ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Bought on steam the other day, pretty fun, but in a hard way. A few things popped up I would like to know, that I can't figure out on my own. I will try and keep this brief, as I have more then a few questions to ask.

• 1) Is there a hotkey to view Rune/Inscription slots, to make it easier to compare? So far I have been bringing up the overwrite rune popup to see.
  
  2) Is there a way to move map around freely without moving your character, or targeting a spell? Channel Staff can help, but once I move screen, I can't move it back to my Alchemist without actually making him walk.
  
  3) Do town shops ever change the items for sale? Having some issues getting basic shield runes for the golem.
  
  4) Is there a way to see how much gold an item would be transmogrified (the stuff in the chest that turns to gold when you leave map) into before you leave the transmog screen? Turning them into gems can be more money sometimes, but I am having trouble knowing when.
  
  5) On the world map screen, purple words in the bottom left corner pop up with advice on how difficult area could be for me. I do not see the same hint on dungeon maps. Is there a hotkey to pull the hint up?
  
  6) As you out level areas, will rewards from lower level dungeons be reduced or removed? (IE bunny killer syndrome counter) A lot of areas on map to go to, some I fear I could out level.
  
  7) Is there a place in the monster tooltip that can tell you how much faster they can move then you? Got chased down fleeing from a warg rare (or something) yesterday. Which makes sense, but it would have helped to know exactly how much faster then me he is.

Class specific questions:

• 1) Would you recommend a Golem use a Small weapon/Shield, or a 2 handed weapon for damage?
  
  2) The few guides I looked at talk about a "heat" spell in fire alchemy tree. I do not see this anywhere. I assume the guides are out of date?
  
  3) The golem gets few stat points on level up. I understand that is intended, so I have been giving the golem the free stats from escort quests to help. Is that wise?

2). Press l, then shift+arrow keys.

3). I think they refresh eventually. But as an alchemist you should have at least 3 places to buy runes.

4). Not that I know of, but gems are probably worth more.

5). Pressing h will bring up the game log. You should be able to find that message there. There's also a zone order guide on the wiki, if you don't mind a little "cheating."

6). 9 times out of 10, you aren't gonna out level. Some races might, but most don't.

7). Right click on monster, inspect creature. Look at their speeds. The one in question is most likely global speed, but Cursed rampage buff can increase movement speed and attack speed.

1) You can either use the tooltips on the hotbar, or they are also visible on the character sheet.

3) At two points later in the game.

6) You get reduced experience from out levelled enemies. Also as the loot scales with enemy level, all you get is a small amount of cash.

7) Not in the standard tooltip. I have seen an addon that gives that info in a tooltip, but you can also open the creatures character screen. However it is quite likely that the enemy used a Rush style talent to catch you.

C2) Yes.

C3) If you die, the golem can't revive you. You can revive the golem. Give points to yourself.

4) Almost always gems are going to worth more than the item (the exceptions are some powerful artifacts). Eventually (in Sher'Tul Fortress) you will be able to trasmogrify items into gems and then the gems into gold automatically if the gem is more valuable.

2) right-click the minimap. if you hold, it moves quite smoothly.

1: If you open your character sheet with "C", all your current inscriptions can be moused-over in the lower right.

2: Hit capslock, use arrow keys.

3: They change their inventory twice per game, after specific story events happen. Also, if you need make runes and you haven't gotten into Angolwen, do that. They have a great rune store.

4: The transmog chest give you about 66% of the value you'd get for selling an item (except if you use the chest to transmog a gem, in which case you get 100% of the sale value). Unforutnately, sale price isn't displayed outside shops. When you turn an item into a gem it will be worth 4 gold per tier -- that is, 4 for iron, 8 for steel, 12 for dwarf-steel, and so on. This is almost always more money than any white, green, blue, or pink item. Purples are sometimes worth more than the gem, and oranges almost always. Some special abilities add huge amounts to sale price, but it should be pretty obvious that they're rare and special.

7: I recommend using an add-on called Plenum tooltip. It will add a lot more information to the mouse-over box for monsters, so you won't have to go into the inspect menu to see their speed.

Alchemist

1 You can pretty much make this up as you go. If your golem ins't dying, it doesn't need a shield. If it is, consider a shield. I don't think the golem uses block (or doesn't use it well), so the benefit is relatively limited, but you may get a shield with useful resists. Also, the answer to any equipment question is "it depends on what you get." You could find an artifact 1H sword that does more damage than any of your 2-handers.

3 In most cases you are better off taking skills than stats from the escorts. If you take stats, they're probably more useful on your alchemist than on your golem, but if it's dexterity or strength or something go ahead I guess. It's not going to make a big difference either way.