Oozemancer Guide

[bpat]

Update 12/31/2013
Having won on nightmare on the current patch, I've realized some of the advice I gave in this guide was out of date or not very good. Most notably, I seriously underrated Call of the Ooze and the Moss talents and Natural Acid and Corrosive Nature got nerfed really hard. Also, Eye of the Tiger went from being one of the best prodigies for Oozemancers to one of the worst.

Introduction
Despite the many nerfs, Oozemancers are still pretty OP. It's probably easier to win on nightmare with an Oozemancer than it is to win on normal with many classes. Although Oozemancers are inherently Antimagic, they still play similar to mages with powerful ranged attacks and controlled teleports. Oozemancers are fairly more defensive than most mages (despite their -3 hp per level) since their summoned Oozes help tank damage and their Antimagic tree helps them defend against most types of damage.

Race
Higher **
Although Gift of the Highborn scales with willpower, it's still usually worse than a regeneration infusion, although it can be abused to get extra turns. Overseer of Nations is decent, the blindness immunity doesn't help since you can already get 100% from class talents. Born into Magic is worthless on an Antimagic character and Highborn's Bloom is also terrible since equilibrium isn't a major issue on an Oozemancer.

Cornac **
You only need to unlock two categories unless you want Harmony or Dreaming (escort category) and racials are usually much more useful than a category point.

Shalore *
You're Antimagic so you can't use your racials.

Thalore *****
Despite the nerfs, Thalore is still amazing. Even though you can get 100% disease immunity without Guardian of the Wood, 6.5% all damage reduction is still great as is the blight resistance. Both the activated abilities are great too since they're both instant casts, especially the summon (great for tanking projectiles or moving while pinned). The experience penalty is harsh and you probably won't hit lvl50 on normal without farportals.

Halfling ****
If you really like the Eye of the Tiger or Lucky Day prodigies Halfling Oozemancers can be very powerful. Militant Mind and Indomitable are really strong in any build.

Dwarf ***
Power is Money is pretty cool, but the other racials aren't that good since you shouldn't be getting hit in melee a lot as an Oozemancer.

Yeek ***
Your hp per level will be a pathetic at 4, but all your racials are pretty good. However, Quickened isn't as good on an Oozemancer as it is on many other classes since you're fairly limited by cooldowns even with Eye of the Tiger (only 5 useful offense spells).


Stats
Wil > cun > con


Class Talents
Slime
Slime Spit *****
Your primary damage talent. Its 800% missile speed can cause it to miss against moving foes but this isn't a major problem. Its bounce allows it to clear groups of enemies easily, but it can still easily miss a bounce with its 800% missile speed. Get it to 5/5 early since you'll be using it almost every fight.

Poisonous Spores *****
This skill does crazy damage if it runs its full duration, but it can be resisted by many enemies. Great for clearing grouped up enemies and definitely worth 5/5.

Acidic Skin **
It's not particularly powerful but it only costs 3 equilibrium which isn't an issue. Unfortunately, you won't take advantage of it often since you are seldom in melee range. Leave it at 1/5.

Slime Roots ***
The cooldown reset isn't particularly good since most of your important abilities have low cooldowns and its mobility it's much worse than Oozewalk. Put points in it if you have nothing better to invest in since it can reset Mana Clash and Silence but it's not particularly useful most of the game. 1/5 is all you need.

Mucus
Mucus *****
This keeps your equilibrium low so you never have to meditate. It also allows you to Oozewalk to the Mucus created by Acid Splash and it does a ton of damage. Suggested 1/5 early and 5/5 later when you can spare the points.

Acid Splash *****
Until level 20 this is your only reliable way of applying Natural Acid. Its damage is decent but not particularly good, especially later on when you have much more bonus nature damage than acid damage. However, it creates Mucus which is useful for Living Mucus and Oozewalk. Suggested 1/5 early and 4/5 later to increase the radius.

Living Mucus *****
The Mucus Oozes it creates are weak initially, but en masse they can be extremely powerful with Unstoppable Nature late game. Acid Splash a group of enemies to take full advantage of this ability. Since the nerfs this talent is no longer worth maxing but it's great at 1/5

Oozewalk *****
Use Mucus and Acid Splash the location you want to go, then use Oozewalk to teleport there. It also removes physical and mental debuffs but you should still keep a physical Wild Infusion to get rid of freezes and stuns. You only need 1/5 points in this talent.

Ooze
Mitosis *****
Bloated Oozes essentially reduce your damage taken by 50% for as long as they're alive. This talent makes Oozemancers able to survive much more easily than their -3 hp per level suggests. Suggested 5/5 to be able to have 3 Bloated Oozes at once.

Reabsorb ****
This ability is great since the 40% reduction stacks with thick skin and Guardian of the Wood (if you're a Thalore) to get you to 61.5% resist all. The manaburn is OK but you're really using it for the resist bonus. Suggested at least 1/5, more if you use it often.

Call of the Ooze *****
This ability allows you to instantly max out on Bloated Oozes. This is also surprisingly one of your strongest damage abilities late game once your melee damage gets really high. It also procs on-hit effects like gloom from misery rings and ice from ice weapons, so hold onto items with good on-hit effects. Suggested 1/5 early and 5/5 after maxing Mitosis.

Indiscernible Anatomy *****
58% disease, poison, cut, and blind resist and lots of critical damage reduction best passives in the game, even after the nerfs. 5/5 this as soon as you can.

Moss

Grasping Moss *****
This screws up melee opponents so much, nothing should be able to hit you in melee without rush. Get 1/5 early and put more points in it to increase the radius.

Nourishing Moss ****
If it hits at least 2 enemies a turn with a decent point investment, this will heal your for as much as a Regeneration Infusion. However, I didn't use it very much since I felt the other Mosses were better and I wasn't having any trouble staying alive.

Slippery Moss *****
This makes your enemies skip turns, making it probably the best Moss.

Hallucinogenic Moss ****
Confusion is nice but its worse than Slippery Moss. Still, it's good for when Slippery Moss is on cooldown.

Oozing Blades
Your first category point should be used to unlock this tree.

Oozebeam *****
Your second best damage talent. Slightly weaker than Slime Spit but it always hits and has a lower cooldown. 5/5 this ASAP.

Natural Acid ***
This talent used to be one of the most OP passives in the game to simply decent now that it has a cooldown. It's not bad but not great either and it probably messes up Eye of the Tiger. It's still worth a point and maxing it isn't a bad idea but it's nowhere near as good as it used to be.

Mind Parasite *
Many enemies late game have so many talents that this doesn't actually matter. I never used this ability since even moving is usually a better use of a turn. Get 1/5 so you can get Unstoppable Nature.

Unstoppable Nature ***
Nature resist penetration is mediocre, especially thanks to Natural Acid, but the bonus nature damage is still nice. The Mucus Ooze effect is decent but it's not particularly good. Fortunately, equilibrium isn't an issue thanks to Mucus so you don't have to worry about the sustain cost. Get 5/5 if you really like Mucus Oozes but otherwise there are probably better places to spend your points.

Corrosive Blades
Your second or third category point should be used to unlock this tree.

Acidbeam *****
This talent is your best method of applying Natural Acid due to its low cooldown. Even though you won't be getting much bonus acid damage it still is fairly powerful throughout the entire game. Suggested 5/5 ASAP.

Corrosive Nature ***
You won't be using acid damage too much but it reduced acid resistance by 50% by the end of the game for me with only one point in it. Leave it at 1/5.

Corrosive Seeds **
This is bad, put your points in Moss instead.

Acidic Soil ****
You don't do much acid damage but resistance penetration is decent. Healing Bloated Oozes really helps with your survivability and this talents scales surprisingly well, so don't dismiss it after seeing it only heals 11% per turn at 1/5.

Generic Talents
Survival
Heightened Senses **
This isn't very good, the only reason to put any points in it is to get to Charm Mastery

Charm Mastery *****
This essentially lets you use items like The Guardian's Totem and Eyal's Will way more often than usual. This is the often best talent to get from Thief escorts.

Piercing Sight ***
Lets you see invisible foes more easily. Considering getting a point in it from Thief escorts so you can skip Heightened Senses

Antimagic
Resolve *****
By the end of the game this gives around 50% resistance. Get 1/5 immediately and max it later.

Silence ****
This talent completely shuts down casters for a few turns. 3/5 gets the radius to 10 but even 1/5 is decent.

Antimagic Shield *****
Equilibrium isn't an issue for you thanks to Mucus. This blocks tons of damage and becomes even better with Tricky Defenses. 5/5 this talent fairly quickly.

Mana Clash *****
Great for shutting down casters, especially Corruptors. Suggested 1/5 at level 12 and consider investing more points in it later.

Call of the Wild
Meditation **
You will never use this in fights thanks to Mucus unless you need the healing bonus. Suggested 1/5 to regenerate equilibrium while resting.

Nature's Touch *****
This is your most reliable heal and it's amazing throughout the entire game. However, it doesn't benefit much from investing lots of points in you can heal for 1500 with a crit late game with only a few points in it. Suggested at least 1/5, maybe more late game.

Earth's Eyes *
This is usually a waste of a turn.

Nature's Balance **
Usually you don't have to wait more than a turn to get a useful talent off cooldown. This could be OK if you like abusing Silence or Mana Clash but otherwise its pretty bad.

Mindstar Mastery
Psiblades *****
Makes your mindpower reach absurd levels. Get at least 1/5 by level 10 to use Oozebeam and max it eventually.

Thorny Grab ***
This talent is only good because it doesn't take a turn to use. Suggested 1/5.

Leave's Tide *****
Evasion is amazing and that's all that matters. No matter how many points you put in it, the evasion chance never goes above 57% which can be achieved with only 2/5.

Nature's Equilibrium ***
The heal nice but you have to be in melee range of a target to use it, but can hit a Bloated or Mucus Ooze instead of a foe and it will still work. Even though it's worse than Nature's Touch it can still be helpful if Nature's Touch is on cooldown. Get at least 1/5.

Fungus
You get this after completing Storming the City so don't use a category point to unlock this.
Wild Growth *****
Makes your regeneration infusions last over twice as long. 4/5 fairly quickly unless you're using two Regeneration Infusions for some reason.

Fungal Growth ***
This is good if you use Nature's Touch within the few turns between when your Regeneration Infusion ends and it comes off cooldown. Other than that its pretty useless since Regeneration Infusions are way better. Get 1/5 and leave it.

Ancestral Life *****
Makes using a Regeneration Infusion take little or no time. It's good enough with 1/5 but 5/5 is still helpful.

Sudden Growth ****
This is an amazing heal at 1/5. If you have a Regeneration Infusion it should heal you to max.

Combat Training
Unlock this for 50g at Last Hope
Thick Skin *****
This stacks with Reabsorb and Guardian of the Wood. Put points into it whenever possible (hold onto con boosting items for this).

Armor Training ***
Get 1/5 if you find a heavy armor you like such as Spellhunt Remains.

Combat Accuracy/Weapons Mastery/Dagger Mastery
You use Mindstars, invest zero points in these talents.

Harmony
You can unlock this with a category point if you wish.

Waters of Life *
This is great on many other classes but completely useless on Oozemancers because of Indiscernible Anatomy.

Elemental Harmony ***
You have no way of applying fire, cold, or lightning damage to yourself and your nature and acid AoEs don't hurt you and targeting Slime Spit, Oozebeam, or Acidbeam on yourself might kill you (and possibly apply Corrosive Nature/Natural Acid, I haven't tested this). Still its a decent talent since the sustain cost doesn't matter to Oozemancers once Mucus is maxed.

One with Nature ***
This is okay but not worth multiple points

Healing Nexus *
This is extremely situational, you probably don't want more than 1/5 in this talent.


Prodigies
I got Spell Feedback and Eye of the Tiger on my first run (normal) but this isn't very good anymore. On nightmare I went Spell Feedback and Spine of the World which I liked much better. However, these are by no means the only good Prodigies on Oozemancers.

Windtouched Speed ***
20% global speed is decent but you still only have 5 offensive talents worth using so Oozemancers are more hindered by cooldowns than speed. Also its a pain to get 50 dex so plan ahead by holding onto dex boosting items.

Draconic Body **
You have low hp but good regeneration thanks to Fungus and Regeneration Infusions so this isn't actually very good.

Fungal Blood *****
You can use it to get free turns with Fungal Growth and Ancestral Life. Micromanagey but great.

Spine of the World ****
Being immune to stuns if fun. Just use your physical Wild on whatever effect hits you and enjoy your physical debuff immunity for the next 5 turns.

Draconic Will ***
This is okay but Indiscernible Anatomy makes this unnecessary except for blocking stuns, freezes, and confusion.

Meteoric Crash ****
This is your only way of applying stun. Don't expect this to deal a ton of damage since you won't be stacking fire or physical damage.

Garkul's Revenge ***
+20% damage to all humanoids including Orcs is cool since late game most of your enemies are Orcs.

Lucky Day ***
This is good on Halflings if you like Duck and Dodge and Eye of the Tiger

Spell Feedback *****
Great for shutting down casters, but you're already so good against them that this might be overkill.

Eye of the Tiger **
This used to be very good but after the Natural Acid and Corrosive Nature nerfs it will probably try to reduce their cooldown, which we don't want. Also it will try to reduce the cooldown on Mosses so if you get this, don't go farther than Grasping Moss in the tree.

Tricky Defenses ***
This doesn't help by enough to be worth it.


Inscriptions
Regeneration, Wild (physical or physical and mental), Movement, and Heroism are pretty much required. For the last one get either another Heroism or Movement or Wild Growth from the alchemist quest.


General Combat Tips
If an Ooze if blocking your Slime Spit from targeting an enemy, it will bounce of the Ooze to an enemy if you shoot it at your Ooze (this will usually kill the Ooze). If you use Slime Spit on an enemy over 8 range away, you can use Acidbeam to apply Natural Acid before the missile hits. Acid Splash is great for spreading Mucus for Living Mucus. You can Oozewalk to the Mucus created by your Acid Splash. Mucus can be used to keep your Equilibrium low so you can afford to keep Antimagic Shield up at all times.

[Snarvid]

Does the Higher Gift of the Highborn + Ancestral Life still give you insta-cast on your next whatever in 1.03? If so, I'd argue that Higher deserves something markedly better than a 1 star. Oozemancers have very solid generic choices so you don't need the racials as places to spend, and a single generic + Ancestral Life max (that you were going to get anyway) is a cheap buy for a strong effect. Was extremely OP when you could reset your racials with Slime Roots.

Fungal Blood might allow the same effect, haven't tried.

[bpat]

Does the Higher Gift of the Highborn + Ancestral Life still give you insta-cast on your next whatever in 1.03? If so, I'd argue that Higher deserves something markedly better than a 1 star. Oozemancers have very solid generic choices so you don't need the racials as places to spend, and a single generic + Ancestral Life max (that you were going to get anyway) is a cheap buy for a strong effect. Was extremely OP when you could reset your racials with Slime Roots.

Fungal Blood might allow the same effect, haven't tried.

I haven't tested this, but if someone confirms that it works I'll gladly bump Higher up to two or three stars. However, this synergy isn't as good as it sounds since you'd have to cancel your Regeneration Infusion or wait for it to expire to take advantage of it (since a Psychic's or Sneak's Regeneration Infusion will usually give you more regeneration than Gift of the Highborn). I also disagree about not needing racials since in many cases racials such as Power is Money, Militant Mind, Guardian of the Wood, Nature's Pride, and Wayist are far better than most Oozemancer generics, so I'd still argue that Thalores, Halflings, Dwarfs, and Yeeks are better Oozemancers than Highers.

[Snarvid]

Well, the new Born into Magic has a damage boost, right? Not sure why it's useless on AM, unless it somehow conflicts.

The synergy is for the free turn, you don't care at all about the actual regen. You've got way better regeneration from infusions, you want the burst damage front-loading. It also gives you an amazing panic button when you to those few "room full of bone-shielded corruptors" moments where you could be gibbed in a single round even through a passel of bloated oozes. Insta-casting Acid Splash and then Slime Roots-ing away before your opponent can react is a free I Beat the Room of Death achievement.

Speaking of Call of the Ooze, the longer CD on it post-patch should make Nature's Balance quite a bit better.

[bpat]

Well, the new Born into Magic has a damage boost, right? Not sure why it's useless on AM, unless it somehow conflicts.

I'm pretty sure the damage boost is specifically on spell damage.

[Snarvid]

That would be a good reason for avoid buying it on an Oozy, then. My bad... only tried Higher on a Reaver.

Still, I think a frontloaded haste for a single generic spend is worth quite a bit. Worked pre-patch, didn't see it in notes. Comparing to, say, a Yeek with 5 points in their speed boost, the Yeek is going to come out ahead on paper after 6-7 turns but the frontloading and guaranteed hit-and-run is worth quite a bit.

In a general tightening up of the guide sense, I think you want your thoughts on the cooldowns to get a little more unified. Yeek speed boost and Windtouched Speed is lowered in value due to cooldowns, Nature's Balance and Slime Roots cooldown reset isn't valued because cooldowns don't limit you that much. Which one?

Note that, also, Nature's Balance and Slime Roots should still be able to reset each other, so Call of the Ooze -> Acid Splash -> Slime Spit -> Slime Roots away -> Slime Spit -> Acid Splash -> Call of the Ooze -> Nature's Balance -> repeat loop should work to optimize your offense with your top-tier talents.

On a second read, did like the discussion of avoiding later Mosses in order to benefit most from Eye of the Tiger. Also applies to Slime Roots.

Endless Woes might be reasonable to consider with Acid Splash if you're hit-and-run intensive. Maybe for Nightmare.

[bpat]

That would be a good reason for avoid buying it on an Oozy, then. My bad... only tried Higher on a Reaver.

Still, I think a frontloaded haste for a single generic spend is worth quite a bit. Worked pre-patch, didn't see it in notes. Comparing to, say, a Yeek with 5 points in their speed boost, the Yeek is going to come out ahead on paper after 6-7 turns but the frontloading and guaranteed hit-and-run is worth quite a bit.

In a general tightening up of the guide sense, I think you want your thoughts on the cooldowns to get a little more unified. Yeek speed boost and Windtouched Speed is lowered in value due to cooldowns, Nature's Balance and Slime Roots cooldown reset isn't valued because cooldowns don't limit you that much. Which one?

Note that, also, Nature's Balance and Slime Roots should still be able to reset each other, so Call of the Ooze -> Acid Splash -> Slime Spit -> Slime Roots away -> Slime Spit -> Acid Splash -> Call of the Ooze -> Nature's Balance -> repeat loop should work to optimize your offense with your top-tier talents.

On a second read, did like the discussion of avoiding later Mosses in order to benefit most from Eye of the Tiger. Also applies to Slime Roots.

Endless Woes might be reasonable to consider with Acid Splash if you're hit-and-run intensive. Maybe for Nightmare.

I should have probably been more clear on the cooldown issue. Oozemancers are interesting when it comes to cooldowns since you have a small number of offensive talents (5) with low cooldowns (3-10 turns). This means that you will never have multiple consecutive turns without being able to use an offensive talent, but you can still benefit from Eye of the Tiger since if you use Acid Splash and Poisonous Spores at the start of the fight (to maximize their benefit) you are left Slime Spit, Oozebeam, and Acidbeam for the next 8 turns. I will edit the guide over the weekend to include the synergy between Slime Roots and Nature's Balance which could be useful for builds more reliant on Call of the Ooze.
Admittedly I haven't tried Oozemancer on Nightmare so some of your ideas may be good for Nightmare, but on normal I never felt like I needed to reset the cooldown of Call of the Ooze and Acid Splash since I didn't find myself in danger too often (perhaps because of a combination of Antimagic Shield, Thalore's racials, and not playing on Nightmare) and since Acid Splash doesn't benefit too much from cooldown resets because its damage is weak and most of its benefit is from Mucus which lasts 8 turns while Acid Splash only has a 10 turn cooldown. Endless Woes is bad in my opinion since your acid abilities are more for utility than damage (applying Natural Acid and creating Mucus) and reducing accuracy isn't a big deal since you should rarely be in melee range and if you are you have great ways of escaping (Oozewalk, Slime Roots, and Thalore and Yeek racial summons).

[Snarvid]

I should have probably been more clear on the cooldown issue. Oozemancers are interesting when it comes to cooldowns since you have a small number of offensive talents (5) with low cooldowns (3-10 turns). This means that you will never have multiple consecutive turns without being able to use an offensive talent, but you can still benefit from Eye of the Tiger since if you use Acid Splash and Poisonous Spores at the start of the fight (to maximize their benefit) you are left Slime Spit, Oozebeam, and Acidbeam for the next 8 turns. I will edit the guide over the weekend to include the synergy between Slime Roots and Nature's Balance which could be useful for builds more reliant on Call of the Ooze.
Admittedly I haven't tried Oozemancer on Nightmare so some of your ideas may be good for Nightmare, but on normal I never felt like I needed to reset the cooldown of Call of the Ooze and Acid Splash since I didn't find myself in danger too often (perhaps because of a combination of Antimagic Shield, Thalore's racials, and not playing on Nightmare) and since Acid Splash doesn't benefit too much from cooldown resets because its damage is weak and most of its benefit is from Mucus which lasts 8 turns while Acid Splash only has a 10 turn cooldown. Endless Woes is bad in my opinion since your acid abilities are more for utility than damage (applying Natural Acid and creating Mucus) and reducing accuracy isn't a big deal since you should rarely be in melee range and if you are you have great ways of escaping (Oozewalk, Slime Roots, and Thalore and Yeek racial summons).

Cool. Makes more sense.

Have you played post-patch? Call's cooldown is quite a bit longer. And it's another reliable source of acid damage, which hopefully is a little stronger now that Psiblades are fixed.

I haven't played on Nightmare, but when dealing with the few situations I felt threatened in (Room of Death) I found hit and run valuable. At that point you're resetting Acid Splash to cover new areas with Mucus and focus-fire with any surviving Oozes while remaining out of LOS as much as possible, not just to spam the initial acid hit.

[bpat]

Have you played post-patch? Call's cooldown is quite a bit longer. And it's another reliable source of acid damage, which hopefully is a little stronger now that Psiblades are fixed.

I haven't played on Nightmare, but when dealing with the few situations I felt threatened in (Room of Death) I found hit and run valuable. At that point you're resetting Acid Splash to cover new areas with Mucus and focus-fire with any surviving Oozes while remaining out of LOS as much as possible, not just to spam the initial acid hit.

My win was on 1.0.3 (here's the character http://te4.org/characters/38638/tome/c7 ... edd99fa664). I just escaped the room of death with a movement infusion but your method would probably be best for actually fighting the wyrms. I personally didn't rely much on Call of the Ooze and Reabsorb but they are both fantastic abilities that could be better utilized in a more defensive build. The thing about resetting Acid Splash is that the chance to spawn a Mucus Ooze is the same if you have 1 or 10 tiles of Mucus, so the only use for resetting I can think of is escaping with Oozewalk.

[Sirrocco]

I find that I play an Oozemaster a bit differently than you do. For me, I basically have three attack powers. I use Call of the Ooze, Acid Splash, and Slime Spit. Mucus tree gets 5/5/5/1 and a cat point, and I don't bother with the corrosive Blades tree at all. If I find myself on cooldown - well, I have two insta-cooldown abilities that work on each other, and a ridiculous amount of equilibrium from maxxed mucus. Among other things, it means I'm no longer "more hindered by cooldowns than speed".

Also, the point of covering the world in Acid-splashed mucus has nothing to do with Oozewalk, and everything to do with the poison damage that accumulates on your foes (...and the equilibrium recharge, and the mucus oozes, and the automatic free shots that you give your current mucus oozes whenever you fire it off and they're nearby).

It's a game of resources, and the Oozemaster gets to cheat on basically all of them. mucus gives him a scaling equilibrium regen, bloated oozes send his effective HP through the roof, and having reciprocal cooldowns means that (once you manage stun immunity) you never really have to wait for things to come online again Especially now that confusion resist isn't something they just have, yeeks get kind of ridiculous (again - rather than being a less important resource, action speed is essentially the only meaningful resource limitation this build has left).

Also, on the fungus side of things, it can be worth going just 1/1/1, and packing a heal infusion. You still get the speed boost, you get a bot fo a regen tail on your heal power, and it only cost you three generics.

Alternate option... ignore both Corrosive Blades and Oozing Blades, make sure to use your psiblades a fair bit early on, and grab the Mental Tyranny prodigy, just like all the other mindpower junkies. Save yourself two cat points and a bunch of class points, and wield a damage type that has a *lot* more equipment support (and less resistance to deal with). It means that your mucus slimes aren't as cool as they could otherwise be, but there are costs to everything.

[achoice]

Thanks for a great guide. Followed it and made my easiest win so far; http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=38826
Oozemancer is STILL (1.0.4) overpowered - play it and win before another possible nerf!

[Boomsta]

Thanks for the guide, it led me to my first win. I should probably be a lot more proud of this, but using this class almost felt like cheating. By maxing Acid Splash, Mucus, and Living Mucus I could simply approach a corridor leading to an unexplored area, fire Acid Splash into the opening, and press R while watching my oozes kill everything in sight. This even worked in the Vor Armory, where I saw the dragons only a couple times so I could pinpoint where to send my mucus/acid death bomb.

[bpat]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Even after all the nerfs, Oozemancer is still pretty strong. I recently finished nightmare/adventure (http://te4.org/characters/38638/tome/38 ... 7b665b9924) and noticed some of the things in this guide weren't the best advice so I updated it with more accurate and up to date information.

[grobblewobble]

I find that I play an Oozemaster a bit differently than you do. For me, I basically have three attack powers. I use Call of the Ooze, Acid Splash, and Slime Spit. Mucus tree gets 5/5/5/1 and a cat point, and I don't bother with the corrosive Blades tree at all. If I find myself on cooldown - well, I have two insta-cooldown abilities that work on each other, and a ridiculous amount of equilibrium from maxxed mucus. Among other things, it means I'm no longer "more hindered by cooldowns than speed".

One of those two insta-cooldown abilities would be Nature's Balance, I guess? I'm still puzzled what could be the other one.

[Sirrocco]

Slime roots off of the slime tree cools down abilities. Not all that many abilities (3 at max, I think) but enough, and it definitely cools down Nature's Balance. I speed-ran the charred scar something *fierce* - cycling cooldowns, using Mucus to make sure there was mucus under me, acid splash to make sure there was mucus ahead of me, oozewalk to get from one to the other, and a movement infusion for extra speed (Nature's Balance cools down infusions, too). I'd lose a few paces every time I fired off Slime Roots (as it counts as a true teleport, and is therefore redirected) but I think I crossed it at about three times standard walking speed, while killing most of the monsters in it (acid splash and living mucus are excellent sources of collateral damage). It's taken a couple of hits with the nerfbat since then (I haven't played them a whole lot recently) but I believe that you should be able to pull off more or less the same trick.