Project: Community Skills Guide

Archaeology is one of the best trees in the game because it gives you control over the game.

It belongs in a museum gives you .75 to 1.5 extra levels per floor. That means you can skip floor that are bit too difficult and in the difficulty Going Rogue that is really important. Floor 4,9, and 13 are extremely difficult floor for certain builds. The ability to skip a floor and then come back to it can turn a game around. That alone is enough to justify taking this tree.

The extra can get you can extra level or two in the early game as well. Add in the amazing starting equipment and you got an impressive tree.

The rest of the tree is no slouch either. Remember you Charlemagne deals 3+ ( ) while knocking back and confusing the enemies in a AOE. Every build in the game should be able to damage even dreadmor (though not for much damage). It is great for a pyromancer up against a heavy monster.

This translation is all wrong lets you turn artifact that are of no use to you into something that is.

The last skill doubles the amount of kong anvils in the game. Get a high star amulet and use every re-use of an anvil on it. It will have a insane amount of stats on it. Once you have used all anvils twice then you can use this translation is all wrong until it has the stats you want or you get fed up and feed it to the museum.

 

Biggest downside of Archaeology is that it requires patience to go back and reuse old Krong anvils and then tinker with the translation all day. I personally find this annoying, but it's great for those who want the best possible equipment and are on speaking terms with Krong.

For this reason and the fact that Krong is a total *&#@#$@!, who keeps cursing my equipment, I tend to ignore this skill set in favor of other skill trees.

 

I usually don't mind curses on my equipment - there are just a few exceptions, like - or -, which are DEATH to many builds. That's when I use TTIAW!

Interestingly, I've never really used Charlemagne to good effect - that's probably because I only use Archeology when I'm playing a heavy Rogue build - so my is minimal.

 

I think that if you krong better items over time the blessings start to overcome the curses - a test I did with a 20 AQ weapon ended up way positive, while a 2 AQ weapon ended up relatively neutral.

 

I thought the krong bonuses were scaled to quality levels, while the curses were static? So, you get more value from kronging a crownstar than an ankh?

Unless you're me. Then you get a ruined item 3 anvils down the line.

 

It's just a matter of luck, Darkmere. Positive enchantments randomly give you 1~3 points' worth of stuff, while negative enchantments give you 3~5 points' of stuff. So it might appear as if it scaled if your luck was bad at the beginning.

And good enchantments are supposed to overcome bad ones, as good ones give you 2 points on average and have a 5/7 chance of happening, while bad ones give you 4 points on average and have a 2/7 chance of happening. So, statistically speaking, it is likely that the net gain will be positive.

 

So what you're saying is, statistically speaking, every item has a Maslech just waiting to come out.

 

Not necessarily Maslech (Fax had the insane luck of having only a few negative krongings or something, while the norm for 90 krongings would be about 25 bad ones), but if you were given infinite attempts then generally speaking the item should be getting better as you used them.

 

Well there are about 2-3 anvils a floor, so you get 4-6 kong attempts (I'll just make the average 5). 5*15 floors=30 attempts. 5/7 of those would be positive or 21 positive kongs. Someone said there were 2 bonus average for positive kongs so 42 positive things. And 36 negative things.

 

I'm almost positive that, with this, we've covered every base game skill. o_o;

I'll be out of town next week, so spend that time thinking about our first RotDG skill, Werediggle Curse. If you're not talking about...

Thrown/Crossbows
Type: Rogue
Role: Turbocharger or Engine
While these sound like skills that emphasize ranged attacks, they really just make them better. Don't expect them to keep you well supplied with actual ranged attacks on their own.
Theme: Modern Warfare At Its Best
Strategy:
The real problem with ranged attacks is they don't do much damage per hit. These skills provide 6 more damage for you to deal, helping whittle those enemies down to size and making sure you hit more often and harder. It also helps you keep your ammo intact.
Pros:
Increased ammunition recovery is a real plus, as is the added damage. The fleshbore procs aren't great, but a little added damage is nice. Thrown really shines in Monster Toss, a knockback on demand that keeps monsters out of your face and in your ranged attack zone. The Crossbow skill that is similar is a proc, so you have no control over when it happens.
Cons:
By the time you actually have increased ammo recovery you could just have full smithing or tinkering, which will provide you with much more ammo as well as other marked benefits. Either archers or throwers can have lots of knockback from Unarmed Combat, which will also increase the damage on ranged attacks. On the whole, its hard to find something these skills do that isn't done better elsewhere.
Synergies:
Smithing and throwing gives you tons of throwables you won't run out of. Alchemy will make you flasks, probably the most deadly throwables in the game. Tinkering makes bombs, and you can easily have hundreds of them by the end of the game, it also makes bolts, likewise in ridiculous quantities.
Takeaway:
Thrown and Crossbows are "win more" skills. They aren't necessary to make a build centered around their thematic element work, but they do make it better. Of course, ranged attacks are naturally so powerful that that may not seem like a big deal. But remember that Dredmor is a very hard game. Having more power can never hurt...

 

A few more points!

* Crossbow gives you a crossbow at game start! This is a HUGE advantage in many games. I sometimes don't get a crossbow until DL2 or even DL3. Many times I get one right away, but being able to use bolts ASAP totally saves lives. The starting bolts aren't bad, either.

* The starting throwables, by comparison, are pretty meh. Since they rely on to do damage, and you probably have only 1 or 2 points at game start, they just don't help much.

 

I love both. Crossbows goes great with tinkering. Unlimited arrows. Great crossbows.
Thrown goes great with smithing but also with fungal arts and puffballs!

 

As others have already said, if building a melee powerhouse, throwables are best for you. If a mage or melee-weak rogue, Xbow will save your arse.

 

I am not a big fan of crossbow skill tree. I don't think it does enough to be worth 1/7 of your skills. Starting with a cross bow is amazing. Recovering weaker bolts is nice. 6, fleshbore, and low chance of knockback are meh. But by floor 4 you should have tons of bolts and a crossbow. In my experience the trifecta for a game winning crossbow build is tinkering, unarmed, and rogue scientist. Those give the best bolts, great damage, and a ton of survivability.

 

I'm back, actually. Unpacking and sorting out damp stuff from the rain disaster on our last night of camping has taken up more time that I originally anticipated, so I haven't caught up on the Internetting part of my life entirely, so I hadn't posted on the forums yet, but I was planning to return to the Tuesday/Friday format starting tomorrow...

 

Werediggle Curse
Type: Rogue
Role: Engine/Getting you over the first level
Either you build your whole skillset around this, or you use it to get over the first floor alive. Not really any other options.
Theme: Transform, Rock Out!
Strategy:
Before a fight, you transform, getting boosts to your stats, damage and defense, also useful procs and later an attack that adds to your damage.
Pros:
The Diggle form is, especially early, really powerful. It gives you a digging skill. It gives you invisibility. The capstone lets you do 16 extra damage every few turns. It also keeps the skillbar free while transformed.
Cons:
If you do not really commit your whole build to it, the Diggle Form will weaken you, since you loose all other spells while using it.
Synergies:
Everything that gives you passive boosts and healing abilities not dependant on spells. That would mean things like Fungal Arts, Berserker Rage, Alchemy, etc..
Takeaway:
Use this as a skill to make a mage survive floor one, build your whole skillset around it, or don't use it. You really need to focus on this to make it woth a skillslot, but if you do, profit.

 

Someone else has seen fit to adopt my formatting for skill review. I'm so touched... :sniff, wipes tear from eye:

They grow up so fast...

 

Yay, I feel appreciated!

 

The Werediggles in london regeneration is exceptionally good for post fight sparing of regen. It synergizes well with Killer Vegan regen, giving considerable regen, even for going rogue.

It comes out of where, is an amazing skill that synergizes well with Alchemy. Your werediggle eggs can be converted to brimstone flasks which with excess do tons of damage and clear out zoos with relative ease, getting a great return on 2 eggs with high levels of alchemy.

The Might Auger has got to be one of the coolest skills in the game. And is probably more game breaking than Digging Beam in Golemancy because it doesn't require mana.