ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I want to play a tanky caster, but don't have a whole lot unlocked yet(My longest surviving character's hit all of lvl.14. Died to Urkis, I think). :/

So, if I were to go Mindstar/shield Wyrmic or something, how would I go about it? What would I want to go for in skills? My attempts so far have ended badly(Probably because I focus on the first poison skill, and it has a longish CD). >.>;

Erp. Entirely forgot Stone Wardens existed. Haven't tried one since I started, lol.

Since I can't remove the topic, I guess I'll try SWs, and see if this topic gets anyone more experienced to pop in and answer my questions. :3

Don't go to Urkis at level 14. Not on any character.

Sun paladin would probably be a candidate for a tanky caster but you need to go to East and finish a quest there first (and that's gonna happen at level 30 and beyond).

Archmages can be unlocked easily and eventually tank extremely well because of their shields (without them, however, they are fragile as paper).

Neither of the aforementioned use mindstars (I guess wizards can if they find a nice short staff but it's probably pretty rare)

Mankeli wrote:Don't go to Urkis at level 14. Not on any character.

Sun paladin would probably be a candidate for a tanky caster but you need to go to East and finish a quest there first (and that's gonna happen at level 30 and beyond).

Archmages can be unlocked easily and eventually tank extremely well because of their shields (without them, however, they are fragile as paper).

Neither of the aforementioned use mindstars (I guess wizards can if they find a nice short staff but it's probably pretty rare)

Yeah...Urkis wrecked my Bulwark pretty bad, lawl.

And I'd honestly really, REALLY love to play Sun Paladins. Totally love the crusader type, but as you've said, that's a ways off. x3

As for Archmages, I do have them, yeah. Was actually considering running a cold-themed tanky Archmage, but apparently the Ice tree's a pain to get. x3

As for Mindstars...not really needed, I guess, I've just never used them. Always thought they were basically the magic 1h equivalent of staves(Except nature powered)

Mindstars boost mind power, not spell power. They're best for psychic or nature classes. If you check the shops in Zigur, you'll find a trainer who can unlock the Mindstar Mastery tree (a similar trainer in Angolwen teaches Staff Combat); arcane classes can't get to Zigur barring shenanigans, so there's rarely a reason for them to use mindstars.

Wyrmics, on the other hand, can use mindstars well enough. The Venom Drake tree is pretty caster-y, being more Mindpower-based than the other trees. You can't dump Strength for Willpower by any means, but going with a hybrid playstyle and taking Superpower... I'd be interested to hear how it turned out.

Huge advantage for Wyrmics is that they start with Fungus unlocked, while every other class needs to go antimagic and kill Urkis first. That alone gives them a ton of staying power. My own first winner was a sword-and-shield regen tank Wyrmic; by the end of the game, only Cleansing Flames, Impending Doom, and Curse of Death could threaten him.

Of course, the ultimate tanky caster is the Oozemancer, but you're nowhere near unlocking that yet, and it can be downright cheesy at times.

Mewtarthio wrote:Mindstars boost mind power, not spell power. They're best for psychic or nature classes. If you check the shops in Zigur, you'll find a trainer who can unlock the Mindstar Mastery tree (a similar trainer in Angolwen teaches Staff Combat); arcane classes can't get to Zigur barring shenanigans, so there's rarely a reason for them to use mindstars.

Wyrmics, on the other hand, can use mindstars well enough. The Venom Drake tree is pretty caster-y, being more Mindpower-based than the other trees. You can't dump Strength for Willpower by any means, but going with a hybrid playstyle and taking Superpower... I'd be interested to hear how it turned out.

Huge advantage for Wyrmics is that they start with Fungus unlocked, while every other class needs to go antimagic and kill Urkis first. That alone gives them a ton of staying power. My own first winner was a sword-and-shield regen tank Wyrmic; by the end of the game, only Cleansing Flames, Impending Doom, and Curse of Death could threaten him.

Of course, the ultimate tanky caster is the Oozemancer, but you're nowhere near unlocking that yet, and it can be downright cheesy at times.

Oh, derp. Shows how much I've used Mindstars. :V

I tried to use the venom drake tree, but at least early on it was sorta lame, since the first venom drake skill has along cd and it was the only caster ability I started with. Seems like all the later breaths are based on strength, too, so it'd probably have to be a hybrid, yeah. That was probably my mistake, actually. :3

Early on it might be more useful to use a conventional weapon.

If you want to make a caster-y wyrmic, Starkeep has written a fantastic, simple addon that adds Willpower scaling to all Wyrmic breaths and the whole Fire Drake tree (note that the willpower scaling is slower than strength scaling)

malboro_urchin wrote:If you want to make a caster-y wyrmic, Starkeep has written a fantastic, simple addon that adds Willpower scaling to all Wyrmic breaths and the whole Fire Drake tree (note that the willpower scaling is slower than strength scaling)

Ooh...interesting. I'll look into it. x3