YAVP: My first insane melee win, shalore sun pally

[Mankeli]

Char link: http://te4.org/characters/121593/tome/f ... 81308e912d

Pretty easy run overall. The worst times were in High Peak because I just wanted to win quickly which doesn't work very well against some of the nastier stair guardians lol. I picked both prodigies and used the last cat point at level 50. That probably speaks volumes in itself. I picked flexible combat and arcane might for damage. If I had found a shield with an insane block value, I would have picked the shield prodigies. Someone somewhere linked a shield which had over 600 block value. That would have been useful even against insane damage.

The final battle was terrible, again, but managed to avoid deaths there unlike with my my corruptor. I managed to deactivate Elandar's Essence of Speed on both tries and Essence of Speed once again seemed to be the divider between being able to kite effectively and just trying to survive. I'm not sure I like the importance of dispelling Essence of Speed on higher difficulties. If Elandar has a shitload of sustains and you get unlucky when dispelling it then you are at a huge disadvantage compared to the characters that rolled Elandar with less sustains or got more lucky dispelling it. Aeryn survived too, yay!

I said I would take a break from ToME after I win on madness and now that + "one more game" is done I think it's time. Places to be, things to see and so on.

Any questions, ask away.

[Effigy]

Nice job! I've been trying to get an Insane/RL win with a similar build.

I kind of agree about Elandar's sustains. Woe to the man who can't dispel them.

[Mankeli]

Thanks, the key to victory were the horrible (from monsters perspective lol) amount of status effect my pally could land. Monster are less threatening when slowed, crippled and blinded etc. I had "cripple on crit" effect and 100 % phys crit for example...One assault could easily results in half a dozen detrimental status effects on monsters. I could even land some on Elander but Argoniel was off-limits pretty much.

[Furey]

The requirement on insane to be able to remove sustains is the main reason I always vault dispersion or spellhunts. If you don't have them, essence of speed makes things go horribly, horribly wrong very quickly.

Not sure what is to be done about the need for dispelling on higher diff levels, but I feel something needs doing.

[St_ranger_er]

Congrats! I'm surprised, because no cauterize.

[Mankeli]

Thanks!

Sun Pallies already have "cauterize light" in Second Life so I didn't pick it. Although one of my characters has died before through Second Life and even on normal of all difficulties. If you go the attack prodigy(s) route (meaning you ignore Eternal Guard and Spectral Shield) then I consider Flexible Combat for pretty much any Sun Pally build as the first prodigy.

I don't remember anymore how much Arcane Might added to my damage but it was clearly noticeable when I tested it against the training dummies. Maybe something like 15 % of damage? But unlike Flexible Combat, it doesn't add any "on hit" effects. (Assuming playing on insane+) For some classes there are two very clear cut prodigies that should be picked. For example, I didn't really even consider any other prodigies than Cauterize and Draconic Will for my madness archmage winner (who got the light tree via an escort). I don't think Sun Pally is one of these clear cut decision classes so I'm certainly up for a debate considering the second prodigy choice.

Also the usefulness of Arcane Might is dimishned by the fact that there were really only two kind of monsters: The ones who died quickly and quietly enough and the ones that didn't. Against the first group of monsters, the added damage of Arcane Might doesn't matter because they have 6-10 detrimental status effects after you hit them a few times and can't do shit anyways or are already dead. It does help when you want to multiple monsters fast but 1:1 situations are the ones you are gunning for eventough they are often times difficult to achieve.

Against the second group of enemies...well, the reason they are difficult is most likely because their saves/immunities are so high you can't land status effects at all or not very effectively (eternal bone giant randbosses, Elandar + Argoniel etc) and their damage output is high enough to get through your many healing and shielding skills. In this instance, Arcane Might makes you kill them a bit faster. Frankly, I found the second prodigy choices a bit underwhelming in general. Swift hands is just so terribly tedious to use that I really can't see myself picking that either.

Hmm, this is interesting, maybe I should write a Sun Pally guide or something.

[Effigy]

Something like Giant Leap or Windblade might be better than Arcane Might in that case. I wasn't sure how much actual DPS it would contribute when you factor in on-hit affects. I've been using Eternal Guard as my first prodigy because I've had good luck with it in the past, and I was planning to get Flexible Combat second but I haven't gotten to that stage yet.

[Mankeli]

Yeah, I actually did thought about Giant Leap too. I would have probably picked it if it didn't have such a terrible cooldown. Even with the terrible cooldown, it could have helped more in the final battle than Arcane Might did. And considering how big part of the entire game's difficulty was experienced in the final battle, it may have been worth it.

The best use of it would probably have been achieved by using it as an emergency phase door, re-positioning tool or help in teleporting from portal to portal in the final battle for example, rather than an attack skill.

I assumed that windblade wouldn't have killed meaningful monsters on one hit. That alone already greatly diminishes its usefulness as a sort of a ranged/crowd clearing option. My weapon had shit damage (but great on hit effects).