ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

http://te4.org/characters/22692/tome/c9 ... e0ed4bb9ee

8 deaths. Proof that solipsist aren't invulnerable. However, I feel like I could've done so much better with the build, I was all over the place with talents. Any ideas on how to streamline the build for my next run? I hit only a few hurdles early on, and had issues with crowd control... Only thing letting me survive the poor crowd control was the fact that I was tanky as hell and could just soak damage into psi which regens constantly. Feels nerve-racking to watch your psi go down as your hit, and the use MORE to fight back, knowing that your eating away at your life (basically) every time you attack.

Soooo.... Advice?

I'd personally get the Nightmare tree instead of Thought-Forms or Distortion. Solves CC problem with the AoE sleep.

Fungal tree is pretty great, but unneeded. Especially since the points could've been put in Resonance Field and Conversion, which are really nice.

Also Balance and Unity are really nice...

I'm actually quite surprised. I cleared both the campaign and the 60-wave arena with a build very similar to yours, except that I ignored Thought-Forms and went 5/5/0/0 in Nightmare (which I primarily used for emergencies and bosses).

The first thing that jumps out at me is that you had no Mental Tyranny and low damage modifiers, which leads me to suspect that your main problem wasn't crowd control but damage. I never invested in Mental Assault beyond Mind Sear, and found that 5/5/1/5 in Distortion, with the first and last skills maxed early, was all the crowd control I needed. Once I got Mental Tyranny at level 30, all my damage skills were taking advantage of an obsessively stacked mind damage modifier that reached over +100% by the end of the game.

I disagree that Fungal is unneeded (it solves all resource problems forever, maintains Antimagic Shield, and lets you recover rapidly from the high burst damage against which solipsists have no effective defense), but agree about the value of Resonance Field and Conversion, especially in the early game before your passive and sustain defenses have been developed.

I don't know how you found your saves, but I definitely think you missed a trick with Balance + Unity. Plus Unity boosts Dismissal.

On the other hand, I think Clarity + Quickened was excessive, and may have actually contributed to your problems. You chose to invest in a very high number of direct damage talents, and with high global speed you would probably have burned through them quickly during encounters, resulting in high Psi drain for limited returns (due to the low damage mods). And Clarity's worthless if you can't keep your Psi pool high anyway.

Final tip: I went with Meteoric Crash for my second campaign prodigy and loved how it sped up dealing with normal enemies (often making the opening blow the only blow), but Tiger Eye is even better. Assuming a decent crit rate, it basically lets you spam cheap beam, AoE and knockback effects turn after turn like a cross between an orbital weapons platform and the final boss of a bullet hell-type shooter, especially if you open with a Maelstrom for unlimited free distortion and easy control of enemy positions.

Like other people mentioned, 1/4/1/3 or thereabouts in feedback in the early game gives you a nice shield and heal, definitely worth the investment for padding out your effective HP. Use the shield early and often, as soon as it becomes available due to sufficient feedback pretty much.

Forge bellows, while not the greatest offensive skill, can be a real lifesaver in many situations. For example, you can block off the lower or upper set of mobs in the pride entrances, or pretty much hit the undo button when you open a vault door and see a bunch of beefy enemies. It's a CC that doesn't require a save check, though a bit luck heavy.

I don't have anything to say about distortion really, haven't used it. On the other hand, psychic lobotomy is a great way of mitigating damage on tough opponents. It caps out at around 50%+ confusion, and hits pretty much anything in the game. Plus brainlock, which means less skills being cast on you.

Looking at your stuff, it seems pretty mediocre. That probably didn't help you out too much :p