What is the easiest way to clear the game?

[Mathematician13]

I've been fooling around in this game for a while now. I can usually make it to the east, but I still have not managed to get a character past level 40. I have everything unlocked except for adventurers, which i'm not even sure are in game. I seem to have the best luck playing cornac and yeek solipsts or with a skeleton or cornac archmages. I was wondering what the easiest class to clear the game with is and what kind of builds work the best. I'm fairly experienced with roguelikes although this one is very different from the others that i have played. I have cleared nethack with every class and i have cleared dungeon crawl twice. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[stinkstink]

Oozemancers atm are crazy overpowered. Rampage Cursed have a pretty easy time if you can survive the west.

[Mathematician13]

I haven't played cursed much because i'm not much of a fan of them. Although i have used rampage and it definitely seems like a very powerful skill to have. Right now i'm in the middle of a solipsist run that's using a distortion/psionic assault/dream-forge build with a few points in dream-forge and slumber. I'm also using the normal solipsist stuff, maxed resonance field and conversion with some points in yeek quickened and dreamwalk for escaping. I got psiblades from an escort, not sure if they're worth it but they seem like a good alternative when in melee range and i don't want to burn psi to do damage. Right now i'm wondering whether it's better to spend a category point on mind-star mastery or to just ignore it and get fungus instead for more durability. A friend of mine keeps telling me to get discharge, but i've tried it and it just doesn't seem very useful to me. It has decent damage output and the feedback inversion is handy but the inability to fight or move while it's active just makes it seem like a waste.

[Mathematician13]

Also my archmages seem to have lot of luck either going skeleton or playing cornac and getting celestial/light category. I usually run a tri-beam build using Arcane/Fire/Wildfire with a few points thrown into the water category and the lighting bold talent for survivability. Also the meta-spell tree seems very handy mainly for spell-craft and quicken spells. The damage output on the fire/wildfire talents seems kind of broken as well as the tanking abilities from high-powered aegies talents combines with some good shield runes and healing talents like celestial light or re-assemble. My archmages usually just die from getting insta-gibbed or silenced because their health and armor are so low although my damage output seems broken.

[tylor]

Mindstar mastery can be bought in Zigur. Better put that cat point in Nightmare - with just 5/2/1/2 you will keep mobs nearly constantly in sleep, and will get some good decoys. And yes, solipsist is one of the most survivable chars, especially with AM.
But most easy class, I think, is Summoner. You just don't come near enemies, spam drakes from afar until everything is dead.

[Canderel]

Summoners are pretty easy, mostly cause you can make the summons tank the damage for you.

[ohioastro]

Here are the ones that I've found the most straightforward:

1) Dwarf Berserker. Stack saves to the ceiling. You inflict very high damage, and can add in good mobility. I didn't find antimagic useful or needed. This is a resilient and not fussy build.

2) Skeleton Alchemist. Get an anorithil escort for Providence, and get enough gear to swap to embed gems in three items. You inflict extreme damage with bombs and can buff the golem (I like a mage golem with laser eyes) to be a good complement. Hunt until you get a blind resistance item (100%) and use the gems to get stun resistance (100%). Pile up a bunch of shields (skeleton one, anorithil one, a couple of runes.) You'll be bulletproof all the way to the final battle. I got the most bang for the buck by stacking acid damage and penetration - the fire bomb does damage over time. Add in a focus on spell crit gear and you can be doing astonishing routine AE damage in the 3,000 range. Not much needs two bombs, and even the final bosses drop fast.

[tylor]

Also, elemental resist is a pretty big deal late game. Fire and may be blight I think two most important - get them to 50-70% and you will save many lives.

[Pigslayer]

Oozemancer - The latest OP class. I know a few people who got their 1st wins with this class, and they're terrible at roguelikes.

Alchemist - You get a tough meatshield and a screen-clearing nuke. What more could you want?

Berserker - Tough, deals good damage, and it's simple to play.

The main difficulty in Tome are sudden dangers and surprises, followed by long stretches of easiness. Being spoiled (and prepared) will get you farther in Tome than anything else.

[lukep]

My easiest wins were a Higher Wyrmic (went AM, focused on Fungus tree), and a rapid shot skeleton archer.

I actually tend to avoid arcane classes, as antimagic is a very strong counter to them, and can quickly disable all of your options. Mindpower and martial classes don't have that vulnerability (though martial classes still need to hit invisible enemies)

[Mathematician13]

Mindstar mastery can be bought in Zigur. Better put that cat point in Nightmare - with just 5/2/1/2 you will keep mobs nearly constantly in sleep, and will get some good decoys. And yes, solipsist is one of the most survivable chars, especially with AM.
But most easy class, I think, is Summoner. You just don't come near enemies, spam drakes from afar until everything is dead.

How do you purchase Mindstar mastery? I've never heard of this before. I know that you can unlock fungus for killing Urkis. I already bought combat training and put 1 point into armor just so i can wear the spellhunt remnants or whatever other good helmets or boots i find. I've been taking a look at Nightmare and considering trying it out, i've never used it before. I imagine that cone sleep talen is insanely useful.

When i first started playing this class summoners definitely seemed like a good choice, they were the first class i made it to Dreadfell with. I probably could clear the game with one but i got bored and started charging in to fight with my summons, only to get myself killed since summoner's definitely aren't built for close combat. I just got tired of standing out of enemies LOS spamming summons at them until they died, although whenever my Solipsist dies i'll probably start up either a Summoner or a dwarf Berserker. I really haven't played berserker's much, i tend to be a fan of the more complicated builds and hybrid characters rather than straight-forward damage tanks.

That's good to know about the elemntal resistance. I definitely noticed that i was taking a lot of fire-damage and i remember reading somewhere that the hardest hitting enemies use blight.

Also, thanks for all the feedback everybody, definitely giving me some good ideas and things i hadn't thought of yet.

[TheRani]

How do you purchase Mindstar mastery? I've never heard of this before. I know that you can unlock fungus for killing Urkis. I already bought combat training and put 1 point into armor just so i can wear the spellhunt remnants or whatever other good helmets or boots i find. I've been taking a look at Nightmare and considering trying it out, i've never used it before. I imagine that cone sleep talen is insanely useful.

In Zigur, there's a shop that looks like a gem shop, but it isn't one. It actually sells mindstars, torques, and totems. It also offers training in Mindstars.

[Mathematician13]

When i go to the shop in zigur they aren't offering me anything. It might be a donator only thing. I have not yet donatedm although i am seriously tempted to to unlock oozemancers and stone wardends.

[stinkstink]

Are you playing 1.0.1? Do you have enough gold?

[Mathematician13]

No, i'm playing 1.0, i didn't realize a new version came out already. I'll have to check it out.