1.4.3 Temporal Warden Guide: The hybrid killing machine

[San0ix]

Is it worth it to get str to 16 and pick up 1 pt in Armour Training? I feel like I've had to ignore a bunch of good armors.

Yes

[Izawwlgood]

And leave Str at 16? Or keep pushing for some of those sweeter chains?

[San0ix]

And leave Str at 16? Or keep pushing for some of those sweeter chains?

As I previously replied on another post, usually you'll find more useful egos on light armor, so you're most likely gonna use those anyways. As long as you don't sacrifice too many points on stats that are not your main stats (mag, dex, con) you'll be fine though

[Izawwlgood]

Anyone else get the bug wherein Temporal Hounds just keep spawning? I'm sitting around with 9 right now.

[San0ix]

Anyone else get the bug wherein Temporal Hounds just keep spawning? I'm sitting around with 9 right now.

I had four at one point, not 9 though

[Izawwlgood]

Going to pick some prodigies, and a few stood out -

Arcane Might - my magic and spellpower are crazy high. This seems like an amazing option. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what an 'additional' modifier means, given that all my weapons already have Magic in place of Str?

Swift Hands - while abilities autoswitch, Thread Walk isn't always on the set I'd like. Seems like a meh option that could increase versitility. I kind of wish swapping was already free.

Through the Crowd -with Temporal Hounds, I' looking at a virtually constant +30 to all saves, as well as being able to move much more quickly through them.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Also, my many many hounds.

[San0ix]

Going to pick some prodigies, and a few stood out -

Arcane Might - my magic and spellpower are crazy high. This seems like an amazing option. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what an 'additional' modifier means, given that all my weapons already have Magic in place of Str?

Swift Hands - while abilities autoswitch, Thread Walk isn't always on the set I'd like. Seems like a meh option that could increase versitility. I kind of wish swapping was already free.

Through the Crowd -with Temporal Hounds, I' looking at a virtually constant +30 to all saves, as well as being able to move much more quickly through them.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Also, my many many hounds.

All of those sound like neat options, I don't think any except for Swift Hands are WRONG. However, even though I haven't tried Arcane Might or Trough the Crowd with that many hounds, I feel they are nothing more than that - kinda neat. I think Temporal Form and Draconic Will are easily the two best Prodogies you could go for, so you should choose those IMO.

Some more reasoning why I don't like any of those Prodigies, as well as some explaining as to what they do:
Arcane Might:
- Adds 50% Mag damage modifier on all your weapons, meaning they'll deal 50 more base damage (the number that's affected by your weapon power) if you have 100 Mag - This is not great as it doesn't increase your DPS by as much as you'd hope; it's gonna increase each hit's damage by about 75 or so, depending on your weapon power.
- The Physical Power increase: This is kinda neat because it adds 50% of your effective Spellpower (the number that is shown on your character sheet) to you effective Physical Power. This is pretty cool because it is not affected by diminishing returns. In effect, you're gonna increase each hit's damage by 50% of your effective Spellpower plus you're gonna have an easier time e.g. stunning foes. Let's be kinda generous and say you have 70 Spellpower, so that's another 35 damage.
- The Phys. Crit Chance increase: not gonna matter much because I don't think maxing Cun is that great, so you'll get another 10% phys. crit chance or so.
So in total this Prodigie is gonna increase your damage by about 110 per hit later on as well as increase your phys crit chance by 10%. This might seem like a good deal but I think there are better options - specifically Temporal Form. That Prodigie is not gonna increase your damage by that much but it's pretty close because you can get a lot of +Temporal damage with this. You'll also get damage penetration and some immunities so it's all around really nice prodigie. In terms of Math, you effectively gain at least +15% all damage while in Temporal Form so you MIGHT actually be getting more damage from this later on.

Swift Hands:
- Only does one thing; make the game a very little bit more convinient for you. Thing is, TWs are designed in a way that makes it so you almost never have to swap weapons. As I talked about in my guide, you can always use Thread Walk to teleport; either hit an enemy with your melee weapons and get a random teleport or just shoot it wherever you wanna go. I can not imagine a situation in which I really wanted to swap weapons manually.

Through the Crowd:
- +30 on all saves is good and all but this should only give you about +5 to all effective saves if you are geared out correctly, since out of phase effects already give you a LOT of saves. And even then, Draconic Will is almost strictly better because you basically gain an infinite amount of all saves 1/3 of your turns. Also, given TW's incredible mobility, i don't think the instant-move is a worthwhile effect, it's more like a huge overkill


I hope this somewhat helped you with your desicion and I whish you look with TWs

[munch]

Looking at the guide and your characters, even while it is not said directly, you assume that there is a choice between taking Stasis or Temporal Hounds or Fate Weaving. Threaded Combat is not optional and should be taken by every character.

It that assumption correct? If so, which one of them you recommend, and is that reasonable to take both Stasis and Temporal Hounds at the same time?

Also, why do you recommend skipping Command Hounds: Breathe and Stop spells? They look to be quite a damage?

[San0ix]

Looking at the guide and your characters, even while it is not said directly, you assume that there is a choice between taking Stasis or Temporal Hounds or Fate Weaving. Threaded Combat is not optional and should be taken by every character.

It that assumption correct? If so, which one of them you recommend, and is that reasonable to take both Stasis and Temporal Hounds at the same time?

Also, why do you recommend skipping Command Hounds: Breathe and Stop spells? They look to be quite a damage?

Yes, Threaded Combat is not optional. However, it is optional on lvl 10 and can be taken on lvl 20.

As such, I don't think it's reasonable to take both Stasis and Temporal Hounds. I'd go Temporal Hounds on races that scale with Wil and Stasis on anything else

I don't recommend Breathe because I'm pretty sure that the damage sources don't stack so it's always gonna be a ~260 dmg spell, which is usually less damage than a simple attack. Same goes for Stop, though the stun is kinda nice so it's less bad.

[munch]

Hm. I am a bit confused.

You were comparing damage that Arcane Might prodigy grants the character with damage, Temporal Form provides. Arcane Might is passive and always works. Temporal Form lasts 10 turns and has like 1/3 uptime. You concluded that Temporal Form provides comparable damage.

As a result, I was under an impression that TW can resolve most encounters under that 10 turns.

If that is true, then you get quite a big bonus to your temporal damage during that time, so both Command Hounds: Breathe and Stop should be doing good damage.

If that is not true, than Arcane Might looks to be providing much better damage than Temporal Form.

Regarding Will and Hounds, how those two are related to each other? Hounds look to be scaling from Mag?

[San0ix]

Hm. I am a bit confused.

You were comparing damage that Arcane Might prodigy grants the character with damage, Temporal Form provides. Arcane Might is passive and always works. Temporal Form lasts 10 turns and has like 1/3 uptime. You concluded that Temporal Form provides comparable damage.

As a result, I was under an impression that TW can resolve most encounters under that 10 turns.

If that is true, then you get quite a big bonus to your temporal damage during that time, so both Command Hounds: Breathe and Stop should be doing good damage.

If that is not true, than Arcane Might looks to be providing much better damage than Temporal Form.

Regarding Will and Hounds, how those two are related to each other? Hounds look to be scaling from Mag?

Yes, most encounters won't last longer than 10 turns, your attacks will still be dealing more damage than the increased damages of Breathe and Stop though.

Also, as a TW, you don't need really need more damage so that's why I think Arcane Might is a waste. Temporal Form is nice for the damage penetration and the immunities

[munch]

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

So, how Will and Hounds are related to each other, why do you only recommend hounds for those characters, which plan to max Will 3-rd?

[San0ix]

So, how Will and Hounds are related to each other, why do you only recommend hounds for those characters, which plan to max Will 3-rd?

Hounds and Wil are not directly related to each other. The reason why I only recommend Hounds on races that max Wil 3rd is because Wil also increases your paradox-failure threshold so you don't need the paradox-control of Stasis. Hounds also increases your survivability by a bit because it gives you some bodies between you and your enemies so not having a lot of points in Con doesn't hurt as bad (plus races that want Wil are usually squishier).

[munch]

Got it, thank you. So, Arrow Threading alone is not enough to handle Paradox control needs for non-will races?

You see, what bothers me is that Time Shield can be obtained from items (Orge+Bow+Shield with time-shield on-use in example), while hounds cant. So I am trying to evaluate how good hounds can be for non-will race.

[Hempel123]

great guide.