Auto-Fire Tank Idea

[Planetus]

I'd like some advice on building an auto-fire Adventurer. The idea is to take advantage of sustains that either automatically attack or trigger an effect based on other attacks.
Auto-attack talents that come to mind are:
Telekinetic Weapon (Mindslayer) (Varies, but Wil/Cun) - Melee Only
Psionic Projections (Mindslayer) (Will) - Melee Only
Radiance (Sun Paladin) (Mag) - Doesn't trigger On Spell procs
Hymn of Moonlight (Anorthil) (Mag) - Drains Negative Energy
Body of Fire (Alchemist) (Mag) - Drains Mana
Living Lightning (Alchemist) (Mag)
Thunderstorm (Archmage) (Mag) - Drains Mana
Earthvines (Stone Warden, Dwarf Only)
Dream Forge (Solipsist) (Will)

Triggered effects so far are:
Arcane Combat and Arcane Destruction (Arcane Blade) (Str/Mag) - Melee Only
Corona (Anorthil) (Mag) - Drains Pos./Neg. Energy
Fiery Choker (On Spell)
Crystal's Astral Bindings (On Spell) (Breaks Stealth)
Staff of Destruction (On Spell) (Breaks Stealth)
Life Drinker (On Spell) (Breaks Stealth)

Any other notable talents? Any advice on a build?

[Red]

Radiance damage is terrible. We're talking double digit damage, once per turn, at level 50. On enemies with no resistances. There's going to be better spots to spend that cat point.

Oozemancers have Mitosis, from the Ooze category. It won't deal damage directly, but it will give you summons that will attack and a good deal of defense.

If you're really dying for something from Sun Paladin, the Guardian tree has Retribution. It's only a once per fight attack, but it deals great damage and again, gives you more defense.

Doombringer's have a few AoE damage sustains, but they aren't on the wiki and I can't actually play ToME at the moment. Still, I know you've got options from that class.

Cursed have Gloom, for status debuffs automatically.

Doomed have the Shadow tree, for more automatic summons, but you'll need a way to keep Hate up.

Hope this helps.

[ooli]

Celestial-combat: Boost your Shield strengh and duration on each Melee strike
Celestial-guardian: Auto attack with your shield any time you do a melee attack

I used those 2 a lot in my many adventurer build.

Corruption- the reaver tree give free melee strike for any spell you cast (even cast from Arcane combat proc and it may work with some other auto-cast)

Cursed- Unseen force: free auto cast
Psionic-TK weapon has some tree with auto strike (range 2-6) when wielding a gem
(Those 2 are not sustain: you have to activate the and it last a few turn)


I dont knnw if this is what your looking for, but Spel-enhancement give Mana and Stam on each melee attack (may help to feed the other sustain)

[Planetus]

Thanks for the ideas, but what I'm really looking for is abilities where I could just stand there and everything around me takes damage. And yes, Radiance damage is terrible, but if it can proc on-hit spell effects, it could be a good trigger for other effects.

On that side, though, I'm thinking items will provide more than talents. Astral Bindings give a chance to cast on spell, and so does the Flame Choker.

Demonologists can get some good options through their demon binding. Fire imp will proc on melee attacks from TK Weapon, and one of the shadow demons gives Doom Tendrils, which is again small damage AND short range, but can it proc?

[Planetus]

Some notes on progress:

Radiance doesn't seem to trigger on spell procs.
Thunderstorm does and doesn't break Stealth.
Body of Fire does (not sure about Stealth).
Living Lightning does (again not sure about Stealth).

Staff of Destruction has a 10% chance to cast Impending Doom 1, which is awesome, unless something somehow reflects your spell back to you (seen it on occasion with Thunderstorm while Stealthed, not sure why). Impending Doom seems to break stealth like this, though.

The Black Ring has a 10% chance to cast Darkfire 3, which is also awesome, except that it's an AoE (radius 3 I think), so any spells too close to a target are dangerous.

Fiery Choker as a 10% chance to cast Volcano, which is awesome, especially since it looks like EVERY BOULDER FROM A VOLCANO ALSO COUNTS AS A SPELL YOU CAST! I've even seen volcanoes spawn other volcanoes!

Crystal's Astral Bindings have a 10% chance to cast Dust to Dust 2. Possible threat to escorts as a beam spell?

Black Robe has 10% chance to cast Blood Grasp, Soul Rot, AND Bone Spear, each separately, on spell (at least it did in older versions, haven't found it yet since the latest update). Three for the price of one!

Life Drinker has a 15% chance to cast Blood Grasp on spell as well.

The River's Fury has a 20% chance to cast Glacial Vapor on spell. Possible TK weapon?

Eel-skin Armour has a 10% chance to cast Call Lightning on nature. Any passive/sustained nature AoEs? Do the Stone Warden's Vines count?

I'm doing a run with Spell/Arcane for damage variety and Disruption Shield, Spell/Air for Thunderstorm (and Lightning early on), Spell/Energy Alchemy for Living Lighting, Cunning/Stealth, and Psionic/Projection for a TK weapon (mostly to have a second staff) as my Class trees. I'll probably add either Celestial/Twilight for Corona or Spell/Flame for Body of Fire. Thunderstorm and Living Lightning are cheaper than Body of Fire and both are instant-hit, whereas Body of Fire is projectile, so they got priority. Since both of those are lightning damage, this is quickly turning into a lightning/arcane mage.

I've also got Spell/Transportation, Psionic/Feedback, and Psionic/Dreamforge. I'm torn between Psionic/Feedback, Celestial/Light and Spell/Aegis for my healing and shielding. Aegis has better shielding and you don't need to be hit first to heal (though why would you heal if you're not hurt?), but Feedback has passive auto-healing and the heal and shield talents aren't spells, so they can't be silenced. And then Light is just plain awesome, but again is a spell subject to silence.

[Red]

Black Robe has three seperate procs as of this morning, so it should be just fine.

[Doctornull]

Hymn of Moonlight - mid-range, eats Negative energy.

Cunning / Tactical - free melee counter-attacks when some loser misses you, good synergy with Arcane Combat.

Corrupted Strength - free melee attacks when you cast a spell, like the ones in Celestial / Light.

[Planetus]

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone, and I do plan to continue this run and document the results I find, but I've found a killer bug in this build: Thunderstorm can (I'm 90% sure) erroneously hit yourself, and thus all your procs can hit yourself. I don't know if this can happen with other sustains as well (it wouldn't normally be much of an issue if you periodically took 15-35 self-inflicted damage), but I plan to test it.

[Red]

Thunderstorm has a radius one bolt, which is why it can hit you. Check the descriptions of all your abilities, but I believe that's just about the only auto-hit that can hit more than one person.

[Planetus]

Ah, ok, so avoid Thunderstorm (and thus probably the entire Lightning tree). I'll probably re-make this character at some point in the future, but for now I'm keeping going.

I've found the procs from those items can end up being VERY powerful, especially when several of them proc at once. I've tested things in the training center, and found that just standing still (important for dreamforge) at a range 2 (thus out of TK weapon range) averages damage of ~400/turn at lvl 20, though it takes a few turns to get up to this average.

I also kited my way through an entire collapsed grave cave at level 18, and only used a few occasional heals to survive it with little trouble.

[Atarlost]

You never mentioned feedback/discharge. It requires you to stand still, but that's what you wanted anyways. Use with thought forms as a feedback generator if you don't mind having a minion that does things while you stand around.