Mental Suffering (won)

[Doctornull]

Based in part on looking at lukep's recent win, I wanted to see if I could build a guy who used Psi and Hate for synergistic Mind damage. It seems to work pretty well so far, but I'm sure it could have been better.

The core of his build is:
- Absorption, is this the best tree in the game or what.
- Gloom, step right up folks, gettcher free negative condition. The shelter provided by Sanctuary is fantastic.
- Gestures, this is a VERY solid replacement for melee.
- Psychic Assault, his main ranged damage.
- Punishments, mostly for the 4th skill (chance for a negative conditions on hit with Mind damage), but also Hateful Whisper is pretty great, and Agony is a nice way to hit some big guy at range with a lot of chances for a negative condition.


He also picked up:

Cursed / Predator, which seems like a fun idea but he hasn't really done much with it: first trolls (had just enough by the time he met Bill), then bears for Norgos, then skeletons, and finally orcs. Sure, orcs are nasty, so I guess every little bit helps, but I feel like the talent points and cat point would have been better spent on core stuff.

Psi / Mentalism, the 2nd has saved his butt several times (it meant he's gotten away with only one Wild for Physical + Magical), the 3rd is okay for short-range scouting, and the 4th is fantastic for keeping an eye on teleporting bosses. The bonus damage is nice, too.

Wild / Harmony, because every living Adventurer gets this. Two talent points, keep the Harmony sustain on, forget about it until some Corrupter hits me with seven kinds of disease at once. Good return for very minimal investment IMHO.

Wild / Fungus, because Fungus is like crack to me, at least at the 3/1/1/0 level. Totally worth the cat point to be get that 0.25 turn regeneration. Helps compensate for my sloppy play.

Psi / Feedback, it seems really useful right now at 1/3/1/4 but I'm concerned that the two active talents take a turn to use. Now that my regen infusions only take 0.25 turns to use, it's more difficult to justify using the feedback shield, but when it's up it's a really nice shield. Maybe I should put more points in this? The 1st and 3rd talents are less visible so I haven't paid much attention to them, should I correct that?



The state of the Adventurer:
- He's got one free category point (delicious wyrm bile).
- He's currently got 1.20 in Absorption, but only because of an item granting him +0.20 ... he should probably spend that cat point on boosting Absorption, right?
- He's just hit level 46, so he's also got a Prodigy to choose. First Prodigy was Mental Tyranny, of course, which is performing very well.
- Merchant item advice? He can afford two right now, maybe three by endgame.


Here he is:
http://te4.org/characters/52902/tome/c9 ... 83da92afb9

Thanks!

[lukep]

For merchant items, I'd get a ring, but probably not two of them. Mindstars, greatswords, and a set of robes would be my other suggestions, unless there's something special about The Untouchable that I'm missing.

For a category, I'd look at Finer Energy Manipulations, as it can be quite good with an investment of 1/1/1/0.

I'm not sure about what to do for a prodigy, though Fungal Blood is always a good, potentially OP choice.

[Doctornull]

Thanks for the advice!

The Untouchable creates a free damage shield sometimes when you're hit. It's been very nice in terms of making surprise combat hurt less, and it's incredibly good in terms of action economy.

If I buy Mindstars, then I'll need to use my cat-point for Psi/Absorption. The only reason it's at 1.20 right now is due to one of the items I'm wielding.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Untouchable is indeed nearly god-tier. This guy wore it all the way to a win. Probably one of the lowest tier armor's to be worn to the final battle (though there are some gimmicky mage armors as well, so maybe not...).

Item might actually need a nerf.

Beyond that, mindstars might not be a fantastic idea. You can't use psiblades and gestures at the same time (Gestures will override the psiblade bonus damage.) That said, I think the mindpower, and +will/+cun do still apply, and since those would both boost gestures a bit, maybe it works? But you definitely won't see psiblade damage in melee.

[Doctornull]

Beyond that, mindstars might not be a fantastic idea. You can't use psiblades and gestures at the same time (Gestures will override the psiblade bonus damage.) That said, I think the mindpower, and +will/+cun do still apply, and since those would both boost gestures a bit, maybe it works? But you definitely won't see psiblade damage in melee.

Right, no Psiblades, but the base damage does get added in, along with the stuff you mention.

It seems like most Mindstar egos are defensive (i.e. more retributive damage, less extra on-hit damage), so the fact that Gestures ignores on-hit damage is less of an issue than it would be with many other weapons.

Maybe I ought to go see what the merchant item code does for Mindstars...

[Doctornull]

I commissioned a Greatsword from the merchant, and here's what I got:

Psionic focus
c) Light of Eyal (61.5-98.4 power, 4 apr)
Type: weapon / greatsword ; tier 5

Base power: 61.5 - 98.4
Uses stat: 120% Str
Damage type: Physical
Armour Penetration: +4
Physical crit. chance: +5.0%
Attack speed: 90%
Damage when this weapon hits: +59 insidious poison / +16 light / +8 temporal
Burst (radius 1) on hit: +4 darkness / +8 light
Damage conversion: 30% light
When wielded/worn:
Accuracy: +34
Defense: +16
Changes stats: +6 Dex / +9 Wil / +9 Cun
Mindpower: +14
Light radius: +3

All that extra damage just gets turned into Mind damage, but that's fine. The +9 Wil / +9 Cun are gorgeous, the Accuracy and Defense are very useful, more Mindpower is never a bad thing... I don't know how the Attack Speed works, I think the TK weapon just attacks whenever I get a turn, but whatever. Gorgeous weapon!

I've got 7k more gold, heading back East to do the Prides now.

[lukep]

59 insidious poison is amazing, IIRC. It should give a half-decent DoT effect, but more importantly, reduce healing by 59%.

Attack speed has no effect when it is on a TK weapon, it simply triggers at the end of each of your actions (as long as 1/10 of a turn has passed since it last attacked).

[Doctornull]

59 insidious poison is amazing, IIRC. It should give a half-decent DoT effect, but more importantly, reduce healing by 59%.

You're absolutely right! I can see an enemy's healing factor at 41% after I give him a taste of my cold steel.

Sweeeeet!

Just finished 3/4 of the Prides, only Vor to go.

[Doctornull]

Just finished the game, my first online win. Aeryn survived this time!

He was regularly doing over 1k damage on a crit with Mindsear, and above that with melee. Malign was just as synergistic as I'd hoped -- he was easily able to lower Mind resistance, then exploit the lowered resistance.

Thanks everyone!