Silphion, the Thalore Archer I started with

[Joren Knight]

Hello ladies and gentleman!

I started 4 or 5 days ago, as i read tons of awesome reviews about ToME i couldn't resist to join this community =)
The fact is I loved this game since i purchased it. I started with a Thalore Archer and i wanna finish with it before testing another one (I know it would be ok as i would understand better other types of chars in a way to know better their weaknesses, but... i'm a bit classic)
Silphion, my archer, started his journey very good, surviving Norgos, The heart of Gloom, the Old Forest and the Maze. Her mistake was going Daikara on level 12 or so, he was brutally killed. After 7 more attempts (I'm on my 8th run), he died 3 more times in Daikara, always in hands of boulder giants or tons of mobs surroinding him. Now I'm level 18 and, finally, I beat Daikara, being able to see what more has this awesome game to show me =) The fact is that i learned some things on the way:

1. The build i'm going forth all runs without changes at the moment (i tried some anti-magic at the beggining but it doesn't fit at all to my archer) is the shot and die one. So, i maxed aim and bow training for a high damage, accuracy and power and then aimed shot, taking 1 point in most of bow skills (leveling up the shot that stuns in an area) and 1 to spell shield for a little more survavility (i pretend to max it too).
2. It's been very important to search since i abandoned Norgos a bow with 8-9 range at least, the far you can shot, you'll be able to survive more often to ranged mobs.
3. This is another thing. Ranged mobs as mages and gunners. Tons of times a rare mob with auto-gunning killed me without being able to escape or kill him before he killed me. Mages are quite a nightmare sometimes. If more than 2 join for a party, they'll kill your ass with their lightings, ice walls, poison and sleep. I'm afraid of sorcerers and gunners, so if i see one that pulls my health bar to half or less, i teleport away. I swear.
4. Teleport. Please, you MUST have phase door rune or something like that. I discovered just in my last run (the actual one) a rune that shots a powerful lighning AND makes me invulnerable to single attacks for the next 2 turns, avoiding attacks when someone attacks me moving myself on another empty space (in there's no one, shit for me >.<). My actual combination of runes/infusions are The op-lighning one, phase door and healing of the duelist, which heals me half my health without costing an action and healing a posion or disease. Simply awesome =)

Well, at the moment this is what i learned. I'm going to the ruined dungeon now, min. level 10 it says, so i'm 18 and i think i can do it. Let's see what awaits for me there and if I can survive the experience. Any tip or recomendation you can tell me, will be totally welcome =) But, please, no spoilers. I'm reading all lore i find (I - love it!) and I want to keep this emotion alive as it is by now.

Finally, if you readed all of this, i thank you your time =) I'm enjoying this game as i've never enjoyed no game before and I wanna join the community, so here I am. My name is Jürgen (or Joren), nice to meet you!

[Patashu]

Yup, Daikara is very tough! You have to be able to handle lots of ranged physical and lightning (and I think cold too, I forget) damage. Other zones of similar minimum level requirement tend to be easier.

You might like to experiment with movement infusions. It lets you take many (4-8 depending on quality) steps in the time a single action normally takes, so it lets you escape from tough enemies like teleportation rune does, but it also lets you choose your final destination with more precision.

You might also want to look for torques of shielding. There are three kinds, each one reduces damage of four elements by a lot for 7 turns. So when you see an enemy that scares you you can back off with a movement skill, swap to the appropriate torque, wait until they're within range, activate it and then laugh at their weakened attacks while shooting them.

[Coldbringer]

Try to get a hold of a Torque that reduces Physical (and other types) of damage. This can make you near invulnerable for about 6 or 7 turns. One of the best things to shop for in the towns with a new character.

Look for items that increase your life, critical hit chance, and resistances.

Also keep your eyes open for good shielding runes, movement infusions, wild infusions, and biting gale runes. http://te4.org/wiki/Inscription

And look for items that allow you to summon a companion to aid you. They generally don't do much damage, but they allow you to duck behind them, escape while monsters focus on them, and use up monsters cool down abilities many of which are single target spells and abilities.

[jenx]

Get ammo that has cripple and gravity