ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Yay!

http://te4.org/characters/26842/tome/46 ... 768de54822

I'm so happy I managed to finish it with Bunny effect as well.

Early Nightmare for Summoner don't felt that different than Normal, having unlimited meat sh... animal friends makes early zones a breeze, save for Rhaloren camp (those magi hurt, and 2 appearing in los at once can one shot you easily) and Gloom, where final boss got cheating shadows. I skipped Lake Nur since it is often spawning enemies than can straight one shot you, came back just before prides to get some energy for Farportals. Turned AM, mainly for in-fight EQ regen from Fungus, ended up being more important that I though it will. Had to left most of Daikara for later so I could enter Dreadfell before hitting 24lvl.

Masters lair didn't pose too much trouble, found all 3 companions which summoner really destroy (Borfast was dead in 3-4 turns after Franctic summoning his ass). Not many vaults, which is shame, you can just swarm them with dragons over and over for good loot and low risk. Fight at bottom ended up as Nature vs Undeath war. Skellies tend to be much better than what I could conjure, but well... I have unlimited amount of them ^^. Earth Eyes and Meditation allowed me to scout beforehand where Master decide to teleport.

For East and all the stuff up to and including Prides, I felt no difference in difficulty. As pseudo-ranged caster I never was hit by those 20 turns stun/disarms, and normal caster damage was easily soaked by resists, AM and healed by Fungus. Room of Death was Room of Free 2 Level Ups, although each dragon took 20 or so sets of summons. When I was hit once by them I got blinded for 40 turns, not sure how non-blind immune melee could even try to do them. After 4 prides lied dead, selling gems settled me at 11k gold, so I went to some farportals to get enough for 3 merchant randarts. It was best decision I ever made, as it is where I found Mindstar which gave me Telepathy:All. It saved me lot of tedious switching of Meditation, allowed me to ignore blind, gave more vision range than Earth Eyes tele normally gives, and gave me ability to observe and detonate summons through walls.

Apart from that little gem, lootwise, it wasn't best run. No magic eating gauntlets. No Blood of Life. No Ring of Dead. No summoner specific Mindstar and rather mediocre t5 one. And zero artifact lites, I had to ask merchant for it since I was walking around with +40hp one whole time.

Now High Peak, that is new level of horsecrap. Enemies scale to 90, bosses to 100. I went in ready for full cheese spam behind corners, this class just don't have tools to handle them otherwise. Normal enemies are tough enough to eat through whole pack of drakes. My previous summoner's life ended by instant cast Freeze, rare had Uttercold of rank enough to ignore all of my resist and take all hp in one hit. This char didn't have it easy either. A summoner/archer stair guardian get in my sight radius so I made golem in way of his aim. Before I could act again, golem was one shot for 1200, I lost buckloads of health, and another arrow was in the air. He also created War Hounds with over 800 strength dealing 900 per hit.
On another floor, some 'shadow whirlwind' unique (don't remember name) summoner/whatever had 18k of life, 70% res all, and he could summon a Drake. That Drake then roared... in seemingly unlimited range, got hit by it non-crit once for 1200 physical... haven't stayed to see how much his breath does.
All of this was topped by a RARE orc warrior rogue, that I could only see because of telepathy. My summons couldn't target him even square away, he had over 200% global speed, and was meleeing my pets for 4,5k crits. Good thing I could still detonate them for some damage.
Apart from that, already deadly Forge Giants now got Rush with 0-turn cd, ignore all fire resists, and their flame field alone (that takes whole screen) can kill you. I'm not sure, but I think it also could dispel things since I sometimes ended up w/o regeneration and infusion on still high cd.

For final fight, after getting first zoo out, I rushed out to disable undead portal (those things just DON'T DIE, full hp heals, huge shields, high damage, and they all resurrect) and Elemental portal, with plans to keep close to that pillar and spam bosses to death from there. It went... so-so. First half of boss felt easily. Elendar, however, kept healing himself up, and worse, getting past my walls, hitting me so hard I lived only by Heroism two or three times, and making me change position where I was in range of dragon and demon portals. I needed whole place for the fight, rushed past dragons, disabled portal, cleared scalies and somehow left boss in southern part. That allowed me to spam summon demon portal, which manage to spew 2 Forge giants already (and one more in process of killing that pair).

Sadly, the fight wasn't finished at all. For some reason, whole place was turned perma dark, I suspect by one of shadow demons out of portal. Darkness does nothing to me (Tpathy:all), but pets were too stupid to target Elendar unless spawned next to him, and even then, his invis made them just walk away half of time. His periodic aoe one shotting everything didn't help either. Boss AI caused him to heal himself each time he would fall below 75% of hp and after half hour, I just couldn't make a dent in him. I tried clearing darkness with sun infusion and sun phial (both dropped by first boss) but it just did nothing. Lack of light didn't stop Eldar from sniping me with every single of his spell, even targeting me through wall somehow. And he just danced in one spot, never actually going for me, and returning to it even if drake somehow manage to knockback him from his place.

As last ditch effort, I played hide and seek with him, Mana Clashing him down, from his 10k mana pool. After many turns, he hit 0, and I could finally tank him without fear of instant death. Went all in in melee, get out my AM totem, summoned everything on top of him, and kept Mana Clashing/Silencing for safety, few turns over he finally dropped dead, never felt more happy before in this game!

If I find time, I may try to glue some sort of Summoner guide, got a little idea how they work after 2 50ties on NM.

Congrats!!

You sir/madam, are my hero. That is all.

wow