I hate to keep you all waiting-- But I absolutely want Fire Drake to be in a completely playable state-- It's been somewhat broken for a long time now, so I'd like to finally see it in working order.
Anywho, here's the update on the Fire Drake bubble run-- It's a big one this time:
Conclusions: Fire Drake ("Fiery Breath" + Mind Power focus) continues to be terribly powerful-- There has been VERY little that stands in its way. I'll need to, somehow, present more risks to this playstyle, since it's an extremely safe way to play ("damage + healing" in one package).*** Alright! I'm getting pretty excited now-- Eager even! This is a good point in the game, and I can't wait to move forward with this-- So let's get started!
*** Remark: At this point, there's going to be a few spoilers-- Both for "OoTS" and "ToME", so I'm going to be a lot more "lightweight" with my explanations-- Especially the names of places, people, and/or locations.
~ I head out of Dreadfell... "Things" happen. For reference, "I won", hehehe...
~ Much conversation later-- I am engaged in combat against myself! Whoa!
*** Bug (fixed): The "helpers" didn't have the correct images.
- ... After MUCH bumping (me and my Drakelings are unfortunately "small", so it took A LOT more than usual), the fight is done, and "that" part of the game begins.
[REKNOR]
- Nothing on floor 1.
- Floor 2 has an escort.
- After much trouble, I bring them back safely.
- Oh! A "Fearfire Mantle"! Excellent!
*** Thoughts: The more I stack up on Fire Resistance, the more I start to regret the points I put into "Dragon Scales". My character already has WELL over 100% Fire Resistance (currently 137%, in fact). Maybe "Fire Drake" needs some sort of ability that scales on Fire Resistance...?
- Three Pedestals... Sure, let's do this again!
- Floor 3 presents a rather mean Reaver Orcish Assassin unique! WOW!! I've never seen so many DOTs on an actor at one time-- And I've played A LOT of Hydra!
- Woot! Mummified Egg-Sac! More helpers! Now I can wear the Rat-Lich skull, the Choker of Dread, and use this... To summon a small army at will!
- Last floor... Encounter with Golbug... Absolute joke. I'm PRETTY convinced now that Fire Drake has been overtuned, and will require EXTENSIVE nerfing after this run-- Particularly, "Torrential Blaze" is FAR too strong, and is eliminating ALL difficulty this class presents.
[UNREMARKABLE CAVE]
- It is unremarkable, indeed.
*** A LOT OF PLOT STUFF LATER...
~ I'm going to do the "Spider" quest first, because this one caps at Lv30. I won't get much EXP unless I do it now!
$$$ [42560/50000]
[ARDHUNGOL]
- Zone is mostly unremarkable-- However, I encounter a Paradox Mage who uses Banish, separating me from my Drakelings. It causes a bit of a scare, but fortunately, I manage to reconvene before anything bad happens. Whew!
- Found a second "quiet" torque. Gave the old one to "Drenng", so now he can cast "Silence" as well!
- Doombringer Lisaldavea sends me to Fearscape. I send myself right back. (<3 Aura of Silence)
- "Ungole" is no problem. (when is it ever?)
[Vor Armory]
$$$ [39426/50000]
- The biggest issue I have with this zone is being frozen by cryomancers... But then again, what character DOESN'T have this problem? As such, I raise "Blazing Body" to 5/5 to counteract this. This is honestly not the best talent in the world, and its purpose is VERY niche-- But when it DOES work, it works aplenty!
- Also, I finally bring "Aura of Silence" up to Talent Level 4. It was already VERY useful at Talent Level 1... It's going to be absurd now!
- "Brittle Ooze" are hilariously easy to deal with if you use "Renewing Flames" on them. They separate-- And the next thing you know, they've caused 800+ damage to each other via schisms.
- Interesting-- I didn't realize there was another status effect subtype called "Ice". Let's add THAT to what "Blazing Body" can trigger upon!
*** IMPLEMENTATION: "Blazing Body" now triggers on "Ice" effects as well (not just "cold")
- Save and restart...
- Alright! It works! The "Wet" effect caused by "Biting Gale" runes also gets blocked by "Blazing Body"-- Which is QUITE powerful!
- Floor 1 is pretty trivial.
- Alright, floor 2-- Everything is mostly easy to deal with-- Especially since they're all simply being silenced, heheheh...
- It's time for the BIG room. This is normally a hard place-- But let's see how it goes, hm?
- ... Okay, so. A LOT of nonsense happens here. Particularly, the kind of stuff that SHOULD lead to a character's IMMEDIATE death. For 90% of the time, I was stunned and unable to do anything. At one point, one of my Drakelings even went into anti-death. Then, the worst thing possible happened: I took a step-- And about 10 turns passed (because my movement speed was absurdly low at the time). Just when I was CERTAIN that my Drakelings were DEFINITELY dead... Everyone suddenly died, and all my Drakelings were fine. The only one left was Warmaster Gnarg. I HONESTLY can't say for certain what happened in this situation, whether it was extreme luck, or VERY well-crafted Drakelings-- But one thing I CAN say for certain: I don't feel like I should have survived this, and that the ABSURD durability of my Drakelings is mostly to attribute to this. This is a sure sign that this requires nerfing... My TERRIBLE, terrible gameplay SHOULD NOT have been rewarded like this with a no-consequence success. Shame on me... Shame!
- ... Hmmm... Upon closer inspection, my Drakelings might have leveled up during the fight. Ugh... I have NO clue... Oh well, moving on.
- Teleportation trap! WHOAAA! You should have seen how fast those Drakelings are moving with the "Parental Bond" bonus + "Low Flight" hahaha... They really hauled butt over to me!
- *shifty eyes* ... So... There's only one thing left to do in this level...
["PURE INSANITY"]
- Positioning is EXTREMELY key to pull this off effectively! The trick is to "alarm" the denizens WITHOUT being seen! You can do this EASILY by summoning a throw-away NPC of some sort-- IE: My spiders or a vampire. However, the TRUE issue is keeping my Drakelings out of trouble while I do so. I will probably need to eat a "Movement Infusion" to ensure this goes as well as possible.
- DOORBELL PRANK!! I summon up a bunch of spiders and rats and vampires... Then, I open the door, and IMMEDIATELY "Glide" out of line of sight. This makes them go ABSOLUTELY nuts! I flee to the very bottom right of the zone, hoping none of them locate me.
- So, I keep burning skills, trying to waste as much time as possible. I use "Rod of Recall", but cancel it, allowing me to rest for about 200+ turns. Sheesh... The slow down this is causing! Those guys are REALLY rampaging, hahaha...
- 1000 or so turns later, I decide to peek my head out. If they have not destroyed each other yet, they will be VERY scattered about this zone. Every twist and every turn can be dangerous-- But that's what "Predation" is for, after all!
- Wuh-oh. One found me-- a Level 89 one too.
- First thing I do is "Glide" past it so that my Drakelings are OPPOSITE of this monster. After that, all I can do is try to withstand this punishment as best as I can... Which I have a feeling won't be for very long.
- UH-OH! Friends have shown up-- And they manage to Flame Shock (stun) me! This is only getting worse and worse, hahaha...
- Thankfully, VERY good positioning is causing my Drakelings to deal fire damage to me-- Which is making my "Boldly and Fiercely" count increase A LOT. My fire damage and penetration is getting VERY nasty now!
- The pals somehow Flame Shock me again (REALLY, I despise that this stun works on fire-immune targets, HONESTLY)
- Situation is getting dire... Do I push the "oh shit" button yet...? For the sake of science, let's see where this goes...
%%% OH... I get killed by what looks like a BUG... The wyrm uses "Wing Buffet"-- But it somehow hits and knocks me back 3 times, dealing 3 separate instances of damage (and thus, blowing me up INSTANTLY).
*** ToME Bug: After inspecting the talent itself, I have INDEED identified exactly how it happened: At Talent Level 9, "Wing Buffet" has a radius of 7, and knocks back 3 tiles. If I am standing right in front of it, I will get struck and knocked back THREE times-- Ranges 1, 4, and 7-- Which I am PRETTY certain is an unintended side effect of knockback talents (I had to eliminate this behavior from MANY of my own knockback talents in "OoTS"). Now, I'm not sure if this is due to my own modifications-- So I wouldn't mind if someone else tried out this scenario themselves. Note that this ONLY happens on the LEFT side ("Projections" always scan from right to left from what I can tell).
- Either way, this was a bittersweet end for this "adventure" I took... I don't think I'm going to try it again-- At least, not right now, hahaha... It's a completely optional "challenge" vault anyways! However, if the friends didn't get involved, this would have been VERY manageable... Errrm, I think.
*** Game reloaded-- Back to life, I DON'T open the vault this time. Instead, I leave-- And we're off to Briagh's Lair.
$$$ [37712/50000]
[BRIAGH'S LAIR]
- Good thing I'm part Sand Drake, or else I might have broken a sweat!
*** ToME Bug: Hm. I don't think you're supposed to be able to damage entities in the Wilderness... And yet, this "Fearfire Mantle" is hitting an Orcish Patrol for 0 Fire damage each turn... INTERESTING!
- Found a "Duathedlen Heart" in a random encounter. This could come handy...
- These patrols... Ugh!
*** LOTS MORE PLOT LATER!!
- I'm hoooooooome! Didn't take very long at all!
$$$ [36180/50000]
*** Let's call it there. There will be A LOT to do-- But I'm a bit bushed! I'll deal with all of that... Next time.