Ok, take a step and... Huh!?

[Covenant]

So I was exploring Dreadfell level 8 with my best character so far - a level 28 Cornac Berserker. I'd done all the other dungeons available except for the Mark of the Spellblaze, and wasn't having too much trouble there, though I had to be careful (the trickiest part so far had been the Kryl-Feijan crypt, which I'd used up my Blood of Life on).

An escort quest had been generated for the floor, so as per my usual MO, I was scouting slightly ahead of the escort. I saw a skeleton archer round the corner, so I popped up my shield rune and headed a step toward it. I had about 850 out of 1000 life at this point. Next thing I know, I get some kind of message about a Naga Myrmidon and I'm dead. I don't even know what happened.

Seriously, what the hell? I did a bit of searching and found some comment about Naga Myrmidons having an extended Rush range, but can someone tell me what exactly happened? I went through the log and found the following; I don't understand how the Skeleton archer could hit me so many times before I could react, particularly given missile travel time. The hits kind of add up - I ended up with -8 health, and the hits listed plus one more (presumably from the myrmidon, as that was listed as my cause of death in the dying message) would have been enough to take me to that.

[LOG] Skeleton archer hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#176 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Covenant casts Rune: Shielding.
[LOG] A shield forms around Covenant.
(--- I guess I took my last turn here)
[LOG] Skeleton archer hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#0 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Skeleton archer shoots!
[LOG] #{bold}#Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!#{normal}#
[LOG] Your shield crumbles under the damage!
[LOG] The shield around Covenant crumbles.
[LOG] Skeleton archer hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#128 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Skeleton archer shoots!
[LOG] #{bold}#Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!#{normal}#
[LOG] Skeleton archer hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#186 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Covenant is dazed!
[LOG] Naga myrmidon hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#191 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Skeleton archer shoots!
[LOG] #{bold}#Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!#{normal}#
[LOG] Covenant is not dazed anymore.
[LOG] Skeleton archer hits Covenant for #aaaaaa#163 physical#LAST# damage.

[edge2054]

A bow of great speed can fire five shots in three turns (not saying that's what happened here, I'd need more information to know for sure).

But if that was mixed in with a daze I could see that leading to a very quick death. Figure one turn for your step, one for the daze, the skeleton archer has hit you at least three times without you taking an action and the myrmidon has hit you twice (once on the daze and once right after).

[Rectifier]

Skelly shoots: 2 hits, shield down, and 1 hit after
Skelly shoots again: 2 hits and dazed
Myrmidon hits once
Skelly shoots: hits once, daze down, and the final hit

Looks like some bad luck sir.

[Covenant]

I still can't see how I was hit so many times, particularly given as there was at least one empty space between the archer and myself. Even taking the daze into account; given that shield use is instantaneous and takes no time, I must have had a full shield on my last turn. As edge described, it looks as if he dazed me on the fifth arrow.

However, my final hit was from a myrmidon (not listed in the log, but the death message gave that as my cause of death - perhaps the final hit doesn't go through to the log?). So that means that the skeleton archer dazed me on his fifth arrow, then the myrmidon hit me - shouldn't I have been undazed at this point? It seems as though the archer and the myrmidon then got another hit each, which took me out.

Doesn't anyone else think it's a bit insane that an archer can get off five shots before I get a turn? I wasn't slowed or anything, and as far as I know there's no Daze resistance I could have acquired. I've played roguelikes for a long time, and by and large once a character is past the first few levels, if I die, I can see the mistakes I made and how I could have prevented it.

Perhaps there was a second skeleton archer out of sight that was also firing. But if so, and two skeleton archers can fire five arrows in one turn, then surely at higher levels walking or teleporting into a room with more than two archers is an instant deathtrap.

Nothing similar had happened to me in the past, hence me thinking it must be a bug of some sort, but if it's meant to be that way I have to say it seems pretty poor balance, and it deters me from playing again on the Roguelike difficulty until some changes have been made. And this is from someone who had little problem with those whirlpool-spewing packs of hounds in old ToME.

[tiger_eye]

Yeah, looks like you were supremely unlucky. Let me describe a scenario in which the above death can happen. "energy" below is the player's energy. Let us assume that the player acts at 1.0 energy, and that the skeleton archer attacks takes 0.6 energy:

move or perform action
energy: 1 -> 0
hit 1: 0, walked into shot
energy: 0 -> 0.3
hit 2: 0.3, archer shoots, removes damage shield
energy: 0.3 -> 0.9
hit 3: 0.9 archer shoots
hit 4: 0.9 -> 0, naga myrmidon rushes at you, hitting and dazing you
energy: 0 -> 0 (you're dazed)
hits 5: 0, archer shoots, undazing you
energy: 0 -> 0.4
hit 6: naga myrmidon kills you

The thing you may not know about is that being dazed zeros out your energy. In the scenario above, you were dazed at 0.9 energy--you almost had enough to act!--which was brought back down to 0.

In the upcoming beta, b32, you will be able to read log messages in-game after your death. You may also chat, so I expect to see a lot more swearing

Oh, and depending on the source of the daze, you may have a chance to save against it, use stun resistance, or both.

[Aquillion]

Do you use an online profile? I couldn't find your character, so I guess you don't, but I was curious.

[bricks]

Both archers and myrmidons/anything with rush are very likely candidates for few-shotting my characters. Honestly, I think it's insane that ranged weapons can fire so quickly (if anything it seems they should be slower) and that daze is basically two free attacks and mobility wrapped up in one ability. Granted, the latter does have a fairly high stamina cost and a somewhat long cooldown, but neither of these actually make NPCs less deadly. Even my Temporal Warden struggled to put some distance between himself and Myrmidons/that Dragonslayer backup guardian. (The latter killed my TW instantly the first time I encountered the backup guardian, and I never was able to take him down.)

The worst part about this is how much foresight is needed to avoid these sorts of situations. You basically need to treat every unexplored corner as a nuclear weapon.

Pseudo-edit: was just looking at the Rush talent, and wow is this broken. Assuming 1.0 mastery and 9/5 (this is what the Dragonslayer has), that's 45 stamina for a (!) 14 range, 120% weapon damage attack (plus a 100% weapon damage attack, at the very least, since you'll be dazed) that only takes (!!!!!) 4 turns to cooldown. I should also note that the Dragonslayer has (!?!?!) 40 stamina regen. Myrmidons get rush level 8, so, yeah. This talent could use some clamping/diminishing returns on the range and cooldown; and honestly, I think the ability should be less damage-oriented and more mobility-oriented, as the high-cooldown, high-resource cost approach is not an effective means of balance.

[Covenant]

Do you use an online profile? I couldn't find your character, so I guess you don't, but I was curious.

I just made one now, as a bit of an experiment. But here's my character dump (took me ages to find out where it was actually saved!). I trimmed out all the gems and general misc. stuff I was carrying.

If anyone's got any advice about any obvious gaps in my skills/gear, please feel free, I intend to try again with a Berserker at some point. For my part, I'm wondering whether I could have found a better alternative than that Rune of the Rift - it started out nifty, but pretty soon everything was resisting it.

Code: Select all

  [Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex              : Male         STR:  70
Race             : Cornac       DEX:  15
Class            : Berserker    MAG:  14
Level            : 28           WIL:  22
Exp              : 28%          CUN:  25
Gold             : 298.15       CON:  41

Accuracy(Main Hand):  94        Life             :     -8/1002  Encumbrance      : 109/166
Damage  (Main Hand): 197        Stamina          :     183/183  Difficulty       : Normal
Permadeath       : Roguelike
APR     (Main Hand):   8        Mana             :     192/202
Crit    (Main Hand):  28%       
Speed   (Main Hand): 1.00       
                                
                                

Fatigue          : 27%          Spellpower       : 21
Armor            : 20.28        Spell Crit       : 7%
Armor Hardiness  : 56%          Spell Speed      : 1
Defense          : 15.75        
Ranged Defense   : 15.75        
All damage       : 0%

Physical Save    : 76.725
Spell Save       : 51.475
Mental Save      : 43.325

All Resists:   6%
Blight Resist(cap):  12%( 70%)
Darkness Resist(cap):  11%( 70%)
Confusion Resistance:   8%
Blind Resistance:  15%
Silence Resistance:  30%
Disarm Resistance:   7%
Pinning Resistance:  65%
Stun Resistance:  65%

Number of NPC killed: 1865
Most killed NPC: skeleton warrior (52)

  [Talents Chart]

 - Technique / Two-handed weapons     (mastery 1.30)
    Death Dance (class)               1/5
    Berserker (class)                 5/5
    Warshout (class)                  0/5
    Death Blow (class)                0/5
 - Technique / Two-handed maiming     (mastery 1.30)
    Stunning Blow (class)             2/5
    Sunder Armour (class)             0/5
    Sunder Arms (class)               0/5
    Blood Frenzy (class)              0/5
 - Technique / Bloodthirst            (mastery 1.20)
    Bloodbath (class)                 1/5
    Mortal Terror (class)             5/5
    Bloodrage (class)                 2/5
    Unstoppable (class)               5/5
 - Technique / Combat techniques      (mastery 1.30)
    Precise Strikes (class)           1/5
    Rush (class)                      1/5
    Perfect Strike (class)            0/5
    Blinding Speed (class)            0/5
 - Technique / Combat veteran         (mastery 1.30)
    Quick Recovery (class)            3/5
    Fast Metabolism (class)           1/5
    Spell Shield (class)              1/5
    Unending Frenzy (class)           1/5
 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.30)
    Health (generic)                  3/5
    Armour Training (generic)         4/10
    Combat Accuracy (generic)         6/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         10/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10
 - Cunning / Survival                 (mastery 1.20)
    Trap Detection (generic)          0/5
    Heightened Senses (generic)       0/5
    Trap Disarm (generic)             1/5
    Evasion (generic)                 0/5

  [Inscriptions (5/5)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Regeneration
Rune: Teleportation
Rune of the Rift
Rune: Shielding

  [Current Effects]

- Berserker
- Premonition
+ Runic Saturation

  [Character Equipment]

 In main hand
a) flaming stralite greatmaul of defense (57-85.5 power, 3 apr)
   Type: weapon / greatmaul
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 57.0 - 85.5
Uses stat: 120% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armor Penetration: +3
Physical crit. chance: +2.5%
Attack speed: 100%
Damage on strike(melee): +10 fire
When wielded/worn:
Defense: +6

 In off hand
 On fingers
b) savior's steel ring
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Physical save: +7
Spell save: +6
Mental save: +6

c) Bloodcaller
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Fatigue: -5%
Mental save: -7
Life leech chance: +15%
Life leech: +30%

 Around neck
d) vitalizing steel amulet of murder
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy: +6
Armor penetration: +5
Physical crit. chance: +4.0%
Changes stats: +2 Con
Changes resistances: +6% blight
Critical mult.: +12.00%
Physical save: +6
Life regen: +0.60
Maximum life: +39.00
Maximum stamina: +12.00

 Light source
e) bright brass lantern of health
   Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Maximum life: +43.00
Light radius: +3

   Dropped by Prox the Mighty
 Main armor
f) fortifying steel plate armour of command (12 def, 14 armor)
   Type: armor / massive

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +14
Defense: +12
Fatigue: +22%
Changes stats: +3 Str / +3 Cun / +3 Con
Mental save: +5
Maximum life: +38.00

   Dropped by Aeramina the halfling
 Cloak
g) regal cashmere cloak of warlust (2 def, 0 armor)
   Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Physical crit. chance: +2.0%
Physical power: +2
Defense: +2
Changes stats: +2 Cun / +3 Wil
Silence immunity: +30%
Disarm immunity: +7%
Confusion immunity: +8%

   Dropped by Rantha the Worm
 On head
h) Steel Helm of Garkul (0 def, 6 armor)
   Type: armor / head

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +6
Fatigue: +8%
Changes stats: +5 Str / +4 Wil / +5 Con
Physical save: +12
Spell save: +12
Mental save: +12

   Dropped by Chronolith Clone
 Around waist
i) skylord's hardened leather belt of the mystic
   Type: armor / belt

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +1 Str / +2 Dex / +2 Wil / +2 Cun
Physical save: +4
Spell save: +5
Mental save: +3
Spellpower: +7

   Dropped by armoured skeleton warrior
 On hands
j) nightfighting dwarven-steel gauntlets of the juggernaut (0 def, 2 armor)
   Type: armor / hands

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +2
Changes stats: +1 Cun / +1 Con
Changes resistances: +5% darkness
Physical save: +4
Spell save: +5
Mental save: +3
Blindness immunity: +15%
Infravision radius: +1
It can be used to activate talent: Juggernaut (level 4), costing 80 power out of 80/80.
 On feet
k) Eden's Guile (2 def, 1 armor)
   Type: armor / feet

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +1
Defense: +2
Fatigue: +2%
Changes stats: +3 Cun
Talent mastery: +0.20 Cunning / Survival 
It can be used to boost speed, costing 50 power out of 50/50.
 Tool
l) sapper's iron pickaxe (dig speed 19 turns)
   Type: tool / digger

When wielded/worn:
Accuracy: +4
Changes stats: +1 Cun
Infravision radius: +2
It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1.
 Quiver

  [Player Achievements]

'Curse Lifter' was achieved for Killed Ben Cruthdar the Cursed. At 2011-09-01 21:12:07
'Exterminator' was achieved for Killed 1000 creatures At 2011-09-01 01:58:00
'Eye of the storm' was achieved for Freed Derth from the onslaught of the mad Tempest, Urkis. At 2011-09-02 00:45:36
'Home sweet home' was achieved for Dispatched the Weirdling Beast and taken possession of Yiilkgur, the Sher'Tul Fortress for your own usage. At 2011-09-01 18:39:10
'Level 10' was achieved for Got a character to level 10. At 2011-08-30 03:52:38
'Level 20' was achieved for Got a character to level 20. At 2011-09-01 02:06:17
'Size matters' was achieved for Do over 600 damage in one attack At 2011-09-02 02:27:11
'That was close' was achieved for Kill your target while having only 1 life left. At 2011-09-01 21:19:46
'The Arena' was achieved for Unlocked Arena mode. At 2011-08-30 03:20:30
'The secret city' was achieved for Discovered the truth about mages. At 2011-08-30 18:11:59
'Unstoppable' was achieved for Has returned from the dead. At 2011-09-02 01:39:59

  [Character Inventory]

a) brawler's healing infusion (heal 235)
   Type: scroll / infusion

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 17
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the infusion to heal yourself for 235 life.
Its effects scale with your Strength stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the infusion..
b) movement infusion (614% speed; 6 turns)
   Type: scroll / infusion

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 19
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: instant
Description: Activate the infusion to increase movement speed by 614% for 1 game turn.
Any actions other than movement will cancel the effect.
Also prevent stuns, dazes and pinning effects for 6 turns.
Note: since you will be moving very fast, game turns will pass very slowly.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the infusion..
   Dropped by elven corruptor
c) sneak's regeneration infusion (heal 290 over 5 turns)
   Type: scroll / infusion

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 15
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the infusion to heal yourself for 290 life over 5 turns.
Its effects scale with your Cunning stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the infusion..


f) wild infusion (resist 15%; cure poison, physical, curse, mental)
   Type: scroll / infusion

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 1.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 15
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: instant
Description: Activate the infusion to cure yourself of poison, physical, curse, mental effects and reduce all damage taken by 15% for 5 turns.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the infusion..


j) invisibility rune (power 9 for 5 turns; 6 charges)
   Type: scroll / rune

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 20
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the rune to become invisible (power 9) for 5 turns.
Charges remaining: 6

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..


It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..
   Dropped by sandworm
l) psychic's phase door rune (range 8)
   Type: scroll / rune

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 9
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the rune to teleport randomly in a range of 8.
Its effects scale with your Willpower stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..
   Dropped by sandworm
m) titan's invisibility rune (power 10 for 8 turns; 6 charges)
   Type: scroll / rune

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 19
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the rune to become invisible (power 10) for 8 turns.
Charges remaining: 6
Its effects scale with your Constitution stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..



It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..
q) wizard's vision rune (radius 10)
   Type: scroll / rune

When inscribed on your body:
Effective talent level: 0.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: melee/personal
Cooldown: 21
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Activate the rune to get a vision of the area surrounding you (10 radius) and to allow you to see invisible (power 13) for 15 turns.
Its effects scale with your Magic stat.

It can be used to inscribe your skin with the rune..
r) Feathersteel Amulet
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Fatigue: -20%
Maximum encumberance: +20

t) grounding stralite amulet
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +8% lightning
Stun/Freeze immunity: +10%

   Dropped by elven corruptor
u) grounding stralite amulet of vision
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +9% lightning
Blindness immunity: +17%
Stun/Freeze immunity: +16%
Infravision radius: +1
See invisible: +8

v) insulating steel amulet
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +8% cold / +5% fire

w) savior's gold amulet of willpower (+4)
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +5
Changes stats: +4 Wil
Physical save: +7
Spell save: +7
Mental save: +5

   Dropped by barrow wight

   Dropped by yellow ooze
z) stralite amulet of vision
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Blindness immunity: +18%
Infravision radius: +2
See invisible: +7

   Dropped by ghoul


€) savior's copper ring of corrosion (+10%)
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Changes resistances: +10% acid
Changes damage: +10% acid
Physical save: +5
Spell save: +5
Mental save: +5

   Dropped by red crystal


?) Silent Blade (25-32.5 power, 10 apr)
   Type: weapon / dagger

Base power: 25.0 - 32.5
Uses stats: 35% Str, 55% Dex
Damage type: Physical
Accuracy: +15
Armor Penetration: +10
Physical crit. chance: +8.0%
Attack speed: 100%
When used from stealth a simple attack with it will not break stealth.
Damage on strike(melee): +10 % chance to silence target

   Dropped by cutpurse
„) mystic stralite greatmaul of shearing (54.5-81.75 power, 3 apr)
   Type: weapon / greatmaul
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 54.5 - 81.8
Uses stat: 120% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armor Penetration: +3
Physical crit. chance: +2.5%
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Armor penetration: +5
Changes stats: +5 Wil / +5 Mag
Changes resistances penetration: +5% physical
Changes damage: +8% physical
Spell crit. chance: +5%

   Dropped by Kryl-Feijan
…) shocking stralite greatsword of daylight (47.5-76 power, 3 apr)
   Type: weapon / greatsword
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 47.5 - 76.0
Uses stat: 120% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armor Penetration: +3
Physical crit. chance: +4.5%
Attack speed: 100%
Damage on strike(melee): +7 lightning / +6 light

†) slime-covered stralite greatsword of crippling (47.5-76 power, 3 apr)
   Type: weapon / greatsword
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 47.5 - 76.0
Uses stat: 120% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armor Penetration: +3
Physical crit. chance: +4.5%
Attack speed: 100%
Damage on strike(melee): +25 slime
When wielded/worn:
Physical crit. chance: +6.0%

   Dropped by skeleton warrior
‰) rough leather belt of burglary
   Type: armor / belt

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +3 Dex
Trap disarming bonus: +5
Infravision radius: +3

Š) cashmere cloak of the hunt (2 def, 0 armor)
   Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +2
Fatigue: -7%
Maximum life: +48.00
It can be used to activate talent: Blinding Speed (level 3), costing 80 power out of 80/80.
   Dropped by skeleton mage
‹) dwarven-steel gauntlets of protection (0 def, 2 armor)
   Type: armor / hands

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +2
Changes resistances: +6% nature
Physical save: +5
Spell save: +5
Mental save: +5

   Dropped by skeleton warrior

?) Skin of Many (12 def, 6 armor)
   Type: armor / light

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +6
Defense: +12
Fatigue: +7%
Changes stats: +4 Con
Talent mastery: -0.20 Cunning / Stealth 
Maximum life: +40.00
Infravision radius: +6

   Dropped by Chronolith Clone



ž) brass lantern of revealing
   Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Light radius: +3
See invisible: +8

?) bright brass lantern of clarity
   Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Confusion immunity: +30%
Light radius: +3

?) Transmogrification Chest
   [Plot Item]
Type: chest / sher'tul

It can be used to open a portal to send items to the Fortress core, extracting energies from it for the Fortress and sending back useless gold., costing 0 power out of 1000/1000.

¤) Rod of Annulment
   Type: wand / wand

It can be used to force some of your foes infusions, runes or talents on cooldown, costing 30 power out of 30/30.
?) Rod of Recall (1/1)
   [Plot Item]
Type: wand / wand

It can be used to recall the user to the worldmap, costing 400 power out of 400/400.
¦) ash wand of detection (7/7)
   Type: wand / wand

It can be used to detect the presence of creatures around you, with 7 charges out of 7.
   Dropped by yellow ooze

¨) solid ash wand of flames (6/6)
   Type: wand / wand

It can be used to fire a beam of fire, with 6 charges out of 6.
   Dropped by rogue
©) yew wand of flames (9/9)
   Type: wand / wand

It can be used to fire a beam of fire, with 9 charges out of 9.
   Dropped by poison ooze
?) quartz
   Type: gem / white

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%
When used to imbue an object:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%

   Dropped by lesser vampire

  [Last Messages]

Covenant hits ghoul for 437 physical, 10 fire damage (total 445.62).
Covenant hits lesser vampire for 417 physical, 10 fire damage (total 426.39).
Ghoul is not dazed anymore.
Ghoul is dazed!
Covenant hits ghoul for 210 physical, 10 fire damage (total 218.96).
Ghoul is not dazed anymore.
Covenant killed ghoul!
Covenant hits ghoul for 197 physical damage.
Covenant performs a critical strike!
Lesser vampire is not dazed anymore.
Covenant killed lesser vampire!
Covenant hits lesser vampire for 478 physical damage.
There is an item here: frozen spear rune (191 cold damage)
You pickup 0.50 gold pieces.
There is an item here: frozen spear rune (191 cold damage)
You gain 1.96 gold from the transmogrification of frozen spear rune (191 cold damage).
Talent Death Dance is ready to use.
Boridin, the lone alchemist says: 'The portal is still far away, to the north-west.'
Boridin, the lone alchemist says: 'Ok, but not for long.'
Skeleton archer hits Covenant for 176 physical damage.
Covenant casts Rune: Shielding.
A shield forms around Covenant.
Skeleton archer hits Covenant for 0 physical damage.
Skeleton archer shoots!
Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!
Your shield crumbles under the damage!
The shield around Covenant crumbles.
Skeleton archer hits Covenant for 128 physical damage.
Skeleton archer shoots!
Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!
Skeleton archer hits Covenant for 186 physical damage.
Covenant is dazed!
Naga myrmidon hits Covenant for 191 physical damage.
Skeleton archer shoots!
Skeleton archer performs a critical strike!
Covenant is not dazed anymore.
Skeleton archer hits Covenant for 163 physical damage.
Naga myrmidon killed Covenant!
Covenant the level 28 cornac berserker was bled to death by a naga myrmidon on level 8 of Dreadfell.
Naga myrmidon hits Covenant for 174 physical damage.

[edge2054]

Rune of the Rift uses spellpower to hit. On a berserker there's generally better options.

As has been said Rush is extremely powerful as are Bows (especially bows of great speed). Both of these are more balanced towards the player which can make them very deadly when the NPCs use them.

The daze on Rush is so NPCs don't phase door as soon as you close with them. Giving melee classes a chance to do something. Before the daze was added you might Rush a monster, only to have it disappear right after you hit it (which can be very frustrating).

Bows are quick so archers can kite. I think one of the biggest issues is the ego. You take one of the two fastest base weapons in the game and make it even faster and you end up with a very high dps weapon. Add onto this the fact that NPCs can spawn with ego ammo (getting slimed or frozen by a bow of great speed is a huge speed advantage for the archer) and the general lack of bow egos to begin with (making bows of great speed more common then they should be) and you end up with a recipe for dead characters. The rain of death vault is especially bad with this (I lost a character in a similar one turn situation but it was to multiple master archers, two or three with great speed weapons and one with a regular of speed weapon, at least one had slimy arrows).

[Aquillion]

More constitution. Raise Health faster, too. Even three more points of con might have saved you, remember. Unless it's for a prerequisite, nobody ever lives or dies based on a few points of Strength (think about it -- how often do you have a monster at ~5% and still die, vs. how often you're forced just a bit below 0 health and would have lived with more con.) With Bloodbath you can keep fighting for as long as it takes to kill the enemy no matter how little damage you deal, as long as you don't get forced below 0 health in one big attack like this.

So, constitution needs to be your first priority, not strength.

[Frumple]

That is... horrendously bad luck. The only thing that could have possibly saved you here was to pop unstoppable instead of shield but... you had no real reason to. Well, or possibly wild -> regen... or the teleportation rune. But really, you thought it was just a master archer and were probably expecting to rush -> murder two-shot it.

And then a myrmidon showed up and ruined everything. They like to do that.

*build critique, hohoho*

You had a slime-covered stralite 2hander and weren't wearing it. That was silly Both the mystic/shearing and slime-covered/crippling weapons would have been better for you.

Two points in blood rage was probably a waste -- it's not a very good talent, all told. One is fine, to unlock unstoppable. More points into bloodbath would have been nice... wouldn't have helped, here, but it would have been nice.

You had way too many points in weapon mastery. It gives diminishing returns for your investments and the first point in it is the best point. A berserker, especially, doesn't need to take it over three or four points. With six spare generics, you could have maxed health and put four more points into armor training -- which would have had a very good chance of saving you there. That master archer crit you... three times. Armor training might have cut that to zero.

You also could have invested the cat point I can't figure out where you put (One in bloodthirst, the other... where?) into field control (or whatever it was -- the track tree) and stuffed some of those generics into track. That might have told you what was coming for you.

[Covenant]

Should have known RE the weapons. I was initially using the shearing one, but swapped it out. And I had 6 or so unspent stat points - I knew I should have put them in Constitution.

For me, the benefit of pumping my strength and taking weapon mastery was that with my high damage (and level 5 Mortal Terror), I dazed pretty much anything I hit. My strongest asset was that once something got into my melee range, it generally didn't last long at all (which seemed to fit with the whole theme of a Berserker).

Though I agree with you about Bloodrage, the second point of that was no use at all. It'd have been better served in Health - though that said, I had a few unspent points when I died. It sounds as if Armor Training would have been another good place to put them.

The tree with Heave, Disengage, etc (I can't recall the name... Veteran?) didn't seem much use to me. The only circumstances I needed to run away were ones when I needed to run far away - where my teleport rune generally served me well. That said, in future, I'll probably max Rush, as it was more use than I'd expected it to be.

Ah well, I suppose it was just a long string of bad luck. C'est la vie. But edge points out some worrying aspects about how strong bows are - especially considering this wasn't even a master skeleton archer, just a regular one!

[bricks]

The daze on Rush is so NPCs don't phase door as soon as you close with them. Giving melee classes a chance to do something. Before the daze was added you might Rush a monster, only to have it disappear right after you hit it (which can be very frustrating).

That's reasonable, but the damage should be minimal and the cooldown/stamina use moderate. The range should be high, but not so high that you are getting rushed from well outside achievable attack range. Closing in and getting a free attack of your choice is very powerful in its own. Right now the talent lies at the far ends of these spectrums.

Bows are quick so archers can kite.

Ah, that makes some sense. Still, archers can get a dozen abilities based entirely on crowd control, field control, and mobility. I don't think the increased attack speed is warranted given all the other options. It also feels weird that bows and slings are extremely effective at close range. If an NPC is meant to kite, just give them the right abilities. Additionally, the ability to kite is more about movement speed than attack speed. Right now the high attack speed just turns archers into fixed turrets. I have to chuckle at the "aim" talent since standing still and mowing down everything in sight is predominantly the archer MO. Further, basic archer NPCs don't need the ability to kite. They already often appear in the midst of other foes, so the player is already at a tactical disadvantage.

[edge2054]

I hear ya Bricks and don't disagree with your assessment.

I don't think bows have really been looked at for awhile and could use some adjustments on a number of fronts (I've brought up the ego issue a number of times myself). As to Rush I see your point. Rebalancing it with a smaller stamina cost and less damage would make it both more useful to players and less deadly in the hands of npcs. Maybe it could even be more of an unarmed attack thing, like a shoulder check that stuns the enemy and deal it's damage based off strength instead of weapon damage.

[kazak 2]

Yeah, just looks like rotten luck.

One thought: I would've taken heightened senses from the rogue escort rather than disarm traps. That plus wintertide phial (which usually drops before that point) probably would've served better than the bright brass lantern--at least the chances of getting rushed from outside of sight range would be less.