Slavers Compound / Ring of Blood choices

[Farwalker]

It's unclear to me what benefits the various choices through this area might have in the game, other than the unlock and the artifact ring.

Unless it's been changed I seem to recall life leech being completely useless if you're not melee (and I'm running an archer at the moment) - although sadly there's still no good explanation in game that it works that way. But I thought I'd try stuff. Managed to break the code a bit at the end by choosing attack dialogue, softening the boss up, and then using the command orb while leaving summons behind to finish him off. (Bug reported already)

The accomplishment for freeing slaves is a really nice touch, would be really great if it actually affected something in the game storyline or something later on. Not sure if it's even better if you somehow manage to free all the slaves (I keep accidentally killing one or more).

Does anyone know if choices here make any difference for the rest of the game?

[magelike]

I used that ring on a bomb alchemist and ended up regenerating hundreds of health per bomb. Anything that does high damage (and either hits multiple times per round or multiple targets per round) is going to benefit greatly from Bloodcaller.

[Farwalker]

It worked for bombs? That sounds promising - time to retest!

Thanks for the tip!

[Frumple]

More specifically, the bloodcaller ring's heal can trigger off of any individual source of damage you deal. So say you've got an erosion weapon; that's three chances, right there. The nature and temporal's not very large, but it's still a few hp -- equivalent to increasing your HP regen by that much, that turn (and remember, a meager 5/hp turn passive takes five class points!). Once you start dealing some real damage, 100+ HP heals per round are very, very common. It's one of the best rings in the game

As for choices making a difference... nope. The zone's self-contained at the moment, it's pretty much entirely a binary "Do I get Bloodcaller or do I not?" thing. Optimal choice (from gameplay perspective, if not moral ) is to win a game in the ring, get Bloodcaller, and then kill th'slaver for the extra XP and loot

[Farwalker]

Thanks Frumple!

Hey, is it just direct damage, or does damage over time (like poison or bleeding) work too? What about damage via summons? (I ask about summons only because I recall reading something about a hydra summon area attack triggering effects to process, so I figure it's possible).

[lukep]

Damage over time like poisons/burning works, as does cloud effects like Glacial Vapours. It applies on anything that says something like:

player hits monster for XX [type] damage.

I don't think that summons work, but Grand Arrival might.

[HousePet]

The leech chance and amount also stack with necromancer's Vampirism sustain.

[supermini]

The leech chance and amount also stack with necromancer's Vampirism sustain.

Like Strong Bad says "Too much of a good thing is an awesome thing, and too much of an awesome thing is a bad thing".

[Farwalker]

Hmm... I won't have access to the necro vampirism option, but my murky memory recalls there were item buffs from the cursed tree with that kind of stuff. Maybe those would stack? Or did they change that? And on the weapon buffs, maybe there's something that would work with my sling and sling ammo, now that ammo has been introduced.

I'm tempted to just figure out how to read the code to check some of this stuff - would be nice to be able to just check the list of possible effects on items from the cursed tree for example to see what it looks like now.

Well, I got the ring and am continuing on...

Of course, I didn't actually join the slavers like my quest list says. I just happened to check out the orb before talking to the boss, and was surprised to find it allowed me to help the poor wretch in the ring survive! Naturally I then took further steps to put a wrench in the cogs of this slaving depravity.

[lukep]

The life leech bonuses on Cursed equipment were removed in the most recent rework.

[Sayan]

Of course, I didn't actually join the slavers like my quest list says. I just happened to check out the orb before talking to the boss, and was surprised to find it allowed me to help the poor wretch in the ring survive! Naturally I then took further steps to put a wrench in the cogs of this slaving depravity.

Wait, did you receive the ring without even talking to the boss? Naturally you can kill him after the ring fight.

Regarding the choices - isn't it the same with Yeek wayist in ruins? You get mental saves boost if you save him and nothing if you let him die or kill him yourself.

[Farwalker]

Yes, as far as I can recall I got the ring before talking to the boss for the first time.

(Was trying to keep my play "in character", so was nice to have that option, even if the text on the quest doesn't say anything different.)