3rd win… Skeleton Archmage. First on 1.1.5...

[Delmuir]

So the version 1.1.5 is pretty good. Didn't miss the breeding pits at all… could still use a side quest or random event or two out east but it was pretty solid.

Skeleton Archmage… pretty easy build but I'm fond of the game play so this is my second winner with this build.

For the first three levels or so, I put all of my stats in magic. When it's ten or eleven higher than will and constitution, then every level I added one to magic every turn until maxed and generally did two to one for willpower. You need mana and not life… IF you get a couple of good shield runes.

I removed all of my starting skill points and put one into illuminate and split the remaining four into flame and lighting. Two a piece, in that order. Every level, I removed the four of those points and added another into illuminate and then put those four back… until illuminate was at level four.

Then it was all arcane with a couple of points in lightning, again last so that I could get rid of it.

The key skills were arcane vortex and manathrust with illuminate.

For the general skills, I used the skeleton racials and aegis (max shielding first… that extra turn goes a long way)… this is pretty self explanatory. I didn't waste time on conveyance or survival however, I did get premonition (x2) from an escort and it was extremely helpful from about lvl 20 until 40 or so. It just did enough to prevent those insta-deaths when you turn a corner into a mob of mages or something so you can definitely put the points in and go for it. I'll definitely do it in the future in spite of the mana cost.

Get a shield rune as quickly as possible. Basically, if you don't get at least four turns and 150 damage with a shorter cool down, your screwed. I did this build over and over and that rune made all of the difference. This one, I ended up with a rune, at level 8, with 240 over six turns and 17 cool down that scaled to magic. Amazing. Kept it until the very end.

Get a second shield rune as quickly as you can… it needn't be great but sacrifice damage for a shorter cool down.

At lvl 10, I went for Aether. Aether Beam is a bloody buzz-saw that cuts through just about everything, including bosses. I later added Aether Breach but mostly I used Beam, Manathrust, and Vortex until late twenties.

The trick is not to die between levels 10 and 25 or so. I did… once. Completely stupid… against the Master, I'd equipped an amulet that was arcane disruption and didn't notice until it was too late. Also, toggle one point into Freeze and Glacial vapors (req) and get rid of them at lvl 26.

At lvl 20, I went for Meta and as soon as I could max out spell craft, I was good to go.

That's it… I maxed aether (1-5-5-1/5), arcane (5-5-1/3-5) and at the very end I add Ice with 1-5-1-1 and after the last boss I made it 5-5-1-1.

Basically, just run around with Manashield up (keep an eye on it) and use the shields to prevent Manashield from breaking. Status effects are largely irrelevant because you can usually just outlive their duration.

I just spammed Aether Breach and Aether Beam over and over and used Frozen Ground to keep enemies in place (once I had that skill… pretty late).

As for equipment… all I focused on was arcane damage, life, and mana. I didn't worry about saves, resistances, or anything else. However, if I saw something that added movement speed, I took it. Highly suggest it! That tiny burst of speed was super helpful.

Most dangerous situation: temporal rift in Daikara. That first section… the little enemies are immune (I think) to Arcane Vortex and around that time, you'll have a shortage of offensive weapons. It was very dicey but I toggled on lightning and did it a few levels later than I normally would.

The last boss(es) was… difficult, but I did manage to keep the paladin alive (barely) by using the temporal rift rune which I used with my last category point. Very handy to move the bosses around. I totally ignored the portals and I think that is the best strategy.

It's was a fun build… Manashield is kind of ridiculous in terms of how powerful it can be. I love it.

[djc0]

Nice work!

Just had my first winner with a skeleton/archmage. Could you post the link to your char? I'd love to compare and see how others set up things.

[tylor]

You could temporarily rearrange skill points into other element beam for first floor of Temporal Rift.

[Delmuir]

You could temporarily rearrange skill points into other element beam for first floor of Temporal Rift.

Yeah, that's what I did. It worked fairly well but still, that was the most dangerous part of the game for me.

As for posting a link well… I didn't play signed in online and I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to do that. Oh well… next time, if I play that build, I'll figure it out.