ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

this guide was written with insane(roguelike) difficulty in mind; however, you can also follow this almost all of guide just fine if you're playing on a lower difficulty

bulwarks are one of the beefier classes in this game, which makes them very beefy... however, if you don't know how to use the most basic component of the class' toolkit, which is overlooked by very many high-level players, then you're probably gonna think that they(and stone wardens) are glass cannons
offensively, bulwarks are pretty good if built and played properly; in fonted pre-high-peak insane gear, their non-bump attacks will easily deal several thousands of damage, if not more, and their cooldowns on those aren't too amazingly long

bulwarks are very beefy without antimagic, and they're even beefier with it
imagine that you aren't antimagic, and you walk into lvl 1 of vor pride after the post-west, and on the 1st turn, an orc cyromancer teleports you out of the room, and now you suddenly have 3 randbosses, 2 uniques, and 4 rares in your line of sight, as well as 5 orc pyro/cyromancers; well, you'd probably think you're dead, right?
wrong
from that hyperbolically-bad position, you'll most likely be able to kill every single enemy that aggroed you, as well as the enemies that you aggro while you're busy killing them, which'll result in you cleaning out half or most of the floor in a single bout of combat that'll probably span >75 turns in a row... however, if you can't get rid of a burning hex on you for too long, then you might not survive the encounter

with that introduction out of the way, now it's time for the... very condensed, table of contents:
post 1:
STATS
INSCRIPTIONS
RACES
CATEGORY POINTS
CLASS POINT ALLOCATION
GENERIC POINT ALLOCATION

post 2:
CLASS TALENTS
GENERIC TALENTS
PSI-MACHINE REWARDS
ESCORTS

post 3:
EQUIPMENT


STATS:
strength makes you hit harder; it also makes shield wall give you more armor & block value, which you basically can't get enough of
it also lets you carry more stuff
strength is the bulwark's most important stat to spend points on, so max it out first
that, and if you plan to stack any of the 6 stats from gear, then it should be strength

dexterity gives you more accuracy & crit shrug, in addition to some defense
the defense will at least reduce your foes' accuracy bonuses against you, making them hit a bit softer, but it can pose a minor problem in the earlygame of enemies not being able to hit you while you're blocking them which'll prevent you from getting counterstrike on them; you can solve that by taking dex as your 3rd stat, by which time enemies will generally have more accuracy to overcome your defense with
it also makes shield wall grant you more armor & block value, which you basically cant get enough of
it makes greater weapon focus have a higher proc chance, which you also can't get enough of
it also makes riposte give you more crit
it also makes precise strikes(if you get it) give you more accuracy & crit
it also makes last stand give you more defense & armor
overall, this is offensively better for you than cunning is, and it's more defensive to boot

constitution makes you harder to kill; 50 constitution will give you +200 hp, +45% healmod, and +15 physical save
constitution also makes vitality heal for substantially more, it increases unflinching resolve's chance to remove a debuff, and it makes last stand give you more hp & die at negative hp; unflinching resolve is a pretty good reason to actually put points into con, but adding vitality & last stand make con actually be good for you overall, though dex will be better at high lvls

magic gives you spellpower and a bit of spell save; bulwarks don't care about spellpower, so you're better off increasing any other stat unless you want arcane might for some reason

willpower is required if you're going antimagic so you can keep antimagic shield up and use other equilibrium talents without them failing
otherwise, it also gives stamina and a bit of mental/spell save, so it's a better escort reward than +5 magic is

cunning makes you crit more, but not by as much as dexterity does if you account for riposte
it also give you a bit of mindpower & mental save
notably, it also grants you +1 steampower per cunning, though that only matters if you use certain tinkers, and when you craft salves


as for the allocation of stats, here's how it should go, depending on your build:

not antimagic, no salves:
str->con->dex->cun(str->dex->con->cun is more likely to die before lvl 25 unless you're a skeleton)

antimagic, no salves:
str->wil->dex->con

salves, not antimagic:
str->dex->cun->con

antimagic with salves:
str->wil->dex->cun


INSCRIPTIONS:
for all inscriptions, you'll want the lowest cd possible, but sometimes, if the number attached to it is big enough and the cd is long, then you might want that one instead

RECOMMENDED INSCRIPTION SETUP:
the below will NOT consider artifact inscriptions; you can consider those yourself
if you get salves, then it's assumed that you're maxing out device mastery and the talent, steam power

3 inscriptions, magic+non-magic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild(note that shatters don't work while silenced)
shield
healing

3 inscriptions, any:
injector
injector
shield

3 inscriptions, antimagic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild
regen
healing

3 inscriptions, antimagic, salves:
regen
injector
injector

3 inscriptions, undead, no salves:
shatter
shield
shield

3 inscriptions, undead, salves:
injector
injector
shield

4 inscriptions, magic+non-magic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild
shield OR shatter OR movement OR blink
shield
healing

4 inscriptions, any:
injector
injector
shield
shield OR regen OR healing OR movement OR blink

4 inscriptions, antimagic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild
regen
healing
healing OR movement

4 inscriptions, antimagic, salves:
regen
injector
injector
healing OR movement

4 inscriptions, undead, no salves:
shatter
shatter OR blink
shield
shield

4 inscriptions, undead, salves:
injector
injector
shield
shield OR blink

5 inscriptions, magic+non-magic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild(in case of silences)
shatter
shield
shield
healing OR movement OR blink

5 inscriptions, any:
injector
injector
shatter
shield
shield OR regen OR healing OR movement OR blink(do account for runic saturation)

5 inscriptions, antimagic, no salves:
phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild
regen
healing
healing
movement OR blink OR phys/mental wild OR phys/mag wild

5 inscriptions, antimagic, salves:
injector
injector
regen
healing
healing OR movement

5 inscriptions, undead, no salves:
shatter
shatter
shield
shield
blink OR stormshield

5 inscriptions, undead, salves:
injector
injector
shatter OR blink
shield
shield


INFUSIONS:
wild infusion:
you want this for the status removal, or as a last-ditch effort to take less damage; the damage reduction should otherwise be treated as a cherry on top
go for the preferred cleanses first, the lowest cd possible second, and the damage reduction third
if the damage reduction is particularly huge compared to your current one, however, then get damage reduction second, but do consider its duration compared to the old wild infusion
anyway, shatter afflictions runes are better until something silences you or hits you with a weapon of disruption, and injectors are better until something puts you to sleep, but wild infusions will never let you down
get 1 wild infusion with physical+mental or physical+magical removal; your choice

regen infusion:
this can heal for alotta damage; use it when you anticipate taking alotta damage, and preferably before you take it
it can also be used after you take alotta dmg if you know what you're doing, or if you don't have any better survivability options; just beware that the first tick of regen won't start until the beginning of the turn after you use it
pick the one with the most hp per cooldown, or if you're taking fungus, then you might wanna place some extra priority on having a low cooldown to get as much uptime as possible out of it

healing infusion:
this can be a substantial heal, but it should generally be put off until it's cleansing 1 or more debuffs if you can afford to wait that long; healing infusions are great as both heals and debuff cleansers
prioritize hp per cooldown first, and having a low cd second; I'd say that a healing infusion with a 10 turn cd that heals for 200 is better than one that heals for 350 on a 15 turn cd since it'll get rid of more debuffs, such as deep wounds, crippling poisons, 25+ turn decrepitude diseases, and more

heroism infusion:
these infusions are for glass cannons, and for scumming stat prereqs; bulwarks aren't glass cannons, so you'll only need these to scum stat prereqs if you have any in mind... just mind the cost of replacing it after you're done getting that talent or equipping that item

movement infusion:
bulwarks have alot of mobility from rush & step up alone, and they're beefy enough that they can get away with not having a movement infusion once they get eternal guard; before that, however, be sure to have a movement infusion or blink rune unless you're a skeleton, in which case you can easily afford to stay in combat unless the RNG is super bad
if you get a 5th inscription, then you'll probably wanna stick a movement infusion there

primal infusion:
it might be worth it if you get a 5th inscription and you maxed willpower; otherwise, don't bother

infusion of wild growth:
this pins enemies within a radius of 5 and deals damage to them based on your mindpower, and it also gives you +30% armor hardiness that you don't need to boot, and most importantly, +50 armor
if you get a 5th inscription, it might be worth grabbing if you manage to get one, but otherwise, don't bother


RUNES:
shatter afflictions rune:
these runes instantly cleanse a physical, mental, & magical debuff, and give you a small shield to boot, or a medium or big one if you're lucky
prioritize a low cd before nearly all else

shielding rune:
these runes instantly offer you a large amount of protection, provided that you can properly anticipate when you need it; a must have for undead characters
pick the ones that offer you the most shielding per turn of their cooldowns

stormshield rune:
these will completely negate a number of non-small hits; prioritize the cd 1st, the number of hits 2nd, and the size of the threshold 3rd
these runes can serve the very important purpose of protecting you from 3k/turn misdirectioned bleeds, 4k/turn entropic gifts, inner demons, and 6k catalepsy crits... for a limited time
anyway, these runes, like heroisms, are designed for glass cannons that can't take big hits(as opposed to gigantic hits) like bulwarks can
due to how prevalent all other threats in the game are, I wouldn't advise grabbing one of these unless you take a 5th inscription slot

ethereal rune:
in theory, these are great for defense, but I suspect that they aren't actually that good unless the resall bonus is at least 40% and it doesn't take you too far over too many resist caps
just get a shielding rune instead unless it's a really good ethereal rune

blink rune:
the runic version of a movement infusion, it offers alot of extra mobility with the added bonus of being able to go over enemies instead of having to go around them, and not being limited by pins
as with movement infusions, you'll probably wanna stick one of these in your 5th inscription slot if you get it, or you can stick a movement there; your choice

teleportation rune:
this should only be used as a last resort, or immediately when you see an enemy or group of enemies that'll probably kill you if you try to fight it or them; doing so will randomly either save your life, or throw you from the fire into the frying pan
don't get it unless you take a 5th inscription slot, or you really wanna get into that hidden room in the assassin tunnels, alt maze, or the illusory castle, and if you're in good condition and can already tell that you won't win the fight that you're in under your current circumstances, or as a last resort

biting gale rune:
free stuns are nice, but not nice enough for a long-term investment; if you loot one early, then consider replacing the starting blink rune with it if you're a race that starts with runes
that's about it, though

acid wave rune:
disarms are nice, but they really aren't worth using over a shielding rune or regeneration/healing infusion, or a movement infusion or blink rune, especially if you save a loremaster escort

manasurge rune:
what the %(!& are you doing?

mirror image rune:
this offers a very powerful crowd control; you may use it over a 2nd shatter afflictions rune if you wish, or if you get a 5th inscription slot, then you should probably put this in it

prismatic rune:
basically a stormshield rune, except it's not as good; might be worth using in the earlygame in niche situations, but that's about it

rune of the rift:
this offers a pretty useful crowd control; you can use it as a 5th inscription if you don't want anything else, but that's about it

rune of dissipation:
you'll only really need this offensively if you're fighting lilanill or atamathon; you should be able to beat everyone else's asses just fine without it unless you get super bad RNG
defensively, however, it can save your life; a single burning hex can spell death over a prolonged late-game fight if you can't get rid of it quickly, since it'll mean that you can't keep block up most of the time anymore, and that you can't use your hard-hitting abilities as often, and therefore can't kill stuff as fast
that, and curse of death and impending doom really suck too


OTHER INSCRIPTIONS:
steam generator:
allows you to use iron grip, fatal attractor, & rocket boots as many times as you want; steam-powered boots do this too, however, so having a steam generator probably won't be worth it

medical injector:
these are super overpowered if you max the talent, steam power, and get device mastery & max cunning
-pain suppressor salve: like heroism infusions, these are made for glass cannon classes; you should only use these when you're anticipating taking a gigantic amount of damage while you're at or near full hp, or as a last resort when something greatly reduces your healmod
-healing salve: healing! you'll be using this one alot in order to not die
-frost salve: use it to remove debuffs, or if you're facing a really dangerous guy that does a dmg type it offers affinity to, then consider using it for the affinities
-water salve: use it to remove debuffs, or if you're facing a really dangerous guy that does a dmg type it offers affinity to, then consider using it for the affinities
-fiery salve: use it to remove debuffs, or if you're facing a really dangerous guy that does a dmg type it offers affinity to, then consider using it for the affinities
-unstoppable force salve: this'll give you a BIG bonus to all saves and alotta healmod, but you need 5 points in therapuetics to get it, so its worth is limited

taint of purging:
dispels ALL of your physical debuffs, but not all at once; however, due to unflinching resolve and the existence of shatter afflictions runes, this is of limited use unless you have a 5th inscription slot to spare
note that this isn't a rune, so it has its own saturation effect


RACES:
the short version:
the best races are halfling, skeleton, or if you want more generic points, then be a cornac, or if it's EoR, then be a yeti or whitehoof
however, don't be a skeleton or whitehoof unless you plan to max out 3 or 4 of their racials

the long version:
cornac:
you get an extra 6 class points, 5 generic, points and an extra category point
don't pick this race unless you're going antimagic or plan to ensure that you'll get whichever escort categories you want; otherwise, you'll have several more generic points by lvl 50 than you'll have good reason to spend unless you get tinkers
the main reason to pick this race is to spend alotta generic points on things that aren't racials, such as antimagic+fungus or escort categories
that said, this is one of the 4 racial candidates for an antimagic bulwark because they can afford to get as much of the good stuff as possible, and they'll have room for tinkers too if you get them, though I question if they can support antimagic+fungus+tinkers AND maxed out salves

higher:
this race's racials all suck for bulwarks, except the first one is okay at 1 point; as a whole, the race is best suited for spellcasters
so just pick a different race

shalore:
they get more crit, more critmult, and a free debuff cleanser/buff extender from timeless, as well as a racial speed boost
CHECK TO SEE IF TIMELESS AFFECTS BLOCK
overall, they're a good race, but only if you plan to spend 12 points on their racials; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that

thalore:
they get a regen, they get nature & acid affinity, they get alotta disease resist, some blight resist, & some resist all, and they get treants too
however, the treants are relatively lackluster if you don't have willpower
overall, they're a good race, but only if you plan to spend 12-16 points on their racials; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that unless they're antimagic

doomelf:
they get a movement racial, debuff duration reduction, crit shrug, and pitiless, and those cds get reset when they turn into a duathdelen
overall, they're a good race, but only if you plan to spend 8-16 points on their raicals; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that

halfling:
they get 50% evasion most of the time, as well as alotta phys power & all saves sometimes from militant mind, and an extra stun/pin/daze removal, and their 1st racial is great in the earlygame
overall, they're one of the best bulwark races, but only if you plan to spend at least 4 points on their racials; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that unless they're antimagic
speaking of which, this is one of the 4 races that are worth taking antimagic with as a bulwark, seeing as how their racials require so few generic points to be worthwhile
also, while it may seem attractive to max out duck & dodge, know that duck & dodge will be active most of the time when you actually need it at just 1 point(iirc), though more points will still give it more uptime; that, and the 50% evasion works very well since you have armor to back you up when you don't evade attacks
however, duck & dodge has an important drawback; an evaded attack won't be blocked, which means that it won't trigger counterstrike, which means you'll deal alot less dmg when it doesn't trigger

dwarf:
they mainly get 15% evasion, +40 armor with a large uptime, +50 to all saves, and an amazing escape from stone walking; they also get a little activates armor+saves racial, and they get more hp than any other race
speaking of saves, maxing out their 3rd racial, spell shield, shield expertise, and daunting presence can give them pretty good mental save, and high physical & spell saves; you'll be resisting debuffs with saves left & right, as well as reducing debuff durations for alotta them that you don't resist
overall, they're a good race, but only if you plan to spend 8-16 points on their raicals, and you build for saves

drem:
they get to use class abilities twice in a row, they get resist all with good uptime from the 2nd racial, they get extra confusion immunity(not that bulwarks need it come the midgame), and they get to summon a crowd-controller with a substantial amount of hp
overall, they're a good race, but only if you plan to spend 8-16 points on their raicals; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that

ogre:
in the old days, ogres were the way to go with bulwarks because you could use a 2h weapon with a shield and take the old two-handed weapons category, which had old berserker rage in it, among other things
however, ever since they removed that category from bulwarks and halved all proc damage while dual-wielding, ogres are only good for having low inscription cooldowns now
overall, they're a good race if you really like inscriptions that aren't salves, and are willing to spend 8-16 generic points on them; not that bulwarks should have a problem with that unless they're antimagic

krog:
a very powerful race that gets bonus physical dmg & resistance, and a free stun & silence, and their inscription cds & saturation randomly get removed, but they have to be antimagic
overall, they're a good race, but only if you can spare the generic points to make it be worthwhile; note that antimagic shield won't protect you for long after the earlygame unless you have fungus to keep your equilibrium down

yeek:
they don't have much hp, but they make up for it with their powerful 1st racial that they can at least distract other enemies with, and their 3rd racial that makes them faster, and especially when they need it
that, and their racial silence immunity combined with an air recyler will let you use runes with impunity until something smacks you with a weapon of disruption
overall, they're an okay race, or a good one if you really value quickened; just be sure that you'll have 8-12 generics to spend on their raicals

skeleton:
they get a bunch of extra str & dex, which bulwarks can't get enough of, they get a sizable shield on a good cooldown, and a sizable heal on a good cooldown, and they get a substantially shorter debuffs against them too
they're also immune to fears, wounds, & poisons, and they don't have to breathe
note that bone armor & re-assemble scale with your maximum hp, but only a little bit, and that bone armor scales with dex
this is probably the best bulwark race, but only if you're willing to spend at least 16 points on their racials, which shouldn't be a problem for you

ghoul:
these guys get a 20% global speed penalty, but they get >100% stun immunity with maxed shield wall, and they get 100% fear and 80% poison immunity, and no single dmg value can hit them for over 50% of their maximum hp, and they get alotta hp to boot
their generic point racials give them more str & con, which bulwarks love, they get a racial blink rune, and they get an AoE HoT that only works if you stand in it, but will strip physical debuffs from you, and physical buffs from your enemies
that, and their last racial is nice against enemies that are almost dead since it'll turn them into a weak ally for a few or several turns

orc:
orcs get a damage boost cooldown, an automatic mental debuff cleanser, free resall penetration, free resall when they kill something, and an instant heal/debuff removal, making them a powerful race if you're willing to spend at least 12 points on their racials

yeti:
yetis get an RNG freeze, extra cold & physical resistance, and they get healed up to 3 times per turn whenever they get debuffed, and an instant confusion to boot
this race is very beefy, which makes them a very powerful race, provided that you're willing to spend at least 8 points on their racials
this is also the 4th candidate for antimagic since yetis can get away with spending just 3 or 4 points on their racials
since this would be in EoR, I would say to go for steam-powered armor and get 5/5 steam power instead, but that costs alot more generic points than the 7 that it takes to max outantimagic shield

whitehoof:
whitehooves get +100% movement speed, some extra strength, 35 flat damage reduction, and +25% to all dmg, but only if you're willing to spend 20 points on their racials(disclaimer: I'm assuming that they can keep a very high uptime on 5 stacks of death momentum with 5/5/5/5 in their racials; I haven't actually tried it myself)
however, this'll mean skimping on combat accuracy and/or technique/conditioning, and probably not spending any points on tinkers either
overall, this is a very powerful race


CATEGORY POINTS:
you'll get 3 category points to spend, or 4 in AoA, or 5 if you're a cornac
if you're not going antimagic and aren't a yeti or skeleton, then I strongly recommend taking a 5th inscription slot for extra survivability

lvl 1:
take an inscription slot; you'll have plenty of stuff to spend class & generic points on, and you can't get battle tactics until lvl 10 anyway

lvl 10:
because you'll only have so many points to spare by lvl 10, that category point should be spent on an inscription; you can get battle tactics at 20, which means maxing step up t lvl 20 instead of the absolute minimum lvl of 18
however, if you get a tinker escort in the T1s, then use the lvl 10 category on tinkers if you plan to get them; the sooner you get tinkers unlocked, the more likely you'll be to find all the schematics you want before high peak, and the sooner you'll get access to EoR artifacts such as cautery sword & therapuetic platemail
that, and if you're a cornac, then you should spend the point on tinkers if you're taking tinkers, or otherwise, unlock battle tactics now

lvl 20:
as stated above, the lvl 20 category point should be battle tactics; this is basically mandatory if you don't already have it for some reason
however, if you're a cornac, then you should already have battle tactics unlocked; in this case you should take a 5th inscription or take warcries or dirty fighting
if you're an antimagic cornac playing on easier/normal/nightmare, then save this category point for fungus instead

lvl 34:
warcries or dirty fighting; take your pick
or if you hate both of them, then get a 5th inscription instead
if you're a cornac, then disregard the above and take fungus at 34, seeing as how you probably won't be doing tempest peak until your low-30s anyway if you're on insane

wyrm bile:
you should probably spend this on a 5th(or 4th) inscription slot, or warcries or dirty fighting if you already have a 5th inscription
if you're an ogre, then you could potentially take a 6th inscription here
if you're a cornac, you could take both warcries AND dirty fighting thanks to your extra 6 class points
or you could stick into combat training; it'll give you more resist all & mh weapon dmg, as well as a bit more armor, crit reduction, and accuracy
or if you're a skeleton and 5/5/5/5ed your racials, then I suppose you could boost undead/skeleton instead; you'll receive shorter debuffs, get a bit of str & dex, and get a bigger bone shield & re-assemble with lower cooldowns, most of which go extra well with adept

extras from fonts of knowledge/infinite dungeon rewards:
first, follow the above advice for category points
then, if you get even more to spend, then stick a point in shield defense, and then shield offense, and then just wing if you still have any left


CLASS POINT ALLOCATION:

66 class points(+1 in AoA)(+2 with elixir of focus)(+6 if cornac)

my preferred build(dump into assault/rush and then bleeding edge if any points remain):
technique/shield offense
5/5/5/1-5
technique/shield defense
5/5/5/5
technique/combat techniques
1-5/5/0/0
technique/combat veteran
0/0/0/0
technique/battle tactics
5/5/0/0
technique/warcries
5/2/5/1(5/1/5/1 if antimagic)
technique/superiority
locked; it's shit
cunning/dirty fighting
locked; I prefer warcries

my preferred EoR build:
technique/shield offense
5/5/5/1-5
technique/shield defense
5/5/5/5
technique/combat techniques
3-4/0-5/0/0(if I don't find a sufficiently good enraging amulet or quick/blazebringer's weapon, then I don't take precise strikes)
technique/combat veteran
0/0/0/0
technique/battle tactics
5/5/0/0
technique/warcries
5/1/5/1

the build that you should probably be running:
technique/shield offense
5/4-5/5/1-5
technique/shield defense
5/5/5/5
technique/combat techniques
4-5/0-5/0/0
technique/combat veteran
0-1/0/0/0
technique/battle tactics
5/5/0-5/0
technique/warcries
1-5/1-2/5/1; it's either this or dirty fighting unless you're a cornac(get dirty fighting over warcries if you take flexible combat and plan to wear heroic gloves)
technique/superiority
locked; it's shit
cunning/dirty fighting(if actually unlocked)
1/5/1/5; it ain't worth it without those points

CLASS POINT ALLOCATION PRIORITY(for my build):
first, put at least 1 point in every talent that you plan to get as soon as possible, with the exceptions of shield expertise and precise strikes, which you can get later
if you take care of class points that way, however, then you're gonna have points left over as you level up; this is the order that you'll spend these extra points in:
#1: max out shield pummel
#2: max out shield wall
#3: on the way to last stand, get shield expertise to 1 point
#4: max last stand and float points into rush or riposte
#5: put rush or riposte back to 1 point to immediately max out step up; you should be able to do this at lvl 20, which is typically when you should unlock battle tactics
#6: get riposte to 4 or 5 points
#7: get rush to 4 points, or 5 if you'll have elixir of focus
#8: max out shield expertise
#9: max out greater weapon focus
#10: max out battle shout
#11: put the 5th point in riposte if you haven't yet
#12: max out shield slam
#13: max out repulsion
#14: get a 2nd point in second wind
#15: get shattering shout to 4 points, or 5 if you'll have elixir of focus
#16: put your last 5 points into precise strikes
#17: if you're a cornac, then you'll have 6 more points to spend; I'd recommend either sticking 1 into perfect strikes and 5 into blinding speed, or 1 into quick recovery and 5 into bleeding edge


48 generic points(+3 if AoA)(+2 if elixir of foundations)(+1 if antimagic)(+2 if steamtech)(+1 if race/parasite)(+5 if cornac)(+free generics from escorts/psi machine)
yes, that's +5 if cornac, and not +6

my preferred build(skeleton):
undead/skeleton
5/5/5/5
technique/combat training
5/5/0/3-5/0/0(+1 to combat accuracy per warrior escort)
technique/conditioning
5/5/5/0
cunning/survival
0/0/0/0

my other preferred build(AM cornac):
technique/combat training
5/5/0/2-5/5/0/0(+1 to combat accuracy per warrior escort)
technique/conditioning
5/5/5/0
cunning/survival
0/0/0/0
wild-gift/antimagic
3/1/5/1
wild-gift/fungus
1/5/1/5
steamtech/physics
2/2/1/0
steamtech/chemistry
2/0/0/0

my preferred EoR build(whitehoof):
race/whitehoof
5/5/5/5(why even be a whitehoof otherwise?)
technique/combat training
5/5/0/3/5/0/0
technique/conditioning
5/4/1/0
cunning/survival
0/0/0/0

my other preferred EoR build(yeti):
race/yeti
1/1/5/1
technique/combat training
5/5/0/1/5/0/0(float combat accuracy to 3 until 50)
technique/conditioning
5/4/1/0
cunning/survival
0/0/0/0
steamtech/physics
2/2/1/0
steamtech/chemistry
2/0/0/0
wild-gift/antimagic
3/1/5/0

as for the build you'll probably end up actually taking however; well, that's quite more complicated than your class points, so I'll just list what you should shoot for with the myraid of generic categories that you could possibly end up having access to as a bulwark

RACIAL TALENTS:
race/higher
don't be a higher; they suck as bulwarks
race/shalore
1/5/1/5
race/thalore
1/1/5/1-5
race/doomelf
1/5/1-5/1-5
race/halfling
1/1-5/1-5/1
race/dwarf
1/1-5/1-5/1-5
race/drem
1-5/1-5/1-5/1-5
race/ogre
don't be an ogre; ogrewielding halves proc dmg, so it ain't worth being an ogre
race/krog
1/5(sand)/1-5/1
race/yeek
1/1-5/5/1-5
undead/skeleton
5/5/1-5/5
undead/ghoul
5/5/5/1
race/parasite
1/5/1/5
race/orc
1/1/1-5/5
race/yeti
1/5/5/1
race/whitehoof
5/5/5/5

DEFAULT TALENTS:
technique/combat training
5/5/0/0-5/5/0/0(if going for low or no combat accuracy lvls, then float up to 3 points in it until you don't need it anymore)
technique/conditioning
1-5/4-5/1-5/0
cunning/survival
0-1/0-5/0-1/0-5

ESCORT TALENTS:(note: you can mix antimagic escort rewards & magic escort rewards by taking the antimagic escorts 1st)
celestial/chants
1-5/0-1/0-1/0
chronomancy/chronomancy
don't get it; unless you really wanna use see the threads for what's essentially limited savescumming, such as to get all of the best escorts or get better gear from the merchant
corruption/curses
don't get it; you need spellpower for it to be worthwhile
cunning/scoundrel:
5/0-5/0-5/0-5
spell/divination
don't get it; just use a track or arcane eye charm instead
spell/staff combat
what the - are you doing?
spell/stone alchemy
1/5/1-5/0
steamtech/physics
2-4/2/1/0(1-3/1/1/0 if adept)(1-2/1/1/0 if adept with brass goggles or .2+ mastery amulet)
steamtech/chemistry
1-2/0-1/0-2/0-5(1/0-1/0-1/0-5 if adept)(if getting salves, then change the allocation as necessary, being sure to get 5 in steam power(and device mastery in cunning/survival) so that your salves are stronger)
psionic/augmented mobility
1-5/1-5/1-5/1-5(CHECK LEAP'S SCALING FIRST)
psionic/dreaming
1-5/1-5/1-5/1-5(don't get the category unless you're antimagic, and maxing willpower & cunning)
psionic/feedback
1/1-5/0-1/0-5(if antimagic; otherwise, don't bother)
wild-gift/call of the wild
1/5/0/0
wild-gift/mindstar mastery
don't get it; using a single psiblade over a regular 1h ain't worth it, even if you're maxing willpower & cunning anyway

OTHER TALENTS:
corruption/vile life(harmony is better unless you plan to have a ton of healmod or spellcrit+critmult)
0-5/0/0/0
wild-gift/harmony
0-1/0-5/0-1/0-5(keep it locked unless you have nothing better to get)
corruption/hexes
don't get it; it needs spellpower to be any good
wild-gift/antimagic
1 or 3/1/5/1(1 or 3/1/5/0 if embers of rage)
wild-gift/fungus
1-5/5/5/1-5


GENERIC POINT ALLOCATION PRIORITY:
these allocation priorities both assume that you'll know when to deviate from it to grab your racials(other than skeleton racials), escort categories, and vile life/harmony/hexes(if any), because - if I'm gonna write all that shit; I already gave you some advice about racials anyway

non-antimagic:
#1: max out bone armor if you're a skeleton
#2: max out re-assemble if you're a skeleton
#3: max out heavy armor training
#4: max out combat accuracy
#5: max out weapon mastery
#6: max out vitality OR unflinching resolve
#7: max out unflinching resolve OR vitality(float if necessary for escorts)
#8: put a point in daunting presence
#9: max out thick skin; that makes 31 generic points by the time that #9 is done, or 43 if you're a skeleton
#10: spend points at your leisure

antimagic:
#1: max out antimagic shield, but don't get antimagic until after the T1s
#2: max out heavy armor training
#3: max out combat accuracy
#4: max out weapon mastery
#5: max out vitality OR unflinching resolve
#6: max out unflinching resolve OR vitality(float if necessary for escorts)
#7: put a point in daunting presence
#8: max out fungal growth
#9: max out sudden growth
#10: max out thick skin
#11: spend points at your leisure

CLASS TALENTS(& block):

block:
this is perhaps the single most underestimated ability in the entire game; this ability is good for both offense & defense for every shield-compatible class(except sling archers), even if you don't get eternal guard
any weapon dmg class can use it for offense by blocking, which'll apply counterstrike to the foe if even one, single, damage value, such as the cold dmg from chilling weapons or a tick of some DoT, is fully blocked... however, counterstrike may instead be applied to an enemy you aren't trying to kill yet; a problem alleviated by eternal guard
counterstrike makes the next single weapon attack deal double damage, as well as setting the enemy's defense to 0 for the duration of the counterstrike, which gives you as much accuracy bonus as possible vs. that enemy
now that the foe is counterstriked, you can spend the next turn using a weapon dmg ability that deals a high amount of dmg per dmg value, such as repulsion, impale, skullcracker, or a host of other moves; it's like using that hard-hitting move twice in a row, except you take less dmg and have more accuracy to boot!
block also goes well with slash, swallow, & prismatic slash, which were recently changed to also hit with your shield if you have one

block can also be used defensively; for example, if you anticipate a foe using a hard-hitting multi-hit move on you, such as fan of knives, flurry, dissolve, frenzy, shield slam, assault, combination kick, or meteor rain, then you can just hit the block button, and you'll be just fine on the next turn if the move was properly anticipated
if you have good block value, you can even use block to negate a high amount of the dmg from single-dmg-value attacks such as soul rot, manathrust, fire breath, & more; this can potentially give you the time that you need for a valuable skill to finish cooling down so that you can finally get rid of that crippling debuff on you and either kill your enemy or %(!@ outta there, depending on the situation

you can also defensively use block when you're 1 tile away from a dangerous melee enemy; if you don't want an enemy to hit you on the turn that you walk to it, then activate block, and then step next to the enemy while block is up if it didn't come to you first

this said, block should be used defensively first, and offensively second, while noting that the best defense is sometimes a good offense(and sometimes not)

shield pummel:
your only stun; you'd better 5 it for that duration, and as soon as possible too
it hits very hard with GWF once your accuracy gets going

riposte:
makes counterstrike affect an extra attack per debuff at lvl 1, and yet another at lvl 5; however, most people overlook the fact that it also gives your counterstrikes extra crit chance

since bulwarks get 1.3 mastery into this category, you'll get the 2nd extra counterattack at lvl 4
after you get eternal guard, MOST ATTACKS WILL BE COUNTERSTRIKES, which means that you'll get a HUGE boost to your crit chance from this talent; you can stick the 5th point in there at 25, or wait until you've maxed out your dex first
that said, under most circumstances, the 5th point into riposte will only give you a bit more crit, which definitely isn't a bad way to spend a talent point
if you manage to get this talent to an effective lvl of 9, then counterstrike will affect a 4th attack per debuff; this is doable with a ring of the war master, plus a .2 or higher mastery/perfection amulet, or just adept+ring of the war master, so take that as you will

shield slam(formerly overpower):
at 1 point, it's invaluable as an extra block, which lets you keep block up most of the time in conjunction with shield wall & eternal guard, provided that nothing is disrupting your talents or increasing your cds
however, at 5 points, it hits hard with GWF, especially if you have an earthen fury shield
that said, don't use shield slam unless block isn't up and it's on cooldown, or you won't need the defense for the next few turns and just wanna kill something with it
max it out at some point; it's not like you'll have something better to spend points on by 50

assault:
an amazing 1-pointer, but its scaling is awful; it only gets a ~30% damage boost from an extra 4 points, and that's before accounting for the extra effective talent levels to the shield hit from shield expertise, so the actual bonus from the extra 4 points is even lower
that, and at the endgame, all or most of your attacks should be crits anyway, so the auto-crits will be of limited use by then, making it technically scale even softer than it otherwise would
anwyay, get this at lvl 12; you'll be using it alot, and for the entire game, but leave it at 1 point unless you can't think of anything better to get

shield wall:
armor, reduced block cd, & block value; all extremely important things for bulwarks
it also gives stun/knockback immunity, which helps alot for the entire game, even after UFR gets going
max it right after shield pummel

repulsion:
this is your only AoE, so you should max it out at some point
it also functions as pretty good crowd-control since it knocks back & dazes for so long, but do keep in mind that lacerating strikes will break the daze
maxing this & shield expertise will increase its % weapon dmg to the low-300s, which makes this your hardest-hitting move if GWF procs
that, and it'll reset rush's cooldown if it kills something, so you'll wanna make extra sure that it kills something by maxing it out

shield expertise:
this talent increases the shield dmg dealt by shield pummel, shield slam, assault, & repulsion by increasing the effective talent lvls of those talents by half of this talent's actual talent lvl for the purposes of increasing the shield dmg dealt by those moves
and as a cherry on top, it also increases your physical & spell saves
so max this out at some point, and before maxing shield slam, repulsion, or assault

last stand:
this talent has the amazing power to make you not die, and especially in the early T2s when you need it the most
furthermore, using it before activating battle shout or chant of fortitude will cause the moves to give you more maximum hp; after that, you can de-activate last stand, which has a low cd, and keep the extra maximum hp that you got from the talents accounting for last stand
max this by lvl 18, if not sooner, and ONLY use it during combat if you need the hp
I forget if this prevents knockback effects from working on you, though
despite the talent's name, you don't necessarily need to use it as a last resort since the cd is low; being unable to move definitely blows, but theres plenty of circumstances in which you won't need to move for an extended period of time, so just use it wisely I guess

rush:
the starting gap-closer; if you don't start combat vs. a faraway enemy by luring it around a corner, then start it by blocking and then rushing it
the 5th point is useful for the cd reduction; the range boost is negligible since it's beyond 10
note that the daze can be broken by lacerating strikes, in case you wanted to rush an enemy as a CC

precise strikes:
most people ignore this skill, but with the right gear, it's very good; maxing this and your dex will give you something like +40 accuracy & +25% crit, but at the cost of 10% attack speed, which can get you double-turned... that's where gear comes in
a blazebringer's weapon, a quick weapon, or an enraging amulet can completely negate the attack speed penalty if it rolls high enough, allowing you to get the benefits of precise strikes without the penalty of getting double-turned every 10 turns
however, ghouls get double-turned all the time anyway, so ghouls can afford to take this during their 40s, when they're starting to get enough dex to make it be worth the class points
WARNING: having exactly 111% global speed with precise strikes up means that your attack speed with precise strikes will ultimately be 99.9%, so you'll very rarely get double-turned if you use a 12% blazebringer's weapon to compensate for precise strikes' attack speed slow
so unless you're a ghoul or you're taking windtouched speed, don't put a single point into this talent until lvl 50

perfect strikes:
this move helps you hit foes with alotta defense and gives you blind-fight for the duration
however, if you get battle cry, this move won't even be worth 1 permanent point(unless you want blinding speed), seeing as how battle cry negates concealment AND evasion bonuses for its duration, and counterstrike reduces your enemy's defense to 0 while active, and you should have enough accuracy to get the maximum accuracy bonus with every hit anyway at high lvls
that, and pickaxes of wreckage and withering orbs exist anyway
it's worth floating a single point into precise strikes & this in the earlygame & mid-game if you feel like it, but that's about it unless want it as a prerequisite for blinding speed

blinding speed:
this move makes you do everything faster! combine it with eden's guile, a ring of speed, & device mastery to basically have a big permanent bonus to your global speed
however, this'll come at the cost of not getting to use a crazy skullcracker hat
if you don't use that trick, then blinding speed is still handy to help you kill stuff in conjunction with GWF, but you really don't need that much offense unless you get super bad RNG
however, even though blinding speed makes you attack faster, it only increases your dmg by so much because a high percentage of your damage comes from your activated abilities, whose cooldowns don't give a damn about your global speed, so take that as you will
because of this, blinding speed is generally not worth taking unless you're doing that permanent global speed thing; you've got better stuff to spend points on
if you get blinding speed, then wait till high lvls to put your 1st point in it; theres more important stuff to grab

quick recovery:
more stamina; too bad it doesn't scale with anything
if you don't know what else to spend class points on, then stick em here, but if you aren't taking warcries, then you should probably stick a few points in here or max it out
however, if you're antimagic, then this ain't worth a single point beyond floating it until you get antimagic; resolve will probably give you all the stamina you'll ever need by itself

fast metabolism:
this is a big help in the earlygame, but after that, it's shit for the rest of the game, so it's basically a waste of points
feel free to float 3 points in here for the T1s if you don't value shield pummel or shield wall as much as you should be; just remember to take em out before it's too late

spell shield:
this is only useful for dwarf bulwarks since they have the option of building for saves; they can get an impressive amount of physical & spell save, as well as a very palpable amount of mental save, especially after accounting for the effective all saves bonus from daunting presence(except vs. steampower moves)
anyway, unless you're a dwarf bulwark building for saves, then just leave this at 0 points

unending frenzy:
this is amazing if you're fighting more than a few enemies
the problem is, however, that this is basically useless if you're only fighting a few guys, and compltely useless if you're fighting 1 guy
it ain't worth a single point; quick recovery is more useful than this, considering the prereqs

greater weapon focus:
this is capped at 1 extra hit per weapon per turn, but that's okay because it adds so much dmg anyway
a shield's accuracy bonus makes its procs hit alot harder(up to +200%) with each point of accuracy over the enemy's defense, and since counterstrike sets the enemy's defense to 0, and greater weapon focus counts as a proc, you're gonna be getting a ton of dmg from this move while it's active
max it out, but not until you have a reasonable amount of dex to use it with or you have nothing better to get

step up:
this, rush, and maybe an on-use item are all the mobility that bulwarks need; once you get this, you won't need a blink rune or movement infusion; you could just run shatter shatter shield shield, wild regen healing healing, or something else if you wanted
this can be used to escape from combat by killing a white enemy standing next to you, provided that you can do it in 1 turn, and it can also be used as a gap-closer in a similar fashion
max it out by the mid-20s, if not by lvl 20
if you get adept, I forget if it counts towards getting the 100% chance for it to go off, but if it does, then you'll be able to save a class point by leaving this at 4, and floating the 5th point until then

bleeding edge:
this does a ton of weapon dmg!... except the bleed can't crit, so its dmg is kinda lacking, but only kinda
furthermore, the bleed can be resisted by physical save, and you'll rarely want the healmod reduction
and when you do want the healmod reduction, you'll probably have a weapon of evisceration or a stinging totem lying around in your bags to use instead
note that the deep wounds from weapons of evisceration don't stack with the deep wounds from bleeding edge, and that bleeding edge won't stack with itself
this is worth 3-5 points if you love weapon dmg talents, but otherwise, leave it at 0 points

true grit:
this talent would be amazing if its dmg reduction was stronger or it didn't cost so much - stamina
unfortunately, both of those aren't the case, so this ain't worth it on any class outside of maybe some gimmicky adventurer builds
that, and even if the damage reduction was stronger, then you'd need a mountain of hp for the damage reduction to be good so that you can afford to take a huge hit at, say, half hp

shattering shout:
at 1 point, it can be used to finish off a guy with really low hp that isn't next to you while step up ain't active, but that's about it
however, at 5 points with good gear(and ICCTW), this can crit for something like 2k dmg, and it has a good radius; this'll help you clear out packs of angry orc mages, among other things, if you don't feel like getting close to them
more importantly, at 4 points, it can shatter projectiles, which can increase your survivability in the event that you can't afford to move out of the way of the projectiles and aren't blocking
unfortunately, it won't get the crit bonus from riposte(or so I'd assume), so it won't always crit if you're relying on riposte's crit like you should be
note that you can't use this while silenced

second wind:
this is how you survive prolonged fights
be careful not to stick too many points into this, especially as antimagic, or else it'll give you more than your maximum stamina when you use it, causing the extra stamina to be wasted, which means wasted class point(s)
battle shout can help with the extra stamina not being wasted, but you shouldn't rely on it for that
note that you can't use this while silenced
if you're antimagic, then leave this at 1 point since you'll have resolve to help you out

battle shout:
using this move will increase your maximum hp & stamina by a significant percentage for a fairly long time, and it'll also temporarily increase your current hp & stamina too
for example, if you get +500 maximum HP & +100 maximum stamina from battle shout, you'll also instantly heal for 500 hp & gain 100 stamina, which isn't affected by healmod, healing nexus, rod of entropy, or healing inversion
or do your current hp & stamina increase by a percentage? I forget
however, after it wears off, you'll lose that 500 hp and 100 stamina, which surprisingly ain't that dangerous
so basically, battle shout can be used as a temporary heal & stamina gain
note that you can't use this while silenced
you can also use it right before starting a hard fight or entering a dangerous lvl to make extra sure that you don't die
anyway, max this thing out, antimagic or not; this is half of the reason why you're taking warcries
however, keep in mind that heroic gloves have a chance on hit to use battle shout, so don't take warcries at all if you take flexible combat and you plan to have heroic gloves

battle cry:
a 1-point wonder; it lowers the enemy's defense and prevents it from dodging attacks via. concealment AND evasion for its duration, but more points don't increase the duration or lower the cd... they only increase the defense reduction
note that you can't use this while silenced
just leave this at 1 point; the same applies to berserkers who decide to take warcries for whichever reason

juggernaut:
it gives you critshrug & physical resistance, both of which are very good at preventing you from dying... but it only has 50% uptime, and device mastery+juggernaut gloves can give you permanent juggernaut at a high talent lvl without having to take this category at all, so don't bother taking this category
at least the 20 turn duration is long

onslaught:
knocks back your foes whenever you hit them; it's great for making dangerous melee enemies - off, or making dangerous ranged enemies - off and then stepping around an adjacent corner to LoS them, but it's really counterproductive against everything else
however, if you actually need to do any of that, then either you're probably - anyway, or your points would be better spent elsewhere, such as on warcries
that said, this ability is really - annoying when NPCs have it, even with shield wall giving you >50% knockback immunity

battle call:
it's an extra gap closer, but be careful; it affects every enemy in its radius
this ability ain't worth the category it's in, but if it was in combat veteran, then I'd definitely take it for the extra gap closer
iirc, it counts as a knockback instead of a teleport, so you can use it in no teleport zones, and it checks knockback immunity instead of teleport immunity

shattering blows:
shattering blows would be great if it wasn't locked behind a category you don't start out with and you had more stamina to begin with
it'd be worth the points for classes that have tons of stamina if this was in combat veteran, but that just ain't the case

dirty fighting:
wanna stun that guy that's immune to stuns? well, now you might be able to do it!
it's a 1-point wonder; the physical save reduction & bonus unarmed dmg from extra lvls are negligible
if you get the category at all, then wait till 34 or the wyrm bile to take it, and make sure that you'll have at least 12 class points to spare for it by the endgame

backstab:
wanna get RNG disables and hit harder while they're up? then this is the ability for you
this'll add alotta dmg to your attacks, but not too reliably
max it out if you actually take dirty fighting

blinding powder:
an extra disable is definitely good to have; too bad its duration barely goes up with more talent points, though, although it does get more movespeed penalty with more points
take at least 1 point into it if you grab dirty fighting, but don't leave it at 2

twist the knife:
shield pummel, blinding powder, and your RNG disables from backstab can now last even longer, and they have the added benefit of reducing the durations of your enemy's buffs, such as vitality, destroyer, GWF, & more
max it out if you take the category


DEFAULT GENERIC TALENTS:

thick skin:
you take less damage, period; you can't go wrong with resall
sure, some enemies have respen, but most of the ones that do are orcs or sawbutchers, and skirmisher & furnace offer pretty limited amounts of respen
and barely any other enemies in this game have respen, so this talent is definitely worth maxing out
just don't bother with it till high lvls; there's more important talents to get before then

heavy armor training:
mmmm, armor & crit reduction; can't get enough of those
unlike crit shrug, crit reduction subtracts its value from all of your enemy's crit chances for their attacks that hit you, potentially reducing it to 0%
get it to 5 ASAP, or get 3 ASAP and leave it there if you desperately need more generic points
if you take eform, then leave it at 2 points forever instead

light armor training:
ethereal form is a prodigy that's super - mega busted to - and back(for other classes)... until you get cornered by a critsummoned minotaur or a randboss netherworm mass or any weapon rare using perfect strikes, at which point you're -
however, bulwarks have access to a large source of bonus armor, and they get an offensive use outta armor once they get an earthen fury shield, so ethereal form, and therefore light armor training, is nigh-useless to bulwarks
that, and if enemies can't hit you, it also means that they won't get afflicted by counterstrike, which'll make you deal much less damage
leave light armor training at 0 points if you're not taking eform; otherwise, put 5 points in this talent ASAP since defense is nigh-worthless without armor/phys resist to back it up unless it's high enough to give you maximum avoidance

combat accuracy:
you need this to hit stuff, though you'll have plenty of other accuracy to go around; all you really need is 80 effective accuracy to max out the accuracy bonus, so just maxing dex & running precise strikes with some gear should get you there
you can feel free to just float 3 points in here and take em out when you have enough other sources of accuracy, but I personally like maxing it out anyway, and ASAP

weapon mastery:
you need this to hit hard with your main-hand weapon; max it out ASAP

dagger mastery:
although daggers recently got a big buff in their better scaling, you'll have more weapon options if you use a 1h sword/axe/mace instead, and the egos on daggers are weaker than the egos on 1h swords/axes/maces, so leave this at 0 points

exotic weapon mastery:
this talent requires a warrior escort or the naloren prodigy to be visible to you at all
unless you really, really like scorpion's tail, skeletal whip, or whip of uh'rhok, and you get good enough RNG to actually get them, and you can survive floating 3 points in weapon mastery until the east, then leave this at 0 points, and don't take it from an escort
speaking of which, if you get it, you'll wanna get 5 points in exotic mastery before taking naloren, because then you'll get an extra 5 points from naloren, for a total of 10(erroneously displayed as 5 by advanced talent descriptions); otherwise, you'll be limited to 5 points
anyway, naloren ain't worth it as a bulwark, and so, neither is exotic weapon mastery; not even if you get 9 warrior escorts and save them all and had no hard points into weapon mastery by then

vitality:
good regen when you're at half or less hp, and alot of it; this goes great with shield runes
it also makes poisons, wounds, & diseases shorter, which helps a ton with not getting murdered in 1 hit by catalepsy
max it out at some point
make sure to float a few points in it in case you find a late warrior escort, or if you're busy floating something else, then just don't max it till you've done all the escorts, or you see that the last one isn't a warrior(or he is and dies)

unflinching resolve:
this is why you don't need 100% stun immunity
this is also why you don't need 100% blind, disarm, or pin immunity(though these and stun immunity are regardless nice to have)
each at 4-5 points, this'll give you a high chance every turn to dispel a random stun, blind, pin, disarm, or slow from you
stick 4 points into it, or 5 for the extra favor from the RNG; I personally always 5 it
this and vitality is why bulwarks should be maxing con over cunning

daunting presence:
this makes everything but steampower stuff hit you softer, as well as giving you an effective bonus to all saves, which helps with not getting stunned or disarmed by every regular thief and war bear, and not getting smacked with epidemics or curses of death from plaguebringer's weapons of corruption wielded by enemies with low spellpower, among other dangerous things that can be beaten with decent saves
stick at least 1 point into it, or 5 it if you can spare the points

adrenaline rush:
this talent's main use is to let berserkers & marauders use unstoppable when they don't have enough stamina to do it, making this talent be a 1-point wonder
but bulwarks don't get unstoppable, so you're better off leaving it at 0 points
if you get it anyway, then just leave it at 1 point, and only use it if you manage to run outta stamina or you desperately need to kill something with GWF

heightened senses:
having a decent minimum infravision radius is nice, and so is see stealth & invis; it'll mean you won't need to battle cry as often
it also gives you the ability to detect traps, which is definitely good
leave it at 1 point, or if you really hate traps, then 5 it after you have good cunning

device mastery:
possibly the most overpowered talent in the entire game, unless you count scounting abilities, burrow, & rockwalk; I personally refuse to use device mastery on every character that I make
it's even crazier if you use salves since it reduces their cds too
5 it, but not until you have something worthwhile to use it on

track:
this ability lets you detect unwinnable fights before they begin so that you can just leave and come back when you're stronger(if ever), or if you can't leave, it lets you change your gear and otherwise set up before the fight begins
it's the most overpowered talent in the entire game, tied with the other scouting talents; even - ethereal form & device mastery pale in comparison to this, and one of those are a prodigy
I refuse to use this and all such talents on all of my characters, but if you take it, then 1 point is enough
leave it at 0 points unless you want danger sense since you can just use a clarivoyance wand or track charm instead; that said, taking +5 dex from a thief escort is better than a point in track if you don't want danger sense

danger sense:
you get a bit of critshrug and take less dmg from unseen enemies, which constitutes everything if you're blinded; this is really helpful for not dying, but you don't need it
it also gives you an extra chance to save against stuff, which is useful if you're running a saves build
extra trap detection is nice too
if you take it, then 5 it; otherwise, leave it and track at 0 points


OTHER GENERIC TALENTS:

waters of life:
this makes those nasty poisons & diseases heal you instead of hurting you, and it gives you a little initial heal too
but it ain't worth more than 1 point if you take the category at all

elemental harmony:
be careful about getting this if you're antimagic; you wouldn't your antimagic shield to pop in the middle of a huge fight
otherwise, it's pretty good, and is potentially worth 5 points if you take the category

one with nature:
removing inscription saturation can be useful every now and then, but that's about it; leave it at 1 point if you take the category

healing nexus:
this can be used to keep your equilibrium down and prevent foes from healing, and to steal the heals instead; either 1 or 5 it if you grab the category

blood splash:
this may seem awful, but it can crit, and like nearly all heals, it scales with healmod
so if you have high healmod and enough physical crit, it can basically heal you for 100-125 every time you hit something, but only up to once per round, and that's if it doesn't crit
also, an unrelated note; in order to get draconic will or draconic body as an undead character, you HAVE to corrupt the sandworm queen heart... unless you ate the heart as a living creature and then took rak'shor's running or became a lich, or you're a wyrmic that took rak'shor's cunning, but why would you do that?
unfortunately, this costs an entire category point, 5 generics, and alotta healmod or spellcrit(with high critmult) to be any good, so just don't bother with it

elemental discord:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so don't get it

healing inversion:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so don't get it

vile transplant:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so don't get it

pacification hex:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so just don't take the category

burning hex:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so just don't take the category

empathic hex:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so just don't take the category

domination hex:
this needs spellpower to be any good, so just don't take the category

resolve:
this is amazing at 1 point, and even better at 3 points; if you can spare the generics and don't expect to have many resistances from gear or other talents, then you should 5 it if you can afford to
note that it can crit, which can be combined with a psi on crit item to not worry about running out of dream walks over an extremely prolonged fight... as if you'd ever have to worry about that anwyay
if you're taking adept, then having 1 raw point in it will be enough to get the lvl 3 bonus if you wear gloves of the verdant or a mastery amulet, should you get at least +.2 mastery from it

antimagic zone(formerly aura of silence):
it silences stuff, and it deals a bit of manaburn damage to boot!... but its silence duration doesn't scale with your talent lvl
so leave it at 1 point

antimagic shield:
this is one of the two main reasons to take antimagic, contrary to what many people would have you believe
antimagic shield, if maxed out has the amazing power to make the 50-1000+ DoT/proc damage that you'll typically take every turn deal 0 damage to you
as a bulwark, this'll probably absorb 60-120 dmg per hit at 5 points, which'll serve you extremely well throughout the entire game, including even high peak
however, if you max it out, then you'll need either 5 points in ancestral life, the butcher, or a hat of absorption to keep your equilibrium down after the T2 dungeons
if you go antimagic, then max this out as soon as possible, period, no questions asked

mana clash:
this does a palpable amount of manaburn damage with just 1 point, and alot with 5 points, though it isn't worth using it for the damage unless you're a mindpower class or have 100% mindcrit with huge critmult
it also gets a special bonus that you get from beating tempest peak; it'll strip up to 4 magical sustains from the enemy that you use it on without checking its saves
also note that this talent has a negative equilibrium cost, so you lose 15 equilibrium when you use it, even if you use it on yourself; this can go a long way towards keeping antimagic shield up if you use it wisely
so put 1 point into it, but not until you've done tempest peak and talked to myssil

wild growth:
it gives you alot more hp and some hp regen!
while its scaling is just fine, however, you'll far have better stuff to spend points on after you've gotten this to 1 point, so just leave it at 1 point unless you don't know what else to get

fungal growth:
this makes your regen infusions last longer, which makes them give far more hp per cooldown; max it out as soon as possible

ancestral life:
this makes your direct heals give you a percentage of a turn when used, based on your mindpower & its talent lvl; it could potentially make sudden growth be instantaneous, or even give you a percentage of a turn instead of costing a turn
this can be combined with fungal blood & superpower to get lots of free turns, but bulwarks kinda need eternal guard, so just forget about fungal blood
anyway, the real reason why you want this is because it also reduces your equilibrium each time a regeneration effect ticks on you, which is needed to prevent antimagic shield from popping if you don't get the butcher or a hat of absorption
so just leave it at 1 point and get the butcher and/or a hat of absorption

sudden growth:
a very important ability; if you have a good regen infusion, then this'll heal you for a ton, but it won't do much at 1 point
as a bulwark, you should have enough hp that, unless your healmod is 200%+, then you'll actually wanna max this out so that it can take you from almost dead to full hp


PRODIGIES:
the short version:
1st, get eternal guard; hoard gear with +con on it for this if need be
then, get flexible combat, or if you hate how OP it is, then get windtouched speed instead if you can get the prereqs without compromise, or ICCTW if not

the long verison:
your first prodigy will be eternal guard, which is MANDATORY; take it as soon as possible unless you're getting eform for some reason, in which case take it second
this prodigy makes block last for an extra turn, not end when hit, and apply an infinite number of counterstrikes; it's both an offensive prodigy & a defensive prodigy
by carefully rotating block & shield slam(block 1st), you can keep block up for most of the duration of nearly every fight, which basically means that you'll usually have a gigantic amount of flat damage reduction vs. all non-mind dmg that isn't subject to diminishing returns; expect it to start out at 100+ at lvl 25, and go all the way up to 300-500 by high peak
that said, you'll mostly take very low amounts of damage while you're blocking, if any at all

once you get this prodigy and have a shield with decent block value for your level, you're nigh-guaranteed to win the game unless you do something stupid like entering the dark crypt or getting so bored from farming farportal after farportal for that sick fonted randart 1h that you want that you just mindlessly hit stuff in the middle of a zone with a heart-of-the-gloom layout without paying attention to your defenses
or you get - by inner demons, split, webs of fate, or a 3k/turn entropic gift or misdirectioned bleed, or you enter the dark crypt or godfeaster, or even worse; you fight celia before lvl 50 without being antimagic or cheesing the zone generation


after you've taken eternal guard, then there'll be a number of different prodigies to consider:

I can carry the world!(ICCTW):
this prodigy gives you 50 strength, which gives you a big dmg boost, as well as giving you an extra 50 physpower(from the str) to apply stuns with, and it makes shield wall give you more armor & block value, and it makes shattering shout and skullcracker hats hit alot harder too
it also means that basically nothing will ever encumber you again, so feel free to stock up all the gear that you'll ever have even a small desire for on your person with impunity
that, and it sets your fatigue to 0%, which means that your stamina will last for much longer than it otherwise would
and as an added bonus, it also means that enemies have to be 1 size category bigger to grapple you

windtouched speed:
this prodigy is basically inaccessible to undead characters, unfortunately
if you get it, though, then you'll gain +20% global speed, and therefore hit harder, and all of your cooldowns will be lowered by 10%, with a minimum cooldown reduction of 1 turn
this means, among other things, that the cooldowns of block & shield slam will be reduced by 1 turn, making block have even more uptime, and it'll also let you use precise strikes without getting double-turned
this is the 3rd-best prodigy if you're antimagic or get harmony; otherwise, that #3 slot is occupied by I can carry the world!

superpower:
this prodigy is attractive if you take antimagic since you'll have alotta willpower to give you weapon dmg and you can use the mindpower to boost fungal growth's duration
but that and boosting mindpower procs such as those from slime-covered weapons is all the mindpower is really good for
take it over ICCTW if you want, but know that ICCTW will give you more weapon dmg unless you have >140 or so willpower, and that's not considering shield wall, shattering shout, or skullcracker hats

eye of the tiger:
ever since they buffed windtouched speed, this prodigy hasn't been as good as windtouched speed
however, not everyone goes antimagic, so it's still a decent choice, especially since you only have so many activated techniques for it to reduce the cds of
note that resolve can crit, so those crits will reduce the cd of your antimagic talents if you went antimagic

worldly knowledge:
this gives you an escort category and 5 generic points; this is only worth taking if you haven't found enough thief escorts for lacerating strikes and don't mind the risk of getting murdered by a 2k/turn misdirectioned bleed that ignores wound immunity

adept:
everything gets to have a higher talent lvl
it's not nearly as much of an offensive boost as ICCTW is, but it's also a defensive boost
it also boosts charm talent lvls & escort talent levels, so lvl 1 chant of fortress becomes lvl 2.5, lvl 1 telekinetic leap is suddenly range 5, lvl 1 disarm from that loremaster suddenly lasts for... 5 turns? and so on
furthermore, if you have tinkers, then it'll mean that you'll save 1 generic point(or up to 2 with brass goggles or a mastery/perfection amulet) for each crafting talent that you wanna have above 1 point... unless you've already spent enough points to get the desired tinkers

master of disasters:
while having 60 or so to phys/mind/spell/steampower may seem attractive, well, it's not actually as good for offense as ICCTW or superpower, though the brainlocks can be of some sort of defensive use, I suppose
however, if you plan on using salves, spellpower, or mindpower, then this'll suddenly become alot better, but still not as good as flexible combat is

flexible combat:
the second most overpowered prodigy in the entire game by leaps & bounds
in earlier patches, the unarmed attacks wouldn't proc off of shield hits, but now they do, so if you just get some gloves with good procs that deal a percentage of weapon damage, such as dak'thun's gauntlets, then your damage output will immediately skyrocket to outrageously high levels if you take this prodigy; what the - were the devs thinking when they un-nerfed this by changing its proc chance from 30% to 50%?!?!?!?!?
flexible combat counts as a proc, so if a shield hit triggers flexible combat, then that flexible combat hit will get the proc dmg boost from your shield, and whatever that flexible combat hit procs, such as wave of power from your gloves, will also get the proc dmg boost... I think
I personally hate this prodigy because it's too powerful, so I never take it unless I'm a brawler adventurer, or maybe a wanderer, but that's just me
anyway, this is the best 2nd prodigy to take by leaps & bounds
this prodigy would be balanced, as in neither OP nor garbage, if all gloves in the game had no procs that dealt a percentage of weapon damage(or GWF), and those gloves all instead had procs that dealt damage based on physical power ala slam, or various non-damaging moves such as, say, battle cry, blinding powder, evasion, or set up; that and cripple & disarm, not being tied to any specific class, could safely be changed to deal dmg based solely on physical power

ethereal form:
dude who needs armor when you could have so much defense that nothing will ever - hit you no matter what? that rampaging poltergeist randart greatsword in that high peak vault with 350+ charsheet weapon dmg can't crit you with slash for 6k if it can't hit you in the first place!

anyway, while this is the most powerful prodigy in the entire game(unless you're a shield class), bulwarks don't have much use for it because they can manage to get a ton of armor anyway; if you have decent RNG, then you should easily be able to get 170+ armor by the prides, or compensate for having less than that by having a substantial amount of physical resistance, so weapon dmg from everything in prides outside of those optional naga portals, fearscape platforms, & special pride vaults should be of little threat to you because of your armor and physical resistance
that, and while armor has its weak points, such as enemies randomly having a fuckton of weapon dmg, defense also has its weak points, such as every crit melee summon summoned by a summoner, and rare/unique/randboss dread & netherworm masses, enemies using perfect strike, and counterstrike
so don't bother grabbing eform when you could have eternal guard+flex or even eternal guard+ICCTW/superpower/windtouched speed instead

to anyone wondering why defense is as powerful as it is, it's because, without armor or physical resistance, defense only works if it lets you evade all of an enemy's attacks; otherwise, you'll just get one-shotted by a single damage value when an enemy eventually gets lucky & hits you in the first place since enemy weapon damage gets so high on nightmare & insane

however, all of those words disregard this one, very important fact about bulwarks and other classes that like eternal guard: if an enemy can't hit you, then you won't block its attacks, which means that you won't inflict it with counterstrike; this'll make you deal far less damage than you otherwise would, as well as making you actually care about accuracy beyond your accuracy bonus
so yeah; if you wanna get counterstrikes from blocking, then ethereal form sucks

arcane might:
it may look attractive to pump magic just for this prodigy to get more weapon dmg & physcrit, but it really, really ain't worth it; ICCTW will give you more dmg, though if you manage to make it so deep into the infinite dungeon that you can get all of your base stats to 100, then I suppose that arcane might would give you more dmg than ICCTW if you aren't wearing any antimagic gear
speaking of which, each antimagic item equipped will halve your spellpower

cauterize:
this prodigy was made for glass cannons; bulwarks ain't glass cannons, however, so they don't need it
don't take it unless you're playing on madness

draconic body:
this is actually a pretty good defensive prodigy since bulwarks get so much hp, especially with battle shout active, and even more with last stand active
just note that, if you're undead, you'll have to corrupt the sandworm queen heart in order to qualify for this prodigy(as well as drinking the wyrm bile)

corrupted shell:
another pretty good defensive prodigy; even if you aren't a dwarf, you'll still be resisting a fair amount of debuffs if you just max daunting presence and have corrupted shell with no spell shield
of course, this is better than draconic body if you're a dwarf since it makes your saves even higher
the added armor is great too, especially with a shield of earthen fury, and the hp is always gonna be nice to have
however, if you're not a dwarf, then draconic body will probably be better for general survivability

spine of the world:
this is a good defensive prodigy for most classes, but bulwarks just ain't one of them; this is because it largely defeats the purpose of unflinching resolve
I suppose you could just have 1 or 0 points in unflinching resolve if you grab spine of the world, but it's still not worth the prodigy point

swift hands:
this prodigy is very powerful, but only if you find the right items for it
using this prodigy and 5/5 device mastery, you could get access to up to 4 of a large variety of very valuable abilities without having to wear their associated items, such as rush from nature's vengeance, obliterating smash from will of ul'gruth, qog's essentials, eden's guile, unstoppable or burrow from morrigor, the teleport from aetherwalk, the disease removal from blightstopper, mental shielding from mnemonic, and so much more, but not battle trance from honeywood chalice or hammer toss from dream malleus; those two you'd need to equip
even with the perfect items for it, however, it ain't as good as flexible combat is, though I suppose that it could potentially contend with ICCTW and windtouched speed


PSI-MACHINE REWARDS:
most of these will be covered under ESCORTS, but theres some important differences:
-technique/mobility is offered as a reward; since you'll be wearing massive plate armor, the most use you'd get outta this is from disengage, so just don't bother with it
-you get 4 of these guaranteed, provided that you kill the yeti behemoth, but that's it
-iirc, undead characters are allowed to take psionic talents from the psi-machine
-iirc, taking a category will unlock the category for free

that said, the recommended rewards, in this order, are:
if going antimagic, then antimagic->dream walk->disarm->lacerating strikes OR free generic point
if not antimagic, then dream walk->chant of fortitude->disarm->lacerating strikes OR free generic point


ESCORTS:

warriors:
mmmmmmmm, free generic points
+5 str is a good alternative if you've already maxed vitality & unflinching resolve; speaking of which, a 5th point in unflinching resolve is better than +5 str to get that extra favor from the RNG against those crippling debuffs


thieves:
track & heightened senses can be used as free generic points; however, since they're 1-pointers, you might wanna hold off on getting one or both those talents until you find such an escort for that reason alone
that, and having a point in track is worthless if you have a track charm unless you want danger sense

however, they also give lacerating strikes; lacerating strikes gives you a huge damage boost over time against most enemies in the game, ranging from +20% dmg to +51% dmg... however, this comes at a great cost; misdirection can reflect bleeds back at you, and misdirection will make that bleed ignore all status immunities, including that the skeleton's racial 100% cut immunity, and probably also spine of the world & draconic will
there's also the fact that an endgame bulwark will be oneshotting most enemies unless the RNG gave you really bad or defensive gear; this unfortunately means that they won't live long enough for lacerating strikes to hurt them
theres additionally the fact that lacerating strikes will break the dazes from rush & repulsion, so be warned
I'd recommend getting as many points in lacerating strikes as possible unless you want cunning/survival talents and are desperate for more generics
you could also unlock scoundrel instead; this is a very powerful category, and not just because of lacerating strikes

scoundrel's strategies will greatly lower the critmult of the enemy that you stick it on, as well as randomly putting talents on cooldown, so this talent is very powerful

misdirection grants you a substantial chance to reflect any physical debuff onto a random enemy; unflinching resolve can get rid of important physical debuffs, however, so don't bother unless you get alotta thief escorts
it also gives you defense; while bulwarks don't need that stat, it's still nice to have some to make enemies miss every now and then, as well as making them have a lower accuracy bonus against you

fumble causes the enemy you stick it on to randomly skip a turn to smack itself, which is very powerful

anyway, unlocking cunning/scoundrel is a legit strategy for cornac bulwarks that aren't antimagic since they don't have much else to spend generics on; as a cornac, you'll even have points left over for another category, such as harmony

as with warrior escorts, if you take the category, then be mindful to float points into lacerating strikes so that you can take them out when you get another thief escort

if you can't get any useful talents, then take the dex


loremasters:
1 point in disarm is a great CC, but the more points in disarm, the longer it'll last
feel free to get +5 str after the 1st point in disarm, however; just know that levelling disarm after the 1st point is only good if you get enough escorts to increase its duration
spit poison might seem like a good idea in the earlygame, but it just doesn't scale hard enough to be good unless you're taking naloren for some reason
make sure they don't kill you with mind sear in the earlygame


tinkerers:
tinkers cost a category point and are good, but they aren't super good unless you're getting salves, 5 points in steam power, and device mastery; this is due to unflinching resolve, the lack of decent shield tinkers, and the fact that the good & inexpensive weapon tinkers only apply to that weapon
if you don't want tinkers, however, then just get last engineer standing if you're worried about a single crit hitting you for more dmg than you have hp, or craftsman's eye if you want offense instead
note that only 1 tinkerer escort can spawn per game; all other escorts have no such limitation
also know that, upon learning tinkers, the game will give you 1 free generic point in smith, and 1 free generic point in therapuetics, both of which can't be refunded
IMPORTANT NOTE: the effects of your salves scale with the steampower that you had WHEN YOU CRAFTED THEM, and not after you craft them so if you plan to get salves, then put 2 points into the talent, steam power, and then float another 3 points into it whenever you craft a salve, and then take the points back out

the ideal tinkers for each equipment slot are as follows:

body armor:
if you want offense, then get crystal plating
if you want defense vs. gigantic crits, then get ablative armor, or if you don't wanna spend generic points, then spike attachment is also a great defense in general
otherwise, get second skin; those immunities are fantastic, especially if you're not antimagic... however, if you're undead or a thaloren, then get ablative armor or spike attachment for defense instead; in the case of thaloren, second skin isn't as good for them since they get disease immunity anyway, and they get nature affinity to largely negate the damage dealt by poisons, as well as a bit of blight resistance to help even more against diseases
until you can get one of the above, just take what you can get, but know that spike attachment is far better than armor reinforcement unless you have under 50% hardiness somehow

shield:
don't even bother; galvanic retributor is shit, and it ain't worth the 4 points in electricity required for it... except I've heard it's buggy and can stack infinitely with itself if you attach, remove, & re-attach it, so take that as you will

main hand:
until your main hand hits, say, 95% crit without razor edge(with counterstrike up), then use razor edge
after that, you may wish to use a silver filgree over a razor edge to deal +35% mh dmg vs. demons, horrors, & undead
however, most enemies aren't demons, horrors, or undead, and even if you have 100% crit without razor edge(after riposte), the extra crit will still help when counterstrike isn't up, and when it is up, it'll still help vs. enemies wearing mail or plate armor since having >100% crit helps to penetrate crit reduction
that, and +20 armor penetration is nothing to scoff at
however, if you're willing to spend an extra generic point, then crystal edge is better than razor edge, but only if razor edge takes you more than 10% over the crit cap; note that the light dmg from crystal edge can only go off once per turn

head:
at first, use mental stimulator
once you can make a T4 or T5 focus lens, use that instead; it'll give blind-fight at that point, which is really good when you're blinded
however, if you can't breathe underwater and you're underwater, or you're being strangled to death and can't break the strangle, or you really hate silences, then use air recycler instead

cloak:
get grounding strap, of course; even if you have 100% stun immunity anyway, then this'll still help to ward off stuns/freezes/dazes if something hits you with dirty fighting, breach, or wet, allowing unflinching resolve to remove other debuffs instead
you could use other cloak tinkers instead in niche situations, but it's not worth the generic points to get those other tinkers for that alone

hands:
iron grip, of course; disarms blow for melee classes, even if unflinching resolve will get rid of them in a turn or two
be very conservative about using iron grip's activated ability unless you have a source of steam; non-inscription sources of steam include steamcatcher & steam-powered boots
note that lvlups will fill your steam bar to full
however, if you wanna rely on unflinching resolve and you have steampower(and a source of steam), then get fatal attractor instead

belt:
back support if you don't get salves, or fungal web if you do; if you get ICCTW, then back support will be completely useless, and you can use power distributor instead if you have an extra generic point to spare
if you have high steampower without salves for some reason, then get thunder grenade instead

boots:
kinetic stabilizer is good, but if you have steam-powered boots or a steam generator, then get rocket boots instead; they'll last you for a very long time with just steam-powered boots giving you steam

light:
don't go out of your way to spend generics to get a light tinker
if you get one, then get the one that's more accessible, or if you can get both, then get the one that adds light radius for the see stealth and the extra dmg for crystal edge's proc


seers:
nature's touch heals you, which helps you stay alive
however, you'll need a hat of absorption or balance, a heart of poosh, conversion, antimagic, a font of life, walking on the world map, or a lvlup to lower your equilibrium, so keep that in mind
it actually scales very, very well with mindpower, and will heal you for over 600 hp at lvl 5 with 100 mindpower, before healmod & crits
it can also be used to keep escorts alive
every antimagic seer should be used on nature's touch until it's maxed out, after which you should grab willpower

magic seers are different, however
1 point in premonition is a pretty good choice, even with basically no spellpower, but after that, just take +5 willpower unless you want spellpower or took arcane might for some reason, in which case take +5 magic instead
arcane eye & vision can be used for scouting, sure, but so can track, so just use that instead

I forget if the escort herself knows manathrust, but make sure she doesn't kill you with it in the earlygame if she has it


alchemist:
just take the dex, or if you really love imbue gem or gem portal, then I guess you can take stone alchemy instead


defiler:
resonance field went from good to really good ever since they made it instant
it also stacks with all other shields as an added bonus, and it can crit
however, if you plan to have actual mindcrit and alotta critmult, then conversion will be better
as for conversion, it's a relatively small heal, but it'll also give you all other resources, so it'll help with keeping your stamina up, and with keeping your equilibrium down

if it's a magic defiler, however, then just take the cunning unless you actually have spellpower somehow, in which case stick a point in curse of death, and then take more magic to help curse of death stick


sun paladin:
if you aren't getting the chants category, then pick chant of fortitude until it's maxed out, then spend the rest on +str
if you are getting the chants category and aren't planning to take advantage of the 3rd talent for debuff removal, then don't put a single point into the 1st chants talent until you've gotten all of your escorts(or 6 sun paladins) so that chant of fortitude can have as high as lvl as possible

if you're antimagic, then get telekinetic leap or skate instead; skate is pretty good if you don't mind the lowered knockback resistance, but a point in telekinetic leap can potentially be a life-saver by allowing you to move a bit while you're pinned, or letting you jump over enemies in 1-tile-wide hallways, for instance
if you like passive movement more than activated movement, then spend all your sun paladins on skate, except the 2nd should be spent on telekinetic leap; otherwise, get telekinetic leap from all the sun paladins, then spend the rest on skate


temporal explorer:
foresight can be used as a substitute for track, but otherwise, just take the willpower

if you're antimagic, however, then unlocking the entire category can be beneficial if you actually have the points to spare for it and you plan to have decent mindpower

sleep is a great crowd-control, especially if you 5 it; if you aren't taking the entire category, then don't stick a point in here unless you plan to have mindpower

lucid dreamer makes sleep not disable you, but it renders you more vulnerable to waking nightmare & inner demons
it also makes you hit targets with insomnia harder, and it boosts all of your saves, which is very good if you're doing an all saves build

dream walk is an extremely valuable escape tool; even with just 1 point in it, it'll rarely fail you
it can also be used as a gap closer in combination with sleep if you don't mind spending an extra turn to do it
it also has the added bonus of allowing you to access hidden rooms in lvl 1 of the unknown tunnels, all lvls of alt maze, & most lvls of the illusory castle; you can't dig in those zones

dream prison extends the duration of sleep until you move(or break it with dmg), which can be extremely valuable in combination with last stand
however, unlike solipsists, you can't really get your psi back without resting, unless you have a psi on crit item and you're antimagic and resolve crits can trigger that psi on crit, so only use this if you really need it

antimagic temporal explorers should really only be used to take a point in dream walk, and if you plan to have mindpower, a point in sleep; any extras should be spent on more points in dream walk for reliability(stop at radius accuracy 3 so you can access the forementioned hidden rooms), and the rest can go into willpower I guess, or sleep if you really want lvl 5 sleep without taking the category and think you can get lucky enough to find that many temporal explorers

make sure that they don't kill you with dust to dust in the earlygame

GEAR:

obviously, you'll wanna use a 1h sword, 1h axe, or 1h mace in your main hand weapon, interchangeably, and you'll wanna put a shield proper in your other hand
however, if you find a dethzaw, and you don't mind going down to 105-200 block value, then you can use a steam generator and put it on your offhand; this'll come at the cost of greater weapon focus dealing far less damage, but you'll get lots of other damage to make up for it

with that aside, I can get to comparing axes, swords, and maces; these comparisons don't consider items with yellow names:

axes have the lowest base power out of the 3 weapons, but they have the highest base critical strike chance and base armor penetration out of the 3 weapons
axes have bonus crit chance as their accuracy bonus, maxing out at +20% crit chance
overall, axes are just fine until you're crit-capped with counterstrike up, after which swords & maces will be substantially better

swords have more base power than axes, but they have a bit less base crit chance and armor penetration than axes have
swords have bonus critmult as their accuracy bonus, maxing out at +32% critmult
overall, swords are just fine thoughout the entire game

maces have the most base power out of the 3 weapons, but they have the least base crit chance & armor penetration out of the 3 weapons
maces have bonus damage as their accuracy bonus, which maxes out at +16% damage; I question if this takes the form of damage that helps you have more weapon damage than an enemy's armor, or if it's just a straight damage boost after armor
overall, maces are just fine throughout the entire game


come the time right before you enter high peak(or before that if you don't feel confident enough), this is what egos you should try to make your randarts have if you don't have a fixedart there instead:
note that these recommendations don't consider dwarf bulwarks, who should be building for high saves

hat: metal hat, bladed+bounder+defender's OR absorption; primary backup egos include werebeast's, leafwalker's, warlord's, miner's, and strength... leather works too if it doesn't have skullcracker on it
if you get one with double bladed or double bounder, then try to get bladed or bounder as the 3rd ego instead if it's greater
alternatively, get an elven-silk wizard hat with mountain+fearwoven+starseers on it; it'll have a gigantic amount of +phys dmg and alotta phys res & some phys respen on it, but you won't be able to dish out any 40k skullcrackers

amulet: perfection(combat training/shield defense/shield offense)+murder+enraging; primary backup egos include warmaker's, protective, healing, soulsearing, cleansing, grounding, and strength
alternatively, you could try crafting a pearl+jade+pearl amulet to get +14 armor & resall, but then you'd need a +11% blazebringer's or +10% quick weapon for precise strikes to be worthwhile, and the chances of getting a pearl as the random gem is pretty low, as is the chance of finding a white voratun amulet to craft with
you could also try for a double artifact gem crafted amulet, but then you'll miss out on the chance of a artifact gem ring randart

cloak: battlemaster's(VERY IMPORTANT)+conjuring+backstabbing; primary backup egos include hunter's, marshal's, guardian, murderer's, battle, thick, resilient, & iron throne

gloves(with flexible combat): war-making+iron hand+nighthunter's; primary backup egos include verdant, heroic, juggernaut, regeneration, stone warden's, steady, sand, strength, dexterity, and a number of fixedarts... use dak'thun's gauntlets or spellhunt remnants instead if you can find and use them

gloves(without flexible combat): stone warden's OR verdant+butchering OR archery OR heroic+war-making; primary back-up egos include sand, dexterity, & strength

belt: ravager's+recklessness+reinforced; primary backup egos include balanced(if you actually need the crit), skylord's, monstrous, life, shielding, and resilience... girdle of preservation is better than all of these, however

boots: invasion+massiveness OR blood-soaked+reinforced; primary backup egos include strife, rushing, undeterred, invigorating, restorative, disengagement, phasing, spellbinding(if using runes), miner's, speed, and tirelessness... or you could use unbreakable greaves instead
a special mention for steam-powered boots: with these and rocket boots without a steam generator, you can use rocket boots for a long time without running out of steam, so it's basically a slow movement infusion with an 8 turn cooldown and extra fire dmg(that friendly-fires)

pickaxe(if not a different tool): solider's+brutal+shattering or wreckage; primary backup egos include deeplife, bloodhexed(if you actually need the physcrit), quickening(if using runes), and endurance

lamp: nightwalker's+piercing+zealot OR survivor's; primary backup egos include sun, moon, health, bright, corpselight, and preserving

rings:
if you have ring of the war master, then wear it, period
your second ring should, as for all basically all characters, be either bloodcaller or a crafted voratun(not stralite) randart ring; the gem in the ring should take this priority:
#1: goedalath rock
#2: petrified wood, lifebinding emerald(if you got it anyway), and/or windborne azurite; these all have roughly the same value
#3: a pearl
#4: bloodstone or fire opal(yes, I put these below pearls; you don't need that much crit or stun immunity anyway)
#5: turquoise
if it turns out that the ring isn't a randart, then don't bother wearing it unless it's a goedalath rock ring with 2 good greater egos on it
as for the randart itself, it should have these egos: speed(if using device mastery+eden's guile) OR mountain+painweaver's OR gladiator's+warrior's; primary backup egos include sneakthief's, warding, pilfering, life, preserverance, and marksman's

note that the crafted ring itself will never count as arcane-powered because of the gem; if it's arcane-powered, then it's only because of an actual ego

special mention for treant's; if you're undead, then don't try to get it, but if you're using second skin, then try to get it over life, pilfering, or gladiator's, or if you aren't rotating global speed items, then get it over speed instead
another special mention for ring of the dead; you should ONLY equip it as a last resort, such as when you're afflicted by a 2k/turn entropic gift and you have no magic cleanses available, but you haven't died just yet and don't have an elixir of invulnerability to drink

ammo: a waste of encumbrance; leave it unequipped if you want

body armor:
you'll probably end up wearing plate of the blackened mind, the black plate, or if you get bad RNG, plate armor of the king, borfast's cage, or tarrasca
speaking of which, why doesn't plate armor of the king give a bonus to halflings?
otherwise, get thunder OR delving+hardened+dragon; primary backup egos include fortifying, implacability, nautral resilience, impenetrable, stability, eyal, resilience, rejuvenating, and clarity

shield:
earthen fury(VERY IMPORTANT)+impervious+crushing OR reinforced; backup egos include windwalling, physical resistance, resistance, living, winter, icy, resilience, and mind resistance

weapon: rage+ruin+enhanced OR massacre OR disruption OR quick OR blazebringer's(11% speed) OR truestriking OR shearing; backup primary lesser egos include phasing and dampening, and if you have 3 lesser egos, balanced
competing endgame artifacts include:

the butcher: if you're antimagic, then this'll keep your equilibrium down with the swallows, and heal you some to boot; otherwise, this is a very powerful offensive weapon since it comes with its own execute(even if it's nature dmg), and it gives you rampages too
however, undead characters won't get the swallows, but it's still pretty good if you're undead, though not as good for them as a fonted randart

witch-bane:
this amazing weapon gives you +15% to all resistances except physical, an extra +15% blight resistance, +50 manaburn dmg, and a 25% chance on hit to mana clash(lvl 1); it'll also grant +6 cun/will and lower the cds of antimagic zone and mana clash by 2 turns, and it has 20% base crit chance
however, it'll do less than this stuff if you're anti-magic, so it's not that great if you aren't antimagic
so basically, any spellcaster that you hit with this will lose their sustains, and it'll give you high defenses against everything else, but otherwise, this won't actually hit too hard, so you might wanna pair this with a defensive shield and have a pure offense weapon+shield in your offset
that, and it can only be found in the west, including the charred scar event after eruan, so most characters won't ever find one

razorblade, the cursed waraxe:
this weapon's base power is low, but it makes up for it with its damage type of physical bleed, which is physical, except all attacks deal an extra 50% damage as bleed damage
it also comes with very high armor penetration, +40 accuracy, and +30% physical resistance penetration
just note that the usefulness of this weapon will be greatly diminished if you get more than a few points into lacerating strikes; this'll mean that the extra damage from the physical bleed damage type will, well... for example, going from 100->150% means +50% dmg, but going from 151->201% means +~33% dmg

blade of distorted time:
this is the best weapon in the game if you stacked magic, but even if you only have 10 total magic, it'll still be a solid weapon
this weapon's base power is low, but it has +20% out of phase, +30% phys dmg, 40 armor pen, and blink blade on use on a 10 turn cd... and it has a gigantic slow on hit, though it checks your spellpower vs. the foe's physical save, so don't expect to apply it very often without some spellpower

morrigor:
this is only worthwhile if you maxed magic
this weapon's str scaling is only 60%, but it comes with 60% magic scaling, for a total scaling of 120%, which is HUGE for a 1h weapon
it also allows you to permanently copy an enemy's ability; popular choices include bone armor, unstoppable, burrow, and ghoulish leap
it also comes with some proc dmg on hit that scales with magic

now with that out of the way, these are the stats that you should otherwise prioritize:

VERY HIGH PRIORITY STATS:

armor:
you need armor to not die; it reduces damage taken by reducing the number next to the weapons on your enemy's tooltips by a maximum of your armor hardiness or your armor, whichever is lower

for example, a berserker doombringer eternal bone giant in rak'shor pride could be wielding a balanced voratun greatsword of vileness that says (210) next to it in the tooltip
that 210 means that you need exactly 210 armor before armor penetration to make that weapon's weapon damage deal 0 damage to you
or if you have 105 armor, then that means that that enemy will deal halved weapon damage to you with that weapon
however, basically all enemies have some amount of armor penetration
that heavy bone giant has 14 armor penetration, and you have 210 armor
that means that the heavy bone giant will still deal damage to you as if the (210) next to its weapon in its tooltip said (14) instead, which'll make it deal 210/14=1/30th of normal weapon damage to you; however, if you had 224 armor, then the heavy bone giant would instead deal 0 weapon damage to you

so armor is a very, very important stat for bulwarks(and every other class that doesn't stack defense, including even builds with 30% hardiness), especially since bulwarks can afford to get alot of it due to shield wall and their shield

you'll want 40-50 armor to survive in the mid-T1s, which is no problem at all for a bulwark; on a side note, you can easily kill ben cruthdar at lvl 4 or 5 unless you get really bad RNG... the sooner you kill im, the more xp and good loot you'll get outta the T1s
you'll want as much armor as possible to start out the T2s, but begin prioritizing other stats once you have 90 of it
in the mid-T2s, you'll wanna have 90-120 armor
in the T3 dungeons, you're gonna wanna have 120-150 armor
starting in reknor, you're gonna wanna have a bit more armor; 135-165 should do you fine
once you begin doing the prides, you're gonna want even more armor; try to get at least 150 armor by then, but don't bother going above 200 unless you want more damage from earthen fury or you're doing a special pride vault in grushnak or gorbat
before you enter high peak, make sure you have at least 200 armor, or else you're probably gonna die when some crazy randboss with 300 weapon damage and some armor pen death dances crits you for 3k damage, or a marauder summoner urivellias with >100 armor pen rips you to shreds with its psiblades(which almost happened to me once), nevermind its summons

furthermore, since shields of earthen fury deal bonus dmg on hit equal to your armor, and that bonus damage gets increased by its accuracy bonus to up to +200%, armor is also a pretty good offensive stat, especially vs. enemies that have 170+ armor


physical resistance:
the armor substitute, this'll make almost everything deal less weapon damage to you since almost nothing has physical resistance penetration outside of their gear, furnace, or the orc racial, and the ones that do rarely have much of it, and most weapon attacks deal physical damage
you may allow your armor to get lower according to 70-80% of your physical resistance, but don't let it get much lower than that, or else
speaking of which, this is how classes with no armor training or defense survive in the lategame against enemies that deal high amounts of weapon damage, especially after adding in some armor, though only some since that's all they can get until their 30% armor hardiness becomes a substantial problem


block value:
once you get eternal guard up & running, block value basically means flat damage reduction
an endgame bulwark will have 400-600 block value, which'll turn most rare, unique, and randboss enemies into cannon fodder
get as much block value as possible until you have ~400 of it, after which point it'll become a high priority stat
if you stack strength like you should be, then it should be relatively easy to get 400 block value since shield wall gives so much block value


resist all:
even better than physical resistance, this reduces all damage taken by that percentage, which essentially increases your maximum hp and increases the effectiveness of all of your heals & shields, as well as the effectiveness of your block value
for example, if you have 70% blight resistance including resist all, and something with 15% blight resistance penetration hits you with a 5k catalepsy crit with 210% critmult, and you were blocking and have 450 block value and 30% critshrug, then that catalepsy crit will deal just 1286 damage, allowing you to actually survive the attack if you were above half hp, after which you can heal up and get right back into combat


water breathing:
keep a hat or armor(preferably a hat) with this around so you can breathe in the lake of nur & the flooded cave
you might be able to do the lake of nur without this
otherwise, this is useless, so only wear this if you're in the lake of nur/flooded cave/a naga invasion portal


no longer have to breathe:
like waterbreathing, except it also lets you get trapped in the sand in sandworm lair, and it means that various enemies can't strangle you to death
this is useless unless you can't breathe
follow the same advice for wearing this as for water breathing, but also feel free to slip it on if something is strangling you to death and you can't get away from it


dig speed:
this isn't actually that important, but you don't need to keep your fastest pickaxe equipped to dig with it; it only needs to be in your inventory
once your dig speed reaches 14 turns(or maybe 15?), you'll be able to dig in the sandworm lair without the sandworms helping you


+combat training mastery:
this item property will give you some accuracy, substantially increase your main hand weapon's damage, give you a few resist all, and give you a bit more armor & crit reduction, provided that you have enough points into the 4 talents that you'll want in that category
that, and items that have this tend to also have other things; this is a very powerful item property, but it's definitely possible to find items better than those that give you this if you get lucky
that said, if you unlocked the font, then you'd better make sure that your cloak has battlemaster's on it


+stamina per turn:
some rare items & randarts spawn with +2 or +3 stamina per turn on them
make sure you have one of these equipped, but after you reach a total +3 stamina per turn from gear, this'll become a negligible stat
it's also a negligible stat if you're antimagic, since you should get all the stamina you'll ever need from having 1 point in resolve and second wind


+stamina when hit:
this'll basically means that you'll never run outta stamina; this is only important if you're not antimagic
this always comes with +equilibrium when hit, which makes it even better


+equilibrium when hit:
having enough of this will basically mean that you can afford to have 1 point in ancestral life instead of 5, since you can use this instead of that to prevent antimagic shield from popping
of course, this is negligible if you aren't antimagic
however, with antimagic, this is negligible before you're finished with the T2 dungeons; before then, the 1 equilibrium when hit from resolve will be enough to prevent antimagic shield from popping with 5 points into antimagic shield


boots of phasing or armor of the void:
these boots or dream walk, or another such means of teleportation that doesn't require an enemy as a target, are required to enter otherwise-inaccessible areas in the assassin tunnels, alt maze and the illusory castle, seeing as how you can't dig in those zones
keep one on your person at all times, but don't wear it unless you don't have anything better or you wanna access such an area, or you really otherwise need to teleport for some reason
of course, boots of phasing are vastly preferable to armor of the void, but sometimes, you'll just have to take what you can get


HIGH PRIORITY STATS:

bladed metal helms of the bounder:
this isn't actually a stat, but it's still important
once you've maxed out your strength(provided that you have ICCTW), these hats will deal a fuckton of physical damage when you activate their skullcracker charm, especially with counterstrike up; these can easily become your most powerful move if you stack strength
that and the egos give you some dex and alotta str to boot
one of my insane rl bulwark winners have >250 strength and a bunch of critmult with pretty good +phys dmg, so he's able to land 40k skullcrackers with counterstrike up, and that's before lacerating strikes from his thief escorts!(and the potential to get nuked by an 8k/turn misdirectioned bleed)
that, and skullcracker ignores armor
anyway, you won't have to worry about these until you find a bladed randart hat of the bounder, or you font one up

shields of earthen fury:
this isn't actually a stat either, but it's still important
this shield ego will make the shield have more armor, and make your shield attacks deal proc damage equal to your armor, which then gets boosted by your shield's accuracy bonus
since bulwarks typically have alot of armor, this means that this ego will add a very large amount of damage to your attacks; if you have 200 armor with +100% physical dmg and 80 or more accuracy, then your shield attacks vs. counterstriked targets will deal an extra 1200 damage per hit(ignoring the enemy's armor), which is nothing to laugh at, especially when most of your shield dmg abilities are multi-hit or AoE moves and you have greater weapon focus active
that said, these and skullcracker hats can be used to kill enemies that have gigantic amounts of armor, provided that their physical resistance isn't also stopping you

gloves with good chance-on-glove-hit effects that deal a percentage of weapon damage(or spellhunt remnants):
this isn't actually a stat either, but it's still important... but only if you take flexible combat
basically, this is what makes flexible combat be super - overpowered
if you don't have flexible combat, however, then these effects are all negligible

speaking of spellhunt remnants, these are pretty good at T5 without flexible combat, but only pretty good; since you're probably gonna be antimagic if you're wearing these, the quest-buffed mana clash is gonna be easier to remove magical sustains with, and spellhunts will only serve to %(!* casters extra hard with the spell disruption effect
of course, if you have a weapon of disruption, then the usefulness of T5 spellhunts is gonna be relatively low either way

mind resistance:
mind damage is the one kind of damage that you can't block, so you're gonna wanna have a decent amount of this
you should be able to get away with having low or no mind resistance, however, but you're gonna have to prioritize killing guys that deal mind damage if you do
note that all mind damage, bar that from sunder mind, allows you to make a mental save against it to take half damage before all other means of damage reduction, so having a high mental save can be a substitute for mind resistance

accuracy:
you need this to hit stuff in the first place when counterstrike isn't up
when counterstrike is up, however, you'll only need this to get the most out of your accuracy bonuses
exactly 80 of this is all you'll ever need to hit the hard accuracy bonus caps while counterstrike is up; any more accuracy will be wasted when counterstrike is up, but it'll be nice to have when it ain't up

dexterity:
dexterity gives you accuracy, defense, and critshrug, and it also makes greater weapon focus have a higher proc chance, and makes riposte & precise strikes better, and it makes last stand give more armor & defense, and it makes shield wall give more armor and block value
this makes dexterity be a better offensive stat than cunning, and it's also a defensive stat to boot
strength is better, however

strength:
strength makes you hit harder, so this is a very good way to boost your damage
it also makes it easier to apply debuffs with physical power, and it lets you carry more stuff without being encumbered
it also makes shield wall give you more armor & block value

weapon damage:
this refers to the damage listed in your character sheet for each weapon
the more of this you have, the harder you'll hit, and the more armor you can afford for your enemies to have without you being able to hurt them with weapon damage
an important way to get more of this is by making sure that your weapons have a high base power stat

+physical power:
this makes you hit harder; 1 effective physical power(as opposed to 1 raw physical power) is almost half as valuable as +1 strength is
physical power is used by various abilities of yours to apply debuffs, iirc(or is accuracy used instead?), so you might wanna make sure that your physical power isn't low

+%physical damage:
since all of your damage is physical, this stat is very good, but unlike strength, it'll only help so much if the enemy has enough armor to negate most of your weapon damage

+%physical resistance penetration:
since all of your damage is physical, you'll kinda need this if you wanna hit hard vs. enemies that have physical resistance
most people would tell you that you need to get this to 60-70%, but you don't actually need that much since most enemies don't have much physical resistance; just 15-30% should do you fine until you run into something that's really hard to deal damage to, in which case you can just kill everything else that's attacking you and then swap out some physpen gear from your inventory to kill it since bulwarks are so beefy that they can actually get away with doing that

+%resall penetration:
like physical resistance penetration, except it's marginally better since it also affects the bits of miscellaneous proc damage and thorns damage that you probably have

armor penetration:
this basically increases your "weapon damage", described under armor, but only vs. enemies that have enough armor to not make however much of this stat be redundant
you don't strictly need any of this since you could just get more str instead, but the more the better

+attack speed:
you'll need at least +10% across this & global speed before you can use precise strikes without it being counter-productive; otherwise, it's only so useful since your cooldowns will tick just as fast, and your bumps don't hit nearly as hard as your activated abilities do

+global speed:
same as attack speed, except it's better since it also makes you do everything else faster, and it stacks multiplicatively with attack speed & movespeed

physical crit chance:
you need this to perform critical strikes without using assault; tons of your damage will come from this, but note that you'll get alot of this from maxing riposte, and eventually precise strikes

critmult:
critmult makes your crits hit harder
obviously, critmult isn't very good until you have high physical crit, but once you do, it's amazing

shrug off critical hits:
this stat will subtract the displayed percentage from the critmult of your enemies when they crit you, to a minimum of non-critical damage, so this stat is pretty good until you hit 50%, after which it becomes a medium priority stat

crit reduction:
this stat will subtract the displayed percentage from all of your enemies' crit chances when they attempt to crit you; this rare stat, iirc, only exists on borfast's cage & heavy armor training, which makes borfast's cage a be very good artifact until you find a good T5 artifact or a great randart

+%healmod:
if you're antimagic or run at least 3 of a combination of regen/healing infusions, or you have blood splash or love healing salves, healmod will make these and vitality be far more effective; note that it has a hard cap of +250%
otherwise, this'll be a medium priority stat

stun/confusion/disarm immunity:
until you've got unflinching resolve up & running, which shouldn't be till your low-30s or mid-30s, you're gonna wanna have some or alot of these
after that, however, these'll become medium priority stats

lowered spell cooldowns:
this is only important if you're using runes; this'll reduce the cooldowns of your runes, which is pretty useful, as well as the cooldowns of all of your racial talents that count as spells(except timeless), which is even better
otherwise, this stat is worthless

extra heals & shields:
having extra heals & shields, such as time shield from a shield of patience, a healing totem, or earthen beads can go a long way towards keeping you alive; you can't always just run away from combat, even if you have 2 movement infusions, 2 blink runes, and a steam generator with rocket boots or a teleporation rune
however, since all such heals & shields except for totems, wands, and belts of shielding scale with mindpower or spellpower, you'll only get so much mileage out of mindpower/spellpower-based heals & shields
this has a much higher priority if you're a ghoul and don't have salves since your only sources of healing outside of gear will be retch and vitality

extra debuff removals:
removing some crippling debuff while your wild infusions and/or shatter runes and/or salves are on cooldown can be crucial to your survival... in some cases
however, using a clear mind torque against a reaver rogue weaver young in the ruined dungeon won't do you much good, so be mindful of how often you actually need such an item vs. how close enemies that don't care about it take you to death

+mastery to shield offense, shield defense, or antimagic:
these'll make every talent in that category be substantially better, but I'll let you compare how the numbers are with and without them; you should be able to make your own determination here
as for antimagic itself, increasing the damage reduction from antimagic shield is reason alone to boost the entire category
just remember that riposte gives a 4th counterstrike per debuff at lvl 9

"ice" damage when hit:
this is cold damage with a chance to freeze, which is extremely powerful; it's found on icy shields
block value & earthen fury are better, though


MEDIUM PRIORITY STATS:

weapons of disruption:
this is an extremely powerful weapon ego against spellcasters, which has the amazing power to make up to 50% of their spells fail, causing them to skip a turn; it can use your accuracy to check the foe's saving throws, so you can actually apply this against mages
however, it's useless vs. enemies that don't cast spells, so consider not using such a weapon unless you're about to fight or are fighting a particularly powerful spellcaster, such as celia

blind-fight:
this makes you not care about the 50% chance for your attacks to miss vs. enemies that you can't see, such as stealthed or invisible enemies that you can't see, or everything if you're blinded
it also makes you not need perfect strikes outside of straw-grasping situations
however, only T1 artifact amulet and a T4 artifact hat have this, as well as a head tinker that's really good; I'll let you decide whether or not you should get blind-fight if you manage to get access to it at all

other resistances:
see resist all
blight resistance will become a very high priority stat while doing the antimagic arena, so consider putting some robes on when you walk into zigur to do the arena
after that, blight resistance will become a medium priority stat again
in specific zones, specific resistances will go from medium priority stats to high priority stats, or if you're on normal, they might become very high priority stats instead in that zone since you won't have many rares or any randbosses/uniques to worry about
it's ideal for most of your resistances to be at least 50% by high peak, but you just can't always make that happen without skimping out on more important stuff

affinities:
these are like resistances, except they don't protect you from being oneshotted, and they're affected by healmod, and they stack with resistances; take that as you will

+hp:
if you have more hp, then you'll be able to wait longer before having to heal, you'll be able to survive more burst dmg, and you'll be able to take advantage of bigger heals, and you'll more easily be able to afford to wait for regen infusions and/or vitality to kick in
however, bulwarks get +6 life rating, so you generally won't need +hp gear unless you're a yeek

die at negative hp:
like +hp, except it doesn't boost the hp granted by vitality, last stand, battle shout, and if you're a skeleton, re-assemble, and bone armor's shield
this is slightly less valuable than max hp for that reason

constitution:
it gives you more hp, as well as a bit of healmod and a tiny amount of physical save, and it makes vitality, unflinching resolve, and last stand better too

+life regen:
this is only good on an item if it gives you alot of it, and only for fights that last long enough for it to be useful
of course, this'll get boosted by your healmod
this stat is extra good if you primarily rely on shield/shatter runes over regen/healing infusions to defend yourself since you'll have more opportunities to safely take advantage of hp regen

silence immunity:
this'll make sure you can use your runes & warcries, but that's it; it's fairly important if you run alotta runes, but if you've only got one or two, then this'll be a low priority stat, if not a negligible one
in fact, even for skeletons/ghouls/whitehooves, this is a borderline-low priority-stat as it is

movement speed:
most people will bend head over heels for this stat, but in my opinion, unless you have at least +100% of it, it's overrated, and you don't simply get +100% move speed when step up ain't active
if you have less than 200% movespeed, then you aren't guaranteed to be able to move 2 tiles away in 1 turn to LoS that super dangerous rare guy that's 9 tiles away from you; you might die if you try doing it
similarly, if you have less than 200% movespeed, then if you try to move 1 tile away from that sawbutcher arcane blade wretch titan standing next to you while a bloated horror and skeleton magus are within LoS and you're at low hp, then there's a chance that you'll get to move that tile before they all do anything, and then heal up while the wretch titan takes a step, but there's also a chance that the bloated horror will kill you with mind sear when you move that single tile instead
that, and most super dangerous melee enemies, should you actually have a problem with those, will typically have movement options beyond just having 100% movement speed in case you decide to run from them
that said, movespeed is definitely good to have, but it's not super - amazing like most people make it out to be unless you have at least +100% of it; either you get the effective extra turn you need and you live, or you don't and you die, until your movespeed hits +100% or higher
please correct me if I'm wrong about the situations that I described

cut/poison/disease immunity:
these aren't much good unless you have alot of it
if you actually have alot of it, then they're great; speaking of which, second skin is the preferred defensive body armor tinker unless you're undead or a thaloren
poison immunity is a high priority stat for ghouls until they hit 100% poison immunity

-%dmg from un-natural:
this is a nice stat to have, but you shouldn't rely on it to stay alive; it acts as resist all vs. "un-natural" enemies

+mastery to conditioning:
it's very useful for vitality to heal for more and make wounds/poisons/diseases even shorter, and for unflinching resolve to cleanse debuffs more often, and for daunting presence to make nearly everything hit you even softer


LOW PRIORITY STATS:

physical save:
since bulwarks get to have 60 physical save from maxing con, having a ton of str, and even more from shield expertise, bulwarks can actually resist a large number of physical debuffs, at least until high peak
for dwarves, this'll instead be a medium priority stat
you won't be able to manage to get enough that it's not worth having more; not unless you're gimping yourself to do it, at least

defense:
defense is only useful until you get eternal guard
until then, defense will be of some use around 20 in the T1s, and of good use in the T1s and decent use in T2s at the 40s, but don't expect to get more than that
after you get eternal guard, well; if an enemy misses you, then you won't block the attack, which means that counterstrike won't trigger, which means that you'll deal alot less damage
so never go out of your way to get defense; speaking of which, if you max dex as your 2nd stat, then you'll be more likely to have enough defense to interfere with your counterstrikes in the mid-game

miscellaneous damage-dealing procs that I haven't mentioned:
it really depends on how much damage these things do, but procs like the big ones from shields of shrapnel or winter, and wrathful shields, for example are really good in the T1 dungeons, but they're merely okay in the T2 dungeons, and after that, they really just aren't very good
and as for procs like the cold dmg from chilling weapons or the fire dmg from cinder gloves, these are of very limited usefulness after the mid-T1s unless you get alot of it, in which case it'll be useful into the late T1s, or possibly the early T2s if you find enough of it, but that's about it
a special note for weapons of projection; although these are definitely nice to have, they can only proc once per turn, they don't care about your +physical dmg or physical resistance penetration, and they'll basically always hit for half damage since all mind damage lets you make a mental save against it to take half damage, and you probably won't have much mindpower to use it with

miscellaneous debuffing procs:
you should keep around a decent weapon of evisceration in case you run into an enemy that likes healing alot, and you're having a hard time killing it because of that
weapons of crippling and the slow from shields of crushing are nice to have because they make enemies perform less actions while you're busy killing them, but only after you hit(and crit) them; crippling weapons won't do much when 8+ guys are wailing on you all at once unless alot of them are adjacent to you, in which case you can hit them with repulsion
procs that mindpower or spellpower to work in the first place are basically worthless after the T1s if you don't have any mindpower or spellpower, so for example, plaguebringer's weapons of corruption won't be of much use come the T2 dungons
however, having a chance on hit to slow your enemies or reduce the damage that they deal can can be of limited use, but only when you hit an enemy and it actually procs; that and it scales with mindpower, so it won't be so as effective if you're not antimagic
determine the value of other debuffing procs as you will

+max stamina:
this makes you take longer to run out of stamina, and it lets you afford more points into second wind without it taking you over your maximum stamina
while it's always nice to have more of this, you don't really need this

-%fatigue:
this'll make you use less resources to use your abilities, so it's like having a bonus to max stamina and stamina regen
that, and it also makes you use less psi
of course, this'll be completely worthless if you get I can carry the world!

other thorns damage:
thorns damage, as in damage that automatically and instantly gets dealt whenever an enemy hits you with a melee attack; while it's definitely nice to have, its usefulness is very low unless you have a ton of it

mindpower:
this is kinda useful if you're running fungus; it'll make fungal growth give you even longer regen infusions and make ancestral life give you more %turn gain, but that's about it

willpower:
this is basically a combination of +max stamina and +mindpower, and it also gives a tiny bit of mental save & spell save
more importantly, it also makes antimagic shield take longer to pop
if you get both elemental harmony and antimagic shield, then you're gonna need alotta willpower from gear to prevent antimagic shield from popping, which makes this a high priority stat
but otherwise, this'll be a low priority stat, antimagic or not

cunning:
this gives you a bit of phys/mind/spell/steam crit, a bit of mental save, and +1 steampower per point
while it's definitely nice to have, you can just treat it as physical crit; +3 cunning is perhaps as valuable as +1% physical crit
if you're running salves, however, then hoard as much steampower gear, and therefore cunning gear, as possible; this is because salves scale off of steampower, but only the steampower that you had when you crafted them

steampower:
this lets you craft better salves; salves only account for the steampower you had when you crafted them, so you can have 0 steampower from your equipment, and then you can slap on +50 steampower from equipment to craft salves, and then you can take off your +50 steampower equipment
after taking the gear off, your salves will still be improved as if you were still wearing that +50 steampower gear, and putting it back on won't make a difference, nor will wearing even more steampower gear; again, it only considers how much steampower you had when crafting the item

damage shield penetration:
while it's definitely nice to be able to kill enemies that throw up a bone armor for 900 when they have 10% hp left, you won't need it outside of niche situations; it regardless is nice to have
feel free to keep a bit of damage shield penetration gear on your person, but don't go out of your way to equip it unless it's to end a standstill

light radius:
this lets you see stuff without having to get closer to it to find out what it is
it can be useful to assess threats without having to run up to their faces, and for exploring the sandworm lair
but that's about it
make sure you have at least 6 of this or infravision radius, or 3 in the earlygame, or else you're gonna have trouble reacting to your surroundings
this becomes a very high priority stat in the sandworm lair; try to get at least 6 in there
iirc, if you get more than 10 light radius, then it'll also increase your vision radius to that amount

infravision radius:
it's light radius, except it only sees enemies and not terrain, so take that as you will
your light radius will be effectively increased to 25% of your infravision radius if your actual light radius is lower, allowing you to see the parts of the map within 25% of your infravision radius, with a minimum of a 1 tile radius

vision radius:
this lets you take advantage of your 5th point into rush to rush at enemies from range 11, which will generally mean that the enemies won't notice you until after you rush them, or that you'll be out of range of everything that the enemy has until you rush them
just be careful doing that, however, since there might be extra enemies near them that you aren't aware of yet
that aside, vision radius lets you assess threats more easily, provided adequate lighting to work with

+stealth/invisibility detection:
these let you concealed creatures more easily, which helps you hit them
however, if you have a source of blind-fight and know what tile they're on, then you can just hit them no matter how low your stealth/invisibility detection is

+trap detection:
this lets you detect traps, which helps you to not step on them
without this stat, you can know where traps are anyway; whenever a trap gets placed on the floor, you'll see a little purple dot explosion where it was placed, which'll then go away forever
so this isn't a very useful stat, but it's not completely useless either

-%dmg from unseen enemies:
this stat is very useful... if you can't see what's hitting you
however, not being able to see something that's hitting you is pretty bad, so take that as you will

-%dmg from summons:
this is very useful against summons if your other resistances are low, seeing as how summoner summons can hit very hard
otherwise, don't bother

+%dmg vs. summons:
this is great if you hate summoned creatures; otherwise, don't bother with it

chance on hit/when hit to gain 10% of a turn:
this stat is doled out in such low amounts that you should never go out of your way to get this; it's really, really unreliable

+mastery to other categories that you have points in:
while this is definitely nice to have, you probably shouldn't go out of your way to get this
note that step up completely ignores your mastery, and only considers your raw talent point investment

knockback immunity:
while it's definitely nice to have this, it's not really worth going out of your way to get it, even vs. enemies that have onslaught
and if it is, then you can lug the item around and equip it when you're fighting that guy to save you some frustration

various on-use effects:
determine the value of these as you will; just be sure to consider what I said about skullcracker hats


VERY LOW PRIORITY OR WORTHLESS STATS:

mental save:
unless you're a dwarf, you'll never get enough of this for it to be worth it
however, in the T1 dungeons, more saves are always useful since enemies only have so much acc/physpower/mindpower/spellpower by then, so it's a low priority stat until the T2s
note that all mind damage allows you to make a mental save against it to take half damage, and that you can't block mind damage, nor will antimagic shield protect you from it, so mental save is pretty useful to have if you have alot of it
as such, this'll become a medium priority stat if you have 50+ of it, but otherwise, it's basically negligible
dwarves treat this as a medium priority stat either way

spell save:
unless you're a dwarf, you'll never get enough of this for it to be worth it unless you max spell shield
however, in the T1 dungeons, more saves are always useful since enemies only have so much acc/physpower/mindpower/spellpower by then, so it's a low priority stat until the T2s
but even then, you're better off spending your class points on other stuff if you're not a dwarf
dwarves treat this as a medium priority stat

+maximum encumbrance:
this lets you carry more stuff without being immobilized by encumbrance, which normally is of particular concern after an enemy reduces your strength
however, since you should be stacking strength anyway, this shouldn't be an issue for you unless you like carrying a ton of stuff and don't have I can carry the world!

+size category:
all this does is make less brawlers be able to grapple you; they can't grapple you if you're too much bigger than them
if you're an ogre, then it still won't do anything else since you won't be ogrewielding

+luck:
luck gives you a tiny bit of crit chance, accuracy, defense, and all saves, and as of recently, it also gives you a tiny chance to deflect projectiles
it also gives you a tiny chance to avoid taking damage from your own AoE effects(not that you'd care about that), it gives you a tiny chance to make an ambush on the world map be harmless after you bump into it, and it increases the chance that you can apologize to ukllmswwuik for siding with slasul if you so choose, though you should be killing both of them anyway for the loot & xp unless you want legacy of the naloren for some reason

+def/resall/debuff duration reduction after teleporting:
since bulwarks don't have any innate teleports, this is basically useless under normal circumstances
if you have a blink rune, it becomes a low priority stat, or possibly a medium priority stat if you have 2 of them
but if you have blade of distorted time with device mastery, then this'll become a very-high-priority stat

all other stats:
while more stats are definitely nice to have, the stats that I haven't mentioned, such as +magic, aren't worth going out of your way for... or I forgot that they existed

Thanks for the informative guide! I've been thinking of making an ogre-wielding bullwark that maximises the use of the auto-crits from low-cd assault with a big 2h weapon, but after realizing that GWF hits count as procs I dont think its a very good idea anymore (due to the dmg reduction).

When reading about the preferred egos you mention skullcracker ignoring armor but how did you determine this? The code for skullcracker calls the "attackTargetWith()" function, which accounts for target armor within it afaik. Why do you think it ignores armor?