How many and what type of tools to carry?

[Abaxvahl]

Question is title, and I am trying to focus on winning normal/roguelike bulwark. I have no idea what I should be carrying at all times, and what is too much.

[Velorien]

Question is title, and I am trying to focus on winning normal/roguelike bulwark. I have no idea what I should be carrying at all times, and what is too much.

As a bulwark, you probably have high strength, so you can afford to carry an awful lot.

For my part, I've found the number I carry increasing as I up my skill level.

Torques of psychoportation are notoriously good because they're a means of escape that can't be cut off by most status effects (whereas Silence shuts down teleportation, Pin shuts down movement and Stun can put either on cooldown).

Wands of conjuration, torques of mindblast and the like are great early on when your ranged damage is lacking, or your melee damage for that matter.

Totems of cure ailments are rarely vital, but will save your life if you've won a battle but are now stuck with DoTs which will kill you before you can cure/outheal all of them.

Any totem with the "tentacled" ego is great. The tentacles are highly durable and will do a great job of distracting enemies when needed.

Wands of firewall in particular are a 100% reliable way to qualify for Cauterize, one of the best prodigies, though bulwarks specifically will struggle to fulfil the other requirement (cast 1000 spells).

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out, but while normal tools put all other tools on cooldown when you use them, each artefact has its own independent cooldown, so use artefact powers with wild abandon.

[Tryble]

Any totem with the "tentacled" ego is great. The tentacles are highly durable and will do a great job of distracting enemies when needed.

A tentacle you summon deals damage to you when it dies, same as the mouth guy and giggles. It's weird, and may actually kill someone who didn't know about it and let their HP drop too far. Something to keep in mind.


Velorien covered most of the important ones, but here's comments on some of the others:

If you don't have track, a wand of clairvoyance is probably your next best means of scouting around.

Thorny skin is less critical to a bulwark, but on the rare-ish chance you find something with damage high enough to threaten you even through your armor, thorny skin will be enough to make him harmless for seven turns. For those who aren't aware, you can get a good estimation of the damage an enemy deals just by comparing their damage vs your armor, then applying any weapon based talents after that reduction.

Should you find one, a pickaxe with Perfect Strike on it is good to have, since it's instant and lets you beat on dreads.

The charms I carry most often is thorny skin and clairvoyance (when missing track)


In any case, you're only carrying 'too much' once you can't move anymore. Other than that, may as well carry a buncha crap just in case.

[Coldbringer]

Some 'tools' like the Wand of Spydric Poison can be used from the inventory without needing to equip it. You can click and drag the item to your skillbar.

[Patashu]

Some 'tools' like the Wand of Spydric Poison can be used from the inventory without needing to equip it. You can click and drag the item to your skillbar.

Count me among the many who wished they knew this BEFORE they beat the game! Hah.

[Velorien]

Some 'tools' like the Wand of Spydric Poison can be used from the inventory without needing to equip it. You can click and drag the item to your skillbar.

Count me among the many who wished they knew this BEFORE they beat the game! Hah.

The Rod of Anullment is another one.

[HousePet]

I tend to carry a small selection of items, and then never use them.

[Mordy]

Some 'tools' like the Wand of Spydric Poison can be used from the inventory without needing to equip it. You can click and drag the item to your skillbar.

Count me among the many who wished they knew this BEFORE they beat the game! Hah.

The Rod of Anullment is another one.

The Rod of Recall too!

[Coldbringer]

Gwais Burninator is another wand you can use from the inventory without having to equip it first. It's like having a free rune

[Hempel123]

This spider-sack is one as well. Incredibly useful on various champs, that can make good use of some blocker.

[ster]

usually i just take perfect strike pick in tool slot (or a really good randart one, but those usually end up getting perfect strike anyway) and eggsac/annulment/spydric wand/gwai's and everything else usable from inventory.

on normal/roguelike you won't have to-hit issues and probably the only things you'd need to pin down are in high peak though, so you should be fine mostly ignoring tool slot items that don't directly give stats