Inscription Guide - Version 1.4.8

[Davion Fuxa]

Inscription Guide - Version 1.4.8

'It's Over 9000' words.

This guide then was inspired from bpat's General Inscription Guide. I wrote it generally so there could be an Inscription Guide on Steam, but also due to the changes in Inscriptions outdating bpats guide (before he rewrote a new one). I went fairly in depth with my descriptions in this guide so it is worth noting that it is aimed more towards new players.

Please note that since the writing of both bpat's initial guide and my guide, bpat's New Inscription Guide for Version 1.4.8 has come out and should be viewed over his old one.

[Davion Fuxa]

I had posted the entire guide here for people to read, but honestly I suggest players view it in the Steam Guide Forum.

[HousePet]

I don't think giving a personal rating on the value/use of an inscription is useful. Your personal preference is not a meaningful criteria for other people.

Rate them instead based on how useful they are in certain situations, making note of any special use that isn't covered by the more general situations.
General situations being things like:
Very low on life.
Disabled by a nasty status.
Just found the boss.

[Davion Fuxa]

I figure the rating system can be a good form of indicating how biased I might be against a certain Inscription. Or in combination with how other people have rated Inscriptions (bpat) it can be useful to sort of gauge how useful they may be overall from different player perspectives.

The idea of describing instances sound like a good one to sort of note for each Inscription. I don't necessarily think there is any point of rating them - most of them do a good job at whatever instance they are generally aimed for (Vision might suck for example, but it is still is good for detecting hidden enemies).

[Davion Fuxa]

Removed.

[stinkstink]

There is one situation where I like Vision runes: Horror ESP in Nur if I don't have Track.

[Davion Fuxa]

There is one situation where I like Vision runes: Horror ESP in Nur if I don't have Track.

Worth a mention I guess, since Horror's can be quite deadly in Lake of Nur sometimes; specifically if the player runs into an early Elite.

[Davion Fuxa]

Guide has been published on Steam, extra unneeded content has been edited out posts following the first two in this thread.

[Snowflake]

Thanks for the guide and the work you put into it, but I was wondering if you (or anyone here) could answer a question I've been having about Heroism infusions a while now: I keep seeing them as extremely recommended, high value - but I just can't see why. It's perhaps due to my defensive/controlling playstyle, but I don't get why these infusions would be so good.

When I look at heroism, I see a slight offensive benefit (at higher levels, +15 stat is like +3 power? I'm not really feeling that), a healthpoolbuff if CON was one of the stats it affected, and a health buffer at the lower end of your health - but an "ambiguous" buff, because you can't very well use it to its utmost, because even if you'd die only at -500, you would not want to risk going past -300 or so, as you can't tell exactly how low you are (without really going through the log and counting every hit of damage) beyond that, it's a buffer that only comes to play if you're already in "red territory", at a very dangerous place of health, where I'd normally would already have tailed it long time earlier.

Comparing that to for example a regeneration infusion of 400 health, yes, it's less, but I feel I have more control over it, I can use it at an earlier point in the fight, keeping me between half and full health, out of reach of sudden damage spike disasters, I can continuosly see the exact numbers and estimate if I have to flee and when. Or just slot another teleport/movement and commence the hit'n'runs.

I guess if I'd constantly be involved in non-escapable and sub-20% health fights, heroism would shine, but at least in normal difficulty I don't much meet those conditions.

So why would one choose the "risky" heroism over "reliable" alternatives - is it the offensive aspect? Fighting risky in general? Something else? I'd appreciate if you could help me see what makes them so well appreciated.

[Davion Fuxa]

Offensively, the Heroism Infusion can be useful to help you overcome a really defensive/regenerative enemy or to outlast them before your character keels over. Defensively, a Heroism Infusions can be most useful when you enter a battle where escape is made difficult or impossible and buy the player some time before an escape option can open up or to see them through the encounter. It is also useful when fighting an extremely dangerous enemy that has very high or potentially high damage capabilities that can cause serious damage - to the point that it is like a mini-Cauterize.

In general, the reason for Heroism Infusions being so valuable is that they can help you for dire situations that pop up. Ambiguous as it might be, you can be sure that it will provide more benefits then other Inscriptions when shit hits the fan.

[Snowflake]

Hmm. Thank you for your answer, even if I'm not entirely enthusiastic about Heroism even now

I guess I'm just still so optimistic that "those dire moments won't come if I play carefully" or something! But if I at some point graduate to the harder difficulties, I think I might get into using it more.

[Davion Fuxa]

I figured I'd bump this thread. I've been slowly updating my Inscription Guide to correspond with the recent changes to Inscriptions (like Healing Infusions removing would effects) and give a nod to the Steamtech Implants introduced from Embers of Rage. The guide still needs some work done (I need to play a non-Tinker class for example), but for the most part it should be more updated now.

Edit: There may be some changes and tweaks I may make to my guide, but for the most part, it is updated fro the current version of the game.

[bpat]

Wow this goes into a lot of depth and is overall a very good guide. However I still believe that Phase Door Runes are extremely underrated since you can easily pass 60% resist all with just it and Thick Skin late game (equipment, Guardian of the Wood, and Wild Inscriptions can bring you to the cap). This pretty much cuts incoming damage and status durations in half plus the teleport averages to be positive.

[Davion Fuxa]

Maybe in the future I might test them out a bit more in the future, but the problem I have with them is that you only certain playstyles will benefit from them - none of which I have played with recently.