Deaths:
He started out a bit poorly but then ramped up. First death happened at level 16 in Derth (first time I've lost a character to that quest) to a pack of 4 Elite and 2 Normal E's. Didn't have targeted teleport/phase so when I tried to escape after the first salvo, it just got worse.
When the crypt with the screaming lady popped up at level 22, I decided to slink away quietly. So no glory, but at least no deaths there. That quest has ended all my other Arcane blades when that got to that level range.
Died twice to the boss in the Elven Ruins mostly because I was unprepared and never been there before. Now knowing how to prepare, I should be able to deal with him without deaths in the future.
One death to a bad situation in a large room in Telmur got me - oddly not the boss level though. The boss level was kind and provided a nice U corridor with doors to play probability tricks with.
One death in the Temple of Creation due to not playing conservatively enough. (Just one more round... They can't all do a 1000+ damage in a round right?) After that, Full Health + Rune Shield + Probability Travel + Inferno cheese was victorious. Although really, I just needed to not be taking the full rooms firepower at once. Actually opening doors and luring them into corridors probably would have been the better initial choice.
And lastly, the final selfless act itself. Although, I probably could have saved the Sun Paladin if I hadn't read forums about trying to close off gates.
Final Battle:
I used targeted phase door to get over to a portal and then activated the corresponding Command Orb on it, but it didn't do anything. (That was round 3 of the encounter). I didn't realize it hadn't done anything do the message spam and so took about 5 steps north before realizing I hadn't read the messages, checked, and realized it hadn't done anything.
So I "Rushed" back into combat and took down the mage a few rounds, because the Sun Paladin had been working on him. Paladin was still standing at the point with about 500hp. I could have targeted teleported her away, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't still be killed with that low hp. Went to melee the other Boss, but he dropped much more slowly and seemed to be doing alot more damage, requiring more rounds of healing infusion.
One large D spawned and summoned some dragonlings. Used Phase door to get next to a pillar, and then broke LOS for a short breather. Probability traveled back through the pillar to deal with the last boss. A few more hits and a random poison trap later, he was down.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably just charge the bosses rather than take that 8 turn detour. Total fight took maybe 30-50 turns?
Thoughts on the Arcane Blade:
First off, I think an Cornac Arcane Blade could certainly finish the game in hardcore mode. A majority of the deaths were through ignorance, although two were RNG simply not liking me. It'd probably take me 3 or so good runs (defined as making it to the 20-30 level range), but definitely doable.
Secondly, I like how the arcane blade plays at higher level, a highly mobile melee fighter. I never felt like I had enough mana regen to truly go caster crazy. Also the 6 turn recharge on Flame and Lightning meant you couldn't go all out in a ranged duel. In the end game, with my standard mobility buff setup I had enough mana to cast Inferno once (with 4 mana left over) making AoE usable only in certain cases where I could get to a safe location to rest. In any case, I was chopping off 500-1000 damage off bosses at no Stamina/Mana cost, so melee felt good. I didn't use Arcane Combat all that much either, since I was usually wanting to save mana for an emergency teleport or phase door.
If I were to redo this character, I'd strip the points out of Feather Wind and Thunder Storm (I didn't have the mana regen for storm, and Feather wind didn't seem to affect any traps I tested on). I'd also pull out Blinding Speed. I think I used it a grand total of 3 or 4 times, mostly due to the 1 turn activation time. If it were an instant activation or lasted longer it'd be much more useful in my opinion. If I understand it correctly, instead of taking 100% of a standard turns timer, you only take 67% of the amount of the timer. So you take 5 actions in the space of 3.3 actions. But it also cost you an action, raising the price to 4.3 turns. An extra 0.7 turns for 50 stamina and 5/5 talent points. Compared to a sustain like Essence of Speed or even a fully buffed Rampage, it seems on the weak side.
Problem is I'm not sure where I'd put those class points. Certainly if I had one more category point I'd open up the Combat techniques tree with quick recovery, fast metabolism, etc. Fast metabolism would have made that Shalorin Telepathy helm be standard equipment rather than a swap. Quick recovery would have been welcomed by my stamina bar as well, and might mean I could branch out into a few more stamina attacks. As it was, stamina was reserved for an initial Rush and then just Stunning Blows. Previous experience has taught me more than that in stamina use, and I'll run out of stamina in mid to long fights.
With this build, I'd probably dump the extra class points into Arcane Feed and Fireflash. 5/5 Arcane feed would roughly double my mana regen from Manasurge runes. Although even with that mana regen I still wouldn't necessarily feel like a full caster. All the passives provide a sufficient amount of damage for melee anyways. I really like the way sustained spells are handled in this game, since it allows you to benefit from magic without regard to your mana regen.
Other thoughts on Quests and Encounters:
With this character, I repeated the Elven ruins until I reached level 30 before tackling the Dreadfell and the master. The layout is just ideal for a probability traveling melee character. It made that and later sections much easier I think. Also all the stralite equipment is a great place to load up on cash and hopefully a good weapon/armor set.
I was expecting worse from my first orc pride encounters on the main map, but they turned out to be non-deadly. I'm not sure if the tree count was upped in this version from previous ones or not, but I had plenty of cover and was able to take out Orc corruptors and such without a problem. Had about 6 or 7 of those encounters in all.
I'm not sure how to do the big volcano run in time with an Arcane blade. My first action was to try a targeted teleport. When that shifted me 5 spaces to the left, I realized it wasn't going to be easy. Similarly, targeted phase doors didn't work. That messed me up because the first time I came to a constricted corridor fully stuffed with d's and D, I had to stop and deal with them and then the mob following me would catch up and I'd have to deal with half of them trying to break free. I tried phase dooring past but it refused to go forward. After trying probability travel once and having it not work, I just turned it off. I was never in any real danger on the level, but I just didn't have any AoE damage that would deal with masses of red d's effectively. They were immune to Inferno, although realistically I could have cast that twice, or maybe 3 times at most during the run. Chain lightning wasn't efficient enough either. Using flame shock for a mass stun while I run around also doesn't work. In the end, I was probably 100 rounds too slow.
In hind sight, the Vargh Redemption ring's tidal wave power might have helped. I think I had it at that point, although I wasn't wearing it.
I'm not sure how to do the Jeweler Quest either. I went to the middle of the island and read the scroll but didn't see anything happen immediately. I walked around and eventually ran into the guy. At that point I started heading back to the funny looking portals earlier when I ran into a mass of demons. At around 200 turns left on the count down I was forced to fall back towards the island at which point I realized the guy wasn't around but there were some demons there and a few piles of loot. I continued to fight until the count down finished, but only then did it indicate the quest was failed. It might be nice that the quest updates as failed as soon as the Jeweler is gone.
I'm not sure how to grab all the demon attention, especially with the LOS blocking darkness which gets thrown around like candy by some of the greater demons. Again the lack of sustained AoE on an arcane blade shows up (I think I was using an 80 mana every 24 turns manasurge rune)
Overall was a very fun game. Thanks DG.
[Tome 4.00 @ http://www.te4.org Character Dump]
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Sex : Male STR: 99
Race : Cornac DEX: 39
Class : Arcane Blade MAG: 89
Level : 50 WIL: 65
Exp : 2601% CUN: 39
Gold : 4074.99 CON: 66
Attack(Main Hand): 53 Life : 1371/1609Encumbrance : 145/218
Damage(Main Hand): 470 Stamina : 210/357 Difficulty : Normal
APR (Main Hand): 4 Mana : 194/194
Crit (Main Hand): 12%
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00
Fatigue : 45% Spellpower : 116.385
Armor : -0.91652173913044Spell Crit : 28.230147335907%
Defense : 26.15 Spell Speed : 1
Ranged Defense : 26.15
All damage : 0%
Physical damage : 25%
Fire damage : 27.574073618442%
Cold damage : -1.7763568394003e-15%
Physical Save : 40.625
Spell Save : 37.875
Mental Save : 25.375
All Resists: 20%
Physical Resist(cap): 31%( 70%)
Arcane Resist(cap): 30%( 70%)
Fire Resist(cap): 100%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap): 40%( 70%)
Acid Resist(cap): 45%( 70%)
Nature Resist(cap): 50%( 70%)
Blight Resist(cap): 65%( 70%)
Darkness Resist(cap): 45%( 70%)
Confusion Resistance: 40%
Blind Resistance: 100%
Disarm Resistance: 70%
Stun Resistance: 100%
Knockback Resistance: 50%Well done! You have won the Tales of Maj'Eyal: the Fourth Age
The Sorcerers are dead, and the Orc Pride lies in ruins, thanks to your efforts.
In a selfless act, you sacrificed yourself to close the portal to the Void and thus stopped the Creator from bringing about the end of the world.
The Gates of Morning have been destroyed and the Sunwall has fallen. The last remnants of the free people in the Far East will surely disminish and soon only orcs will inhabit this land.
Maj'Eyal will once more know peace. Most of its inhabitants will never know they even were on the verge of destruction, but then this is what being a true hero means: to do the right thing even though nobody will know about it.
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[Talents Chart]
- Technique / Two-handed weapons (mastery 1.10)
Stunning Blow (class) 5/5
Sunder Armour (class) 0/5
Sunder Arms (class) 0/5
Blood Frenzy (class) 0/5
- Technique / Combat techniques (mastery 1.10)
Precise Strikes (class) 1/5
Rush (class) 2/5
Perfect Strike (class) 1/5
Blinding Speed (class) 5/5
- Technique / Combat training (mastery 1.10)
Heavy Armour Training (generic) 1/5
Massive Armour Training (generic) 4/5
Health (generic) 5/5
Weapon Combat (generic) 7/10
Weapons Mastery (generic) 5/10
Knife Mastery (generic) 0/10
- Technique / Magical combat (mastery 1.30)
Arcane Combat (class) 1/5
Arcane Dexterity (class) 1/5
Arcane Feed (class) 1/5
Arcane Destruction (class) 5/5
- Cunning / Survival (mastery 0.90)
Trap Detection (generic) 1/5
Heightened Senses (generic) 1/5
Trap Disarm (generic) 0/5
Evasion (generic) 0/5
- Spell / Fire (mastery 1.20)
Flame (class) 5/5
Flameshock (class) 5/5
Fireflash (class) 1/5
Inferno (class) 5/5
- Spell / Air (mastery 1.20)
Lightning (class) 5/5
Chain Lightning (class) 5/5
Feather Wind (class) 4/5
Thunderstorm (class) 1/5
- Spell / Enhancement (mastery 1.20)
Fiery Hands (class) 5/5
Earthen Barrier (class) 1/5
Frost Hands (class) 1/5
Inner Power (class) 5/5
- Spell / Conveyance (mastery 1.20)
Phase Door (generic) 5/5
Teleport (generic) 5/5
Displacement Shield (generic) 1/5
Probability Travel (generic) 1/5
- Spell / Divination (mastery 1.20)
Keen Senses (generic) 3/5
Arcane Eye (generic) 1/5
Vision (generic) 1/5
Premonition (generic) 3/5
[Inscriptions (5/5)]
Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Healing
Rune: Manasurge
Rune: Shielding
Infusion: Healing
[Current Effects]
- Hymn of Perseverance
- Arcane Combat
- Chant of Fortress
- Keen Senses
- Premonition
- Probability Travel
- Fiery Hands
- Arcane Feed
- Inner Power
- Premonition Shield
- Surging mana
- Continuum Destabilization
+ Acid Splash
+ Burning Hex
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[Character Equipment]
In main hand
a) elemental voratun greatsword of massacre (65-104 power, 4 apr)
Type: weapon / greatsword
65 Power [Range 1.60] (+120% Strength), 0 Attack, 4 Armor Penetration, Crit 5%
Damage type: physical
Damage on strike(melee): 22 fire,22 acid,12 ice,19 lightning.
When wielded/worn:
Increases damage type: 25% physical.
Dropped by skeleton warrior
In off hand
On fingers
b) pearl ring
Type: jewelry / ring
When wielded/worn:
Increases resistances: 10% all.
c) pearl ring
Type: jewelry / ring
When wielded/worn:
Increases resistances: 10% all.
Around neck
d) Fiery Choker
Type: jewelry / amulet
When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 5 Magic,4 Willpower,3 Cunning.
Increases resistances: 20% fire,-20% cold.
Increases damage type: 10% fire,-5% cold.
Increases blindness immunity: 100%.
Spellpower 7, Spell Crit 8%
Light source
e) Eldritch Pearl
Type: lite / lite
When wielded/worn:
Attack 0, Armor Penetration 0, Physical Crit 0%, Physical power 12
Increases stats: 4 Constitution,4 Dexterity,4 Magic,4 Strength,4 Willpower,4 Cunning,-5 Luck.
Allows you to breathe in: water.
Spellpower 12, Spell Crit 0%
Light radius 6
It can be used to activate talent: Tidal Wave (level 4), costing 80 power out of 150/150.
Dropped by Slasul
Main armor
f) Plate Armor of the King (agate) (15 def, 20 armor)
Type: armor / massive
When wielded/worn:
Armor 20, Defense 15, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 26%
Increases stats: 1 Strength,1 Dexterity,1 Magic,10 Willpower,1 Cunning,1 Constitution.
Increases resistances: 25% acid,10% arcane,25% blight,25% fire,25% darkness.
Increases stun immunity: 50%.
Increases knockback immunity: 50%.
Maximum stamina 60
Light radius 1
Dropped by orc figther
Cloak
g) plush cashmere cloak of the Shaloren (2 def, 9 armor)
Type: armor / cloak
When wielded/worn:
Armor 9, Defense 2, Ranged Defense 0
Increases stats: 2 Magic,2 Willpower.
Dropped by Gorbat, Supreme Wyrmic of the Pride
On head
h) shaloran voratun helm of strength (+7) (0 def, 5 armor)
Type: armor / head
When wielded/worn:
Armor 5, Defense 0, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 5%
Increases stats: 7 Strength,2 Willpower.
Increases stun immunity: 20%.
Around waist
i) Girdle of the Calm Waters
Type: armor / belt
When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 3 Willpower.
Increases resistances: 20% blight,20% cold,20% nature.
Increases all healing by 30%
On hands
j) voratun gauntlets of iron grip (0 def, 3 armor)
Type: armor / hands
When wielded/worn:
Armor 3, Defense 0, Ranged Defense 0
Increases stats: 4 Strength.
Increases disarm immunity: 70%.
Dropped by ghoul
On feet
k) Frost Treads (1 def, 2 armor)
Type: armor / feet
When wielded/worn:
Armor 2, Defense 1, Ranged Defense 0
Fatigue 14%
Increases stats: 4 Strength,4 Dexterity,4 Cunning.
Increases resistances: 20% cold,10% nature.
Increases damage type: 5% cold.
Light radius 1
Tool
l) iron pickaxe of strength (dig speed 38 turns)
Type: tool / digger
When wielded/worn:
Increases stats: 2 Strength.
It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1.
Quiver
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[Last Messages]
Hiruma Kai hits Argoniel for 10.97 lightning damage.
Hiruma Kai hits Argoniel for 36.97 fire damage.
Hiruma Kai is covered in acid!
Something hits Argoniel for 51.10 nature damage.
Poison blast trap killed Argoniel!
Quest 'Falling Toward Apotheosis' is done! (Press 'j' to see the quest log)
New Achievement: Tactical master!
Quest 'Falling Toward Apotheosis' status updated! (Press 'j' to see the quest log)
You feel a surge of power as a powerful creature falls nearby.
Talent Infusion: Healing is ready to use.
Argoniel hits Hiruma Kai for 21.02 acid damage.
New Achievement: Selfless!