Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

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Tradewind_Rider
Thalore
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Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#1 Post by Tradewind_Rider »

Hi all!

Recently I played through madness (ToME 1.5.10.) with my adventurer and it was really really fun. I would like to write down the build and the combos what this adventurer has. I recorded the whole playthrough, every second of the game is on my youtube channel (T Rider, just ToME is here), and I will gave below the links of the video playthrough.

Content of the guide:

I., Introduction
II., Skills
III., Prodigies
IV., Stats
V., Inscriptions
VI., Gear
VII., Strategies and Combos
VIII., Weak points, Dangerous enemies
IX., Known bugs
X., Playthrough



I., Introduction

So, what this build offer?
It is fast, and it is killing every single enemy in madness. Even in High Peak intimidating caves. (and there are lvl 365 enemies with a possible 5-7 million of max HP)
I cleared out High Peak caves in like 8-12 minutes.

Would you like to go inside the Room of Death at level 39 with medicore gear and let the wyrms surround you, while you are killing them? Then this is your build!
Madness play can be really enjoyable with the right build! So, let’s see the build itself.


II., Skills

1, Spell – Meta
early game: 1,1,5,0 asap
late game: 3,1,5,0

2, Celestial – Sun
early game: 1,1,1,5 asap & end-game too

3, Chronomancy – Speed Control
early game: 1,1,1,2
late game: 1,5,1,2

4, Chronomancy – Timetravel
early game: 1,1,1,2 then put 4 then 5 into Echoes (5 is just for a bit extra damage)


5, Race – Shalore
just 1 point in Grace of the Eternals, then put 1-1-1 to unlock Timeless at level 24,
then max Timeless. At the second half of the game, you can max Magic of the Eternals

6, Spell – Aegis
early game: 1,1,1,1 and late game too
you do not need more, but you can put some points in it if you wish

7, Chronomancy – Energy
early game: 1,1,1,2 asap
late game: 1,1,1,3-5

8, Chronomancy – Spacetime Weaving
early game: 1-2,3-4,1-2,0
late game: 5,5,3,0 or 5



Level 10 category point unlock: (at around level 22-25)
9, Celestial – Crusader
1,1,1,4 You just need Flash of the Blade
immediately unlock it and put 4 points into Flash of the Blade at lvl 25

Level 20 category point unlock: (at level 30)
10, Demented – Timethief
immediately unlock it at level 30 (with Hidden Resources) and put 1,1,4-5,0 into it
4 is enough into Suspend, but you can put 5 to reach 4 turn cooldown sooner

Level 36 category point unlock:
11, Demented – Chronophage
slowly pump up to 5,1,5,5
the important at first is to get Severed Threads, so at start, a 3-4,1,0,0 is okay

Wyrm bile category point unlock:
12, Chronomancy – Spellbinding
if you reach 100% spell-cooldown reduction, put 3-5 into Quicken
put as many as you like into Empower


Let’s see, what this mess all about is:

1, Meta is good for three reasons:

Disperse Magic to clear yourself or clear an enemy

Quicken Spells for 30% spell cooldown reduction

Metaflow is also good, but we do not have enough points for it and we will have Timeless,
what is a better skill for this build

2, Sun is good for:

Sun Ray is a small damage spell that we can use

Path of the Sun is a good mobility & exploration spell. Use it before you go into unseen areas,
if you did not find a thief or temporal explorer escort, and did not find track in gear

Suncloak gives 30-40% spell cooldown reduction, depending on your spellpower (it can be higher,
but that is irrelevant) and also a good defensive buff (can’t take more damage than 70% of your
max HP). It also gives a 40-50% spell speed, which we need for a 200-250% total.

3, Speed Control:

Time Dilation is giving us a max. 45% spell speed, that we need to reach 200%
or even higher spell speed

Haste is okay at 1, we do not have point for it, and we do not need more in it for this build

Time Stop is awesome, we will use it to explore, collect loot and in case of prebuff

4, Timetravel:

Temporal Bolt is what we use for further cooldown reduction and for a small damage spell

Time Skip is awesome with high spell cooldown reduction. We can basically time-lock an enemy

Temporal Reprieve will be our safety area and also the place, where we prebuff ourselves.
We can stay here for infinite time :wink:

Ah, Echoes from the Past! Our main damage spell, the king of madness killing.

5, Crusader:

We only need Flash of the Blade here, so we can unlock this even at level 25, when we can reach talent
level 4 here for the “Protected by the Sun” effect. This skill is the best damage prevention in the whole
game! Full invulnerability from an “other” effect, so it can’t be dispelled from us. With low cooldown, we
can “sustain” it continuously.

6, Timethief:

Accelerate can be useful in the mid-game for some extra mobility

Switch is a useful tool to reduce enemies’ temporary effects, or even get rid of it.
It is AoE and also reducing detrimental effects on us.

Suspend! Our main prebuff and effect removal skill. With enough spell cooldown reduction, we can
easily reach a 4 turn cooldown and the skill then resets itself, so we can cast it infinitely, while
positive effects’ duration won’t lower. Temporal Reprieve also won’t lower, so we can stay there
forever, while Temporal Reprieve resets its cooldown too.

7, Chronophage:

Atropy is needed for the whole tree. You need to give as many stacks as you can.

Severed Threads is a good skill even at 1 pt. It will give us “Invigorate” effect pretty often (it has no
cooldown, but we also have very low spell cooldown…), so our already low cooldown spells will cool
down two times faster.

Temporal Feast is an end-game skill. It will give us a max. 35% spell speed (for the 200 – 250%) and
also, it steals a max. 6% of a turn (60 energy) per Atropy stack on an enemy. When we reach 100 %
spell cooldown reduction, and 10% of a turn Echoes from the Past (with high spell speed & Spellbinding
– Quicken), then we can time-lock enemies in AoE. Yes, with 100 energy used, we can steal 60 energy
per Atropy stack from enemies. Also, we can put 2 Atropy on an enemy with 1 spell, so we can steal
120 energy with 100 energy used…

Terminus… We can gain infinite turns (energy) with it! Also, an end-game skill. With 4 x Echoes & 1 x
Terminus, we can time-lock 99% of enemies in AoE.

8, Spellbinding:

Empower is needed for Entropy and/or Phase Pulse. I used it for Phase Pulse, and when I needed
Entropy, just switched it.

Quicken is needed for Echoes from the Past. With it, we can reach 10% of a turn casting speed and if
you reach 0 spell cooldown, it is lethal…

9, Shalore:

Grace of the Eternals is awesome. We can maintain it continuously and with our high magic, it will give
a huge global speed bonus (100% or even way more).

Magic of the Eternals is just a bit damage boost. It’s not necessary, but it’s very good. Take it.

Timeless! With this, we can extend all physical, mental and magical beneficial effects for INFINITE! This
includes: Heroism, Suncloak, Hidden Resources, Damage Shields, Out of Phase, Grace of the Eternals,
Haste, Spellsurge, Invigorate, Temporal Feast, Time Dilation. (also, we can extend Pain Enhancement
System too, if we take it, but I recommend Draconic Will instead)

10, Aegis:

Arcane Reconstruction is a good healing spell. We need it for survival reasons.

Shielding is a useful sustain for us, because we are using shielding runes as defense.

Aegis is awesome with low cooldown. Also, with Suspend, we can reach INFINITE powerful damage
shields for INFINITE length even with 84-86% spell cooldown reduction. With 100%, it is just faster to
apply it.

11, Energy:

I sustained Energy Decomposition, even at talent level 1. A small damage reduction, but better than
nothing.

Entropy is a very very useful tool. We can get rid of Shadows, Temporal Hounds, Mitosis, Anti-magic
Shield, … so many nasty and very dangerous sustains on madness.

12, Spacetime Weaving:

Dimensional Step is the best mobility skill in the game! It is instant, it is accurate. With low cooldown,
no one can catch us!

Dimensional Shift is our main effect removal (before 100% Out of Phase and/or Draconic Will). We will
teleport a lot, so it is worth to max this.

Wormhole is an underrated skill, which is very powerful. With this, we can teleport through walls. Also,
with a movement infusion, we can teleport ~ 8-10 times per turn (that means 40 – 50 turn detrimental
effect removal per turn!) Fun fact: in a line-tunnel, with Path of the Sun & Wormhole, we can teleport
infinite times at 0% of a turn :lol:

Phase Pulse. You can take, I did. We will have extra generic points with this build, so you can pump it. It
is a 0 or 5, and it is useful, because we can/will teleport a lot. 3 of the 4 effects are very useful (Stun,
Confusion, Blind), and we want to position ourselves close to enemies, because of Echoes. So, why not
give them extra detrimental effects for free? It can be bound into Empower for further spellpower. Not a
necessary sustain, but funny.

13, Combat Training:

We only need 1 point in Heavy Armour Training, to wear gauntlets, helms and boots. We avoid melee,
and we have very good defenses, so we do not need armour. We will teleport a lot and therefore
cumulating Out of Phase, so we do not need Thick Skin neither.


III., Prodigies

At level 30, we have to take Hidden Resources. With it, we can use Demented skills at any time.
At level 42, I took Draconic Will, because manually deactivate Out of Phase before every teleport (to gain the full bonus and not just the capped) is slow and a bit annoying.
Due to our infinite extension combo, Pain Enhancement System is also a good option.


IV., Stats

Max Magic asap, while also pump up Willpower. Then max Willpower also.
Willpower helps you with Paradox management at early stages (before Hidden Resources) and it also gives you max mana (that you need, because of possible manaburn). Also, you need 50 for Hidden Resources too.
If you take Pain Enhancement System at level 42, then max Strength at 3rd, otherwise you can go for Cunning. I took Cunning for extra Crit.


V., Inscriptions

At the start, we will need 1-2 good shielding runes. This is a must.
I found a good biting gale rune too, and I really liked it. It helps a lot, because it will freeze a lot of enemies (it is a spell, so it has very low cooldown with this build) and your already fast spells will cool down safer while enemies are freezed.
And it also clears you from a mental effect!

Later (after level 30), you would like to have a heroism infusion for the extra stats and “-die at”. I ended up using a Rune of Reflection, a Heroism and a Controlled Phase Door at the late game.


VI., Gear

1, spell cooldown reduction:

The start of a madness run is a bit painful. It can take some restart to have good items in shops, so do not give up.
Mainly, you need a quickening pickaxe from Derth shop, and that is not very rare, I got it at like ~20-25% of the time.
The second object that you need is a spellbinding shoe, and it can spam in any shops in the game, even at the start. Also, spellbinding & quickening egos can drop from monsters.
Basically, with this two object (that you can have even at the start, like I did) you can reach 86% spell cooldown reduction (20% gear, 30% quicken spells, 36% Suncloak) at around level 30-35, and that means, you have the infinite extension & infinite damage shield combo. You can also maintain Flash of the Blade continuously.
You can cast an Echoes from the Past almost every turn or even every turn and that results a really fast killing.

Example for having these two items from shops at the start, both in Derth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXp3C5yofmM

With this 2 items, you can reach a max. 90-92% spell cooldown reduction. You can easily beat the game with these, but with a third piece, you can reach 100%, and that is really quicken up things.
One alternative is Zemmekys’ Broken Hourglass artifact. It can drop only at the Far East, so be very aware and search for it. Sometimes NPC-s have good artifacts, so do all the drowning. I had a Temporal Augmentation Robe from a Last Hope rare at the start and I had Rod of Sarrilon from a boss at the Gates of Morning. Both from NPC-s, for free!

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x0krYilnYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXq6Y5dgFk8

Formerly, I found Zemekkys’ at the Unremarkable Cave and at the Pride Vaults too, so it is also not rare.

Other alternative is a double quickening/spellbinding ego in a pickaxe/shoe. These are rarer than Zemekkys’ I think, but you have a good chance to have one from the Merchant, so I recommend saving the Lost Merchant.
In my run, I collected 54 000 gold totally, so you will also have a lot of chance to gain a good pickaxe/shoe. In my experience, quickening is a less rare ego than spellbinding, so try pickaxe.
Of course, double ego items can also drop form monsters, but they are rare. Always check shoes/pickaxes twice that you find.


2, Out of Phase:

Second, you have to cumulate Out of Phase. I think, it is a much underrated effect. It can reach 100% and that means, you are IMMUNE to detrimental effects, and have maxed all resistance!
Even with 60% Out of Phase, detrimental effects on you will be very short, and with teleports and Suspend, you can get rid of them easily.
Be aware, it is a magical effect, so it can be dispelled with talents like Disperse Magic, Corrupted Negation and with Cleansing Flames too. (do not stay in a fire if you see a Cleansing Flames enemy sustain)
If you choose Draconic Will at level 42, then you can get rid of your Out of Phase equipment, if you have some better options (+% temporal damage, +% temporal resistance penetration, + magic, + spellpower/spellsurge).


3, Spellsurge and + mana at crit:

You can have very high spellpower with spellsurge and also, + mana at crit can refill your mana pool instantly at no time.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAc7arBurW4

At Ardunghol, I was not aware of the manaburn effect that the wormholes triggers, but I could refill my mana at instant, with Time Stop -> Echoes. You do not even need to go to Temporal Reprieve, because Echoes can crit while the time is stopped, so you gain mana, but do not deal damage.


VII., Strategies and Combos

a, Beginning tricks:

The whole build is about cooldown reduction and management, and therefore a biting gale rune is very handy. If you can find/buy a good one, use it! At the first part of the game, it will freeze many enemies, while your already low cooldown spells with reset. Biting gale rune is also nice if you have a stun effect, like I found a gloves with Starfall. It spams “wet” effect, that halves enemies stun resist.

Use Temporal Bolt as many times as you can! It will reset your low cooldown spells.

Another trick is with Aegis. If your damage shield is low (f.e. just 24/350), and you cast an Aegis, then the shield will be strong again. So, Aegis is not multiplying the actual shield value, but instead it calculates the extra value with the maximum shield power. So, use Aegis wisely, when you really need it. You can cast it any time, not just when your shield is at maximum power.

Use Path of the Sun to enter unlit and unseen areas. You can explore everything very safely.

If you got stunned/confused/blinded or get any nasty effect, dimensional step away, then cast wormhole and walk in-out to clear yourself fast. You can do this while under the effect of Time Stop too.

In a 1 vs 1 fight, use Time Skip. You can time-lock enemies with it. Also you can use Temporal Bolt to reset the cooldown of Time Skip, if you do not have 50% cooldown reduction yet.

Try to stay at range 10 against strong enemies and necromancers/summoners. As I experienced, summoners won’t summon those nasty hounds & ritches while you are 10 tiles away from them. If they summon those, get rid of the summoned things first. If you see shadows, search for their origin (you have good mobility with Dimensional Step, Wormhole, Path of the Sun) and cast Entropy on it asap.

And what if enemies come close to you? You have a very low cooldown Echoes from the Past, a low cooldown biting gale rune and many tools. Also, low cooldown, high power damage shields and a low cooldown Flash of the Blade. :wink:

Level 24-25 is the first powerjump for this build: you will gain Flash of the Blade and Timeless.


b, Advanced strategies (from level 30):

Level 30 is the second power increase for us. I recommend to collect some “- die at” gear and when you go to clear Derth from the elementals (~after tier 1 areas), switch for them, when just 1-2 elementals left. You can achieve there “That was Close” very easily and very safe.

Tune your paradox up to 680 for 150% chronomancy spellpower.

From the point, when you reach a spellpower of ~67-70, you will have an 84-86% total spell cooldown reduction and that means a 4 turn cooldown Suspend. From this point, you have a very strong prebuff combo:

1, Hidden Resources (instant)
2, Heroism infusion (instant, if you have)
3, Time Stop (instant -> makes Suncloak and Temporal Reprieve instant)
4, Suncloak (not instant, but time is stopped)
5, Grace of the Eternals (instant)
6, Haste (instant)
7, Temporal Reprieve (not instant, but the time is stopped)
8, Damage Shield (rune, instant)
9, Aegis (instant)
10, Timeless (instant and extending all beneficial effects on you)
11, Suspend x 13 (suspend is acting like an instant, so none of your effects’ duration will lower, while your cooldowns are lowering. It will reset all of your skills, while you are still in the Temporal Reprieve)

After the 13 Suspend, Timeless is reset, so you can cast it again, and also as many Aegis during the cycle as you wish. With this cycle, you can achieve infinite extension of all of your buffs (even heroism, Pain Enhanced System, …) and an infinite powerful damage shield.

Be aware! Enemies can have damage shield penetration, so that is why you have also Flash of the Blade! Use it, maintain it!

Before a place, where you can’t teleport, you can extend the full Out of Phase effect and just walk. You have Accelerate to make your walk a bit faster.

At any time, you can enter to the Reprieve and fully reset & extend everything you have, if you are in trouble.

Also, do not forget to put “Track” or “Precognition” into the cycle if you have either or both. You can extend them also for infinite.

Even before you reach a 4 turn cooldown Suspend, Suspend is very useful. You can use it during fights like I did. The only annoying thing is – if you cast Suspend NOT in Reprieve – enemies will regenerate or heal and cast talents.
But if you are in the Reprieve, the TIME IS NOT FLOWING in the normal game!

Switch is very useful, if you cast if after a Time Stop. You can get rid of enemies’ temporary effects with it.

For magical effects, you have Disperse Magic and for sustains, you have Entropy. You can cast Entropy on an enemy, then teleport a bit away, then cast Suspend. Then teleport back, and enemy sustains are gone…

Be aware, if you cast Suspend not on Reprieve, because enemies can still cast spells on you and apply manaburn due to weapon egos. Always check your mana bar. You have Hidden Resources, but if a Mana Clash or manaburn steals enough mana from you, you are losing your spell sustains, and that means -30% spell cooldown … Then you have to retreat and reset your buffs, skills.


c, True power (if 100% spell cooldown reduction is reached):

You do not need full cooldown reduction, but it really fasten the things.
At this point, you are nearly unstoppable and invulnerable. You bind your Echoes from the Past into Quicken, and with high spell speed (Time Dilation, Suncloak, Temporal Feast) you will reach the cap: 10 % of a turn (100 energy).

And you will have Atropy too. Each stack of Atropy applied on enemies will steal 6% of a turn (60 energy) from them.

You will also have a relatively high global speed (around 200 % -> 2000 energy) due to Grace of the Eternals and Haste (+10% :lol: ).

So, you just cast 4 x Echoes and 1 x Terminus in loops. (that is a total 400 + 400-500 = 800-900 energy, depending on your spell speed) Terminus gives you 70 energy per Atropy stack, and you casted 5 times (yes, Terminus itself also applies Atropy on enemies) that means a total 5 x 6 = 30 Atropy stack, if there are at least 3 enemy is around you in a radius 10 or closer.

30 x 70 = 2100 energy total gain for the cost of 800-900 energy … Full time-lock in case of 3 enemies.

In case of 2 enemies, the equation is worse. You can apply just 20 Atropy stacks with 5 cast (5 cast, because max Atropy stack on enemies are 10 and you can apply 2 stack on 1 enemy per cast).

20 x 70 = 1400 energy gain at a cost of 800-900 energy … still full time-lock.
And do not forget, meanwhile you are also stealing a total 600 energy from them!

In case of just 1 enemy in radius 10 around you, the equation is:
10 x 70 = 700 total energy gain at a cost of 800-900 energy, but you steal 600 energy from the enemy. So, at a cost of 100-200 energy, you steal 600 energy from it. And you have a 200% global speed, which means you can steal 6-12 000 energy from a single enemy in 1 turn.

Also, you can be “evil” if you need it: cast Time Stop and cast non-instant spells while the time is stopped. These will apply Atropy stacks on the enemy. When Time Stop ends or just before that, you can cast a Terminus, and immediately you gain 700 energy. Then cast 7 x Echoes and do the Time Stop evilness again…

If you see an Essence of Speed sustain on an enemy, cast Time Stop and dispel it with Disperse Magic. If the enemy has very high spell save, you can cast Entropy (with Empower), then teleport away and cast Suspend. Then find the enemy and kill it.
I am talking about Essence of Speed, because it is the only global speed giving skill that scales very well with high talent levels. (some enemies can have 800-1000% global speed or even more)
Dispelling is just needed against enemies with Essence of Speed, against most enemies, you can just spam Echoes from the Past like mad.

You can move with Dimensional Steps/Controlled Phase Doors/Wormholes, but Time Stop and walk is much faster to move and collect loot.

You can cast Time Stop any time and cast as many Disperse Magic, Entropy, Switch as you wish to get rid of enemies’ sustains and effects. All of them!

You will also give Atropy stacks to enemies, while you cast under Time Stop, so you can start your casting loop with a Terminus, after you dispelled everything. And then the 4 x Echoes, 1 x Terminus can go on.

Damage runes are instant and if you have 0 cooldown, you can spam them infinitely at 0 % of a turn, but they guarantee a very slow killing in madness, I would skip this. Echoes is just way faster, better.


VIII., Weak points, Dangerous Enemies

ToME is ToME, there is no 100% chance and there is no build that has no weaknesses. This build also has some:

1, Antimagic items (“manaburning”, “mage-hunter’s”, “inquisitors”, “of purging” and “of disruption”) – you should avoid melee, but the spell disruption egos can also be on ranged weapons (or ammos). “Of disruption” gives a physical effect, so if you have 100% Out of Phase or Draconic Will, you do not have to worry about it anymore. Manaburn in weapons is just annoying, it won’t kill you.

2, Mana Clash – Mana Clash in madness means an instant 0% mana pool and you are losing all of your spell sustains. So, always track enemies with Antimagic talent tree, and treat them seriously. (Cast Entropy on them to deactivate their Antimagic shield and stay away from them [fight from 10 range] before you have 100% spell cooldown reduction)
If you cast Suspend not in Temporal Reprieve, enemies can apply these on you!

3, Dispelling effects – Disperse Magic, Corrupted Negation, Cleansing Flames, Disintegration, Entropy

Cleansing Flames and Entropy is not as bad, because you can react to them. You can go away from the fire and you can cleanse Entropy with your Disperse Magic or a teleport. (Also, if you have 100% Out of Phase or Draconic Will, Entropy is not a deal)

The harder part is Disperse Magic and Corrupted Negation. You should treat Archmage and Corruptor enemies very seriously. They can’t just deactivate your sustains, but also remove your magical buffs. (Suncloak, Out of Phase, Grace of the Eternals, Haste, Damage Shield, Spellsurge)

Amongst the many enemies, I found Dreadmasters one of the most annoying. They go through walls, have stealth, dispels my magical sustains/effects and hexes me to make my cooldowns + 100%. So, basically, they are stealing ~66-70% cooldown reduction (Suncloak, Quicken Spells) and in top of that, they can make cooldowns double… From a 3 turn cooldown shielding rune, they can make a 32.

When you reach 100% spell cooldown reduction, of course you will have no problems anymore.


IX., Known Bugs

Suspend is buggy, cause it not freezes down enemies around you. However, with this build, it is still an insanely strong skill and a key element.

Also, I realized a bug if you have Forbidden Cults DLC (and you should with this build…). Sometimes, your total spell cooldown reduction is lower than it should be. It is a bug if you have sustained/permanent spell cooldown reduction (from gear and from quicken spells), and you use Suncloak. When the Suncloak buff wears off, you can lose ~10% reduction, until you activate Suncloak again.
This bug is not a serious one, and it always ends, when you save & quit from your play.
Aslo, from level 30, you will maintain Suncloak continuously, so from that point, the bug won’t affect you.


X., Playthrough

I am giving my zone order, of course anyone can play in a different one.

Tier 1 areas:

1, Drowning and shopping, plus Lumberjack village and Arena:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x0krYilnYY

2, Trollmire and Kor’Pul:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufXibxOlRYo

3, Norgos and Heart of the Gloom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRTEDjA1pnY

4, Scintillating Caves and Rhaloren Camp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwIpTTFf054

Tier 2 areas:

5, Sandworm Lair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtIo6mKiCNk

6, Old Forest: (with a LOT of bosses and uniques at lvl 4 :D )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNX_DAV9rog

7, Alternate Maze (this was long and hard):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmm4hla6B0

8, Daikara, with Vault:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u42AU8oBqQA

Tier 3 areas:

9, Dreadfell, lvl 1 & 2: (the play is a bit slowed down here, enemies are very tough)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOC6yXjjo5E

10, Dreadfell, lvl 3 & 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NepoKkYJDKs

11, Dreadfell, lvl 5 & 6 (still slow, but I killed everything and I did Vaults too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oglQEF7omCw

12, Dreadfell, lvl 7 & 8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGiq1nmHzRU

13, Dreadfell lvl 9, killing the Master and Urkuk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oek2zmULjsQ

14, Reknor, lvl 1 & 2 (still killing everything):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hMNJwsvSZ8

15, Reknor, killing Golbug:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE577smY_18

East, first time:

16, Unremarkable Cave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS0mu5tSn7w

17, Vor Armoury with Room of Death Cleared (at lvl 39):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXq6Y5dgFk8

18, Briagh’s Lair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZN19jDrZ9M

Back to West:

19, Backup Guardians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HSxPgygto

20, Killing Atamathon, then Lake of Nur, Temporal Rift, Tempest Peak:
(I decided to go for max killing, so I did everything that I skipped before)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po0_nsLTrz4

21, Halfling Complex, Old Conclave Vault, Last Hope Graveyard and Spellblaze (Zigur):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1hjBzYb_4

22, Ruined Dungeon, Slavers Compound, Elven Ruins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjmXnk2G-zg

Back to the East:

23, Tannen’s Quest, Ardunghol, Temple of Creation (without water breathing ofc):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAc7arBurW4

24, Rak’Shor and Gorbat Pride, with funny Fearscape Portal massacre and clearing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6rghjCHLaw

25, Vor and Grushnak Pride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgOk3jEdXdI

26, Shadow Crypt, Valley of Moon and Erúan (with an also funny Naga Portal massacre):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0cvN4o4yDI

27, Erelugen, Slime Tunnels, High Peak lvl 1 & 2 with Caves and Vaults clearing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ErMzEMIoA

28, High Peak lvl 3 – 6 , with all Caves and Vaults cleared:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7WA0s2-V7s

29, High Peak lvl 7 – 10:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alsLoVEJdYE

30, And finally, a short video about the fight against the Sorcerers and Hypostasis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKtwDdIG-0


I skipped a lot at the West, before I went into Dreadfell, maybe you shouldn't.

As you can see, I killed everything (it can be that I missed accidentally some enemies, like I did at the Temple of Creation due to my silly mistake…).
At the end of the game, my character killed 10 496 creatures (1454 elites, 1004 rares, 297 bosses).
It took me a total of 39 hours of net gameplay, but madness is slow.


I would like to thank for all of the people in the Discord community who answered my questions. With their help, I understood the mechanics faster and learned faster.

Unmaker
Yeek
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2019 1:28 am

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#2 Post by Unmaker »

I can't believe this doesn't have any posts, so I will get the ball rolling. Thanks for the guide, especially the video walkthrough. I am at level 19 trying this build (Insanity, Adventure) and it seems viable so far, but of course, the super-stacking powers have nowhere near matured yet. I do have some notes for the early game:

o The build lacks firepower in the earlier stages. An item with additional firepower and low cooldown eases the strain considerably. I had a lantern ‘of the moons’, which helped considerably, because it is powerful, 10 range, and has low cooldown.
o The big damage dealer (Echoes From The Past) has to be used close-in with light shielding until the super-stacking abilities mature. Speed and reserving a GTFO ability like Dimensional Step are critical.
o The build would be greatly helped with a Vision / Earth’s Eyes and/or a Track / Precognition effect but doesn’t have it. Getting the right escorts early enough is very helpful.
o As of build 1.6, the hover text on the resist all after teleport active effects icon states that it caps at 40% and it seems to be correct. There is no indicator of the limit in other descriptions. However, the ‘void’ items also often increase temporal efficacy (damage and/or penetration) so the extra is not completely wasted.
o As of build 1.6, Biting Gale no longer clears mental effects.
o I have a love/hate problem with high paradox in the early game. On the one hand, extra power plus, on average, the anomalies help; on the other hand, the anomalies can also put you in dangerous situations and failing a skill at a critical time is death. So… lower paradox.
o I have followed the build so far as much as possible but I don't understand why you put Crusader before Timethief. The Timethief abilities are useful immediately while the Crusader ability you want (Flash of the Blade 4) isn't possible until level 25. Yes, that would mean you would have to save up points to ensure you did get it at 25, but that is doable.

[edit]
Oh yeah, no insanity to active Timethief powers... Except if you die with a Demented power, insanity gets set to 100% when you are reborn. So you can sort-of use them occasionally.

Other guides say that Metaflow at level 4 can reset Timeless, which seems like it would be a good addition to this build. I haven't tried it myself, but any reason you haven't done that?
Last edited by Unmaker on Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Tradewind_Rider
Thalore
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:55 pm

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#3 Post by Tradewind_Rider »

Hey, hi!

Nice to read someone is tryin out my build.

You are absolutely right about the firepower at early stages. I used the biting gale rune also for dmg, but thankfully at the earlier stages you do do not really need serious damage.
The first hard step is Dreadfell and you can reach lvl 30 when you enter there if you do not skip a lot like me. So yes, the build's real firepower is starting at lvl 30. Every possible dmg from gear is welcome.

I tried many many adventurer builds before and I realized, i have to make compromises if i want to succeed. Some other talent trees (f.e. Flux) are more useful in the early game, but then you will miss combos and synergies later and late game is a real horror! You have to plan everything at the start.

If you are playing on insane, you can take Flux for example instead of Cele - Crusader, cause
you won't get a lot of 4-5 digit damages, and also you have Suncloak to protect yourself from oneshots.
The full invulnerability is really needed just in madness and I chose it cause of my "maximalism" in safety.
On insane, you will be fine with just an infinite damage shield + suncloak.
I think Flux is one of the best choices, cause it gives you dmg reduction, healing, AoE dmg and paradox management.
Controlled anomalies with 0-2 cooldown are really really cool and fun. ;)

You are also correct at the importance of escape abilities. You have: Dimensional Step, Path of the Sun and Wormhole (if you do not use any inscription for mobility). Path of the Sun is really good, you can cast it, then go ahead, then cast a spell, then go back.
Same thing with Wormhole: cast it from behind a wall, then enter , cast a spell then go back if you are in trouble. Both remains for several turns. This three skill is enough mobility & escape, you have to use them continously. Mobility is a key element!

Also correct on any tracking ability. My build is a bit "fluid", so f.e. you can take Chronomancy or Survival instead of starting with Energy. You only use Entropy in Energy.
On insane you do not really need a sustain deactivation.
Also, Track skill is not rare on gear. My experience is, by lvl 25-30, you can find or buy one. I also found a lamp with track. Before lvl 30, you are fine without tracking.

Yes, 1.6 had many changes. "Unfortunately" they fixed the out of phase cap bug, so it has now a max value 40. But it's still pretty good to max it!
You can use a trick for clearing effects by using a movement infusion & wormhole OR using Path of the sun and wormhole.
With movement infusion, you can teleport like 8-10 times per turn with a wormhole and due to dim. shift,
you can clear all effects from you. Same with path of the sun, it can help with wormhole cheese.

Before lvl 30 (before Hidden Resources) you always have to low on paradox. You can even tune your preferred paradox down, if you feel you are using too much.
If you use chronomancy, that means nothing is 100% :)
But yes, most of the times, minor anomalies are helpful or do nothing.

According to my experience, you can not reset Timeless with Metaflow, cause Metaflow does not work on Fixed Cooldown talents.
But anyway, going for 4pts in Metaflow is also a good option, then you have to spare some points on Spellbinding and Chronophage later. It is really good to have.

Wish you a good play!

Unmaker
Yeek
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2019 1:28 am

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#4 Post by Unmaker »

The reason I wanted a good build is I am a sloppy player and have been unable to beat insane difficulty because of that. I tried several strong builds to try to offset my playstyle problems: wildfire archmage (really didn't do well with sloppy play), meteoric martial artist (apparently nerfed from the original and really difficult to get going), and oozemancer (strong but still not enough).

My first attempt at this build died at level 23 (so close!) due to my play problems. My second one got the necessary abilities (the first prodigy is at level 25 now, so that's the first level you can get the super-stacking powers) and is up to 33, so thank you very much for this build - it is amazing.

I will add to your list of killers: silence plus movement lockdown. All of this build's offensive and movement abilities are spells, so silence kills them. Then movement lockdown makes it so that the only thing you can do is hope your shields last longer than the silence. My favorite debuff-remover (shatter afflictions) is also a spell, so silence kills it. You need an infusion - either wild to counter the silence or movement to break the lockdown. Both have drawbacks: the wild might not target the silence and the movement doesn't stop all lockdown effects (I hate being iceblocked) and you might be surrounded.

Tradewind_Rider
Thalore
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:55 pm

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#5 Post by Tradewind_Rider »

Hey, nice to read the build is useful for you!

Above lvl 25-28, effetcs like silence were not a real threat in 1.5.10, cause i cumulated high out of phase that significantly reduced their duration.

NOTE: Shalore racials are considered spells, BUT they are not affected by silence. In other words: you can use Timeless while you are silenced.
In the code it does not have the "no_silence=true" parameter.
(I did not tried this in 1.6, so excuse me if the devs changed this in 1.6)

So, silence duration was already very low due to out of phase and i could instantly clear it with Timeless (that clears automatically every detrimental effect
that has duration =< 10 turns [at talent level 5])

In 1.6, you can just cumulate out of phase to a max 40% duration reduction, but it is still impressive with Timeless.
Basically, any silence effect that has an original duration of =< 16 turns, still can be instantly cleaned with it.
Longer silence effects can be waited cause after you reached 67-70 spellpower and 84-86% spell cooldown reduction, you can extend all your
buffs (including damage shield) for infinite.
But even before that, the use of Timeless extends all your buffs, so it has double beneficial effect (lowering silence and extending every non-other buffs).

Time is working for you with this build. ;)

So, always keep your Timeless off cooldown if you can. Even wait several turns to reset it. Timeless is a key element for this build.


A little comparison of Timeless and Metaflow just for this build:

While Metaflow is a must for an archmage, for this build, Timeless overshadows it.
Metaflow's real power is: it can reset every (non-fixed CD) spell, regardless of how high the cooldown is.
But with this build, you will have very high spell cooldown reduction, so all your spells will have cooldowns like 1-5 turns.

That means, for this build: Timeless is an INSTANT Metaflow for all spells, not just a random x spells.


Whish you a fun play, hope you will beat insane!

Unmaker
Yeek
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2019 1:28 am

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#6 Post by Unmaker »

Your diagnosis is correct: I was leaving Timeless on cooldown and had ditched some 'defense on teleport' items for penetration and damage. Once I got the items back and remembered to close my buff session with Timeless ready, it was mostly OK. I still got killed without recourse when something dropped my shield and then a dragon breathed on me, but that was because I was stupid enough to get in the middle of a bunch of mixed enemies - impulsiveness is my downfall in this game.

The build 1.6.X Insane difficulty feels like the old Madness - by the time I got to the orc prides, there were multiple bosses/uniques per level and I lost count of rares. That also means you level to 50 much quicker. Once I hit 50 (which now has some bonuses), I just concentrated on completing the main quest as fast as possible and... won! I can finally scream loudly as my characters die in Madness over and over. Your build is what got me through - thank you very much.

A Rune of Reflection shield with your build is downright awesome: quit hitting yourself; quit hitting yourself; quit hitting yourself...

I have two more killers to add to the list (maybe you can figure out these too):
1. Multiple times some effect just dropped my super-stacked shield, at least once through Flash of the Blade. The log was inconclusive as to what. Then it only takes one good hit in the same turn to kill you.
2. Twice I ran into enemies with Constrict, both of them applying the effect for over 60 turns at a time! If you can't do a quick Temporal Reprieve > Suspend cycle then you are dead - damage shields mean nothing when your air runs out.

So now I am on to Madness, and of course, since this build worked so well... I am going to try something else first (a poison Rogue version of the meteoric build). I will probably come back to this after my Nth character death (if they haven't nerfed it in the meantime).

Question: Where did you find the code for Hypostasis? I got in the Strange Portal, found the old dead adventurer, killed everything, and Visioned everything but still didn't find an extra code.

Tradewind_Rider
Thalore
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:55 pm

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#7 Post by Tradewind_Rider »

Congratulations for your win!

Effects that can remove your damage shield:

a, Shattering Blow, but even if it removes your shield, you still have Flash of the Blade so you can't take damage
or you have Suncloak, so you can't die to a Shattering Blow.

b, Disperse Magic, Corrupted Negation can also dispel it, but again: Flash of the Blade is an "other" effect, so you can not loose it

Any time you loose your shield, go to reprieve and set up everything again asap. Even if you still have Flash on.


Against Constrict, you just have to teleport away. If you are not adjacent to the foe, Constrict effect will be removed on the new global turn.
So against that, Dimensional Step is also a good defense.


Gear and tactic-wise always priorize defense & safety over killing power.
The most important thing is staying alive, you can run away any time.
This is the rule in Madness. You will experience, it also requires a bit different playstyle, so do not give up
at the first several tries. Playing on madness is not easy, but it is fun.

There can be nasy things there, like an enemy sees you from ~25 tiles away and rushes you from that ~25 tiles away
and due to it's high global speed (like a lvl 60 Blinding Speed active), he also attacks you with a Flurry
for 6 x 6000 damage. (and kills you while your Suncloak is on) But I do not know exactly how enemy power level is changed due to 1.6 changes.
Basically a this kinda weird insta-death at late game indicated me to skip Flux and get Crusader instead.
The early game is harder but you won't be dead at late game.


I found the code for hypostasis in High Peak. In every level (or most of the levels?), there are 4 "block of stone-squares" with symbols.
The code type order is from left to right in the map level.
But I am not played in 1.6 much because I am working on an addon now, so it can be the devs changed this.

Unmaker
Yeek
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2019 1:28 am

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#8 Post by Unmaker »

Thanks for the Hypostasis hint - I didn't see it because my focus in High Peak was 'find the guardian' > 'kill the guardian' > loop.

Another question: I have seen several posts, including this one, equate speed to energy, e.g. 200% global speed equaling 2000 energy. Is this stat visible? Can I make it visible? I am playing around with combat speed versus haste effects and would like to figure out which levels of which ones are better. In general, I really want to learn more about the turn structure and order.

Tradewind_Rider
Thalore
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:55 pm

Re: Madness can be FUN! - a fast and effective adventurer -

#9 Post by Tradewind_Rider »

Hi there!

Energy is not visible, but your energy pool is just 10 times your global speed.

F.e.: 135.1 % global speed = 1351 energy

Weapon/mind/spell energy use is calculated as:

a := talent use energy cost
y:= your total speed value

a = (100/y) x 1000

F.e.:

you have 154.7 % total weapon attack speed

a = (100/154.7) x 1000 = 646

So, with a 154.7% attack speed, your attacks will consume 646 energy from your energy pool.

With the former mentioned 1351 energy pool, that means you can attack twice per turn
(2 x 646 = 1292 energy) and you will still have 59 unused energy.

That means, at turn 2 after your next attack (overall third attack) you will have:

(1351 + 59) - 646 = 764 energy

The 59 remained energy just added to your global total and you subtract the cost of the action (646).


Here is my other guide and overwiev:
If you scroll down to the "Speed Control" talent, you can see there some calculations
about spell speed vs haste.
There is also a calculation in the comments.

http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=50483

I hope it helps.

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