ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hi,

I am new to this forum and I was able to get a victory with skeleton doombringer on normal adventure difficulty. However, I still die too much and want to win in higher difficulties.
So should there anything to knew for advanced tactics, or tipps, maybe changing defaults options or helpful addons . I searched the forums but wasnt able to find anything proper and can someone pls explain me the differences and mechanics in each difficulties properly.

Also, do addons count as cheating?

Addons are entirely in your own mind, as to whether or not they're 'cheating'. The game does not enforce or penalize the use of addons. There are many addons that are entirely a QoL issue with no gameplay differences (Marson's UI, Plenum tooltip, parts of Zomnibus, among others), or with gameplay differences so widely accepted they might as well be vanilla. (Infinite500 coming mostly to mind here.)

For advanced strategies, I wrote up a mini guide for making the transition from Nightmare to Insane difficulties. This may not be particularly applicable to you since its target audience is people who are already comfortable on Nightmare, but a lot of the strategies still apply to everyone like equipment prioritization and shopping. Also the best place to ask for strategy advice is usually the chat, often at least one person who knows what they're talking about will be able to help.

Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:gameplay differences so widely accepted they might as well be vanilla. (Infinite500 coming mostly to mind here.)

I would be curious to know what other addons are widely accepted, as I'm the type of person to be a bit hesitant to use addons or mods in general. A "newbie's guide to addons" would be very appreciated!

Talent Point Planner. You can use a dedicated character to insure from compatibility problems.

Useful tips and tricks:
Use track and open the map. Locate pink and black dots. They represent higher rarity and stealthy monsters. You don't have to see through stealth. You can even right click a sneaky monster and inspect it.
You can exceed your maximum encumbrance instantly. Transfer a number of useless items from the transmogrification chest. For what reason? To save yourself from beckon status effect. To bump attack and not move when you have confused status effect. To open a chest instantly.
Slaughter your summoned allies to activate step up.

I find one of the most helpful ways to learn the game faster is to play a class on Arena, which allows you to level up very rapidly. I concentrate on 1-2 talent trees only and max them out, just to get a feel for their mechanics, dmg, defence, etc.

Tome is built around talent usage, above all else, so choose a class or two, learn their talents inside out, and then go for it.

If I had to give you only one piece of advice for the main game, I'd say, buy every piece of gear you can that has life bonus, i.e. extra hit points.

This will dramatically improve your survivability and the further you go into the game, the more you learn.

Many of my addon races/classes appear to be underpowered, so I don't think they count as cheating.

having infusions/runes, that complement your character´s skills to survive difficult situations. Especially infusions of heroism (survive with negative hp) and movement (vs stun + as escape) can be very important. Additionally some characters need something to deal with stuns.
Shieldings/regeneration are also important but that goes without saying.

Overall it is important to get "get our of jail" skills, that help you to survive difficult bosses. Most characters have specific defensive skills and usually it is a good idea to get them.

Additionally it pays off to look at damage spikes (log) and understand what caused them. Understanding which enemies can kill you is key.

One more thing, which I have mentioned in lots of posts, so forgive me for repetition, is that the dumb AI and tactical AI both will take evasive/heal actions once HP points fall dramatically for an NPC. That is, they will regen, or recover, or move away. You see this lots when an annoying rare you are just about to kill, with high speed, takes off across the map, and you can't chase it down.

So, I always make sure my very first talent hits for as much dmg IN THAT TURN as possible. So not DOT, not block, not regen infusion, but my highest hitting talent. And this is why maxxing one talent like this straight up can be much better than little bits of 4-5 talents. I often choose 3 talents, and then develop them like this: 1/1/1, 2/1/1, 3/1/1,...5/1/1, 5/2/1, 5/3/1. etc this is generally better than 1/1/1...2/2/2...3/3/3 , or worse 1/1/2...1/1/5 (if these three are used in this order of course).

And here is why instant dmg effects are soooooo fabulous -(such as ice runes, certain talents), is that they give you extra dmg before your first turn. If you can land big dmg in your first turn, you often get a second turn, and presto you beat npc.

My advice would be make extensive use of tool slot and summoning items.

Torques are awesome and will save your life. Always activate one that reduces damage before opening a golden chest. And they are great against bosses too when you know what damage types they use. Teleport torques are great because you can still use them even if you are silenced.

Hold onto any item that allows you to summon a minion. Like for instance the Lightbringer, which summons a stationary totem that does AOE damage for a number of rounds. It also has a ton of HPs and can be cast from a significant distance. You can cast it around corners and monsters will use their cooldowns on it (instead of you!). Drakes attack it with their breath, then you'll know what you're up against if you don' have track. Melee opponents use their rush and grapple against your minions instead of you.

Also have at least one piece of equipment that slows projectiles. A lot of deadly attacks you will have a chance to avoid this way, you'll have at least one turn to move out of it's path. Whereas without this a lot of projectiles (spells, arrows ect) will move so fast they might as well be instant abilities

A few things to remember:

1. Class type determines complexity. Your first few runs should be done with some sort of comfort level, i.e. no pet, direct melee.
2. Learn how the enemies you fight react, most rouge-likes are turn based, so there is no time limit.
3. Study your Runes, Inscriptions and Items. Practice the stick and restick method of Inscription stacking. What I mean by that is: When one inscription starts cooldown, have another inscription, item or attack coming off of cooldown.
4. Chain your attack patterns so that point 3 above establishes a rhythm, i.e., never have all your inscriptions, runes etc all on cooldown at the same time. Doing so will result in Stamina Drain, and eventually kill you, unless you can tank damage. See #1.
5. Don't be tempted to use an item that is contrary to your primary stats, i.e. a Mage Staff for a melee class, just because it's Purple, Pink, Orange, Blue, or a Unique game Item. After seeing said items, you can determine what items belong to the different classes, and look for them when you play that class.
6. Add a Pet or other Squishy class after mastering control of your single character and the above items.
7. Lastly, add the Permadeath option