Explain to me how to play this game.

[Death From Above]

So, I've put in over 150 hours in this game and I'm frustrated beyond belief.

This forum is full of a lot of people that claim normal difficulty is a cakewalk (it isn't), so give me some advice.

I've been playing an Exploration Mode Necromancer all the way to the end of the game, just to actually finally see the damn story and get some unlocks, because it's totally unwindable in any other mode to me. And with infinite lives, the game is still unbeatable. The corrupted Sun Paladin on high peak 10 is more or less invincible because of a mega heal. If you skip that and just jump into the portal to the two wizards, they're invincible. You hit them with your strongest attack and it does 1 or 2% damage. Theirs does more like 50% to you.

I have 5/5 in Invoke Darkness, Rigor Mortis, Impending Doom, Blurred Mortality, Moonlight Ray, Phase Door, Teleport.

I have 4/5 in Create Minions, Aura Mastery, Fear The Night, Consume Soul.

I have 3/5 in Starfall.

I have level 5 Highborn Bloom.

I took Unbreakable Will and Temporal Form as my prodigies.

I took Staff Mastery and have 5/5 in Channel Staff and Staff Mastery the skill. I bought combat training and have 4/5 in Thick Skin. I have 3/5 Chant of Fortress from escort quests.

I can't even make a dent in the end bosses. Infinite lives mean nothing when you can't drop a boss below 90% health.

All of the spoiler/guides for this game that I can find consist of "advice" on item scumming and usually contain no actual game strategy whatsoever. So if someone would like to provide me with some actual hints, I'd love to hear what I'm doing wrong. Because this sucks.

Explain to me what I'm doing wrong. I don't get it. But, this is the first game in about 25 years to make me feel like a total moron, so I guess that's something.

I love this game. I hate this game. How do you win? How is it even possible? I know this must sound pretty ranty, but I really don't mean it like that. I think this is a great game. I mean, it screws you around every corner, but it's HONEST about that. And I like that. I'm just baffled by how horrible I am at it as a lifelong video game player. And I'm old enough to not be embarrassed to actually ask for help. Because I suck at this game.

[HousePet]

This is my latest necromancer winner: http://te4.org/characters/21857/tome/d2 ... 918a90e1a9
Looks like it hasn't updated since I decided to go buy some artifacts, none of which were overly useful, so I pretty much won with this equipment.

Without linking your character, its a bit hard to say what you were doing wrong.

However, 4 points in Necrotic Minions and Aura Mastery were basically a waste.

[0player]

If you find a game difficult in general, not concerning final bosses, here's a tip: most stuff can't heal. If you're below 50%, retreat and refill.
As for your lich build... You seem to be suspiciously lacking in the regards of Forgery of Haze.

[HousePet]

Incidentally, I don't recommend Forgery of Haze and Meteoric Crash together.

[Death From Above]

Ah, I actually do have Forgery of Haze and forgot to list it. Great skill.

Literally only enemy that had overwhelming healing was the Paladin on High Peak 10.

Only enemy before that I simply couldn't kill was the first slime tunnel boss. Whichever one it was that can use Fearscape. Loathsome skill. I should use it myself someday.

If the minions and aura are a waste, where better to put those points? There's hardly anything I actually use that isn't maxed out. And considering the number of times some fool wasted a rush on a skeleton instead of my face, I'm definitely curious there. I guess on yours it looks like Circle of Death and Chill of the Tomb.

Looking at that winner I have to admit I'm pretty surprised to see only one point in Consume Soul, but I guess if one doesn't need to heal as much, that would make sense. Though I have no idea how you're dealing with any enemy that can use Rush if you have no minions and no healing. I do kind of think you're onto something with only one point in Impending Doom though. In the first half of the game it was an absolute boss nuker. In the second half of the game, the Spellshock effect was more valuable than the damage, really.

[HousePet]

If anything Rushes me, I un rush it with Fear the Night.

Did you max out Frostdusk?

If you can link your character, we can look at your equipment and talents properly.

[Death From Above]

http://te4.org/characters/149832/tome/8 ... 0fcf249be0

For what it's worth.

I'm basically stuck being repeatedly killed, and done with the character it seems, but there it is. My movement numbers look all screwy because I'm in the zero G zone you go to when you die. I cannot reduce the endboss below 90% health without dying.

[Death From Above]

Looking over your winner, what are those "taints" you have in infusion slots? I've never even seen one of those before.

[anathema]

I think the problem is with your gear.
Your hp and shielding runes seem adequate, so im assuming you dont die too too fast, but its just your damage thats lacking.
By my count you have +15% darkness damage, and +0% darkness penetration, discounting frostdusk, and you need way way more to do the burst dmg necro build.
In comparison, the necromancer im currently playing (lvl 39), which is a kinda similar build (i just spam invoke darkness, moonligt ray, rigor mortis, fear the night, and forgery of haze), has +144% darkness damage, and +33% darkness penetration, also discounting frostdusk.
Since you specifically mention you dont do a lot of damage, i would start by fixing this.
Staff combat is more or less wasted on you, i dont know much about it since i've never made a strong staff hitter, but you should skip it entirely unless you know what youre doing i would say.
Some specific gear changes you could do: Your staff doesnt do much for you, get a dragonbone staff and use command staff to make it boost darkness damage. Your helm does almost nothing for you, get one with darkness damage instead. The rest is kinda similar, get stuff with darkness damage. Your cloak is good though.

Here's my character, should give you an idea of what kinda items to look for: http://te4.org/characters/39658/tome/83 ... f6608e48a2

Edit: looking at your inventory, i would recommend you put on the pendant of the sun and moons as well as the greater dragonbone staff you got, thats a pretty big boost right there. Also, not sure if youre aware, but you can activate the heart of poosh to fully heal.

[Death From Above]

I haven't seen a single staff in the game with a higher bonus to spellpower/spell criticals, which is why I have that in one slot. Yeah the one in my other slot has a darkness bonus.

On staff combat, honestly, Channel Staff was quite useful right up until the end. It seemed to be working, but obviously I fell off a cliff at the end of the game here.

Are resists just not that important in this game? I guess a lot of my equipment is more defensively oriented and not doing much for my attacks.

[stinkstink]

Looking over your winner, what are those "taints" you have in infusion slots? I've never even seen one of those before.

They're from an addon that adds new arcane inscriptions. I personally like using it when playing undead characters because it makes choosing inscriptions a lot more interesting.

[anathema]

In my opinion resists are useful, but since there are so many different damage types you will run into, you shouldnt really prioritize them unless you have some greater plan in mind.

[donkatsu]

Bolbum's Big Knocker is useless to you; throw it away and equip that dragonbone staff you have in your inventory. Depending on what your 4 floating class points are, putting them into Frostdusk might help.

You know the four pillar things at the north, west, east, and south? Position yourself next to one of them so that with a single step, you can move out of line of sight of the bosses. Whenever you need to take a breather, like your shields are all on cooldown and your minions are dead and you've taken damage, step behind one of the pillars to heal up and wait for cooldowns. If one of the bosses comes around your pillar while you're taking your break, teleport/phase door and walk behind a different one. Never use Channel Staff; there is always a better use for your turn.

Setting aside your talent and equipment choices, you've taken a branch in the story that makes this fight far more difficult than it normally is.

[HousePet]

It looks like you could have got some more randarts made as well, and you didn't do the Gem of the Moon quest.

[Davion Fuxa]

While I don't have a Necromancer win, it might be beneficial to check out some of my let's play videos concerning Tales of Maj'Eyal on my YouTube Channel.
DFuxa Plays

The later runs on my channel hold a few wins and I also have a Let's Learn series as well. Looking at some of my videos may produce a few tactics you may not know of yet that you can use for your own exploits.