I recently won with a yeek anorithil that you can see here (char sheet are so beautiful now that they're fixed
)
After winning I came to check this forum and I realise the last guide is 4 years old (well 3, it got edited in 2014) and so here we are.
This is my 6th insane win, first yeek win in insane and first ano win ever, and let me tell you, even though I lost a lot of char in T2s (and a few before) after that everything goes smoothly (generally true and this ano was no exception).
Once the T2 are cleared the most dangerous thing you can encounter are Orcs mage-hunter. Seriously, I had more trouble against the first elite Orc mage-hunter I encountered than against any randboss in the prides... Since you do a lot of little damage you won't go through resolve/antimagic shield and you'll always have zero energy because manaburn. Best general tactic : summon stuff, and use shadow simulacrum. If you play yeek, dominant will them, orcs have shitty mental save and your cunning alone is enough mindpower. If they're rare either summon or try to use a different route.
- Why Anorithil
- Races
- Stats
- Class trees
- Generic trees
- Category points
- Inscriptions
- Prodigies
- Escort
- Alchemist quest
- Random thoughts
Why Anorithil?
Strong points
- Unique talents/trees
Lots of AoE/flashy
Hymn+Armour of shadows
- Early is weak and slow
Managing ressources is hard early
Mid/low range spells
Not a lot of ways to spend points
Cornac – 2/5: Cornac = free class/generic/category points, Anorithil kind of lacks places to put those.
Higher – 3?/5: Could be pretty good, regen is not good but will be boosted by Bathe in Light and is instant, third talent gets a lot of mileage since you deal mostly dark damage, and fourth talent could be very useful (if it nullifies the cost of corona bolts and hymn nocturnalist beam but I guess it doesn't?)
Shalore – 4.5/5: Shalore racials are excellent, speed boost, crit chance and power, and timeless. Shalore are almost always one of the top races for a reason
Thalore – 3.5/5: First racial is great even without WIL, as are all res and the summons. Solid choice but that exp penalty sucks.
Doomelf – 3.5/5: First talent is an instant tp that goes through wall no questions asked, and a second (not instant) to follow if needed, good for repositionning/running and Ano only mobility talent needs to be set up beforehand. More points drastically reduce the cd. Crit shrug off and reduced debuff really helps to beef up Ano.
Halfling – 4/5: Racials are nice, even at 1 points. With Duck and Dodge and your own evasion skills you could potentially hit 100% evasion pretty often!
Dwarf – 2/5: They're not a bad race but you just aren't interested in what they offer.
Yeek – 4/5: Ok, they're probably rated a bit high, but I just couldn't get an Anorithil off the ground before using one. They level up fast so you can escape the early slog faster and actually do something in combat beside repositionning (aka running the - away). Also yeek dungeons are pretty easy and gives you even more levels before encountering randbosses.
Ogre – 3/5: I was about to rate them badly but you could use that 6 infusion if you wanted, and you'll definitely crit every turn to get that infusion cd reduction.
Ghoul – 1/5: Don't really see the point here.
Skeleton – 1.5/5: Better than ghoul. That's about it.
Stats
Max MAG. Then CUN for more crit and better shadow simulacrum, or your choice of defensive stats between DEX and CON
I basically put nothing except MAG until level ~25 and then put around 20 leftover points in CON because I was so tired of being squishy and stressing out. Now that there is heal mod on CON I find taking a few points early can really be worth it, my first 12 points or so gave me 10% heal mod, it falls off a bit after. After that I went MAG > CUN.
STR: keep a few leftover points for this incase you find a good armor and lack +str items, otherwise ignore it.
DEX: defensive stat, max this or CON third
CON: defensive stat, I advise a few early, then max either this or DEX third
MAG: the only stats that matters early! Pump it!
WIL: you gain nothing out of this
CUN: MAG is maxed and you need more damage? Pump your crit. Max second
Class trees
- TL;DR :
Sunlight : 1+/3/1/1
Twilight : 3/4+/1-2/3-5
Star fury: 5/4/1/3+
Eclipse: 5/5/3+/0-1
Circles : 3+/3+/3+/3+
Glyphs: ?/?/?/?
This amount to 55-59 class points, so you'll have 9-13 (or +2 with alchemist potion) leftover
Sunlight : 1+/3/1/1 All the talents here generate positive energy
- Searing Light : Nice enough when you can make enemies stay on top of it (summons!) your best mono target light damage
Sun Flare : Put 3 point so it does damage (and for the range), blind is a nice status
Firebeam : One of your few fire damage spell, so not that great since you won't pump fire damage. Still, it's a beam and it generates energy
Sunburst : Radius 3 and never gets bigger, 1 point for stun fodder and generating energy in a pinch.
- Twilight : I 5'd it early because I wanted that negative energy at the beginning of the fight but shouldn't have. 3 is all you'll need to top neg energy on active, and thanks to Hymn nocturnalist you'll end up generating negative energy in mid-game
Jumpgate : So good when you remember to set it up, 4 for the second jumpgate. The cd is always 20 for the second jumpgate but correctly dimiishes for the first. The teleport cd is 7 for both.
Mind Blast : I put points in this then took them out several time, I just felt I wasn't getting much mileage out of it. Level 2 for power is good enough, it doesn't get much better. (level 1 : 20%, level 2 : 35%, level 5 : 48%)
Shadow Simulacrum : Loving this! A rare is giving you a hard time? Give it a taste of his own medicine! I often saw the shadow kill the original even without my help. Sadly, doesn't work on unique/bosses. 3 for targeting big targets and 5 for huge (bone giants and dragons are the main offender)
- Moonlight Ray : Put this on a comfy hotkey because it is your bread and butter early! And mid. And late, after you set up all your circles and you're looking at corona bolts flying past you.
Shadow Blast : Not maxing it early but getting to 4 after mid game is nice (peak duration of 6 turns) to ensure armour of shadows is always on.
Twilight Surge : Generates both positive and negative energy! Also do some damage in radius 2 but you don't really care for that
Starfall : 3 points early for radius 2, this is a nice mid range AoE stun. I decided against putting 5 points because I didn't want to get in situations where I'd have to stun myself to stun others.
- Blood Red Moon : 5 points for 18% spell crit. Not early though.
Totality : Penetration values get insane late game (I had around 70%, for 10 turns!), and the reset can be nice (mostly circles)
Corona : Corona is good but I feel like it a bit overhyped. Maybe I just didn't realise how much damage it actually put out.
Darkest Light : yeah no. 1 point for stun fodder.
Circles : 3+/3+/3+/3+ All circles to 3 for radius 4 and 7 turns duration, 5 later for radius 5 and 9 turns duration
- Circle of Shifting Shadows : Deals darkness so it procs armour of shadows. Not my favorite because it only gives defense, maybe you could combine this and LAT and get decent result?
Circle of Blazing Light : Positive energy gain, helpful when corona decide to send only light bolts
Circle of Sanctity : This is good. Only non damaging circle but silence immunity + silencing others is wonderful. Beware enemy with psionic mirror though, I got silenced in Reknor while in my circle by this. Stressing retreat ensued.
Circle of Warding : Great circle, projectiles are now a non issue and melee enemies as well. Also deals the best damage and proc armour of shadows.
Generic trees
- TL;DR :
Combat training : 3+/3+/0+/0/0/0
Chants : 1+/1/2/1+
Light : 1/4/1/3
Hymns : 5/1+/1/3+
Survival : 1/1-5/1/1
That's 34-38. You get 48 (50 with alchemist potion) so racials should fit just fine. A few of those can actually be from esorts, too!
And I just realised I forgot staff combat existed during my game. It would probably be interesting, I'll add it later.
Combat training: 3+/3+/0+/0/0/0
- 3 in thick skin because it's a nice breakpoint. 3 in armor training for massive armor
With armour of shadows you could consider light armor training for defense and fatigue reduction, but you'd lose the crit shrug off.
- Chant Acolyte : Great skill, gives you 3 chants with different benefits.
- Chant of Fortitude : Increases your mental save and maximum life
Chant of Fortress : Increases your physical save, phys resis, armour, and armour hardiness
Chant of Resistance : Increases you spell save, fire/cold/lightning/acid res, and reduces all damage from enemies 3 or more spaces away
I spent almost all my time with chant of resistance on because
a) I rarely had enemies within 3 squares
b) it gives resists to the 4 best resists to have (ok, acid might be debatable but not the other 3)
c) you can actually get decent spell save since you have a lot of MAG
d) let's take a look at chant adept!
Chant Adept : starting level 2, starting a chant cure a debuff (and all cross tier effects). Fortitude cures mental, Fortress cures physical, and Resistance cure magical.
Now, how often do you have to cure a magical effect? And how often do you have to cure a physical/mental effect? And that's a very good reason to keep Resistance on pretty much at all time, and only switch for debuff clearing.
Chant Radiant : Light and fire boost is nice, positive regen helps with ressource management (after 2 points you gain positive energy instead of losing it) - Chant of Fortitude : Increases your mental save and maximum life
- Healing light : Good enough heal but takes a turn to cast
Bathe in Light: Pump your heal mod, heal you, shield you, refreshes shield duration. And it can crit. So... yeah. Duration cap at 4 points
Barrier : Damage shield that takes a turn
Providence : You never have enough cleanse and this one can keep running for 6 turns at level 3.
- Hymn Acolyte : Similar to chants you gain 3 hymns with various benefits
- Hymn of Shadows : Increases your movement speed, spell speed, and gives evasion
Hymn of Detection : Increases your stealth and invisible detection and your critical power
Hymn of Perseverance : Increases your stun, confusion and blinding res
Like for chant I spent almost all my time on one hymn only, Hymn of Shadows, but I they all have their appeal (more than chants imo)
Hymn Adept : Mirroring chant adept, you gain a buff when you end an hymn. Shadows gives movement speed for one turn, detection makes you invisible (low power), and perseverance gives a sizeable and kinda lengthy damage shield
Hymn Nocturnalist : negative energy regen! 2 points is enough to stop decaying but you need 3 for rest to wait until your neg energy is full. You also fire beams of shadows with 20% blind chance, what's not to love? - Hymn of Shadows : Increases your movement speed, spell speed, and gives evasion
- Heightened senses: 1 point is nice to have
Device mastery : if you use charms max it, otherwise leave it alone (but it's pretty good!)
Track : get 1 point from thief escort, if you don't get one put at least one yourself
Danger sense : 1 points is nice since you always have at least 5% chance to save, investing more sucks though
Start with an inscription at level 10 then Circles at level 20. Then second inscription and finally Survival/escort category of your choice. Glyphs might be worth it, but they didn't seem so.
Inscriptions
Early game:
Start with phys wild with lowest cd you find, 1 of regen/shield/heal, and 1 movement infusion
Shield is nice to use at the beginning of the fight when still at full health, heal is nice to clear poison (especially if you're both poison and stun, to be sure the wild clear the stun) and because low cooldown, regen is nice because better numbers than heal and on several turns but takes a turn.
4th slot (level 10): depending on your playstyle, add a second movement or a good phase door, all res and reduced debuff is very good.
When the opportunity arises, switch your shield/heal/regen for an heroism and your phys wild for a phys/mental wild. If you have no problem with statuses (you have providence after all) you could also try a lightning rune. I didn't do it but figured it would work nicely with your huge evasion, further helping you to take no damage at all.
5th slot : Second heroism for constant uptime.
Final layout:
- movement, phase door, 2x heroism, phys/mental wild
- Rune of reflection: very good, would probably replace the wild. Works well with Bathe in Light
Rune of the rift: can give you a breather in 1v1 and has decent damage but you can't replace much...
Primal infusion: no, you don’t want the randomness
I'd definitely take armour of shadows, if you want more defense or more offense after that it's up to you. I took Cauterize but apparently shouldn't have since it never triggered. Not a lot of remarkable choices though.
Strength based:
- PES : because you don't want to pump DEX, nor CON, and you crit all the time?
- Nothing
- Armour of shadows : Excellent defensive prodigy since you're always dealing darkness damage. A good chunk of armor, enough hardiness so that you could even be in robes and 20% evasion,
which stacks with your Hymn! After level 30 I spent the whole game between 40% and 50% evasion (depending on spellpower)
Draconic Body : Not too bad, with heal mod you can definitely heal to full when it triggers
- Cauterize: excellent defensive prodigy, you can no longer be one shot, yay!
Temporal form: immunity to stun and a few other, damage boost, res pen, barely anyone has temporal resist. Love this and the anomalies are fun too
- Lucky Day : for more evasion?
- Secret of Telos : for fun?
I found that escort weren't that important on Ano since there was nothing I really wanted, so don't fret it if some of yours die.
On all escort you can take a talent just for stun fodder if nothing interest you, potentially better than a small stat increase even if you never use the skill
- Alchemist: Spell/Stone Alchemy (if you wanna go there rather than survival)
Anorithil: Free generic points
Loremaster: you could almost refuse to help him and see no difference
Seer: Arcane eye, you'll have mana regen thanks to your chants
Sun Paladin: Boosting your chants, nice
Temporal Explorer: Precognition (poor man Track) OR Foresight
Thief: Track THEN Device Mastery (also free generic points)
Warrior: Vitality, one point only, then Unflinching. Tree is not good enough at 0.8
Tinker: Category, if you can spare the points
+2 generic talent, 2 class talents, +4% spell crit chance
Then go for whatever is left.
Random thoughts
- Early game is so awful I consider exp penalty important for ano. You NEED levels to have interesting spells, and you NEED levels to have energy (since it only scales with level)
Evasion is op, Hymn + Armor of shadows is broken op. Worth noting : since I was yeek I unlock my first prodigy on dreadfell 1.
Antimagic shield ruins Ano, thanks god almost noone has it.
Ano lacks a second good prodigy, almost nothing looked interesting.
1h staff is awesome if you find, say, life drinker. There are other interesting off-hands but this one stood out.
Jumpgate is one of the best escape ever... if you remembered to set it up.
Thanks Bodhi for this one : belt with containment ego (+ max all ressources and HP) is great early game
