[1.4.5] Insane RL Paradox Mage winner !!!!

[jenx]

Finally: http://te4.org/characters/2460/tome/1df ... 6605c7f8d6

This build absolutely smashed the final fight - I did not even lose a single hitpoint, not one. I closed one portal, just when my clones time skipped both bosses.

I had 100% spell crit for most of end game.

So now, onto madness!

[bpat]

Congrats on the win!

How did you use Temporal Fugue effectively? It seems underwhelming at first glance but there must be something I'm missing. Also did you not find Spellbinding necessary to beat spell saves? I can't imagine how you could beat Elandar's spell save without Empower for instance.

Edit: I'm really curious as to why you prefer your build over shesh's build. Could you elaborate on why you went Timeline Threading over Spellbinding, and other choices like skipping most of Flux?

[dukereg]

Congrats!

This build absolutely smashed the final fight - I did not even lose a single hitpoint, not one.

How did you manage that?

[jenx]

So, what I discovered is that when you hover mouse of Spacetime Tuning, it says Spellpower for Chronomancy. This goes much higher than my SP, which was about 75.

After paradox got to about 450 or so, Spellpower for Chronomancy got right into the 120-140 range. I that point, I would cast temporal fugue, once I had speed on. This way, the three turns the clones have gives them about 5-6 talent uses, and they always try to land Entropy.

I got entropy on them easily this way. Once you land Entropy, it is easy.

I use Cease to Exist to boost dmg, and braiding helps a lot.

Regarding no hitpoints, the other trick is, cast fugue next to your helper (whose name I always forget), and then dim step away. They focus all their attacks on the clones and the helper.

If they move towards you, I use spike to push them back to where I want them.

I lost no hitpoints because with the combo of absorption, time shield, webs, i never took dmg. And I stayed 10 steps away, so not all their talents could hit me at that range I think.

the combo of gravity well (slowing them) and my max haste and dilation gave me about 3 talents for every talent they used. And once you land dmg and entropy, they start to take reparative action, rather than hurl dmg at you.

Also, I should note, I only ever used physical dmg boost, not temporal. fewer creatures resist physical, and more gear boosts phys penetration etc.

[bpat]

Wow, that is a very interesting strategy. I had previously disregarded Gravity but I may need to reevaluate it now. I am a surprised you didn't invest in Reality Smearing (but your character sheet says you have it on?) or Rethread (considering you use it for Braid Lifelines). I'm also curious as to why you went for Hidden Resources over Induce Anomaly and Twist Fate, did you find that those two talents just didn't do enough for paradox management? And if you only use Flux for Attenuate, is it even worth the category point at all? Also, don't the Fugue clones cause you to take some of the damage, or was the damage just low enough that your shields dealt with it?

[fateriddle]

750 paradox + hidden resource, great job indeed!
One question: can you go on with this combo to build up infinite max paradox ?( HR, fire skills, wait till HR cool down, then HR, skills again)

Congrats on the win!
Edit: I'm really curious as to why you prefer your build over shesh's build. Could you elaborate on why you went Timeline Threading over Spellbinding, and other choices like skipping most of Flux?

I don't understand shesh's build, at all... Zero in gravity and Flexible Combat, it's like wtf... But then I noticed it's madness RL... wtf...
I didn't find any guide post to his build, do you care to explain?

[jenx]

Wow, that is a very interesting strategy. I had previously disregarded Gravity but I may need to reevaluate it now. I am a surprised you didn't invest in Reality Smearing (but your character sheet says you have it on?) or Rethread (considering you use it for Braid Lifelines). I'm also curious as to why you went for Hidden Resources over Induce Anomaly and Twist Fate, did you find that those two talents just didn't do enough for paradox management? And if you only use Flux for Attenuate, is it even worth the category point at all? Also, don't the Fugue clones cause you to take some of the damage, or was the damage just low enough that your shields dealt with it?

For Reality Smearing, all I want is the 30% reduction. If I'm taking lots of dmg, I'm not doing everything right. And so conversion of 500 dmg to 0.5 vs 0.3 paradox per point is not a big difference. Most battles I win just a few turns after HR is over. And I can usually find a way to rest a few turns and so help with CD. The Eye of the Tiger prodigy was fantastic for this, as I was at 100% spell crit most of the time.

So in 6 turns of HR with Haste, I get 12-18 talents, so that's a lot of CD happening.

HR is just brilliant with this build, I can't imagine it any other way, but perhaps someone can convince me.

With the clones and dmg etc, you have to consider a situation where say you get 900 dmg thrown at you after resists. if that was me, webs of fate sends back 300 in reflected dmg, absorption gets about 80, and smearing 300 (I'm not sure of the order, and the exact numbers here). So my then takes 280.

But say I have clones up. Then that's 300 each, and each clone reflects back 100, but each clone absorbs 80, and smearings 100. So that's only 20 dmg to me .

So clones takes 900 dmg down to 20 dmg - that's basically why you take hardly any dmg, and that's why absorption rocks, because it is an absolute amount, not a percentage.

so the combo of time shield, absorption, webs, and clone makes you almost impervious. all you need is to reduce the cds through eye of the tiger and the talent that does that as well, and you are almost nonstop.

Also, if you study the code, you will realise that the duration for many talents increases as paradox increases .

[jenx]

750 paradox + hidden resource, great job indeed!
One question: can you go on with this combo to build up infinite max paradox ?( HR, fire skills, wait till HR cool down, then HR, skills again)

Congrats on the win!
Edit: I'm really curious as to why you prefer your build over shesh's build. Could you elaborate on why you went Timeline Threading over Spellbinding, and other choices like skipping most of Flux?

I don't understand shesh's build, at all... Zero in gravity and Flexible Combat, it's like wtf... But then I noticed it's madness RL... wtf...
I didn't find any guide post to his build, do you care to explain?

at a certain point, you hit 100% anomoly chance, so paradox then goes down. and you do NOT want major anomolies in any case. the negative ones are, well, undesirable!

For example, against Ata, I triggered clone enemy LOLOLOL. His clone killed me in one round. duh.

[bpat]

750 paradox + hidden resource, great job indeed!
One question: can you go on with this combo to build up infinite max paradox ?( HR, fire skills, wait till HR cool down, then HR, skills again)

Congrats on the win!
Edit: I'm really curious as to why you prefer your build over shesh's build. Could you elaborate on why you went Timeline Threading over Spellbinding, and other choices like skipping most of Flux?

I don't understand shesh's build, at all... Zero in gravity and Flexible Combat, it's like wtf... But then I noticed it's madness RL... wtf...
I didn't find any guide post to his build, do you care to explain?

shesh got Flexible Combat for proccing Mercy. On Madness (this does not apply to any other difficulty) melee attacks with Mercy end up dealing more damage than your spells.

Also, jenx, am I correct in understanding that Hidden Resources makes Reality Smearing not add paradox, or is it just not a big deal since you don't take much damage? Also Eye of the Tiger can apply once every game turn, or once for each of your turns?

[jenx]

750 paradox + hidden resource, great job indeed!
One question: can you go on with this combo to build up infinite max paradox ?( HR, fire skills, wait till HR cool down, then HR, skills again)

Congrats on the win!
Edit: I'm really curious as to why you prefer your build over shesh's build. Could you elaborate on why you went Timeline Threading over Spellbinding, and other choices like skipping most of Flux?

I don't understand shesh's build, at all... Zero in gravity and Flexible Combat, it's like wtf... But then I noticed it's madness RL... wtf...
I didn't find any guide post to his build, do you care to explain?

shesh got Flexible Combat for proccing Mercy. On Madness (this does not apply to any other difficulty) melee attacks with Mercy end up dealing more damage than your spells.

Also, jenx, am I correct in understanding that Hidden Resources makes Reality Smearing not add paradox, or is it just not a big deal since you don't take much damage? Also Eye of the Tiger can apply once every game turn, or once for each of your turns?

tbh, I never worked out whether HR means RS does not add paradox. I haven't wondered about that, so I should look into it. Because my paradox rarely caused me problems (I had it tuned to 350 for much of the game btw), I didn't worry about it.

Same with EotT, I didn't study it to see how often it triggered, but I knew it was triggering a lot.

btw, in an ideal world, PMs would start with Flux and Stasis unlocked, and then I Could play Shalore with Timeless on all these positive talents (webs, time shield, etc.) That would be awesome.

[jenx]

I have often wondered why Attenuate is so fabulous. I have studied the code and I think this is the reason:

target:setEffect(target.EFF_ATTENUATE_DET, t.getDuration(self, t), {power=damage/4, src=self, apply_power=getParadoxSpellpower(self, t)})

So, let's say damage is 800 in total. That's 200 per turn for four turns. But note that power = damage/4, and not damage/duration.

So, if the duration extends to 6 turns, that is still 200 per turn but for 6 turns, effectively giving total dmg of 1200.

So with Extension, and high paradox, you could conceivably get 10 turns I think. That would be 2,000 total dmg.

And it can crit, so that would be 3k plus.

[jenx]

I forgot to explain my zone order, as this is really important on insane:

Temporal Zone start
Derth to drown, then do arena
Lumberjack
Lasthope drown
Shatur drown
Angolwen once you can
Trollmire
Ruins of Khorpal
Nargos Lair
Scintillating Caves
Rhaloren Camp
Withering thing place
Hidden Tunnels
Old Forest (do this BEFORE maze, to get to level 20)
Lake Nur
Maze
Sandworm
Ruined Dungeon
Urkis
Daikara
Temporal zone (Daikara 3) (they resist temporal dmg, but we don't have that problem )
Subject Z place
Celia
Dreadfell
Vor Armoury
Briagh
Prides
Speed run thingy
Slime, High Peak, Final Battle

i think that's it.

[bpat]

I just won the final battle on Insane using the same strategy you did. It was indeed just as easy as you said it was. I took maybe 100 damage and could have taken less if I remembered to use talents like Gravity Well that I somehow managed to forget about.

[jenx]

I just won the final battle on Insane using the same strategy you did. It was indeed just as easy as you said it was. I took maybe 100 damage and could have taken less if I remembered to use talents like Gravity Well that I somehow managed to forget about.

Congrats! Btw, I've had no such luck on madness. It seems to be a new level of badness!

[bpat]

I just won the final battle on Insane using the same strategy you did. It was indeed just as easy as you said it was. I took maybe 100 damage and could have taken less if I remembered to use talents like Gravity Well that I somehow managed to forget about.

Congrats! Btw, I've had no such luck on madness. It seems to be a new level of badness!

Thanks! How far have you gotten on Madness? I haven't even tried it but PM seems like one of the better classes for that difficulty.