character dump:
http://te4.org/characters/23706/tome/d9 ... 13cf41856f
It started innocuously enough, I thought it could be fun to mix the Aegis tree with a skeleton's natural large shield/heal abilities. The early game was a bit rough, especially because I was being very careful about getting any points locked into flame- I wanted 100% of my Arcane combat Procs to shoot Earthen missiles as I was planning to run Crystalline focus eventually. Things got rolling pretty nicely by the early-teens though as I finally had all my core tools available.
My biggest problem at this stage of the game was that the ranger gods were not kind- nothing but staves and bow artifacts from the early dungeons. Worse yet, despite my entire survivability being based around shields, I couldn't find shielding runes for the life of me. None of the 3 rune shops had a single shielding rune for sale and none would drop either. Fortunately Bone shield was enough shielding to pick up the slack.
In the Maze I finally find a decent weapon- a randart T4 axe with a large crit bonus for proccing Arcane destruction, as well a handy +18 accuracy & defence. I also around this time buy a purple platemail chestpices with around 40% in resistances as well as some stun resist- which my character will be wearing all the way through the orc prides.
However in the low 20s when I do Daikara, Tempest peak, and the early levels of dreadfell is when my luck changes. At level 22 I find my first shielding rune of the game- a no-scaling rune that shields 180 or so damage- not much, but at least now I have 2 shielding runes. I find a Wanderer's Rest, a randart helm that gives about 50% in various resistances, as well as an accumulation of resistance rings that allow me to in a few ring swaps have 40-50% in whatever resist I need.
Dark crypt was a significant turning point for Rune; he finds a controlled phase door rune, which combined with the telekinetic leap he gets from Wanderer's rest gives him the mobility that gets him through some of the game's more difficult fights.
By the time he gets done with everything in Maj'eyal dealing with the Master is a breeze- and the Orc ambush afterwards, which requiring a bit of phase door & TK leap use to buy time for shielding cooldowns more or less goes off without a hitch as well. Reknor is probably the last great challenge Rune faces ebfore the endgame- Rune can't deal enough damage i nthe bottleneck hallway and engages in several bouts of phase door/TK leap escapes followed by LoS-breaking colum dancing in the sides rooms , then leap/blinking back into the bottleneck again when either the needed survival tools are off cooldown or the side room has become too congested with orcs to safely waste time in. Eventually though,<whatever the orcish Reknor boss is named> Falls, and Rune proceeds East.
It's in the East that Rune really gathers steam- he finds actual good shielding runes, and enough resist gear that he can reliably have 30-50% in all except the more esoteric damage types(such as mind, temporal, and Arcane), with rings to swap in as needed. He has a bit of a rough time with briaghs lair, but after that it's pretty much smooth sailing until the eend of the Orc prides.
I've at thing point unfortunately eaten a number of careless deaths- In all honesty I got careless often enough that I deserved my eventual loss, even if each death did a great deal to tighten up my subsequent focus and play- by the time I entered High Peaks I had 3 lives left, and a ring of the dead. But I was as confidant as someone who has never experienced the upcoming content before could be that I had a decent chance at winning(between high resistances, lots of shielding, and very respectable damage output the prides had been a cakewalk).
My first death came in a high peaks 2 vault. I learned a very valuable lesson there: even if they are an enemy type that's usually not a problem respect anything over level 70. A pair of berserkers deal 1100 physical damage to me in 1 turn through my 45% phys resist and 60 armor. So I tighten up my play in the vaults, and things are going well until I hit a particularly nasty Rare that can east through all of health & shielding like it was nothing- I take another death here, and barely manage to make it to the staircase on respawning.
So after two deaths I am utterly humbled, having lost all notions of invincibility the orc prides had taught me. And this new focus borne of being on my last life shows results. The close Calls more or less top and I'm clearly everything consistantly, if slower then my previous bravado had allowed. I take to the habit of swapping in my Ring of the dead at the first sign of real trouble.
My final death comes out of nowhere- no times to think, no time to put on my ring of the dead. I rush to close the gap on a lone rare(nothing else in the room), thinking it merely an opportunity for exp and loot- like the countless others I've vanquished. And I'm dead. I spend a moment sitting here staring uncomprehending at the screen- I'd had nearly 1500 health, and had 50-70% resistance to pretty much every damage type- how could this monster have managed to vanquish me in a single turn? Then I noticed how the jerk had hit me 28 times in that single turn
Well turns out the beasty Happened to have been generated with Arcane Combat and Corrupted Strength- Which is a bit irritating, but at the very least has given Rune quite a memorable end. I'd probably be a lot more upset if not for the way I had squandered my earlier lives with carelessness and overconfidence.
Anway, just felt like giving my most successful character to date a bit of an epitaph. Though I've failed this time, I've learned a lot from this playthrough. More then ever I'm confident that my eventual first win is near- after which comes the day when I take off the training wheels and start playing in roguelike mode
