First NM Winner Krog Cursed: Is He Viable in Insane?

[jpsmaximus]

Hi,

Finally beat Nightmare, and I was shocked at how easy my Krog Cursed cut through everything from Nur onward.

T1 I had survivability issues, but went 1H + shield around the Old Forest and didn't look back. Made myself tanky prioritizing resists, armor, and procs (huge slow and damage reduction debuffs), the riffraff waited in my Gloom to die. Went dual 1H when I could and became a walking slaughterhouse. My Cursed Miasma ate up mobs, even elemental wyrms where I was accidentally pressing the "wait" key rather than bumping. High Peak stair guardians, I barely even needed my Regen infusion; I smashed Argoniel and Elandar in a real life two minutes, it never even got interesting. Whittled down Atamathon slowly but surely--I needed my heroism infusion once but I never lost hope.

Deaths were only when I was messing around--after beating the sorcerers, I toured the vaults of High Peak, on level 7 I found 3 unique dragons and only found out one of them was bogarting my healing when it was too late. Then had to get to work, went into the Infinite Dungeon and suicided him.

It was easier than most Normal winners I've run (including another Krog Cursed). It wasn't anything fancy. But I'm wondering is this build viable in Insane? Any suggestions to improve?

https://te4.org/characters/63010/tome/a ... f4211277b2

Equipment: I vaulted my fixed artifacts--Butcher, Plate of the Blackened Mind, Unbreakable Greaves, and Guise of the Hated. The rest is visible on the dump.

Cat Points: L10 Rampage > L20 Infusion > L34 Fungus > WB Infusion

Stats: Str > Wil > Cun/Con/Dex spread out evenly

Infusions: Regen, Healing, Movement, Wild (Phys early, Phys/Mag late), Heroism

Prodigies: L25 ICCTW > L42 Superpower

Alchemist Quests: All 3 from Stire of Derth, Fox/Avoidance/Precision, never used the Lifebinding Emerald (wanted a second artifact jewel for Limmir, but never got a good non-Arcane one). Would have gotten Foundations, as Generic points are precious and scarce.

Class:
Slaughter: 1/1/1/0 early, 3/3/1/0 when I could spare the points, to get the bonus healing redux (Slash) or defense redux (Frenzy). Off rampage these were my damage dealers.
Strife: 1/5/1/0, Blindside was a great opener and Dominate good in melee range, but I didn't see scale for more points. Preternatural senses was always great though, 3 by Dreadfell, 5 soon after..
Endless Hunt: 5/1/1/2, Stalk has great bonuses and was maxed quick, Harass Prey was my boss killer (tons of damage + cooldowns) though it doesn't scale with points
Gloom: 1/1/1/1 early, 5/5/1/5 eventually, definitely helped me with mobs. 2/2/1/3 by Dreadfell, 2/2/1/5 by the start of the prides, the rest luxury late.
Rampage: 1/1/1/0 ASAP, 5/5/2/0, max the first two ASAP (and cache class points if you have to to do it), don't see the utility of fixed damage reduction at higher difficulties though
Predator: 5/5/1/5, I kept hearing people badmouth this tree but it was awesome. Cursed Miasma from Savage Hunter was annoying in decreasing vision but it choked mobs to death. Mark Prey = damage reduction from the most powerful monsters on the floor, and never getting ambushed by Urkis, The Master, or a High Peak stair guardian

Generic:
I was pretty strapped for points throughout, but got everything I wanted.
Combat Training: 1/3/0/0/3/0 ASAP, 5/5/0/1/5/0 eventually. Used Con-boosting equipment to get Thick Skin up fast
Cursed Form: 1/2/1/1 and left it alone. 2nd point in relentless when I needed confusion and stun resistance. I don't see great scale here.
Krog: 1/1/1/1 early, 1/2/2/1 eventually. 2nd point in Drake-Infused Blood helped me for elemental specific dungeons (Tempest Peak!) and 2nd point in Fuel Pain brought cooldown from 29 to 19 (didn't scale after that)
Antimagic: 1/1/1/1 early, 3/1/1/5 eventually. Resolve brought down mob damage though the 3 points isn't that applicable unless you're fighting multi-hued wyrms. I used Antimagic Zone to trap mages while I bumped them, it didn't seem to scale well. I didn't boost Mana Clash until late, but it wrecked magic-heavy uniques, Atamathon, Sorcerers, esp 1v1...Lord knows how many times it un-Fearscaped me.
Fungus: 1/5/5/3, max the middle two early. Wild Growth doesn't scale, Fungal Growth is still awesome, Ancestral Life gave me a ton of free turns, and Sudden Growth was more of a dump

Again, does this general mindset work in Insane? Or in general, what do I need to account for in Insane that I don't in lower difficulties? I love to Autoexplore and bump rather than mash buttons...time is precious.