Mindstar Mastery Anti Magic....Stone Warden

[devilindupriest]

So, I wanted to see if I could, and sure enough you can pull the point out of Elderitch Shield and then train anti-magic. Oddly enough, you can then later train the arcane abilities, but I've been avoiding that out of a sense of fair play. I'm up to level 18 or so and it's not terrible. Not great, either. I think I don't really understand mindstars/psi-blades whatever these things are for one thing. I can't even say for sure if it feels like I'm doing more damage than I had been with shields just bumping into mobs.

Anyway, here he is so far:

http://te4.org/characters/111990/tome/f ... 82fb915283

I'm debating what to do with his category points as I get them, already been sitting on this 1 for a fairly long time so far. I'm thinking once I get around to Sandworm Lair I'll take Harmony, although I've still got Thick Skin and Power of Money, plus Anti-Magic Shield itself to raise. And at least 3 points into Mindstar, I think, to go 5/1/1/1. And then there's Fungal if I survive that far. Hmm. And Mana Clash.

[ghostbuster]

You can pick eldritch talents and it is not cheating while being AM. But, IMO, it is not at all a good idea. AM will give a 30% spell fail meaning that you cannot use sustained talents and activated ones are 1/ 30% weaker on the average and 2/ completely unreliable (which is worse).

To be completely honest, I do not think that it was a good idea to go AM while playing a warden. You cannot use his magical abilities, which are one of the interest of the class, and, as you are using mindstars, you cannot benefit form his shield related talents.
So, I really do not know what advise I can give you now...

[ZyZ]

Eldritch shield tree uses both equilibrium and mana so maybe it is not a bug after all.

What about crystaline half earthen missiles ? They should be blocked by antimagic so basically you are trading one great tree (Dwarven nature) for fungus. Im not so sure if this is a good trade

ps. imho skip harmony You can always switch to one shield (with harmony ego, they are quite common) when you need 'water of life'. Elemental harmony sustain cost is quite high and you already have 4 sustains to choose from (am shield, psi blades, shards, eldrich infusion)

[Mewtarthio]

You can pick eldritch talents and it is not cheating while being AM. But, IMO, it is not at all a good idea. AM will give a 30% spell fail meaning that you cannot use sustained talents and activated ones are 1/ 30% weaker on the average and 2/ completely unreliable (which is worse).

Spell failure only applies to wielding arcane-disrupting equipment. If you go full-fledged Zigur, you cannot use magic at all. You are, in essence, permanently silenced.

[devilindupriest]

Well, I've never made it to anywhere near the end game, highest I've gotten before was a regular stonewarden to 33 or some such. But I have to say, the....purity of focus that not putting any points into 6 out of 10 class trees, and the mono-maniacal focus of will/cunning for psi-blades has made him something of a force of nature at the mid twenties. vines are doing 100+ damage to everything they hit, vine nuke is over 300, and I STILL don't understand mindstars, but somehow they're doing solid 200s, and feel significantly faster at killing than my 33 did even with two of the shield attacks. If I did this again I would definitely take the advice to skip harmony, a bit of a one trick pony for a category point. Just got fungal as well, and not really sure it was needed. I've got access to 3 major heals if I wanted to buff them up, between vine heal, nature's touch, and psi-blade can heal too why not lol. (...I don't remember the actual names...) Off to Dreadfell at 26 having cleared most everything else on the mainland. Wish me luck (or unlocks at the least).

Anyway, basically the reason for all this was even at it's best a vine/shield build felt kind of slow and dumpy against hardened bosses, anti-magic, fungal, and harmony were just something I took just because, the real reason was I wanted to try mindstars and see if I could game an increase in damage out of them in exchange for giving up the pair of mediocre damage shields (shards, ..eldritch infusion?) and a (admittedly not inconsequiential) bit of defense. So far it's working. With anti-magic filling in some gaps and the massive pumping into willpower (and focusing almost all gear to willpower since he doesn't need strength past equiping armor basically) he feels at least as tank-y as my previous highest stone warden and significantly zappier both solo and using the dwarves (which I admittedly skipped last time to save points for deep rock).

[AlexanderR]

I STILL don't understand mindstars, but somehow they're doing solid 200s, and feel significantly faster at killing than my 33 did even with two of the shield attacks.

Mindstars aren't for bump attacks. Their damage increases exponentially with mindstar level (which is why bump-attacking with 1-tier mindstar is nearly suicidal), but their base damage is very low and thus total damage output is still worse, compared to sword+dagger combo. Main purpose of Mindstar Mastery is boosting your Wil/Cun. Get randart tier-5 mindstar with storms ego (+stats), make a set, enjoy huge boost to Cun/Wil/mindpower. Nature's Equilibrium (last talent in mindstar mastery tree) is primary source of damage: with Ancestral Life (Fungus tree sustain) it doesn't take turn, and it's cooldown can be reset with Nature's Balance (last talent of Call of the wild tree). Hit enemy with Nature's Equilibrium, optionally use couple of other wild-gifts, use Nature's Balance, cancel regen from Nature's Equilibrium, use it again. At least this is how my Oozemancers kills anything. At high mindpower values (around 100, easy to hit with Heroism and good mindstars) turn gain from Ancestral Life exceeds 120%, so you actually becomes faster by abusing regeneration effects.

[devilindupriest]

I STILL don't understand mindstars, but somehow they're doing solid 200s, and feel significantly faster at killing than my 33 did even with two of the shield attacks.

Mindstars aren't for bump attacks. Their damage increases exponentially with mindstar level (which is why bump-attacking with 1-tier mindstar is nearly suicidal), but their base damage is very low and thus total damage output is still worse, compared to sword+dagger combo. Main purpose of Mindstar Mastery is boosting your Wil/Cun. Get randart tier-5 mindstar with storms ego (+stats), make a set, enjoy huge boost to Cun/Wil/mindpower. Nature's Equilibrium (last talent in mindstar mastery tree) is primary source of damage: with Ancestral Life (Fungus tree sustain) it doesn't take turn, and it's cooldown can be reset with Nature's Balance (last talent of Call of the wild tree). Hit enemy with Nature's Equilibrium, optionally use couple of other wild-gifts, use Nature's Balance, cancel regen from Nature's Equilibrium, use it again. At least this is how my Oozemancers kills anything. At high mindpower values (around 100, easy to hit with Heroism and good mindstars) turn gain from Ancestral Life exceeds 120%, so you actually becomes faster by abusing regeneration effects.

Ah, nice! ....I seem to be bumping for 700+ now at level 34, though. I think I'm doing it wrong. Honestly, sometime shortly after my last post I...I don't know what I did right, actually. Just suddenly everything was like being level 9 in Trollmire with level 5 Stone Vines. I'm just running around willy-nilly slamming into stuff. Dreadfell, dead, The Master, dead and dead, Ambush, loldead. At this point I'm not even popping the bubble or the twins anymore.


ETA: I have no idea where I'm getting the massive lightning damage boost and lightning damage when hit from. Literally no idea. There's a few other combat values that appear to be redlined, but more possibly within the realm of stat over-abundance. I'm not sure if I broke something somehow or what.

ETAA: Just figured out how to pick prodigies. Took Superpower, although the fact that I could have unlocked Call of the Wild and had EVERY Wild Gift tree was REALLY tempting. Well, other than wyrmic and ooze. Meh.