Insane win: Shalore Marauder

[bpat]

Marauder

After getting stuck in High Peak Sanctum with my Insane Shalore Corruptor, I decided to play a class with Unstoppable instead after Thomas won with his Insane Berserker.

At level 1 I bought a great Overpowered t3 Mindblast torque in Zigur that did something like 175-350 mind damage. This Torque single-handedly carried me through the early game into the t2 dungeons by killing most normal enemies in a hit or two from a decent range. Once I got two around level 30, I opened every fight with Grace of the Eternals, Unstoppable, Momentum, Precision, Greater Weapon Focus, and Timeless (also Draconic Will and Perfect Strike once I got them). I actually never used Blinding Speed despite it being better than Grace of the Eternals, since it wouldn't last the full duration of Unstoppable.

My category points went to Battle Tactics, Bloodthirst, Inscription, and Inscription. I could have probably done this build with only three Inscriptions since I only really used my two Movement Infusions and and occasionally Heroism (Wild and Regen went almost completely unused late game). In retrospect, I feel like getting Poisons is a viable alternative to taking five Inscriptions since Numbing and Crippling Poison are both great, but I don't really regret going with the build I chose. My two prodigies were Flexible Combat and Draconic Will. Flexible Combat was a no-brainer since it's the best melee damage prodigy for Marauders. I picked Draconic Will as my second prodigy since it lasts 15 turns with Timeless and slows and pins were a bit problematic. Between Draconic Will and Unstoppable, I completely ignored what my enemies were doing and just went for the kill.

My build had a few choices that some people will probably find odd. I never put points in Charm Mastery (got 1/5 from a Thief escort though) despite it being amazing since I simply didn't find any good charms. If I found Ungole's Egg Sac, Wrap of Stone, The Bladed Rift, or something like that I would have invested more in it. I probably shouldn't have taken Thick Skin at all (Unstoppable removes the need for this) and gone 1/5/1/1 in Survival instead, but it didn't end up mattering too much in the end. Also some people will probably find it odd that I only had 1/5 in Rush and Blinding Speed. This is because I favored Movement Infusions over Rush so I could position myself better. Although I did cheese points into Rush on occasion, it wasn't very often. I actually never used Blinding Speed despite it being better than Grace of the Eternals, since it wouldn't last the full duration of Unstoppable.

Winning this was very difficult since autoexploring or engaging without Unstoppable were suicide, but it was also very fun and rewarding. I definitely recommend Insane to people looking for a challenge harder than Nightmare.

[Doctornull]

Awesome.

[Thomas]

Nice one! Very well done!
I'd never considered Draconic Will + Timeless... must have worked wonders with Unstoppable!!
I really like your overall build, it seems really well tailored for just getting as much damage out during Unstoppable as possible.
Agreed that Thick Skin pts could have been better used elsewhere, but still, it's nice to have it; lowers the chance of an unexpected one-shot.

Agreed that charm mastery isn't super necessary unless you get an awesome charm/torque/item (for example a GWF ring for classes that aren't blessed with it :p)

Congrats ^^


edit: still can't believe you didn't go Winblade............................................................................

More edit: You'd probably be able to do Ata, worth a try! Worst case just run away before Unstoppable runs out. Also, saw this in your combat log:
Option unlocked: New game difficulty mode: Madness
Do it.

[bpat]

Nice one! Very well done!
I'd never considered Draconic Will + Timeless... must have worked wonders with Unstoppable!!
I really like your overall build, it seems really well tailored for just getting as much damage out during Unstoppable as possible.
Agreed that Thick Skin pts could have been better used elsewhere, but still, it's nice to have it; lowers the chance of an unexpected one-shot.

Agreed that charm mastery isn't super necessary unless you get an awesome charm/torque/item (for example a GWF ring for classes that aren't blessed with it :p)

Congrats ^^


edit: still can't believe you didn't go Winblade............................................................................

More edit: You'd probably be able to do Ata, worth a try! Worst case just run away before Unstoppable runs out. Also, saw this in your combat log:
Option unlocked: New game difficulty mode: Madness
Do it.

Thanks!

I skipped Winblade since my damage was high enough with Flexible Combat and Marauders have better AoE and mobility than Berserkers, so the massive AoE wasn't really necessary. The disarm would have been good though. Flexible Combat was just too good not to take and Draconic Will made me immune to pretty much everything, until Unstoppable ran out the only meaningful action enemies could take was moving.

I like the idea of Madness but there is no way I'll be able to beat it considering I barely made it through Insane. I won't be able to beat the final bosses since the bosses have like 10 times the health they do on Insane (and Elandar can heal); one of the biggest reasons I won this time was because I took down Elandar in under three turns. I'd like for there to be a difficulty setting with scaling between Nightmare and Insane but with Madness rules (tons of rares and uniques, bosses get classes) but without that I'll probably just stick with Nightmare for a while.