ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hey, just wondering if I could get some advice about something I've been wondering about for a while, I just wanna check to make sure my logic is sound...

The basic logic I'm thinking is that when I have a bunch of skills that do similar things (shields, healing, damage, etc.), I should use the ones with the slowest cooldowns first because that gives them the best chance of being used twice or more in the fight (unless the cooldown's really long and it's a spell that's super useful and only for emergencies). Is that the right idea? use spells from longest cooldown to shortest?

It mostly depends on the talent in question and how long the cooldown is. Most of the time, you're probably better off using the shorter cooldown first because most fights don't last that long, and you have a higher chance of using a short cooldown twice. If one talent is significantly better than the other, it may be worth using that one first just to swing the fight in your favor right away.

Only major boss fights are likely to let you use a single talent with long cooldown more than once.

Effigy wrote:It mostly depends on the talent in question and how long the cooldown is. Most of the time, you're probably better off using the shorter cooldown first because most fights don't last that long, and you have a higher chance of using a short cooldown twice. If one talent is significantly better than the other, it may be worth using that one first just to swing the fight in your favor right away.

Only major boss fights are likely to let you use a single talent with long cooldown more than once.

Okay lemme give an example. Say I have two 16 cooldown shield runes and the skeleton racial generic talent bone shield (Cooldown 30), as well as arcane reconstruction (Cooldown 15), healing light (cooldown 10), and the skeleton's healing talent (41-25). In what order should I use these when I need healing and shielding?

I still think using the shorter cooldowns first makes the most sense, assuming all else is equal, but when comparing these skills you also have to consider the resource costs and activation speed.

Healing Light is free, while Arcane Reconstruction costs mana. In this case, it makes more sense to use Healing Light as much as possible to conserve your mana.

Bone Armour takes a turn to use, while Shielding runes can be used instantly. Which one to use depends on whether you can safely spend a turn to activate the shield. If you think it's safe to use a turn, it's probably better to use Bone Armour first and save the runes for when you need an instant shield.

Generally, short cooldown first is best. Let's take a more extreme example where you have a 3 CD spell, a 4 CD spell and a 20 CD spell.

Opening with the highest CD gives you:
T1 - 20CD
T2 - 4CD
T3 - 3CD
T4 - Everything is on cooldown.

Opening with the lowest CD gives you:
T1 - 3CD
T2 - 4CD
T3 - 20CD
T4 - 3CD again.

So all else being equal, short>high cooldowns let you use more abilities. Though in your example, each of those spells are different enough that it varies. Instant stuff is generally best if you're in danger, and in critical situations it might be worth using a higher cooldown but more powerful skill first, e.g. Bone Armor vs Healing Light.

I think CD is not the most important factor. You want to do as much damage (with negative status applied) as fast as possible. The AI engine will take restorative action once you reduce HP enough. So if you can whack it in the first hit or two, it will typically retreat/heal, giving you an extra turn.

I rarely use CDs as the number one criterion.

Also, the one to watch out for is heroism, or other stat boosting talents. Make sure these occur before any talents that scale with stats/power. this can make a big difference.

there are other talent interactions that are important to work out too.