[RC3-4] Dwin the Cornac Arcane Blade (winner)
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:51 am
This is my Blade winner. There are few like it, but this one is mine.
http://te4.org/characters/18572/tome/62 ... ff909a6fb6
Final Fight was cake. I got battle shouted away from Argoniel once by a demon, well after Elandar died and shortly before Argoniel died. I Rushed back towards Argoniel immediately and completely ignored the portal denizens. Otherwise, I spent the whole fight adjacent to a sorcerer, or both.
Pieces of this build:
Charm Mastery 5 - It's Christmas. I wanted to play with toys. It did have some use, ultimately, in the form of:
Eden's Guile - note my global speed is 177%. I fought all major battles with that level of global speed on constantly, including the final fight. Fight was over before the second round of speed (thanks to charm mastery) wound down. This was because of:
Daggers & Dual Techniques - More blows, more crits, more destruction. In particular, spell crits make for nasty Arcane Combat effects from:
Lightning - Flame and Earthen Missiles have DoTs which break daze from Shock Hands. Limiting myself to Lightning makes the tier 2 dungeons and Dreadfell much more tractable, in my opinion. I did use a bleeding dagger once I bought it from the merchant, but by then I had:
Irresistible Sun/Never Stop Running - I wanted Never Stop Running so bad as soon as I saw it. Irresistible Sun was my best bet for a Prodigy that paired well with it. I picked up Irresistible Sun first, because I wanted to win the Ambush. Which I did, blinded. Once I got Never Stop Running, I became unstoppable.
Five Steps To An Unstoppable Arcane Blade
1. Never Stop Running
2. Eden's Guile
3. Irresistible Sun
4. Shield rune
5. Aegis
Round the corner or take the stairs, then use Rush and your dual techniques to inflict havoc while your Irresistible Sun provides a fresh selection of new targets each round. For uniques in High Peak and the final fight, I used Providence, Evasion, and Displacement Shield because the fights lasted longer than a game turn or two. The five steps are perfectly sufficient for vaults. I left one spiral lava floor vault alone in High Peak which produced a headless horror without any visible eyes, but otherwise straight ran through them all.
Obviously, I benefited from the cat point into Magical Combat, but I wonder how I would have fared with some stamina regen talents.
I died more than my other winners. With some changes to how this gets built, I think it would be OK for rogue-like. The late game in particular is highly solid.
elven cultist/mean looking elven guard - Failing to rescue Melinda. Lots of damage, lots of targets. It was too much, and the Dark Portal teleported me into a bad position.
Grand Corrupter - Fearscape. I really needed more mobility.
Protector Myssil - I was pounding on regular dudes and he showed up. Too much stuff on cooldown. Did not run away. He ground me down and I had no movement infusion.
orc cryomancer - This was just stupid. I was in the Vor Armory, playing cautiously. I was a few steps away from the door and there was a orc mage or two in my line of effect, but too far for my attacks. I decided to cautiously fire off a teleport. Of course, it landed me directly into the main room and I had no other escape. Came back, teleported out, and cleaned up.
Massok - This was interesting. I had played the whole game in cloth or leather and 1 talent point in Stone Skin. I walk up to Massok with shields up. We trade a few blows. I replenish my shields with nearly full HP. Then he Massive Blows straight through all my shields and HP.
What I needed to change for my mid-game:
Get the movement infusion (switched to heroism for the last fight) much earlier. It was my last cat point. I really needed it after I finished Into The Darkness.
Get some armor before I get into Reknor, maybe even while I'm in Dreadfell. I didn't wear heavy or massive until I found the stralite plate to make Crystalline armor.
Pump Rush early. I tried really hard to make Rush a 1 point wonder because I was going to get Never Stop Running, dammit. Then I got it and realized Rush was a highly stamina-efficient way to travel while Never Stop Running was on, so I pumped Rush late. However, Rush is always useful. I had to use some Rush boots and the Skeletal Claw to compensate, and adding a longer-range Rush in the mid-game would have been huge.
Skip Melinda and the Grand Corrupter and Far Portal to compensate. Sorry, Melinda.
I went for Barrier early but not Providence. The right thing to do would be make a beeline to Providence or ignore Barrier for more Aegis.
I never found a source of chants or the tome of lost knowledge (or a voratun amulet). Big bummers there. I did hit some bugs, most notably a lack of fight against Rak'Shor. He died offscreen, probably due to internal power struggles.
Other tidbits: The Burninator was a huge help against monsters with high defense and evasion, and Create Minions. Charm Mastery 5 was probably worth it for the third cast on that alone. I really tried to keep Dex and accuracy low as possible for this reason, but all my stuns are accuracy based so I had to pump them in the end, anyway. All that physical power, and no effects to trigger with it.
I'm not sure about this behavior being a bug, because I have never played a character with such good detection before, but I definitely noticed a Dreadmaster in High Peak who never attacked me. Granted, I gave him a wide berth, but still. Weird.
I will keep Never Stop Running on if I feel threatened. If this means moving down every hallway at light speed then taking a quick catnap, so be it.
Talent on hit(spell) Manathrust can trigger Talent on hit(spell) Manathrust. I did not know that.
Single target damage by this build is not bad, but it really gets mean when there's a whole bunch of bad guys. The Arcane Destruction and Lightning stacks up and puts out the pain.
Resistances? Pah. We don't need no stinkin' resistances! I would not have maxed Thick Skin if not for the extra points at level 50 (which I neglected to plan for).
I did not qualify for Corrupted Shell because of shields, which made me sad.
I made Con my third highest stat. I probably should have done it to Will for the extra stamina in the final fight.
http://te4.org/characters/18572/tome/62 ... ff909a6fb6
Final Fight was cake. I got battle shouted away from Argoniel once by a demon, well after Elandar died and shortly before Argoniel died. I Rushed back towards Argoniel immediately and completely ignored the portal denizens. Otherwise, I spent the whole fight adjacent to a sorcerer, or both.
Pieces of this build:
Charm Mastery 5 - It's Christmas. I wanted to play with toys. It did have some use, ultimately, in the form of:
Eden's Guile - note my global speed is 177%. I fought all major battles with that level of global speed on constantly, including the final fight. Fight was over before the second round of speed (thanks to charm mastery) wound down. This was because of:
Daggers & Dual Techniques - More blows, more crits, more destruction. In particular, spell crits make for nasty Arcane Combat effects from:
Lightning - Flame and Earthen Missiles have DoTs which break daze from Shock Hands. Limiting myself to Lightning makes the tier 2 dungeons and Dreadfell much more tractable, in my opinion. I did use a bleeding dagger once I bought it from the merchant, but by then I had:
Irresistible Sun/Never Stop Running - I wanted Never Stop Running so bad as soon as I saw it. Irresistible Sun was my best bet for a Prodigy that paired well with it. I picked up Irresistible Sun first, because I wanted to win the Ambush. Which I did, blinded. Once I got Never Stop Running, I became unstoppable.
Five Steps To An Unstoppable Arcane Blade
1. Never Stop Running
2. Eden's Guile
3. Irresistible Sun
4. Shield rune
5. Aegis
Round the corner or take the stairs, then use Rush and your dual techniques to inflict havoc while your Irresistible Sun provides a fresh selection of new targets each round. For uniques in High Peak and the final fight, I used Providence, Evasion, and Displacement Shield because the fights lasted longer than a game turn or two. The five steps are perfectly sufficient for vaults. I left one spiral lava floor vault alone in High Peak which produced a headless horror without any visible eyes, but otherwise straight ran through them all.
Obviously, I benefited from the cat point into Magical Combat, but I wonder how I would have fared with some stamina regen talents.
I died more than my other winners. With some changes to how this gets built, I think it would be OK for rogue-like. The late game in particular is highly solid.
elven cultist/mean looking elven guard - Failing to rescue Melinda. Lots of damage, lots of targets. It was too much, and the Dark Portal teleported me into a bad position.
Grand Corrupter - Fearscape. I really needed more mobility.
Protector Myssil - I was pounding on regular dudes and he showed up. Too much stuff on cooldown. Did not run away. He ground me down and I had no movement infusion.
orc cryomancer - This was just stupid. I was in the Vor Armory, playing cautiously. I was a few steps away from the door and there was a orc mage or two in my line of effect, but too far for my attacks. I decided to cautiously fire off a teleport. Of course, it landed me directly into the main room and I had no other escape. Came back, teleported out, and cleaned up.
Massok - This was interesting. I had played the whole game in cloth or leather and 1 talent point in Stone Skin. I walk up to Massok with shields up. We trade a few blows. I replenish my shields with nearly full HP. Then he Massive Blows straight through all my shields and HP.
What I needed to change for my mid-game:
Get the movement infusion (switched to heroism for the last fight) much earlier. It was my last cat point. I really needed it after I finished Into The Darkness.
Get some armor before I get into Reknor, maybe even while I'm in Dreadfell. I didn't wear heavy or massive until I found the stralite plate to make Crystalline armor.
Pump Rush early. I tried really hard to make Rush a 1 point wonder because I was going to get Never Stop Running, dammit. Then I got it and realized Rush was a highly stamina-efficient way to travel while Never Stop Running was on, so I pumped Rush late. However, Rush is always useful. I had to use some Rush boots and the Skeletal Claw to compensate, and adding a longer-range Rush in the mid-game would have been huge.
Skip Melinda and the Grand Corrupter and Far Portal to compensate. Sorry, Melinda.
I went for Barrier early but not Providence. The right thing to do would be make a beeline to Providence or ignore Barrier for more Aegis.
I never found a source of chants or the tome of lost knowledge (or a voratun amulet). Big bummers there. I did hit some bugs, most notably a lack of fight against Rak'Shor. He died offscreen, probably due to internal power struggles.
Other tidbits: The Burninator was a huge help against monsters with high defense and evasion, and Create Minions. Charm Mastery 5 was probably worth it for the third cast on that alone. I really tried to keep Dex and accuracy low as possible for this reason, but all my stuns are accuracy based so I had to pump them in the end, anyway. All that physical power, and no effects to trigger with it.
I'm not sure about this behavior being a bug, because I have never played a character with such good detection before, but I definitely noticed a Dreadmaster in High Peak who never attacked me. Granted, I gave him a wide berth, but still. Weird.
I will keep Never Stop Running on if I feel threatened. If this means moving down every hallway at light speed then taking a quick catnap, so be it.
Talent on hit(spell) Manathrust can trigger Talent on hit(spell) Manathrust. I did not know that.
Single target damage by this build is not bad, but it really gets mean when there's a whole bunch of bad guys. The Arcane Destruction and Lightning stacks up and puts out the pain.
Resistances? Pah. We don't need no stinkin' resistances! I would not have maxed Thick Skin if not for the extra points at level 50 (which I neglected to plan for).
I did not qualify for Corrupted Shell because of shields, which made me sad.
I made Con my third highest stat. I probably should have done it to Will for the extra stamina in the final fight.