A bit frustrated

[wobbly]

Personally I wish escort rewards weren't so magic heavy.

In a world where magic is shunned and hidden the number of escort rewards that scale with the magic attribute is pretty crazy, it's the majority of them in fact.

Flavor aside, it makes the majority of the rewards less good for the majority of classes. If you're not pumping your magic stat you're not getting the most out of escort rewards, at least not generally.

I think the base wild-gift tree has some good talents in it people would use. A psi escort could offer talents from mentalism, dreaming, feedback, or one of the mindslayer trees. Gestures would be pretty neat on a few classes (though a doomed escort might not make a lot of sense).
.

The field control category is another. I'm never prepared to spend a category point on it but would probably take a talent as a reward. Even at 0.7, track or disengage would be useful without being overpowered. Maybe a stranded scout could offer it? With constitution or cunning as alternatives?

[Stag]

Hey there. Excellent thread topic that could help a lot of people feeling frustrated with their game progress.

Ive focused mainly on an Arcane Blade (close to 30-40 made and failed by now). Im fairly comfortable with the game mechanics of runes/infusions and
skill trees. However I have as of yet made it past the mid-late teens (one time, got amazingly lucky loot). The number of recent lets plays around the internet is faily limited, so I
turn to the forums for advice.

Ive built several variations of the Arcane Blade in the hopes I was doing something wrong for the early game. Str focused/Magic focused/Str and Con focus/Str and Magic/Balanced focus
and most of them just run into the same issues regardless of the playstyle. The only way I can beat the Skeleton caster in KorPul (reliably), is by abusing the teleport skill. Basically one or two spells, remove freeze and teleport/heal to full. To me that seems really abusive/gimmicky even on such a low level boss. The lower levels tend to be harder to find the useful escape runes/infs as well, either because they arent for sale or because you cant afford them. I also have an issue with some lower level monsters who obliterate my character in one to two rounds, usually from outside my characters sight range (hello skeleton mages). So Im kind of at the point where I dont feel like playing because Im not really learning anything new from my "mistakes".

If it helps, my strategy is to make a Cornac/Higher Arcande Blade. Then I clear Old Forest -> Arena -> RoKP -> Old Forest Optional Boss -> Assassin Lord/Treant/ or Minotaur -> ?
Assuming I dont already die during any of those steps. Im still not super familiar with the places/boss names so forgive me.

Is there just something Im not aware of? Like a place to build your character more? Any tips would be appreciated, even if they may be completely obvious to everyone else.

TL;DR Not making progress with an Arcane Blade, need help.

[snoop]

I think you mean Trollmire, not the Old Forest.

You're missing a bunch of lower-level areas that you could get a couple levels and more loot out of. Without getting too spoiler-y, a more extensive exploration of the world map would help you out a lot! Check in the SW sort of under the western mountains to start...

[phantomglider]

It's not immediately obvious to beginners, but Stun is an enormously debilitating status effect, and Dirty Fighting - even at only one point, even with its poor damage - makes it much easier to deal with most enemies. The chance for it to stun is based on your accuracy, so putting a few generic points into the Combat Accuracy talent is a good idea.

You might also want to start a few elves to get a better idea of the other starting areas.

[kazak]

Not to mention that Arcane Blades are just a difficult class in the early game. You don't get good effect resistances from skills, no good defense or armor (at least not early on), nor do you have good regeneration or health boosts like berserkers.

I'm not a terrible player, I've beaten the game with both melee and caster types, and yet I have a really hard time with ABs. I'd even go so far as to say that, to me, it's maybe the most difficult class.

[wobbly]

Ive built several variations of the Arcane Blade in the hopes I was doing something wrong for the early game. Str focused/Magic focused/Str and Con focus/Str and Magic/Balanced focus
and most of them just run into the same issues regardless of the playstyle. The only way I can beat the Skeleton caster in KorPul (reliably), is by abusing the teleport skill. Basically one or two spells, remove freeze and teleport/heal to full. To me that seems really abusive/gimmicky even on such a low level boss. The lower levels tend to be harder to find the useful escape runes/infs as well, either because they arent for sale or because you cant afford them. I also have an issue with some lower level monsters who obliterate my character in one to two rounds, usually from outside my characters sight range (hello skeleton mages). So Im kind of at the point where I dont feel like playing because Im not really learning anything new from my "mistakes".

I always rush him then stun him with dirty fighting. He has trouble blasting you with magic when his dazed or stunned. I've usually got heightened sense by then (w/ arcane cunning the cunning prerequisite will stack onto your spellpower) so I can see him pretty early & the best regen infusion Derth sells. You should be able to find enough junk in trollmire to afford 1. Generally a maxed out flame spell & well on my way to max lightning by that stage.

[Stag]

I think you mean Troll-mire, not the Old Forest.

You're missing a bunch of lower-level areas that you could get a couple levels and more loot out of. Without getting too spoiler-y, a more extensive exploration of the world map would help you out a lot! Check in the SW sort of under the western mountains to start...

Thank you for all the tips! Yes, I meant Troll-mire. Something that has stopped me from adventuring too far south is the random adventurer parties that have ruined me quite a few times (one of the better AB runs Ive had was ended by some adventurer caster wrecking me in two rounds).

I will definitely make it a priority to look around next time I get to the world map.

[Mewtarthio]

Adventurer parties can be evaded. Just make sure you don't end your move adjacent to them and keep looking for an opening to slip by.

[greycat]

In the last 42 weeks I've started 10 characters that have made it to the web site. Not a single one of them has been higher than level 18 at time of death. I have no idea how many characters didn't make it to the web site (after all this time, ToME still fails to connect to the server if the connection is laggy, which for me is most of the time... I guess my suggestion of having the client queue up results and retry them later wasn't popular enough).

So anyway, the game is friggin' HARD. And I'm a veteran saying this. I've had characters reach the final boss battle before (but never won). But I've never made it anywhere near that since the fancy cross-tier effect thingy system went in. I just get smashed by something, every time.

(And hey, when did the Weirdling Beast start doing 100- to 150-point mental attacks and 200-point arcane attacks? Holy shit! So hey look, another dead character.)

[darkgod]

I never buffed the weirdling beast

Why do cross tier effect make you so dead ?

[Frumple]

Lies! That devourer taint is new Well, and that manasurge rune. AI line's different too, but that's about it compared to the b17 WB. Code's practically identical. I just checked

Yeah, seriously though, other than that the actual npc data on WB has been unchanged since, like, it was implemented. It's a little crazy, dude's been pretty much untouched this whole time. You want a shining example of the concept of "stealth buff" WB's your man-beast. Almost every change in its balance has been due to other things being changed (the talents it uses, cross tier effects, kit improvement, etc., so forth.).

[greycat]

Why do cross tier effect make you so dead ?

I can't really pinpoint why I get killed more quickly now. But it definitely started around the time the cross-tier stuff went in, so I simply used that as an estimate of the time frame.

Part of it, I can say, is an attempt to unlock the Marauder class. That means playing Rogues. That means I die. Rogue = dead. Not much more to say about that one....

Most recent death was a level 16 Dwarf Wyrmic at the Weirdling Beast. I generally remember him as a healing machine, so your goal was to maximize damage output to overcome his insane regeneration, healing and shielding. But at some point apparently he became an ass-kicker with mind attacks doing 100 to 150, and an arcane attack critting for 199. All I really wanted was to drop off the crap I was carrying around! I guess I'm supposed to abuse vaults until I'm ready to head East or something. At which point I can lose to him MORE painfully because he'll scale up to my level and be even harder, and I'll be more invested in my dead character.

Second most recent, also beta 42, was a level 5 Thalore Wyrmic who died on level 2 of the Trollmire. Sandwiched between two different random unique trolls. Literally surrounded, unable to use lightning speed to escape. Didn't make it to the web site apparently.

Other deaths from that time period were all pre-beta42, and I'm not going to try to guess the reasons now.

[ohioastro]

I do think that the game is much, much harder than it used to be. Part of the reason is simply that extra hazards have been added - adventurer parties in the west, random elite mobs, and so on. Another is that mobs inherit changes to characters - so if mages get some cool new ability you'll be on the receiving end if you're running a non-mage.

But the biggest problem for me is that there are now so many different categories of threats, and so many tools that only work for some of them. Hmmm...I now need to worry about critters putting me to sleep. What save is *that*? The fact that you can get plastered with a half-dozen things at once also makes a lot of the old tools less useful. It used to be the case that we could use escort quests to fill in gaps, so to speak - the ability to pick up "remove one bad status" was a huge help to some classes. That's not a great solution (random and arbitrary), but it hasn't been replaced with anything.

So I end up with a lot of toons that make it into the 20s and then hit something which wipes out a few levels at once. It could be an adventurer party, a couple of rare elites together, a boss that I can't appear to hurt. And yet I can run other classes where the same encounters are utterly trivial. I had Figlio in Dreadfall with some many healing tools that I couldn't drop him below 80% (but I could beat the Master after I simply bypassed the rogue..) Subject Z dismantled melee toons; casters don't even notice him. My alchemists *hunt* adventurer parties for goodies. I have a solopcist who is absolutely King Kong - unless he hits the occasional worm that walks, who can drain him to almost nothing in 2 rounds. My anorthil got to Vor Armory and couldn't land anything on the bosses there. The yeek summoner just hid around a corner and dropped a zillion summons on them and wiped them out, right down to the overpowered wyrms. Go figure.

I'm thinking that you need a reward in the west, like the one in the east, that lets you remove a bunch of bad effects at once (rarely). Or some way to make existing tools more flexible: let me choose which of the effects I remove with an infusion, or remove more statuses, or so on. Perhaps warnings if there are mismatches between some classes and some encounters (e.g. melee toons and Subject Z). The challenge level keeps me coming back, but it will set a low ceiling on the appeal of the game for a mass audience.

[edge2054]

Totems and Torques being purchasable in the mindstar shops next release should help somewhat with status effects.

Also stun and confusion are getting nerfed.

[Dwindlehop]

I just spent the afternoon rolling Cornac Arcane Blades and dying in Trollmire in b42. I had this down to a science in b41, but I am having quite a bit of trouble in b42. If I had to put a finger on what changed, it seems like in b42 I am frequently going up against Prox with all white gear apart from some boots or a hat. In b41, I felt like I usually had one blue and a couple greens. Not only did I usually have a magic weapon, I often had a choice of what to wield. I like to dual wield with Fiery Hands, but I'm not finding any 1H weapons at all before bumping into Prox.

Did the gear in Trollmire change in b42 or is the RNG or my memory being unkind to me?