Thalore AM Berserker // Finetuning needed

[Vagnard]

Hello,

after a bit of generally playing around I attempted my first serious character, a Thalore Anti-Magic Berserker. The start was a bit difficult due to bad luck concerning items (even taking a few deaths),but around lvl 10 my elf really started to shine. At lvl 20 the game became sort of a cakewalk, I even fought Urkist without any trouble, but then the cruel master of Dreadfell crushed all my ambitions of ever finishing the game. In retrospective I maybe shouldn't have kept teleporting back right into his unforgiving arms

Be that as it may, I enjoyed this build and I am looking for some input on it, especially concerning the AM Talents since I feel I wasted a lot of potential there.

My Talents were as followed:

Two-handed Weapons:
- omitted thus far. Looks ok but I felt other stuff was more important.

Two-handed Maiming: 5/0/0/0
-Stunning Blow was my main attack skill, decent dmg and of course high chance of stun, but do I really need 5 points here?

Combat Techniques: 5/1/1/5
-Rush: seemed very important for engaging mages, but I maybe went overboard on the range
-Precise Strike: looks ok, but I mainly got it as a pass-through. Are more points worthwhile?
-Perfect Strikes: same as the above
-Blinding Speed: Awesome skill imho, good for offence and to gtfo. I'd like to keep the 5 points in there

Combat Veteran: 1/1/1/1
-I'm not really convinced that I needed those. Healthreg. falls to the next skill group and with SB being my only active attack skill so far, stamina was also never a problem as long as you have any kind of stamreg on your items or from other skills. Spellshield looks good, but points may be better spent somewhere else.

Bloodthirst: 5/5/1/5
-Bloodbath: Loved this skill. I had a sword with +23% critchance, so it was practically always active and, in conjunction with the bloodcaller ring, healed me faster than normal monsters could inflict dmg.
-Mortal Terror: More crit for the above.
-Bloodrage: pass-through, but not to shabby really. The one point isn't wasted at least.
-Unstoppable: Looks good in theory, but the few times I actually needed it, it was on forced cooldown from some nasty effect.

Combat Training: 4/1/2/5/0
- Thick Skin: maybe not quite as soon?
- Armour : found very good leather early on. Otherwise I'd probably need at least 3.
-Accuracy: hits were always on target, didn't really need more (yet)

Conditioning: omitted
-wanted to save some points for AM talents, although Unflinching Resolve might had save my hide against the master.
What do you think of this tree?

Thalore Racial: 1/1/5/0
-Thaloren Wrath: good skill, but more points only reduce cd
-Unshackled: ok I guess, but nothing breathtaking
-Guardian of the Woods: I think I went overboard on this one due to a slight phobia of blight enemies. The effects of this skill should be fairly easy to get on items.
-Nature's Pride: 1 point for pawn sacrifice?

Wild Gift/Anti-Magic: 1/1/1/0
- with this one I need help. I heard only good things about it but I couldn't make it work so far. The res from Resolve is nice, but the shield seems to absorb very little damage and breaks down fast. Input welcome.

Wild Gift/Fungus: 1/1/1/0
-couldn't figure this one out as well. Does Fungal Growth trigger itself or does it need flat healing and not regeneration. Does Lifeleech or the bonuses from bloodbath count as healing?
How does Ancestral Life work exactly? I thought this could counteract the equilibrium gain from arcane shield, but it
seems I was wrong. Also, does 61% fraction of a turn mean I get a free action if AL trigger twice?

Cunning/Survival 1/0/1/0
-I simply took the two points from escorts and saved myself a category point. Though I highly doubt I would have actually invested here.



One step further:
- What do you think would be a good skill category addition to this build, or should I invest the remaining points in learned ones? I toyed with the idea of dirty fighting because the second skill Backstab would get me a guaranteed crit against stunned targets, which in turn would trigger bloodbath, which could trigger fungus ect.
Or maybe one or two more active attacks would do me some good. Again, input very welcome.




And finally, since I'm new here, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to anyone involved in this awesome gem of a game.
Thanks for reading...

[Fhtagn]

Here are my two cents:

Two-handed weapons: Get it. Not only is the first skill amazingly useful (doing increased damage and hitting multiple opponents, thus also reliably triggering bloodthirst), but there's also Berserker, which you should strongly consider. Sure, there's a drawback, but it's usually worth it for the stun and pinning resistance alone. You'll also probably want Death Blow. It IS a guaranteed crit, after all, and War Shout - the confuse is great. 1 in everything except Berserker, which you might want to max, should be enough though.

Two-handed Maiming: I agree on the skill choice, and I guess most people also go 5 points in it. I never did, but a few points certainly make sense.

Combat Veteran: I like Spell Shield. A lot. You might also need that stamina regen for longer fights. Then again, since the changes to saves on items, you might have enough saves even without spell shield.

Bloodthirst: Agreed. I usually get Unstoppable only way after going east, though.

Combat Training: Thick Skin rocks. Full stop. No reason not to get it. Armour training is essential later on. You need the crit reduction and increased hardiness.

Conditioning: Vitality is amazing if you push Constitution to decent levels. Especially as an AM with all that healing through Fungus.

Racials: Unshackled is nice, but sort of like Spell Shield. If you don't need it, don't get it. Guardian of the Woods should be maxed, it's probably the main reason to play Thalore in the first place. The Treants are nice as cannon fodder (and an instant-cast to boot), so I suggest getting them as well.

Anti-Magic: I'm sort of having trouble deciding when to get what as well. The Silence sure is strong, as are the first and second abilities. However, they need Mindpower, so you need Willpower. You might want to get by with 1/1/1 for a while until your willpower is decent.

Fungus: Fungal Growth needs flat healing. Not sure about Bloodbath, to be honest. However, you will want to get the last skill. It's a huge heal for just one point. Having fungus with like 3-4 points in the first and a few points in the 3rd skill means you can run two regeneration infusions and basically have them on autocast. Coupled with Vitality and a few heal mod items and the 4th skill as well as Unstoppable for emergencies, you should be very, very hard to kill - as long as you carry a wild infusion to get rid of those stuns.

Cunning: Get it from thieves like you did, or leave it be. It's not really worth a cat point.

As for category points, I don't suggest unlocking anything else. You already spent a point on Fungus, and one on Bloodthirst, leaving you with just enough points to max out your infusion slots, which is what you should do, really.

I hope that's helpful. If not, it might at least prompt more experienced players to jump in and correct me.

[Vagnard]

Thank you for your suggestions.

I'll definitly try out the Two-handed Weapons tree.
On a related note, I think I figured out Ancestral Life. 60+x% fraction of a turn means casting a reg. infusion only takes 40-x% of your current turn, making them almost instant.
So you could have reg.infusions on autocast and finally profit from EQ reduction. Now the question remains what causes these reductions, the initial casting of the infusion or the reg. effect itself.

[Fhtagn]

If the text is to be believed, the regeneration effect does, making regen gained through the fungus passive trigger the effect as well.

[Vagnard]

Just won the game with my new Berserker.

http://te4.org/characters/30808/tome/46 ... 639332b8b6

Then I went on to the Infinite Dungeon, started on lvl 75 already and hab to deal with lvl 104 enemies. No problems whatsoever.
This turned out to be a very good build.