SPEED KILLS: Advice Request

[Doctornull]

Here's my latest Adventurer concept, built around the idea that he goes really fast:
http://te4.org/characters/52902/tome/7f ... b6618e699b

His base global speed is 180%, and during a fight when he's on fire it leaps up to 221%. He double moves most opponents.

The core of the build is three trees worth of going fast:

Psi / Solipsism currently 5/1/5/0, planning on taking Dismissal eventually.
Spell / Temporal finished at 1/1/1/5, the huge Mana requirement for Essence of Speed dovetails nicely with the Solipsism benefits for high Willpower.
Wild / Harmony finished at 1/5/0/0, now if only there were a good way for a mage to set himself on fire...

The support trees are offense and support for being on fire:

Spell / Fire 5/3/2/0, planning to 5/5/5/? eventually, dunno if I need the Inferno talent.
Spell / Wildfire 2/1/5/5, planning to invest more in the first two talents, but dunno about specific priorities.
Psi / Absorption 1/1/1/3, might go 2/2/2/5 eventually, currently it's great for the extra weapon slot and for soaking up DoT effects, including my own Burning Wake.
Wild / Fungus 5/1/5/0, this makes Healing not cost a whole action, and that rocks. Being a Higher he's got an Instant regen effect so it's also a free turn every now and then.
Psi / Feedback 5/1/5/0 and done, this tree is cool but I'm not sure it's actually useful for this character.
Technique / Combat one point in Armor, and two floating points in Weapon Mastery since he's got a kickass greatsword in his psi slot. Nothing in Thick Skin yet, but I may 5/5 that if I don't give him Aether Permeation.
Spell / Staff Combat he picked up two points in Staff Mastery from a couple of Alchemist escorts, then bought the tree. If he were dual-staffing I'd probably assign more points to this, but...

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Equipment. This has been an odd run. Right now his favored weapon set is:
- Pink 1-handed staff (orc telepathy, +33% fire, silence on-hit, orc telepathy, some crit buffs, and orc telepathy)
- off-hand Amethyst of Absorption for the +0.2 mastery of Absorption
- tk weapon is Latafayn, for the +10% darkness (via Umbraphage) & +15% fire damage, on-hit 25 life drain, and the decent direct damage. The darkness affinity has been mildly useful but nothing to write home about.

Originally I'd intended the character to be a dual-staff build but according to my training dummy the three different weapons deliver a lot more melee damage. When I get a pile of tier 5 staves I'll reevaluate.

His footwear is either Aetherwalk or Shifting Boots, and the latter seems good because of the +0.1 mastery boost to Spell / Temporal (and thus Essence of Speed).

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Going forward. He's level 38, almost 39, and he's got sitting on 21 unused stat points, 2 class talent points, 1 cat point, 3 generic talent points, and an unused Prodigy. He's got 60/60 in Magic and Willpower, and put points in nothing else so far. He just qualified for Mental Tyranny, he qualifies for Temporal Form, and he has visited the demonic invasion portal so he could qualify for Aether Permeation if he wanted it. He can equipment shuffle to get pretty much any prodigy slot, and if he puts all 21 unspent stat points in Cunning, that hits 50 immediately.

For the cat point, and the extra cat point when he decides to consume the Wyrm Bile in his inventory, I'm thinking Wild / Antimagic -- the Antimagic Shield has great synergy with Absorption, but that would mean he won't be putting many points in weapon mastery, and his 3-weapon bump-attacks at 221% global speed are pretty effective so far.

His inscriptions are:
- 2x Movement (love these things)
- Wild: Physical (starter infusion)
- Healing
- Manasurge

He found some good replacements:
- 8 cd Controlled Phase Door
- halfway decent Heroism
- good Regeneration

... but I'm not sure which inscriptions to replace. Manasurge has saved his ass against two Oozing Horrors, so I'm loath to replace that, but it's not much good outside of those, and he might get an item like a staff with Manaflow on it.

On the subject of replacements, he's got the ability to buy one merchant artifact. Which slot looks weakest?

Any other advice?

Cheers!

[lukep]

Get Fungal Blood. It's absolutely amazing, as you can use it to get a free turn from your healing/regen/movement/heroism/wild infusions (no Sun or Insidious Poison, though). The heal is relatively weak, but it's instant and triggers Fungus's extra turn mechanic. (at least, it did in 1.0.4, I don't think it was changed).

I see you have Solipsism/Absorption going. Do the shields help heal you any significant amount, or is it just damage prevention?

If you want to get the most out of the free turns from Higher regen (or Fungal Blood) + Fungus, get a source of non-global speed, such as Surge (for movement) or the dual weapon tree with the +attack speed sustain.

It also looks like you don't have a source of "speed" (the timed effect). I'd look into getting Blinding Speed if you want to go all out.

The other option for increased speed is spending two category points on Chronomancy. The first on Timeline Threading for Rethread (4cd disable/paradox recovery beam), and the second on Speed Control for Celerity and Haste.

If you are damaging enemies a lot of times in small hits, look into Mental Tyrrany + Madness from Doomed, for lots of good debuffs on enemies.

I'd also put one point into Highborn's Bloom and One with Nature. They're both instant and can be well worth using.

[Doctornull]

Get Fungal Blood. It's absolutely amazing, as you can use it to get a free turn from your healing/regen/movement/heroism/wild infusions (no Sun or Insidious Poison, though). The heal is relatively weak, but it's instant and triggers Fungus's extra turn mechanic. (at least, it did in 1.0.4, I don't think it was changed).

Huh. Sounds strong, but it also sounds like a bunch of micro-management, so in my laziness I might not use it very effectively.

I'm more tempted by the +20% global speed prodigy (Windborn Speed)

I see you have Solipsism/Absorption going. Do the shields help heal you any significant amount, or is it just damage prevention?

Yes, the Psi contribution is significant. My Psi bar is about half as deep as my Life bar, and the slow effect for Solipsism kicks in at 40%, but it hardly ever gets there even when my Life bar is taking a beating.

Absorption is especially brilliant against damage over time, and it was pivotal in allowing me to abuse Burning Wake before I got Wildfire up to 5/5.

If you want to get the most out of the free turns from Higher regen (or Fungal Blood) + Fungus, get a source of non-global speed, such as Surge (for movement) or the dual weapon tree with the +attack speed sustain.

Hmm. I think I like the Chrono options better.
Magical effects don't last long in my Cleansing Flames, so the other part of the Fungal Blood effect might be wasted.

It also looks like you don't have a source of "speed" (the timed effect). I'd look into getting Blinding Speed if you want to go all out.

I've got an item which grants 4.0 Blinding Speed for 5 turns, but that's a Charm so it takes a turn to active. With both Harmony(fire) and that Blinding Speed, he can get up to 260% global speed.
Getting Haste would be nice, yeah.

The other option for increased speed is spending two category points on Chronomancy. The first on Timeline Threading for Rethread (4cd disable/paradox recovery beam), and the second on Speed Control for Celerity and Haste.

Yeah, I like the idea of Speed Control.

In terms of Paradox regen, I've got the Rune of the Rift (-60 Paradox on use), and I could take Spacetime Folding for Weapon Folding... the synergy there is that I do a lot of melee attacks, so some extra on-hit damage would stack nicely, and also Displace Damage seems to work really well on a Regeneration-based build like mine.

If you are damaging enemies a lot of times in small hits, look into Mental Tyrrany + Madness from Doomed, for lots of good debuffs on enemies.

That does sound hella strong, but I already did a playthrough which exploited Mental Tyranny + Madness so I'll do something else this time.

I'd also put one point into Highborn's Bloom and One with Nature. They're both instant and can be well worth using.

Highborn's Bloom lasts 1 turn at 1 point, I think I'll sink another point into it for 3 turns at least.

Thanks for the advice!

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Okay, so looks like my options are:

Build 1: Antimagic Mage
- Antimagic (stacks with Absorption very nicely) + Spell Feedback prodigy
- Extra cat point into Combat Techniques for Rush and Blinding Speed, with my ridiculous Willpower there's going to be a lot of Stamina left over. I'd use Dexterity to qualify for Blinding Speed, which opens the door to...
- Final prodigy either Windtouched Speed or Spell Feedback

Build 2: Chrono Burner
- Speed Control category and some way of mitigating Paradox, at least one of: Rune of the Rift, or Timeline Threading, or Time Travel, or Spacetime Folding.
- For the prodigies, Temporal Form seems really thematic, but might not be optimal. Windtouched Speed still looks good, and since I won't have Rush, maybe Giant Leap?

Actually for the 2nd build I could just postpone Haste and use my talent points on Celerity 5/5, Weapon Folding 5/5 and Displace Damage 5/5 and that would mean I don't need any Paradox mitigation for a while.

Does the Paradox from Temporal Form count as a sustain? If so, that prodigy sounds like it could handle all my mitigation needs...

[sehnsucht]

Windtouched speed prodigy for another 20% global speed.
Lightning speed+ Telekinetic weapon automatic attack works well. If you still have spare category points, unlock chrono/speed control and spend 5/5 in celerity.

To have a speed advantage over you foes, you should also take some skills to slow them down, e.g. slime spit.

By the way, chrono/energy seems good for this build, too. You'll be able to dodge most projectiles with entropic field

[Doctornull]

The first two talents in Chrono / Energy seem like they would interact really well with Psi / Absorption and Antimagic Shield.

Windtouched Speed really does look great, but it seems like the qualification check doesn't count Passive talents in Wild trees, so I don't know if I'll have enough Equilibrium talents to qualify for it.

Slower enemies WOULD be really nice. Hmm.

Thanks!

[itastelikelove]

If you're running around a lot, maybe add some Mucus. Get Mucus up to 4/5 for the extra radius, and get a point in Living Mucus, and you'll be up to your neck in snot in no time.