[RC2] Elonial the Very, Very Arcane Bulwark (No deaths)

[SageAcrin]

http://te4.org/characters/10195/tome/53 ... 2ba9725d5a

This build was a surprisingly large success. As a run, it was fairly good-I got fairly poor endgame equipment, wasn't very happy with any of my merchant randarts(my other two attempts are worse, you can see The Saddest Horn that I got after I cleared the game, for laughs.) but two were serviceable(a third was my offweapon because it was acid conversion instead of fire).

The earlygame equipment was spectacular-that amulet was found in the first 20 levels IIRC, I had a gloves that were nearly as good at the one I was wearing similarly early, and I got great weapons early on and Chromatic Harness before the Prides. So, pretty good, overall.

The thing that surprised me was how well the build gimmick worked. Up until L30, I built straight Str/Dex and hoped for an Anorithil-this was a fairly standard build up until that, and I had no complaints-Thalore Bulwark is quite good, I even went through the Dark Crypt(Because I had 70% Blight resist thanks Thalore+several good equips for it. Still nearly died!). I eventually got this as my ninth and final escort, but that was okay, as between good equip luck and a good combination, I hadn't needed anything special.

The surprising part was how well Magic building worked. Healing Light and Barrier on top of five slots, Step Up/good Rush(even without the Rings to boost the CD), and Shield Wall...well, it was an insane amount of defense and mobility. 300ish was the target I hoped for with Healing Light/Barrier and I hit it, which made me quite happy, but what I didn't expect is how notable the impact from Arcane Might was(Over 15% base Damage bonus, I believe). This was a huge impact, especially against the high armor(a notable issue for Bulwark).

So yeah, you can run your Bulwark like a crazy, high mobility, low-spells Sun Paladin. And it works pretty well. It wasn't even that close to optimal, as you can see from the so-so later equipment and the fact that I lacked Premonition.