[1.0.4] Lvl 20 Adventurer - Help picking new category!

[adamn]

Dead Guy is my recent Skeleton Adventurer on Nightmare mode.
http://te4.org/characters/34866/tome/58 ... ad3247eba7
To summarize, his categories are
Class:
Magical combat, Fire, Wildfire, and Psi-fighting
Generic:
Combat training, Conveyance, Aegis, Staff Combat, and Skeleton

He wields two staves for souped up spellpower/fire damage/Magical combat procs/etc.
The only pain in his skeletal posterior is full fire resistance, which he has to deal with by Command Staff-ing to something he can damage them with and then Channel Staff and bumping them to death slowly. I'm hoping filling out Wildfire will help alleviate this issue.

So I just hit 20, and I have another category point. What should I do with it? I'd like to spend it on a class category as I'm already spread pretty thin with generic points, and I already have Healing Light from an escort, so Light isn't a necessity. Should I get some crit-boosting to capitalize on Arcane Destruction and Frenzied Psifighting? And if so, which tree would be best for that? Should I go with Shadow magic for Shadow Cunning and Shadowstep? Should I go with Projection for Thermal Aura to use on Conduit, as well as some other damage-types? Should I get something else to deal with the fire resistance, like maybe Spell / Meta for Spellcraft? I have so many options! I need some help! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Doctornull]

For dual-staffing, I'd usually prefer to take Absorption, but if you've got Psi-Fighting already then you might as well get some value from Conduit and pick up a Projection aura or two.

Since you put in the Str to get Magical Combat, and a Staff counts as a two-handed weapon, you may also get some value from Two-Handed Weapons.

Alternately, you could dip into the Vim trees: Corrupted Strength is fun for a melee-caster, Blight has some very useful effects, and Shadowflame is great on a guy who doesn't need to breathe.

[adamn]

Oooh Shadowflame looks super fun for this build. Too bad I haven't unlocked Corruptors yet! Oh well.
So you think Projection might be worth it? I haven't really played Mindslayer, so I don't know what the damage output of that is like. Does it scale well? Because right now the auras say 11 damage, which seems pitiful.

[Doctornull]

Oooh Shadowflame looks super fun for this build. Too bad I haven't unlocked Corruptors yet! Oh well.
So you think Projection might be worth it? I haven't really played Mindslayer, so I don't know what the damage output of that is like. Does it scale well? Because right now the auras say 11 damage, which seems pitiful.

With Conduit, the 11 damage is +11 to your psi weapon, for no cost -- except the cat point and two talent points: one in the first talent, one in the second talent. Never spend more than one cat point and two class talent points in Projection. The damage never gets world-shaking, but it does scale up with Mindpower (so Will & Cunning, which you are building).

If you're looking for a place to dump a lot of points, then Absorption is a better choice. It's full of instant shields, and even if you just leave them sustained instead of spiking them regularly (which is the best way to use them), they'll still contribute to your defense. It's handy for surviving your own Burning Wake until you get Wildfire 5/5'd.

[sehnsucht]

How about Storm Drake Aspect?

Telekinesis wielded weapon will automatically attack others when you move. So all you need to do is activate Lightning Speed and circling your enemies, you can attack them with telekinesis wielded weapon 6 or 7 times in one single turn for 3 turns, what's more, your magical combat skill works, too.

[minmay]

That doesn't work. Telekinetic weapon attacks break lightning speed.

[sehnsucht]

That doesn't work. Telekinetic weapon attacks break lightning speed.

I'm sure telekinetic weapon attacks won't, but maybe you are right, flames from magical combat may break it.

Anyway, just forget my suggestion.

So many limitations, it's not easy to make a good adventurer build.

[Doctornull]

If you want a combat murder speed boost which is VERY compatible with TK weaponry, the stand-out choice is Cursed / Rampage. You can spend a lot of points in Rampage to very good effect.

Add in Cursed / Gloom as a source of Hate, plan to 1/1/1/1 Gloom, and you're good to go.

[adamn]

So after reading sehnsucht's suggestion and minmay's skepticism, I decided to test out the Lightning Speed + TK weapon combo on a test adventurer. Shaloren + Celerity + Rampage for good measure. It works! I get an attack every step I take around an enemy with Lightning Speed. Oddly enough, it doesn't work as well with Rampage active, only giving me an attack every other step. I wonder why that is. Didn't test yet to see if Arcane Combat breaks the combo or not. Even if it doesn't, this combo feels a bit too exploitative and well, skeletons can't get Lightning Speed anyways =P

Rampage might be an interesting choice though. Right now Dead Guy lacks any way to cover ground in combat (Conveyance gets him out just fine) I'd be sad about not getting the damage boost from Brutality though. Still not sure, but if I were to go with Rampage, would it or Gloom be my first pick? Oh, I just realized, does Arcane Combat mess with Rampage's duration?

UPDATE EDIT: Tested it out, and Arcane Combat disrupts both Lightning Speed and Rampage, so that's a big anti-combo.

[Doctornull]

Wow, that clears up a lot of my misconceptions. Thanks for testing! I wonder if all that info I read about Rampage was from an older version... well, whatever, back to your build.

How about Psi / Augmented Mobility? That has a speed booster as the 2nd talent, and the 1st talent is an anti-caster pull. (The 3rd is an escape which works even if you're Silenced... IMHO one of the best mobility powers in the game.) The 4th talent requires that you also take Absorption to make use of it, so buy Absorption at some point if you want to use Shattering Charge.

[minmay]

My mistake, I knew it broke movement infusions and assumed it would break lightning speed too. I see now that it has slightly different rules - telekinetic weapons do breakStepUp() which removes Step Up, movement infusions, and Reflexive Dodging, but not Lightning Speed, which has a separate function breakLightningSpeed() that isn't always called in the same place.

[adamn]

@minmay - I wonder why they have separate functions? It seems as though they're intended to function identically.

@Doctornull - So I created another character, almost identical but with Absorption instead of Psi-fighting. I'm quite happy with it! I got lucky with drops too and have gotten to 41 Strength without investing a single point in it, so I think I'll be going with this character instead. I'm still not sure if at 20 I should go with Augmented Mobility or Shadow Magic though. Hrm.

[Doctornull]

IMHO Augmented Mobility is super fun, but might not be optimal, especially if you already have Conveyance.

I would not buy both Arcane Combat and Shadow Magic, too much overlap IMHO.

Do you have Reaver unocked? Reaving Combat is fun for a dual-staffer. It'll trigger up to 1/round off Arcane Combat, and it can trigger Arcane Combat, so you can have up to 3 Flame spells shot per round.

[adamn]

I would not buy both Arcane Combat and Shadow Magic, too much overlap IMHO.

What overlap? Shadow Feed has nothing to do with Arcane Combat, Shadow Cunning and Arcane Cunning are the same but stack allowing you to focus purely on cunning for spellpower, Shadow Feed and Arcane Feed both increase mana regen but that's not why you get either, and Shadowstep and Arcane Cunning have nothing to do with each other.

Do you have Reaver unocked? Reaving Combat is fun for a dual-staffer. It'll trigger up to 1/round off Arcane Combat, and it can trigger Arcane Combat, so you can have up to 3 Flame spells shot per round.

I do but I'd be wasting the offhand benefit of Corrupted Strength, and Bloodlust is the only other thing in the tree I'd really care about, and for that I'd get a better boost out of Shadow Cunning anyways. Would it really be worth it just for the extra attack off of spells?

Edit: A good crit-boosting tree is still on the plate, just don't know which.

[Doctornull]

I would not buy both Arcane Combat and Shadow Magic, too much overlap IMHO.

What overlap? Shadow Feed has nothing to do with Arcane Combat, Shadow Cunning and Arcane Cunning are the same but stack allowing you to focus purely on cunning for spellpower, Shadow Feed and Arcane Feed both increase mana regen but that's not why you get either, and Shadowstep and Arcane Cunning have nothing to do with each other.

If you're looking for the Cunnin stacking, then I guess those two won't overlap for you.

The Mana regen talents do, though, and I never feel like I have enough points to invest in both trees.

I usually prefer the Arcane Combat crit bonus, given how many spells I can proc.

Do you have Reaver unocked? Reaving Combat is fun for a dual-staffer. It'll trigger up to 1/round off Arcane Combat, and it can trigger Arcane Combat, so you can have up to 3 Flame spells shot per round.

I do but I'd be wasting the offhand benefit of Corrupted Strength, and Bloodlust is the only other thing in the tree I'd really care about, and for that I'd get a better boost out of Shadow Cunning anyways. Would it really be worth it just for the extra attack off of spells?

Edit: A good crit-boosting tree is still on the plate, just don't know which.

Well, yeah. Extra attacks which can proc your spells are really nice to have, especially if you're optimizing for free Mindstaff attacks per round, since you can proc Corrupted Strength off a free Flame casting.

So if you proc Flame while moving rapidly, Corrupted Strength can double your damage for that attack.