First nightmare victory

[grobblewobble]

I'd forgotten how hilariously OP oozemancers are. This was easier at Nightmare than most of my Normal wins with other classes. Won at first try with no deaths.

The only time I came close to dying was when I foolishly opened a vault in Kor'Pul at character level 10, which had an Orc Necromancer.

http://te4.org/characters/150033/tome/d ... d67cbab204

[jenx]

Congrats! Oozemancers are great at nightmare but I've struggled with them on insane. But that's probably me!

[ZyZ]

If nightmare was easy then i'm quite confident you would win @ insane difficulty as well. The only issue with oozemancer is low damage output (compared to top tier classes). On insane it's not a problem because things will melt in like 1-3 turns anyway.

How would you rate Wild-gift / Eyal's fury ? I've never really tested it extensively because it look so weak (by just looking at numbers).

[jenx]

Would you take flexible combat again as your prodigy? Not a lot of melee happening

[grobblewobble]

Sorry for the late response everyone.

If nightmare was easy then i'm quite confident you would win @ insane difficulty as well. The only issue with oozemancer is low damage output (compared to top tier classes). On insane it's not a problem because things will melt in like 1-3 turns anyway.

How would you rate Wild-gift / Eyal's fury ? I've never really tested it extensively because it look so weak (by just looking at numbers).

Eyal's Fury was all in all pretty great.

Reclaim is not really special, but it's another OK damage beam for when the others are on cooldown.
Nature's Defiance is pretty nice, a passive that gives you some resistances is never bad. I left it at 1 point because diminishing returns, but you could go a little higher.
Acidfire is great, because it removes magical sustains from monsters (similar to wildfire). Magic-using boss monsters didn't stand a chance, mainly because of this ability. Even the final two sorcerers fell easily. For a class that can't use gloves of dispersion that's just great. And besides the dispersion effect, it also adds up to a lot of damage over time in longer fights.
Eyal's Wrath is even better in longer fights. At 5/5 you get a long duration and good range. Together with the other damage-over-time abilities like acidfire, poisonous spores and of course mucus oozes, I was really able to take control of the battle and wear down anything that didn´t fall quickly. Crowds melted like butter, too.

Jenx: I only took Flexible Combat because I realized I didn't really need a second prodigy at all. So I had the option to take it, just for some fun with my Spellhunt Remnants. It was not a serious choice, really. I also wanted to know whether or not Call of the Ooze triggers it.
Superpower was not that great either, to be honest. On an insane attempt I would probably go with Spine of the World and Fungal Blood instead, or maybe replace one of these with Pain Enhancement System.

[bpat]

I had heard Acidfire only worked on temporary effects, it's good to know this is not the case. I like the idea of Superpower + PES for prodigies because getting Aura of Silence to stick is huge, but if that ends up not being worth it then maybe Fungal Blood + Spell Feedback/Draconic Body. Aside from Fungal Blood, no prodigies really synergize well with Oozemancer in my opinion. Even classics like Spine of the World aren't that great because of Oozemancer's great status management.

[HammyHamster]

Oozemancer's great status management.

Could you elaborate? I don't recall them having too much defence against multiple physical status...other than a movement infusion and 75% poison/disease/bleed/blindness defence. And the usual gear you can find.

That still leaves stuff like stun, cripple, anguish, counterstrike, burning, dazed, disarmed, frozen, pinned, off-balance, slow, and so on.... etc. Infusion only handles a stun, daze, pin.

(The crypt mobs and many of the stair bosses tend to stick physical status pretty often)

[bpat]

Oozemancer's great status management.

Could you elaborate? I don't recall them having too much defence against multiple physical status...other than a movement infusion and 75% poison/disease/bleed/blindness defence. And the usual gear you can find.

That still leaves stuff like stun, cripple, anguish, counterstrike, burning, dazed, disarmed, frozen, pinned, off-balance, slow, and so on.... etc.

You won't get stunned or pinned because of double Movement Infusions. Of the physical status effects Movement Infusion doesn't prevent, the only ones that matter are cripple and slow which can be waited out or purged with Relentless Pursuit. You can even use a Movement Infusion and just run if these effects are issues. Oozewalk also removes statuses and can move you to safety. Thanks to all this physical status resistance, Oozemancer has no reason to take Spine of the World, and Draconic Will isn't needed because Fungal Blood is great against magical effects. That leaves only mental effects and I shouldn't need to explain why Unbreakable Will is useless.

[HammyHamster]

I'd suggest that oozewalk is not typically going to be there when you need it unless you are saving acid splash- which means you are not proc'ing your slime oozes tactically or using one of your best early damage types. Or until points (namely mucus) and gear are maxed at the end-game.

More specifically, acid splash might not be where you want to oozewalk. It might be a little to close to the danger zone. And you may get phased or teleported to a very bad spot by some of the bosses/uniques/rares after having used up acid splash..acid splash has a 10 turn cd.

Or ...your EQ fails at that moment in a big battle. A mid-game issue. Ofc, I max mucus pretty late....so that might only be me.

Or even unusable due to simple confusion or brainlock. A mental infusion/combo makes this one fairly easy to counter, though.

Magical effects are mostly a non-issue due to disease resistance. Fungus is more for extra-turn cycling on the oozer.

which can be waited out or purged with Relentless Pursuit

Also, if you don't need to wait out status effects repeatedly or run too often, one could argue that battles can be over much quicker. (And as a result the threat is removed faster).


So I guess my point is that I see Spine as pretty useful in fights with lots of physical effect-spamming enemies (which is most of the enemies). Depends on your play style.

[jenx]

I took blighted summoning once! Made slimes and oozes even more awesome.

[grobblewobble]

I agree with Hamster about Oozewalk. It looks like an excellent ability when you first read the description, but in practice I didn't tend to use it much, because I didn't always have a good spot to oozewalk to, when I wanted to get rid of a status.

Then again, I had 100% confusion and stun resistance from items, and effect spam and durations aren't as bad in Nightmare as they are in Insane, so I didn't really need Spine. Still, it sounds like an excellent idea imho. (In fact, reading your guide gave me the idea, Hamster.)

Jenx - I wanted to give Blighted Summoning a try, but I never managed to meet the requirements. Items with +mag tend to be arcane..