 kills, though it never did silence the reaver. I think it Maligned once, but I elected to keep hitting rather than try Fears.

Bone Grab gave me the most scares. I think those times were the times Draconic Body saved my bacon. Yay!