First Win - Normal Roguelike Dwarven AM Berserker

[drplote]

Character: http://te4.org/characters/13737/tome/d9 ... 9c32c14265

I think I've got about a hundred hours in the game so far. I've played exclusively on Normal Roguelike . I've I only had 2 characters make it East, and the 2nd was a winner. I think the first probably would have been if I hadn't gotten trapped in the Sludgenest after foolishly deciding to stay there and grind out gear. Eventually 4 rare slimes got around me and the stairs I'd been counting on to escape with wouldn't let me use them, so I died messily.

Most of my characters were Dwarven Berserkers. My first time to make it East was with a Thalore AM Berserker. I think the AM part was the key there. It's difficult to get going, but it feels like by the time you get past Dreadfell, the game switches over to easy mode for AM and you can just sort of ride the rest of it out.

After the Thalore died, I switched back to a dwarven berserker but decided to stick with AM. Had a little trouble in Dreadfell when The Master paired up with a highly-physical-resistant rare, but after that the game was pretty smooth sailing. I see a lot of stuff on the forums that recommends Thalore for AM Berserkers, but honestly I think the Dwarf is better. The save bonus is better and you get an escape option in Stonewalking that is precious to an AM character who often lacks escapes. You also have a little less XP penalty and +1 hp/level. Wrath of the Woods is undoubtedly better than Resilience of the Dwaves, but I think the rest of the dwarf abilities are ahead of it. I didn't find the Thalore's resistance bonuses particularly useful for an AM berserker on Normal who already had pretty great resistances and shortened durations for things like diseases via Vitality.

One thing that surprised me is that about 40 hours in I realized Berserker Rage was a waste of class points for me. It didn't seem to boost damage enough to really be worth the 2% health I was losing a turn. The pin resistance seemed like the best feature but that can pretty easily be made up with gear and points in Unflinching Resolve. The 2% health loss per round wasn't really problematic, but the benefits just weren't there for sinking points into this. I eventually did when I ran out of other things to buy, but almost never used it. It just feels pretty underwhelming.

The other thing I was surprised by was that before you go east, your best weapon is probably going to be a T3 weapon you buy in a shop for 150-200g in Zigur. Once you do go East, other than minor upgrades it seems like you've pretty much got your gear all set after the first few dungeons. That's a little disappointing. It felt like my only real shot at upgrades was for 4k a pop at the merchant in Last Hope. I didn't get too lucky with those.

I'm curious if it's just because AM is so strong in the East of if this is the general experience people have on Normal. Daikara and Dreadfell basically seem like the hardest parts of the game (or the Spellblaze boss if you go there too early!), particularly if you haven't been lucky with gear. It's a little disappointing to feel like the middle of the game is the where the difficulty peaks. Well, okay, I guess there is the Room of Death, but that's entirely avoidable.

Also, I really, really sucked at using Unstoppable. I lost probably 5 characters (or extra lives from Blood of Life) due to using it badly. Eventually I started using it only in combination with something like a movement infusion to ensure that I'd survive to make it back to the stairs. If I ever stayed and fought with it on, even trying to focus on trash so I could get the heal bonus, it just seemed like I was setting myself up to die. And at least one time, I killed a bunch of minions but didn't receive healing for it. I think that was in the Sludgenest. Maybe enemies that aren't worth XP don't trigger it? Not sure what happened there.

[Effigy]

Congrats on the win!